Encouragement to Labor in Love
By E. M. Warren
DEAR FRIENDS IN THE CAUSE OF TRUTH: I love to read your letters in our dear paper. My heart goes out in sympathy for you, as in lonely places, here and there, you are trying to live out unpopular truth and let the light from Heaven reflect upon others. Oh! if we keep very close to Jesus, so that we drink in his loving Spirit, our associates will feel that we have something precious, the light will reflect from our faces, and the truth be seen in the very expression of our countenances. It is worth everything to have this life within, then when we speak to others it seems to enliven their hearts. How can we move the hearts of others unless our own hearts are first moved by the power of truth? But have you labored in love for others, and seen no hopeful signs? Do not be discouraged. Begin to have faith. Faith is not sight. When the REVIEW first came to our house, I would not read it. I had been told of the disappointment of the Adventists in 1844, and supposing them to be errorists, decided not to have anything to do with their publications. Of course it was the suggestion of Satan in order to keep the truth from me. For several years I carried this out pretty strictly, and when the rest of our family had finally yielded, my mind did not change. I thought they were going back into formalism, and did not wish to follow. Dear friends, if you knew how your lives are taken by unbelievers as specimens of your “doctrines carried out!” Oh! if, in every way, we represent the truth rightly, with how much greater power would it tell upon others. My father kept the Sabbath alone several years, but, though I had considerable confidence in his piety, I knew there was something deeper. Now when I think what a tide of opposition he met, I am grateful that he held out at all against our combined efforts. Finally our family obtained “Spiritual Gifts,” and I read Vol. 2. There was the spirit of the Master, and I became convinced that Seventh-day Adventists had truth with them. Since then I have enjoyed reading their writings. Thank the Lord that he did not let me perish in shutting my eyes to the light. How merciful he is. I desire to be sanctified through the truth; I want the inner life. I want to be Jesus’ little child, that he may feed me daily from his own hand. What of pleasure do they know, who never meet with Jesus? I have written this sketch by request of one who first sent the REVIEW to us. May it encourage some one, who has labored seemingly in vain, still to hope, that the seed may yet spring up.