Earlier text: CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART“WE wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph. 6: 12. Paul, looking forward through the gospel dispensation, evidently saw while penning these words of inspiration that the life of the Christian would be a continual warfare, a life of many trials and tribulations, such as many of the most eminent saints of God have passed through, but not alone. God has been with them to comfort and sustain. They have realized the truth of the promise: “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee,” and the truth of these precious words: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” As all Christians are soldiers, fighting the battles of the Lord, they need fresh and constant supplies of God’s grace, to enable them to come off victorious in the struggle for eternal life. We should therefore comply with the admonition of the apostle Paul: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” In addition to all the evil habits of our former lives, with our carnal principles and stubborn natures, we have a wily foe to contend with. He is to be continually watched and resisted. If he comes to us as he did to our first parents in the form of a serpent, craftily and cunningly to deceive us, or as a roaring lion to terrify and affright us, we can and must, with divine assistance, withstand him. He will tempt us to sin, and if we yield, he will immediately accuse us of our sin. He will represent sin as a trifle, and after it is committed he will tell us it is too great to be pardoned, that we may despair of being cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus. He will try to prejudice us against our brethren, and especially those at the head of the work, that he may mar our enjoyment, and prevent the progress of the present truth. Unless we are constantly on the alert, we shall be led astray and overcome. Our only security is in watching unto prayer, and in constant communion with the Holy Spirit. If we yield to the temptations of the enemy, wander away from God, and neglect the Bible and the open Fountain, Satan will soon prevail against us. Let us therefore cleave unto the Lord, seek wisdom from above, and endeavor to resist, steadfast in faith. Let us fight till we gain the victory; for the words of Jesus to Peter may apply to each of us: “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Luke 22: 31, 32. The Turkish Provinces in Revolt.
It says much for the widening sympathies of the age that the present revolt in European Turkey interests the whole Christian world; for, incredible as it may seem, we have, until lately, known more about the islands of the Pacific, and their pagan inhabitants, than about these lovely, classical lands, with their European race of Christians fighting Asiatic despotism and Mohammedan intolerance, for more than four hundred years. These Slaves have occupied their present seats for at least twelve centuries, and until the end of the fourteenth century were mostly independent, and in respect to civilization stood fairly on a level with the rest of Europe. Then came the Mohammedan invasion, and the whole Slavonian territory south of the Danube fell under the power of the Turk. At this time they were enthusiastic Christians of the Greek church, excepting those who had embraced the doctrines of the Paternes, the earliest protestors against papal power, worship of relics and saints, prayers for the dead, and purgatory; in fact, they were the Protestants of the tenth century, men who, as traders and pilgrims, carried to the extreme west of Europe the doctrines which Huss, Luther, and Calvin, afterward more fully preached. The territories they occupy to-day lie to the west and north of European Turkey; Dalmatia is directly west of Herzegovina, Montenegro directly south, Bosnia and Servia north and east; the territory in revolt is therefore the center of a country in which the Slavic element has an overwhelming preponderance. The Herzegovinian peasantry have always been restless and formidable—splendid horsemen, unrivaled marksmen, hating the Turk as men will hate after four hundred years of oppression. Their hills and valleys have been for two centuries the battle ground between the Christian and Mohammedan. In Bosnia nearly every peasant is a Christian; and the Bosnian peasant is no despicable enemy. He has all the best and the worst traits of the Slavonian character; he is brave as brave can be, and he is as cruel as his master, the Turk. His passion is freedom, his vanity is his horse, his sword, and his firearms. Nowhere are these articles so valued, so sumptuously adorned, or bought at such extravagant prices. He will admit no superior on horseback, and this verse of one of his songs explains his character very well:— “I am a Bosnian! I carry shining arms;
The Bosnians are heroes on horseback!
Hu! There is none like them in the world!”
