CLOSING MEETINGS IN CALIFORNIA.
By Uriah Smith
May 29, we left California for the East, and proceeding by slow train reached Battle Creek, Thursday, June 7. The latter portion of our stay in California was spent in visiting some of the churches. We enjoyed precious seasons with the churches of St. Helena, Napa, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Petaluma, San Jose, Woodland, and the brethren in the vicinity of Dixon, where Brn. Healey and Stephens were engaged in tent labor with a growing interest, besides more frequent meetings of interest with the churches of San Francisco and Oakland. We find the foundations for a permanent and extensive work upon the Pacific coast laid broader and deeper than we had anticipated; and we have come away feeling a new interest in the cause there, and the noble men and women who stand as its supporters. The cause has had its necessary trials, and the moral atmosphere has been purified by the separation of unworthy members from the ranks, while new laborers have come up to take upon themselves the burden of the work, and enter whole hearted into the field. With great interest we marked the workings of the publishing house, which has in so short a time risen to a self-sustaining position; and we look for the cause of the third angel's message to make henceforth rapid and healthy progress on that coast. We are frequently asked what we think of California. Physically, it is a peculiar and wonderful land. To an eastern man it seems somewhat strange to find the thunder and lightning all under ground, and to see the winters exhaust themselves wrestling with the towering summits of the Sierras, so that they never find their way into the valleys below. Here are presented some of the loveliest landscapes imaginable, embracing the richest and most fertile lands. But like all other places it has its drawbacks. When the curse fell it did not skip this section. Disease, suffering, death, are here also. The climate is slowly changing, and the seasons are sometimes erratic; now unseasonable rains, then too fervid droughts. The present season the drought is rendering the crops in some sections worthless, and in others of half value. This is shutting off thousands from employment and bringing distress upon many. Twenty-five thousand men in San Francisco are reported as being out of employment. And still hundreds are pouring in weekly from the East, with no means to return. What they are to do is a problem the solution of which is involved in utter darkness. It is a hard country for the penniless; for a person is not allowed to beg without taking out, and paying for, a license; and if he seeks shelter for the night in a barn or any deserted building, he is arrested for vagrancy. How cheering is the Christian's prospect as he looks away from the darkness of this earth to a land where sin will never be suffered to bring in its wild disorders. To us, our brief sojourn in California was very pleasant. We shall ever gratefully remember the kindness of many friends. They were eminently successful in their efforts to make our stay with them agreeable; and we hope to meet them when the warfare is over, among the victors on the sea of glass. Rev. 15: 2. U. S.