Some of the ministers in England have been engaged in a lawsuit, to find out whether a preacher not belonging to the established church had a right to assume the title Reverend as a prefix to his name. If they disliked such unscriptural titles as much as we, they would rather contend for the privilege of leaving them off. Mr. Spurgeon, not approving of giving flattering titles, writes thus in his Sword and Trowel:—
“We cannot lay down the pen without asking why so many brethren still retain the title of Reverend? We are willing to reverence the aged pastor, and we did not hesitate to give that title to our beloved friend, George Rogers, just in the same way as we use the term, ‘the venerable Bede,’ or, ‘the judicious Hooker;’ but we are not prepared to reverence every stripling who ascends the pulpit; and, moreover, if we thought it due to others to call them reverend, we should still want some reason for their calling themselves so. It seems rather odd to us that a man should print upon his visiting card the statement that he is a reverend person. Why does he not occasionally vary the term, and call himself amiable, estimable, talented, or beloved? Would this seem odd? Is there any valid objection to such a use of adjectives, after the fashion is once set by employing the word reverend?”
If a man were to assume the title of Reverend for the first time in history, it would look ridiculous if not presumptuous or profane. Why does not the Sunday-school teacher call himself, ‘the Respectable John Jones,’ or the city missionary club himself, ‘the Hard-working William Evans’? Why do we not, as members of secret orders and others do, go in for ‘worthy masterships’ and ‘past grands’ and the like? I hope that we can reply that we do not care for such honors, and are content to leave them to the men of the world, or to the use of those who think they can do some good thereby.
It may be said that the title of Reverend is only one of courtesy, but then, so was the title of Rabbi among the Jews; yet the disciples were not to be called Rabbi. It is at any rate a suspicious circumstance that among mankind no class of persons should so commonly describe themselves by a pretentious title, as the professed ministers of the lowly Jesus. Peter and Paul were right reverend men, but they would have been the last to have called themselves so.
“No sensible person does reverence us one jot the more because we assume the title. It certainly is in some cases a flagrant misnomer, and its main use seems to be the pestilent one of keeping up the unscriptural distinction of clergy and laity. A lad, fresh from college, who has just been placed in a pulpit, is the Reverend Smith, while his eminently godly grandfather, who has for fifty years walked with God, and is now ripe for Heaven, has no such claim for reverence. A gentleman of ability, education, and eminent piety, preaches in various places with much zeal and abundant success, but he is no Reverend; while a man of meagre gifts, whose principal success seems to lie in scattering the flock, wears the priestly prefix, having a name to be reverenced when he commands no esteem whatever.
“This may be a trifle; many, no doubt, so regard it; why then are they not prepared to abstain from it? The less the value of the epithet, the less reason for continuing the use of it. It may be hard to say who has a right to it, for many use it who have not been pastors for years, and have not preached a sermon for many a day; what on earth are they to be reverenced for? Other men are always preaching, and yet no one calls them Reverend; but why not? The distribution of this wonderful honor is not fairly arranged. We suggest that, as the wife is ‘to see that she reverence her husband,’ every married man has a degree of claim to the title of Reverend and the sooner all benedicts exercise the privilege, the sooner will the present clerical use of it pass out of fashion.
“We wonder when men first sought out this invention, and from whose original mind did the original sin emanate. We suspect that he lived in the Roman Row of Vanity Fair, although the Rev. John Bunyan does not mention him. One thing is pretty certain, he did not flourish in the days of Rev. Paul, or the Rev. Apollos, or the Rev. Cephas.”
As to the origin of this title, in its application to ministers of the gospel, the Rev. Brooke Lambert, in a letter to the London Times, gives some of the desired knowledge. He says, “The registers of the parish of Tamworth date back to the reign of Phillip and Mary, 1556. The first title given in them to a clergyman is the old title ‘Sir,’ with which Shakespeare has made us familiar. In May, 1567, we have an entry, ‘Sir Peter Stringar, curate.’ The clergyman who succeeded him is called ‘Sir Richard Walker;’ but there are other contemporaneous entries, such as ‘sacerdos,’ ‘clericus,’ ‘preacher,’ and ‘verbi minister.’ These latter seem to have obtained till, in King James’ reign, we have the prefix ‘master,’ which, as we know, was applied to the great divine, Master Hooker, and this practice seems by our registers to have been continued through the commonwealth, though ‘Minister of the Gospel’ is sometimes added.
