p. 180 | Conference Address

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 20, 1873

Conference Address

BEFORE THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE S. D. ADVENTISTS, MARCH 11, 1873.

Perhaps you expect of me more than you will realize. The field of thought that I would like to explore is so wide, that I can only touch here and there, expressing thoughts which may be disconnected. I shall, however, endeavor to speak to the subject of the objects of this General Conference. And I would first say, that organization, with Seventh-day Adventists, was not entered into as a matter of choice; but it had become a necessity. And now, with our organization, however complete, we need wisdom to use it properly. I regard organization more like a fort, to use military terms, in which we may intrench ourselves for protection and self-defense, rather than as a weapon for aggressive warfare.

To speak more definitely, organization should be regarded by us as the means of uniting our forces, and fortifying ourselves against outside influences; and we should be careful never to use it in a manner to oppress, to rule, and to govern, the consciences of honest men. Our system of organization we regard as very simple, and yet as very efficient; and although we entered upon it in our feebleness, as a people, some twelve years since, not patterning after others, but seeking for that which would answer our purpose, yet, in reviewing it, and re-examining it, we find that it seems to be just what we want; and we have found but very little reason to change it in any particular.

The General Conference is the highest earthly authority that we acknowledge, designed to take the general oversight of the entire work connected with the message, which we have to give to the world. Our State Conferences take the oversight of the work in the several States; and they are amenable to the General Conference. Our simple church organizations, for the benefit of local assemblies, are amenable to the State Conferences.

Our system of supporting the cause by means of Systematic Benevolence, appears to be the best that could be devised. It bears very lightly upon the poor man, drawing only about one per cent, annually, of the little which he possesses. And when this system is applied to the wealthy—when we consider that they profess to believe that the end of all things is at hand; and that they have but a little time to use their means, and when we consider that the system calls for only about one-tenth of their increase—they should be the very last to complain of the system. I know not where we can better it. We have tried it, and it works well. Where it is adopted in the several States, and receives proper attention from the ministry, and the leading members of the Conferences, their treasuries are well supplied, and in most of the Conferences there is a surplus. Looking over the figures this year, which show the financial workings of the General Conference, under the judicious management of Eld. Butler, as president, we find that there is something like $1500 in the treasury of the General Conference, placed there by the several State Conferences, it being the surplus, after meeting the local wants of said Conferences. Here we may see the result of the system of equality that oppresses no one, but yet gives all the privilege of doing something. I think that Seventh-day Adventists are not half as grateful to God as they should be, not only for the simple organization which is so efficient, but for the special blessing and help of God in carrying out the work to which he has called us.

I will right here briefly consider the position and work of Seventh-day Adventists. We profess, and our lectures teach, and our publications say, that we are now in the period of the third angel’s message of Rev. 14. We teach that the first message has arisen, being fulfilled in the great advent proclamation of the past, a proclamation in exact harmony with the language, employed by the angel, “Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Not that the mission of that angel is done; for the same truths that broke upon the ears of men in the fulfillment of it more than thirty years ago, are the stirring and glorious truths of to-day.

The second angel follows. Not that this message takes the place of the first, but joins it, proclaiming in addition to the first, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” We say, from an examination of the subject, that the object of this message, summed up in few words, is to proclaim, or point out, the condition of all fallen or corrupted Christianity.

The third angel follows them. And now, having reached the period of this third proclamation, we are bearing to the world a three-fold message. This third division, opening with the most solemn warning, perhaps, that you will find in all the Bible besides, closes up with these emphatic words: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

What next in this prophetic series? What is the next link in this prophetic chain? It is represented by the figure of one like unto the Son of man, sitting upon a white cloud, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. The crowned Son of man! Not as he is to-day, with his priestly robes and miter; not standing as he is to-day before the ark of God in the holiest of all; officiating as our great High Priest; but as he will be when his priestly work is done, and his priestly garments are laid aside, and he puts on his kingly robe and crown; not as he stands to-day beside the ark of God, holding in his hand the golden censer, and offering up incense with the prayers of his people; but when he has cast that censer to the earth, and assumes in its stead the sickle, the instrument of slaughter, and another angel cries to him, “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

We understand that when this shall take place, the third message has done its work. That message that bears upon its very front the law of Jehovah, has gone to earth’s remotest bounds, the attention of all accountable beings is arrested by it, and all are decided either to be loyal and true to the God of Heaven, or have turned from him and have received the mark of the beast. “The harvest of the earth is ripe.” What is the message that has accomplished this great work? What are the truths that ripen the harvest of the earth? We solemnly believe that they are the truths connected with the third angel’s message.

