Untitled article by Dexter Daniels

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · February 11, 1868

Conference Department.

By Dexter Daniels

Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Heb. 2, 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. Daniels.

Bro. Smith: For a long time I have felt as though I would like to say a few words to the saints scattered over the wide harvest field, and as I have received letters from different ones, they have asked me why I did not write for the paper. I would say that it is not because I have lost my interest in the paper, or in the present truth; but I have often thought that if I could write as well as some of the brethren, I would write something every week. My faith is strong in this last work. I embraced the Advent doctrine in 1842, and was one of those that met with the disappointment in 1843; but when the time passed by, my faith was unshaken. I still believed that God had led us up to that point, for I saw from the word of God that the vision was to be sealed up until the time of the end, or, which was the same to me, the last generation, and as the vision was then understood, I knew that the time of the end had come; and I fully believed that some time in this generation, Christ would come and the resurrection would take place. And although I have been buffeted by the enemy and cast down and afflicted, yet my faith in the truth has staggered not, I have always believed that there would be no generation beyond this, only the generation of the redeemed, and so I believe now.

The third angel's message, I embraced about fifteen years ago. I kept the Sabbath for a few months in 1845, but through the influence of those in whom I had the utmost confidence, I gave it up for awhile; but I had no rest day nor night until I repented and began to keep it again. About that time I was visited by our much beloved Bro. Joseph Bates. He spent a day or two with me at my place of residence in Chicopee Falls, Mass., and although I felt established in the Sabbath, the visit was timely, and his preaching was most in due season. I saw clearly that the temple of God was opened in Heaven at the end of the 2300 days, and Jesus, our great High Priest, had entered it, to cleanse the sanctuary, and by faith I saw the ark of his covenant. Since then I have kept the Sabbath of the everlasting covenant, or law of God, and I think I can say, it is a delight unto me, the holy of the Lord, honorable.

The time has fully come for the breach to be restored, and I want to be among the blessed ones that are helping restore it, that I may with them stand in the battle of the day of the Lord. Although all my brothers and sisters have forsaken me because I am a Millerite, as they call me, I am trying to live consistent with my faith. They are most of them professors, but do not love the Advent doctrine. But I know that friends cannot save us in the day of wrath that is just before us. The Lord must be the hope of his people now, or he will not be their hope then. I choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God now, that I may be delivered with them then, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

The health reform has been a blessing to me indeed. I have been subject to the bilious colic ever since I was a small boy. As often as five or six times in the year, I would have that terrible complaint, sometimes so severely that I would not get over it for a month. If any one could have told me what to do, to be free from it, I would have given all that I was worth. I tried everything, consulted all the doctors I was acquainted with; but none of them could do me any good, and I sometimes thought that I must die. But since I have left the use of tobacco, coffee, tea, and meat of all kinds, I have not had that so-much-dreaded complaint, once. Bless the Lord for the health reform! I have removed the cause, and the effect has ceased. Oh! how much suffering would be saved if people would live up to the laws of health.

Truly God has led his people in a way that they knew not; he is making darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. God is now trying his people as he did anciently. It appears to me that God is now pleading with his people face to face, like as he plead with our fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. Eze. xx, 35–38. I feel thankful for the Testimonies. The Bible, the Testimonies, and the Review, comprise our Sabbath library. God has truly shown his people marvelous things, to encourage them to go on. God says, “Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her,” &c. Hos. ii, 14–23. Oh! that I could realize more that God is speaking to us by the gift of prophecy. Where there is no vision, the people perish. This I realize more as I talk with Adventists and other church members. They know nothing of the present work of God. I believe that the latter rain will soon come, and God is preparing his people for it. But none will receive it only those who are ready. What a fearful time is this. God has shown us that the drops of the latter rain will be caught in clean vessels. My heart says, O Lord, search me, help me to search myself and wash in the fountain that is now opened for sin and uncleanness. Zech. xiii, 1. Let us, brethren and sisters, drink of that water, and plunge into it and be clean, and be ready for the latter rain. It appears to me that now is the time. The church is coming up, leaning upon her Beloved. O Lord, grant me a place among them, is my daily prayer.

DEXTER DANIELS.

New Boston, Mass.