Locust Grove, Kentucky.
By D. T. Bourdeau
I CLOSED my brief effort at Sonora, with a discourse on the fifth kingdom. A good impression was left, and quite a number of our works were taken. We did not take up the Sabbath question, because we were well satisfied that the proprietor of the house would not permit us to do it justice, as he was bitterly opposed to our views, and had said he would close the house when he saw fit. We thought it wrong to speak on this question while knowing that we could not present it fully before the people, yet we cannot leave this important subject in the shade, as it stands prominent in the moral reform for these times. January 23, I resumed my lectures at Locust Grove, having walked nine miles in melting snow and mud to reach the place. I have been laboring here ever since, with the exception of last Friday and Sabbath, which I spent in company with Dr. Combs, in going six miles into the country to have an interview with a Baptist minister, who, we had been told, preached mainly on the prophecies. It snowed all the afternoon Friday, during three hours of which we rode on horseback, facing the wind and storm; and the minister did not come. But we had an opportunity of hearing one of his members, who, being a firm believer, and well informed in many things, was fully competent to represent his views, some of which were rather novel. Here is a synopsis as far as they were expressed: 1. We are living in the last days. 2. Christ's second coming will not be literal and personal, 3. The first resurrection will be spiritual, and will be realized in glorious events to the church. 4. The world is to be converted by the power of God, without the special co-operation of man, as man is not a free moral agent. Yet in speaking on the degeneracy of our race as a sign of the times, he said he believed weakness and decrepitude would increase until children, as well as old men, would walk with staffs in the streets. A strange state of things in a temporal millennium! 5. The book of Revelation, which is their text-book, belongs exclusively to the Gentiles. The Jews have no part in it. But when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, the Jews will all come in and be saved. 6. Lincoln was Antichrist. 7. The Leopard beast, with seven heads and ten horns, is a symbol of the United States, the president and his cabinet answering to the seven heads, and the ten military divisions to the ten horns. Yet he claimed that the toes of the image represented the ten kingdoms of the Roman Empire. 8. The two-horned beast is also an emblem of this government, etc., etc. We set forth the Bible view of these subjects before this man and a few candid Baptists, who could not agree with him, removing, as we trust, some prejudice, and feeling very grateful for a clear, connected, and consistent system of truth. Yesterday morning, in company with Dr. Combs, we came to this place, a distance of eleven miles, on horseback, and got here in time to hear Eld. Daugherty, a Disciple preacher, read and comment upon the third chapter of Galatians, to make the people believe that the law of God was abolished. He then gave a practical discourse, at the close of which he invited me to speak. I responded by giving a forty-five minutes' speech on the holiness for these times, defining the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and reading extracts from Alexander Campbell, John Wesley, and other reformers on the Law of God, to show that we simply carry out the fundamental principles of all true reformers. We also handed out forty tracts on the two laws, and gave our opening discourse on the law of God, last evening. It will take time to remove prejudice, and start the work in this State. Many are twenty-five years behind the times on the doctrine of election, thinking that their salvation is in the hands of God, that there is no falling from grace, etc., and, therefore, not feeling the importance of advancing in reform. Also, there is prejudice existing with reference to northern people, growing out of abuses, atrocities, and most cruel and unjust murders inflicted by unprincipled northern soldiers in connection with guerrillas. In a number of instances we find that some of the best and most harmless citizens have been slaughtered without mercy. We do not preach politics, but preach the word, and point the people to a better world. A few are being convinced that we have the truth on the Sabbath, and will embrace it. We meet but little opposition on the coming of the Lord. It is blessed to work in so good a cause. Our courage is good. God blesses. Pray for us.
D. T. BOURDEAU.
Locust Grove, Ky., Feb. 5, 1872.