The death of our oldest minister, Elder Frederick Wheeler, of New York, in his hundredth year, and in full assurance of the blessed hope, will lead many to review once again the wonderful work that marks this generation. Within the active life-service of some still working among us, this third angel’s message has arisen, and spread to the four quarters of the earth. The “sure word of prophecy” never fails of fulfilment.
Of the longest prophetic measuring-line in Scripture—the 2300 years of Daniel 8 and 9—the first great division was to reach from “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah,” or the Anointed. True to the sure word, at the expiration of this 483-year period, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism; and as he took up his public ministry, he preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The remaining portion of the 2300-year period stretched down through the ages to the cleansing of the sanctuary, in these last days; “for at the time of the end,” said Gabriel, “shall be the vision.” Dan. 8:17. As the time drew near, a mighty advent awakening arose. And when the period expired, in 1844, bringing the hour of the investigative judgment, again there developed a message in the world declaring the time fulfilled, the hour of his judgment come, and the kingdom of God at hand.
Those who preached the advent doctrine before 1844 failed to see that the full message required a stepping forth upon the platform of the commandments of God. It was in May, 1844, that Elder Wheeler began to keep the Sabbath as an advent believer, joining with a few others of the blessed hope in loyalty to God’s holy day. Not yet did they see the full system of truth in the great threefold message. But when the hour came, in 1844, there stood a little band, keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” and crying, “The hour of his judgment is come.” And from that time, the last message has developed into a great movement that is rapidly spreading through the world.
W. A. S.
A New Movement for World Union
By C. M. S.
THERE was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pa., from the sixteenth to the twentieth of the present month, the first convention of what is to be a world-wide movement for making Christianity a matter of law in all the nations, putting religion by legal process into all the functions of government.
The convention was attended by delegates from all the nations, and these delegates were chosen from the mission workers of the various denominations. The scope of the convention’s object puts it at once in the class of the great movements of the day.
The whole world is acquainted with the international peace congresses, and the proposed Supreme Court of the Nations, for which the peace delegates are agitating. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America is, in its ultimate, a movement looking to the same end. The proposed International Brotherhood of Union Laborers is a movement for world union, though along a somewhat different line from the others mentioned. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is now a world organization, as is also the Layman’s Missionary Movement. Fraternal and secret societies no longer confine themselves within the boundaries of single nations; while churches have long since ceased to think of their members as speaking one or two languages only.
While this movement toward internationalization of everything tangible has been going on, there has been arising in this country an organization whose purpose is not only to overturn the basic principles of this government, so as to bring in the kingdom of God through legislation and politics in this nation, but ultimately so to inoculate the whole world with its ideas as to bring the kingdom of God in all the nations through the same modus operandi.
Said one of the strongest allies of that organization: “The kingdom of Christ must enter the realm of law through the gateway of politics.” And again: “Christ and his gospel, as universal King and code, should be sovereign in our government and political affairs.”11
Another strong supporter of the movement puts it in this way: “I want to see the day come when the church shall be the arbiter of all legislation, State, national, and municipal; when the great churches of the country can come together harmoniously, and issue their edict, and the legislative powers will respect it, and enact it into laws.” Catholic as well as Protestant organizations in this country have given their indorsement to the idea.
We are firm believers in Christian unity and in gospel methods, and have no purpose to oppose any movement designed to better the condition of the world in either a spiritual or a material sense; but the work planned for, and the methods adapted for, this new world movement must raise a query at once in every thoughtful mind.
Since the year 1864 that organization has been working for the accomplishment of its purpose in this land, and has succeeded in converting multitudes of religious people to its purpose and the feasibility of its plans. To such an extent has this been true that at the last congress of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, that great and representative body took a position in complete harmony with the purposes and modes of procedure of that organization. This has been due to persistent and systematic education of the clergy of all denominations, which that organization—the National Reform Association—has been carrying on for many years. Said a prominent delegate at the last Federal Council of the Churches of Christ of America: “I trust that one of the practical results of this conference will be the organization of a force that lawbreakers and lawmakers will respect and heed. . . . It is our province, in the name of our supreme King, to ask rulers to respect the code of our kingdom. Rulers may ignore sects, but they will respect the church. This federation will compel an audience, and it will speak with power if it will put aside its differences, and make its agreement its argument.”
