Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/375

CORRESPONDENCE 357 a consent to make the necessary explorations in Washington Ter. during the summer and early part of the fall. To the Executive Board of the Am. Bap. Home Mission Society: The subscriber desires reappointment as Exploring Agent and General Itinerant for Oregon Ter. for the term of one year from the first day of April next, with permission to spend three or four months mostly in Oregon City and vicinity, in view of the present peculiar condition of the church and the afflicted and unsettled state of my family in the removal of Mrs. Fisher by death, with the same salary as the present year. EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent. N. B. The undersigned concurs in all the terms and state- ments of the foregoing application. Yours, JOHN D. POST. Rev. B. M. Hill, Oregon City, Mar. 10, 1854. Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother : The last week has been one of interest to the little church in this place. Our meetings were continued during four inter- vening evenings of the week. On Saturday at our covenant meeting, four interesting young persons came before the church, related their Christian experience and were received for baptism, and on Sabbath, after the morning services, we repaired to the banks of the Willamette where I was per- mitted to baptize seven converts. These make sixteen that I have baptized into this church within the past four weeks ; one more is received for baptism and we have an interesting state of things in our community at present. The converts are mostly from the youth and are very promising. We have established a weekly church prayer meeting, a young men's weekly prayer meeting, a female prayer meeting, the young ladies' weekly prayer meeting and the monthly concert of prayer, in which a collection for the cause of missions is to be taken up at each meeting. All the converts take part in these religious exercises, and it seems to me that I cannot consistently leave the lambs of the fold long at a time till