Labors in West Michigan Conference
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
SINCE closing my labors on and near the west shore of Lake Michigan in the States of Michigan and Wisconsin, about two months ago, I have, while doing necessary writing, done some home missionary work at Grand Rapids, Monterey, and Battle Creek. At the first two of these points my labors were bestowed in private and in public both on believers and on unbelievers. I have spoken five times to the church at Grand Rapids, dwelling on Christian unity and on the necessity of engaging promptly and earnestly in home missionary work, and have been greatly encouraged in seeing the missionary spirit taking possession of quite a number of the members of this church, which is next to the largest one of our people in Michigan. Co-operating with the faithful Bible workers in this church, we have been cheered in seeing the Spirit of God drawing souls toward the truths for these times; and from what we have already seen, we have reason to believe that there will yet be in this city, as in many others20in this great country and throughout the world, a large number of souls added to believers in present truth. Last Sabbath was a good day to the church in Grand Rapids. After speaking further to this church of the nature and importance of missionary work, a young African spoke, upon whom faithful labor had been bestowed. Before all the church and some unbelievers, he nobly took his stand for the Sabbath and for the doctrine of the near coming of Christ, urging the importance of some of the young people who heard him preparing to go with him to the very heart of Africa to proclaim to his people the glorious truths he had received while among us. The paternal relatives of this man are Mohammedans; his maternal relatives are idol worshipers; yet this new convert to the message is strong in the faith that many of his people will yet receive present truth. He has received a fair education in Europe and in America, is translating the New Testament into his tongue, and now his highest ambition is to prepare to herald the last gospel message to his people. His grandfather is king of the country from which he came. In 1895 he repelled the French, who tried in vain to take his country. Then he sent his grandson—now this brother in the faith—to Europe and to the United States, that he might become acquainted with European and American diplomacy, with a view of succeeding him on the throne. Though this young man has recently come to the faith, yet he seems to be sincere and truly earnest, and is willing to learn. We have with others labored faithfully to see him established in present truth, and connected with God by the Holy Spirit; and he wishes to be remembered in the prayers of our people, that he may be successful in the new sphere of usefulness that opens up before him. I have lately spent a good Sabbath with the church at Monterey. While standing in the pulpit of the Seventh-day Adventist meeting house in that place, and addressing an attentive and intelligent audience on the importance of awakening to a sense of the duties of the present hour in view of momentous events about to take place, a special measure of the Holy Ghost rested upon those present. Feelings of sacred, solemn awe filled my soul as I remembered that often Elder James White and his companion, and Elders Bates and Loughborough, and other faithful pioneers in this cause had uttered with power and clearness the forcible and mighty truths of the threefold message of Revelation 14, from the very stand from which I was speaking. My prayer to God, as I was addressing a large and interesting congregation, was that I might properly represent the noble cause and message for which these devoted messengers of the cross had sacrificed their means, their best energies, their talents, their all. The social meeting that followed the discourse, will long be remembered as a bright oasis on our way to the heavenly Canaan. As I stood in the pulpit of the Monterey meeting house and cast my eye on the cemetery in which rests in bright hope Elder Joseph Bates, who baptized me in the message about forty-seven years ago, and in which sweetly sleep in Jesus many others who died at their post, holding aloft the glorious banner of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, I felt to thank God from my inmost soul for the present truth, and for what it had done for me, and to ask him for grace and strength to sound far and near, and in demonstration of the Spirit, the glorious third angel's message. May God bless the Monterey church in reaching out after those who are outside of the ark of safety, and remember the one not identified with that church who, in connection with a kind brother, did all he could in waiting upon me and making me comfortable while in Monterey. During my recent stay in Battle Creek I labored in families, instructing and encouraging some whose privileges with our people had been limited. I also enjoyed sweet counsel with leading brethren, and found mental and spiritual refreshment in associating with some with whom I had been acquainted for many years, and whose faces were still set as flints Zionward. Among these was my brother, Elder A. C. Bourdeau, and his worthy companion. While at my brother's I was made glad to learn from him that two ulcers on one of his limbs, which had troubled him much since he had the black fever in Europe, had been removed by the use of water and the special blessing of the Lord. On my way to Battle Creek, I stopped at Plainwell to see and pray with and for Elder A. G. Haughey, president of the West Michigan Conference, who had had a long run of typhoid fever as the result of exposures in his ministerial labors. God drew near to us in prayer and in considering the needs of the cause. The numerous friends of Elder Haughey will be thankful to learn that he has so far recovered as to resume his work. For this we praise the Author of every good and perfect gift. The health of my companion, who about two years ago was sick and nigh unto death, is better than it has been for many years. In this I find another cause for gratitude to God. Since connecting with our daughter in her medical work at Grand Rapids, we have seen in the success that has, with God's blessing, attended her labors, a verification of the teaching of the Testimonies of the Spirit of God, to the effect that medical missionary work properly carried on will be productive of great good. Already some precious souls have received the truth, and persons in high circles and of the educated class are being favorably impressed with the message for our time, and drawn toward God's remnant people, largely as the result of the labors of our daughter as a Christian physician. Not a few of the educated class in our country and in other lands will be led to receive the saving truths for our day through the medical missionary work.