A Sketch of my Experience.
By James B. Goodrich
I EXPERIENCED religion at the age of thirteen in 1843, under the labors of Eld. Richard Gower, a Christian Baptist but a believer in the soon coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. He accepted the truth as far as he saw it under the proclamation of the First Angel's Message (Rev. 14 : 6, 7), and fell asleep in July, 1850. Through the influence of some of my associates, I soon gave up in discouragement, and remained in a backslidden state for about fifteen years. I then heard a discourse on the nature of man, showing that all are mortal, and that at death they go into the grave and remain in an unconscious state until the appearing of Christ, when judgment is pronounced. Then, if righteous, they come forth unto the resurrection of life, and if wicked, unto the resurrection of damnation. This subject attracted my attention, and I began to search the Scriptures to see if these things were so. When fully convinced that I was mortal and that eternal life and immortality can only be obtained through Christ, and that it is to be put on at the resurrection of the just, I considered the subject of too much importance to be treated with indifference. I at once made up my mind to live a different life; and in December, 1858, I confessed my backslidings and took my position to live out the teachings of the Bible to the best of my ability, by the grace of God assisting me. The Bible became my daily companion, a precious treasure. It was my meditation all the day, and was the joy of my soul. I loved to talk of Christ and what he had done for me. Blessed Saviour! How I loved him; he saved me from my sins. I felt as though I could not do too much for Him who did so much for me. I had a deep anxiety for the salvation of others, and I thought that if I would tell them of God's great goodness and mercy to me and of his willingness to save, they would believe, and in September, 1859, in the town of Hartland, Me., I made my first effort to speak in public, using this for my text: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." Isaiah 28 : 16. The house was well filled and the Lord blessed in the effort. I encountered much opposition on the sleep of the dead, and was told by some of my friends that if I preached such a doctrine I would never see sinners converted to God. Others earnestly pleaded with me to give up my views on the subject, and preach eternal life in misery (for thus it must be if the wicked exist eternally in torment), so that sinners would repent and be saved. But I believed then as now, that it is not necessary to preach a falsehood and ask God to bless it, in order to get men converted to him. There is beauty and loveliness in the truth, that commends itself to every candid mind, and we learn that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Rom. 2 : 4.219In my thirst for a knowledge of God's righteousness I became troubled over the Sabbath question. I could read in the Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but my religious teachers said that Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week, and that we were to keep Sunday to commemorate that event. I had an interview with one of the ministers who I, thought would give me the necessary information on the subject, and wished him to tell me why he called Sunday, or the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath when the Bible said that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. He told me the Sabbath had been changed from the seventh to the first day in memory of Christ's rising from the dead on that day. When I asked for the text to prove it, I was cited to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where the women came to the sepulcher upon the first day of the week. I turned and read in Luke where the women rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment, and very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to perform that work which they would not do on the seventh day. Not finding any relief from my perplexities, I remained in this unsettled condition until the year 1864, in the month of March, when it pleased the Lord to send Eld. J. N. Loughborough to Hartland village, and I heard two discourses, and in April I attended a series of meetings by M. E. Cornell. After hearing a sermon upon the subject, "Who Changed the Sabbath?" showing that it was the papal power, in fulfillment of Daniel 7 : 25, that had thought to change God's law and thereby exalted himself above God, 2 Thess. 2 : 4, I could no longer offer to God the observance of the first day instead of his original institution, and be an honest man. So I took my position to walk in the light of the Third Angel's Message, the last Sabbath in April of 1864. I was told by many of my First-day Adventist friends that I had left Christ and gone back under Moses and got into bondage; but my experience for about nineteen years has taught me that what David says is true, "I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts." Ps. 119 : 45. "Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments," is the language of my heart. I praise God for the light of the Third Angel's Message, now that the work is so rapidly progressing, and the signs of Jesus' soon coming so clear that none need be in the dark, for the Lord is causing the nations of the earth to speak in their perplexity, "the sea and the waves roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." May God help us to look up for our redemption draweth nigh. Jesus will soon come and take his children home. "Even so, come Lord Jesus," and come quickly. Amen.
Hartland, Maine, April 20, 1883.