p. 507 | NEW YORK CITY WORK by E. E. Franke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 6, 1901

NEW YORK CITY WORK.

By E. E. Franke

INASMUCH as I have left New York City for a time to labor in the city of Trenton, it is but right that I should report what has been done there. A little over four years ago there was no Seventh-day Adventist church in New York City, and only a few Sabbath-keepers, mostly connected with the office of the Pacific Press Pub. Co., who attended meeting in the city of Brooklyn. There are now three churches—two quite large ones, and one small one. During this time I have labored almost entirely alone in that large city, with the exception of one year when I labored in Brooklyn, and last summer, which I spent in Chicago. Besides more than fifty who accepted the truth in Brooklyn, more than two hundred and forty have come into the truth as a direct result of the work in New York City. Some have joined other churches throughout the Conference, and over two hundred of these have become active, working and paying members of the New York churches.

A few facts will help us to see what has been done there. I will compare the work in New York with the work in this entire eastern district, that we may the easier understand the situation. This eastern district known as the Eastern Union Conference, is composed of eighteen States and provinces, or ten Conferences and two mission fields, employing in all one hundred and sixty-two laborers. The district superintendent reported at the last General Conference an increase of eight hundred and forty members in the entire district during the two years. See General Conference Bulletin, page 51. One fifth of this number are the result of the work in New York, with only the writer and a tent-master employed in the same time, besides the fact that one entire summer of that time was spent in Chicago. Thus it is a fact that one fifth of all who came into the truth in these ten Conferences in two years are the result of one and a half years'

work in New York City. In the last tent effort held in that city over one hundred accepted the truth. Thirteen of these had been Roman Catholics. This we say to the praise and glory of God, who gave these results.

During my stay in New York I held meetings in two of the largest and most popular halls, “Chickering” and “Carnegie,” paying fifty and twenty-five dollars each night for rent, and raising the money from those not of our faith. It is needless to say more, these facts speak for themselves.

Three churches, with a total membership of over two hundred and twenty-five, paying almost three thousand dollars each year in tithes, besides liberal donations running up into the hundreds of dollars, is a standing monument to the glory of God in this large city, and the facts are more eloquent than anything that can possibly be said.

When I left New York City to open the work in Trenton, N. J., all was peace and harmony in the churches, and there are more people interested through our Carnegie hall work on 57th Street than we have ever known before in New York. Hundreds of names and addresses of those interested ones are in my possession, and I am receiving interesting and inquiring communications from many, both in and out of the city. Many of these should be added to the church this summer. The harvest in New York truly is ripe, as we were told in the General Conference Bulletin.

At a recent meeting of the churches in New York they donated about three hundred dollars toward my tent work in Trenton, N. J. Let us praise God for what He has done in New York, and look forward to still greater results.

E. E. FRANKE.