“We have, however, in 1657, the first use of the word ‘reverend,’ evidently in this case as a special mark of respect, not as a formal title. On ‘11 June, 1657, was buried our Reverend Pastor, Master Thomas Blake, minister of Tamworth.’ In 1693 we have a clergyman by name Samuel Collins. I had noticed with curiosity an erasure before his name in each of the casualties, baptismal and funereal, recorded in our register. At last, in 1701, I was lucky enough to find an unerased entry, and it appears that the obnoxious word was the title ‘Revd.’ (so written) prefixed to his ‘Mr.’ However, he seems not to have been able to hold to this title. One of his children, baptized in 1706, is baptized as the child of plain Samuel Collins, minister; and when he died in 1706 he was buried without the title ‘Reverend’—as Mr. (i. e. Master) Samuel Collins, minister of Tamworth. Henceforward the same address is used till November, 1727, and after that date the prefix ‘Reverend’ never seems to have been omitted.”—The Common People.
TABLE ROCK.
It is said that a few years ago a lady and gentleman were standing on Table Rock—that huge broad shelf on the Canada side of Niagara Falls. As they looked out upon the awful depth before them, they felt their nature thrilled in every fibre by the deafening roar which came up from the wild rush of the waters below. They looked down, and saw that the tooth of the angry stream had been gnawing out a vast hollow beneath them, and felt certain that ere long that delicately poised rock must inevitably fall into the boiling abyss.
Stirred by such thoughts they quickly hurried away from so dangerous a position. But they had not proceeded two minutes on their way before a deafening report, like the thunder of an earthquake shock, burst upon them with a long, loud roar, while the ground trembled beneath their feet.
Table Rock had fallen! two minutes, two short, fleeting minutes only, intervened between them and a grave beneath the roaring billows of that mighty, rushing river.
For ages the rock had stood, and men had visited it in safety, and presumption might still have said, It will not fall to-day. But it fell! There came a last day, a last hour, a last moment, and then a crash,—and those two persons were scarcely saved.
So on the toppling verge of human life stand countless mortals to-day, unconscious of their danger, and striving even to stifle their fears. But the crash will come at last. In due time their feet shall slide. Suddenly shall their calamity overtake them, for there is but a step between them and death.
So also a wicked world mocks and dances on the borders of eternity. The Judge standeth before the door. The day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly, and while men are careless, thoughtless, and asleep, the Judge of quick and dead will come. “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Yet we know that it must come sometime; and it may come very soon. Are you ready? or are you standing on “Table Rock,” doomed to fall when the catastrophe shall come? Is there any time to waste? “Behold, now is the accepted time!”—Messiah's Herald.
TO-MORROW
By Lope de Vega
Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care,
Thou didst seek after me, that thou didst wait,
Yet with unhealthy dew, before my gate,
And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
O strange delusion! that I did not greet
Thy blest approach, and oh, to Heaven how lost,
If my ingratitude’s unkindly frost
Has chilled the bleeding wounds upon thy feet!
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
“Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see
How he persists to knock and wait for thee!”
And oh! how often to that voice of sorrow,
“To-morrow we will open,” I replied,
And when the morrow came I answered still,
“To-morrow.”
—From the Spanish of Lope de Vega.
OUR GREAT WORK.
By James White
If our work is only to raise up a membership of a few thousands, to establish churches by colonizing or gathering at certain points, and settling pastors over a few large churches, then ours is not a great work. But our work is a world-wide mission. Instead of gathering at certain points, our people for the past twenty-five years have been moving West and South, where they have called for publications and ministers to preach the word until we have Conferences in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, California, Kentucky, and Virginia, and missions in Nebraska, Dakota, Oregon, Washington Territory, Texas, and the Canadas, and our publications alone are converting hundreds of men and women to the Sabbath annually, and very many of them in the Southern States. Several ministers in the South, and some of them evidently men of ability, have embraced the Sabbath and have begun to preach it, who have not seen one of our preachers.
When we view our mission to the world in the light of the word of God, what we are witnessing of the spread of the great truths connected with the last message is what we should expect. The only discouraging feature in the work is the want of vigilance and power in those who profess this message, and the consequent tardiness with which the cause moves forward. When we take a view of the past, the present, and the future, as far as we can look forward through the prophetic word, we are impressed that God has been leading in the preparation for our great work, and that we are now entering upon it in its length and breadth.
