Eld. Grant and S. D. Adventists.
Himes’ Journal, for March, 1875, contains an exposure of the course of Eld. Miles Grant during his five visits to California, written by a committee of first-day Adventists of California. As our own people have had some unpleasant experience with the unprincipled course of this man, the following statements will be of interest to our readers. Of the relation of Eld. G. to S. D. Adventists, the committee speak as follows:— “PROGRESS OF S. D. ADVENTISTS.
“Eld. Grant has had his way and sway. He ‘fought it out on that line’ with an obstinacy untempered by common-sense. His senseless assaults upon the seventh-day people, who were not intruding upon ground occupied by us, provoked them to retaliation, and they have pitched their tent in Vallejo, Santa Clara, and San Jose, and drawn away members from, and weakened, all of these churches. The field was large enough, and Eld. Fassett’s policy was to let them alone while they did not molest our churches. The result has shown the folly of Eld. Grant’s course in this, as in almost every item of his policy on the Pacific Coast. In Napa City, Eld. Grant’s boasted discussion has ended in helping the Sabbatarians. Their society is stronger than ever, while of Eld. Grant’s influence there is scarcely a trace. “Practically, this field is abandoned to the Sabbatarians. A San Francisco paper says of them:— “Six years ago last July, two Seventh-day Adventist ministers landed in San Francisco with their tent, and immediately commenced operations at Petaluma, Sonoma County. These ministers, and one or two others who have joined them, have labored almost unceasingly, and they can now say their work is a success. They closed, the 12th inst., a twelve days’ camp-meeting at Yountville, Napa Valley. At this meeting they had a beautiful tabernacle tent 60x125 feet, besides eighty-five campers’ tents. Some 600 camped upon the grounds, and the last Sunday of the meeting they had an audience of over 2000 persons. Forty-one persons were baptized, and besides these several others came out and united with the society during the meeting. The Seventh-day Adventists now have fourteen churches in the State, numbering nearly six hundred members. Their State Conference, which was held in connection with their camp-meeting, raised $19,400, to be used in establishing a publishing house on this coast. They also raised over $1,600 in the interest of their tents in California.” “They are publishing a weekly paper at Oakland in this State, which is gaining a good circulation. Thus they prosper while our cause lies in ruins. We have four weakly churches, distracted and divided by the obstinate persistence with which the preposterous doctrine of ‘perfectionism’ has been forced upon them. Eld. Grant is now upon his fifth visit here. He is not effecting results of any consequence. The seventh-day people refuse to meet him in debate, not because they fear him (which is absurd in view of their past experience with his debates), but because, as they show, he has deceived them, and they can place no reliance upon his word. They claim to be ready to meet honorable and honest men.”