THE CAUSE IN TEXAS by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 29, 1879

THE CAUSE IN TEXAS.

By James White

Texas is a large State, and since the war, northern people have poured into it, increasing its population, and changing public sentiment. But southern people move slowly. Elder R. M. Kilgore has labored hard, and with a good degree of success. There is good material with which to build a strong Conference in Texas; but in getting it out, an immense amount of moral filth must be handled.

Texas is almost wholly given to whisky and tobacco. Men and women of all classes, with very few exceptions, are tobacco inebriates. It is a common thing to see a fashionably dressed and gloved lady driving fine horses and carriage through the streets of Texas cities with a lighted cigar in her mouth, puffing the smoke, and removing the ashes from the consuming cigar with all the grace of movement seen in the dandy. Men chew and smoke tobacco at a terrible rate, and most of the women are “snuff-dippers.” They are seen at their homes and in the streets, walking or riding, apparently chewing sticks. With these they dip snuff, keeping a certain amount of the precious dust in their mouths, by often repeating the dose.

The habits and tastes of the people of the almost God-forsaken South are terribly unnatural. Appetite and passion seem to overrule reason, and, consequently, the moral sensibilities of such people nearly slumber. To bring out and to bring up to the Bible standard of purity a people ready for the coming of Christ seems too great a work for an age.

And, yet, God has a people in Texas. There are many precious jewels to be dug out of the dust and filth of this great State, and polished by the present truth.

Texas is a large State, and is one of the best for missionary labor. The people travel in all directions with covered wagons. We have distributed many papers and tracts. The hunger for religious reading exceeds anything I have witnessed elsewhere. But the people have not now any money to pay for such reading. The Texas Conference is young, small, and comparatively poor. We have not received one dime from the Conference or from individuals during our stay of nearly seven months; but have helped the poor to the amount of several hundreds of dollars from our purse. We have labored to build up the Texas Conference, to free it from debt, and place it on a self-sustaining basis. We sent for Elder Corliss to visit the State and labor with Elder Kilgore; but as the financial condition of the Conference will not warrant his laboring in the State, he goes with us to labor in Colorado, under the supervision of the General Conference Committee.

Tent labor commenced in Texas about the tenth of March. Elder Corliss rendered good help in the city of Denison. Tent labor will commence in Colorado, probably in the city of Denver, about the tenth of June. The spring season in Texas is fully three months earlier than in Colorado, and tent season in Colorado is not half so long as in Texas.

Northern people make a terrible mistake in going to Texas to settle. Our health has been good during our sojourn in the least sickly season, and had it not been for the poverty and sickness of those we have been with, and their want of good religion, we could have accomplished much in the way of writing.

The course pursued by those professed Sabbath-keepers who first visited Texas, and the results of their miserable conduct, brought reproach upon the cause, and has made the work hard for Elder Kilgore and others. Their mistakes may be summed up as follows:—

1. In giving, through the Review, over-drawn descriptions of the climate, soil, and people, of Texas. Similar mistakes have been made, since the great American war, relative to Missouri, and other new States. Such calls always move the fickle and vacillating, those generally who have little or no influence at home. It is a shame to have every new field pre-occupied by brethren of this stamp.

There are, however, some persons of moral value who are deceived by these over-colored statements. Several families, confiding in these calls, moved from Michigan and Wisconsin to Texas. Those have lost their property and health, and are reduced to a state of wretchedness. Under a similar movement to Missouri, a few years since; some became reduced in property, and discouraged, and yielded their faith and hope. General Conference has passed resolution after resolution to check the great evil of brethren’s recklessly moving from place to place, excited by high-colored statements concerning this or that new State or Territory.

Land speculators and railroad companies who have had lands for sale, have issued their circulars filled with exciting and descriptive statements. These have called eastern people, to be disappointed and financially ruined. Thousands of families are leaving their new homes, and literally begging their way back again.

2. Those who are ready to drift here or there, are generally those who have not formed characters as burden-bearers and care-takers, and are the last persons who should first occupy new fields. And, when gathered from different points, they constitute a church of babes, without judgment, and without the principles of true religion to govern their daily conduct. Thus we found things in Dallas and Denison, Texas, with very few exceptions.

We should have taken our help with us to Texas,—a kitchen girl and two copyists; and we should have shut ourselves up to ourselves and our work. For more than a quarter of a century, we have labored beyond our strength for the spiritual, physical, and financial help of those who have really needed help. The time has fully come for us to shut ourselves up to the work God has given us to do.

We now go to Colorado to speak to the people as the way opens, and duty seems to demand. We shall labor for the spiritual good of the people, and shall expect help from them, rather than to give them financial assistance.

A great work is yet to be done in Texas. While many are returning from Texas under great discouragements, more are on their way to Texas.

Men will be raised up, and means will be furnished to carry forward the work in that great State. But we still recommend that labor and means be expended where they will accomplish the most immediate good. This will apply to all parts of the great American field. The cause in the North should not be left to suffer for the want of those laborers sent to the less promising field in the South. Much must be done in the South by our publications, and by ministers raised up in the South. J. W.