GROVE MEETING IN BUSHNELL, MICH.
By Editor
SABBATH, June 27, a Grove Meeting was held with the friends of the present truth in Bushnell, according to appointment in REVIEW. Bro. and Sr. White, and Bro. Strong were in attendance. Brethren were present from Montcalm, Ionia, and Gratiot counties, many of them having made an effort to get to the meeting which was truly encouraging. About one hundred and twenty-five were present on Sabbath, and on first-day, people in the vicinity came in sufficient to supply the places of the Sabbath-keepers who returned home after the meetings on the Sabbath, and to raise the number of persons present to one hundred and fifty or more. This was considered remarkably good attendance, considering the newness of the country, and the scattered condition of the brethren in this section. The grove was pleasant, and the weather delightful. Outwardly all things seemed to be as favorable as could be for a good meeting. Sabbath, A. M., Bro. White spoke on the double-minded man of James i, 8; iv, 7, 8, showing the evils of instability and indecision in religious things; setting forth the cause, which is, living at a distance from God, clinging to cherished idols, and giving the enemy an opportunity to control the mind; and presenting the remedy, namely, to resist the Devil, and he will flee from you; draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you; cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts ye doubleminded. Sr. White followed with a free and stirring exhortation to the people. The afternoon was spent in social meeting, and the frequent allusion to the forenoon discourse, and the many resolutions expressed in reference thereto, showed that the subject was well-adapted to the wants of those present, and that it had taken good effect upon many hearts. If all who heard will heed the instruction, have only one mind, and that set wholly on serving God, doing his will, and pressing heavenward, cleanse their hands, purify their hearts, keep a great way from the enemy, and very near to God, they will make rapid advancement in the heavenly journey. The Lord help us all so to do. First-day forenoon Bro. W. took up the subject of the Sabbath. The foundation for this institution was laid broad and sure in Eden before the fall. The design of God in giving the Sabbath was not that man might have a day of rest and worship. These reasons enter in no wise into the law by which it is enforced. If it was designed for either of these objects, any other day of the week would answer the purpose just as well. But the Sabbath is so ordained, that no other day of the week but the one which God set apart, will answer a single object of the institution as presented in the Sabbath law. The Sabbath is Heaven’s great memorial, to keep in the mind of man, so prone to wander from God, the remembrance of the Creator and his work. And though rest and worship are inseparably attendant blessings, they constitute no part of the reasons assigned in the Scriptures for the institution. Adam in Eden needed the Sabbath. After the fall it was tenfold more needful. And the further we come from Eden, the greater the need of the Sabbath. We need it more than any preceding generation. The facts upon which the Sabbath is based, will remain facts forever, and so, even in the new earth, and as long as that state shall continue, the prophet declares that the Sabbath will remain prominent among the ordinances of God, and that on that day all flesh shall come up to worship before him forever and ever. Sr. W. followed, setting forth the reason why, when the evidences of the truth are brought out with such clearness, people do not embrace it. It is the cross. The Jewish nation furnish a notable illustration of this. They had boasted to the nations to whom they had been brought in subjection, that their Messiah was soon coming, and their captivity would be turned. He was to bring them deliverance, and then, instead of being ruled over, they were to rule, and the nations around were to be in subjection to them. Filled with these proud expectations, and selfish hopes, when the Messiah did appear, without pomp and splendor, in humility, meekness and sorrow, so contrary to what they had looked for, they could not receive him. It was too humiliating and crossing to41them to acknowledge that this was the one for whom they had so long been waiting, and from whom they were expecting so great things. So, in the pride of their hearts, and blindness of their minds, they cried, Away with him, crucify him, crucify him. They took the prophecies which applied to the future immortal state, and applied them to themselves and the first advent of Christ. So prone are mankind to reach forward to the crown without first lifting the cross, and to seek to share in the glory without tasting the suffering that precedes. Let us not shun