p. 47 | Victoria, Illinois, Tent No. 3 Meetings Report

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 2, 1877

Victoria, Illinois, Tent No. 3 Meetings Report

By J. F. Ballinger; Dennis Morrison

VICTORIA, ILL., TENT NO. 3.

We commenced meetings in Victoria, a village of two hundred inhabitants, July 3. Our congregations have been small most of the time. This has been partly owing to the busy season for farmers, but mostly to the prejudice caused by the unscriptural course of some who call themselves Adventists, and who have set several times for the Lord to come. They have made extravagant and positive statements, saying that if the Lord did not come at such a time, the Bible was false. They also taught that the ten commandments were abolished, and their lives harmonized with their teaching.

We have had some opposition from the ministry. Eld. Gaines, a Methodist, spoke against us on the Sabbath question, acknowledging that the ten commandments are binding, but saying that the fourth is indefinite. He then argued that Christ changed the Sabbath to the definite first day of the week. It was an easy task to expose the error of his position, which we did to a large and attentive audience.

We have succeeded in removing the prejudice from the minds of a few, and hope to see some fruit of our labor here. We ask to be especially remembered in the prayers of our brethren.

J. F. Ballinger. Dennis Morrison.