p. 14 | Massachusetts by H. C. HARTWELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 6, 1914

Massachusetts

By H. C. HARTWELL

THE Massachusetts Conference stands for what was known for many years as the New England Conference. In a pamphlet dated 1871, in the possession of the writer, there is given a report of the organization of the New England Conference in the year 1870. At that time the conference had “two ministers, one licentiate, fourteen churches comprising two hundred and eighty-two members,” and “Systematic Benevolent pledges” for the year amounted to $2,052.80. Elder S. N. Haskell was elected the first president of the conference; and its territory in the early days consisted of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and of Long Island and New York City.

Since then it has been divided, and its different States have been organized into separate conferences, so that now the territory which contains the original headquarters at South Lancaster is the conference comprising the State of Massachusetts only.

The last division of territory occurred in 1909, when New Hampshire was set off, leaving the membership of the Massachusetts Conference 1,019. Four years later, in 1913, its membership had increased to 1,282. The tithe for the State in 1909 was $17,282. Four years and later, the year ending the thirty-first of last December, the tithe was $28,101, which shows an increase of $10,819 in the annual tithe within the space of four years, or about sixty-two per cent.

From sixty to seventy-five per cent of its nearly 3,500,000 population are foreigners, and it is probably under a greater degree of Catholic domination and influence than almost any other State in so-called Protestant America. Its politics and newspapers evidently are controlled by Catholics to a large extent. It has a Catholic governor; Boston has a Catholic mayor, and this is true of many of the larger cities.

Such conditions, which are continually becoming more and more marked, make the work of spreading the truth more difficult and perplexing. We have felt a burden for the various foreign nationalities, and at the present time, in addition to the English work, we are laboring in behalf of the Swedish, German, French, Portuguese, and Hebrew nationalities. Last month the writer buried five candidates in baptism, all of them Portuguese in the city of Taunton. There are now fourteen Portuguese believers in this city, and so far as we know this is the first work that has been done for this people in the United States.

The work among these different languages goes slower than among the English-speaking people, but we find that those who do take hold of the truth make faithful, loyal Sabbath keepers, paying good tithes and offerings.

Our annual camp meeting, which ended recently, was held in Boston, and was one of the largest of any in our history. It was beautifully and centrally located on Commonwealth Avenue within a mile or so of the Boston library. Profs. J. L. Shaw and M. E. Kern, of Washington, the Atlantic Union Conference ministers, and other visiting brethren contributed toward making the meeting especially interesting and profitable. Twenty-seven were baptized the last Sunday of the meeting.

Seven tent companies are now in the field,—two in Greater Boston, one of which is being conducted by Elder F. C. Gilbert in Cambridge, the other by Elder A. V. Cotton in Malden; one in Lowell by Elder J. K. Jones; one in Westboro by Elder W. R. Uchtmann; one in Holyoke by Brother W. W. Rice; one in Worcester for the Swedish people by Elder C. Meleen; and one in Lawrence for the Germans by Elder J. G. Hanhardt.

We regret the falling off in our mission offerings throughout the country, and are making definite plans for bringing our offerings from this field up to the standard. Our people generally are characterized by the old New England loyalty to the message, and the outlook for the work in Massachusetts in all departments is encouraging.

H. C. HARTWELL.