Conference Department by J. S. MILLER

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1868

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.

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: Although it is my custom to write quite frequently for the REVIEW by way of reporting the state of the cause in those localities where I happen to wander, I fear I have at times neglected my duty in the “Review Conference Meeting.” It is sometimes easier to observe and make remarks on what others are doing than to relate truthfully and unreservedly our own personal experiences. I do not mean by this that I think it is always duty to tell all our experiences, but yet there are events sometimes occurring in our daily life which the cause demands should be given to the church, either locally or in general, which require of us so much humility that we shrink from the task. But when we find ourselves in this condition, we have the consoling assurance, that “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

It is now just two years since I embraced the Sabbath. Perhaps this may sound strange to some of my Seventh-day Baptist brethren, to whose church I belonged for some twelve years. But being brought up to keep the true Sabbath as an act of obedience to earthly parents, is not embracing it. Nor is it embracing the Sabbath to unite with a church that holds it to be our duty to observe this day. All this may be done without our ever once seeing the claims of God’s law upon us. When I say that I embraced the Sabbath two years ago, I mean that I at that time came to see that sin was the transgression of the law, and that the word law, when thus used, means the ten commandments, and nothing else. Now, when we come to see ourselves sinners in the light of God’s law, and when we confess and forsake those sins, we may properly be said to have embraced the truth that the law reveals to us.

Two years’ experience in trying to live out the whole truth, has not lessened my confidence in the work of the Lord. Oh, how I can thank the Lord for the way in which he has led me. It has been one steady, gradual advance in the light of truth. I have found that light does not always come at once. It is just a little more new light—a little trial of my faith—and then the rich blessing of God’s Spirit resting down, and this, in turn, leads me to discover new beauties in the law of God, and in the plan of Salvation, and imperfections in my own heart, and in my course of life which I was before unable to see.

But, oh, how much of my time have I been shorn of my strength for want of a spirit of willing obedience. How often have I seen new light, and then gone days, and sometimes weeks, before I would come out and fully embrace it. I find that I shall be but a poor laborer in the vineyard of the Lord so long as it requires a greater part of my time to be seeking forgiveness for my own backslidings, and my own backwardness in living out the truth.

During these two years I have been blessed with the privilege of forming acquaintances with a large number of persons of like precious faith, to many of whom I have become attached by ties stronger than any that ever bound earthly relatives together, except when such relatives have been partakers of this same common salvation. Our opponents tell us that we go into bondage when we commence to keep the law of God; but if obedience to the precepts of our Heavenly Father is going to result in such bonds of love, I think I can say, Lord, increase my bondage.

Pray for me, brethren and sisters, that I may be equipped with the whole armor of God, that I may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. J. S. MILLER.