p. 172 | Home Again by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 31, 1877

Home Again.

By James White

We reached our Battle Creek, Mich., home May 17, after a prosperous and pleasant journey from Oakland, Cal., of six days. We were deeply impressed all the way that we were in the path of duty. And as we find ourselves at the great heart of the work, where much is being done, and yet to be done, our impressions of duty are confirmed.

Sabbath morning the house of worship was literally crowded, gallery as well as every seat in the body of the house. Not less than five hundred grown persons were present. We spoke with that freedom of thought and feeling usual at this old battle ground. We were told that there were two hundred and sixty-one in attendance at the Sabbath-school. This church is now worshiping in their third house. The growth of the church and the work here, which at first were very small, is represented very well in some respects by the sizes of their houses of worship. The first was 20x28 feet; the second was 28x44; the third is 40x66 feet; and there is more pressing need of a fourth house, that will seat at least one thousand persons, than there was of a second or third house at the time of their building.

There are one hundred and fifty students at our school, which is a large number compared with older and larger schools. There is not a shade of discouragement hanging over our beloved Battle Creek College. It will enter upon its third year at the autumn term with all the rooms full, including the large hall on the third floor. We look for not less than three hundred students. The young men and women crowd our place of worship and give importance to the Sabbath service.

Our three publishing buildings are alive with business. Denominational and health tracts, pamphlets and books are being issued by this Association of the greatest value and importance. The call for our publications, the reports of the work they are doing, and the activity of the work of printing, folding and binding are soul inspiring.

Our Health Institute is prospering gloriously in the hands of the new faculty. Now we are ready to put up a main building at a cost of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars. When urged to do this in time past, we have urged that our buildings were fully equal to our physicians. By the gentlemanly deportment and unparalleled skill of the physician-in-chief, J. H. Kellogg, M. D., and his associates, there has been twice the number of paying patients at the Institute the past winter usual at that season in past years. With the change of physicians comes a change in the moral value of the patients. A great change has come over this institution in many respects. The religious interests are greatly improved. And men and women of mind, position and moral worth who seek a better hold of this life, crowd our place of worship on the Sabbath. God give them a good hold on both worlds.

Here we found our beloved brother, Elder J. G. Matteson, waiting to counsel with us, before going on his mission to Denmark. He leaves May 21. At an early period in the cause, Elder Matteson, a Danish Baptist minister in the State of Wisconsin, embraced the doctrines peculiar to the Seventh-day Adventists. He entered the field as a preacher and writer, and has for several years edited our Danish monthly. He has translated many of our tracts, and has prepared some larger works, which have been scattered in Europe as well as in America. And our faithful Danish people have sent a large amount of reading matter to their friends in the Old World.

We have seen for several years that the way was prepared for a Mission to Denmark and Norway, and for the past year have felt anxious that Elder Matteson should return to his native land, and there preach and publish the great truths connected with the last message. And it is with great pleasure that we give the following excellent letter from his pen concerning his Mission to Denmark. Under date of March 23, 1877, Elder Matteson addresses us in the following words expressive of faith and confiding love:— “ELDER JAMES WHITE—Dear and much esteemed Brother: I think the time has come when I must get ready to go to Denmark, to labor in the interest of the last message. You have already plainly expressed your mind on this subject, yet I desire very much to hear from you before I go, and to get your advice. It is a great sacrifice on my part to go, and there is no undertaking that I have been so slow to decide on as this. But everything seems to point in that direction now, and I am afraid the Lord will not bless my labor if I refuse to go. The leading brethren among our countrymen are very anxious to have me go this spring. There are two hundred and sixty Advent Tidendes that go to Denmark monthly, and about sixty to Norway. We frequently receive favorable letters from Denmark, and some are keeping the Sabbath there. I fear the cause will suffer if I do not go now, and trust that God will direct and bless the work. But before I go, I want to take a position in full harmony and sympathy with the General Conference Committee. I feel the necessity of this, and feel that it is a privilege for me to do so. I therefore pledge myself to lead out in nothing independently, but to seek your counsel in every important matter, and in short, to act, not as a private individual, but as a representative of the Seventh-day Adventists of America, laboring in the fear of God, and in the love of my brethren. Our Danish-Norwegian people have already donated and sent to the Office in Battle Creek about $200 for this mission, although we have made no call for money. I think the best time to go would be about May. May the Lord bless you much in your labor of love.”

The foregoing statements from Elder Matteson will touch the feelings of all his brethren, whether Scandinavian or American. And they will give him their hearty sympathy, and follow him to his new field of labor by their prayers and with their means. His statements respecting the relation he wishes to sustain to his American brethren are frank, full, and satisfactory. In behalf of the General Conference we as freely state that Elder Matteson will be sustained in his important contemplated mission by the counsel and prayers and means of those who have the missionary spirit. This movement of sending our ablest ministers to Europe will give all our people greater interest in our world-wide message.

Elder Matteson takes publications in his native tongue with him. He will also begin to publish in Denmark, or from our press in Switzerland. In either case he will need considerable means to carry forward his mission successfully. Those wishing to help this mission can remit to the Signs of the Times, Oakland, Cal., or Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.

We are receiving telegrams and letters from the several States urging us to attend the camp-meetings. We might attend some of them, could our work, and means of rest be such as to save us from extreme exhaustion. But as our people cannot realize the wearing toils of camp-meeting life three or four months in the year, and save us from unnecessary wear, Mrs. W. and the writer decide to rest from the camp-meetings this year, give more attention to the general interests of the cause in its several departments, represented by our institutions at Battle Creek, and finish some works nearly ready for the press.

We never expected to see a day like this, when the cause of unpopular Bible truth, with rapid growth would be taking hold of the minds and hearts of the people wherever the seed is sown. Our tract and missionary workers east of the Rocky Mountains design to circulate 25,000 copies of a pioneer paper, adapted to new fields in 1878. This sheet will be issued from the Michigan press, or from an Office to be established immediately near the Atlantic.

J. W.