TO THE FRIENDS OF THE CAUSE IN IOWA AND NEBRASKA.
By Geo. I. Butler
Our excellent camp-meeting has just closed, and we have all returned to our homes, determined, I trust, to carry out the good instructions we have received from the servants of God, and to make the coming Conference year a success in overcoming our sins and in bringing souls to Christ. You have, through your delegates assembled in Conference, and somewhat against my own choice, elected me president of your State Conference and of the Tract and Missionary Society, for the ensuing year. You have thus placed upon me the responsibility of taking the supervision of the interests of the cause in this Conference, in connection with my colleagues of the Conference Committee. We have had a most excellent camp-meeting, and our hearts have been greatly encouraged to be more zealous in laboring for God. The harvest is ripening. We are extending our lines of influence and taking in new ground, thus creating a necessity for greater vigilance, activity, and foresight. We ought to make this year by far the most memorable in our history, on account of true advancement in this great work. What a field we have in which to gain recruits for Christ—in which to prepare guests for the marriage supper of the Lamb! Where is there a more favored State than Iowa? We have a sensible, intelligent, and enterprising people, gathered from the other States and from Europe, who stand second to no others in the Union. We have a fruitful and healthful country. Our people are not poor, but generally have all the blessings of life. We have much for which to be grateful to God. And we owe a debt of love to all those thousands upon thousands in this noble State, to give them this glorious light and truth which has made our hearts glad. We must do this, or our skirts will be stained with their blood. And there is Nebraska. What an extent of new ground is contained within the boundary lines of that great State! What glorious opportunities we have there for doing good! Society there has not crystallized and hardened, till every new idea is looked upon with suspicion. The entering of the wedge of truth is easier than in older States. The people are too poor to have a cordon of popular ministers hired to fence out every incoming ray of unpopular truth. We can better get at the people. We want to sow the seeds of truth all over those virgin prairies. What a work we have, then, to do! At the past rate of increase, Nebraska will soon be able to look after her own interests. Let us do her people all the good we can, while still connected with us. At our recent camp-meeting, a noble body of believers in distant Dakota sent in a touching plea to be received under our watchcare, entreating labor at our hands, to help bring the light of truth to the settlers in this new territory. They sent also money with which to help bear expenses and to assist in the work of God. How could we do less than to receive them, and joyfully take upon ourselves the delightful privilege of scattering the light of this message there? Indeed, who should have a special interest in the broad but unentered territory between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains if not the strong Conference of Iowa? Who knows how many scores and hundreds would gladly receive the light of present truth all over that section, if it could be brought to their view? What a field of vision, and what a train of thought, does a glimpse of these things open up to our minds! What possibilities of usefulness! What chances for success! Brethren and sisters of this Conference, we must not narrow our minds down to ourselves—our own interests alone, but expand our hearts and enlarge our views. This is a world-wide message. This work is to ripen the harvest of the earth. This truth is to prepare us for the great day of wrath. Every one of us should bestir himself to do what he can for the salvation of his fellow-men. This is more important business than making money for consumption in the flames of the last day. The present season will see a new tent in Dakota Territory; another, in Nebraska; a third, along the Missouri River much of the time, also in Nebraska; while only one tent will run wholly in the great State of Iowa. Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to greatly bless these laborers, and give them abundant success. A word here in regard to means. For the first time in ten years at least, our Conference found itself at our last camp-meeting lacking in money to pay off its debts. Some claims still remain unsettled. I dare say, this would not have been so, had our brethren generally suspected such a state of affairs. Always having had a sufficiency heretofore, they were some of them a little careless in paying up their S. B. fully, as times were somewhat hard. Our brethren will see this will leave the committee embarrassed in carrying on our tent operations, and cripple our efforts, and perhaps distress some who are unpaid. Therefore, let all who are in debt on their S. B. at once settle up, and pay their solemn vows to God. And if there are brethren who have paid all past indebtedness, who can pay on this year a portion of their pledge, it will at once relieve us. Let every one of our S. B. treasurers who has money on hand, or receives it, forward the same by draft, money order, or registered letter, to A. R. Henry, Indianola, Iowa, our State treasurer for the present Conference year. And what can I say at this time to stir up our people upon the great and important work of the Tract and Missionary Society? I intend to have much to say to them on this all-important subject the present year. We are far behind, dear brethren and sisters, in this important branch of the work. It is a good and noble work; we can all take part in it. I have accepted this office you have placed upon me against my own choice, and when I did it I determined to use what influence I possessed in trying to be a help in the work. I want your help, dear friends. Especially do I appeal to all the old friends of the cause to arouse and rally. Some of us have been almost asleep. All of us can do better than we have done. Brethren and sisters, let us make this grand centennial year an epoch in the history of the cause of present truth in Iowa, as great as it is in the political history of our country and of the world. Geo. I. Butler.