The Montenegrins, dwelling in inaccessible mountains, have defied the Turk, and preserved their freedom. Like the Scotch Highlanders, they are knit together in families or clans; every man of them is constantly armed with rifle, yataghan and pistols. On the shortest notice they can raise twenty-six thousand men, and, when required, a much larger force. They fire lying prostrate, and rarely indeed miss their mark. Montenegro first attracted European attention by its heroic and effective aid given Russia—the big brother of all the Slaves—against France in 1855; and since then it has kept itself in notice by the number of rebellions it has either inaugurated or aided and abetted against the Turks. That of 1851 was a very dangerous one, as it could scarcely fail to be, under such a bold and terrible leader as the Prince Mirko. When he had been compelled by reverses to burn his villages, in order that the Turks might find no shelter, the Pasha sent to ask him to come and see him and treat personally for terms of peace. The messenger found Mirko lying on the hill-side wrapped in his strockla, and he answered him over his shoulder without rising, “You had better ask my rifle; I will only speak to your Pasha through its mouth.” Both men and women are very strong; the latter do all the trading and agriculture, the men being engaged in war or pillage. But the women, though the domestic drudges of their husbands, are not held as inferiors. In a fight, no one denies them the place they are often eager to take, and when they do not bear arms, they remain to stimulate the men with their war cries, “On for the Holy Cross!” Dalmatia has preserved itself from Turkish oppression by accepting Venetian and Austrian rule. But foreign influence does not extend into the interior, where nearly the whole population are Slaves of the most intense kind, retaining with passionate affection their national costume, customs, and language, and by no means behind their brothers in hatred of the Moslem. But all branches of the Slavic family must give way in importance to Servia, which, about half a century ago, wrung from Turkey its independence after five hundred years of incessant struggle. There is something nobly pathetic in the arms adopted by this new Slavic kingdom—a white cross on a red field, and two dates, 1389-1815, divided by a drawn sword. Since 1815, the Servians have changed the law of the Koran for a European code; they have made good roads, introduced public schools, and put down official corruption in church and state by giving to all clergy, judges, and civil employees fixed and sufficient salaries. They have made life and property safe in Servia, and introduced many other sterling reforms. She has civil, military, and theological schools, two fine schools of commerce, high schools in the chief towns, and primary ones in the villages; and the only tolerably good school in Bosnia (which country is ruled by Turkey) was founded by the aid of a grant from Free Servia. On the contrary, the generally hopeless condition of the Christian rayahs in the Mohammedan provinces cannot be more forcibly expressed than by their common saying, “We are still behind God’s back.” The latest telegraphic reports intimate that the rebellion is quelled, and order (that is, despotism) is restored. These reports come from Constantinople, and the Turk is as unscrupulous a liar as he is relentless as an enemy. It is of the utmost importance that he should prevent European intervention; for that would inevitably lead to the dismemberment of his ill-organized empire. It is something, at all events, to be assured that reforms are promised, and we may be at least permitted to hope that Mohammedan oppression has received a check, even though it be not as yet doomed to be entirely overthrown in these unhappy provinces. It is reasonably certain that the final, if not the immediate, issue of this attempted revolution will be the organization of these provinces into at least a partially independent though still tributary State.—Illustrated Christian Weekly. WE have no more right to fling an unnecessary shadow over the spirit of those with whom we have to do than we have to fling a stone and injure them. Yet this flinging shadows is a very common sin, and one to which women are particularly addicted. Oh, what a blessing is a merry, cheerful woman in a household! one whose spirits are not affected by wet days, or little disappointments, or whose milk of human kindness does not sour in the sunshine of prosperity. Such a woman in the darkest hours brightens the house like a little piece of sunshine weather. The magnetism of her smile, the electrical brightness of her looks and movements, affects every one. The children go to school with a sense of something great to be achieved; her husband goes into the world in a conqueror’s spirit. No matter how people worry and annoy him at day, far off her presence shines, and he whispers to himself, “At home I shall find rest.” So day by day she literally renews his strength and energy, and if you know a man with a beaming face, a kind heart, and a prosperous business, in nine cases out of ten you will find he has a wife of this kind. For nothing is more certain than that the man who is married must ask his wife for permission to be happy and wealthy. Blessed is he who hath a cheerful wife; the world may be a “valley of strife” to him, but his home is a land of Beulah, a haven of rest and quiet; and his life is made up of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows.—Sel. THEY never blister the tongue nor lips; and we have never heard of any mental trouble arising from this quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much. They help one's own good nature and good will. Soft words soften our own soul. Angry words are fuel to the flames of wrath, and make it blaze more fiercely. Kind words make other people good natured. Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. There is such a rush for all other kind of words in our days that it seems desirable to give kind words a chance among them. There are vain words, and idle words, and hasty words, and spiteful words, and silly words, and boisterous words, and warlike words. Kind words also produce their own image in men's souls. And a beautiful image it is. They soothe, and quiet, and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.—Sel. At a recent dinner in New York, at which no ladies were present, a man, in responding to the toast, “Woman,” dwelt almost solely on the frailty of the sex, claiming that the best of them were little better than the worst—the chief difference being in their surroundings. At the conclusion of the speech, a gentleman rose and said: “I trust the gentleman, in the application of his remarks, refers to his own mother and sisters, not ours.” The effect of this just and timely rebuke was overwhelming; and the maligner of woman was covered with shame and confusion. This incident serves an excellent purpose in prefacing a few words on the subject. Of all the evils prevalent among men, we know of none more blighting in its moral effect than the tendency to speak slightly of the virtues of woman. Nor is there anything in which young men are so thoroughly mistaken as in the estimate they form of the integrity of woman—not their own mothers and sisters, thank God—but of others whom they forget are somebody else’s mother and sisters. Let young men remember that their chief happiness in life depends on their faith in woman. No worldly wisdom, no misanthropic philosophy, no generalization, can cover or weaken this fundamental truth. It stands like the record of God himself—for it is nothing less than this—and should put an everlasting seal upon lips that are wont to speak slightly of women. Blessed is the memory of an old-fashioned mother. It floats to us now like beautiful perfume of some woodland blossoms. The music of other voices may be lost, but the entrancing memory of hers will echo in our soul forever. Other faces will fade away and be forgotten, but hers will shine on until the light from Heaven’s portal shall glorify our own. When in the fitful pauses of busy life our feet wander back to the old homestead, and, crossing the well-worn threshold, stand once more in the low, quaint room, so hallowed by her presence, how the feeling of childish innocence and dependence comes over us, and we kneel down in the molten sunshine streaming through the western window, just where long years ago we knelt by our mother’s knee lisping, “Our Father.” How many times, when the tempter lured us on, has the memory of those sacred hours, that mother’s words, her faith and prayers, saved us from plunging into an abyss of sin. Years have filled great drifts between her and us, but they have not hidden from our sight the glory of her pure, unselfish love. Human Nature and the Love of Activity
MAN is naturally fond of activity, yet he has persuaded himself that he loves nothing so much as taking his ease. Reflections by the Way.
By James White
ONE hour since, we breakfasted luxuriously upon graham bread, pears, grapes, and nuts, from our lunch-basket. We slept well last night, and are rested and refreshed. On account of our habit of eating plain yet delicious food, we are becoming recruited for the labors of the California Camp-meeting, while many of our fellow passengers, who go out to the eating rooms along the road three times a day and take fashionable meals, are growing stupid, complain of being tired, and some of them are down sick. Blessings on the health reform! We regret that two days of the meeting will be past before we can reach our California brethren in camp. But duty held us in Battle Creek, to see the good work through there, which detained us until after the Sabbath of Sept. 18th, when we took a night train for Chicago, then the Pacific Express at Chicago Sunday morning, which if on time will reach Oakland, Cal. two hours before the Sabbath. We hope to reach the camp Sabbath morning in season to speak to the people, Lord willing, at 10:30 A. M. It is with feelings of most devout gratitude to God that we look back upon the labors and blessings of the camp-meeting season now nearly past. The Lord has given strength and freedom to labor far beyond our expectations. And it is with glad hearts, filled with gratitude to God, and tenderest sympathy and love for his dear people in the several Conferences, that we return to our Pacific home and labors, until the 1876 round of camp-meetings. Our labors with Eld. U. Smith this season have been most happy. The stand taken by him, Prof. Brownsberger, and Dr. J. H. Kellogg, give much hope for the cause, and the success of our institutions at Battle Creek. Already has the blessing of Heaven fallen on that people, as the result, we believe, of a most solemn covenant of love with each other and their God, to do all in their power to secure a healthy, moral and religious influence at head quarters. A great work has been done the past season in those investigations which have exposed the tongue of slander, dried up a flood of gossip, and have restored confidence among those who should be of one heart. After asking pardon of the reader for this rambling introduction, we will at once return to our reflections by the way, relative to the There is no want of religious teachers in our day, such as they are. The apostle states that the apostate church of the last days would heap to themselves teachers. These, however, would not turn the people to the truth; but they would turn them from the truth of God to fables. Ministers