WESTERN TOUR | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 1, 1862

WESTERN TOUR.

AFTER holding nine meetings and baptizing at Marquette, Wis., we left, March 13, to take the cars at Cambria about twenty miles. Past midnight we reached Mauston station, where Brn. Steward and Heacox were waiting to take us four miles. Our abundant labors, and loss of sleep, we now sensibly felt. These made us an easy prey to colds so prevalent this Spring, which we shared largely, followed by coughs. But we resolved to trust in God and do the best we could.

Sabbath the 15th, the place of meeting was full, and we had some liberty in speaking. But few were in from a distance in consequence of bad roads. The friends seemed willing, and some of them anxious, to be helped. First-day we spoke to a crowded house twice. Mrs. W. became so very hoarse, speaking in the forenoon, that she did not attend meeting in the afternoon. We were both very hoarse, and feared that we could not attend the next conference at Little Prairie. But the God we serve and in whom we trust helped us mightily, insomuch that we enjoyed freedom at the Little Prairie conference.

The friends at Mauston want to be helped, and they certainly need help. They have fallen far in the rear. Bro. Steward failed to bring them up to feel that interest in the cause that our brethren generally do. They were behind on Systematic Benevolence, and did not show by their works that interest in the various enterprises by which the cause has been advanced. Having none too much confidence in the Review, and the most active men in this cause, some of their number followed their own judgment independent of the faith of the body, and fanaticism was the result; and when those who saw their sad state offered to help them, this lack of confidence led them to refuse help.

But the cause has not suffered so much at Mauston, as at Marquette, and vicinity. There a large body of Sabbath-keepers had been raised up by the labors of Brn. Loughborough and Steward, just before the conference held there by Bro. Ingraham, Sanborn, and White, which gave Bro. Steward more influence there than other preachers could have who had never labored at that place. It was at this meeting that Bro. and Sr. Steward accomplished the work of death in going from house to house, gaining the sympathy of the young disciples and prejudicing them against those whom God had sent to save them from the fearful results of fanaticism. That dear people have been scattered, torn, and divided, and now the cause in the vicinity has the living reproach of two congregations of Sabbath-keepers.

The stain upon the cause in Northern Wisconsin is widely extended. As we passed from village to village, where we were known as Sabbath-keepers, a reproachful sneer was upon the countenances of many. While at Avon and Little Prairie we were treated with marked respect. And it will be found a much easier task to reproach the cause of truth, than to wipe out the reproach.

Bro. Steward's confession in this number is full. Sister Steward is humbled greatly with a keen sense of her past mistakes. She is highly educated, and possesses superior abilities for usefulness; and probably none outside of her own family so deeply sorrow for the sadness she now feels in view of the past as Mrs. W. and self, who shared her watchful care for our wants for nearly a week, when we were worn with labor, and pressed with severe colds. God will bless them for their care for his unworthy servants. But notwithstanding they now seem willing to do their whole duty to save the cause as much as possible, it may be our duty to refer to their errors, and the causes of their errors, as a warning to others.

The first great mistake in our opinion was in sending Bro. Loughborough with the tent to Northern Wisconsin, in the summer of 1860, to labor with Bro. Steward before he was fully proved, and when it was known that he held an indefinite position in relation to some vital points of our faith. The brethren hoped that he might be helped, so that he would fully unite with the body in faith and spirit. This was too great a risk, as time has shown. When he should give evidence that he cheerfully and joyfully threw his whole interest in with the body, then it would be soon enough to make the advance toward him that the brethren did make in 1860. The true friends of the cause in their anxiety to help those that need help, are sometimes in danger of injuring them and the cause. May God give wisdom.