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Review and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 20.

If I Should Die To-night

Review and Herald

May 19, 1903

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1903

If I Should Die To-night

If I should die to-night, My friends would look upon my quiet face Before they laid it in its resting place, And deem that death had left it almost fair; And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair, Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness, And fold my hands with lingering caress— Poor hands, so empty and so cold to-night!
If I should die to-night, My friends would call to mind, with loving thought, Some kindly deed the icy hands had wrought; Some gentle word the frozen lips had said; Errands on which the willing feet had sped; The memory of my selfishness and pride, My hasty words, would all be put aside, And so I should be loved and mourned to-night.
If I should die to-night, Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me, Recalling other days remorsefully; The eyes that chill me with averted glance Would look upon me as of yore, perchance, And soften, in the old familiar way; For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay! So I might rest, forgiven of all, to-night.
O, friends, I pray to-night, Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow— The way is lonely, let me feel them now. Think gently of me; I am travel worn; My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn. Forgive, O hearts estranged, forgive, I plead! When dreamless rest is mine, I shall not need The tenderness for which I long to-night.
—Anon.

Publishers’ Page

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Company

English and Foreign Damaged Books

We still have a few copies of the damaged books recently advertised in the REVIEW. As long as they last, we will mail them for the prices quoted.

The Life and Epistles of St. Paul

BY CONYBEARE AND HOWSON
Bound in cloth, 12mo, $1, postpaid
Our “Sketches of the Life of Paul,” being out of print, we offer the “Life and Epistles of Saint Paul,” by Conybeare and Howson, as a substitute. This book will prove to be of great value in the study of the present Sabbath-school lessons.

Education

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE
321 pages, beautifully bound in three-color cover design, price, $1.25.
Education in its entirety, covering all phases. Especially prepared for parents, teachers, and students. Excellent for all classes. The great principles of Christian education are clearly set forth, and invaluable counsel for the education of the youth is placed within the reach of all.
In answer to the question, “What is education?” and in defining its source, we quote a few sentences from the first chapter of the book: —
“Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world, and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come. “The Source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In him ‘are hid all the treasures of wisdom.’ ‘He hath counsel and understanding.’”
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

The Place of the Bible in Education

BY A. T. JONES
248 pages, in paper and cloth bindings, 25 and 75 cents, postpaid.
One of the new books just out. An excellent volume to study in connection with “Education.” Its chapter divisions are as follows: — Christian Education; The World’s Education; The Essentials of Knowledge; The Secret of the Great Apostasy; The Greek or “Scientific Method” To-day; The Separation of Christianity and the State; The Bible’s Right to Supreme Place in Christian Education; The Education of Daniel; What Was Taught in the Schools of the Prophets; The Study of Wisdom; The Study of Knowledge; The Study of Science; The Study of Mental Science; The Study of Moral Science; The Study of Physical Science; The Study of Physical Science—Anatomy; The Study of Physical Science—Healing; The Study of Physical Science—Physical Culture; Literature, History, Law, Logic; The Failures of Popular Education.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Personal Questions and Answers Concerning the Sabbath

BY MRS. S. M. I. HENRY
We have just issued a new edition of this excellent tract. A large number have been sold, yet the demand is increasing.
When Mrs. Henry began to keep the Sabbath, she was National Evangelist for the W. C. T. U. Her correspondence with the leaders of that great organization on the Sabbath question led to the production of “Personal Questions and Answers,” which is a series of questions selected from her private letters, with the answers which were returned, with but few changes. These questions being so often repeated, and as they are clearly answered in an easy, personal manner, by one especially gifted in language and possessing thorough knowledge of the question, this tract meets a want long felt by the rank and file of our people in their missionary work.
This tract is published as Number Seven of The Words of Truth Series. It contains 56 pages; price, 3½ cents a copy.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Prophetic Charts

