IOWA

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1876

MT. PLEASANT.

AFTER my return from the West, I spent a few days in Mt. Pleasant, and held meetings evenings. Heard Rev. Frank W. Evans on the immortality question. He gave four discourses upon this subject, but I had the opportunity of hearing only one of them. Mr. Evans is one of the ablest Methodist preachers in Iowa, and, of course, presented his arguments in an attractive light for believers in his views. He quoted from several works on our side of the question. He gave Bro. Smith’s work, “Nature and Destiny of Man,” the compliment of being the ablest work he had seen on that side of the subject. He claimed that sheol was the place where departed spirits go at death; but, a little further along, he claimed that the spirit of man went upward, in distinction from that of beasts, which went downward, that the spirit went up to God who gave it, and to Heaven. Of course, it was not difficult in my review of his sermon to show that sheol was not up, but was downward in the earth; that sheol was not in Heaven, but was a place where there is no knowledge, wisdom, or device, a place of silence, darkness, and oblivion. Mr. E. is a very fluent talker, but his positions were not difficult to answer. My only regret was that the night of my review was rainy, and but comparatively few came out to hear my reply.

Our church in Mt. Pleasant has prospered much since the reorganization a few years since. We then had a little over twenty. We now have nearly fifty, and others who will come in. Six were admitted, and four baptized, at the close of our recent meetings.