p. 180 | Closing Report from Tuscola

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 8, 1866

Closing Report from Tuscola.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

AFTER our course of lectures had closed in Tuscola village, I stayed a couple of weeks to rest and get things in working order. Although most of the converts to the truth had never made a profession before, yet they all took right hold in our prayer and social meetings. I here enjoyed some of the sweetest meetings that I ever attended.

Sabbath, April 7, met with the church at Watrousville. Here is a zealous band of Sabbath-keepers, perfectly united in love and the truth. Many a refreshing meeting, never to be forgotten, have we enjoyed with these dear friends. We organized S. B., amounting yearly to above $150.

April 14, held a meeting with the church at Centerville. All are firm in the faith, and most of them are doing well and going forward. But we were sorry to learn that a few are becoming quite slack and irregular in attending the meetings. This is a sure sign of lukewarmness, if not of backsliding. We hope better things from them in the future. Four were added to the church, and S. B. organized to amount to $140.

Monday, April 16, began a discussion at Watrousville, which lasted four days, with an Eld. Russel, Methodist. Question, the Sabbath. Most of the preachers of this county have been very bitter and blasphemous against the truth. This only served to open the eyes of the people to their corruption and wickedness. It helped the truth very much. But Eld. R. in the beginning took a different course, one calculated to deceive and mislead our brethren. He was very plausible and friendly; said nothing openly against the truth; attended their prayer-meetings, and said he knew God was with them, and that he expected to meet them in Heaven, &c., inviting them at the same time to attend his meetings.

"Walk into my parlor, said the spider to the fly."

But, as a good brother once said to me, "Adventism won't mix!" Sunday-keepers may hide their real sentiments for a while; but as our brethren talk about the present truth, the coming of Jesus, the law of God, &c., it becomes a living condemnation to them, and they cannot stand it. So it was in this case. By accident our meetings clashed, and in consequence Eld. R. attended our meeting. I happened to speak on the seal of God and the mark of the beast. This was too strong food for his pretended "Christian charity," so he got up and denounced us as heretics, false prophets, deceivers, &c., and said that we were all bound for perdition. These were those "Christian brethren" that he could worship with, and was sure that he should meet in Heaven! Very consistent, indeed! This brought on the discussion. I took our established position, that the Sabbath was founded in Eden before the fall, kept by the patriarchs, incorporated by God into the moral law, ratified by Christ, kept by his apostles, and the early Christians.

He affirmed that the days of creation were long, indefinite geological periods, and that the seventh day, or God's rest-day, was "going on still!" Hence "one seventh part of time" is all we need to keep, and that may come on any day. But a fatal objection to his theory of God's resting still, is found in Gen. ii, 3. "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he HAD RESTED from all his work." This is positive proof that his rest was in the past, thousands of years ago. He confounded the Sabbath of the Lord with the ceremonial sabbaths, affirming that they were all the same, and quoted Lev. xxiii to prove it. But verse 38 says these yearly sabbaths were "BESIDES the Sabbath of the Lord." This confounded him again.

He then took a most outrageously absurd, and notoriously false, position, viz., that the Jews kept the seventh-day Sabbath on every day in the week in different years, the same as we keep the 4th of July sometimes on Sunday, then on Monday, &c. To prove this he cited us to Clarke's Commentary. When requested to read it, he said that it was several years ago that he saw it; but somehow he could not find it just then! But do the Jews keep Sabbath so now? Do they ever keep Monday, Tuesday, or any other day but Saturday? All Christendom knows that they do not, nor never did. This argument he could not evade. He then attempted to prove the first-day Sabbath by the usual New-Testament arguments, and the fathers. This was a total failure, as it ever must be.

One fact alone in this discussion showed on which side the Bible was. During a four days' discussion of a Bible subject he only quoted fifteen texts of scripture! I re-read and answered every one of them, besides using eighty-five proof texts, not a single one of which did he dare to read, or attempt to answer!

At the close of the discussion, our brethren were stronger on the Sabbath than ever, and had a joyful time, being well pleased that the discussion had occurred. They were there from all parts of the county. But Sunday-keepers felt very bad about it, if their cross looks and angry words were a true index to their feelings. This showed very plainly which way the battle went.

