Duty in Regard to Baptism.
THE following is a copy of a Testimony, dated Aug. 24, 1850, and published in the California Missionary, Feb. 10, 1901, with this note by Elder Clarence Santee: “This Testimony points out the path in a question that has presented difficulty to many. Why has it not been published before this?—I do not know; but it is none the less precious now, in the time when the children of the Lord are breaking the last cords that bind them to weakness and a lack of faith. May the Lord bless this to the good of those who are not yet clear as to duty, yet who are willing to follow the Lord.”— “Said the angel, ‘Can ye stand in the battle in the day of the Lord? Ye need to be washed and live in nearness of life unto God.’” “Then I saw that those whose hands are making up the breach, those who are standing in the gap, that have, since 1844, broken the commandments, and have so far followed the pope as to keep the first day instead of the seventh, and who have, since the light shone out of the most holy place, changed their course, given up the institution of the pope, and are keeping God’s Sabbath, would have to go down into the water and be baptized into the faith of the sanctuary, and the keeping of ‘the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ I saw that those who have been baptized as a door into the churches, would have to be baptized again as a door into the faith.” “Those who have not been baptized since 1844 will have to be before Jesus comes. And some I saw would not make progress until that duty was performed. The angel said: ‘Some tried too hard to believe. Faith is so simple ye look above it.’ Satan has deceived some, and got them to look at their own unworthiness. I saw they must look away from self to the worthiness of Jesus, and throw themselves, just as they are, needy, dependent, upon His mercy, and draw, by faith, strength and nourishment from Him. MRS. E. G. WHITE.”