Eastern Tour | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 2, 1864

Eastern Tour.

It is now about eight weeks since we reported relative to our labors in the East. At the time of our last report we had just returned from a very fatiguing tour in New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, and were then suffering from severe colds taken in consequence of excessive labor and exposures. We then promised ourselves rest, and the readers of the Review that they should hear more from us during the few weeks we might rest in the society of our children.

But we little thought that we were so soon to suffer still greater anxieties and wearisome watchings, and, finally, to be bereft of our eldest son, the healthiest and strongest of the three then remaining. And now it sometimes seems like a dream, that we are nearly a thousand miles from that scene of suffering, and that our noble Henry, our sweet singer, rests in the silent grave.

At the New York State Conference we decided to extend that tour as far as Michigan. But during our meetings at Brookfield, the last we held in the State, by the influence of a dream, which produced great anxiety relative to our children, we were completely turned around in our feelings, and decided to hasten back to Maine. We said to Bro. Abbey's family, "All is not well with our children."

When we reached Boston we received letters from our children, and were happily disappointed as we read that they were all well. When we reached the depot at Brunswick, we were joyfully greeted by our three sons, all in the enjoyment of health. But in twelve days from this happy meeting, our dear Henry was silent in death.

Thank God that we turned our steps back to Maine to our children. Had we come on to Michigan, as we decided at the New York Conference, news of his sickness could not, by the common course of the mails, have brought us to the bedside of our dear son while living. In only eight days lung fever did its cruel work.

We will not attempt to describe our anxiety during his brief sickness, which nerved us up to watch day and night in our worn-out condition. We finally reached that point where sleep seemed to have but little demand upon us. And when the trying hour was past, there lay before us a journey of nearly one thousand miles, to reach our home. We have shared the warmest sympathy of our many dear friends of the Battle Creek church, and can look back to the triumphant experience of our dear boy during his last sickness with the highest degree of consolation; yet the blow has been a heavy one. This, when the energies were far exhausted by the excessive labors of the Eastern tour, has had a depressing influence upon the mind, and has seriously affected the health. Since our return we have done but little, and that little has been but poorly done. We have numerous calls to labor in this and other States; but at present we must enjoy quiet and rest as far as possible, or, we fear, be totally unfitted for any further service in the cause.

None can take a deeper interest in the Eastern Mission than we. And we are greatly encouraged and cheered by the reports from Brn. Loughborough, Cornell, Bourdeau, and others. We are very glad to see that Bro. Loughborough is succeeding in putting things in order among Eastern Sabbath-keepers. There is a class in the East that nothing can be done with at present, only to let them alone. We refer to Hancock and company. This man gets sympathy in his fanatical course on account of his being blind. It is right to sympathize with the afflicted, because of their afflictions; but it is madness to accept, as a leader to the kingdom of God, through sympathy alone, a man that is twice blind. The best way to dry up the influence of fanatics is to let them alone, but actively visit the scattered friends of the cause, and set things in order with them. Fanaticism covets persecution, and will often starve out without opposition.

Let the shepherds in the East look well to the sheep, and when these deluded ones see the cause moving ahead without them, they may see their folly, and recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil. Said Jesus to Peter, "Feed my sheep"—"Feed my lambs."

Some sores can be cured, while others will best work their own cure. Fanaticism generally must have its run. Those brethren who are suffering in the vicinity of its influence must be patient. Keep clear from it, and in no wise become responsible for its results. God lives and reigns. He will bring all out right in the end.

The Lord is with the Eastern Mission. Eastern brethren are coming up nobly to sustain it, while Western Sabbath-keepers, like brothers, are putting into the General Conference Fund. Dear brethren, let not only your alms, but your prayers also, come up as a memorial before God, that he may pour out his Spirit upon his servants, and give his truth success.