SOUTH AFRICAN CONFERENCE.
By G. W. Reaser
The tenth annual meeting of the South African Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was held at Cape Town, Sept. 26 to Oct. 6, 1901. About fifty delegates were in attendance, the majority of whom reside in the vicinity of Cape Town. One session of the Conference was held each day, also a devotional meeting, a Bible study, and a preaching service. An excellent spirit of union and brotherly love prevailed from the beginning, and was intensified as the meetings progressed. The same system of organization and conduct of the Conference prevailed as that which characterized the last session of the General Conference, and has since apparently been adopted by our people throughout the world. One church was admitted to the Conference. The medical missionary work was revived, and it was decided to reopen the Plumstead Orphanage. There was a good response to the preaching of the word,739and the last Sabbath of the Conference six persons were baptized. There was ample money in the Conference treasury to settle with all the laborers, and the different funds of the Conference were found to be in a satisfactory condition. The report of the canvassers showed remarkable sales considering the warlike times which prevail in South Africa. Elder W. S. Hyatt was unanimously re-elected Conference President, and Brother O. O. Fortner, Secretary. There was a re-division of the territory of South Africa, and new mission fields were formed. These embrace Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, Basutoland, and Natal-Transvaal. An advisory committee of five members was created to have the supervision of all missionary work in South Africa. The persons chosen to compose this committee were Elders W. S. Hyatt, J. M. Freeman, H. J. Edmed, F. L. Mead, and the writer. This new organization is called the South African Union Council. The last two days of the Conference were especially characterized by much of the blessing of the Lord. Soul-stirring testimony meetings were held on Sabbath in connection with the celebration of the ordinances of the Lord’s house, and again on Sunday night, after a sermon on “Our high calling as Christian soldiers.” Elder Hyatt takes hold of his work with renewed energy and courage, and we trust that at this Conference the work of the Lord received new impetus and power for the coming year. The day following the close of the Conference, we received the sad intelligence of the death of Elder Mead. He had started from the mission farm near Bulawayo to attend the Conference, had got as far as Kimberley, where he was taken sick with pneumonia, and although every attention was given him by our people there, who were skilled in hydrotherapy, yet in a few days he succumbed to the disease. This loss calls for additional volunteers for bleeding Africa. We hope that our workers may hereafter be settled in more healthful localities than any portion of Central Africa, where missionary training stations can be maintained, and native workers who can endure the malarious climate, sent to the interior. Africa, with more than two hundred millions of blood-bought souls, has but five ordained ministers, who are commissioned to give the last message of mercy to the world. May the Lord lay the burden upon consecrated individuals to come to this needy field and spend their lives for the Master. G. W. Reaser.