LIFE SKETCHES OF ELLEN G. WHITE
What an encouragement it is for a well established, prosperous institution or movement to review its beginning and compare it with present attainments! The Seventh-day Adventists of Kansas will therefore read with unusual interest the following paragraphs from page 239 of LIFE SKETCHES OF ELLEN G. WHITE
“Accompanied by my daughter-in-law, Emma White, I left Battle Creek, October 23, 1878, for the Kansas camp meeting. At Topeka we left the cars and rode by private conveyance twelve miles to Richmond, the place of meeting. We found the settlement of tents in a grove. It was late in the season, and faithful preparation had been made for cold weather. Every tent had a stove. “Sabbath morning it commenced snowing; but not one meeting was suspended. About an inch of snow fell, and the air was piercing cold. Women with little children clustered about the stoves. It was touching to see one hundred and fifty people assembled for a convocation meeting under these circumstances. Some had come two hundred miles by private conveyance. All seemed hungry for the bread of life, and thirsty for the water of salvation. “Elder Haskell spoke Friday afternoon and evening. Sabbath morning I spoke encouraging words to those who had made so great an effort to attend the meeting. I told them that the more inclement the weather, the greater the necessity of our obtaining the sunshine of God’s presence.” They have just completed their camp meeting for 1915, at which more than a thousand were in attendance. One who was present says: “They had the most beautiful camp I have ever seen. The large pavilion was located at the upper end of a long stretch of green lawn sloping down to the river. Heavy woods were on either side. The family tents were arranged in a semicircle around the edge of this open park and in front of the woods. The bookstand was located about midway between the pavilion and the dining tent, on the main thoroughfare. Next to it was located the tent of the secretary and treasurer, and just across was the headquarters of the Wichita Sanitarium.” From the reports given at this meeting, and from other sources, we glean the following items of interest regarding the present standing of the conference: The membership is 2,148. There are 47 church buildings in the state, valued at $59,157. There are also 15 church schools, in which 251 children are enrolled. Their two academies show an investment of almost $30,000. Their sanitarium at Wichita shows an investment of $50,964.53. Contributions to home and foreign work are about $50,000 annually. Their sales of gospel literature for the past nine months were $16,193.30. It is with the beginnings of various units of work, such as we see in Kansas, and the lessons drawn therefrom, that “Life Sketches of Ellen G. White” has to do. That our readers are interested in such accounts is evidenced by the fact that more than 4,000 copies of the book have already been called for. Price, in cloth, $1.00; in limp leather, $1.50. Order of our representatives. See addresses on page 15.