We have a series of prophetic charts, seven in number, each of which is finely lithographed on muslin. These charts are large—31 x 44 inches. And instead of crowding everything into one chart, each line of prophecy is illustrated on a separate sheet. This serves to keep the mind of the listener upon the subject under consideration. The lecturer will find the charts well adapted for large audiences. The Bible worker, also, can use them to good advantage.
Number one, of the series, shows Nebuchadnezzar’s image, standing three feet high, appropriate colors distinguishing the four nations.
Number two presents the four beasts of Daniel 7.
The ram, and the he-goat with the notable horn between his eyes, dwell together peaceably on the third chart.
The central part of the next sheet is occupied by the sanctuary, showing the position and the proportionate size of the two apartments; and the table of shewbread, the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, and the ark, overshadowed by the cherubim, all stand in their respective places. Above and below the sanctuary are diagrams explaining the different sections of the twenty-three hundred days.
The space of another chart is divided between the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon of Revelation 12, and the leopard beast and the two-horned beast of Revelation 13.
Number six: The three angels of Revelation 14, flying one after the other, in the midst of heaven, shed their light over city and country, land and sea, dispelling the gross darkness which covers the earth.
A ten-commandment chart, the regular retail price of which is $1, completes the set.
Sold only in unbroken sets.
But few of our workers are familiar with the merits of these charts. We quote from a letter just received from one who has secured a set of these charts: —
“The charts received. I am very much pleased with them. I feel sure that if our laborers generally were acquainted with this series, they would prefer them to any other charts on the prophecies.”
The special price of the set, postpaid, is $2.50. The regular price is $4.
Order of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

The History of the Reformation

BY J. H. MERLE D’AUBIGNE
The recognized standard and most popular history of the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. In five volumes, bound in cloth, put up in cases. Publishers’ price, $3.50; our special price, $2.75.
Order of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Special Sale of Bibles

We have a few copies of the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, printed in long primer quarto, a very large, plain print, especially desirable for impaired vision, or for reading by gaslight. Size, 8¾ by 6¾ inches; bound in cloth board, red edges. As long as they last, we will sell them for $1.25, postpaid.

The Nelson Bible

We have a few of three very popular styles of the “Nelson Bold Type Series,” which we offer at special reduced prices. This series is printed on fine India paper, with maps and index; only ⅝ of an inch thick, and about six by four inches in size, a very popular size for ladies and young people.
Number 3258X, French morocco, divinity circuit, linen lined, silk sewed, round corners, red under gold edges; regular price, $2.50; reduced to $1.75, postpaid.
Number 3108X, Egyptian seal, divinity circuit, linen lined, round corners, red under gold edges; regular price, $2; reduced to $1.35, postpaid.
Number 3265X, levant, divinity circuit, calf lined to edge, silk sewed, round corners, red under gilt edges; regular price, $4.50; reduced to $3.25, postpaid.
Send all orders for the above styles of Bibles directly to the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

The Gospel Experience

By Editor

Editorial

The Gospel Experience

THE experience of the genuine gospel is thus expressed: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This is “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The work of the minister of this gospel is to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God;” and the sum of it all is, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” The reality of this experience marks the difference between being in the flesh and in the Spirit. “So then they that are in the flesh can not please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Rom. 8: 8-13. All this is simply
the full revelation of the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom within, that everlasting kingdom which will continue as long as the eternal God lives. When Jesus, the Son of God, became united to this human family by birth, taking upon himself the same sinful flesh which every son and daughter of Adam bears, he revealed in his own person that mystery which had been the hope of the church in all the ages. In him all the human family conquered sin through the power of the indwelling Spirit; in him all the human family paid the penalty of sin, “because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died;” in him all the human family was raised from the dead and seated on high, since he “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;” but all this “is of faith, that it might be by grace.” No outward form, not even the observance of a gospel form, when the observance is merely outward, can take the place of living faith. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”

