Present Truth in Crawford County
By T. H. DUNN
DEAR BRO. WHITE:— Believing the readers of the Review will be interested in hearing of the rise and progress of present truth in Crawford Co. Penn., I have concluded to send you for publication a brief statement of the facts in the case as they have occurred. I was a member of the Seventh-Day Baptist Church in this place, and always had believed them in possession of more truth than any other professing Christian people. One year ago last August I listened to a lecture on man's mortality, in which the speaker defied his audience to find the phrases, immortal soul, deathless spirit, and such like, in the Bible; and I was perfectly astonished at the amount of scripture adduced to sustain his position. The impressions received upon this occasion, however, were not lasting. Last Spring I commenced reading a work entitled, “The Bible vs. Tradition,” in order to prepare myself to meet the views of those holding man's complete mortality, and very soon became perfectly convinced that I was the one in error; and that man is a unit being, wholly mortal, and made alive by the power of God. Since that time I have been emerging from the cell of tradition. The Bible to me is most emphatically a new book; its teachings now appear to be most reasonable and harmonious. The doctrine of man's complete mortality, the resurrection of the righteous to immortality at the second appearing of Jesus, the earth restored to its Eden state as the everlasting abode of the faithful, are now to me, real and tangible, and furnish something substantial for hope to take hold of. Blessed be God for the light of these present truths. The Lord be praised that the scales have been removed from my eyes, “that whereas I was blind now I see.” How thankful I feel for the privilege of correcting my vain delusions—how precious the gospel to those who believe and obey it. More next week. T. H. DUNN.