any cross, however heavy, which the truth presents, nor shrink from the purifying process, however severe, which is to test us, school us, and fit us for an eternal state of exaltation and glory. At the close of Sr. W.’s remarks, a little incident occurred, which so forcibly exhibits the power and blindness of bigotry and prejudice, that it may be worthy of mention. A woman sprang to her feet, who, in looks, and speech, and gestures, we might well suppose bore a very near resemblance to the one spoken of in Acts xvi, 16-18, only this one did not cry, “These be the servants of the most high God,” but just the reverse, “These remind me of the very Evil One.” “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” said she, “Christ is the end of the law. I read it in my Bible this morning. We have nothing to do with the law. Christ is the end of it. And I do not want to see people deluded into the idea that they have salvation through the law.” She went on in this strain in a manner that would have been a most interesting study for the anatomist, psychologist, sculptor and painter. With a bold and dauntless face, a fixed and piercing eye, violent gestures, and a shrill voice sustained by a powerful pair of lungs, she misconstrued and then denounced what she had heard; and inclining her head to one side with a ludicrous grimace, she said to Bro. W., “You grin like the Evil One.” All this was freely interlarded with denunciations of eternal fire upon our immortal souls. “You have got to burn in hell forever,” she almost screeched, and to cap the climax, wound up with the assertion, “I love religion;” a very singular assertion, taken in connection with the rest of her remarks. It was a query with many what kind of religion she loved. She exhibited a mixture of brass, impudence, anger, blindness, superstition, prejudice, and bigotry. No description is adequate to the occasion. Now it so happened that Bro. W., in his remarks, had taken special pains to discountenance the idea, or rather to refute the charge so often made against us, that we base our hopes of salvation on keeping the law, and Sr. W. had spoken of the deception under which people labor, in separating the Father and the Son, the Jew, who clung to the Father and rejected Christ, and the Christian, equally, who clings to Christ and rejects the Father. They are one; and the law of the Father, and the gospel of the Son, hold equal place in the plan of salvation. Yet this poor woman could not see this, or did not hear what was said. She had read that morning that Christ was the end of the law, and she had evidently come prepared to enforce that idea, and could not see or think of anything else. So she had her say, and without waiting for any explanation, left the ground, muttering, “these people don’t read their Bibles.” Such exhibitions frequently work for the good of the cause; for people seeing the utter blindness and unreasonableness of prejudice, are led to look favorably on the truth. Another case should be mentioned to show how unaccountably some persons will misunderstand the arguments for the truth. Bro. W., in his Sabbath arguments, was showing the absurdity of the seventh-part-of-time theory, and took as an illustration the 4th of July. Why not, he asked, consider this only a 365th part of time, and no day in particular? Why not shift about and observe it in one month or another as may be convenient? Why not take the 4th of June or September, or the 22d of December, when we have nothing else to do, and not in the busy season of haying as in this year? Why be so particular about the day? An aged friend present somehow got the idea that Bro. W. was abusing our national independence day; which so stirred the patriotic feelings of his venerable breast, that he left, declaring afterward, as we learned, that he would not listen to a man who would talk like that about the 4th of July! We were happy to meet at this meeting, very unexpectedly, Bro. E. Goodrich from Erie Co., Pa., and to find him strong in the only consistent view of the Advent movement. That movement is one from its commencement to the present time, and if we give up the past, as the timeists are compelled to do, we might as well give up everything that bears the name of Adventism. We may be sure that the counterfeit movement did not come first, and exhibit tenfold more of the power and Spirit of God, than any time movement which has been claimed to be the genuine movement, since that time. Such a claim is enough to destroy the confidence of any reasonable thinking man, in him who makes it. The readers of the REVIEW, would be glad to hear from Bro. G. more frequently through the paper. Four came forward for prayers at this meeting. Nine were baptized by Bro. Strong. Those who came the greatest distance seemed well paid for their trouble; and we trust that good will result.—EDITOR.