Pray Without Ceasing

IT is worse than useless for us to attempt to make a scientific analysis of prayer. There are many questions concerning God and our relationship to him which very ordinary people can ask, but which human wisdom can not answer. It is not well to attempt to be wise above what is written. We do not find Jesus discussing with his disciples the reasonableness of prayer, neither do we find him explaining how God could answer prayer and still be the unchangeable God, but we do find him much in prayer to his Father and our Father, and he taught his disciples to pray. The godly life of one who prays much is a more convincing testimony to the value of prayer than many sermons on prayer, although neither of these is inconsistent with the other. Call to mind some of the experiences of Jesus: “In the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed.” “He went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God.” It was this same Jesus who said to his disciples, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Read his prayer just before
his crucifixion, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, and you can no longer question about the reality of communion between man who is flesh and God who is Spirit. Hear him, the Son of man, saying, “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us. . . . O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee.” It was because he, the Son of man, knew the Father, and prayed much to the Father, that he was able to represent the Father to the world. So it is with the Christian. The holiness (wholeness) of his life depends upon prayer, and no analysis of prayer will take the place of prayer. “He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” “Pray without ceasing.” “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made unto God.” “Continue in prayer.”

Teaching Truth

THERE are three names which are applied to Jesus as describing his work upon earth. They are Apostle, Prophet, and Teacher. Our Saviour was, however, addressed as Teacher (Master in our Authorized Version) more frequently than in any other way. And such was the character of the instruction which he gave that all acknowledged the authority of his teaching. Nicodemus said, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God.” The Pharisees “send to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth.” And “the multitudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” In his examination before Pilate, Jesus himself thus spoke of his mission: “To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” Here is the example for those who have been commissioned to represent Jesus as teachers. Above all things else they should be sure that they teach only what is truth. This can be possible only when the teachers are in personal communion with him who is the Truth, receiving the living truth from him. “When the anointed ones empty themselves through the golden pipes, the golden oil flows out of themselves into the golden bowls, to flow forth into the lamps, the churches. This is the work of every true, devoted servant of the living God. . . . How dare they advance ideas when they do not know certainly whence they came, or that they are the truth?” Such is the responsibility which rests upon every teacher of the gospel. In this time when error abounds, and many have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, we should with prayerful study search for the truth as for hid treasure, so that “if any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God,” he may bear witness to the truth as it is in Jesus.