Right here I wish to ask, Is this our position? Do we believe this position? Do we believe that in the providence of God we are, and have been, proclaiming the third angel’s message? If we do, my brethren, our position brings upon us great responsibilities! And I hope that this Conference will decide to take one of two positions, either to stand where we profess to stand, and let our actions harmonize with our position, or to give it up, and take some other position with which our works will harmonize.

To make this last remark appear more forcible, let me call your attention to the messages again: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Here is a world-wide message. The second message is a simple announcement, local, of course, in its operation, that Babylon is fallen, and giving the reason for such fall. But when we consider the third angel’s message, we find it a world-wide message. The first message is said to be proclaimed with a loud voice. Not so with the second. It is local. But when you come to the third message, it is said in strong language, that the third angel followed them with a loud voice. Thus, then, the third message will be a strong message. It will go with power. It is a world-wide message. It will arrest the public mind.

I wish here to call your attention to the tenth chapter of the book of Revelation upon this point. I simply refer you to certain verses, with a statement of what they teach. The first verse reads: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from Heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open.” This little book we understand to be the open book of the prophecy of Daniel. When Daniel inquired about the end of the wonders that were revealed to him, the angel replied, “Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” This book, which was to be sealed till the time of the end, was then, of course, to be opened; and then many would run to and fro, and knowledge would be increased.

This angel is the same as the first of the three angels of Rev. 14: “And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,” representing that this message was to go both by sea and land. “And cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth.” “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.”

We are sometimes told that this angel is the Son of God, and that this scene represents his second coming when time shall close. This is a mistake. By the word time, here, we are to understand either duration as measured off in years and months and days, or prophetic time. Duration, however, does not end at the second coming of Christ. If it does, why does John talk of a thousand years’ reign of Christ, going down to the second resurrection? I know not why time may not be measured off in years, months, and days, as long as the sun shall endure, and the earth revolve. We are shut up to the position that the angel swears to prophetic time; and we solemnly believe that this oath of the angel refers to the strong position taken by Adventists in 1844, who proclaimed from the best light they had on the word of the Lord, sustained by the signs of the times, and the Spirit of God that attended their message, that prophetic time would then close.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he should begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” I will not call your attention from the main idea I wish to bring out, by giving an exposition of this last verse. I have a point to make to show the extent of the third message, and I will try to reach that point, before I leave this chapter. “And I went unto the angel,” said John (he standing here as a representative of the church of God and in the position of those who receive this message in reference to the hour of God’s judgment), “and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth as sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up.” This represents the reception of the message by the church, or by believers. “It shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” Adventists, all those looking for the Lord, as they received with all gladness the joyful news of the coming of the dear Saviour, found this indeed a message, which was in their mouths as sweet as honey. But after they had received it, what was the result? What was the effect? Oh! a bitter disappointment. Now the point! “And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” Notwithstanding the oath of the angel that time should be no longer, the period of expectation must pass by, yet believers had another world-wide message. “You must prophesy again,” you must teach, proclaim, send abroad, another message to many nations and kings and tongues and peoples.

I am fixed in my own mind, beyond a doubt, that we have reached that interesting point of the second great world-wide proclamation to the world. And I am confirmed in this position, when I see, as I see to-day, and as I have seen in my travels and experience for a few years past, men gathered by this last message, which bears upon its front the law of God—gathered from almost every nation in the world. Were we to call out here in this little meeting the men of different nations and tongues, perhaps you would be surprised. Here, in this meeting, are those that can speak the Hebrew, Chaldaic, German, French, and Danish. And when I see how God is raising up men of different nations, who are coming together in harmony on the truth, their hearts all in sweet union with those who were the pioneers of the cause, and who labored in the English alone for nearly a score of years, my heart is quickened, and I say to myself, We are treading hard upon the very borders of the period of the loud cry of this last message, which is to ripen the harvest of the earth!

