Seventh-day Adventist General Conference.
By N. V. Hull
We arrived at Battle Creek on the 13th of August, and found our Adventist friends were, with matters of business, uniting a camp-meeting, which had then been of several days’ continuance. We were received with every mark of respect, and this seemed really to ripen into affection, so that not a few tears were shed when we bade each other farewell. This was as true of the leaders as of the membership in general. On our arrival, Eld. White took us under his care, and from then to our parting showed us every attention possible, in which service Mrs. White heartily joined, nor was their care scarcely more unremitting than that of the entire eldership. There were on the grounds ninety-one family tents, and the average attendance of Sabbath-keepers was supposed to be about fifteen hundred. There were generally three sermons a day, one by Eld. White, one by Mrs. White, and one by Eld. Smith. Besides these, several social meetings were held each day by the congregation at large, and also prayer-meetings were held in several or all of the tents. Some of these were very spirited and refreshing. Of the sermons preached, several were designed to win converts to the Seventh-day Adventist faith, and to strengthen the confidence of the membership. These discourses were able and seemed greatly to encourage the brethren. The discourses, however, of Mrs. White were exceedingly earnest in favor of reform, and the necessity of a true Christian life, such as any one might hear with profit. On first-day, the congregation became very large, numbering, it was supposed, some five thousand, but the weather was fitful, alternating between sunshine and rain, so as to largely interrupt the order of the exercises, and yet we cannot but hope that much good was done. In the evening, we spoke to a congregation of about twenty-five hundred, who listened with absorbing interest and solemnity, and we are comforted with the hope that not a little good was done. On second-day morning, the General Conference was opened, Eld. White, the presiding officer, being in the chair; the regular order of business being pursued until noon, when the Conference adjourned to the call of the President, its business being nearly completed. By the kindness of Eld. White, attended by a number of prominent brethren, we were now shown the public buildings of our Adventist brethren located at Battle Creek. Of these, three are connected with their publishing interests. These are of brick, and all built after the same model. The third of these is just built, and as yet no business has been done in it, but it is to be immediately occupied. In these buildings, several tons of printed matter, in the form of books and tracts, are awaiting distribution. Their meeting-house is an excellent building, but already demands enlargement on account of the rapid increase of the congregation. After partaking of refreshments, we were shown through their scarcely finished school building, a noble structure, built of brick, and in the most substantial manner. Also, its location, the grounds, and everything around it, are of the most inviting character. In this movement we bid our Adventist brethren a hearty “God speed,” firmly believing that to them it will be a well-spring of life. Attention should at least be called to one more of these noble enterprises, which is their Health Institute, into which are already gathered some sixty invalids. The success attending their endeavors in this department of their labors is most hopeful. One thing more should be noticed in this connection, which is that the most beautiful portion of the city of Battle Creek is occupied by these public buildings, and these are surrounded by a strong and earnest body of Sabbath-keepers. Those interesting rambles being ended, we left to meet other engagements on our journey home, while our kind attendants returned to the camp-ground, where a sermon was to be preached, and the ordinance of baptism administered to several candidates. On the next morning, a farewell meeting was to be held, and then was to come the great separation. Besides what the Seventh-day Adventists are doing this side the Rocky Mountains, they are making themselves felt on the Pacific Coast, where there are already one thousand Sabbath-keepers. Here they are showing the same energy that they have in the East, having just sent on one of Cottrell & Babcock’s excellent presses to Oakland, from which place they are to send out by the millions their papers, tracts, and books. In San Francisco, they are about to erect a house of worship at a cost of some sixteen thousand dollars. In the Walla Walla Valley, they have a growing church with a good meeting-house. Their mission in Europe, under the care of Eld. J. N. Andrews, also promises to be a success. We have thus in a general way put before our people the present condition of this body of Christians, in whom we, as Seventh-day Baptists, have a deep interest. They are true to the doctrine of the Sabbath, and wherever they go are earnest and able defenders of God’s law. It is also due to them and to us to say that they earnestly desire peace with our people. They unfeignedly regret any occurrences, the tendency of which has been to alienation. They understand the points of doctrine in which we differ from them, and their leaders advise that their evangelists do not seek to propagate them among us, but that they occupy in their discourses ground common to us both. For ourself, we believe that the operations of time will, after a series of years, bring the two bodies into such accord as to cause dissensions to cease. On the question of the Sabbath we are one as we are one in the love of God; and in the defense of God’s dishonored law we have not only to occupy common ground, but in the strife we are to stand side by side. This we can do without any sacrifice of principle on either side. We sincerely regret, and even deplore, some of the doctrines held by our Seventh-day Adventist friends, believing them unsound, but live in the belief that time will essentially modify them. God be thanked for raising up this earnest body of Sabbath reformers, and greatly increase their numbers and strength, and also stimulate us with a zeal like theirs, that shall alike harness us for the coming battle!—N. V. HULL, in Sabbath Recorder.