Untitled article by J. S. Miller

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 22, 1867

Conference Department.

By J. S. Miller

Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Heb. x, 25.

This Department is designed to fill the same place in the paper that the Conference or Social Meeting does in the worship of God. Speak often one to another to comfort, edify and aid each other in the way of holiness and true Christian experience.

From Bro. Miller.

BRO. SMITH: I again avail myself of the privilege offered in the Conference department of the Review of speaking freely of my personal experience in connection with the present truth. The privilege of communicating with one another through the Review is a blessing which I fear is not sufficiently prized by those who take the paper. Brethren and sisters, let us speak often to one another. Recently my circle of acquaintances has been much enlarged, and since it is not possible to see them all as often as I would, how convenient it is to just drop a few lines to the Review and talk to them all at once just as I would if we were all gathered together around the fireside in some New England home, with our hearts all aglow with the love of God, and, as Sister Cudworth has it,

“Our anchor in Heaven, Our hearts in the work.”

To one and all let me say, I have no desire to be one of those who draw back unto perdition, but I do desire to be one of those that believe to the saving of the soul. It is not always smooth water with me, nor do I expect to arrive at a place this side of the New Jerusalem where I shall be free from trial and temptation; yet, as I look at my little trials, and then compare them with the “blessed hope that is set before us, which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail,” I am led, like Paul, to exclaim, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

Oh, what pleasure do I take in my lonely moments thinking of those with whom I have from time to time become acquainted—thinking of the blessed seasons I have enjoyed with them, and wonder if they still think of me and pray for me, and then I am reminded of the promises that were interchanged to remember each other at the throne of grace.

I can now understand the Saviour’s remarks to his disciples when he told them that every one who had forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or wife, or children, or lands, for his name’s sake, should receive an hundred fold, and inherit everlasting life. I once could not understand how I could have a large number of fathers and mothers and brothers

and sisters; but now, as I think of mother A., and father B., and brother C., and sister D., &c., scattered here and there over a large extent of territory, and to whom I am attached by ties of love stronger than any known in nature, I am truly led to feel that the Lord’s words are fulfilled in my own case; for although I have not yet been called on to make the sacrifices he spoke of to his disciples, yet I have been blessed an hundred fold in fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, and the hope of everlasting life is beaming bright. Oh! that I were worthy the blessings I receive.

But I am extending my letter to an unreasonable length. Pray for me, one and all, that I may endure to the end, and meet you in the kingdom.

J. S. Miller. Ashaway, R. I., Oct. 10, 1867,