Red Bluff and Vacaville, Cal.
By B. A. Stephens
Our meetings at Red Bluff closed the evening of May 26. Thirteen signed the covenant, whom we hope will prove faithful. The opposition is strong, but a few have pressed through the darkness to the light, and taken up the cross of Jesus. This church is very much scattered; its members living from twelve to seventy miles away, yet their courage is good. In the forenoon, May 26, I spoke to an interested audience in the Antelope school-house on the subject of the resurrection. The last meetings were good, and all seemed to desire not only the form of godliness but the power connected with it. Several will attend the camp-meeting. May 29 to June 4, I spent with the Sabbath-keepers at Vacaville, and spoke seven times. The methodist preacher gave a discourse upon baptism. He said that baptizo had eleven different meanings, and although it sometimes meant to dip it must be understood in the New Testament as meaning to sprinkle; that we could not tell from the Greek prepositions whether Philip and the eunuch really went down into and came up out of the water, or not; and that nothing was said of the eunuch that was not said of Philip; that if Paul baptized the Philippian jailor after he was brought out of the prison he would burn his Bible; that immersion was inexpedient, dangerous to health, and very indecent; that John the Baptist inducted Christ into the priesthood by sprinkling him; that immersion was baptism in spite of its being immersion, and was not taught in the Bible. These different points were easily confuted in a review. The friends at Vacaville seemed encouraged. I have now come to Rocklin, Placer county, to hold meetings a few weeks in a school-house by request of some who have recently embraced the truth through reading, and to gather in others if possible. Desire the prayers of all for the success of the truth here. B. A. STEPHENS.
June 6, 1878.