ALSACE, GERMANY by D. T. Bourdeau

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 5, 1876

ALSACE, GERMANY.

By D. T. Bourdeau

I came to this place ten days since, to rest among the mountains with my family, do some writing, and give shape and permanency to the work I commenced in the spring under great disadvantages. It was a matter of no small relief to me to be able to preach even to the few who were keeping the commandments. Hitherto I had been permitted to labor only by way of visiting, and had been watched closely to see if I took liberties that the law did not allow those who were not legally authorized to preach.

I found that the spirit of opposition had not died out. The first Sabbath I was here, the mayor came into our meeting in great wrath and told his wife that if she was baptized he would part with her; and another man said that if his daughter was baptized he would shoot us. (It was from this point that two brethren went to Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland, a distance of one hundred and forty miles, to be baptized, before I received a legal permission to officiate as a preacher.) Under these circumstances, we chose the night to baptize two sisters, who had been long waiting for baptism. I have organized Systematic Benevolence for the few in this place, amounting to 130 francs (about $26) a year. I have a good degree of physical and mental strength, and earnestly desire to soon enter new fields.

D. T. BOURDEAU.

Hohwald, Alsace, Aug. 28, 1876.