BRO. WHITE: The Vermont tent was pitched at Derby Center, Vt., Aug. 21. We have now given sixteen lectures. Our congregations are not large, but we have some candid hearers who seem interested in the truths we preach.
At the commencement of our meetings some of the ministers in this village came to hear us, among whom was a Methodist preacher, who was highly pleased with our views on the signs of the times and the coming of Christ. He invited us to leave the tent and occupy his meeting-house on Sundays, saying that he would gladly give way and listen to our views. We thanked him for his kindness, but told him that as our appointments had gone out for meetings in the tent, the people (especially those from a distance) would be disappointed if we should transfer our meetings to the meeting-house. But the evening after the Sabbath Aug. 29, a very sudden and heavy gale struck our tent and took it down almost instantly. Our evening meeting was over, and the people had left the tent. The lamps were burning and strange to say, that they were not broken, though they were thrown among the seats. But the tent was badly torn.125
We had just notified the people that we should speak on the Sabbath question the next day, and our prospects seemed to be blighted. But Sunday morning we went to the Methodist preacher, told him what had taken place, and said that we should be happy to occupy his house according to his suggestion, stating that we should like to speak on the subject of the Sabbath. He said that we were wrong on the Sabbath and on other subjects, that he had once been to our tent with the intention to propose a discussion, that he should like to hold a discussion with us, etc. We answered that it would be in harmony with our feelings to hold a discussion, and accepted his proposal. But he reluctantly consented to let us have his house. Accordingly we held meetings in the meeting-house all day. In the forenoon Bro. Hutchins gave a discourse on the Sabbath, and in the afternoon I spoke on objections to the Sabbath. The Lord gave unusual freedom through the day. To him be all the praise.
Yesterday we called on the Methodist preacher, and asked him if he would meet us in discussion according to his proposal, but he refused to hold a discussion with us, and would not promise to speak on the Sabbath before we left the place. Yet he thought he should speak on the immortality theme. We are now commencing the task of erecting the tent a second time, and feel that the reverses we have met, have turned in our favor. We had a larger congregation than we should have had, if we had preached under the tent. Most of the church-members in this village were so prejudiced and creed-bound that they would not come out to hear us, and we enjoyed the privilege of speaking to them from their own pulpit.
The circumstances under which we have labored this summer have been peculiarly embarrassing and perplexing, which may account in part for our silence. First when we commenced our labors with the tent, we had just adopted organization as set forth by the general conference and did not have the benefit of letters from individuals and churches, stating where there was an opening to hold tent meetings. Our time was short, and we had to follow our own judgment.
We found that this part of the State had been pretty well run over, when the tent used to stop only from one to three days in a place. The draft came and took my brother, and as it was difficult to get a tent master the tent enterprise was necessarily suspended. But we tried to employ our time to a good advantage. Bro. Hutchins and myself went into Canada and learned that as much good could be accomplished in schoolhouses in the townships which we visited, as in the tent, and that it would be very expensive to go far from the frontier, for the discount on our money would be heavy.
We trust that we are in a better condition to decide where we can labor when the tent season is over. Doubtless we should have labored more successfully, if we had possessed the knowledge that we now have concerning our field of labor. But we have the satisfaction that we have tried to do the best we could, and that we have had the blessing of the Lord to encourage us to labor on in the solemn and important work of proclaiming the last message of mercy.
D. T. BOURDEAU.
Derby, Sept. 2d, 1863.
Since the foregoing was in type, we have received the following, dated, Barton Landing, Vt., Sept. 8, 1863:
BRO. WHITE: As our labors with the tent have closed for the season, it may be proper to say a few words further relative to our meetings in Derby, Vt. From the commencement to the close of our lectures here, we had a few candid hearers, who listened attentively to the word spoken: but the majority after having heard a few discourses, seemed resolved to hear no more, especially after they had heard on the subject of the Sabbath.
Preachers and leading members in the churches awoke from their slumbers long enough to raise the cry of fanatics, infidels, &c. Herein was fulfilled the scripture, "And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Again, the week after our meetings commenced, the Adventists began a tent camp-meeting in a grove about four miles from us, which continued till our meetings closed. This meeting was attended by several ministers, some of whom preached with power and success through this section under the proclamation of the first angel's message.
Yet notwithstanding these circumstances, and others of a very discouraging nature, under which we commenced and have prosecuted our labors with the tent this season, we hope and humbly trust we have not labored altogether in vain. Two (the man and his wife in whose family we boarded) have resolved to keep the Sabbath of the Lord.
This dear family, whom we highly esteem for their kindness to us, their intelligence and moral worth, have been shockingly disgusted in past years with a class of professed Adventists, wild fanatics, amenable to nobody, living in this section. The course of these deluded beings had taught almost everybody who had heard of them, to be on the lookout for everything bearing the name Adventism (except that which has become popular). This circumstance rendered these friends, and no doubt others, fearful of us at first. But said they to us yesterday, as we left them in tears, "We are happily disappointed in you, and may the blessing of the Lord ever rest upon you and give you success in your labors."
The lectures which they have heard, and the acquaintance which they have formed with us and the brethren and sisters, have assured them that Sabbath-keepers take the Bible as their guide, and that we are seeking to live an even, consistent, and godly life, and to prepare for the glorious coming of the King in his beauty. May God graciously bless these dear friends, and strengthen them for the conflict before us. And may He who knows the secrets of all hearts still give increase to the word spoken by his feeble servants, and grant that honest souls may be saved thereby.