Our Work and Workers

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 30.

Our Work and Workers.

At Weeping Water, Neb., two candidates were recently baptized by Brother J. H. Rogers.

Five new churches were added to the Wisconsin Conference at its recent annual session.

Brother J. B. Scott recently baptized two candidates, a young brother and sister, at Stanley, Wis.

The addition of two members to the church at Oxford, Wis., on the 2d inst., is reported by Brother G. M. Brown.

In connection with meetings held by Brethren Fred Johnson and H. G. Burgeson at Swift, Minn., six candidates were baptized on the 3d inst.

From the Advance for June we learn that the New Zealand Conference officers were contemplating a camp-meeting at Wellington about the first of August.

Brother W. B. White, formerly president of Nebraska Conference, and later of Indiana, has located at Cañon City, Colo., on advice of physicians and on account of his wife’s health, which is now improving.

Soon after the recent California camp-meeting at St. Helena, eight persons were baptized at Napa, Cal., where Brother G. K. Owen and wife are laboring. Several other candidates were awaiting a subsequent opportunity.

Brother S. H. Lane, president of Illinois Conference, writes thus encouragingly: “Our work is coming on quite well here in Illinois. We have now seven tents in the field, the largest number ever before run in one season.”

Brother L. E. Johnson says in the Reporter that since the last of April five have been baptized at Hastings, Neb. The distribution of the Signs from week to week has created considerable interest, and opened the way for Bible work.

Brother James Cochran, secretary of Missouri Conference, writes again (11th inst.) concerning the work of the Signs in Kansas City, and says: “Since writing before, five more have come into the church and four more will next Sabbath. I don’t think we have a minister in the conference that has brought so many people into the truth as the Signs.”

The first half of the summer school at the St. Helena (Cal.) Sanitarium has given good results, and those in attendance have still greater expectations

for the rest of the term. The class numbers forty-five members. The studies include the Bible, the principles of healthful living, healthful dress, simple remedies, physiology, cooking, and practical missionary work.

The editor of the West Virginia Monitor, in reporting meetings with some of the churches in that conference, notes the fact that eight persons had agreed to secure five new yearly subscribers each for the Signs, thus obtaining a five-years subscription free. We are glad to see that this liberal offer is being appreciated by those who recognize a good opportunity when it is presented to them.

Brother E. W. Farnsworth, president of New Zealand Conference, tells of a family in Fortrose who were convinced of the truths we hold by reading the book “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation.” They studied it in connection with the Bible for two years before taking their stand on the Bible Sabbath. Brother Farnsworth says: “I went to visit this family, and on the Sabbath we had a baptism. Finding a convenient place not far from the home of the family mentioned, we went alone with them, and there the father, mother, four grown sons, two daughters who have grown to womanhood, and their daughter-in-law, all went forward and were buried with the Lord in baptism. The place where we had the baptism was a quiet retreat, and God blessed this family as with broken hearts they stepped out to obey God and followed their Lord.”

A recent report of Brother W. C. Grainger to the California Missionary, concerning his work in Japan, is quite encouraging. He says: “Altogether we now have about one hundred Bible students. Our daily attendance is now from thirty-five to sixty. Mrs. Grainger’s classes contain forty students. The prejudice against women teachers does not seem to count in her case. She has two of the most interesting classes in our school. Among those who are now taking lessons are a Baptist minister and his wife, a teacher in the Imperial High Normal School, a principal of one of the grammar schools, and several clerks in government departments. The greater number, however, are college and high school students. We have recently had printed a short series of Bible readings which we are putting into the hands of those who are professing Christians or who have some knowledge of the Bible. The few we have circulated have already aroused an interest which we hope will lead to good results. We feel the need of a paper in the native language very much. The attendance at our Sabbath-school and our Sunday-evening meetings has increased very much since I last wrote to you.”

The Upper Columbia Conference is operating two city missions, one in Spokane, and the other in Walla Walla, Washington. In Walla Walla they have obtained a lease of three years on a well-located building, at $10 per month. This mission has a capacity of forty beds, a chapel, bath-rooms, and all necessary accessories for operating a successful mission. This plant is taxed to its utmost capacity to accommodate the workmen who desire a comfortable home at very small expense. As high as 1,250 penny dishes of food are supplied to hungry men in a single day. The number of beds will not meet the demand, so that many of the applicants are compelled, for want of more room, to sleep on the floors. In connection with the Gospel work of this mission, street meetings are held, at which the attendance varies from 100 to 300 persons. Sometimes so many follow the workers from the street meetings to the mission, that not more than half of them can be seated in the chapel.

At the close of a recent meeting, when a call was made for those who realized that they were lost without Christ, to come forward, and give themselves to the Lord, seven responded. One of these said that up to that time he had been a Jew; another, that till that meeting he had been an infidel; another, that he had been raised a Quaker, but had never experienced a change of heart. Still another had been to that date a drunkard. And thus it is that the Lord is giving His people the privilege of going out into the streets and lanes of the cities, and so lifting up the Saviour before the lost that many are being gathered into the fold of Christ.