The Challenge of God to the Church

UNDER this heading the editor in chief of The Missionary Review of the World, Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, writes with his usual vigor of the missionary situation at the opening of the twentieth century. With a clear insight he interprets the meaning of the rapid progress in the field of science and invention, and the intensity of our modern life. These and other characteristics of the time are, as viewed by Dr. Pierson, evidences that the time has come for a quick work in fulfilling the great commission to preach the gospel to every creature. We take the following paragraphs from the article in question:—
God is never done speaking. Truth is never new, but the emphasis laid upon it is, as there are no new notes in the musical octave, but there may be new combinations and chords. To him who has an acute ear for divine utterances, there are new voices, and they are not without signification; and he learns to distinguish sounds, and to know what is piped by the frivolous and gay, to provoke the dance; and what is harped by the thoughtful and spiritual, to incite devotion; and what is breathed by the still, small voice of the Spirit, to awaken consecration, or trumpeted forth as by the clarion call of Gabriel, to arouse to action.
The opening of the twentieth century is signalized by a loud and imperial call of God to the prompt prosecution of missions on a practically new basis. We do not mean that the old foundation upon which the work is based has been supplanted, but that, as a form of aggressive activity, missions rest upon motives, considerations, and plans that are new and essentially modern—the outcome of the new history that the world is making. And the object of this paper is to urge some of these grand incentives which are like new signal lights of God, new signal peals, for our guidance.
First of all it is plain that everything is moving on with a new pace. What we call civilization goes by strides, not steps—by leaps and bounds. Mr. Gladstone ventured to say that a single decade in the nineteenth century recorded more progress than a thousand years in the days of yore. There is in everything a strange celerity of movement never known before. As we have left behind the stage coach for the steam carriage, and the penny post for the electric telegraph, everything about mankind seems to have correspondingly quickened its rate of advance. Inventions so multiply, and so fast, that in a new sense we know not what a day may bring forth. Men yet living have seen the first steam carriage or steam vessel, the first telegraph and telephone, photograph and phonograph, spectroscope, sewing machine, typewriter, anesthetic, bicycle, electric light—and all these are but specimens of scores of other marvelous inventions and discoveries unknown seventy-five years ago. And what is the meaning of all this if it be not a new set of facilities and instruments for doing the work of God? Does not this constitute a new call of God to his people to prosecute missions with a fresh zeal and rapidity, so that we shall accomplish in one decade what a century ago would have demanded ten?
Look at the moral peril of civilization. There is a fever heat of intensity in modern life. Wealth is accumulated often with astonishing rapidity and in vast amounts. The spirit of liberty degenerates into license. There is a tendency to anarchy. Individuality and independence are developing abnormally, and men are in danger of losing sight of the grand fact that God has so constituted mankind that there can be no real independence, and liberty is found only in restraint—obedience to law. We are members one of another. Even the head can not say to the feet, “I have no need of you,” and those members which seem to be more feeble are not less necessary. Any life that is lived without reference to others is destructive of others’ rights and welfare, and threatens ruin to society itself. There is but one remedy for the perils of civilization, and that is Christ. In proportion as he is preached, obeyed, imitated, in just such ratio does every best interest of man advance. A true, pure Christian faith and life bring forth fruit in beautiful character, happy homes, prosperous communities. The unanswerable argument for missions is found in the fact that so far as the gospel triumphs, we have some practical approach to the New Jerusalem let down from God out of heaven upon earth.
Look again at the historic argument that had to wait for history to frame it. Christian missions have now had a new and modern trial of a century of organized work. It is not claimed that they are perfect. Nothing human ever is. But they have proved their right to be. It ill becomes Britons or Americans to sneer at missions. Our ancestors, little more than a thousand years ago, were savages and cannibals. Every argument against carrying the gospel to the degraded and debased tribes of men reacts upon us in constraining us to deny that we are any better off for this gospel. That must always be a grand work that makes grand workmen. And we risk nothing in affirming that, of all the products even of a Christian civilization, the true missionary is the ripest and best. To give one's self for one's country, as a soldier does who faces the enemy’s cannon, is heroic patriotism. To give one’s self for one’s conscience, and risk all for the sake of fidelity to the truth, is more heroic. But to give one’s self for the sake of saving others, that is the martyrdom of love; it is godlike. And if we would find not solitary stars, but constellations of glory, we must look to the missionary firmament.
Look yet again at the prospect of the coming age. Who can deny that in both Old and New Testaments there is most prominent the promise of a day dawn to which the brightest hour of a so-called civilization is but as midnight? Describe it as we will, it is a new epoch in history when God promises, “Behold, I make all things new.” There is to be a commonwealth—a city of God—into which entereth no defilement of impurity, no abomination of idolatry, and no shadow of duplicity and treachery. There is to be an end of what is, in order to a new beginning of what shall be. And, as surely as God promises this glorious kingdom, he wakes our activity in preaching the gospel to the race of man preparatory to this day dawn. Whatever be the reason or the philosophy of the connection, it seems to us indisputable that the gospel herald is to usher in this new day. Perhaps God sees that neither the world nor the church will be ready for that day until the great message of the gospel is carried to the world’s ends. But whatever be the secret hidden in God, the duty of man is absolutely explicit: This gospel of the kingdom must first be preached as a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come.
Surely if there is any people who ought to be quickened and stirred by the fulfillment of prophecy, and by the new call of God in the circumstances which surround us at the opening of this new century, it is the people who have been raised up to give the closing message to the world. These considerations place this people under a new and great responsibility to push their God-given work to a speedy completion. It is time that a new zeal and a new consecration should be manifested in this one definite effort to co-operate with the purpose of God for this very time; to preach the gospel of the kingdom in all the world; to say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world;” to prepare the way for our returning Lord, that we may soon take up the words, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

What Shall We Give?

By W. A. S.

