p. 203 | SARAH GORTON by Sarah Gorton

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1868

SARAH GORTON

By Sarah Gorton

From Sister Gorton.

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I have often been enabled to take new courage when reading the testimonies of those who are seeking for a home in our Father's house. It seems to me that I, too, ought to be ready and willing to say a few words in favor of such a good work as the Lord is doing for us. Since I became a follower of my Saviour, I have learned that my heart is exceedingly rebellious, and that nothing but the grace of God can fully subdue it and make me fit for my Master's use. My prayer of late has been that I might be led in a plain path, and be willing at all times to yield my will to the will of my Heavenly Father.

But when his will I know, how long I shrink from duty, until I find I can advance no further unless I bear every cross and do every duty willingly. Pleading my lack of talent does not please my kind Master, nor bring peace to my soul; therefore I am resolved to bring all into the storehouse of the Lord, and with all the faithful, self-denying ones try to help on the great cause which is so faithfully carrying redemption's plan to a sinful world.

It is three years since in the providence of God, I was permitted to hear, and enabled to embrace, the third angel's message, which was faithfully proclaimed at Greenwood Prairie, Minnesota. Most of the little band that started with me then are still striving for the victory, and others have been added to our numbers since then. As far as I know, they are also trying to live out the health reform.

I have met with much opposition from the church of which I was a member, yet I have not for a moment been sorry that I did not allow sectarian principles to prevent me from hearing and deciding for myself whether the truths that we profess to believe, are in accordance with God's word or not. My father, when living, was a minister of the Episcopal Methodist church. I became a member of that church at the age of sixteen. My father taught me in my childhood days to believe that the coming of the Lord was near, even at the door. He also believed that the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, according to Matt. xxiv, were all fulfilled. But how very differently had I been taught after his death, until I was permitted to listen to the third angel's message. Oh! how thankful we all ought to be that we have been delivered from such a delusion as the belief in a temporal millennium, and that we are not left to believe such false doctrines as prevail at the present day. I, with the multitude, had forgotten the parable of the wheat and the tares, and other like teachings, until I was aroused by our faithful messengers. Truly, may it be said of them that the Lord will reward them an hundred fold in this life, and in the world to come, life everlasting. Why may they not take courage, and press their way on?

Have we not, also, one in our midst upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, and enables to show our faults and also the errors of false teaching, and point out a course to pursue that will enable us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God? Can there be any who are professing to keep the commandments of God, who are unwilling that God should choose his own instruments to proclaim his truths, or point out our wrongs? Rather let it be the cry of every heart, Speak by whom thou wilt, Lord, thy servant heareth. I can truly say that I have not a doubt but that the cause we have espoused, is all of God, and that if I but prove faithful to the grace already given, I shall be enabled to overcome. I feel very weak, but am striving to rely wholly on the merits of my blessed Saviour, and to walk in the path that he is marking out for his humble followers to walk in.

SARAH GORTON

Oswego Co., N. Y.