p. 30 | MISSOURI AND IOWA by George I. Butler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 24, 1878

MISSOURI AND IOWA.

By George I. Butler

I have not reported for many weeks, as the mud embargo has about stopped everything in the West. Held meetings in Iowa at Sandyville, Knoxville, and at Mt. Pleasant as I was there attending to business matters. These churches seem to be prospering, and advancing in a healthy growth. The Spirit of the Lord was with us. At Knoxville especially there is great ground for encouragement. This church now numbers upward of seventy, the largest membership, I think, of any church in the State. There is also a good outside interest. Often fifty or sixty attend prayer-meeting, many of whom are non-professors, as many of the members live so far away they cannot well attend an evening prayer-meeting.

I had the privilege of meeting Bro. Haskell in Missouri, at two churches, Prairie Valley and Lincoln. We had but small congregations because of the bad going. Clubs for the SIGNS were raised,—in the former place one of fifty-eight copies, in the latter, fifty, to be paid for in installments; and upward of $200 were pledged at the former place for a permanent tract fund. The instruction Bro. Haskell gave us was of great value, and was highly prized. We regretted more could not have heard it. We expect to go through many of the churches in the State, and make an effort to get our tract work on a better footing. Our courage to labor is good, and we expect to see better days in the Missouri Conference. We have a great field in which to work, and we shall try to encourage every one to labor. We have ordered Household Manuals, Child's Poems, and Way of Life, hoping we can get many canvassers to work obtaining subscribers for our periodicals. Half of these premiums will be sent to Hamilton, Caldwell Co., and half to Nevada City, Vernon Co., as depositories from which to distribute them to every church in the State.

Brethren, let us arouse, and go to work for the Lord. “The night soon cometh, in which no man can work.”

GEO. I. BUTLER.

Holden, Mo.