DURING the General Conference term twenty-three hundred Sabbath-keepers were added to our ranks in the lands abroad. On every continent willing hearts are waiting for the message. A pile of letters lies on the desk in the General Conference office—from our comrades whom the churches have sent out with their prayers to Africa, and Asia, to Europe, and South and Central America, and the islands of the sea. They all tell of ripening fields. They all plead for more means and more workers to fill calls that are manifestly God's own providences. The requests are all so modest and so urgent. It is an awful thing to wait among the perishing millions for the help that does not come. But we are taking up a very hard line of correspondence. We are having to tell our brethren that they must wait for the mission offerings to increase before new work may be undertaken. How true of this situation are the words of Sister White at the recent Conference:—
I have been commissioned to instruct our people to be economical, and always ready to give of their means to the Lord's work. If you have a thousand dollars to spare, God wants it; it belongs to him. If you have twenty dollars to spare, God wants it. His vineyard is waiting to be worked.
Shall not both the twenties and the thousands flow into the treasury at once, so that the cheering word to advance may go out to our fellow workers in the lands afar, and in the needy Southern and city fields in our own land? May we not quickly send this word to the fields? Pray definitely for it; for the time is surely come for such a humbling of heart for lack of zeal, and for such a consecration of means and of service as shall finish the work of warning every nation and tongue. Then we shall see Jesus.
W. A. S.

Counsel Regarding Our Camp-Meetings

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

ANOTHER camp-meeting season is upon us. Many State camp-meetings will be held during the summer. The holding of these meetings will call for the expenditure of much effort, and a large amount of means. Viewed from one standpoint, the camp-meeting season means large self-sacrifice to our people.
But if the meetings are well attended and rightly managed, the results will well repay all the effort, self-sacrifice, and expense involved. I would most earnestly urge all our people carefully and prayerfully to study the instruction given in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, pages 31-86, regarding the camp-meeting. Every believer should read this instruction for clear light regarding his duty to attend the meeting, and work for its success. Every one intrusted with the grave responsibilities of locating, organizing, and managing the meeting should study this instruction, that he may have wisdom for the work. Especially should conference presidents and committees give this matter earnest study before the meetings begin.
The following words are addressed to our people with reference to attending the camp-meetings:—
The camp-meeting is one of the most important agencies in our work. It is one of the most effective methods of arresting the attention of the people, and reaching all classes with the gospel invitation. The time in which we live is a time of intense excitement. Ambition and war, pleasure and money-making, absorb the minds of men. Satan sees that his time is short, and he has set all his agencies at work, that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied, and entranced, until probation shall be ended, and the door of mercy be forever shut. It is our work to give to the whole world—to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people—the saving truths of the third angel’s message. But it has been a difficult problem to know how to reach the people in the great centers of population. We are not allowed entrance to the churches. In the cities the large halls are expensive, and in most cases but few will come out to the best halls. We have been spoken against by those who were not acquainted with us. The reasons of our faith are not understood by the people, and we have been regarded as fanatics, who were ignorantly keeping Saturday for Sunday. In our work we have been perplexed to know how to break through the barriers of worldliness and prejudice, and bring before the people the precious truth which means so much to them. The Lord has instructed us that the camp-meeting is one of the most important instrumentalities for the accomplishment of this work.