who teach plain Bible truth are few, while teachers of fables are many. They are very many. Their abundance in the last days is represented by “heaps”—as if lying around in heaps. Laborers, real laborers in the truth, are few—very few. There are those among S. D. Adventists even, who do not labor to advantage. And as we have been reflecting upon the great work before our people, we see two branches of labor to be done. These are, first, to preach the word in new fields and raise up new churches, and secondly to build up weak churches, set things in order, and keep them in order, in all our churches. Men who do not succeed in either of these two branches of labor are of no real benefit to the cause. True, they may help swell the small number of our preachers, and help to dispose of our Systematic Benevolence funds, and some of them not standing in the counsel of God are sure to fall under the deceptions of Satan, and even cast grievous burdens upon the church; and it is of no use to disguise the fact that unless they will successfully labor in one or both of these two branches of the work, the cause has no further use for them. Systematic Benevolence calls for systematic labor and systematic support. It is the duty of each Conference committee to know where and how the ministers of the several Conferences labor. While each minister should look to Christ and not to the committee for duty, nevertheless the committee should not in the least countenance men’s laboring with the church who will not put things in order and establish s. b. according to the plan adopted. And if such men will persist in dallying away their time to no especial purpose the committee should see to it that this time be counted out by the auditing committee, at the close of the year. Obligations between the church and the ministry are mutual. Ministers who receive credentials from their Conference, and are thus protected by the Conference, and labor under the counsel of the Conference, may justly expect support from the Conference. But the moment a minister takes the matter into his own hands, to labor where and as he pleases, contrary to the judgment of his Conference, the point is reached when the Conference is no longer under obligation to give him support. We have but few real pastors, to build up, to see that the right persons are put in office, and bring s. b. up to the plan adopted. This branch of the work is very much neglected. It is to be feared that we are losing more for want of pastoral labor than we are gaining by our extensive missionary efforts. Our young laborers must first enter new fields. And if they preach practical godliness from hearts filled with the love of Christ and love for lost sinners, as well as the theory of the present truth, and labor from house to house energetically, and pray for and with the people as they should, with an ear open to all the instructions given in our prints and otherwise relative to the practical duties of a minister of Christ, they will very soon become good pastors. We might now have five good pastors where we have one, had men taken hold of the work with true holy energy. Our young men are in danger of falling into profligacy as to their time, and of forming habits of indolence which will inevitably result in physical debility, moral feebleness, and mental shortness. God pity the world that it has so many putty-faced, dilly-dally, second and third-rate preachers. They may excel indeed in those “good long” afternoon visits, and be eloquent with the knife and fork at the tea-table, but in the speaker’s stand, as the Californians say, they “pan out” small. Common visiting with no object in view but to have a good social chat, and an extra meal, is a sin in one of Christ’s ambassadors. When he enters a house to visit the family he should at once come to the point, and keep to the point. It is expected of him to lead the conversation. He then is at liberty to give the interview just the turn he pleases. He can open his Bible and call for objections to the truths he has been presenting, and answer them kindly. It is not best to give answers in a style, to give the impression that he thinks he knows more than all others. He can inquire as to the spiritual condition of the family, and, after words of instruction and advice, he can bow in prayer with them. Visits and prayers should be brief, and so numerous as to give the visitor a chance to walk five miles, more or less, each day, and give him not less than three hours for close study. And if his discourses are not more than fifty, or at the most sixty, minutes in length, he can give as many of them in a year as there are days in that year. Men who simply repeat the arguments for the truth will never grow into good pastors. They must learn to come before the people with hearts all aglow with love for the truths they preach. If they are imbued with love to God, his word, and love for poor sinners, they will reach the hearts of the people. It is their privilege to have power with both God and the people. Young ministers who will pursue such a course as this will become able preachers of the word, will be successful in raising new churches, and will soon prove themselves capable of filling important positions in the cause. In times past, men have labored among our churches rashly, and in a single week have torn down more than they could build up in ten. This was not for want of ability, but because they had not cherished that tender love for souls which the gospel requires of the minister of Christ. They had not trained themselves to do the more unpleasant work patiently, which called for the exercise of all the graces which the tender and yet faithful under-shepherd should possess. They chose the more pleasant part of the work, and when the more