p. 12 | OUR WORK AND WORKERS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 26, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 33.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

THE church in Nueva Helvetia, Uruguay, now numbers eighteen members.

BROTHER N. Z. TOWN reports the addition of five new members to the church in Buenos Ayres.

NINE persons have taken their stand on the Lord’s side as a result of tent-meetings held at Winterset, Iowa, by Elder H. M. J. Richards.

A CAMP-MEETING for the accommodation of the brethren in the northwestern part of Wisconsin has been announced for September 6–13, to be held at Menomonie.

TWO WHOLE families and other individuals are reported among the acquisitions to our ranks at Villisca, Iowa, under the labors of Brethren E. E. Gardner and B. E. Nicola.

ELDER W. B. EVERHART notes the fact that the brethren at Traer, Iowa, “have erected a neat little church building.” Also the addition by baptism of two members to the church at Cedar Rapids.

THE place of the special meetings in San Francisco has been changed from Kearny Street to Market Street, near Seventh. These meetings, conducted by Elders Andross, Rine, and Dexter, have attracted much attention, and by such means the Gospel may reach many people otherwise inaccessible.

ELDER F. H. WESTPHAL reports to the Review that he held meetings in the frontier town of Malabrigo, province of Santa Fé, Argentina, where he baptized eight persons and organized them into a church. Others are keeping the Sabbath there, among them a native Indian. The colony is Swiss-German. He also reports some converts at Crespo, among them a man who had once tried to intimidate them with a revolver. At this place four were baptized.

TWO OF our brethren in New Brunswick were recently arrested for working on Sunday, but were discharged. The complaint against one of the brethren was made by a man who habitually works on Sunday himself. The other complaint was by a woman over fifty years old, who several times walked two miles to see if the brother was working, in order to have him arrested. Such is the use to which laws of this character are adapted. They are simply scourges in the hands of people who love to punish those who dissent from their views.

A MINISTER of the Christian Church recently undertook to defend the Sunday institution in a discussion with Elder J. D. Pegg, at Elbridge, Tenn. In his last speech he surprised his own adherents by admitting that Sunday has no sanctity more than other working days, and that were it not for the State law, men could do ordinary labor without doing any wrong. He also admitted that the State had no right to pass Sunday laws. These admissions by a leading advocate of Sunday sacredness, in a community where observers of the seventh day have been heretofore bitterly maligned, has caused quite a reversion of feeling on the part of many of the people.

PENNSYLVANIA, the “Keystone State,” seems bound to keep up its Sunday-law reputation, and be the “keystone” of compulsory Sunday observance. To what means some of its people are willing to resort in “stooping to conquer,” is shown by the following extract from a letter to the American Sentinel.—

“WASHINGTON JAIL, August 4, 1897. “EDITOR American Sentinel: At my trial before Justice Berry, of West Washington, yesterday, the charge against me was that of servile labor on Sunday. They proved by witnesses that I carried a stand and box the distance of a block and a half. I replied to the charge, pleading my case by the principles of God’s Word. The justice showed me every mark of respect. After my reply, the squire said he respected the stand which I took in harmony with my convictions; and, while making out my commitment, he said he would be willing to trust me to take it myself to the sheriff’s office. When I entered the jail, the inmates flocked around me to learn why I was put in; and, when I explained, they expressed their disapproval—some in a rather profane manner. A colored man came to me and wanted to know if I had not preached in their church a couple of times (stating name of the church). I said, Yes. He said he was a member of the church, and that his wife had been telling about me, and described me, so he had recognized me when I came in. Then the prisoners wanted me to preach to them that evening, and I did so. I spoke from Isa. 52:3. They took a vote to have preaching each evening during my stay. The vote was unanimous in favor of Gospel services. The prisoners number in all about forty-two. My sentence is for six days. The Lord willing, I hope to find a man to continue services after my release. My jailer is glad of the work I am doing, and gives me encouraging words. The prisoners are friendly.”