AFTER three more lectures we close our tent meetings in Vallejo. I commenced here July 17th, since which I have given fifty-seven lectures. We were earnestly requested to come here by Bro. and sister Howard, who received the truth by hearing at our camp meeting last year, and by reading.
We found here a company of First-day Adventists in a divided condition. A major part of them holding with Elder Grant on the “holiness” question, the minor party, some twelve in number, holding with Elder Fassett that the work of holiness is not simply a blessing suddenly received, but a “growth in grace.”
The Eld. Grant party, have, with a few exceptions, kept away from the tent, and taken as gospel truth all the slanderous statements made in the Crisis against Seventh-day Adventists. Some of their number even going so far as to collect crowds on the street corners, and peddle out to them their slander. Notwithstanding this we have had a good, attentive audience from the first. The ludicrous part of the matter was, that those who had not been to the tent, were trying to tell those who had been there what was preached at the tent. They made splendid failures at it. I never saw such bigotry in any sectarian church, as the “holiness Adventists” have manifested here. May God pity them, and open their eyes to what they are doing.
The minor branch of the Adventists have followed the lectures closely and endorse the truth. Most of them have signed a covenant to keep the Sabbath, and meet for worship on the Sabbath. Thirteen names are now attached to the covenant here. These were not all Adventists before. They have arranged to hold their meetings, for the present, in a private house. They are all of the poor of this world. May they be rich in faith, and receive the kingdom at last.
There are a few others who admit the truth, in theory, but still hesitate. We trust in their cases the bread cast upon the waters may be gathered, though it be “after many days.” We have sold $30 worth of books, and the people contributed $58, toward the expenses of the meeting. A few have subscribed for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. This is a town of mechanics, most of them work in the navy yard, and it requires a love for the truth, for any one to move out to keep a day conflicting with the arrangements of Government works.
Among those who have come out is a Bro. Davison, 84 years of age, formerly a sea captain ; hale and hearty, a day laborer on the navy yard. His father lived to be over 140 years of age. This brother was once a Seventh-day Baptist. He had left the Sabbath, but when he heard the truth here, he knew the sound, and is again gladly keeping God’s commandments.
We leave here on the 11th to attend the quarterly meetings at Oakland and Napa, and prepare for our camp meeting.