Various Matters by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 25.

Various Matters.

By Editor

WE are informed that Elders H. M. Kenyon and M. B. Miller have pitched a fifty-foot tent in Union City, Mich., and that their meetings have a good attendance of the best class of citizens.

A TELEGRAM from Elder Haskell, dated at Battle Creek, Mich., June 18, says: "Elder Butler arrived here to-day. Excellent meeting at Emporium, Penn." All will be glad to learn of Elder Butler's safe arrival home. We rejoice to know that his visit to Europe has been the means of giving a new impetus to the work there, and putting it upon a broader foundation. Of the good camp-meeting in Pennsylvania we shall doubtless receive particulars hereafter.

A LETTER received by the secretary of the missionary society, from a sister in Siskiyou County, Cal., states that Brethren Lamb and Church are meeting with success in that field, and finding favor with the people. A good and increasing interest is reported. Families that have never before been seen inside of a church, except at a funeral, came from quite a distance in the country to attend the meetings. Four or five persons have already begun to keep the Sabbath, and others are convinced of the truth.

WE are disappointed in not getting late news from the Walla Walla camp-meeting. Our last letter from there was a week on the way. At that stage of the meeting progress was reported. The plain truth spoken had taken hold of the people, and stirred them up to duty. We learn that Elder J. N. Loughborough was nominated for president of the Upper Columbia Conference, and has no doubt been elected. While the brethren in California, who expected to be favored with his presence and labors, will feel regret, they will rejoice that our neighboring Conference is to receive so strong a reinforcement. The cause is one, and in whatever portion of the field labor is bestowed, it goes to swell the grand result in which we all have a common interest.

BISHOP SIMPSON, of the M. E. Church, died at his home in Philadelphia, on the 21st. inst., aged seventy-three years. He had been a preacher for more than fifty years, and a bishop for thirty-two. He was justly entitled to be considered one of the leading preachers of the country. As a theologian, he gave no countenance to the antinomianism which is sapping the foundation of Methodism as taught by Wesley and his associates. Bishop Simpson kept close to the original standard of faith, and therein lay his strength as a preacher, which had in it nothing of the sensational. In his death the Methodist Church suffers a loss which will, doubtless, never be repaired.

A MAN in Philadelphia, who has read a portion of Mrs. White's "Sketches from the Life of Paul," says: "She should be careful not to make misstatements of Scripture, as is done on page 22, where, in speaking of the conversion of Paul, she says that those who were with him heard the voice, whereas the Scripture says they heard not the voice. Acts 22:9." We presume our friend never read Acts 9:7, which says they did hear a voice, hence his hasty criticism. And when he reads this text, in connection with the one he mentions, we would caution him against rashly concluding that Luke and Paul contradict each other. Any commentator will explain to him how it is possible to hear a sound or voice, and not understand what is said, and that this was the case with those who were with Paul. We have often heard people talk, and at the same time were unable to understand, and sometimes even to hear, a word that was uttered.