J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 24, 1878

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

District No. 3.

SINCE last report my labors have been with the companies of Sabbath-keepers at Middletown, St. Helena, Napa, and Vallejo, constituting district No. 3. These churches have pledged s. B. for 1878 to the amount of $520.08, and $166.72 to the one-third missionary fund. This is doing well considering that two of their companies are small, some are paying large pledges on other matters, and the most of those in the district are in moderate circumstances.

At Middletown I found some had moved away, so that less than a dozen now meet for worship. These were much encouraged by the meetings.

At St. Helena all were firm in the truth. A marked feature of the work here, has been a steady advance from the very first of their accepting the truth. May God bless these substantial souls.

At Napa, I found the church of special good cheer. Our meetings, business and preaching, were truly blessed seasons. Since completing their church, several years since, there has been a debt hanging over it. At one time their s. B. almost entirely run down with the excuse that they owed for their church, and for one year they neither paid their church debt nor much s. B. Something over a year since they rallied to take hold again on finances with the rest of the State. At this meeting they stated that their church was now free from debt, s. B. and missionary one-third paid up, with a small exception, and they were happy over the new state of affairs in the cause there; not that the gift of God is bought with money, but as Paul said it is "first that abounds to their account." Another evidence is seen here, as in other cases, that the Lord's people share his blessings both spiritual and temporal in proportion to the sacrifice they make for the advancement of the cause.

At Vallejo the few are still firm in the truth. These renewed their s. B. pledges and entered into the missionary one-third pledge. Our opponents have reported that "the cause was dead in Vallejo." The facts are that not a soul has ever given up faith in the truth that embraced it there. One is now in Washington, D. C., one in Michigan, two in Napa, two in San Francisco, and two new ones have accepted the Sabbath and united with those that remain in Vallejo, since I last met with them. When active members move from one place to another, to live out and to spread the truth, this is not the death of the cause. The Lord met with and blessed the few in Vallejo. We enjoyed a precious season with them in speaking Bible truth to them and their neighbors.