The idea in this is that with the federated churches moving as one man upon the lawmaking bodies, the latter will yield to the demands of the churches, and enact whatever laws the combined church may dictate or demand. That has long been the aim of the organization which is calling this World’s Conference on Christian Citizenship.
That organization, the National Reform Association, has now undertaken the greatest task in its history. Persons from the far-away mission fields, and from the members of nearly all denominations, will be in attendance as delegates, and are expected, after the close of the institute, to return to their respective fields of labor to carry out in the different nations the same program and the same principles which the National Reform Association has been promulgating in this country.
The scope of the proposed undertaking makes a close scrutiny of the project an eminently proper thing. It rests on a basis which Americans long ago discarded, and this fact accounts for the name of the organization,—the National Reform Association. The reformation of the nation in such a manner as to unite religion and the state again in this country, is the project which brought the organization into being; and that organization hopes, through the influence of this nation, thus reformed, to reform the whole world in the same particulars; that is, to unite religion and the state in every nation, thus establishing in every country a national religion,—the Christian religion,—and outlawing whatever does not conform to it. This would be a union of church and state in fact if not in name. This method of evangelizing the world would be a strenuous one, unique in missionary methods, and utterly opposed to the spirit of the gospel.
But there are very many indeed who believe that such a type of strenuousness is in no sense conducive to real piety and spirituality. As it takes more than ceremony to make a saint, so it takes more than the establishment of religion by compulsion of law to bring in the kingdom of God in any nation. The nations have had many lessons in these matters; and if history has demonstrated anything, it has demonstrated the fact that wherever religion has been forced upon the people, it has dwarfed them in character, and relegated them to the rear in industrial accomplishments. Where religion and the individual have been left free, religion has maintained its purity, and the individual has progressed industrially, mentally, morally, and spiritually. Before sanctioning such a movement for our own country, or recommending it to the people of other lands, Americans should give serious study to the questions involved. We have read the histories of various individual nations that have united religion and the state, and the exhibition has been one from which we have instinctively recoiled. When the proposition is to do that for the entire world, the seriousness of the undertaking can not be too greatly emphasized. This conference brings us one step nearer the great crisis depicted in the message of Revelation 14. C. M. S.
No Apology
By F. M. W.
PASSING years demand no apology to the world for the movement which this journal represents. The nearly fifty years of its history have many times demonstrated the character of its mission and the correctness of its claims. Based upon prophetic prediction, the sure word of prophecy continually grows more sure, and emphasizes with every fulfilled and fulfilling specification the strength of the positions taken. Scripture after scripture clearly reveals that this movement is in God’s order, and that we are living in the closing years of earth’s history.
The prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, and 8, bring to view the rise and fall of the great world-empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome. The division of Rome into ten parts, as accomplished in the first few centuries of the Christian era, is clearly outlined. The rise of the Papacy and its warfare against God and truth, and the time of its exercise of great authority, from 538 to 1798 A. D., are graphically portrayed.
Continuing the prophecy of Daniel 8, we are brought to the seventy weeks of Daniel 9, a part of the 2300-day period of the preceding chapter. This period began in 457 B. C., at the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, reaching in weekly sections to the finishing of the wall in 408 B. C., the baptism of Christ in A. D. 27, his crucifixion in A. D. 31, and the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles in A. D. 34, culminating with the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the beginning of the investigative judgment, in 1844.
In chapters 11 and 12, with one sweep of prophetic vision, the seer of God sketches a continuous history of the world from the Medo-Persian kingdom down to the dismemberment of the Turkish empire, which in our day has been so rapidly going forward. Next is the standing up of Michael.
