Second Session of the Southern Union Conference
By A. G. Daniells
THE second session of the Southern Union Conference was held in Nashville, Tenn., January 8-28. This was designed to be more than a business session of the conference, hence the length of time covered. The meeting was attended by the presidents of all the conferences in the union, and by a majority of the ministers in the Southern field. Owing to pressing work at the headquarters, I could attend only the last week of the conference. Bible instruction especially appropriate for the time and the issues before us, was given by Elders Butler and Haskell during the entire session. Before the conference opened, the Lord laid a special burden upon Sister White in behalf of the meeting, which led her to send communications almost daily, to be read to those assembled. From what I saw and felt after reaching the meeting, it was plainly manifest that the Lord had met with his servants, and granted them his good blessing. The brethren managing the work in the Southern field have difficulties and perplexities to meet that few of our brethren in the Northern conferences appreciate. It takes grace to meet the situation day after day and year after year, with good cheer and courage. This is the second session of the union conference I have attended, and the fourth time I have met with the Southern workers in council; and I do not remember of having witnessed better courage than was manifested at this meeting. The past year has been one of blessing in many respects in the Southern field. Several of the older and stronger conferences have added a number of churches during the year, and the work generally has made progress. The weaker conferences have had to pull against great odds; but they have overcome obstacles and made advancement. The Tennessee River, Cumberland, and Florida Conferences have not only supported the entire work carried on in their States, but have rendered substantial aid to the union conference. The State of South Carolina has been made a mission field, and North Carolina becomes a conference by itself. The work in that State has developed, and is now self-supporting, with the exception of the colored work. The conference committee and ministers in North Carolina have made a most earnest effort to increase the tithe, and to economize in expenditure, so that their work would be self-supporting. Alabama and Louisiana are almost self-supporting, with the exception of the work being carried on for the colored people. During the last two or three years Georgia has suffered some serious reverses; but Elder Kilgore has taken charge of the conference work, and will make a heroic effort to place it on a more encouraging basis. Mississippi may be considered a difficult field. Elder Thurston, of California, has recently gone to that State, and is uniting with the brethren there to carry out a thoroughly progressive policy. Comparing the present situation with that of three years ago, when the Southern Union Conference and several of the local conferences were organized, it is easy to see that encouraging advancement has been made. The president of the union conference is advocating with much sturdiness the policy of making their work for the white people in the State conferences self-supporting. The presidents of these conferences stand with the president of the union in this proposal. It was necessary this year to make some appropriations from the mission funds for a number of the weaker conferences. We spent many hours in counsel together regarding the condition and needs of these conferences before our decision was reached as to the exact amount to appropriate to them. As I looked over the situation as presented by those in charge of the fields, I could but wish that the president of every conference in the North could have been present to see the situation. I am sure that if the conference committees of our strong conferences in the North could fully appreciate the needs of the South, and the hard battles our brethren are there fighting, they would see their way clear to share much more of their abundance with these Southern conferences. Our brethren in the South have to economize and struggle in a way that but few of our older conferences in the North know anything about. It has been so long since they were so weak numerically and financially that they have forgotten those days; in fact, very few of those now in charge of the older conferences in the North have ever passed through the experiences of those who built up the conferences in the beginning. But notwithstanding the perplexities and difficulties which must be met, the conference committees feel quite sure that after 1904 they will be able to make the work for the white people self-supporting. The various institutions in the South are endeavoring to advance the cause of present truth by doing the work for which they have been created. The publishing house has been reorganizing and reconstructing its affairs during the past year. Although quite a heavy loss has been sustained, the directors are confident that they have now reached the point where this institution will be self-supporting. All things considered, I was much encouraged by what I saw regarding this institution. While it is natural for directors to anticipate and prophesy better things for the future, yet one would have to shut his eyes to facts to prevent him from seeing that great improvement has been made in the institution during the past year, and that everything bids fair for a much better showing during 1904. I share this confidence with the directors, and believe we shall not be disappointed. As the president of the union conference has the figures and data for a more detailed report regarding the conference and its various enterprises, I shall not attempt to give the details in this general statement. Our brethren in charge of the medical work have made some headway during the past year; but they have met with many difficulties. Since the conference two years ago, a sanitarium has been erected at Graysville, and is now almost ready to open for regular work. The building in Atlanta, Ga., that was for some years used by the Review and Herald as a branch office, has been turned into a sanitarium. The sanitarium for the colored people in Nashville has been doing good work, although, as might be expected, it is difficult to make this institution self-supporting. During the late conference the sanitarium work that has been started and operated by Brother L. A. Hansen was purchased by the Southern Union Conference, and will hereafter be operated under their direction. It was decided to raise five thousand dollars during 1904 to improve this institution. The medical work in the Southern Union Conference was made a department of the conference; a similar arrangement has also been made by the Atlantic Union Conference. A medical board of nine members was elected to take special charge of this work. This board is co-ordinate with the educational committee, and the department will receive care, assistance, and counsel from the Southern Union Conference Committee, the same as the educational work. If this plan is carried out according to the recommendations adopted, the medical work in the Southern Union Conference will enter upon a new era. This is certainly due the physicians and nurses who have been struggling in that field with few facilities and very little help. I wish to tell the readers of the REVIEW that one of the strongest and most thrilling notes of the conference was in behalf of aggressive work in new fields. All were united in the conviction that the most important step to be taken in the South is for every minister and laborer to get out among strangers and give them the third angel's message. This is a prominent and determined feature of Elder Butler's policy. He assured the conference over and over again that he should spend a part of 1904 in18carrying on a series of tent-meetings; in fact, Elder Butler and Elder Haskell propose to conduct a series of tent-meetings in the city of Nashville. They will be assisted by a number of Bible workers, and will make an earnest effort to raise up a good church in a part of the city that has not yet been worked. These gray-haired pioneers know what it means to do this sort of work. In the early days of this message they raised up many substantial churches. It did us good to see the energy and courage these veterans displayed. They should have our prayers as they gird on the armor anew this summer for pioneer tent work. I believe that this forward move should be the order in all our conferences in the United States. The great majority of our laborers should push out into fields where the truth has never been preached, and throw themselves most earnestly into the work, with the determination to give this message with earnestness and zeal that will lead many who have never heard it to embrace it. In closing this statement, I desire to urge our brethren throughout the field to watch the progress of the work in the South, to remember the laborers in their prayers, and to share their abundance with them. A. G. DANIELLS.