LETTER TO W. SHELDON by Marcia S. Avery

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · May 12, 1853

LETTER TO W. SHELDON.

By Marcia S. Avery

DEAR SIR:—As I have read several of your letters, warning people every where to beware of the teachers of the seventh-day Sabbath, and have heretofore, paid great attention to those warnings, and by hearing one side of the question only, (through the Advent Harbinger,) I considered the advocates of that doctrine, little or no better than Mormons, and I verily thought (by the numerous accounts of that paper) they were a deluded, fanatical, weak-minded set of beings; until of late, my prejudice though very strong, has been removed by hearing with my own ears, and seeing with my own eyes, and behold! how great the contrast. O how grossly have they been misrepresented. How unchristian and how unlike the example of Jesus or any of his true followers, have you, a professed minister of our blessed Saviour, heaped abuse and slander, upon those who claim to be enlightened Christians. My heart is pained to see it. O what language is this, how must it wound the heart of any true Christian! "Heaven-daring, God-provoking, Christ-insulting, Satan-originated, shut-door theory." O, how think you our Heavenly Father can bless you with his smiles while you harbor such feelings in your heart? I ask by what authority you use these dreadful words?

In the Harbinger of May 1st, 1852, as you speak of Sabbath-keeping, you call it "a shrewd device of the Devil," and furthermore state that you "have given it a thorough examination, and consider the whole system a trap of the Devil," and also that you "consider the system rotten to the core."—I think, now, that you have not examined the subject as thoroughly as you might, seeing that you labor under the great mistake, that they have no message for sinners, and that the door of mercy was closed in 1844. If you look at the subject candidly, you will at once discover that this is a grievous error, and one well calculated to deceive, and prejudice (still more) the minds of those that have not heard for themselves.

Now I must say that you have most wickedly misrepresented this class of God's people. I beg of you to read Matt. vii, 5: "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." I would also ask you to remember the words of Paul to Titus, [Chap. iii, 2,] "To speak evil of no man; to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing meekness unto all men." Also, James i, 26: "If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain." With such examples as these before us, why need we go astray? If we follow the rules of the inspired Volume we must do right, we cannot err. We learn from this Book of books, that "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake."

Now I would ask in candor, have you not reviled? Have you not persecuted (most bitterly) those who are, for aught you know, true and honest Christians? Suppose you are personally acquainted with one or two individuals of that belief, who are not just what they should be; for this, will you cast a slur upon the whole? Are there none among you that have faults? Undoubtedly, there are. O, then let us search our own hearts, before picking out, and setting forth the faults of others. But if any are found "without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." Now if you call the keeping of the Sabbath, such a "pernicious error" a "device of Satan," and all this, why is it, I ask, productive of so much good? for I can testify that it has done great good in this vicinity. And I feel to rejoice, and bless God, that he has ever opened our hearts, and ears, that we might hear, and receive his glorious, his blessed, and present truth. Now I beg of you, as a friend, to take the advice given in Acts v, 38, 39, to "Refrain

from these men, and let them alone: for if this work be of men it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."

If you will only give me fair proof, from the Word, that it is wrong to obey the commands of God, or if you will give a "thus saith the Lord," that it is provoking God, and insulting his Son, to keep his law, or remember his holy day, then I will remember it no longer. But until you bring sufficient proof, as I know you never can, I will never desecrate his holy day.

I am not at all prepared to take your own testimony on this point, as it is not founded on the Word, and as I know, in direct opposition to it; for we read in 1 John ii, 3, 4, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments; he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him." How, I ask, can we be following the devices of Satan, and at the same time act according to this scripture? If we can, what are our Bibles good for? I answer, nothing. No, we are not in danger of being ensnared by the arch deceiver, as long as we are striving to walk with Jesus, by following his examples, for he says, "I have kept my Father's commandments." John xv, 10. And again, "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself, also to walk, even as he walked." 1 John ii, 6.—Now must we not, if we walk as did our Heavenly Master, keep all his Father's commandments? We certainly must if we love him. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." You must acknowledge that, "Remember the Sabbath day," is one of these commands, and what policy it can be for any Christian to take from the ten, the fourth, grand precept, and thereby rob God of his just claims, I cannot see. O that all might be willing, to love, honor and obey God, by doing all he requires of them.

If you should deem my remarks too harsh, or censorious, forgive me, for I mean it not; but it has been my intention to promote no hardness, by using, according to the best of my abilities, a due proportion of Christian forbearance. And that you may yet be led to see, and acknowledge the perpetuity of the law of Jehovah, is the fervent prayer of your well-wisher,

Locke, Mich., April 3d, 1853. MARCIA S. AVERY.