p. 14 | Returning to the Third Angel’s Message

Publishing Committee · BATTLE CREEK, MICH. · May 27, 1858

Returning to the Third Angel’s Message

By A. H. Daniels; Sarah A. Daniels

From Bro. & Sr. Daniels.

BRO. SMITH: It has been five years since we embraced the Third Angel's Message under the preaching of Bro. Phelps, and we little thought then what crooked paths we should make in the progress of religion in so short a time. We have been too easy to believe those who profess to be Adventists, yet deny the Third Angel's Message. O, we pray that the Lord will forgive us and open the eyes of all those who are deluded in the same way. A little more than one year ago we left off family prayer, and in a short time we were without a light to our feet, or a lamp to our path, and no hope to guide us in and through this vale of tears. We could exclaim with the poet,

"How tedious and tasteless the hours, When Jesus no longer I see."

Yes, dear friends, we know by experience that no person after believing the Third Message can for one moment feel safe out of it, unless God has sent them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. O what a cold and cheerless world this is. Here we have trials and afflictions, disease fast preying upon us, brother at war with brother, man against his fellow-man. All is confusion in every grade, from the high to the low, from the rich to the poor. Who would live here without the hope of a better resurrection? We do not want to. O no, we are determined to take the Bible as our guide, and keep God's holy law, the Ten Commandments. H. V. Reed wished me to write to Bro. Waggoner and say to him that I mistook, and that he did not deny the Third Message. I talked with Bro. Phelps about it, and we then said the position he took would soon lead him to deny the Sabbath, and I could not in conscience take it back. They denied as Bro. Phelps said, the gifts of the Spirit promised by the Great Head of the church. Mark xvi, 17, 18; James v, 14, 15, and in fact we were led to waver on that point; but we no longer doubt.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." Thus saith the true Witness, and I believe it is applicable to our case at this time; for he says in verse 20, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Yes, dear brethren, the Lord has been knocking at the door of our hearts for some time past, and if we had not given heed to it, I verily believe God would have left us. Pray for us that we may prove faithful unto the end that the love of God may increase in our hearts, and that we may be made perfect through the blood of the Lamb.

We are living in a very new country, thinly settled, and no one here keeps the Sabbath but ourselves. May the Lord help us to live so that others will know we are followers of the meek and lowly Lamb.

A. H. DANIELS. SARAH A. DANIELS.

Sumner, Wis., Apr. 24th, 1858.