unpleasant labor pressed upon them they disposed of it hurriedly and rashly. The cause needs laborers who will cultivate a patient love for doing that part of the work which is more disagreeable. We have had too many half-developed men. Laborers are wanted who can do any part of the work of the Christian ministry wisely and well. Others have luxuriated over their books, and have indulged in pleasant, intellectual visits with those who would pet them. And behind the flimsy plea of want of financial ability they have been more than willing to hide themselves from the business responsibilities of the cause. And what has made the course of these look still worse is the fact that they were disposed to keep an open ear to the murmurers against those who were carrying triple burdens in the business department of the work, and often gave at least their silent influence on the side of the murmurers. Not only has the cause sustained a loss by the course of such, but they themselves have been great losers. For now when brought to occupy positions that call into active service all the faculties of the human mind, they deeply feel the want of that experience which they might have obtained had they followed duty, instead of that course which was more pleasing to them. And still others have followed duty. Where work was to be done, however thankless and hard, they have had no other thought than to seize hold of it. Hence they could not excel in any one department of the work. They have held themselves ready to preach, labor for weak churches, gather up what rash men have broken down and scattered, write books, edit papers, and stand under an almost unlimited variety and amount of business. Such a life will develop many of the faculties of the man, and wear him fast, and wear him fearfully and in every part, so that when he prematurely comes down, as he surely will unless God holds him up in a miraculous manner, he will crumble to dust like “The Deacon’s one-horse chaise,” and will soon be forgotten on earth from the fact that he carried so many branches of the work that he was eminent in none. But we shall see in the brief by-and-by how his case will stand in Heaven when the Lord shall say, “Well done.” We have long since been disgusted with the plea of lack of financial ability on the part of any man who has mind sufficient to justify the idea that he can labor in word and doctrine, and meet the world and popular churches as they are. Any man who can learn to do this, can learn to do that. If he can nerve himself to meet the ever-changing circumstances of a true minister of the last message, in the perilous times of the last days, he can bring himself up to the point of economy, industry, and every other trait peculiar to the strength of good financial ability. Men are wanted to preach the word of God with ability and power, and to fill important positions in the various and ever-multiplying departments of this great work. And we plead that the very best talent to be found in our ranks be secured. The cause demands a large increase of laborers in word and in doctrine, missionaries at home and abroad, tract distributors, canvassers, editors, leading printers, writers, and ablest hygienic physicians in the world. More of this from week to week, if the Lord will. We have just passed Sacramento, Cal., sixth day, the 24th of September. All well, and of good cheer. In less than six hours we shall be happy to meet W. C. W., who will conduct us to the camp-ground on the morning of the 25th. Visit to Alfred Center, N. Y.
By Uriah Smith
In company with Bro. Canright, we left the Flint, Mich., camp-ground, Sept. 21, to look after some matters which called for our presence together in Western New York. Bro. C. being the regularly appointed delegate from our General Conference to the S. D. Baptist General Conference, as the alternate of Bro. White, who found it impossible to attend to this appointment and meet other imperative obligations, we had the pleasure of accompanying Bro. C. to this Conference, which was held in Alfred Center, N. Y., Sept. 22–26. In this sketch, we shall speak simply of our observations and impressions as a visitor, leaving Bro. Canright to make such report as his position as delegate may require. This being our first visit to Alfred Center, we cannot forbear saying a word about the place. Nestled high amid the hills of Allegany Co., the situation is romantic, and to one like ourself, reared in New Hampshire with a love of its mountains, hills, and valleys, born and bred within us, it is very pleasant and beautiful. The real estate, not only of the village, but of nearly if not quite the entire township and adjoining neighborhoods, is in the hands of S. D. Baptists. For thirty-seven years no liquor has been sold in the place. No billiard tables, saloons, low places of resort, or other disreputable attractions, here present themselves to the young. This fact, in connection with the quiet and retirement here to be found, renders the place peculiarly well fitted for the location of Alfred University, the leading school among the S. D. Baptists, which has so long been in successful operation here. The buildings of the University consist of a large three-story brick building, with basement capable of accommodating eighty students or more with rooms and board, a separate building for the primary department, a building erected and fitted up for a gymnasium, an observatory, and the chapel building containing lecture room, recitation rooms, reading room, and library, and rooms for the literary societies. They are about erecting another building, a Memorial Hall, in honor of President Kenyon, the founder of this institution, to be in the form of a Greek cross sixty-six feet each way, three stories in height. If carried out