DEAR BRO. WHITE:—I wish to say to the remnant scattered abroad, Hold fast whereunto you have attained, that no man take thy crown. We know that we have the truth, and the truth makes us free, so long as we obey it by doing all His commandments. Christ says, He that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock. But he that heareth them, and doeth them not, is likened unto a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. We must not be forgetful hearers, but doers of the word.—Some say they are not under the law, but under grace. Now the law was made for the lawless and disobedient. And when any person breaks, or disregards any one or all of the ten precepts of the immutable law of God, he is no longer under grace; because he is a transgressor of the law, and must repent and forsake his sins, and have that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto life, before he can say that he is under grace. Grace implies favor, or the love of God. This is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments. Truth makes us free and bold to rebuke sin, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Now, dear brethren, walk in the love and simplicity of the gospel, keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Speaking the same things, being of one mind, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. And may the God of peace sanctify you wholly. Our Saviour's language was, Father, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. We have the word of God to read, and by it we shall be condemned, or sanctified by faith on the Son of God, who hath given himself for us, that he might redeem us from under the curse of the broken law. For, verily, if we keep the whole law, both in the spirit and in the letter too, we shall only be saved by faith on the Son of God. For we have all broken the law, which Paul says is holy, just and good.
Oh, brethren, pray in faith that our Great High Priest will make a full atonement for us, that all our sins and errors may be confessed over the head of the scape-goat, and blotted out. We having confessed and forsaken them, will find mercy, and the author of all sin shall bear them to a land not inhabited, or wilderness. Otherwise, our sins will be upon our own heads, and we shall be the subjects of divine wrath. Oh, try to make sure work, while he yet maketh intercession for us.
From your unworthy brother, in patient waiting for the coming kingdom, N. W. ROCKWELL.