HOW THE TRUTH CAME TO US.
By F. A. Reynolds
WE lived on a ranch in the Rockies, eight miles from town, thirty miles from any church of our own denomination. Our neighbors were few and far between, most of them Catholics. We were professors of religion, and proud to be called Baptists. But, isolated as we were from all religious associations, we had still a faith. We tried to teach our little ones Bible truths. We never went to church, and Sunday, although a day of comparative rest, was not much different in spirit and influence from other days. We walked, read, and sung; made it a day of rest if we had no pressing work. A lady who got hold of my name through a household journal, sent me Unitarian tracts and papers, and wrote to me, calling my attention to them. I glanced at them and laid them aside. The brilliant essays had no fascination for me, and I did not care to discuss the question of Christ's divinity. One day last spring I received in my mail a roll of papers. Opening them, I found the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Review and Herald, and Gospel Sickle. I glanced at them and laid them aside. I glanced them over again later, and told my husband at dinner that someone had sent me some papers, I guessed they were Adventist papers, but I hadn't read them, and didn't know anything about them. He laughed, and said: "They are determined not to let you be a Baptist in peace! First Unitarianism, now Adventism, what next?" In my next mail I received a card from a lady in Battle Creek, saying she had sent me some papers, and hoped I would read them and let her know my opinion. From a sense of politeness I read a little here and there, and wrote a card acknowledging the paper. Then I received a roll of tracts on the Sabbath question. I read one and was interested, and commenced an argument on the subject with my husband. Then he became interested, and we read all the tracts and some paper articles. The lady wrote again, and we finally became so interested in the Sabbath question that we prayed to be guided aright, and went to studying in earnest. We sent for other tracts and wrote to our correspondent for light on certain points. On the 21st of July we had decided the matter and kept our first Sabbath. A tract on "Present Truth" drew our attention to that subject, and we read carefully what we could find, and accepted it. Then we were led to study other points of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, which we found to be simple Bible truths, hitherto hidden or distorted, and we now rejoice in the truth so far as we have had time to inform ourselves. Having asked God's guidance in simplicity and faith, intelligent study led us to embrace every point presented to us. And the Bible study was the means of our rededication to God's service. We find a beauty and a sacredness in the real Sabbath that Sunday never held for us. We find a satisfaction in contemplating death as a dreamless sleep which knows no waking till the resurrection morn. We admire the justice of punishment after judgment, and the consistency of the destruction of evil and evil-doers. We look with joy for the near coming of Christ, and are anxious to speed the Third Angel's Message, to prepare the world for the end. We anticipate the joys of the new earth, free from sin and sorrow, and thank God that he has allowed one of his servants to give testimony for the benefit of those who are trying to keep the commandments. May we so live that we may be of the throng that sing the new song, who have his name written in their foreheads.