TO THE MINNESOTA CONFERENCE.
Dear Brethren: The Lord has greatly blessed the labors of your ministers during the last two years. Hundreds have exchanged error for truth, and are rejoicing with the “little flock,” to whom, if finally overcomes, it will be our “Father’s good pleasure” to give the kingdom. New fields have been entered, and new churches raised up. Still new fields are opening on all sides. Calls are coming in to the Conference Committee from many directions, for help. A few years ago you had no laborers to enter the fields then open. Help was furnished you by the General Conference. Now you have seven ministers, and as many licentiates, at work, and ready to work, in the opening fields. And there are more fields open to-day than all these can occupy. Most of these men are entirely dependent upon their labor for the support of themselves and families. Paul asks, “Who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges?” Here are the fields open, and here are the men, ready, willing, anxious, to occupy them as far and as fast as they can reach them. But Paul asks again, “How can they preach except they be sent?” How can they go out and devote their time to the Lord’s work, unless the Lord’s people send them, by furnishing the means for their support, and that of their families, while they are so laboring? “Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” 1 Cor. 9:13, 14. Must these laborers leave the work of the Lord and go into other business to support their families, and these calls go unheeded, and souls go down to ruin, for lack of means to send them the light? Or must they, feeling that the vows of God are upon them, go out, and leave their dear ones to want and exposure? Must they accept one or the other of these alternatives, and shall it be left to poor, frail human nature to determine which? Brethren, we have come up to this point. Here is a simple statement of facts: At our last session of Conference, there was the sum of one thousand dollars unpaid on the S. B. pledged for the last Conference year. The committee had borrowed five hundred dollars in order to keep the laborers in the field till that time. When this sum was paid from the funds in the treasury, there was only enough left to pay one-half of what was then due for work already performed. Now, brethren, these things ought not so to be. And the question arises, Is this the reason why so little success has attended the laborers since camp-meeting? In Josh. 7, we have the example of the army of Israel being put to flight. Shall we not do well to ponder these things? Do you say, The locusts are upon us; our crops are destroyed, and what can we do? Brethren, did not God anticipate this question at this very time, and has he not answered it for you by the pen of Malachi? “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts; and see if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.” We profess to believe that this third chapter of Malachi has its application at the present time. And we find ourselves in the condition described in the prophecy. God cannot “rebuke the destroyer,” until there is one to be rebuked. He is upon us now. You ask, “Why is he upon us? If the condition upon which God will rebuke him be, that we “bring all the tithes into the storehouse,” is not the conclusion legitimate that he was sent upon us because we had failed to do that very thing? Now he exhorts to duty, “Bring ye all the tithes,” &c., and adds as a stimulant, “And prove me now herewith.” He would have us walk out upon our faith, and bring in the tenth of all our increase to his storehouse while the destroyer is upon us. In what other way can we prove him? The Lord simply calls for his due—a tithe of all—and if we have failed to give him this, in what other manner can we expect to meet his approval than by yielding cheerful compliance with his demands? And now, brethren, we appeal to you to say whether, by such compliance, you will seek his approval. By the payment of your pledges—whether they be the tithe of all your increase, or ten per cent. of what you own—which are held sacred to the Lord, the laborers may be kept in the field, and so the work may go forward, under the blessing of God; or, in consequence of your withholding payment, the laborers must be withdrawn from the field, and the work stop. We believe that you desire to do your duty. May the Lord direct as to what duty is, and give grace to perform it. MINN. CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.