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A LETTER

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 9, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 19.

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A LETTER.

[BROTHER STONE: We have just had an excellent letter from your father, which we read in our Tract and Missionary quarterly meeting. It was there voted to send it to the REVIEW for publication; and I enclose it in this to you requesting you to see that it is done. It was read yesterday in our social meeting, and we all felt that it was too good not to be divided with others. C. R. AUSTIN.]
To the church of Seventh-day Adventists of Berkshire, Christian salutation.
DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN AND SISTERS: Though absent in the flesh, yet am I present with you in spirit beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith. I thought it meet, both for your encouragement and my own, to address you this brief epistle.
The cause of God is the Cause of causes. It is the sum of all excellence. Well might the poet exclaim, “Salvation, oh! the joyful sound.” Salvation—it stoops to find the sinner on the verge of the lowest hell, and exalts him, first, to friendship and reconciliation, then to heirship with Christ. The peace and the promises of God are the legacy of the saints during their minority. Peace is the foretaste of Heaven, while the promises, together with the witness of the Spirit, are the surety. Christ is our bondsman, and God his indorser. The promise is of life from the dead—eternal life. It includes the kingly office and the kingdom. It includes admission through the pearly gates, the sight of the King in his beauty, an introduction into the presence of the Father, the privilege of plucking fruit from life’s fair tree, and drinking the waters of the river of God.
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Let us keep in view the truth for the time. Let us not forget that the three messages of Rev. 14 are the grand nucleus around which all saving truth is now crystallizing. God’s principal method of vitalizing the church during the “time of the end” is through present truth. To this the state of the nominal churches bears witness.
Dear brethren, let us have faith in God, in his word, and in his providence. Not a dead faith (devils have enough of that), but a living, practical faith. If God says in his word, “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you; seek, and ye shall find,” if he says, “Ask and it shall be given you,” he requires that we credit him, that we believe his word. The basis on which to rest faith is so broad that prayer without faith is an insult to God. Hence we read, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”
Brethren and sisters, let us seek God daily. Time is hastening. Probation will soon close. Christ is viewing the guests. Let us have on the wedding garment. Let our loins be girt with truth, our lights burning, and our feet shod. Christ is coming, coming quickly.
“Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” Remember “here is the patience of the saints.” In the exercise of patience, great perplexities become small, and small ones vanish entirely. Christ was patient. We must be like him. Let your prayers be frequent, fervent, and full of faith. In a little while the faithful will be bidden to put off their armor. Those who have gone forth weeping, with their little bundles of tracts and papers, and those who have patiently labored to make known to others the word of truth for this time, will return with joy bringing their sheaves with them. They who have sown in tears will then reap with joy. The conflict with the flesh and with Satan will be ended. No more fightings without or fears within. “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Were I to speak to you of my personal experience and hope, it would be to say that I am of good courage in the Lord. God is being very gracious to me in my declining years. More than sixty years have passed since I put on Christ by profession. My experience has been varied, but never more hopeful than now. I have felt, especially during the past year, and still more so of late, that it is my privilege and duty to be fitting up, and getting ready, for the coming of the Lord. And I thank my God through our Lord Jesus Christ that I have this feeling more deeply fixed than ever before. I am daily trying to seek God to this end. I want a treasure in Heaven, but I cannot have it unless I lay it up there. I want Jesus for my chief Friend, but I cannot have him unless I do the things he commands me.
It is my earnest prayer and labor that I may finally inherit the kingdom of God at whatever expense. Next to myself in this respect are my brethren and sisters in the Lord, especially those of the churches with whom I have labored in time past.
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: if it be the will of God I would come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
Farewell, ALBERT STONE.
Eden Mills, Vt.