DEAR BRO. WHITE:—We have had some good times in this section, and I have thought it good to inform the remnant of what God has been doing for us in this place.
A little more than two months ago this people never had heard the voice of the third angel; but his warning voice has reached this place, and thanks be to God a few names have ventured to step out on the broad foundation of truth.
About nine months ago we received a letter from a sister in Rochester, which gave us the first conviction that the seventh day was the Sabbath, but did not get a clear understanding of the truth until we came to Rochester last August. We intended while there to be refreshed by hearing Bro. D. I. Robinson preach; but God had a different message for us.
Bro. White gave us a lecture on the commandments, showing them unchanged, and their unchangeable nature so clearly, that we had but two positions left—one was to keep the commandments, the other was to not keep them.
We did not keep them until about three weeks after we heard Bro. White lecture.
Bro. J. N. Loughborough, returning from the west about this time, stopped and gave us two lectures.—God owned his word. We have tried to keep God's Sabbaths, since that time, according to the commandment.
Bro. Loughborough came here again Oct. 16th, and gave us five lectures. Three others from that time began to keep the Sabbath, and many others confessed that these things are so, according to the Bible. And why they don't venture out and take up the cross is more than I can tell. But those who have been convinced, will soon find a withdrawing of the Spirit of conviction. God from the foundation of the world has claimed one day out of seven, and that day is the seventh day. This may be proved from Neh. ix, 14.—And madest known to them thy holy Sabbath. Gen. ii, 3. And God blessed the seventh day. Deut. iii, 14. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Isa. lviii, 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day.
John was in the Spirit on the Seventh day. This needs no more proof than what is contained in the title Lord's day: if God has claimed any other day aside from the seventh, he has not given us notice of the change.
I do hereby agree that if any person will point out to me one single text of scripture that shows that God has ever claimed the first day as his day, then I will keep it holy to the Lord; or if they will show that it is even hinted at, by Christ or his apostles, that the first day is in any sense to be kept holy, then I will do as I said above. The one that volunteers to find the text, will know something about the Bible before he gets the passage he wants.
Some of our Divines here, tell us that Christ arose on the first day, and the disciples met together on the first day; therefore the Sabbath was changed. O that man could see that the great God uttered the fourth command, in thunder tones, from Sinai's mount that made creation shake. And if he had meant to have it changed to the resurrection day, he would have announced it in an audible voice from heaven, that would have laid Jerusalem in the dust, and thus have given it an equal footing with its nine aged brethren; but no such voice was heard—no, not even a whisper from the Father's well-beloved Son, nor his disciples, that followed close in his track.
But we do find the blessed Jesus keeping all his Father's commandments, and we know that one of those commandments reads, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." We find the apostle Paul, twenty years after the resurrection day, in company with Timotheus and Silas, traveling in a Roman colony, and tarrying certain days in the city of Philippi; but when the Sabbath, or Jehovah's, Rest-day came round, the Apostle had a prayer-meeting to attend by the River side. Lydia is converted, and baptized. She then takes those brethren to her own house, and they never so much as hint to her that the next day is the Christian Sabbath. But the secret is that Paul and his company, like us, poor despised Advent believers, kept the seventh day for the Sabbath.
Glory to God that we have now a rule by which we can test ourselves, to know whether we love God or not; for the last few years of our lives we have been telling that we loved God—that we love him and was willing to sacrifice every thing for his honor. Our Father has now begun to test us; by one of his old rules, too; "If ye love me keep my commandments," and my time, that I instituted for the world.
Why Father, I have kept thy commandments.—And I am willing now to keep them just as I have been doing. Well that won't do. The seventh day is mine, and it must now be kept holy.
Why, they all say Father, that the day was changed. I permitted darkness to cover the earth for twelve hundred and sixty years while my times and laws were given into the hands of the Pope. He changed my law and my time, and slew my saints, and when they were delivered out of his hand, you were honest in keeping the first day of the week. I overlooked your ignorance, until knowledge has been increased. The time of the end is come, and the visions are understood; therefore you have no more the excuse of ignorance.
Jesus has shown us that he intends to have a church to present unto his Father, that are keeping all his commandments. He gives John a vision of what that church should be. 1. He tells him what it encountered from the Dragon in its infancy. 2. The persecution it should suffer for 1260 years, by the Papacy, and the last thing he sees of her is, when she becomes a little remnant, keeping all the commandments, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ, just ready to receive her Lord, and enter upon joys eternal. We have much need of patience for they say all manner of evil against us falsely. Pray for us. S. WOODHULL.