The present season tents are to be manned with speakers, exhorters, and tract distributers, on a much larger scale than ever before. Three will be used in California, one in Oregon, one in Texas, one in Kentucky, two in Virginia, one in Maine, one in Vermont, two in Massachusetts, five in New York, three in Ohio, one in Indiana, six in Michigan, one in Canada, two in Illinois, three in Wisconsin, two or three in Minnesota, and three or four in Iowa, making not far from forty in all. In many communities where these portable meeting-houses will be used for the solemn worship of God, the way has been partially prepared by the circulation of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and other publications. We hope for a glorious ingathering of souls this tent season.
The General Conference Committee has been in counsel at Battle Creek for the past ten days. This Committee has spent much time in prayer, and in careful, anxious consideration of the wants of the cause, and for ways and means to supply destitute fields, and for the advancement of the work. We invite close attention to the subject of Regular Quarterly Meetings, as set forth in this issue. The Committee took an anxious interest in our European Missions, and feel more than ever that their influence should be felt in directing the important work there.
It was thought not possible for W. C. White and his wife to go to Europe to establish the press there at present. And the work there does not seem to be far enough advanced for this. While it may be difficult for them to leave the office of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, they design to spend two years in study at our College, and we do not see that it is possible to do justice to a pioneer sheet for 1878 without them. As our cause advances we find ourselves overwhelmed with work, and but very few who will so adapt themselves to it as to be successful laborers.
The great want of the cause is consecrated laborers, who will cheerfully accustom themselves to care-taking, with a will to succeed, or die trying. We have labored hard to select men to fill important places in the work at head quarters, and about three in four prove failures, because they do not commence with a proper sense of the work, and will not bend muscle and brain to this work of sacrifice for the cause of Christ, with that singleness of heart and life which will secure his blessing, and rapid advancement in tact and ability to fill important positions. Some are bound to succeed. They in a short time learn to carry a load of care, and finally reach that point where a life of care-taking becomes natural, and they are very happy laboring under the inspiration of accomplishing in number-one order and style that which the providence of God brings before them to do.
The cause of truth languishes, and the few who stand beneath the burdens of the work are ready to faint and fall for want of the help of those young men and women who should at once enter upon it with a will to succeed, or die trying.
Our great work demands means as well as faithful men and women. The General Conference is in debt, and there comes in a call for a tent in Texas from Elder Kilgore, and one from Elder Fulton of Canada West for another. Elder Bourdeau, in Canada East, is calling for help, and Elder Lane has learned to take photographs in his tent in the daytime to support himself in preaching in the same tent evenings and Sundays. Times are hard everywhere, and will not justify moving from State to State, and the reckless use of means. Our ministers must settle into the work, and make our missions self-sustaining as fast as possible.
Elder Canright, and some others who labor like him, are crushing that old cry of “hard field of labor” which came from idlers in the Lord’s vineyard. God will be with all true laborers, and his Spirit moving upon the hearts of the people softens any field of labor. God has done more through Eld. Canright in New York the past year than had been done in five years before. His labors have added to the S. B. funds of that State enough to support four of our ministers. And at the same time the General Conference treasury is drained to assist men who do not add to the treasury a tithe of what they draw out. Elder Canright goes to New England to labor. We hope that his efforts there will not be crippled by the jealousies and narrow views of those who are content to do next to nothing, as they have been in the State of New York.
The General Conference Committee has laid plans for paying the debt on the College, building at our Sanitarium grounds, and increasing facilities for its usefulness. And we mention last, but it is by no means the least, a series of Biblical Institutes that shall reach from one end of the land to the other. Elders Smith and White are preparing a volume containing the series of lectures with questions to the class, and questions from the class and the answers. They will commence lectures where desired, and when they can get large classes in early autumn.
Time and space forbid further reports of the work of the Committee this week. Our great work, as canvassed by the Committee, will be the subject of future remarks. J. W.
REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETINGS.
By James White; S. N. Haskell; Dudley Marvin Canright
When our work began, some twenty-five years ago, we had everything to learn. For the first dozen years or more our brethren were few and scattered. But as our numbers began to increase, and churches were formed, the necessity for organization and system became more and more apparent. Some attention has been paid to this subject; but in the press of other things, much has been neglected. We now number about twenty thousand, with some five hundred churches, and about fifty new churches are being added yearly.
