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AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 28, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 52, No. 22.

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AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

By James White

The following confession and statement shows the force of prejudice, and also the work of the Lord in opening the heart and mind so that truth may take the place of error. Dr. H. J. Marshall, of Wood county, Wisconsin, addresses Mrs. W., Nov. 4, 1878, thus:—
“Mrs. E. G. White, Dear Madam: I saw you over twenty-five years since. You were in Boston, Mass., and had recently embraced the Sabbath, and you seemed to me to be in the wrong. I was one of the disappointed ones who expected to behold Jesus in the clouds of heaven in 1844. I could not then understand how you should be chosen to have a view of new truths in vision, such as I was told that God had given you to see.
“I was greatly prejudiced against you, and thought in my heart I was doing God service when I spoke evil of you.
“About one year ago I came to this place to preach what I thought were Bible truths; and I spoke evil of you in my visits in my church. In my zeal for Sunday, about the middle of April I held a controversy with Bro. S. S. Smith, of Loyal, Wis., to show that Sunday was now the true Sabbath instead of the seventh day. In searching the Bible to find arguments to overthrow the seventh-day theory, new light beamed upon my mind; and as I prayed that God would make me know the truth, the Spirit seemed to open to me a new view of the fourth commandment, and I beheld it as enjoining the true Sabbath of the Lord our God; and a halo of light and glory clustered around this glorious truth which was newly revealed to me!
“I am now rooted and grounded in the seventh-day truth, believing it to be the only Sabbath which men are bound to keep. I am keeping it together with my family; and now I am happy in this belief.
“I also see many other truths which were before hidden from my understanding. I have of late been reading some of your writings; and by the Holy Spirit that must have led you to write of the themes, and the divine love that seems to actuate you, I now see I have been speaking evil of you wrongfully.
“I am sorry for it in the sight of God; and I humbly ask you to forgive me.
“Nor is this all; I want you and Elder White to pray for me that God will forgive me this great wrong to you and his cause. Please publish this, and also your forgiveness to me, and ask the elders who have the faith of Jesus to pray for me. I am looking for Jesus very soon.
“I am too poor to pay for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, but I wish to have it in my family. Will you ask some one to furnish it to me; and such other helps as will give me further light, and strength to do God’s holy will?”
Mrs. W. and the writer cheerfully forgive our erring brother, and pray God to forgive and bless him. We refer the matter of the paper and books to Bro. Smith, whose name is mentioned by Bro. M. We recommend the REVIEW in all such cases.
J. W.