A DECIDEDLY interesting series of meetings is now being held in Oakland, Cal., by Elder William Ward Simpson, assisted by Elder E. J. Hibbard, and others.
The place of these meetings is in a large pavilion, on Broadway, near the center of town. The tent is nicely seated, and warmed by two stoves.
The first meeting was held in the First Congregational Church, the largest in the city, and the next in the tent. At the large meeting given in the church was a good opportunity to advertise the meetings to follow at the tent.
The attendance has been excellent, and has not diminished at all, tho the great testing truths of the message have been reached.
There are three features connected with these meetings which those holding such services would do well to study.
1. The meetings are advertised. Signs, bill-boards, striking hand-bills, and dodgers in colors, prophetic symbols placed in store windows, notices in the papers, personal invitations by workers, everything, in fact, which will arouse attention and awaken interest to hear and see. Sensational? It seems so measured by present-day religious apathy; but, after all, can we do too much to induce men to hear and study the Word of life?
2. The use of charts, blackboard, and objects in making plain the prophecies and other parts of the scripture. The chart apparatus will show at once a dozen charts, more or less, covering the entire field of prophecy. These charts are each and all under the easy control of the speaker by means of a compressed-air apparatus. They can be raised or lowered, swift or slow. The symbolic images are of sufficient size to be seen anywhere in the large tent.
Besides the charts, Elder Simpson has papier mache images, about two-thirds life-size, as shown in the accompanying picture. In these symbols the parts which mean anything are detachable. The notable horn of the fierce goat of Daniel 8, for instance, breaks, and four notable ones spring up. Of the ten horns, three are plucked up, and the little horn takes their place. It is very realistic, and of wonderful interest.
The blackboard is used constantly for diagram and text, and texts in large letters are hung in sight of the audience. Over the rostrum is the great fact
“JESUS IS COMING AGAIN.”
3. The word of God is preached in its simplicity, and over and over in a score of striking emphatic ways, the same truth is emphasized. The Bible is a new book to many who have been church-goers for years.
The writer was present Sabbath, November 17.
The fruits of the effort at that date he would place at fifty souls. Others who are attending constantly have estimated the number at from seventy-five to one hundred. Later developments may reach this.
Earnest prayer and wrestling with God is always the price of success in such an effort. It means much to the Oakland church. Is she prepared to carry these children, to lead them in the right way, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, to be workers for God.
May God bless richly him who is bearing the heavy human burden, as well as all his associates.