Is this our position? My soul says, It is! I look at the simple facts relative to its being the truth, I look over the ground on which the evidence rests, and I say, My soul is satisfied. And then I look at the providence of God that has favored this work, as it has been proclaimed in the English language, and I say again, This certainly must be the work of God! And then when I look and see what has been done almost without our efforts, certainly with but little effort on our part, and what is now being done to reach people of other tongues, my soul says, We have the truth! This is the work of God!

This, then, we say, is our position. By the grace of God, we have been able to reach this point, and we have the leading truths for this time. What, then, is our duty? The truth is plain. The providence of God is working with us. The Spirit of God is preparing the field. Angels of God are moving upon hearts in all parts of the country, and men are being brought out who love these truths; men who may have been tossed to and fro somewhat, in doubt as to their position, but who here find something to satisfy them. Here comes my Norwegian brother, my Danish brother, my Swedish brother, my German brother, my French brother, and so I might go on and mention those of other languages; and when they come to taste of this truth, they say, “This is good! This is sweet! Here is the anchor that holds me!”

Then take another view of the subject. Here we are, gathered from the different denominations, I like to have said from all of them, but I can say, from most of them. We have quite a representation from the Roman Catholic church, and we have one converted from the Hebrew church, and others from many other churches. There is that simple power, shall I say, in this truth and this work, that unites hearts and makes them one, breaking down all denominational barriers. And here are a company of people all united, notwithstanding their previous different religious views, and their different national prejudices. There is something in this work that breaks down all these walls of division, and the American brother can reach over and shake the hand of his Danish brother, and shake it a little harder, perhaps, than he would the hand of his American brother, and the Danish brother can reach over his hand and reciprocate the action. And so it is with all other classes.

Bro. Matteson made some good remarks this morning in this respect. Standing where he does, he is well prepared to understand the feeling that exists touching this point. But be it understood that we have never done what we might. Let me tell you a simple story about this matter: Some six or seven years ago, Bro. Matteson got hold of this work by reading. He began to feel for the Scandinavian people. He came to Battle Creek, and asked for publications. The men that were here did not understand the matter, and replied that they had published some tracts in other languages, but they did not sell very well, and they thought they could not undertake to publish any for him in Danish. They did not realize that for these very publications in French, and German, and Holland, a fund had been raised, and they were all paid for, and they had no business to sell them. But they said the design was to sell them to keep the fund good for further publications. If the men that Bro. Matteson appealed to had stood in the counsel of God, they would have said, Yes, we will publish in the Danish language, and you shall have the tracts without money and without price; and they would have bid Bro. Matteson Godspeed in his work. But although he was told that they could not publish the tracts for him, he was not going to give it up so. I will not undertake to describe how he must have felt. But he went back to Wisconsin and Minnesota, where there are a few Danish and Norwegian brethren, and began to appeal to them for means. But they were poor and had but just embraced the truth; yet he appealed to them on the subject, and their love and interest and anxiety for the cause kindled up, and they raised about one thousand dollars. And then Bro. Matteson came back to Battle Creek, and learned to set the type, and laid the money out so that it would go as far as possible, until he had got up something

like a thousand pages, and then went forth upon his mission.

But what touches my heart and affects my feelings more than anything else upon this subject was when, three or four years after this, I began to talk of raising a book fund for the spread of our publications in English, and as I sent round to Wisconsin and Minnesota, these same Scandinavian brethren donated to this object fully as freely as our American brethren did. If that was not heaping coals of fire on our heads, I know not what could be; and I think those coals of fire have been burning. And if there is anything that we can do to redeem the past, we mean to do it, and it is our duty to do it.

There is so much to say that I do not know what to say first. But I will break off on another line of thought right here. The time is come for action—it is come! I told you the story this morning of the German brother in California who learned to read our language while watching his sheep, by studying his German-English Testament, having one column in German, and the same, side by side, in another column in English. In this way he acquired such a knowledge of English that he could read and speak it quite readily. By accident, one of our tracts fell into his hands, and having read that, his spirit thirsted for more. He bought other tracts, and before he had heard the sound of vocal prayer in all his life, or a sermon of any description, he embraced the Sabbath, and God moved upon his big German heart to send one hundred dollars in gold to the Review Office for the advancement of the cause. And it was not till three months after that he heard the first sound of vocal prayer, and the first sermon in all his life. Tracing back to his boyhood he cannot remember of hearing vocal prayer or a discourse until some three months after he had made this free-will offering to the Lord of a hundred dollars in gold. He then came two hundred and fifty miles to find some one to teach him in the work of God more perfectly. A poor orphan boy comes from his native land beyond the ocean, goes upon the mountains of California and watches his sheep, and there learns our language, and our publications providentially find him, and he steps out upon the truth. This is a miracle. It is a direct interposition of the providence and power of God. And so reports are coming up from all parts of the country.

