Your ShelfYour Projects

Untitled article

8%

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, September 24, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 15

Read the full edition

TO THE CHURCH SCATTERED ABROAD.

By Uriah Smith; George W. Amadon

Dear Brethren: Believing that we are emphatically in the time when “judgment has begun at the house of God,” and that whatever we do to get ready for the events before us must be done quickly, we hasten to lay before you some expression of our feelings in the following remarks, and in the Resolutions appended below.
The church in this place has just been favored with the earnest labors of Bro. and sister White, and according to the testimony borne, which all acknowledge to be true, we are sadly on the background, and instead of being a representative church, as we should be, in many respects we believe we are behind our brethren in other places.
With sorrow of heart we write it, that as a church we have stood in the way of the advancing work of God. Especially is this true in the matter of the Reform Dress, which we believe to be a style of costume bearing the approbation of Heaven. While other churches with little instruction have shown a commendable zeal in moving unitedly in this particular, our church, with the Health Reform Institute located in our midst, have, as yet, scarcely made a beginning in this matter, although fully instructed and faithfully labored with by sister W., Bro. Andrews and others. A very few of the sisters belonging to this church have readily adopted the Reformed Dress, and others would cheerfully do so were it not for the spirit of opposition that has been manifested by some, and those too who have all the time professed to believe the Testimonies. For this we fear that the frown of God is upon this church. The light from Heaven has not been appreciated, by many, and we feel that therefore this public acknowledgment is due to our brethren abroad who have been perplexed and thrown into trial by the course of this church.
We also wish to say a word in reference to the agitation of this matter among us just now. Bro. and sister White have not made the Dress Reform one of their subjects in laboring with the churches in other places for months, neither did they mention it in the meetings of their regular appointment here. But at a special meeting of the church, on the evening of the 16th, nearly all being present, Bro. and sister W. spoke plainly of our departure as a church from God, and the probable cause of the same, and it resulted in the presentation of the following Resolutions by the Elders to the church, which, after some opposition and much discussion, passed with no dissenting votes, a few taking no action either way.

RESOLUTIONS.

1. Resolved, That we, the church of Seventh-day Adventists in Battle Creek, believe it our duty in the sight of God to speedily move out in the adoption of the Reform Dress, as set forth in Testimony to the Church No. 12, and that we deeply regret our former indifference in this important matter.
2. Resolved, That we hereby earnestly invite Bro. and Sr. White on their return from the West, to stop and labor among us as long as shall seem proper to them, and that we hereby pledge ourselves to stand by them in all their labors of love for our good.
3. Resolved, That from this time, we, as a church and as individuals, seek God with all our hearts, that we may find the “old paths,” and have his blessing once more to be with us as in former days.
4. Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the Review.
We deeply lament the necessity of such action as the above, especially as embodied in the first and third Resolutions, but we feel that duty to God demands that our brethren abroad, who look toward Battle Creek as the great center and radiating point of the third angel’s message, should know just how things stand. We therefore ask of you, brethren and sisters abroad, wherein you may have been stumbled in consequence of wrongs at Battle Creek, that you will forgive us for our lack of consecration as a body, and that you will pray that God’s blessing may rest upon us as we make a determined effort to come up to the help of the Lord with our sister churches.
In behalf of the church, URIAH SMITH, } Elders. G. W. AMADON,