according to the plans and specifications, this will add greatly to the facilities of the University, and be a noble ornament to the University grounds, and to the place. Ground is already broken for this building, and subscriptions for it were freely taken at this Conference. The present attendance is a little over two hundred. At the solicitation of Eld. N. V. Hull, the delegate to our late General Conference, we made it our home with him. Here we shared the most ample and generous hospitality, and had the pleasure of sitting for awhile in the editorial chair of the Sabbath Recorder. At this place we were happy to meet, for the first time, Eld. V. Hull, of Iowa, and others prominent among them whom we had never before met, and to renew acquaintance with still others, pleasantly begun at their Conference in Illinois four years ago. The attendance by delegate at this Conference was quite full, the meeting being as large as any ever held by them, and larger than any other but one. Their house of worship, fifty-five by eighty, is capable of comfortably seating a thousand persons. This was filled to its utmost capacity on the Sabbath, and there being more present than could possibly gain admittance, another meeting was held in the University chapel. Twelve hundred persons in all were present. Eld. A. H. Lewis presided over the business sessions of the Conference. The questions that arose were often complicated, and the duties of his office trying and arduous. But he discharged them all with marked ability and success. In connection with the Conference, the usual meetings of the Missionary Society, the Tract Society, and the Educational Society, were held. Many interesting items pertaining to their operations might be given had we space. We were happy to note quite an active element of opposition to the practice of tobacco-using. One of their leading ministers subscribed $10 to one of their denominational enterprises to keep it from the hands of his boys, he said, who by some unhallowed influences had been seduced into the evil practice of using tobacco. Another item of interest to us was the presence of Eld. L. Andrews, now in his 79th year, who was the pastor of the church to which Wm. Miller belonged while engaged in the study of the prophecies and commencing the great movement in reference to the second advent of Christ. Eld. A. was therefore conversant with the arguments on the question at that time, and is still very naturally interested in subjects of a prophetic nature. He stated before the Conference his belief that the prophetic periods had ended, and that the 1335 days, terminating about 1844, marked the era of the great awakening on the Sabbath question of the past thirty years. While our S. D. Baptist brethren believe we hold some unwarrantable and perhaps dangerous views, we think we discovered at this meeting the evil tendency of one of the cardinal doctrines of their religious creed, on this wise: An essay was presented on the subject of the state of the dead. In defending the common view of the state of man in death, the essayist in conclusion denied the doctrine of the literal resurrection of the body. We were glad to hear a vigorous protest against such a view in the subsequent discussion of the essay, but we could not help querying why it was not a natural and legitimate conclusion from the position taken in the first part of his essay, which he held in common with most of his brethren. For if the soul is immortal, and capable of a higher and more intensified being after the death of the body than before, what need is there of the resurrection of the body, and what consistency in that doctrine? The doctrine of the immortality of the soul destroys the doctrine of the resurrection of the body by rendering such an event unnecessary and therefore unscriptural. And the necessity of the resurrection of the body once109 established, the immortality of the soul is disproved; for Paul expressly states that there is no other avenue to the future life except through the resurrection of the body. 1 Cor. 15. The subject is destined to be still further agitated, and we shall be sorry to see that principle of interpretation which would lead to a denial of the resurrection of the body find any countenance among them. By invitation, Eld. Canright spoke to a full house on Thursday evening, taking for his subject the scriptural relation of Faith and Works. He was subsequently requested by vote of the Conference to write it out for publication in the Sabbath Recorder. On Sunday, when the subject of future labors was under consideration, a good deal of enthusiasm was manifested in devising ways and means for the prosecution of their work. Bro. Canright was called out on the subject of tent labor, to explain the method of tent operation and its advantages, which he did quite fully. They have come to look upon this kind of labor with such favor that they voted to procure a tent and put it into the field properly manned next season. May much success attend them in this step. We were made very welcome while among them. The expressions of confidence and friendship could scarcely have been more cordial. We do not say that this is the feeling of all, some evidence to the contrary appearing on the part of a few. But we think we can safely say that generally the feeling on the part of that body toward S. D. Adventists is friendly—a feeling which our people everywhere, as a matter of courtesy and duty, would do well in all proper ways to reciprocate. The next S. D. Baptist General Conference is appointed to be held with the church in Walworth, Wis., commencing fourth day preceding the last Sabbath in September, 1876. Eld. Whitford, President of Milton, Wis., College, is appointed their delegate to our next General Conference. U. S.