AUSTRALIA by George C. Tenney

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1889

AUSTRALIA.

By George C. Tenney

We have now been in this country over four months. I had the misfortune, the evening of our arrival, on the ride through the city, to lose the points of compass, and the result was that I became "turned around" half way, and north seems south. Consequently the sun appears to rise in the west and to set in the east. This is not more confusing than the seasons, which are also turned half way around. It is quite difficult to realize the time of year, and that now, while we are needing the lightest clothing that the law will allow, our friends at home are banking up their houses and making preparations to meet a sturdy winter. Last Friday, November 23, the thermometer indicated 102° in the shade, and 147° in the sun. This happily proved to be the climax, and in the evening a delightful breeze sprang up, and the weather remains very agreeable. The present season is a very dry one, and great damage has already resulted. The prices of all kinds of produce are advancing, and in the interior many cattle and sheep are perishing.

It is the same thing all the world over, a thousand vicissitudes await the results of toil, the earth is groaning under the curse, and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it. Were our hopes all centered here we could but look with anxiety to the future.

But that in which we feel the greatest interest is the advancement of the cause of truth, and we are thankful to be able to realize that the final success of this work does not depend upon any earthly condition. It is evident to our minds that God is at work here for his own cause. Our forces are exceedingly small, there is no laborer in this colony, and yet there is hardly a week passes but someone embraces the truth. And quite a number that we know of not of our faith are engaged in sending abroad our reading. Sermons and articles frequently appear in opposition to the truth, which shows that something is being done. Two weeks since the most extensive fruit preserver in the colonies, who employs over six hundred men in his factories, met with us on the Sabbath, and stated that he had begun the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord. For some time he had been privately keeping it, but now he came out and took a strong stand, and stated that henceforth his factories would be closed upon the Sabbath day. These factories are located in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, and New Zealand. The closing of them will have a wide influence, and there are few men in the colonies better known than the owner. It has been his custom for years to open the factories each day with prayer.

The tent season is just now opening. Brother W. D. Curtis is holding a series of meetings in Adelaide; and Brother Israel will soon open a series in Tasmania. These are all the preachers we have in a field as large as the United States as for territory. There are many urgent calls for laborers.

We also feel that God is helping us in the building work. Our first building is up, and that and the lot are paid for, and the way to erect the main building appears to be open. The contract is let to one of our own brethren, and sometime in February we hope to be located in our own premises, where we shall have good facilities for the publishing work, and also have a place of our own in which to meet as often as we choose. We are now removing to the press-room, where we shall try to carry on the business until the other building is completed.

We find the brethren here as ready to help to the full extent of their means as in any place we have ever been. But as we look upon the vast work to be done, a feeling of utter dependence upon the Lord of the harvest rests upon us. Hitherto he has carried forward his own work, and we can trust him for the future. It would be a great encouragement, I have often thought, to those who have sacrificed for the cause in this field if they could hear some of the earnest gratitude expressed in prayer by the brethren to "those dear brethren in America who have been the means of sending the truth to them." G. C. T.