A little examination shows that the records of many of these churches have been imperfectly and poorly kept. Some are in utter confusion, and others have no record at all. Names of persons are on the records as members in good standing who have not even kept the Sabbath for years. Others who have moved away have not been looked after, but all knowledge of them has been lost. This ought not to be so.
Again, we find many cases of members who either from feeble health, or poverty, or some little trial or loss of interest, have not reported themselves to the church for years; yet no one has visited them or inquired after them. Many dear souls are thus entirely lost to the cause. We also find that many of our churches have been very slack about celebrating the ordinances. Some churches do not have them once a year, some not once in five years, and others never. We believe that this is wrong, and displeasing to God. These sacred ordinances should be regularly attended to.
Every year our S. B. fund is becoming larger and of greater importance. The progress of our work now depends largely upon the regular payment of this fund. It is generally calculated now that all pledges on S. B. are to be paid quarterly. It is very important that they should be. If allowed to run longer than this, the Conference becomes embarrassed and the amount becomes so large that the individuals fail to pay it at all.
And now the added one-third for the T. and M. work, which is generally adopted by all our Conferences, is also to be paid quarterly. Then all members of the T. and M. Society are required and expected to report to their librarians every quarter. The efficiency of the Society depends largely upon this. Drop the reporting, and the work stops. Every librarian is also required to report quarterly to his director. But there has been great difficulty in securing these reports. Where these quarterly meetings are not held regularly, but are left to be appointed by the director, much confusion unavoidably occurs. Then the constitution directs that a State quarterly meeting of the directors be held quarterly. Also, it is the duty of each S. B. treasurer to forward all money once a quarter to the State Conference treasurer, and report the same to the State secretary. Here again we have found great difficulty in securing this.
Hence, to obviate these evils and to secure system and union of action throughout all our Conferences and churches and among our scattered brethren, we recommend all our Conferences to adopt and put into effect the following plan of
REGULAR QUARTERLY MEETINGS.
1. Let all our Conference years, S. B. pledges, quarterly reports, etc., be counted from Jan. 1st each year, instead of beginning them irregularly through the year to harmonize with the sitting of the Conferences. Do this, and all will begin together and everybody will know just when it comes. One notice by the Gen. Conf. Com. will answer for all. Then our years and quarters will all be of the same length. Then we shall not come up to our camp-meetings with all the business of a year to be done in a hurry and confusion.
2. Let every individual church by itself alone hold a quarterly meeting upon the first Sabbath and Sunday in January, April, July, and October. At each of these quarterly meetings business should be done in the following order:—
(1.) Sabbath morning, when the church has assembled, let the clerk read each name on the church record. When a name is read, if the person is present, call upon him to relate his present condition, feelings, etc. If any members are unavoidably absent, they should send a letter to be read at that meeting. If they are not present, neither have written, then let the officers of the church inquire after them and immediately either write or visit them. Thus every member of the church will be personally heard from and inquired after every three months. This will save many a soul from apostasy and will keep the record clean.
(2.) Then let every church which has an ordained elder celebrate the ordinances. Don't put it off till the minister comes, nor wait till everything is in perfect order, but attend to it then and there. This would be a happy thought, to know that all our people throughout the world were celebrating these holy ordinances at the same time. Surely the Lord would be pleased with such a sight.
(3.) On the next day or evening after the Sabbath, let all come together and pay their S. B. pledges and the one-third for the past quarter. If any fail to do so, the treasurer should immediately see them or write them about it. Much depends upon the promptness of the treasurer in this matter.
(4.) At the same time have a meeting of the Tract Society for that church, in which each member shall read his or her report for the last quarter, and hand it to the librarian. If any fail to do so, the librarian should see them or write them immediately.
(5.) At the close of the meeting let each S. B. treasurer prepare his report to be sent with his money to the State treasurer and secretary the next day, Monday. Also let the librarian make out his report that day ready to be sent Monday to his director. Thus, every item of business in that church and Tract Society will be regularly attended to at a definite time once a quarter.
3. The next Sunday each director will have all the reports in his district, at which time a quarterly meeting of the churches in each district can be held.
