REPORT OF MEETINGS IN VERNON, IOWA.
By M. Hull
This meeting was one of interest from first to last. Our congregations were larger than were ever collected in Vernon on any previous occasion. The nights were short, the weather excessively warm, the farmers busily engaged in their harvest fields, and the people entering upon a great political excitement; yet the interest was good. Political questions were no longer the absorbing theme of the day. The whole talk at the stores, mills and shops was upon the subject of religion, and especially the subjects under investigation at the tent. I know of no one who heard our lectures through who did not become convinced that our positions were true. Two Methodist ministers came to the tent, and endeavored to convince the people that our positions were false; but they went off fully satisfied that their cause would have been left in a decidedly better condition if they had remained silent. One of them preached on the Sabbath. His sermon was a mixture of Methodism, Campbellism, Roman Catholicism and infidelity. His first position was that Moses was mistaken: God did not make the world in six days, but in six great indefinite periods. His second was that there was no Sabbath until after the exode of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. Third, when the Sabbath was given, it was a seventh part of time, and no particular day; one portion of time is no more holy than another; any seventh part of time is the Sabbath. Fourth, the Sabbath was changed. But changed from what? and to what? Of course changed from one seventh part of time and no day in particular, to one seventh part of time and no day in particular. I briefly reviewed his sermon, during which thirteen others, mostly Methodists, decided to keep the Sabbath. Many at that meeting decided to try to keep the commandments, forty-eight of whom came into a church organization. Thirty-five in all were baptized. May the Lord help the church in Vernon to be a shining light. We would have been glad to stay another week, but under the circumstances we could not. Bro. Inglefield was with us at that meeting, and labored in word. I am more than ever convinced that the Lord has a work for him to do. May the way be opened for him to launch out. We need more laborers in the harvest. Bro. Canrey goes with us as tent-manager. This takes all the care of the tent off from me, which is a great relief.