Hold The Fort by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 48 Supplement

Hold The Fort.

By James White

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, AND OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., and Oakland, Cal., are the two great fortresses of our cause on the Western Continent. The first is the headquarters and center of our world-wide operations. At Battle Creek is located our oldest and largest Publishing House, our College, and our Sanitarium. This fort has been held twenty-three years the present month. Here at Battle Creek, many a hard battle for truth and the right has been fought, and as many triumphant victories have been won. The last grand effort of our people at this important point is the erection of a house of worship which will not only convene the present congregation, but which will comfortably take in the future audience of Battle Creek. Thank God, that in his good providence we are connected with a cause whose growth makes it necessary to form and execute plans for the near future two or three times as large as the present demands.

The dedication of the Tabernacle at Battle Creek will be deferred till the first of May, for the reasons that follow:—

1. The house should not be presented to the Lord dedicated to his service with heavy debts upon it. On New Year's day there will be a general effort of our people, wherever they may be located, to raise the means necessary to pay for the house.

2. It is desired that Mrs. W. and the writer should be present at the dedication, which would be a great pleasure to us. We shall close our work here in Texas with a camp-meeting the last of April, then go to Battle Creek and attend some of the early camp-meetings before going to Colorado to spend the summer.

3. Our General Conference should be held before northern camp and tent meetings commence. Spring is the time to lay our plans, and make a distribution of laborers for the tent season. Then we can hold all those general meetings or business sessions of our institutions which do not require a two-thirds vote of stockholders to choose officers. This is not only the best and only proper time to hold these annual meetings, but by holding them in the spring our autumn general camp-meeting will be greatly relieved from business labor and care. At the opening of the General Conference the Tabernacle at Battle Creek, can be dedicated.

Oakland, Cal., is the headquarters of all our work on the Pacific coast. There is located the most perfect and complete Publishing House on the coast. We have added to a first-class printing establishment, a complete bindery, stereotyping, electrotyping, and type foundry, where the most improved styles and qualities of the types are manufactured. This fort must be held at all hazards. When we take into the account the youth of the cause on the Pacific coast, its growth is a marvel. But there is a heavy debt on the Oakland church, which that good people can never lift. They are the poorest and most liberal church on the continent, yet this position is the most important, excepting the Battle Creek church only. Of the financial condition of things at Oakland, our son, J. E. White, writing November 29, says:

"I write you about a matter that is troubling me considerably. That is our church. There is a debt of $8,000 on it at present, and there is not the remotest prospect of the Oakland church, if left to itself, ever paying the debt. The church is poor, and struggle as it may, can hardly pay interest and running expenses, which amount to $1,200 a year. There are only two or three in the church who are worth anything at all, and they pay the least.

"The Christians (Campbellites) want a church, and ours suits them. They spoke of buying it once before, and I spoke against it. I told the brethren I thought it would be a terrible disgrace to sell, but as I could not see any way out more than they could, I withdrew my objection.

"I can see the situation just as plainly now as if we had reached the time. Unless outside help comes in, the Oakland church must go either by sale or by the holders of the mortgage taking it. It would be a distressing thing to have anything like that take place. I write to you, hoping you can propose some solution to the difficulty.

"The Office, by the closest and most rigid economy, can pull through. But it is absolutely unprepared for any draft to be made on it. Finances are the closest here that I have known them to be.

"In regard to hard times, in addition to ordinary hard times they have just had the greatest crash in the stock market that California ever knew. This of course unsettles all California.

"Many in our church are out of employment, and the most are scarcely making expenses. In four months there is $2,000 due from the church to the bank. They might as well try to fly as to think of paying it."

To the foregoing, Mrs. W. responds in the following stirring words:—

"DEAR SON: We received your letter in reference to the Oakland church. I am glad you wrote us in regard to the situation of things there. I am sure the building of the meeting-house in Oakland was none too soon. There were willing hearts among the believers who were poor. They made great sacrifices in order to raise means to invest in the Oakland church. Their zeal and self-sacrifice shall not be in vain.

