Switzerland and Illinois.
By Daniel T. Bourdeau
This morning I came to Orbe, a city of about three thousand inhabitants, situated between Lausanne and Neuchatel, to commence a series of meetings, having previously secured a hall and a boarding-place on reasonable terms. It is market day and I have improved the opportunity to advertise, first by advertising in the market place, in order to gain access to those from the country, and then from house to house. I have never seen a greater anxiety to read the hand-bills. I first went through Main street and got some to reading at different points, and gained the good-will of some of the children and youth. Then I went through a second and a third time, etc. Branching out on other streets, groups of from ten to twenty children, who had read or got their parents to reading, gathered around me asking for more for this one and that one, and helping me at every point, so that in less than three hours I had quite thoroughly advertised our meeting, and that with more than usual ease. Thank God for this good beginning. The first meeting will be held tomorrow evening. I expect Brother Andrews will be with me. My courage is good. I believe we shall see the salvation of God in Switzerland. We shall keep trying, and if they receive not our testimony in one city we shall go to another. But we expect to see souls converted to God. Encouraging news comes from the French brethren in Illinois. A France Frenchman of good abilities, who was favorable to our views when I left America, writes that he has fully united with the commandment-keepers of St. Anne; that Brother Paul Buzon, of St. Anne, is laboring with success nine miles north of Watseka (while supporting himself); that another brother in St. Anne, is encouraged by the conversion of three relatives, among whom is his mother-in-law aged seventy-three years, who had always been a Roman Catholic; that the French brethren and sisters generally are holding on and continue to have an interest in the work both at home and abroad. My P. O. address is still Morges, Vaud, Switzerland.
D. T. BOURDEAU.
Orbe, June 17, 1878.