We must plan wisely, that the people may have an opportunity of hearing for themselves the last message of mercy to the world. The people should be warned to make ready for the great day of God, which is right upon them. We have no time to lose. We must do our utmost to reach men where they are. The world is now reaching the boundary line in impenitence and disregard for the laws of the government of God. In every city of our world the warning must be proclaimed. All that can be done should be done without delay.
And our camp-meetings have another object, preparatory to this. They are to promote spiritual life among our own people. The world in its wisdom knows not God. The world can not see the beauty, the loveliness, the goodness, the holiness, of divine truth. And in order that men may understand this, there must be a channel through which it shall come to the world. The church has been constituted that channel. Christ reveals himself to us, that we may reveal him to others. Through his people are to be manifested the riches and glory of his unspeakable gift.
God has committed to our hands a most sacred work, and we need to meet together to receive instruction, that we may be fitted to perform his work. We need to understand what part we shall individually be called upon to act in building up the cause of God in the earth, in vindicating God’s holy law, and in lifting up the Saviour as ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ John 1:29. We need to meet together and receive the divine touch that we may understand our work in the home. Parents need to understand how they may send forth from the sanctuary of the home their sons and daughters so trained and educated that they will be fitted to shine as lights in the world. We need to understand in regard to the division of labor, and how each part of the work is to be carried forward. Each one should understand the part he is to act, that there may be harmony of plan and of labor in the combined work of all. . . .
Some will say, “It is expensive to travel, and it would be better for us to save the money, and give it for the advancement of the work where it is so much needed.” Do not reason in this way; God calls upon you to take your place among the rank and file of his people. Strengthen the meeting all you possibly can by being present with your families. Put forth extra exertion to attend the gathering of God’s people.
Brethren and sisters, it would be far better for you to let your business suffer than to neglect the opportunity of hearing the message God has for you. Make no excuse that will keep you from gaining every spiritual advantage possible. You need every ray of light. You need to become qualified to give a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. You can not afford to lose one such privilege. . . .
This is a time for every one to come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. The forces of the enemy are strengthening, and as a people we are misrepresented. We desire the people to become acquainted with our doctrines and work. We want them to know what we are, and what we believe. We must find our way to their hearts. Let the army of the Lord be on the ground to represent the work and cause of God. Do not plead an excuse. The Lord has need of you. He does not do his work without the co-operation of the human agent. Go to the camp-meeting, even though you have to make a sacrifice to do so. Go with a will to work. And make every effort to induce your friends to go, not in your place, but to go with you, to stand on the Lord’s side, and obey his commandments. Help those who are interested to attend, if necessary providing them with food and lodging. Angels who are commissioned to minister to those who are heirs of salvation will accompany you. God will do great things for his people. He will bless every effort to honor his cause and advance his work.
These are good words of counsel, which all will do well to lay seriously to heart.
A. G. DANIELLS.