Coming to the book of Revelation, the prophetic Word has proved as unmistakable. The message to the seven churches and the messages of the seven seals reveal clearly the experiences that have befallen the Christian church from the first century to our own day. The events of the seven trumpets were accurately pointed out, the sounding of the sixth trumpet bringing us down to the loss of Ottoman independence in 1840. The time of this political catastrophe, based upon the correct computation of the period, “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,” of Rev. 9:15, was confidently predicted by the early advent believers some time before this date, and was as accurately fulfilled. The sounding of the seventh trumpet, still future, marks the close of earth’s history.
France has done its Heaven-defying12work, as recorded in Revelation 11, the prophecy bringing us to the time pointed out by the great prophetic sanctuary period of the 2300 days, when “the temple of God was opened in heaven,” and the work of the investigative judgment was begun.
Revelation 12 has met its record in the history of the church under pagan and papal persecution. Pointing out the efforts to destroy the Child of the church, Christ Jesus, the 1260 days of papal persecution, the helpful influence of the Reformation in preserving the church, and the final wrath of the dragon against the remnant church because of the commandments of God and the spirit of prophecy, we are again brought down to our own day.
The United States, true to the description of the inspired penman, in Revelation 13, has arisen at the exact time and in the precise manner foretold. It is fast doing the very work, the making of an image to the beast, which the prophecy points out. The three messages of Revelation 14 are going to the world, as announced, and constitute the great movement in which we are engaged, sounding the warning against the powers of antichrist, and proclaiming the positive doctrines of the second advent of the Lord and the claims of God’s law. The great church-and-state movement, against which this threefold message warns, is being rapidly developed in every quarter. The powers of earth are combining against the truth of Jehovah. Spiritualism has arisen, and is doing its baneful work.
Supplementary to these great lines of prophecy, the Scriptures predict, as forerunners of the second advent, numerous other signs and conditions. Thus we have the signs in the heavens, as recorded in Matthew 24 and other scriptures; signs in the physical world, as indicated by earthquakes, tidal waves, and mighty upheavals; signs in the social world, as predicted by our Saviour in Luke 17; signs in the political world, as brought to view in the third chapter of Joel; signs in the industrial conditions which exist, as portrayed by the apostle James and other Bible writers; and signs in the religious world, as outlined in the second epistle of Timothy, Revelation 17, and many other scriptures. These are fulfilling before our eyes with a fulness and intensity which admit of no doubt as to their application to this age.
Based upon these infallible predictions, this movement finds its place, and demands and commands the attention of men. Its range is world-wide; its mission, the awakening of the human family to the time reached in earth’s history; its object, to prepare man to meet his Maker. It needs not to readjust its reckoning, change its dates, or revise its conclusions. Time proves its positions impregnable, and gives emphasis to its deductions. Since its rise, unfolding events have elucidated uncertain meanings, clarified and enlarged the general scope of vision, and caused at times modifications of minor details of conclusion; but the fundamental principles and all-essential features have been strengthened year by year through continued study, and the searching, critical attacks of its opponents. Advancing light in the future will lend further confirmation to these great principles, because their depth and breadth are not yet fully comprehended; but no future light will unsettle the experience of the past, nor will any new movement succeed to this. This movement constitutes the closing gospel work for mankind.
Many of its early promoters have passed away, but it still lives, an enduring monument of its heaven-born inception. God buries his workmen, but his work lives on. Under ban of worldly governments, through persecution by opposing powers, in spite of betrayal by false friends, it has still moved forward. Unwise advocates in the future may trail the standard in the dust, its principles may be forsaken, it may be opposed and rejected; but out of the confusion and delusion of the last days, from the noise and din of contending elements and principles, it will emerge triumphant at the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Toward this grand culmination of earth’s history we are rapidly moving.
Let us not cast away our confidence, but, reviewing the evidences of the Word, and seeing in the passing events of the present hour the striking confirmation of the correctness of our position, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. He is faithful that has promised. Soon he who shall come will come, and will not tarry. We need not apologize for our faith; it is founded upon the sure word of prophecy, and upon the eternal principles of unchanging truth. F. M. W.
