TO MY BRETHREN by B. F. Merritt

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 30, 1876

TO MY BRETHREN.

By B. F. Merritt

Nearly twenty years ago, I learned and embraced the faith of our people. My youthful heart beat high with hope as I went forward in the path of duty. Faith in God, confidence in the truth, and reciprocal confidence in the brotherhood, made us feel strong. Time has brought its changes, but these years have not marred the beauty of the truth, nor taken away its excellence. My experience, however, has in some respects been sad. Misunderstanding, distrust, and evil-surmising, have made me feel to say,

“Here I grieve the friends I love, And they in turn grieve me.”

and so I thought it better, as many do, to stand alone. But this position I am satisfied is not the right one. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1: 10.

The unfaithfulness of professed friends of the truth should not set at variance the true friends, but rather cause them to stand more firmly united. I know there are God-fearing men and women,—men and women of great moral worth,—whose hearts and hands are in the cause, and whose lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, are devoted to its support. With them I want to stand. Wherein I have erred, I ask the forgiveness of God and my brethren. I desire to live, henceforth, for God.

I have had experience in the sorrows of this dark world. I know what it is to feel sorrow and remorse for sin. I know what it is to be scoffed at and scorned in youth for holding to unpopular truth. I know what anguish it causes to see brethren betray the trust reposed in them, and shamefully reproach the precious truth by their abominable sins. I know what it is to stand beside a suffering father, and close his sightless eyes in death. I know the anguish of a father as he holds a sweet little daughter in his arms while death with its torturing pangs is wresting her little life away and he unable to relieve her.

It may be well that I have known these things, and more heart-rending scenes may be in store for me; but withal, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that I may know the joy of that glad day when Jesus comes, with everlasting deliverance for his people, and feel what it is to be safe with all the loved ones in the home above.

B. F. MERRITT.

Kappa, Ill., Nov. 15, 1876.