"That meeting-house shall not be sold. The building of the house was of God. I hope our brethren and sisters will not murmur as did the children of Israel when brought up facing the Red sea, the Egyptians behind them and impassable mountains shutting them in. It was at this crisis the Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.' As they obeyed, the Red sea parted before them and they went through it in the path God had prepared for them.

"We say to you in Oakland, believe and do all you can, and you will see the salvation of God. Let all murmurings and questioning doubts cease. Let your complaints be turned to prayer and faith and works. I say that house shall not be sold. I will first sell my house on the corner of Castro and Eleventh streets, and put every dollar of the avails into the church to clear it of debt. Sell our houses? yes, yes indeed, rather than the house that has been dedicated to God.

"Wait, work, and pray. We will exert our influence and do what we can. Every foot of room in that house will be needed yet. Oakland is a missionary field, and always will be. The truth will prevail in Oakland. It may take time, but it will take hold of hearts there. Believe, work, hope, and pray. Cling to God with all your might.

"Let all in the office and in the church at Oakland show a still greater spirit of self-sacrifice than they have manifested, and God will work with your efforts. Lift the burdens willingly, and we will not let the matter rest till we see you free from embarrassment. Help shall come. If we cannot sell our property, we will use our influence to interest others to do all they can. Sell that church? Never, never. I tell you many prayers were offered while it was being erected. You will come out all right.

"Be not faithless, but believing. There are those who have money upon the Pacific coast; let them come up to the help of the Lord and make their offerings to God. Some in California have shown that they had greater confidence in unbelievers than in those whom God has honored by connecting them with his cause.

"These have trusted their money to men of no principle, while the cause of God was wading heavily for the want of means. If any appeal is made to them, they respond by presenting their narrow ideas and selfish views. Too much money, they say, has been expended in buildings and in facilities for the spread of the truth. They are afraid that they shall lose their money if entrusted to the treasury of God, but the Lord has shown his displeasure at their course in suffering losses to occur. They have not saving faith; money is their god. The Lord has entrusted to them means, to use in the advancement of his cause, but their covetous spirit grasps it and will not let it go back to him to whom it belongs.

"Sister Rowland has made most earnest efforts to help when and where she could. May the Lord open ways before her, that she may be able to dispose of her property and invest a portion of it in the cause of God. At the greatest inconvenience to herself, she mortgaged her property and raised two thousand dollars to help in the SIGNS office when it was most needed. This noble act on her part is an expression of her confidence in the work and cause of God. She will not lose her reward. If others would show similar commendable zeal and faith, the cause of truth would not be embarrassed as it now is.

"We hope those who have means trusted out to strangers will see that God's cause may be benefited by its use. It was placed in their hands by the Lord, to test them and prove them, to see if they will render back to the Master his own when he shall call for it. Means were given them, not to hoard or to use for themselves. Those who are murmuring and complaining at the outlay of means in the Publishing House and in the meeting-house, had better be at work to act their part, lest they shall be found wanting by acting the part of Meroz. God gave commandment, 'Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord, against the mighty.'

"Let not your offerings to advance the cause of God be stinted. If there is any stint and meagre arrangements and inferior works to be seen and felt anywhere, let it be in your own houses and your own dress, and not in the house of God or in the facilities which are needed to push forward the work of God."

Our house of worship at Oakland, dedicated to the worship of God by a people who fear him and keep his commandments, be sold to a people who trample that law beneath their feet? Never! No! never!

We need just such a house at that important post at present. In the near future a larger one will be demanded. Its location is excellent.

The future growth of the cause in such a city as Oakland, depends very much upon a central, commodious, and neat house of worship, such as now exists in that city. We have a good home at Healdsburg, Cal., and, as Mrs. W. says of her property in Oakland, that shall be sold, and the avails be used to help pay the debt upon the Oakland house rather than it be sold. That house can be, must be, and shall be cleared from debt. And we propose the following:—

1. By holiday gifts. Let there be a Christmas tree in every church in California, to be covered all over with fruit in the form of cash, all the way from a dime to one hundred dollars. Let the California Conference have one, and when this fruit shall be gathered let the sum be put into the hands of the treasurer of the Oakland church. Will J. E. White put on that tree one hundred dollars for his father, and the same for his mother, and draw the two hundred from our deposits at the Pacific Press. The Oakland church, though poor, should be first to make an unparalleled effort at this time. They have the first interest in this enterprise.