Waiting Upon God
“TRULY my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.”
A Year of Blessing
By W. T. Knox
What has the year been to us? is a question that we can properly ask ourselves, now that 1910 is drawing to a close. How has God dealt with us? How have we met our responsibility to his work and kingdom? While as individuals, as well as a people, we have had disappointments and sorrows, yet have not the dealings of God with us been such that our hearts should be filled with gratitude toward him, so that this will be to us a season of real thanksgiving?
It is true that our hearts have been saddened as death has claimed some faithful workers, or sickness has for a time appeared to stay the service of some brother or sister in distant lands.
In our personal affairs, without doubt we have all fared very much alike; for trials, difficulties, and temptations are common to all mankind; but, on the other hand, what do we see? Throughout the year the progress of this message has been steadily forward. From every field we in the home land are continually receiving the most encouraging reports of difficulties being overcome, of successes attained, and of constant growth. Continually the Lord is demonstrating to us that he has gone before us to prepare the way for his servants, so that there are ever standing before us open doors, inviting us to enter new fields.
In our large cities, especially in New York, we have been greatly encouraged by the results of this summer’s work, as seen in the excellent attendance at the different meetings, and the scores of men and women who have gladly accepted the message presented.
In our individual experiences, the year has not failed to reveal to us a God most gracious, and that the “same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” And while in America we have had some drought in certain sections of the country, yet the promise has stood true to us that “while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest . . . shall not cease.” And now at the close of the year, we find that generally the crops have been good, and the prices obtained all that could be desired.
In view of all this, surely we should in this national thanksgiving time be able to fully enter into the spirit of true thanksgiving. There is a great need of this, and that we give unto the Lord substantial evidence of our appreciation of his goodness. The history of this movement is big with evidences that our message is of heaven. The progress made in the sixty-five years of our existence, in which time it has, from less than a score of persons, gone to almost every nation and people in the world, might not of itself be sufficient evidence of this. But when we put with this marvelous development the wonderful fulfilment of prophecy, and the present condition of the world, with its evident impending doom, who can question that man to-day needs just such warning and such saving grace as this message carries? And nothing else will suffice, or will meet the present world-wide situation.
Who, then, will say we are doing too much in its proclamation, or that now we must be satisfied with our past and present efforts? Yet the General Conference finds itself compelled to call a halt. To missionaries under appointment for foreign fields, we are obliged to say: “We can not send you forward now. We have not money for your transportation or support.” Pitiful conditions are reported to us from some13fields already entered, on account of a lack of funds for their present work. We have not only been obliged to shut our eyes to the many doors standing open before us, but worse—we are not able properly to care for the work already established by the denomination.
The gifts and offerings of the people have not been wasted. They have been carefully husbanded and expended, but they have not been adequate for the necessities of the work. There is hardly a mission field to-day in the far East, in South America, in the Southern States, or in our large cities, that is not keenly feeling, and in some cases absolutely suffering from, the lack of funds.
All will say that this is not as it should be; but can we not now, in the few remaining weeks of the year, redeem the time, and change this condition? Let us all now, in this time of thanksgiving and prayer, change this unbearable situation, and at the same time show our appreciation of, and our gratitude for, God’s goodness to us by adequately supplying his treasury for present needs. Christ is calling to us to-day to meet him at the altar of sacrifice. W. T. KNOX.
Note and Comment
By J. N. Q.
Where the Shoe Pinched
CHURCH people at times become very enthusiastic in their efforts to have Sunday laws enforced to the letter. Occasionally their zealous enforcement of the law develops into a boomerang, and they feel the pinch of the ‘blue-law shoe. A recent case of this nature is reported in the Washington Times:—
Henry Zimmerman, burgess of Tarentum, a borough adjacent to Pittsburg, tied the blue-laws of Pennsylvania in hard knots by enforcing them so strenuously that the church people who demanded the enforcement are now begging for mercy. Burgess Zimmerman is liberal. He believes in Sunday ball-playing and almost every other Sunday amusement, so long as it isn’t too boisterous. The church people demanded that all amusements be eliminated. Zimmerman went back one hundred years, and discovered a law by which he could prevent persons from driving to church, as well as stop all business. He opened his campaign by arresting a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. Then he arrested the drivers of ice-wagons. Later he was besieged by the church people to “quit.”