Sabbath, April 21, I shall never forget. It was a day long to be remembered by us all, my last Sabbath in the county, and our farewell meeting. Nearly all the brethren and sisters from Centerville, from Watrousville, and from Vassar came down to Tuscola, and stayed with us over the Sabbath. Sabbath evening, as we spoke on the beauties of the New Earth, and the final triumph of God's people, for a time our faith carried us forward to that happy day. For a moment, it seemed as though we were really in the kingdom, safe upon Mount Zion, greeting each other for the first time. Oh, the joy of that one moment paid me for long weeks of weary toil. How sweet its memory still! We shouted, wept, and praised God together. But, oh, what will it be to be there! to greet our friends and know that we are safe at last! O my soul, be thou faithful to the end.

Sabbath morning, at 9 o'clock, the house was crowded full of Sabbath-keepers, about one hundred and fifty in all. Ten months ago, not a soul of them knew a word about present truth. Now it did my soul good to hear their warm and feeling testimonies for the Lord and present truth. We all felt to take new courage in this glorious work. Here was a beautiful illustration of the power of truth to change such hearts and unite them together. Of this congregation, a short time since, some were Methodists, some Baptists, some Universalists, some infidels, skeptics, worldlings, &c. They had almost as many different beliefs as there were individuals, and each one cared only for himself. But now how changed they appear! They all love the same blessed truth, the same God, the same people, and the same hope. When one speaks, it expresses the minds of all, and every heart responds, Amen.

"How blest the sacred tie that binds, In sweet communion kindred minds! Their streaming eyes together flow, For human guilt and human woe."

In the morning discourse, the Lord gave good freedom in presenting the purity and holiness of the church of God. After the discourse, about two hundred persons repaired to the river. It was a beautiful, warm, day. There, in the presence of these witnesses, in the presence of the angels of God, and before the Lord, twenty-nine souls were buried with Christ by baptism. Every thing was "done decently and in order," and we felt that God was with us. This, I believe, makes one hundred that we have baptized in this county the last year.

At 5 o'clock, we all came together for the last time. In a few hours they were to go to their homes, and I to mine, perhaps never to meet on earth again. Till that hour I had not realized how much I loved these dear children of God. As I looked over the faces before me, how many touching scenes it recalled of past

days. In different places, for long weeks, night after night, they had sat before us, while we spread before them the last solemn message of warning, and with exhortations and tears, pressed them to repent and turn to God. We had been many times at their homes, followed them at their work, ate at their tables, and bowed with them around their family altars. In the prayer, and social, meetings we had often prayed and wept, sung and rejoiced, together. But now we had come together for the last time. As we bowed before God to ask his parting blessing, words could not express our feelings. We could only sob and weep together. I then reviewed our labors and teachings among them, and again called their minds to the perils which surrounded them, the earnest fight they would have to maintain, the terrible struggle just before them, then the final victory, triumph, and meeting in the kingdom. But would we all meet there? would we look in vain for any face I saw before me? As we thus talked to them for an hour, there was scarcely a dry eye in the house. This was a scene to affect the stoutest heart. Our brethren wept, and our sisters wept, and I wept, and we all wept together. This was a sad, solemn, but yet happy, hour; never to be forgotten. May the remembrance, the feelings, and the resolves of that hour, go with us while life shall last.

I could but contrast this with a scene which occurred in the same village just eleven months before. As the sun was setting at the close of a hot day, Bro. Strong and I entered the place alone, covered with dust, tired, homesick, and friendless. Not an acquaintance, not a friend, not a Sabbath-keeper in the county! With the Bible in our hands, and our trust in God, we went to work. Now as we were about to leave the same place, how changed were our circumstances! Many scores of warm hearts beat in unison with ours, and our souls were united together by the strongest ties. Bless God for a truth which will do such a work as this. Of the company assembled there that night, an outsider could but say, "Behold how these Christians love each other." But I must stop.

God bless you, dear friends in Tuscola. Hold on to the truths which you have received. Keep up courage, keep up your meetings, and some one will visit you soon. Read carefully, and practice conscientiously, the Resolutions on Dress, passed by this church. Pray for us and the cause of God.

D. M. Canright.

Battle Creek, Mich.