2. To feel a very great interest in the house of worship at the heart of the work on the Pacific coast. We mention each and every church in the State of California. We call on you to help us to hold the fort.

3. The State Conference itself. That should now give two hundred dollars to the Oakland church as a Christmas present. Let it be hung upon the Oakland tree. This debt once lifted, that church will be forward to put every dollar of their systematic benevolence into the State treasury. And last, we mention the scattered brethren and friends of the cause. To all we say, Have your Christmas gifts ready by the 24th. Every brother, sister, and Sabbath-school scholar in the State should help.

4. By donations. Wednesday, January 1, 1879, is appointed by the General Conference Committee as a day of humiliation, confession of sins, fasting and prayer, as will be seen in this week's issue of the SIGNS. On that day let there be a full attendance of our people everywhere at their respective places of worship. On that occasion let all our people take into consideration the payment of the debt on the Oakland house during the year 1879. This can be done; and we suggest the following, which if carried out will accomplish the most worthy object: Let all, great and small, rich and poor, pledge what they can give monthly during the year for the Oakland house. Mrs. W. and the writer pledge three hundred dollars, or twenty-five dollars each month, making in all an even two thousand dollars we shall have put into that house.

Those who should feel an interest to lift this burden for the church located at the heart of the work rank thus:—

1. The Oakland church. The members of that church should set an example. Those connected with the Publishing House should pledge a considerable share of their monthly earnings. The same should be done by others who have not families to support. Let the year 1879 be one of great sacrifice to that people, and God will let his blessings fall upon them.

2. Sister churches in the State and on the coast generally. Oakland is your headquarters, your fort. Hold it! Let the history of 1879 make a record of the fact that every church in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Dakota, and wherever they may be on the Pacific Coast States and Territories, give cheerfully and liberally to assist their sister at Oakland, Cal. And let the California Conference pledge at least twenty-five dollars to be paid monthly during 1879.

3. Our people everywhere. Beloved brethren, when assembled at your several places of public worship on the first day of January, 1879, you will be waited upon by the proper persons and presented a paper to pledge what you will give of your own free will for the aforesaid object. You will have a living interest in the work everywhere, but especially at the great center. It will be a pleasure to you to join us in rescuing the house of worship at Oakland, which otherwise must pass into the hands of our and the Lord's enemies. You who have hitherto responded to our appeals liberally will not draw back now. Let every dollar of the eight thousand be pledged on the very day set apart for humiliation, confession and prayer, and those vows which are in accordance with the will of God and sanctified reason. Commence the year right and each month pay your vows to the Lord relative to this object, promptly.

4. Then let money be loaned without interest to meet present or soon coming demands. Let all who can loan money without interest until the tenth day of December, 1879, in sums of not less than twenty-five dollars, and all who can pay their pledges three months in advance, forward the same immediately to Elder James White, Denison, Texas, Box P, either in drafts, money orders, or by express, and for the money loaned, we will give our own individual note to be sent by return mail.

Relative to the Battle Creek Tabernacle we would say, let there be a Christmas tree in every church in the land, and on the tree let fruit be found in the form of cash from ten cents up to one hundred dollars. Will W. C. White please put on the tree for Battle Creek one hundred dollars for each of his parents, for the Tabernacle, and have it charged to our account.

Then at the special meeting of New Years fast day let the matter be closed up as follows:—

1. Each one should make up $1.20, the sum total of one dime a month each for one year. Some have paid all, others part, and more have paid nothing.

2. Pledges of donations should be taken from those who can add to their $1.20, sums all the way up to one hundred dollars, and payments should then be paid in full or in part as far as possible, and while our brethren in the wide field everywhere are urgently invited to give their free will offerings to help lift the debt on the house of worship at Oakland, our brethren in California and in the Pacific Coast States and Territories, are as urgently invited to fill their quota of dimes for the Tabernacle.

JAMES WHITE.

Denison, Texas, Dec. 8, 1878.