Reminiscences of the Life of Uriah Smith by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1903

Reminiscences of the Life of Uriah Smith

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

The hearts of thousands, familiar with the writings from the gifted pen of Brother Uriah Smith, were pained to read of his sudden death. From his obituary we learn that when the final summons came, he was in the discharge of official duties connected with the cause which during almost his entire life was so near to his heart. Of him it can be said, unqualifiedly,—

“He fell like a warrior, He died at his post.”

The precious benediction for those falling asleep under the third angel’s message is truly his, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” His work is not to be measured by that seen in his immediate presence while living. It is safe to say that hundreds who are rejoicing in the light of “present truth” first saw it while perusing “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” or some of his other books. Though he rests from his labors, these books, as they are circulated in the future, will multiply the fruits of his labors, and add stars

to his crown of rejoicing in the great day when the final reward is given to the faithful.

My own personal acquaintance and intimate association with Brother Smith in labor for spreading the light of the third angel’s message, cover a period only a few weeks short of fifty years. His warm, genial spirit, and courteous, unassuming manner won for him a very large place in my heart, and our association has ever been of a most pleasant character. I first met him in the fall of 1853. He was then in his first year of office work on the REVIEW AND HERALD, in Stone’s Block, South Saint Paul Street, Rochester, N. Y. I had just returned from a five months’ trip among the scattered Sabbath-keepers in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and northern Indiana.

The laborers in the office of publication in those “pioneer days” had a very different prospect before them than the workers have at this time. No tithing system had as yet come to us. There was no fund from which salaries could be assured for services rendered. The facilities with which the work was to be performed, including hand-press, type, etc., had been purchased (new) for less than seven hundred dollars. Well do I remember when the first pamphlet was printed in the Rochester office, in the winter of 1853-4. It was a book of about eighty pages, on the sanctuary and twenty-three hundred days, written by Elder J. N. Andrews. The sheets were printed on the hand-press. A number of the believers in the Rochester company united with the office workers in folding, stitching, covering, and trimming these books. The office had no folding machine, no stabbing machine, no stitching machine, no paper-cutter. The sisters folded and gathered the signatures, the writer stabbed the books with a shoemaker’s pegging awl. After they were stitched with needle and thread, Sister Mary Patten (afterward Mead-Sawyer) pasted on the covers, and Brother Uriah Smith trimmed the edges with his pocket-knife, while Brother and Sister James White wrapped and directed advance copies to our people in other places. It was a happy day indeed, and why should it not have been? “The office of the Seventh-day Adventists was issuing its first pamphlet, printed on its own press.”

It will give our readers some idea of the sacrifices made by the workers in those early days to give a little of the experience of Brother Smith and his sister Annie in connecting with the Review Office. When they accepted the Sabbath truth, they had a standing offer to teach, in a new academy which was to be opened at Mt. Vernon, N. H., for three years at one thousand dollars a year, besides room and board. Seeing the need of such help as they could render in the office, they gave up the academy proposition, and came to Rochester, where they spent that three years in labor to advance the cause of present truth. For this labor they received their board and clothes. During this time all the laborers in the Review Office lived in the family of Brother White, and all practiced the closest economy, thus saving all that could be saved to meet the expense of publishing the paper and tracts.

These workers were happy, and even esteemed it a privilege to sacrifice. The feelings of Brother and Sister Smith are well expressed in words penned by Sister Annie herself respecting her feelings at that time: “Earth has entirely lost its attractions. My hopes, joys, affections, are now all centered in things above and divine. I want no other place than to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of him, — no other occupation than to be in the service of my Heavenly Father,—no other delight than the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” From association with Brother Smith in those early times, I know it was this same spirit of consecration that gladdened his heart.

This item of self-denial on the part of Brother Smith in connecting with the cause of present truth may enable our people better to understand the following stanza in hymn No. 667 of our church hymn book, written by Sister Annie R. Smith:—

“And there was one who left behind The cherished friends of early years, And honor, pleasure, wealth resigned, To tread the path bedewed with tears. Through trials deep and conflicts sore, Yet still a smile of joy he wore: I asked what buoyed his spirits up, ‘O this!’ said he, ‘the blessed hope.’”

