Des Moines, Iowa, May 4, 1900.
My dear Brother:
... Since returning to this country we have had several letters from Bermuda. I will quote from one written by a colored brother 23 years of age, dated April 25.
“On Lord’s day, 22nd inst., at 2:30 P. M., fourteen brothers and sisters left for Somerset, to meet the Lord with those in that place at 4 P. M. We were all much blessed, and those at Somerset much revived. In the evening we had a gospel meeting; the place was crowded, and as many more had to remain outside. At the four o’clock meeting some believers not yet in fellowship were very much aroused...”
I may mention that Somerset is ten or twelve miles from Hamilton round by the mail coach road, but these brethren probably went in a couple of boats, so that the distance was reduced to about seven miles. There were only four at Somerset breaking bread, restored from an independent position while we were there, and several received at Hamilton.
Most of those in Bermuda were young, and have never gone through the storms some of us have known; a few only have been through trouble. I appreciate what you say about the weight of the blow of 1890 being still upon us. I have felt it to be so in this country. But what a mercy that some have been found ready to take it from the Lord, and suffer under it, as His rebuke for the state we were in. Many of the gatherings which have fostered the evil are, as you say, apparently flourishing; but alas, what a state they are in... puffed up beyond measure by what they consider as new light, while a few seem to feel that things they once prized are being taken away from them.... Copious extracts of notes of readings in this country having recently been sent to me, I do not think I ever read with deeper grief and sorrow of heart, any production of men who were once supposed to know and hold the truth.... One may well weep to see the desolations that have been wrought. Yet is it not an unspeakable mercy to be outside of all this wickedness? But we would be hard-hearted indeed, did we not feel the dishonor done to Christ, and the loss the saints are suffering. May God keep us humble, and not allow us to be discouraged....