The man who wishes to do so has the same right to attend a baseball game played on Sunday as has the religionist to attend service in church on that day. No law should ever interfere with the right of each person to spend the day as he pleases. If his enjoyment is to be found in church, he has the right to go there; if his desires take him away from the haunts of men, and out into God’s green country, he should not be interfered with, the only limitation being that he refrains from infringing on the rights of his fellow men. Civil enactments can never reform the life; to the Holy Spirit has this work been assigned by the Creator. J. N. Q.
The Sale of Relics
THE Roman Church has for centuries attributed great virtue to dead men's bones. If some church or monastery could possess some relic of a supposed saint, it was considered a happy possession indeed. If the relics of the dead should possess potency, why should not the same power attach to the living? Thus evidently has one of the present Pope's attendants reasoned in gathering up the shorn locks of Pius X, and carrying on a very lucrative business in selling them to the faithful. It is reported that he has made a snug little sum, principally from the foreign visitors to Rome. According to current reports, he confessed to this practise, and has been discharged from his position. Solomon says that “a live dog is better than a dead lion.” It is apparent that this grave offender reasoned that if the relics of dead men were so potent, the locks of a living Pope would be even more efficacious. Accepting his premises, we must admit his conclusion. He certainly was acting a consistent part, considering the beliefs and practices of Rome.
Preparation for the Gospel
By C. E. H.
Of the events taking place to-day, none is more noticeable and important than the opening of the old heathen nations to the advance of the gospel. Two mechanical means which are necessary to give the Word of God to the people are the printing-press and the agencies for transportation. These inventions are usually among the first introduced into those countries just emerging from the darkness of heathenism. They create a demand for education, and thus prepare the way for reading and studying the Scriptures. As a typical illustration of the way in which modern methods are taken advantage of, we note the following from the October number of the North American Review:—
No nation on earth excels Japan in proving that “education is the cheap defense of nations.” Japan has given Korea, where there was no public provision for education, a system of manual training, common and high schools, and commercial, industrial, agricultural, and medical colleges, having already appropriated over $250,000. In the Industrial Training Institute at Seoul, six lines of modern technical training, from weaving to engineering, are established. Where public hygiene was unknown, one half of the people dying of smallpox, and syphilis being almost omnipresent, Japan has introduced water-works, hospitals, and other means of preserving life, her appropriation to date rising above $6,000,000. In communications, besides a railroad traversing the entire country, with branches planned, and soon to connect with the systems of China and Russia, wagon roads are built or contracted for at a cost thus far of $750,000. . . . The model farm or experiment station is making, for the first time in Korea, a study and application of seeds, crops, and fertilizers, to test the ability of the peninsula, not only to raise cotton, but also other staples, thus far unknown. The Forestry School has established three model forests, providing for this purpose $145,000. Three more of these forests are to be started, and denuded Korea will be reforested.
C. E. H.
The Line of Demarcation
A STUDENT of the prophetic Word, and a close observer of the times, will not dissent from the opinion recently expressed by Rev. A. B. Simpson regarding the religious condition of the world. He feels that the line of demarcation is being drawn between the righteous and the wicked:—
Religiously we are at once declining and advancing. The bad is growing worse, the good is getting better. There are not as many Protestant Christians in the United States in proportion to the population as a century ago. The causes are chiefly Higher Criticism and free thought in the pulpit, and worldliness among the people. Some of us still believe that the only remedy for this lost world is the gospel, and a people who believe it and live it with all their hearts.
