“And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Matt. 10:7.
The next general quarterly T. and M. meeting in Maine will be held with the church in Cornville, April 19, 20. A meeting of the Sabbath-school Association will also be held at this time. Let all the schools send in their reports to J. E. Allen, South Norridgewock, Me., in season, so that we may have a report from all. J. B. GOODRICH.
Providence permitting, there will be a quarterly meeting at Soliloquoy, Va., commencing Friday evening, April 4, and continuing two days. There will be opportunity for baptism. All the scattered friends and brethren and sisters are invited to attend, and especially our brethren and sisters from Page county. Come praying for the blessing of God to be with us. I. SANBORN.
Laopaa, Kan., March 22, 23. Hanover, “ “ 29, 30. Marsh Creek, “ April 5, 6.
I also expect to be at the district quarterly meeting in Dist. No. 1, April 12, 13. Will the director please to appoint the place in the REVIEW? Meetings at each of these places will commence with the Sabbath. I hope the scattered members of the Laopaa church will all be present, also the friends from Hanover. Will some one from Marsh Creek meet me at Scandinavia Thursday, April 3. SMITH SHARP.
Providence permitting, I will meet with the friends in Illinois as follows:— Greenup, Bro. Welker appoint, March 17–19. Webber Grove, P. O. Mt. Vernon, Bro. Herald appoint, March 21–23. Du Quoin, Bro. Morrison appoint, March 25 to April 6. Carbondale, Bro. Train appoint, April 11–13. I earnestly request friends at Greenup to meet me at Martinsville, March 14; Keenville and Mt. Vernon friends, come to Webber Grove to stay through the series of meetings. I shall be glad to aid Brn. Morrison and Foster, April 7–10. G. W. CONCORD.
Our next State quarterly meeting will be held April 19, 20, at Bro. J. B. Forrest’s, in Metcalfe Co., Ky. We earnestly request a general attendance. We expect to have the tent set and make an important effort to help the backsliders and outsiders as well as ourselves; so we want all who are strong to come to work, and all who are weak to come to help and be helped. Bring as many of your friends as possible. Dear brethren and sisters, it is time for us to make a grand effort, or we shall fall behind in this great work, and be cut off by the enemy. T. and M. meeting will be held in connection. S OSBORN.
THE TRUE PRINCIPLE.
WE are glad to see good moral stamina still manifested in some quarters, against the questionable practices in which various religious denominations so freely and unconcernedly indulge. In The Christian Cynosure of Dec. 29, 1878, appears a letter from Miss J. A. Trow, missionary at Elichpoor, India, to whom fifty dollars of missionary money had been sent, which had been raised by a strawberry festival. Although in need of funds, she promptly declined to receive this because the manner of raising it was so unscriptural and irreligious. Among many other good things she says: “The money that is given in such ways is equivalent to saying, ‘Dear Lord, I’ll take half of this money and have a good time with it, and you can have the other half.’ I do not feel that this can be benevolence at all. Part of the money spent in self-indulgence, and the rest, above the cost of the feast, given to the Lord. I believe the Lord wants only free-will offerings.”
THE QUARTERLY MEETINGS.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
AGAIN we deem it necessary to say something about the holding of quarterly meetings, the time for which will soon be here. The more we consider the matter, and the longer they are tried, the more thoroughly we are impressed with the importance and indispensableness of these meetings. The reasons for holding them have been stated several times. We simply wish here to again urge upon our brethren the absolute necessity of holding these meetings promptly on time and in every church, according to the plan.
If any of the churches have been negligent in this matter, the president of the Conference should know it and see that they do not neglect it again; but particularly the elders in the individual churches are responsible in this matter. We are ashamed and grieved to learn that in some cases the elders themselves never come near the meeting on that important occasion. Perhaps it is a little cold, a little muddy, or something of that kind. Now we believe it is a sin against God to neglect sacred duties for these reasons.
Brethren, we appeal to you again: Hold your quarterly meetings on time. Every individual church is to meet together in its own place of worship for the transaction of business pertaining to every branch of the work, such as the S. B., Sabbath-school, T. and M. work, etc., the first Sabbath and Sunday in April. Every district is to hold its quarterly meeting the second Sabbath and Sunday in April. Then the State quarterly meeting comes the third Sabbath and Sunday. Now it is not of so much consequence about the special time of the State meeting; it can be put off a while if there is any necessity for it, though that should always be held on time unless there is some very urgent reason for changing it; but the church quarterly meeting should not be interfered with nor changed for any reason. There are several reasons for this: If a change is made in one section, it produces confusion all over. Moreover, if we throw the meeting out of its regular order, many scattered brethren will not learn this until it is too late; and many who do not take the REVIEW would know nothing of it, and hence it would result in a failure. But if we punctually attend to this matter, every Seventh-day Adventist in the world will understand that his or her name will be read, all the business pertaining to that church will be attended to, and he will be put under censure if not heard from.
The church quarterly meeting the first Sabbath in April will be an unusually important one, as an address from the General Conference touching matters of the greatest importance, will probably be sent to every church to be read on that day. But we cannot particularize here. Read the instruction already given respecting these quarterly meetings, and be sure to attend to them on time. D. M. CANRIGHT.