Coming to the year 1858, when a stipulated wage was paid to the workers in the Review Office, we read in the paper issued April 15 these words from the pen of Brother White: “All our printers are at work at five dollars a week, when they can earn seven dollars a week at the usual prices.” For about this same wage Brother Smith, in addition to his editorial work, was acting as secretary and treasurer of the office. He kept also the lists of the subscribers of the REVIEW, and directed by hand the wraps for the list of nearly three thousand papers weekly. This secretary work he continued until the year 1862, when a hand mailing machine was introduced into the office. After that, for several years, it was Brother Smith who used this machine in mailing the weekly issues of the paper.

It may be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW to notice at this point one item in the experience of Brother Smith illustrating how the Lord, even in this life, sometimes regards those who forsake the world and worldly interests to follow and serve him. It may also illustrate how even some of our misfortunes may be turned to blessings. In early life Brother Smith lost one leg, and wore, in the times already mentioned, a “cork leg,” the foot of which had no joint. Well do I remember one day when he said to me, “How awkward it is to have a foot with no joint for the toes! It is hard to kneel and rise with such a straight foot. I believe a foot can be made with joints for the toes.” He began to study the matter, and at no distant day produced what he desired, and made a leg for himself that worked satisfactorily. He got it patented, and sold the patent to a manufacturer of cork legs for a sum sufficient to enable him to purchase a modest home, next door to the office of the REVIEW AND HERALD, and to have something left to aid in enterprises calling for the liberalities of believers.

As his family increased, and it became needful to provide a larger house, his inventive genius was again developed, in the construction of a desk with folding seat for use in schools. This he also patented, and sold his patent to school-seat manufacturers for a good sum. This enabled him to build the house in which he was residing at the time of his death.

One evening in the summer of 1866, after the close of the day’s labor in the Review Office, Brother Smith and I were sitting in the back room of the first brick office building, viewing a glorious sunset, and talking of the glory of the coming kingdom. Elder John Matteson had begun to labor and write in the Danish-Norwegian language, and was desirous to have books printed in that language, our literature being at that time only in the English. The question, “How is the message to reach the people of other nations?” was considered by us. We did not see how, with our limited facilities, it could be done, “unless the Lord should send over to America, in the great emigration to this ‘land of liberty,’ the honest in heart who would accept the truth.” Great has been the joy of Brother Smith since that day, to see the message going in those countries, and happy was he in consecrating the royalties on his books translated into other tongues, to the upbuilding of the work in foreign lands.

The labors of Brother Smith in the office up to 1867 had been constant, and at the same time he was preparing manuscript for “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation.” In fact, this whole book was written between the hours of 9 P. M. and 2 A. M. Other books were also written in the small hours of the night, after his day’s labor. This constant labor, and his lameness preventing much physical exercise, called forth this caution (“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, page 520), addressed to the initial C. After the statement of what he should do to improve the conditions for preserving his health, we read: “Unless he works a change for himself, nature will take the work into her own hands. She will make a grand attempt to relieve the system by expelling the impurities from the blood. She will summon all the vital powers to work, and the whole organism will be deranged, and all this may end in paralysis or apoplexy.”

Thank the Lord that after fourteen years of almost constant confinement in the office, he heeded the testimony in going from State to State, attending general meetings, so that the cause has had much of his personal labors in various States, and even in lands across the sea, as well as the continued productions

of his pen. As the infirmities of age came on, and difficulties in securing exercise increased, we see his life terminating in the manner it has. We thank the Lord that the brittle cord of life was not broken prematurely, as was intimated in 1867, but his years of usefulness have been prolonged, and he passed away at a ripe age.

Thus the Lord lays aside the laborers, one by one, but his work goes on. And, as expressed by Brother Smith in his article in the REVIEW of February 24: “God has weapons to match all those of the powers of darkness. All he has to do is to cause the earth to open her mouth (Rev. 12:15, 16) and swallow up the flood, as the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, as they rose up against the work of Moses. Thus all opposition to the work of the Lord easily comes to naught. . . . It may come from princes and men of renown; but the Lord is no respecter of persons. The people must stand true to their colors.”

Our brother sleeps. And to him the moment in which “the silver cord” of life was “loosed,” and that moment when the voice of God shall call him forth, will be as one. Blessed sleep! “Asleep in Jesus, soon to rise!” May the Lord enable us who still remain in the battle of life to “press together,” filling up the gaps made by the laying away of the workers. May the spirit of faith, sacrifice, and labor that characterized the half century in the life of our beloved brother be emulated more and more in us. Then indeed we may be prepared to share with him in that glad day the plaudit, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”