The Scriptures plainly declare that evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse; that, so far as the great professed church is concerned, the standard of truth will be lowered in the dust; that the principles for which true Protestantism has stood in the past, will be denied. The Scriptures also plainly indicate that while these conditions are found among the careless multitude and nominal professors, there will be a company of believers still clinging to the truth, and permitting the pure, undefiled gospel to sanctify their lives. In every church God has earnest, faithful souls, who deplore the conditions which surround them, and are looking and longing for greater light and power. These, in the closing days of earth's history, will stand in the breach, and uphold before their fellows the standard of truth and righteousness. In the two classes into which the world will be divided, may we stand among those who revere God and his Word, and follow on to know the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. In the day of final accounts we shall see that it has paid to serve God. We shall then “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”
Florida Camp-Meeting
By Arthur G. Daniells
This meeting was held at Leesburg, October 10-23. Although Leesburg is near the center of the State, and of the conference constituency, it is not so accessible as many other towns, as it is not located on any of the main railway lines.
The attendance of our people this year was very small. It was expected that a larger number would come to the meeting during the latter part, but the terrible West Indian tornado passed over the State when the camp-meeting was only half through. This storm did great damage. The camp-ground seemed to get the full force of the storm, which began about ten thirty on Monday night, October 17. A number of the brethren were out all night in the gale and drenching rain. They lowered the large tent to save it from being torn to pieces. The youth’s tent, the dining-tent, and a large number of family tents, were blown down during the night. The fierceness of the gale increased with the dawn. At eight o’clock the brethren secured cabs and transferred the women and children to rooms they were able to secure. The storm spent its force during the day, and died out with the setting of the sun. The morning of the nineteenth brought the warm, bright sunshine, and all hands went to work to restore the camp. By night everything was in good order, and the public meetings were resumed. A few of the campers left, but the majority remained to the close, and a few, but only a few, came in from their homes to the latter part of the meeting.
Although the attendance was small, yet in a number of respects the conference and camp-meeting were very profitable and encouraging. The annual reports of all phases of the work in the Florida Conference showed that earnest work had been done, and that the blessing of the Lord attended the efforts put forth.
During the year five churches were organized. These were admitted to the conference at this meeting. Thirty-nine members were added to the churches by letter, and sixty-four on profession of faith. Two church buildings were erected during the year, and another is in process of erection, and will be dedicated soon. The tithe receipts for the year were $10,237.24, an increase of $2,000 over those for the previous year. The report shows that the churches had paid their full quota of ten cents a week per member during the nine months of 1910, also that $1,450.50 had been paid on the $300,000 Fund, leaving only about $1,000 of Florida’s quota on that fund still to be raised. These gifts, with $250 surplus tithe, made a total gift of $4,864 from the Florida Conference to missions.
These reports were gone into carefully during the conference, and the brethren rejoiced to know that they were able to return so much to the General Conference for its foreign mission fields. When they found that there was an increase of $2,000 tithe over the receipts of the previous year, they cheerfully voted to appropriate $1,000 tithe to missions. It was very encouraging to see the joy the brethren felt in being able to send so much of their income to the General Conference foreign mission work. Thus Florida has not only ceased to draw money from the General Conference, but is now sending funds to the General Conference treasury.
At this conference the Florida Sanitarium was taken over from the private corporation that launched it, and now belongs entirely to the Florida Conference. Elder R. T. Dowsett, auditor of the Southeastern Union, spent several days at the sanitarium before the camp-meeting, giving its affairs a very thorough investigation, and was therefore prepared to give the delegates information regarding every detail of its financial standing. His report showed that $20,000 had been invested in the institution, and that it was at that time owing to private parties about $10,300. During the camp-meeting, some $800 worth of “Ministry of Healing” was taken by those on the grounds. The proceeds of these books brought about $800 to the institution, to be applied on its indebtedness. This left the liabilities at $9,500. The accounts of the sanitarium showed that the promoters of the institution had exercised good judgment and great care in the conduct of the business. Every dollar that had been received in donations of any sort from the brethren and sisters in the conference had been credited to the Florida Conference Association; so that it had $1,700 in stock. During the last year, the institution made a slight gain in its operations. The sanitarium is beautifully located, near one of the finest towns in Florida. It must have a splendid future, if rightly managed. In view of the fact that its liabilities were not more than half its assets, and in view of the patronage that has been worked up by two years of advertising, it was clear to the delegates that the time had come for the Florida Conference to accept the liberal offer made by the promoters to transfer the entire institution to the conference. After giving all phases of the question the most searching examination, it was cheerfully and unanimously voted to take the institution over. The private stockholders accepted this plan, and closed out their interests. It is believed that it will not be difficult to take care of the $9,500 liabilities, and that in a few years, the Florida Sanitarium will be entirely free from debt, and will be a valuable asset to the conference.
