p. 126 | A LETTER FROM DAKOTA by CAROL LOU B. AURNER

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 19, 1877

A LETTER FROM DAKOTA.

By CAROL LOU B. AURNER

EDITORS ADVENT REVIEW: My Dear Sirs, In March Eld. E. M. Farnsworth came here to preach and labor in behalf of your faith. He began his labors on Sunday

, March 11, in the public school-house in town. He has followed this by preaching once on each succeeding Sunday, and on such weekly evenings as the building was unoccupied—some four evenings out of the week. He is a young man and the first English speaking representative of the denomination to come here. He has been complimented throughout his stay with the largest congregations of any one at this time of the year for years, and has received courteous and friendly attentions from all as a rule.

There is here a S. D. A. church of forty members whose families, as they are nearly all heads of families, must include at least one hundred persons; but they are all Danes, who have from time to time had the service of the Rev. Mr. Hanson, a Dane. This church has grown up in the past three years. It started from a package of tracts sent to the post-mistress and handed by her to a Dane, a Mr. Nelson, because they chanced to be printed in his own language, to amuse himself with in the long Dakota winter. The reading of these aroused a curiosity in his mind to know of their teachings, which caused him to send to your office for more; and soon he began keeping the Sabbath day. It was a matter of jest and ridicule to his friends and neighbors; but he kept on till he succeeded in inducing this Eld. Hansen to come here, when himself and wife and brother-in-law, and wife were baptized (they had been Lutherans), and thus started a church with this brother-in-law, Andrew Fredericsen, as elder.

Now they have forty members who manifest a good deal of interest for their countrymen which are here, either Lutherans or Baptists. These say that the Lutherans make a kind of hospital or quarantine of the Baptist church, which takes them in and teaches them the grand truths of repentance and immersion by which they are fitted for the reception of new truths from the Bible as old as creation. The facts here seem to verify this statement, as very many of the Scandinavians under Baptist labor become converted, and unite with them; and soon, on hearing this Eld. Hansen or some other Seventh-day Adventist, or getting hold of tracts and papers, are filled with the spirit of inquiry; and the result in many cases, facts say, is the embracing of the Sabbath and the full Law.

Our county has a population of some three or four thousand, about half Americans I think, and the rest Scandinavians and Russians. These Russians speak German, and are Lutherans and Mennonites. Where is the Seventh-day Adventist who can carry the truth to them in their own tongue? They are bound to be a power of account in our county, as they must count one-third of the population and probably as much or more of its wealth, as some are very thrifty for this country.

Eld. E. M. Farnsworth is very kind in manner and fair in address, and his work has thus far aroused a good degree of interest among the Americans; and many are accepting tracts, and reading books, and investigating the grounds on which we have been observing the first instead of the seventh day in worship of God. To most of them the subject is new. They received the Sunday from faith in childhood's teachings, and supposed it was right of course; but now they are not quite so sure. Many are already convinced that the seventh is the day that the Bible gives with ample proof; but—but—“I have married a wife, and cannot go; and I have bought four yoke of oxen, and I pray thee to have me excused.” One, a Baptist, has already begun to observe the seventh day, and there are more to follow.

My dear sirs, I do not know as this letter will be acceptable to you, or that it will give you any pleasure; but I hope it will, both, and that you will find space for a share or all of it in your columns. I have been a Baptist for years, but under this young man's teachings, I began to investigate the Bible for the change of the Sabbath to the first day of the week; and the more I hunted, the more I did not find any support for my faith in said change. I have been a Sabbath-keeper since March 11. I am very anxious for my husband, who has been a Baptist since last September. He is much interested, and says he will observe the day “if it is right.” He will investigate this matter. I feel he will soon be with me. God help the truth here.

Very respectfully,

CAROL LOU B. AURNER.