p. 138 | The Missionary by E. J. Burnham

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1887

The Missionary.

By E. J. Burnham

THE WORK IN AUSTRALIA.

AFTER the close of his second series of meetings in Adelaide, Elder Corliss returned to Melbourne, where he spent about a month. During this time he spent one Sabbath with the church in Ballarat, and preached on two Sabbaths for the Melbourne church. Elders Corliss and Israel both attended our excellent quarterly meeting on the 1st of January.

The fourth quarterly meeting of the Melbourne Tract Society was held January 2. Elder Israel presided, and, after the opening prayer by Elder Corliss, spoke of the prosperity that had attended the society since its small beginning a year ago. The report of labor was quite encouraging. Of the 45 members, 40 had reported, showing the number of missionary visits made during the quarter to be 100; letters written, 55; subscribers obtained for our periodicals, 29; pages of reading matter loaned and given away, 20,472; periodicals distributed, 23,089. The children had been engaged in the missionary work during the quarter, and had distributed more than a thousand periodicals. Some of these young workers have been very successful, and have taken a great interest in the work. Members of the society are furnishing the Echo to 52 different libraries.

The ship missionary visited 175 ships during the quarter, and placed on board 3,150 papers. Among the interesting incidents of his work was the case of an infidel, who, through Bible-readings, became interested in the Bible, and was led to acknowledge its divine origin.

The quarterly meeting of the Ballarat society was held the next Sunday, January 9. Elder Israel was present, and conducted the exercises. It is only a few months since this society was organized, and this was the first quarterly meeting. Though young and inexperienced, the Ballarat Tract Society has not been idle, as is shown by the fact that 50 copies of the Echo were used in the missionary work during the past quarter, 6,570 pages of reading matter disposed of, 30 Bible-readings held, and two distributers kept where they would do good service. For the present quarter the Echo club has been increased to 75, and the number of distributers doubled; and the interest of the members in the truth and work of God is increasing.

On the evening of the 9th Elder Corliss commenced a series of tent-meetings in Geelong. This is a city of ten thousand inhabitants, about forty-five miles from Melbourne. One man and his wife have lately commenced to keep the Sabbath there, and have united with the Melbourne church till one shall be organized at Geelong. The interest is fair, and we hope to see a good church raised up there.

Elder Israel is holding a tent-meeting at Daylesford, a small town about seventy-five miles from Melbourne. The meetings in Daylesford commenced January 16. So far, the interest and attendance have been very good, several men walking three and a half miles every evening to attend the meetings. The town has two papers, which are published on alternate days, giving them a paper every day. The columns of these papers have been freely opened to reports of the meetings and articles on present truth. In this way much truth has been brought before the people. One of these papers, in its issue of January 22, contained, beside a synopsis of Elder Israel's lecture given a few evenings before, a long article by a reporter who had just interviewed Elder Israel as to the history, views, and work of the Seventh-day Adventists.

There are now three churches in Australia, and two tents, and a number of canvassers in the field. One of these canvassers recently took fourteen orders for "Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation" in a single day, and thirty-seven orders in four and one-half days. The tract societies are distributing our publications in various places, and many are reading our papers, books, and tracts, some of whom are interested. We are sure that the work is onward in this good field, and that, with the blessing of God, we may look for a rich harvest of souls.

E. J. BURNHAM. Melbourne, January 25.