During the camp-meeting an evangelist secured a public hall close to our tent, and held two public meetings to expose Seventh-day Adventists in their teaching and methods. Our brethren did not favor him with their attendance, though three or four of us went over to keep ourselves informed regarding the methods and character of this attack. I must say that it was one of the most violent and scandalous attacks that I have known in my thirty years’ ministry. His misrepresentations must have prejudiced the people who heard him very much against us.
About the time this attack was over, a prominent Woman’s Christian Temperance Union worker from Tennessee, came to Leesburg to hold a temperance meeting. On arrival she found that her Methodist friends had failed to get her appointment, and no provision had been made for her meeting. In view of this, they came to Elder R. W. Parmele to see if they might have the tent for a temperance rally. This request was freely granted. As no provision had been made to care for the speaker, Elder Parmele arranged for her to occupy the reception tent. The next day she attended our meetings part of the day, and on leaving, arranged to visit the sanitarium at Orlando. She remained at the sanitarium three days, and was pleased to study our views with Dr. J. E. Caldwell. On leaving she took away with her quite a full assortment of our literature. This experience was particularly pleasing after the terrible denunciations made against us by the evangelist.
Elder Parmele was re-elected president of the conference, and was given a good committee to aid him during the coming year. The prospects are bright for a strong, progressive work, and we believe the reports a year hence will be still more encouraging than those submitted at this meeting. Florida is a promising field. Let us pray that this conference may be strong for the Master’s cause. A. G. DANIELLS.
Central New England Conference
By W. B. White
The annual Central New England Conference convened at South Lancaster, Mass., October 11-17, and was attended by eighty-nine delegates, representing the thirty churches and 1,087 church-members in this field. Three new churches, with a membership of sixty, were admitted to the conference, and the president stated in his annual report that seventy persons had received the truth during the past summer, as the result of the six tent-meetings held.
Since the last annual meeting of this conference, the State of New Hampshire, with fifty churches and about one hundred fifty members, has been taken from this conference, and, with the State of Vermont, now forms the Northern New England Conference. The Central New England Conference now comprises only the State of Massachusetts, and by vote its name was changed to the Massachusetts Conference.
Resolutions were adopted favoring the entering of our large cities with strong bands of workers, and the conference committee was asked to give special attention to the development of this work, connecting with it, as far as possible, the medical phase of the message.
Other resolutions favored the raising of their quota of the $300,000 Fund by Jan. 1, 1911; accepted the responsibility of carrying forward the “Ministry of Healing” and Harvest Ingathering campaigns; advocated strongly the extension of our church-school and home missionary work; urged the ten-cent-a-week plan; and passed many other actions touching local and general interests. Year15by year the Massachusetts Conference is growing stronger in all departments of work, and with its three million population has a wide field for missionary endeavor.
Elder H. C. Hartwell was re-elected president of the conference. Sabbath afternoon, after a sermon on the ministry of Paul, Brother S. W. Walker, of Worcester, Mass., was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry, by prayer and the laying on of hands. All present felt that God approved of this step.
This gathering was, in many respects, the best annual conference held in Massachusetts for many years. Unity, harmony, and love were present in a marked measure, and the workers go to their fields full of courage and confidence. W. B. WHITE.