A Plea for Restoration
By E. O. Meacham
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: Some years have passed since I have spoken to you, although the Scriptures enjoin it upon us to speak often to one another. I have been slow to believe in God's promises. But “the Lord is not slack concerning his promises as154some men count slackness,” and I begin to see that I have done wrong in distrusting Him whose goodness and mercy has ever followed me through life. Looking from the stand-point which I occupied, I thought our heavenly Father had no more a people on the earth. The church and the world seemed to me alike. All for self, and all seeking the mammon of unrighteousness. So I stood aloof from them. I was bitter in my denunciations against them, and turned from them in disgust. I became indifferent to religious duties—having the form of godliness, but not the power. Thus I lived until my lot was again cast among Sabbath-keepers. My lot was next cast among the despised in Clyde, and here I found the good Samaritan—a people zealous of good works—a neighborhood of Sabbath-keepers who had not forgotten the new commandment to “love one another.” They appear to be living in the abnegation of the self-hood, cherishing the Health Reform, and patiently waiting for the kingdom of God. May the Lord bless and prosper them. As I have been so derelict in duty, and by my wrong course of action wounded the feelings of my friends, I ask to be forgiven, and restored back to the fellowship of the church, and may we so live as to be accounted worthy to suffer shame for His name, and ultimately have a seat in his kingdom. Yours striving for the truth.
E. O. MEACHAM. Morrison, Ill., Feb. 18, 1867.