p. 166 | NEW YORK by S. B. Whitney

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 24, 1877

NEW YORK.

By S. B. Whitney

I have closed my labors at Parma for the present. Last Sabbath several were baptized, and a Sabbath school was organized with three large Bible classes of adult persons besides the children. They have two weekly prayer-meetings in addition to their Sabbath meetings.

The attendance and interest were good to the very last. The following testimonial, signed by many prominent citizens, and published in the (Rochester) Sunday Morning Herald, was handed us before we left:—

“TESTIMONIAL TO A WORTHY CLERGYMAN.

“The Adventist clergyman, who has been so successfully conducting a course of lectures and services at the Institute for the last three months, has brought his labors to a close. The Rev. Mr. Whitney appears to have reaped golden opinions in the neighborhood: the good wishes of many of the citizens having found embodiment in the following testimonial, which has been presented to him, and which will express the public sentiment better than we are able to do:—

“‘Rev. S. B. Whitney: Your protracted labor amongst us having drawn to a close, we, the undersigned, desire to convey to you this evidence of our regard and esteem. This action on our part, the simple result of spontaneous feeling, is entirely unaffected by the varied influences of sectarianism; and you will please accept our sentiments as the expressions of a purely personal tribute.

“‘Your grand deliverances on the law of God, your highly instructive lectures on the prophecies, your earnest sermons on the faith of Christ and the teachings of the apostles, have been regularly attended by many of us for nearly three months. Novelty undoubtedly attracted some persons at the commencement, but as the Bible was opened, leaf by leaf, and passages usually regarded obscure because woven into intellectual chains, were explained, those who came at first as passive listeners soon remained eagerly to investigate. We believe that your positions as advanced here are in harmony with scriptural truth and gospel spirit. To say that your ministration has evoked unwonted interest, is feebly to express its result; and in view of the pleasurable experience you have occasioned us, we most cordially commend your exercises in biblical thought and research to the careful consideration of those of our fellow creatures who can believe that the intelligence with which their Creator has endowed them is a factor in the solution of Truth, as applicable to their own cases, and who are sufficiently free from the trammels of bigotry to care little at the confusion of its elements. We admire the temperate demeanor which has characterized you, and attended you, triumphant, through a period pregnant with trial and annoyance. We believe you to be a sincere expounder of your professions. In your social visits you have impressed us no less with a natural kind-heartedness than with the other bearings of a Christian gentleman. You will at all times receive a hearty welcome amongst us. We trust that good health and your wonted energy will sustain you wherever your labors may lead. For our own parts, we are selfish enough to hope that neither the trials and prejudices which you may encounter, nor even the new supporters whom you may enlist, will efface us entirely from your memory; but that now and then you will cast a thought back upon your Parma friends, who number amongst themselves many whose names may be wanting on the muster roll of your denomination, but who still find it in their hearts thoroughly to respect you as a man, a Christian, and a minister.’

“Here follows a large number of signatures.”

The Baptist revival has ended in a church trial, not on our account however, but because one of their members had the moral courage to express his disapprobation of some of the operations of their evangelist.

S. B. WHITNEY.