4. The following Sabbath and Sunday, the third in that month, the State quarterly meeting can be held, at which the reports of all the directors can be read. This will complete the quarter.
We think that the utility of such a system of quarterly meetings will be apparent to every one. Just before each quarter an article can appear in the REVIEW reminding the brethren of the approaching meeting, and what they should do to be ready for it. Sabbath and Sunday, July 7 and 8, will be the first meeting according to this arrangement. We advise that all pledges and reports be squared up to July 1, and then all begin at this quarter together, as this will be the middle of the year.
Let no church wait for a minister to visit them and instruct them about this matter. The above is just what is to be done. It is so simple that all can readily understand what to do.
JAMES WHITE,
S. N. HASKELL,
D. M. CANRIGHT,
General Conference Committee.
OUR EUROPEAN MISSIONS.
The Seventh-day Adventists have two Missions in Europe, under the supervision of the General Conference. Elder J. N. Andrews, who had a deep and valuable experience in America for a quarter of a century as a laborer in the gospel, is our “embassador for Christ,” to represent our doctrines and practices in Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, and where else the providence of God may give him an open door in Europe. He has labored in the gospel in Switzerland, Prussia and Italy, and has nearly completed one year’s publication of an eight-page monthly in the French language. Want of proper help on his paper, however, with the study of the French and German languages have kept him from the gospel field almost entirely the past year.
Elder J. G. Matteson, who has labored thirteen years successfully in America as a preacher and editor, has recently been sent to his native country in Europe to represent Seventh-day Adventists in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We hope much from this mission. Elder Matteson will want means immediately on his arrival in Denmark to commence his work of preaching and publishing, as he has no old and tried friends there, to whom he can look for support. We therefore announce to the friends of missions and those anxious for the prosperity of the cause of God, that the privilege is now set before them of donating for the advancement of Elder Matteson’s mission to Denmark. Please remit, without delay, to REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.
And while these two brethren are amenable to the General Conference, it is expected of them to give that form to the work that will best advance and build up the cause. And as long as they have charge of the work, under the general supervision of the Conference, those who labor with them must respect their position, judgment, and counsel. Our beloved brother, Elder D. T. Bourdeau, was sent to Switzerland to help Elder Andrews who labored under the embarrassment of his imperfect French. It was very difficult for him to edit a paper in the French language, or to speak in French, at the time of Elder Bourdeau’s arrival. And besides, he had much care and anxiety for the work in Elder Ertzenberger’s German field. It has seemed to us that Elder Bourdeau was very much needed in Switzerland, for the first year of his missionary labor in Europe at least, to work under Elder Andrews in raising up new friends and supporters to the cause in Switzerland, to hasten the cause there as fast as possible on to a self-sustaining basis, and to assist Elder Andrews while making almost super-human efforts to master the French and German languages.
We are pained to learn that Elder Andrews and his son and daughter have been kept from their studies, and Elder Andrews from the lecturing field, to do such work as folding papers, and making tracts, and next to nothing being done in Switzerland and France in gathering numbers to the small membership, and strength to the feeble cause.
Elder Bourdeau labors hard, even beyond his strength. He needs the counsel and care of Elder Andrews in this. But more than all, he needs the counsel of his brethren where and how he should labor as God may give him strength.
Those who labor to build up the cause in Europe have a model in many respects to work after. The cause in America has arisen from a humble beginning. Those who have managed adopted the plan to labor where they could accomplish most with the least means. Our first publishing house was not established at New York, Boston, Cincinnati, or Chicago; but in the (then) village of Battle Creek, Michigan, of 2,000 inhabitants. Here the work has been carried on to much better advantage, and with very much less means, than it could have been in some large city. And it has been considered of the utmost importance to encourage laborers to go out to preach the word of God and scatter our publications where they could accomplish most immediate good. This policy secured growing strength of numbers and means to the cause at every step.
If it be said that the fact that the European181paper is published at Bâle gives it position and influence, then we might regret that such position and influence was not given the REVIEW AND HERALD twenty years ago. Something may be gained in publishing in Bâle; and a hundred times as much may be lost by shutting Elder Andrews up in that city, away from his brethren who should do a hundred things to help him, in the way of board, and such work as they can do on the paper and the tracts without charge.
