MISSOURI by J. M. Rees

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 2, 1901

MISSOURI

By J. M. Rees

This Conference now has a membership of two thousand, including forty-two churches, with twenty-seven church buildings, four of which were built this last winter. Two of these have been dedicated to the Lord, free of debt. One, at Mountain View, will be dedicated March 24. A church will also be organized at the same time. The labor of raising up the church and building the house has been done by Elders Cruzan and McNeely. The other building, and the company which were raised up by Elder H. M. Stewart, are at Cotton. This company will be organized immediately at the close of the General Conference. We have in the Conference thirteen ordained ministers, eleven of whom are actively engaged in the work, three licentiates, and seven Bible workers. As a result of the labors put forth this winter, about one hundred and ten have been received into the several churches in the State, and most of this number received baptism. For this good work we are indeed grateful. The church in Kansas City, the largest in the State, expect to build a house of worship the coming summer, their present place of meeting being a basement. We also hope soon to build in St. Louis.

We have not been able to do as much in the work of selling “Christ’s Object Lessons” as our sister Conferences, yet we do not intend to come behind in this good work in the end. I have felt very deeply over the fact that we are selling so few of our denominational books, and I believe that something should be done to arouse our people to the necessity of finding a place in the cause somewhere, and of working as never before. With this in view, we appointed two canvassers’ institutes, one in the southern and the other in the northern part of the State. These were well attended, and from them, twenty-five, with at least ten who did not attend, are now in the field, or are expecting to enter. The Lord is blessing this work wonderfully, so that our last two reports show that $1,618.50 worth of orders have been taken. Most of these are for “Daniel and the Revelation,” “Great Controversy,” and “The Desire of Ages,” books that contain much of the truth. And in the same time we have delivered books to the amount of $319. And now, having our general work on a good basis, we feel that we can take up the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” with another set of canvassers, and in this way we shall not injure our general canvassing work. We expect, from the close of our General Conference until the beginning of the tent season, to put our laborers into the field with “Christ’s Object Lessons,” and to arouse the church-members who are yet at home to work for the sale of this good book, and thus do our part in bringing our people to the time of the jubilee. The outlook for the Missouri Conference is good, and we hope and believe that a good work will be done in this, the fifth State in the Union. I never felt of better courage. I believe we shall soon see our dear Lord, for whom we have waited so long.

J. M. REES.