AFTER leaving the friends at Topsham, we visited our parents at the old home farm in Palmyra. At the age of about seventy years, they have a good share of physical and mental strength. They are established in the fundamental principles of the Advent faith; such as, The personal Advent of Christ; the Kingdom of God on the renewed earth; and the two resurrections: one at the beginning and the other at the close of the seventh millennium. They are also convinced that divine testimony is on the side of the Sabbath. They desire to see a more fertile soil, and to spend the rest of their days in a milder climate, free from the cares of the old farm home, where they have toiled forty-five years, that they may be free to investigate more fully and obey Bible truth. God grant that this may be their lot in this world, and the inheritance of the saints their portion in the world to come.
Our visit with parents and friends was most pleasant. There in the very room where we heard the voice of prayer the first nineteen years of our life, we bowed to pray with parents and child, around that family altar that had stood more than forty years. There as we looked back over the long years of boyhood, when blest with praying parents, and the visits of good old-fashioned, plain, spiritual preachers—men of God—we could judge of their worth. But few children prize such blessings as they should. But some in riper years, after feeling the chills of a cold, prayerless world, when years of care roll on rapidly, can look back, and estimate their real value.
Sabbath, Aug. 11th, we met with the church in Hartland. Here we found quite a number holding fast the truth. We were blest in meeting with them, and we trust they were refreshed and profited. First-day afternoon, we spoke to a good congregation at East Pittsfield. In this place about a dozen souls embraced the Sabbath last Winter.
There is a chance to do good in Maine. Not, perhaps, where the message of truth has been given; but there are many places in that State where the people were thoroughly aroused on the Advent question, and many believed, which should be entered. Tents should go in such places, we think, rather than over the old ground where the people have decided as to the message. We think many of the Timeists in Maine can now be reached. Brn. in Maine are inquiring after Bro. Barr. It is thought that he, or some other brother, can labor to good advantage in that State, mostly in new places, this Fall and the coming Winter, and that he should have a quantity of Tracts from the Tract Fund to assist on such a mission.