The Wisconsin Camp-Meeting
By Wm. Covert
THE annual camp-meeting and conference for Wisconsin, held at Janesville, August 30 to September 11, is one precious occasion of the past, but it will not soon be forgotten. Its sweet experiences brought a joy into the hearts of many that will abide. The weather was good, and all the environments were favorable for such a meeting. The speakers presented the message in the clearness and beauty of the truth, and it met a hearty response from the people. There were three baptismal services, in which thirty-nine persons were buried with their divine Lord. These, with one hundred and fifty-eight others recently baptized in the State, make one hundred and ninety-seven who have received the sacred rite since the winter passed away. Many were convinced of the truth by hearing the preaching, and some decided to obey it. A very kindly feeling was manifested by the citizens of Janesville toward the work we were doing. On this occasion, Elder C. McReynolds, late from the Kansas Conference, was, in harmony with the recommendation made at the last General Conference biennial session, elected president of the Wisconsin Conference. He was well received by the workers and the people, and entered upon the year of service with courage and gladness of heart. The various interests in the State received proper attention. There was a general consideration of the work abroad; also special study and time were devoted to the work and cause of the third angel's message in India, China, and the Society Islands. Mrs. Burgess, from India, who is at present visiting among our people in this country for the purpose of interesting them in the needs of the field she represents, spoke at the meeting, and solicited help for the mission which she and her husband expect soon to establish in Hindustan. She said she wished at that meeting to sell fifteen hundred copies of the special number of the Bible Training School, and also to raise a small sum of money in addition to the price of the papers, to help found the Hindustan school and mission. The people did more than she asked for, and would have done twice as much had our sister requested it. Miss Jennie Nelson, a teacher who went to the Society Islands from Wisconsin four years ago, but who is now on a short visit to her native State, attended the camp-meeting, and spoke of the school work she is doing for the islanders. She asked our people to purchase shells and other articles which she had brought from the far-away island school. In this way she secured probably forty dollars to help equip the little industrial school which she represented. Of course she could have obtained much more funds for the work she is doing had she asked for it; but as the splendid work she is doing is almost self-supporting, the considerate sister thought best to be modest in her request. The delegates in open conference voted to send B. L. Anderson and his wife to China to labor in that field, and still retain them on the conference pay-roll. This was in harmony with a suggestion recently made by Elder J. N. Anderson, superintendent of the Chinese mission field, that the services of his brother, B. L. Anderson and his wife, of the Wisconsin Conference, would be gladly accepted for the Chinese field if they could be sent to China by the Wisconsin Conference. This action places two more workers in China from the Wisconsin Conference. It was also cheerfully voted to continue the support of Miss Ida Thompson in China, together with the school work she is doing in Canton. Additional facilities are to be provided for the school. The desire is to secure a home so that the students may be brought up under Christian influences, instead of being perpetually subjected to the influence of demon and ancestral worship. The brethren and sisters were encouraged by a report of the good work the Lord is doing in the South England Conference, through the labors of Brother and Sister Ritchie. It was voted to continue the pay of these laborers another year in the field where they are now working. A little more than five hundred dollars was raised in cash and pledges to help pay for some improvements recently made at the Bethel school. Six hundred dollars was also secured in pledges and cash toward lightening the conference obligations on the General Conference Association indebtedness. The enterprise assisted by this last-named item is known in Wisconsin as the Six Thousand Dollar Fund. The load on this line has now been drawn over the halfway mark. It is to be hoped that it will soon reach the terminal point. Others will give a more detailed account of the meeting: I simply wished to make special mention of the things I have considered in this meeting.
WM. COVERT.