SAN JOSE, CAL by John Norton Loughborough

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 30.

SAN JOSE, CAL.

By John Norton Loughborough

SABBATH, July 6, I was with the church in San Jose, it being the time of their regular quarterly meeting. There was a very full attendance of the membership to respond to the roll-call, and take part in the ordinances. This is as it should be. Those who absent themselves from the house of God, at the time when there is an opportunity to show anew their faith in the crucified Redeemer who died in their behalf, virtually, it seems to me, intimate that the efficacy of his blood for them is of no great moment. If they absent themselves because they feel that they have committed sins that separate between them and the Lord,—there is no better place or time to confess those sins, and get right in the sight of God, than at the feet of their brethren and sisters, and around the table of the Lord. I enjoyed a precious season with the San Jose church at this quarterly meeting, in attending their Sabbath-school, speaking to them, and then in the afternoon, taking part with them in the communion service.

During the last six months the church in San Jose has erected a house of worship 32x50 feet with a projected entry-way. Ten feet are cut off the back part of the house by folding doors, so as to be used for two classrooms for the smaller classes of the Sabbath-school, leaving, when so used, an auditorium 30x40 feet, or, by folding back the doors, in a moment, it becomes a room 32x50. It is very conveniently designed.

The house was occupied for the first time on this quarterly-meeting occasion. The painting was not completed, and only a portion of the seats were in, but it will now be used as their place of meeting, and soon be entirely completed. The members of this church are nearly all in very moderate circumstances financially, but have taken hold nobly to erect the house. The Lord has blessed and prospered the enterprise, far above their most sanguine anticipations when they began. I was told by the leader of the church that what they had done was all paid for, so that there was no debt upon the house. They only owe for the lot, some $300. But that will not burden them, as they have ample time, by simply paying the interest. Another lift, a few months hence, with the kind of zeal that so harmoniously erected the house, will clear their debt.

It was in the year 1874 that the present truth was first presented in San Jose; and it was under rather peculiar circumstances. It was at the time of the election campaign, I think, in the month of July of that year, when the question of local option—license or no license—was agitating California. The temperance people of San Jose rented our new 60-foot double-top tent for the ten days' temperance meetings which just preceded the election. After the election was over, Elder Cornell and another of our ministers got the use of the ground on which the tent stood, and the use of the seats already in the tent, and gave a series of discourses on the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists. This was followed by another meeting in Santa Clara. As the result quite a company was raised up, and a church was soon organized in San Jose. Unfortunately, among those professing the truth, were some turbulent spirits who thought more of their own opinions and ways than they did of the harmony and prosperity of the work. This fostered in the church more or less a spirit of selfish independence inimical to the harmony and prosperity of any cause. As other efforts have been made from time to time, and new ones have accepted the truth, these first discordant elements have been either crowded out, or to a large extent have died out. There seems to be more peace among those now constituting the church. If these press together in love, and in the fear of the Lord, there will indeed be better times.

Another difficulty the church has had to contend with, has been the lack of a suitable place of worship, having had to hold their meetings in inconvenient halls, or private house, or in later times, in the vestry of a church, and that not always at the most convenient times, has proved decidedly disadvantageous to the work. The ministers who visited them could seldom get a chance to give more than one public discourse, and that upon the Sabbath day. Now that they have a house of their own, conveniently located, just off a street railway, I do not see why, if they humbly trust in God, and go forward in his work, with proper help, the San Jose church may not expect the cause to prosper in their midst. The Lord grant it so to be is the prayer of J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.