Returns from Monterey, Mich.
By G. G. H.
BRO. SMITH:—I wish to say a few words about the state of things as they exist here. A great excitement prevails among the people about Sunday-keeping. Bro. Cornell gave us a few lectures on the prophecies and sunday-keeping, which were well received by a few. He finished his lectures Sunday evening, the 20th of January. One week from that time was the appointment of Bro. Osborn, our Methodist preacher. It was his regular appointment, and he had agreed to preach on the Evidences of Christianity. Well, when the hour for the appointment came, we found him on the spot, but he wished to be excused from taking up the subject above mentioned; for there was a subject which he deemed of more importance to the people. He said he understood there had been a wonderful luminary in the place, teaching the people wonderful things; and that he supposed the result would be the same here, as it had been in other places, and he wished to caution his people against embracing the doctrine of those deluded Millarites; for their object is to break up churches and divide neighborhoods, and set friend against friend, and divide families, which he thought was damnable heresy.
He said he had not heard the wonderful luminary, but he had heard others, and when you had heard one, you had heard them all. He said it was strange that men of mind who could think for themselves, should be led away by a man that confessed himself to be a fool, as he understood that Bro. Cornell had done more than once. And then he told us what he knew about the Millarites. He said there was a large number of those deluded beings that lived in the same village that he lived in, and said that they were always fighting among themselves, and that they denied the Bible, and said that man was on a level with a hog, or a goose, or any other brute. He talked in this way to us till he supposed that he had made us all sick of Millerism and no-soulism; they must hitch on to the tail end of all the rest, the Sabbath; which he said he would not say much about, but he thought it was of little importance. He thought it made but little difference what day we kept, if we kept it right; and so left the subject; and was about to close the meeting when he was interrupted by a sister that belonged to the class wishing a letter, as she was dissatisfied with the relation she sustained to her preacher and to the leaders of the church, and thought she would be better out of the church than in it. Our good pastor saw that the craft was in danger, and well he might. During the class-meeting he was sadly disappointed to learn that four of his class had been led away by “the wonderful luminary,” and not only that, but there were sixteen or eighteen in the place that had embraced the truth of the Seventh-day Sabbath. So, you see, it is making division in the church and in the neighborhood, but it must be so; for there will be a few that will embrace the truth while others will reject it. We have meetings twice a week, Sabbath-day and Thursday evening. Our neighbors are enquiring what they must do to inherit eternal life. Backsliders are coming back and doing their first works again. Our pastor thinks the world will continue to roll around the same as it has done, whether they leave the church or not. But I am glad that there are a few who are willing to follow the example of the Saviour and apostles; and also that of the holy women, who followed the body of the Saviour to the tomb, and saw how it was laid, and returned and prepared spices and ointment, and rested the Sabbath-day according to the Commandment. Luke xxiii, 26. Please inform us through the paper what the Review comes at a year. We had the impression that it was one dollar a year. G. G. H.