A Message From Our Most Aged Minister

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

A Message From Our Most Aged Minister

[At the ripe age of ninety-five, Elder Frederick Wheeler sent the following message to the believers at the New York camp-meeting. It was dictated to Brother F. W. Bartle, who allows us to pass on the testimony of good cheer and confidence to all our readers. Elder Wheeler was born March 12, 1811. As a Methodist minister he was convinced of the advent truth by reading Wm. Miller's works in 1842, and joined in preaching the first message. In March, 1844, he began to keep the true Sabbath, in Washington, N. H. The accompanying photograph of our aged brother was taken Aug. 31, 1906.—Ed.]

DEAR BRETHREN: I am deprived by the infirmities of age from meeting with you, so I send a few words of testimony in writing.

I wish to bear witness to the infinite love of God in the gift of his Son to open the way of salvation to the lost, and especially to give thanks for his love toward me, in leading me to accept salvation in Christ, and for the joy and peace and love that I have enjoyed these many years in believing in him. I rejoice that he has seen fit to give me a humble place in connection with his work in these last days.

I was converted to the advent faith in the closing days of 1842. My conversion was not a conversion to a mere theory, but it was the power of God sending home the truth and filling my entire being with his presence, making the truth a living reality in my soul.

From that day to the present my faith in the way that God has been leading his people has been unshaken. Although we have passed through trials and disappointments, yet I praise God this morning that a glorious light shines all along the pathway he has led us, giving us the assuring hope that a little way in the future we shall reach the grand and glorious consummation, and Christ will be revealed in all his glory, and gather his elect to their long-sought rest.

I pray that the blessing of the Lord may be with you in your meeting in large measure, inspiring fresh hope and courage to go forward in the work. Let it be a time of renewal of our consecration to God and his service.

Nothing but a living faith in the truth and in Christ, that makes him our present personal Saviour, connecting us with him as the living branch is connected with the living vine, will enable us to endure the conflict and stand firm amid the perils and dangers of these last days.

I praise God that I have ever been permitted, not only to believe the truth, but to labor somewhat in connection with the work, and that through God's blessing on my feeble efforts some have been led to rejoice in the light and in hope of eternal life through him.

We need to be grounded in all the truth, and all the help that God has seen fit to give for the carrying forward of his work in these last days we should gladly receive and use to the best advantage.

I would refer especially to the gift of the spirit of prophecy, the Testimonies which God has seen fit to give us through Sister White. The Testimonies which God has given are a part of the work, and can not be separated from it. You destroy the one, and you destroy the other. They are needed by the church to help them through to the end of the journey.

I know by my own experience the help that those Testimonies are calculated to afford us. They have been a great blessing to me, and they will be a help to each and all who accept the light given through them. It would appear that some are wavering with regard to the Testimonies, but I would earnestly exhort all to accept them, and to receive the benefit of the light they may receive through them.

I would be glad to enjoy the privileges of your meetings, and be there to bear testimony to the love of Christ to me, and to the love that I have for the truth of God. The truth was never more precious to me than now.

I love my dear brethren in the Lord. I rejoice in the hope of by and by meeting with them and the dear Saviour, and having a place with them in the earth made new.

I rejoice in the prosperity of the work and its progress, believing that erelong it will be finished, and the glorious reward be given. I believe the time is near when Christ will be revealed. Although on account of my advanced age I can hardly expect to witness the glorious consummation of the work, yet I know by faith it is near at hand.

Praying that the blessing of the Lord may be with you in all the meetings, and that heavenly wisdom may be given in all your plans for carrying forward the work, and asking that I may be remembered in your prayers, I remain,

Your aged brother in the truth, F. WHEELER.

*West Monroe, N. Y.