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OPENING IN THE SOUTH

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

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 32.

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OPENING IN THE SOUTH.

By M. E. Yergin; Flora E. Yergin

We have come to Woodbridge, Va., to establish the work of the Gospel Farmer on a broader basis, and to make it as practical and effective as possible. We have a farm of twenty-four acres, on which are fifteen hundred young pear trees, some of which are beginning to bear.
We find ourselves in the midst of a country much—very much—in need of the gospel light. There is great need of the gospel in a practical form. The country has largely been abandoned, and the cities and farms in whole sections have grown up to forest. We traveled afoot through about fifty miles of the State, and know personally what the country is. We found Virginia largely a place of abandoned farms. In many places in the midst of a forest a sturdy apple, pear, or cherry tree may be seen growing as a part of the general forest, perhaps near the moldering remains of a Southern mansion, thus testifying to the existence at some remote date of a thrifty orchard and prosperous farm.
So far as we are able to ascertain, the colored and white population are about equally divided; and among the colored there is certainly great need of living teachers, those who will be truly interested in the people, and will show them how to live. We are making an effort to do what we can, and our earnest prayer is that many true missionaries will have their hearts stirred to come and labor for the people of the South.
If some one will send us a reading rack, we have a place where we can use it, and we can use late, clean copies of the REVIEW, Signs, Instructor, Sentinel, Life Boat, and up-to-date tracts, if they are sent prepaid. Also we can use clothing, furniture, and various articles of produce, as many of the colored people are in the most abject poverty, and need something done for the body before the soul can be benefited. If those who have means could see the distressing need of the poor down-trodden ones who are a numerous class here in the South, they would be moved to give liberally to aid in relieving their needs and in uplifting them. May the Lord move many to give both their means and themselves to this people. Everything sent to us for this work should be prepaid. Address The Gospel Farmer, Woodbridge, Va.
M. E. YERGIN, FLORA E. YERGIN.