We are becoming terribly anxious about the mission in Europe. If it be true that preaching can do but little without publications, it is quite as true that publications will do little without preaching. The work in Europe, in order to prosper, must copy after the American model. Elder Andrews must have such help on the paper and the tracts as to enable him to go into the lecturing field a part of his time. Elder Bourdeau must join him in this work, to raise up churches and supporters of the cause.
We have become very deeply interested in the case of Dr. Ribton of Naples, Italy. But we cannot see our way clear to make his work a distinct mission at present. We recommend that Elder Andrews visit him without delay, and report to us at Battle Creek. We are anxious to help and counsel every man God is moving out to work in his cause; but wish more evidence than mere correspondence, before putting means into the hands of utter strangers. Past impositions may have made us too cautious; but as the worthy poor who have a just claim on the charities of the public, suffer on account of the impositions of those who follow begging as a trade, so it is to be feared that the true servants of God are sometimes left to suffer because of the necessary caution to guard against impostors in the ministry.
Elder Andrews must not be confined to his paper. It will be for the good of his physical and spiritual health for our very dear brother to go out here and there and speak to the people. He must leave part of the work of his paper to others. It would be well to print only four or six times in a year, rather than to shut himself wholly up to printing. And it would be better to have the translating and printing imperfectly done, rather than to have nearly the whole force of the European Mission spent on a monthly sheet.
We trust, however, that Elder Bourdeau will cheerfully join Elder Andrews, and that the work of publishing and preaching will be balanced, and that numbers and strength will be added to the cause in Europe.
GEN. CONF. COM.
KANSAS CAMP-MEETING.
By J. H. Waggoner
THIS meeting was not nearly so largely attended as was expected, owing to the recent heavy rains, by which the streams were raised so high that it was impossible to travel with teams in some parts of the State. The railroad bridge at Lawrence, as well as the wagon bridge, was taken away. There were about 250 Sabbath-keepers tented upon the ground.
As the meeting fairly opened, it became evident that a spirit of depression was resting on the minds of most of those present, with some amounting to discouragement. The attendance being small, the disappointment of many that Bro. and Sr. White did not come, only one speaker being present from abroad, and the finances of the Conference being deficient, all conspired to make the outlook gloomy. Bro. Ayers, the president, came with a full determination to refuse to bear any responsibility of office during the next year. Of course, some were discouraged for personal reasons, being backslidden. But the clouds early began to break away and the light increased unto the close. Burdened souls were set free; several made their first start in the cause; fourteen were baptized.
At the Conference of last year, $200 were drawn in advance on the pledges of the then coming year. This year there was a deficiency of $376 on the pay of the ministers; a new tent, 50 by 70, had been purchased, unpaid for, and some small sums were due on camp expenses. But this deficiency was all made up at this meeting, mostly by donations of ready money, with some pledges on short time, so the Conference commences another year with all debts paid and a good prospect for the future.
This money was raised with very little urging, and nothing that could really be called begging. With eight new churches received into the Conference, and five unorganized companies taken under its care, the brethren and sisters felt that the labor performed was worthy of the hire allowed to it, and every dollar was given with a cheerful good-will. The new tent is needed; and the president, re-elected, and all the ministers, start out with new strength and courage. The proportion of new faces seen at the meeting was unusually large. Bro. Stover informed me there are about sixty new converts to the truth in his section.
The weather was excellent, though the nights were rather cool, as a season of heavy rains was just past. The “first-day Adventists” once held a tent-meeting here, and preached “definite time” for the Lord’s coming. I was told by the editor of the paper in Ottawa that much prejudice existed here because of the general belief that we set the time for the advent. This we had to wear away, and we are now informed that the attendance would have been much larger if the meeting had continued longer. This leaves a good prospect for a tent-meeting here at some future day. But our congregations were good in the main. Sunday morning it was evident that the church members mostly attended at their own churches, but in the afternoon and evening the attendance was large. Better order I never saw at any outdoor meeting. When the congregations were largest, there was no noise nor confusion about the camp. Without any guard, nothing was disturbed by day or night.
I think the prospect before this young and growing Conference is decidedly encouraging. Five ordained ministers and four licentiates, all in the prime of life, youthful, vigorous, and energetic, and others beginning to feel the burden of the work. The utmost harmony prevailed in all their counsels. Openings before them are abundant, calls for labor coming from every direction. J. H. WAGGONER,