A Few Words to My Iowa Friends

By George I. Butler

In my ministerial work the Iowa Conference occupies a very conspicuous place. I lived twenty-two years in that grand State. All my early Christian experience was there. I was connected with the work in that conference while my father's home and my own were there. At the famous Snook apostasy, I was elected his successor as president of the Iowa Conference, though only a farmer in Allamakee County. I received my first license, and was ordained to the ministry, in that State. I then began to labor energetically to recover the conference from the sad effects of that apostasy, which had taken nearly one third of its membership and churches, as Elders Snook and Brinkerhoof were the only ministers of the State, and held leading offices in it. Never shall I forget those labors, and the many happy acquaintances I then formed, as I drove my span of colts through the wintry cold from church to church, instructing all the conference membership in spiritual gifts and kindred subjects, and in practical religion, till, as I have ever firmly believed, no other conference in the denomination was more thoroughly instructed or more perfectly and harmoniously united in all the precious truths of this message than was the small Iowa Conference of that time. It had only twelve small churches then, and a membership of perhaps three hundred. “But best of all, God was with us.”
Never while life lingers can I forget the precious, happy meetings we enjoyed in those days, nor the blessed camp-meetings which we used to have. I never attended better ones in all my life, never saw more perfect union of sentiment, or more fraternal love. I can never forget the joyous reunions which took place just before the camp-meetings began, as hundreds, alighting from the incoming trains, met one another from all parts of the conference. It used to affect me to tears to see them embrace one another, so glad to meet once more after a year's separation. I have failed to see such a degree of affection in most of our camp-meetings since.
And as the years passed by, how mightily the Spirit of God manifested itself at some of those meetings. It was the common thing in those days to see from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five happy souls buried with Christ in baptism before the meeting closed. From those early labors a phenomenal growth in Iowa began. It was a common thing to admit from four to six good churches each year to the conference. We were rarely disappointed in those days in not having a company of believers whenever a tent meeting was held. The Iowa Conference rapidly grew up to stand second to Michigan, which was always the largest conference in the denomination, perhaps because the leading institutions were planted there. California, because of similar conditions, has passed Iowa since. Our ministry and public laborers rapidly increased also. It was only a few years after I began to preach as the sole licentiate, and in a few months the sole ordained laborer, in the State (we had, of course, some valuable laborers sent to help us from abroad), when I saw six laborers ordained at one meeting—something rarely seen since that time, though the membership of our conferences has greatly increased.
It was one of the most painful experiences of my life when I was called to leave the dear Iowa Conference, to which I had become so greatly attached, to enter the General Conference field. I can never forget it. Elected in my absence to the presidency of the General Conference of our people, it was very hard for me to see it to be my duty to accept the new position. I did not accept it till several weeks had passed, and no doubt did wrong in so treating the action of the highest body of our people. Well, dear brethren of Iowa, it was because I loved Iowa so well, and because I could not see any fitness in myself for such an important position, that I delayed. You will all see by these remarks how fondly my mind lingers on those early associations with you. I can truly say that in all my manifold labors in this precious cause I have never found a more congenial field. Long years have passed since those early labors, strange and trying experiences have been passed through. Sorrows and afflictions have come to me. In General Conference labors I often meet with you. But for fifteen years or more my feet have never been on Iowa soil.
In our recent meetings at Battle Creek, where the General Conference Committee have held many meetings for planning the work for the future, leading brethren urged me to attend many camp-meetings as a general laborer. In view of the great necessities of our Southern field, in which I hold the leading position, I could not feel clear to be absent from this field so long as that would require. They advised that I should attend a few of the early Western camp-meetings, and especially the Iowa meeting. I preferred to attend that rather than any other because of my past relations with Iowa. At my earnest invitation, the conference committee kindly associated with me in that labor my dear fellow laborer, Elder S. N. Haskell. We have ever been closely united in love and affection for this blessed cause. We hope to have an old-fashioned camp-meeting in Iowa this season. I shall make every effort I know how to make to secure as large an attendance as possible. I greatly desire to see all my old friends and acquaintances there. Come, dear friends, without fail. Why?—Not merely because of my presence by any means; but because we expect to have a grand old-fashioned meeting, and see souls saved to the cause; and because the Lord is with us, and we are sure he will be with us at that meeting.
I never heard Elder Haskell preach with more power than on a recent Sabbath at Battle Creek. His heart is deeply enlisted in this great work. He can give the best kind of instruction in all phases of missionary work. His companion, one of the ablest Bible workers in the field, will be with Elder Haskell on this trip. I look forward with much pleasure in this union of labor with my dear old colleague in work and tribulation. Of course it is not necessary for me to introduce myself to the Iowa Sabbath-keepers. All I care to say is, “Best of all, the Lord is with us.” Never in all my life did he seem so near to me as of late. My health was never better. My hope and courage in the work are most excellent. Why should we not expect great things of the Lord? For one, I do.
What, then, shall I say to my old friends in Iowa? 1. Come one, come all, to the camp-meeting. Let us have the largest meeting ever seen of our people in the State. 2. Bring your children, especially your unconverted children. 3. Bring your neighbors, all you can induce to come. 4. Above all else, bring the blessed Lord with you. Make the prosperity and success of the meeting the constant theme of your prayers from the time you read this article till the meeting closes. Do all you can to wake up from your own lethargy, worldliness, and indifference, and seek the Lord with all your souls. The more you obtain of his blessing before you come, the more receptive will your hearts be for the great blessings we expect God will give us at the great feast we are looking for. O, how my heart longs to see of the outpouring of God's Spirit! And in no meeting I can think of do I desire to see it more than in this one in Iowa, my first field of labor. I hope the camp-meeting committee will not fail to make great preparations for an overflowing meeting. This will be no ordinary occasion, if I can read the horoscope aright. Expect great blessings from God, and we shall not be disappointed.
GEO. I. BUTLER.
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