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Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists - Contents
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    THE SWISS CONFERENCE AND EUROPEAN MISSIONARY COUNCIL

    The Swiss Conference assembled Thursday, Sept. 10, 1885, and continued until the 14th. There were nearly two hundred brethren and sisters present, including delegates from Germany, France, Italy, and Roumania. The minutes of the Conference show that it has one ordained minister, seven licentiates, and ten churches, which have a membership of 224. The tithes for the year were 8,235.11 francs.HSFM 51.4

    The report of the Tract and Missionary Society, which included its work since its reorganization, showed a distribution of 137,039 pages of tracts and books, and 39,920 journals; 9,066 missionary visits had been made, and donations for various enterprises aside from the tithes paid to the Conference amounted to 10,209.22 francs.HSFM 51.5

    A meeting of the Sabbath-school Association was also held. This Association includes eleven schools, with a total membership of 251.HSFM 52.1

    The most important feature of this Conference was the deep religious feeling, which increased to the very close. The earnest and practical discourses of Sister White were appreciated by those present, and seemed to take a deep hold upon the hearts of all. Fourteen persons were baptized, and Bro. Albert Vuilleumier was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry.HSFM 52.2

    This Conference was immediately followed by the third session of the European Council. This session was even more largely attended than the previous one, and as it continued for ten days, a greater number of subjects received consideration.HSFM 52.3

    Among the practical questions which were discussed at length was that of the use of tents in the European field. The laborers from England reported favorably concerning their trial of this kind of work in their field during the season which had just closed, and strongly recommended the employing of tents as an effective and economical way of reaching the people. The Council, after mature deliberation, recommended their use in the other missions.HSFM 52.4

    It was also recommended that Eld. A. C. Bourdeau remove with his family to Torre Pellice, Italy, to labor especially in the Waldensian Valleys. In view of the vast extent of the German field and the scarcity of laborers in that tongue, the General Conference was requested to send a German laborer to this field. Much attention was devoted to the question of colporter and canvassing work, and during the session a special class for the instruction of the colporters present was held.HSFM 52.5

    Soon after the close of the Council, Eld. A. C. Bourdeau removed to Italy, to continue the work there. His wife, however, was unexpectedly detained at Basle by the rapid decline of her daughter, Sister Edith Andrews. Sister Edith had been in delicate health for several years, and on the return of Eld. Butler had accompanied him to America in the hope of restoration to health by a period of treatment at the Sanitarium. During her sojourn there she suffered from severe and repeated hemorrhage of the lungs, and grave fears were entertained that the malady would terminate speedily and fatally. Under the most assiduous care and skillful treatment, however, she rallied, and at the end of nine months returned, seemingly much improved. This improvement, however, proved to be only apparent, as not many weeks elapsed before it was evident that she was again declining.HSFM 52.6

    Soon after the Council she was seized again with severe hemorrhages, and from this time the progress of the disease was marked and rapid. Her death occurred Dec. 24, 1885, about nine months from the time of her return from America. Thus the three who crossed the ocean together on the occasion of Bro. Andrews’ return from America, and who shared together the labors and anxieties of the work, are now lying side by side in the mission lot, awaiting in hope the coming of Him to whose service their lives have been devoted.HSFM 52.7

    Eld. D. T. Bourdeau, who had been located for some time in the city of Geneva, commenced here, during the winter which followed, a course of lectures in which he was joined later by his brother. At the same time Eld. Erzenberger, assisted by Eld. Albert Vuilleumier, carried on a similar effort in the city of Chaux-de-Fonds. The General Conference, in response to the request of the Council, sent Eld. L. R. Conradi, who had been laboring successfully among the Germans of America, to the assistance of the German work in Europe. As a public effort had been commenced in the city of Lausanne, whose population includes a number of thousand Germans, it was decided that Elds. Conradi and Erzenberger should join Bro. Bourdeau in the labor there. Courses of lectures were conducted in both French and German simultaneously. These closed with the baptism of twenty-two persons and the organization of a church.HSFM 52.8

    The recommendation of the Council in favor of tent work led to the purchase of two tents, one of which was pitched in St. Germain, Italy, by Eld. A. C. Bourdeau and his assistants; the other at Nîmes, France, by Elds. Bourdeau, Erzenberger, and Vuilleumier.HSFM 53.1

    After the close of the effort at Lausanne, Eld. Conradi, in answer to many and urgent appeals from those in Russia who had become interested in the truths of the message by reading our publications, started on a tour through that vast empire. Thus the living preacher has gone to the farthest country of Europe.HSFM 53.2

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