The time is come, my brethren, not merely for this work to be carried on by accident and special providences, but for those whom God has made the guardians of his truth to take immediate action; and all I plead for here is that we may act consistently and harmoniously with the solemn and awful position that we take, namely, that we are far advanced in the last merciful message, which is to ripen the harvest of the earth.

In taking hold of the work before us, one important thing is to have the main points of the present message written out carefully, in the fear of God, and adapted, as far as possible, to meet the wants of people of other languages, and to secure a good translation at least into the Danish, German, and French. There seems to be a very great call for this. This should be regarded as among the first things to be attended to, of very great importance. We need them in our own country, too, my friends, they need them in Europe, and they must have them there. And we must have them here to spread before men of other languages in our own country. This must be accomplished. God, in his providence, has prepared the way. All that is necessary is action on our part. I trust God is fitting up some of the pioneers of this cause, men of experience, to prepare such works, and is bringing out in our midst men of more or less scholarship, who can do this translating. May God bless them. May God hasten the preparation, not only of the writers and translators, but may it be our prayer that he may fit us for the work.

And again, the Lord has blessed our publishing interests. Bear with me a moment, right here. It being a branch of this work with which I have been connected from the very first, I feel a special interest in it. The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association is in a financial condition to do anything that the Lord and his people may want to have done. Prosperity has attended it wonderfully. I give you here a simple statement of the donations to the property of the publishing interest among us. Going back twenty-one years, when seven hundred dollars were raised to purchase a hand-press, all the donations and legacies which have been given from first to last, all summed up, amount to about thirty-six thousand dollars. And now, notwithstanding the four years of the war, which were very severe upon all such associations, and notwithstanding bad management for three or four years after the close of the war, what does our present and last report show? It shows that there has been as much added, as much saved in the management of the publishing interest, as has been donated in shares, legacies, &c. And in doing this they have brought it up to a condition, such, that from this time onward, its prosperity can hardly be computed.

Our experience has taught us that we should sell all the books we can. It is better for the readers. To go into any community and throw out our books free, and carry the impression that these books do not cost anything, casts a wrong impression, and the churches will be led to regard themselves as pets, rather than as workers who should put their shoulders under the burdens and lift. It was the best thing that could be done for California to press them to a self-sustaining position. They say so themselves. It is the best thing you can do for any man, in able circumstances, to let him feel, as far as possible, that he is a laborer in the cause of Christ, and is to bear his proportion of the weight of the work.

Probably there is no branch of this work that suffers so much at the present time as the proper education of men and women to proclaim the third angel’s message. We have no time to give students a thorough course of education. But yet there is enough that we can do in this direction, and which can be done in a very short period of time. In my travels among this people, which are somewhat extensive, I find that the truth reaches all classes of minds, and I find just as good, and just as sincere, and honest and devoted, among the rich, and among the learned, and among those who move in the higher circles of society, as I find among the poorer classes. And now we can reach any class we choose, for whom we shall put forth our efforts. If we take the position that education is a mistake, and preach as a certain minister who represented the apostles as very ignorant and unlearned; who said, There they were, wearing their tarpaulin hats, very poor, and there was Saint Paul, a very illiterate man, brought up at the foot of Gamaliel hill, a little hill just out of Jerusalem—and thus he went on—if we make a strike in that direction, I need not tell you what class of minds we shall gather; and perhaps a person whose efforts are put forth for such a grade of minds will gather more for the first six months, than any others. If you put your hook in for this class, with a small bait, you will catch small fish, you will make converts very fast; you can scrape them into the net by scores; but when trials and adversity arise, they go out by scores.

