DEDICATION AT ESTELLA, MICH.
By E. R. Jones
According to appointment, I met with the church at Estella, Feb. 9, 10. The object of this meeting was to dedicate the new meeting-house which the brethren here had just finished. I was much disappointed at not meeting Brn. Corliss and Van Deusen here; this left all the labor for me to do. A little more than two years ago, Bro. Van Deusen preached the truth at this place, and the result was, a church was organized with some eighteen or twenty members. From the first they have felt the need of a house of worship; so with willing hands and a commendable spirit of sacrifice, they have succeeded in erecting a house pleasant in its location, convenient and excellent in its formation, pleasing to look upon, and, what is very comforting, free from debt. It well represents the cause of present truth. The blessing of the Lord was with us from the very first of the meeting. Sabbath morning came and with it the severest snow storm of the season; but for all this, the friends came in from Carson City, Matherton, Hubbardston, and other places, till we had a congregation of about one hundred commandment keepers. The Spirit of the Lord helped in the preaching and in the social meetings. After the afternoon’s discourse eight arose for prayers. Sunday morning, at the dedication service, the house was filled to its utmost capacity with a congregation that listened with apparent interest to the great features of our faith and a rehearsal of the growth of this cause. A solemnity pervaded the entire service, and especially its closing part, when all the members of the church, by a rising expression, dedicated themselves anew to the service of God, and we all knelt and prayed that he would accept this vow, and bless this house, the willing sacrifice and offering of his people. In the afternoon, a large congregation listened to a discourse upon the messages, and in the evening upon the necessity of obedience to the teachings of Christ. The meeting is in the past; but we look back to it with much pleasure because we there experienced the blessing of the Lord. May the vows we there made, and which the angels have recorded, be never forgotten by us, but remembered and performed.