SABBATH REFLECTIONS by Albert Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 1, 1877

SABBATH REFLECTIONS.

By Albert Stone

Not having the privilege of meeting with the people of God on this first Sabbath of the year 1877, and feeling a loss, I improve a portion of the time in writing to them a few thoughts which I would be glad to speak were I in their midst. If these thoughts should never reach the eye of any one, yet it is a pleasure to me to think them, and to write them.

Every true Adventist knows that the Advent doctrine is pre-eminently practical, as much so as faith, repentance, and a holy life. I am thankful to be able to see that very many of the prophecies have been fulfilled, especially those that relate to the signs of Christ’s coming, and the end of the world.

The sign of the darkening of the sun and the moon occurred as promised, “in those days, after that tribulation.” Mark 13:24, 25. Other Bible signs have followed with marked rapidity. If any wish to see the signs of Christ’s coming, the Bible tells when to look for them.

Those who have eyes to see, can hardly look amiss. Chronological data are posted up at the head of all the great thoroughfares of the world with such clearness that all may read who will. The starry heavens are spread out to the view of all men. The 24th chapter of Matthew teaches that the time appointed for the close of man’s probation is written on the face of the heavens, and tells how to read it. The same is true of the earth—the politics of the nations, and the state of the churches.

If many of the professedly enlightened do not see these things, it cannot invalidate the testimony of those who do see them. For myself I accept the evidence. More than forty years’ experience in examining this subject has convinced me of its truth. I have long felt and seen that this great movement, in respect to the law of God, the Sabbath and the Judgment, based on the third angel’s message, is the work of God. It bears the impress of the divine hand. It is the last merciful message of God to man. Here and now, the remnant church and people of God are being developed.

I am thankful for a place with this people. Their God is my God, and where they go I will follow, for God leads them. Yes, I am sure, God leads them. If God permit one so unworthy, I will abide with this people, and thankfully accept the lowest place. I will sustain those whom God has placed at the head of the work by my earnest prayers and heartfelt sympathies. I will discountenance grumblers and fault-finders by both precept and example.

It is bad policy to speak evil of what we do not understand. By so doing we may grieve the Spirit of God, and wound both the cause of truth and our souls. I once thought it a thing incredible that God should visit his people, later than the days of the apostles, with the special gifts of the Spirit, and spoke discouragingly to the few who in those days thought differently. Shame! for a Baptist minister or any other minister to entertain such views for fifteen years, and at the same time stand in the sacred desk as a dark cloud to hide from the people a truth which God designed should be one of the chief lights of the gospel dispensation, and without which the church would inevitably apostatize.

Will not more than twelve hundred years of apostasy of the church suffice? Shall lessons of the past, pointing to the exaltation of Satan over the church and people of God, be of no avail? Had the church of the past held to the promise contained in the apostolic commission with the firm grasp of Jacob to the angel with whom he wrestled, the world had not presented the sad picture which we now behold. On the contrary, the rays of light that went out from Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and soon spread over the entire world, instead of resembling the flash of a meteor, would have been permanent in their effects, and to-day there would have been no dark places of the earth filled with the habitations of cruelty for the gospel to visit.

To say the least, the church, but for “quenching the Spirit,” would have lost nothing since the days of the apostles. It demands praise to God from every soul that, as the gospel ship is just entering the narrows, and is at this moment encompassed with dangerous rocks, this beacon light begins again to shine in the moral heavens. Thank God, and take courage, ye mourning, bewildered bride of Christ, the groom is coming. The gospel ship is pushing through dangers to meet him. A glorious light shines upon her, and that light is, to her, the free “gift of the Spirit,” purchased for her by the blood of Christ.

Courage! Courage! The mourning, striving saints will soon meet the embrace of their Lord and King on the sea of glass.

ALBERT STONE.