God pity the poor, and incompetent, and slack; I would rejoice to see them come up and make good Christians; but I am satisfied, brethren, that the time has come when we, as a people, having so important a message, should make up our minds to labor to reach men and women of mind and moral worth, of education and mental strength, who can have an influence upon all around them.

Now, I say, we want a school. We want a denominational school, if you please; not, as I have said, to give men and women a long course of thorough education. I do not know as we have time for this. But we want a school in which the languages, especially the spoken and written languages of the present day can be taught, and learned by young men and women to prepare them to become printers, editors, and teachers; and, if we can do no more, where our young men that are about entering the ministry, and women, too, who are to be laborers in this great work, can be instructed thoroughly in the common branches, where their minds can be disciplined to study, where, if it is not for more than three months, our young men may have the best instruction, and may, during that time, at least, learn how to study.

I judge that it is almost impossible for a young man whose mind never has been disciplined to study, who has not had educational advantages, to become a thorough Bible student and able minister. He may have naturally a good mind. Nature may have done a good job for him; and grace may have done a good work upon his heart, and he may feel like giving himself to the ministry, and desire to do all the good he can, and press the work on, but he does not know where to begin, nor just how to take hold of the work, as his mind was never disciplined to study. Give him three or six months’ training, and, if he learns no more than this, let him learn how to study. Then give him a Bible and other books, and he will make advancement. This has been demonstrated with those among us who have entered the ministry.

Eld. Canright will please excuse me if I refer briefly to his case. I saw him first, when a boy, in Western New York, at work by the month to support himself; and it has always been his privilege to help sustain his godly mother. In this way, he worked to get means to be laid out to the best advantage, at the academy, in obtaining an education. He knew what money cost, and had some appreciation of the value of education, and the importance of a calling to this work. God blessed him. And when about twenty-one years of age, he came from Coldwater to talk with me on the subject of his preaching. I spent about an hour with him. I said to him, Do not content yourself with being a small preacher, but be somebody, or die, trying. Do not go out to be a pet, but go out into the field, with the weight of the work upon you, with steady principles, and stand your ground. The last thing I did, was to present him with one of our English Bibles, and a pair of charts, saying, as I did so, Here, Dudley, take these, and go out and try it. When you become satisfied that you have made a mistake, bring them back. The next May, at the Conference, I met him, and asked him, What about those charts and the Bible? He replied, “Bro. White, you have lost them.” Thank God! I would like to lose more in the same way. We raised means to purchase a library for Bro. Canright and Bro. Van Horn. And said I to them, When you study, study with all your might, and when you visit, visit with all your might, and exercise briskly. Whatever you do, do it with all your might.

And now, because we think the Lord is coming soon, and that there is but little time to obtain an education, to make up our minds to gather a little here and there, and be content to get along in this way, I think is a grand mistake. Dr. Clarke said, “A Methodist minister should know everything;” so I say of our ministers. And if any class of men can be strong in the word of God, I think it is Seventh-day Adventists. If opposition is good to keep the rust off, they have plenty of that. If exercise in new fields is good, they have plenty of that. And God has helped in bringing out the great truths of our message. God has helped to bring out these great truths in a manner that we need not be ashamed of.

But I was speaking in reference to the school. As I said before, the living languages, we having a message, as before shown, that is to be proclaimed before many nations and tongues and peoples, these living languages, especially, should be taught. We have use for them. And the common branches of education should be thoroughly taught, and all our ministers, to say the least, especially our young men, should be taught to speak and write the English language correctly. Three or six months’ close application, and thorough instruction and discipline, that all our men may learn how to study, will help them greatly to go about their work, to preach, read, study, and search; and with the blessing of God, they can thus become strong men.

