OUR WORK AND WORKERS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 2, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 14.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

By Editor

WORK has been commenced on our new sanitarium at Guadalajara, Mexico.

THE church at Ovajuk, Armenia, with some assistance from the Foreign Mission Board, are about to erect a house of worship.

A CHURCH of twenty members was recently organized at Grand Ledge, Mich., the services being conducted by Elder I. H. Evans and A. O. Burrill.

ELDER J. G. MATTESON, whose labors have included both the American and European fields, has been compelled to give up his work in connection with the college at College View, Neb., on account of failing health. His address is now Santa Monica, California.

AT the recent meeting of the General Conference Association, it was decided to put two general canvassing agents in the field in the United States, the dividing line being the Mississippi River. Brother F. L. Mead was given charge of the work in the eastern division, and Brother E. M. Morrison in the west.

THE Foreign Mission Board has decided to increase the working force in India by the addition of a physician, one or two nurses, and a couple of canvassers. The work in that country has opened up very encouragingly, and Elder D. A. Robinson, who has charge of the work there, has been authorized to establish a school for girls at Calcutta.

THE Evening News, Kettering, England, of March 3, publishes reports of four discourses delivered the previous Sunday by Elder J. S. Washburn and Brother H. Champness. The discourses were all on the general subject of "Sun Worship the Root, Life, and Soul of Heathenism—Sunday as Its Representative Day." It is said there was a good attendance at all the services, and a very large turn-out in the evening.

WE note two recent dedications of church buildings in California, one at Sebastopol, on the 22d ult., and the other at Petaluma, on the 29th. Elder N. C. McClure, president of the conference, and Elder E. E. Andross attended these services. Both of these localities are in Sonoma County. Petaluma was the scene of the first public effort to introduce this work in California, when, in 1868, Elders J. N. Loughborough and D. T. Bourdeau conducted a series of tent meetings there. That was the beginning, not of a large church in Petaluma, but of an extensive work on the Pacific Coast.

TENNESSEE seems determined to be the "banner state" in the matter of religious persecution. Of the five cases of persecution for Sunday labor pending in Lake County, one, that of Brother J. W. Lewis, was tried on the 13th ult. Or rather there were two indictments against him, and his conviction entails a fine and costs amounting to $61.46. This he will serve out in prison at the rate of twenty-five cents a day, a total of 246 days. The religious people of that vicinity, like those in other parts of the state, have not yet begun to enforce the reception of the "mark of the beast" upon any but Seventh-day Adventists. The cases of the other four brethren, L. A. Callicott, W. S. Lowry, J. H. Dowdy, and Otto Wilson, were continued until the next term of court.

EVERY doctrine held by Seventh-day Adventists is found in the Bible, and may be taught from the Bible alone. Notwithstanding the fact that we issue papers, tracts, and books, calling attention to these Bible doctrines, our workers are not, or ought not to be, dependent upon these for their advocacy or defense. Many persons have accepted these doctrines from reading and studying the Bible alone, who believed differently previous to such study. Question: Who ever became convinced that Sunday is the Sabbath, or that sprinkling is baptism, or that man is possessed of inherent immortality, from a study of the Bible alone?

THREE of our ministers, A. O. Burrill, P. M. Howe, and W. Simpson, are now under sentences for doing some labor in connection with the laying of a foundation for a church at Darrell, Ontario, on the 3d of last November. Brother Burrill's sentence amounts to $20 and costs, or sixty days in jail; the sentences of the other two amount to forty days each. The tyranny of the sentence is especially marked by the fact that friends are not allowed to give them anything in the way of food, and prison fare is generally anything but healthful. It is worthy of note here that the first magistrate before whom the brethren were arraigned refused to have anything to do with the cases, because the charges were so manifestly unjust.

ONE of the many curious things that are happening in these days is reported by Elder D. T. Bourdeau in the Review. He was laboring among the French population about Green Bay, Wis., and, after being personally abused and misrepresented, was finally challenged for a discussion. And after the time had been agreed upon, his opponents went around among the people and urged them not to come. As might have been expected, this only aroused the curiosity of those who were thus importuned, and there was a large attendance. Not one of the Protestant ministers who had been opposing Brother Bourdeau was present, and the people listened to him attentively for three hours, while he thoroughly exposed the opposition and presented the truth.

THE spirit that always touches the button for setting Sunday laws in operation has been discerned in the prosecution of Brother Ira Babcock, of Greenboro, N. C. The law under which he was arrested is an old provincial law of 1741, which forbids labor, etc., on Sunday, under penalty of a fine of $1.00 and costs. He was bound over by a justice of the peace for trial at the county seat. The grand jury found a bill which did not even mention Sunday, the charge being disturbance of a religious meeting, although the work done was out of sight and out of hearing distance from the church. When the case came to trial, it was shown that the bill was not correctly signed, and the trial went over until the May term of court. It is probable that the case will be dropped, but the spirit behind the original action is the same as that which is behind all such persecution. It is the spirit of the dragon, "the accuser of our brethren," which works through the church and state "beast" in the Old World governments, and through his "image" in the United States, to carry out his "war" with the "remnant" seed of the church, "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."