Gouverneur, N. Y by S. B. Whitney

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 7, 1875

Gouverneur, N. Y.

By S. B. Whitney

We closed our meetings the evening of Sept. 5th, and immediately took down our tent and shipped it the next morning for the camp-ground. Some ten or twelve expressed their determination to obey the truth. Our last meeting was quite solemn and impressive, and at its close a voluntary contribution of between eight and nine dollars was made us. I preached, by invitation, four times in the neighborhood four miles distant, which I mentioned in my last report, and the discourse which was promised on the other side has not yet been given, as I can learn.

During these meetings, we received a very good testimony relative to the general interest upon the Sabbath question at the present time. A gentleman from Schoharie Co., who is traveling extensively, and who embraces and defends the Sabbath theoretically, remarked to us that there is scarcely a hamlet in the country in which the subject is not more or less agitated; and he predicts that the time is soon coming when the clergy will have to yield the point for want of evidence.

As we could not leave things in the shape we would like when we left to attend the camp-meeting, we decided to return, and have made arrangements to follow up the interest here in the seminary chapel, and also the interest in the neighborhood mentioned above. The friends are firm, and welcome our return with much apparent satisfaction. The ministers are commencing a public controversy on the Sabbath question, and we hope for decided results.

The interest at Frankfort is on the increase, and others are reported as having embraced the Sabbath since we left.

Just a word relative to our late camp-meeting, which, in some respects, I think is the most profitable one we ever had. It closed up very well, the last evening being free and encouraging, though we all much regretted that it was necessary for Bro. and Sr. White and Bro. Smith to leave before the close. The farewell morning meeting was somewhat interrupted, but a goodly number of prompt and hopeful testimonies was borne.

To show the effect of the meeting upon the community, I will mention the following incident: On my way home, I met a stranger on the street in Rome who extended his hand with a cordial greeting, and explained himself by saying he had attended our meeting. He informed me that he lived in the vicinity of the ground, and said, “You have made a good impression upon our community; better than any other meeting we ever had among us.”

The brethren dispersed with a spirit of hope and courage we have been for a long time almost strangers to. For myself, I feel like consecrating all to God as never before, and entering into the work with renewed zeal. S. B. WHITNEY.

Gouverneur, N. Y., Sept. 24, 1875.