Perhaps I have said all I should say at this time. I will repeat what I first said in reference to the school. I know of no branch that needs our attention so much at the present time as a denominational school. I will add a few thoughts more: As to patronage, we have nothing to fear. There is no people on earth better situated to insure patronage and success to the school. Look at the condition of our brethren scattered abroad, who are rearing families. When their dear children have reached the age of twelve, on up to twenty, the very period of danger when they are emerging from boyhood and girlhood, to manhood and womanhood, the very period in which the course that they may take may seal their future, and character, and destiny, for this world, and the world to come, that is the age when many feel that they wish to give their children better advantages than they themselves enjoyed. They look to the nearest village or city academy. What are the influences there? Are there Sabbath-keepers there, and a Sabbath-keeping influence? Perhaps not. Shall they send their children to such a place? To send them seems almost certain to put them into a position where they will backslide and go to ruin. And how many Sabbath-keeping parents there are in our ranks, whose minds are agitated and anxious over this matter! They feel that they must give their children an education; and they send them to the academy, where they backslide. If the moral and religious influence of the church where our school shall be established be good, so that our leading men and ministers can testify that the influence is all right, we can have a school of two hundred students; yes, you might as well say three hundred, or four, or five hundred. The patronage is sure; it may be depended upon.

I am not in favor of people overworking themselves. But while they have regard for the principles of temperance, they can do a vast amount of work without injury. I have been looking over this subject somewhat. Among ministers of other denominations, we find a great deal of what is called, “ministers’ sore throat.” What have they been doing to bring this on? Preaching once or twice a week, yet afflicted with a sore throat! I have made up my mind that if they would give attention to hygiene, all these difficulties would pass away.

I know of a denomination, small, it is true, who have less than a hundred men in the field, who find so much to say that they will stand before the people and talk long and loud, and continue it for three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, and not have the sore throat at all. They go out and preach in our tents before a thousand people, frequently, and speak long and earnestly; yet we do not find them dying off with sore throat. God be thanked for the health reform. As I said before, God made us for physical and mental action. And I believe with a certain medical writer who, not long since, speaking of those who are breaking down from so-called mental labor, from the general impression that thinking is very injurious to the constitution, and that the men who follow it break down from what is called the softening of the brain, scouted the idea, and attributed the breaking-down to wrong habits of life. I am prepared to adopt this conclusion from a physiological view, and from experience. God made the head to think, and the lungs to be used, and last as long as any part of the body, and our young men may discipline their minds to study and think, and think intensely, and not injure their constitutions, either. There is a man I knew (Bro. Andrews), twenty-five years ago. His friends said he had the consumption. But he gave attention to the laws of life, and, guarding his health in this way, entered the ministry. That man has thought, and thought intensely, and labored hard, and, with the exception of a recent attack of sickness, which is common at this season of the year, has enjoyed almost perfect health. God has made us for a great amount of labor, and we may think long and intensely. If we have our periods of rest, we need not break down in our work.

Now I am not prepared to speak lightly, in any sense of the word, of a thorough education, or to regard it as a matter of small importance. Would God there was more sanctified education in the ministry! My heart rejoices to know that the Spirit of God is moving upon men of education to come into our midst to take hold of this work. But, my friends, I have seen in this cause, men who in their boyhood had very poor opportunities. Some I might mention, the strongest men among us, who have not attended school since they were thirteen years of age; yet they disciplined their minds to study, and became strong in the word of God, and strong to enforce the truth upon the minds of their fellow-men.

We have not time to make plans which it will take a long time to carry out. We must do what we can do in a short time; and may God help us and guide us in this matter.

We say we believe that our time to work, and bear this message to the world, is short. At the commencement of my remarks, I gave some reasons why we believe as we do, presenting a chain of prophecy to show that the next great event before us, is the final consummation. We believe that our message in reference to the commandments of God and faith of Jesus Christ, which embraces a wide field, is the last merciful message to be given to the world. We believe

that we have advanced a considerable way already in this message.

Continued from page 181.

When we consider the small beginning, and in how obscure a manner this work commenced, the rapidity and soundness of our growth, the perfection and efficiency of our organization, the great work it has already accomplished, not only in bringing out men and women of other tongues, qualified to teach it to their countrymen, when we see in what union we stand, and the means we have at our command, such as our publishing facilities, our system of supporting the cause, and our organization, which experience has shown to be so complete, but which was an experiment only about a dozen years since (for this meeting is only the eleventh annual session since we became an organized body);—when we look at all these things, and see how God has prospered us, we that are connected with the work can say, “What hath God wrought!” We can say that he, in his providence, has given us all we want.

