Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/265

 CORRESPONDENCE 253 Oregon City, Oregon, Oct. 3rd, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother : I wish to give you a birdseye view of things as they are connected with the Baptist cause in Oregon. And first, I will give you a brief history of the yearly meetings of the past summer and autumn, or rather of the season now passing, as they have occurred, a part of which you have reported in your last associational minutes. The darkness which has hung over our feeble churches for the past four years has been truly alarming, not on account of any serious outbreaks among the members, neither on account of any sinful strife and rending divisions occasioned by agitation of naughty doctrinal debates. But the four years may properly be denom- inated the years of the reign of gold. Worldly mindedness seemed to hold imperious claim upon the throne of the affec- tions. But early last spring our brethren in the ministry began to manifest something like a fresh anointing from the horn of salvation, and almost everywhere it became apparent that the ear could be charmed by the simple story of a Saviour's love. In May, meetings were held with the West Tualatin and West Union churches, during which the one more than doubled its members and the last received four by baptism. The sessions of the Association passed off harmoniously, happily. I then visited Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. I found affairs, on the whole, apparently under the smiles of the great Head of the Church. Our yearly meetings were now about to be renewed and my mind was distressingly divided between the labors assigned me by your Board to proceed to Puget Sound and explore that important field, hitherto untried by Baptist ministers, and what I held as the no less important duty of laboring with the churches (dearly beloved by me) in the Willamette Valley in their yearly meetings then just coming on. I often went to the throne of grace for direction. Your letter urging the importance of our making immediate efforts to help Br. J. D.