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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 15, 1867

FromThe Advent Review & Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 18

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VISIT TO CONNECTICUT.

By J. S. Miller

I HAVE just returned from a visit with Bro. Rodman among our Connecticut brethren, and although a report of those meetings has already been forwarded, perhaps it may not be amiss to briefly acknowledge the blessings the Lord has bestowed on me in connection with this visit.
At Kensington I had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance with several who may properly be called pioneers, who had an experience in the first and second messages, and were intimately connected with the rise of the third message. Oh, how my faith was confirmed and my hope strengthened as they related some incidents connected with the infantile days of this message, and with its progress from that time to the present. Kensington may truly be said to be sacred to the memory of those trying hours which were experienced by those who first preached the unpopular truth of the Sabbath in connection with the second advent of our Lord from Heaven. Some of those experiences have been alluded to in the testimonies of sister White, but oh, how it gives life to those events therein related to hear them confirmed by those who were associated with her in those bitter trials. With the church in Kensington the third angel’s message is a reality in a sense that it can be to but a few. I could truly say on leaving that place that my spiritual strength had been renewed.
From Kensington we went to Pleasantville, N. Y., to attend a grove meeting gotten up by Bro. Wild, the only Sabbath-keeper in that section. At this place I was permitted to become acquainted with a number of God’s children, who came all the way from thirty to seventy miles to attend this meeting, and who might truly be said to be hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Oh, how have I been encouraged to plead the promise of the Master to such, that “they shall be filled.” Among those who attended that meeting were many who apparently possessed as much of a love of the truth as any Christians I ever saw, and while I could but regret that they had never been instructed in the truths pertaining to the third angel’s message, my hope was encouraged that the way would by some means be opened for them to receive the whole truth intended for this generation. May the ties of love there formed remain unbroken until we all meet on Mt. Zion.
Not the least interesting to me was the administration of the ordinance of baptism to some half a dozen candidates for the kingdom that is promised to the faithful. I can now see a beauty and solemnity in this ordinance that must be entirely unknown to those who disconnect it from the glorious doctrine of a literal resurrection from the dead.
May the Lord bless Bro. Wild and give him the wisdom that he needs to fill the responsible position in which Providence has evidently placed him.
From Pleasantville we proceeded to Abington, Ct. The week that I spent with Bro. Rodman in visiting among the brethren in that section was of profit to me. I trust that the acquaintances which have just commenced with the little flock there will be perpetuated in the new earth. May the Lord go with them both in joy and affliction.
And now, as I return to Rhode Island, I feel that I can truly say that the last four weeks have been weeks of spiritual growth to me. I can look back and recount various little items of experience which will be of profit to me in coming days; and as I enumerate those who have been added to the precious ones that have a place in my prayers and my heart’s best affections, I can raise my voice in praise to God for the cementing influence of Christian love.
J. S. MILLER. Ashaway, R. I., Sept. 30, 1867.