Here let me state that, two years since, when I made an appeal for means to erect the second building for our publishing work, we needed nine thousand dollars. I called for ten thousand; and the brethren immediately gave us eleven thousand; and now in the two buildings we are crowded as much as we were in the one two years ago. We should now go to work, and put up another building that would cost thirty thousand dollars. Our present rapid ratio of increase would justify such a move. To put up a building now worth thirty thousand dollars, would not be reaching out farther than it was to put up a second building at a cost of ten thousand dollars two years ago. But there are, perhaps, other things, the Health Institute, and the school, which need more immediate attention.

But to come back to the point. We have a message, and it is going forward well, and God is blessing our efforts, all that we put forth. As I said, action is demanded on a broader scale than ever before. Now I do not say that God is providentially giving us the Sabbath as a new thing, or that we should keep it because the Lord is coming. No. There is no particular connection between that and the soon coming of Christ. Our Seventh-day Baptist brethren, God bless them! who have been keeping the Sabbath for three hundred years because it is the Sabbath, have kept it on the right ground. In God’s providence we stand on the same ground with them in this matter, but in his providence he has called our attention also to the message which is to ripen the harvest of the earth, and connected the Sabbath with that.

The restitution and restoration of this grand truth is so connected with the prophecy of the last great message that is to stir the world, that we can but see the hand and providence of God in it. We say that before the vials of Jehovah’s wrath are poured out, before the Lord shall unstop these vials and pour them out upon the shelterless heads of the wicked, he will send forth a warning to them to flee and find a shelter from the fierceness of his judgments. The history of his dealings with men and nations in all time, shows that before bringing any great calamity upon them, he has sent to his people a warning that they might escape. So just before the consummation, the closing up of the events of this world’s history, before the vials of his last judgments are poured out, a warning message will go forth, bidding the people flee to the Lord before his judgments shall fall. Hence the third message breaks forth upon us; and it is to be proclaimed to the world in the startling words, “If any man worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”

Here is a warning to flee the worship of the beast, flee the worship of his image, flee the reception of his mark. Do you inquire, Where shall we flee? This last merciful angel does not close his message without pointing to the place of refuge. It is found in the twelfth verse of this chapter, in these words: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” The messages open with a warning to flee. Where shall we flee? Here! here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Here is your place of shelter. Here is the great message that is to ripen the harvest of the earth. Here is the message, bearing the last great test, and that is the law of God. And oh! what a perfect test. Consider its precepts. Its language, its wording so dignified as to meet the greatest minds; adapted to men of the greatest mental capacity, and yet so very simple that the school child may understand it. And if there is anything in the book of God that can serve as a test to the people, it certainly must be the law of Jehovah as it appears connected with the last great world-wide warning to be proclaimed to many nations, and kings, and tongues, and peoples. It brings before them the issue, Who will be loyal and true to the God of Heaven? Here is the banner of truth, bearing in the very front the law of God.

There is so much to be brought before this Conference, and therefore there is so very much I would be glad to say, and not having my attention particularly called to these things, not expecting to speak as I have spoken, and then being in an unfavorable condition of health from a long, tedious journey from California, I am unprepared to do the subject justice. But I pray God that he will guide us in our deliberations. And let me say just this word before I sit down. If our position is a correct one, and our proclamation is right; if these things are so and God has chosen us, in a certain sense, and made us guardians of this important truth, and is to call us to an account for how we use it; if we are thus far advanced in the last message, and if we have such a work to do; O my friends, if this be true, if it be really so, I hope that this Conference in all its action will appear before the world as acting in harmony with what they teach.

When our ministers shall go out this summer with their several country churches or tents, numbering now about twenty, and trace down these prophetic chains, and tell the crowded congregation that we have reached the last, and that the Son of man is coming soon, and that we have a message that is to ripen the harvest of the earth, will they go feeling that they are backed up by the action of this Conference? that this Conference devised such ways and means, and took such action as to justify them in telling the world that we are giving the last message of mercy to man.

Brethren, let me appeal to you. May I not charge you. The connection I have had with this work, and my white hairs, may justify me in calling your attention to these things, and perhaps charging you to have your actions in harmony with what you profess. Let this body take such action as shall be suitable to their position, or change their position to suit their action. Bearing so solemn a message, the coming of the Son of man so near, reining up the consciences of men to the law of God, and telling them that they are deciding for eternity;—I say, bearing to the world such solemn truths, the people have a right to look through all our actions and efforts, and see a harmony between them and the profession we make.