VIGILANT MISSIONARY WORK IN CALIFORNIA.
DURING the past year the interest in this branch of the work has been steadily increasing in California. There are nearly a thousand Signs taken in California by individuals and organized societies, in clubs. Besides these, a good number of other publications are used. Some of the most interesting cases have been developed by remailing these papers, and correspondence. One member by some means obtained the name of a lady in England, to whom he sent several papers followed by a letter. The lady proved to be quite a missionary worker herself, having at one time in her youth traveled with Dr. Adam Clarke. In her second letter, after expressing many thanks for the papers and tracts sent her, and stating that she believes with us upon the subject of the advent, she says:— “Well, I have been inquiring in regard to the Sabbath question. I gave the Sabbath tracts to several ministers and asked what they had to say against it. They asked if you were Jews. I answered, No. They could say nothing against the Sabbath, only that ‘Our Sabbath is working well.’ That is all I could get even from my own minister, a Methodist. I believe you are right. I can find no place in the Scriptures where the Sabbath was changed. Your letter has made me search the word of God more thoroughly.” In another letter the same writer says: “I went to a lady friend of mine with two of your tracts. She asked me if I never saw before that the Jewish Sabbath was the real Sabbath. She belongs to a Baptist church, and has told them in a Bible class that we keep the wrong day. I wonder at myself to think that for fifty years I have read my Bible daily, and never before got light on that part of the Scriptures. I belong to the Methodist church, but have been baptized. I am now reading Dr. Adam Clarke’s Bible. Not long before he died, when I was quite young, I traveled with him. He visited the Shetland Islands, which is my native land, built chapels, and sent out missionaries. He was a sample man. I never was proud after being with him. It was a wonder that he did not see that the seventh day was the Sabbath; but greater light has since been given. Methodist missionaries then taught that we should keep the commandments, but I never saw that the Sabbath should be kept on the seventh day of the week until you wrote.” Reading matter is still being sent to this lady, and she in turn loans it to her neighbors and friends, and so the leaven is working. Not only are the organized societies actively engaged in this work, but scattered Sabbath-keepers are taking hold, as the following from one of the lone ones will show:— “Our T. and M. work is prospering slowly, but I think surely. It is doing a work in our own hearts, and teaching us the necessity of having clean lives if we would be carriers of the Lord’s vessels. My little girls are thoroughly interested in the work. They send out five papers each week, with a tract in each, and after four weeks they write a letter to each one. These letters receive great care, and all our prayers follow them. They have received four letters during the past quarter, and obtained two subscribers for the Signs. In God’s strength we are going forward, and even if our measure holds only a gill, we will fill it for the Lord. “Our home Sabbath-school has started with new life on the new lessons. They are so interesting and instructive. My Bible class held on Sundays, is prospering. We have a very regular attendance of nearly all the young people in the neighborhood. One lady a backslider, has been much interested for some time, and several, who rarely attend church or any such gatherings, are my constant pupils. Oh, how I pray I may be able to gather some to shine in the Kingdom.”