p. 165 | FOUND HE WAS MISTAKEN by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 22, 1877

FOUND HE WAS MISTAKEN.

By C. W. Stone

Just a week or two before we pitched our tent in Danvers, the Methodist minister of Tapleyville, a village fifteen minutes’ walk from Danvers, preached a sermon on the coming of Christ, using good Bible arguments, and taking good, sound Advent positions. As one sign he mentioned the fact that the gospel had been preached to every nation. Matt. 24:14.

Very soon after we commenced, the Congregationalist minister preached against our position on the prophecies, denouncing the study of the prophetic portion of the Bible as prying into the secrets of the Almighty, as “vain speculation.” Eld. Canright replied at the tent before a very large audience. This created a greater interest than anything else would have been likely to do, and for a time, nothing more was heard from that quarter.

Apparently unsatisfied with this minister’s attempt, and thinking that he himself was the veritable man who could demolish our doctrines, the Methodist minister took the floor. As yet, Eld. Canright had spoken upon nothing but the prophecies and the advent, and as the minister did not wish to attack us upon the point in which his brother over in the other church had so signally failed, he determined to come at it by a flank movement, and attack the advent doctrine itself, and thus with one “fell swoop” sweep away the advent and prophecies all together. To do this, he must first remove the breastworks that he had thrown up just before our going there, as he had got them up so high he could not well shoot over them. But he was not to be deterred from his purpose; and adopting a motto similar to the one that political men used not many years ago,—“Anything to beat Grant,” he began. He said he had found out that he was mistaken. He had not carefully studied the subject for himself, but had taken for granted what others had said about it. Now he had looked the ground over for himself. The gospel had not yet been preached to all the world. A great many nations had not yet heard it. People had always been looking for Christ. Special moves of this sort always wrought evil results. No one could tell anything about it. Christ might come at death.

After he had thus tried his skill, another man away some four miles lifted up his voice. And so it passed from one church to another, each minister vying with the others in trying to show where we were lame. Finally, some one from the outside, who had been calmly looking on, sent the following note to the Salem Post:—

COMMUNICATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SALEM POST.

Sir,—A Danvers lady, speaking in regard to the religious excitement in that place induced by Elder Canright’s preaching, says, “The ministers in this place strongly remind one of a parcel of ‘roosters’ situated in neighboring coops. One crows, and with a self-satisfied air soliloquizes, ‘That is a perfect success. I defy competition.’ The male occupant of the neighboring coop hears him, and says, ‘That is no kind of a crow; I can beat that. Just listen, ye roosters, and hear me crow!’ And another listening exclaims, ‘Whew! nonsense! I am the rooster that can astonish the world,’ whereupon he sends up his crow. Then the whole rooster fraternity hold forth at once.” But she says “she has never yet heard of a rooster attempting to take back his crow and crow it over again differently, as one of their ministers has done of late.” OCCASIONAL.

As expressing the opinion of the public, we thought that note better than a long argument.

C. W. STONE.