Untitled article by John Harvey Waggoner

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

Note from Bro. Waggoner.

By John Harvey Waggoner

I DESIRE to express my sincere thanks for the health I have enjoyed the past season, by which I have been enabled to labor far more than I expected. Lately we have had rains, and the weather is colder, by which, with increased labor, my throat and lungs are so affected that I find it necessary to entirely abstain from speaking for a while.

As we feel obliged to avoid contention as far as is consistent, I wish to say that if the blessing of the Lord is any evidence of duty I have felt that the way was plain. I never enjoyed more freedom in speaking; more of the presence and help of the Lord than during the five days’ discussion of last week. Those who labor in Ohio are peculiarly situated. The Disciples are very numerous in this State, and with them a debate is almost invariably the next thought after a difference of opinion. So common has this become that in many places a new doctrine will be utterly rejected unless its advocates will consent to sustain it by a discussion. It is an unfortunate state of things for which we are not responsible, and cannot avoid. We feel comforted with the assurance that the recent debate has not only fastened conviction on some minds, but removed prejudice, so that the way is more fairly opened for the truth in all the surrounding country. I now leave for the meetings North, regretting much that there are no more laborers to occupy this field.

May the Lord still pour upon his people the spirit of supplication, that laborers may be raised up to aid in this great and holy work!

J. H. WAGGONER.

Greene Co., Ohio, Oct. 8, 1867.