Resolution of the Seventh-day Baptist Central Association.
By James White
WE received the following from the Corresponding Secretary of the Seventh-day Baptist Central Association, and take the liberty to publish it, with a brief reply. MR. JAMES WHITE, DEAR SIR:—At the sitting of the Seventh-day Baptist Central Association in Scott, last month, it was "resolved that we instruct our Corresponding Secretary to correspond with the Seventh-day Advent people, and learn their faith." As Corresponding Secretary of that body, I know of no more proper person to correspond with upon that subject than yourself, as I understand that you are the Editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, the organ of that people. If you will afford me the desired information, you will greatly oblige. De Ruyter, N. Y., July 28, 1853. J. C. ROGERS. REPLY—DEAR SIR: My limited time and space will not allow me to enter into an extended statement of the faith and hope of that portion of the Second Advent people who observe the fourth commandment. Our publications give our general views in full.—These I forward to you, and shall be happy to furnish you with new Works when published. It is now a little more than eight years since the Sabbath was first introduced among the Advent people; and as a people, they rejected it. A few stood firm amidst violent opposition. The Sabbath cause did not advance with us but very little up to 1849. At that time it began to rise, and its progress has been steady and firm till the present; and within a few months, the interest among us to extend the light of the true Sabbath to others, and the readiness of the people to investigate, has greatly increased. As a people we are brought together from divisions of the Advent body, and from the various denominations, holding different views on some subjects; yet, thank Heaven, the Sabbath is a mighty platform on which we can all stand united. And while standing here, with the aid of no other creed than the Word of God, and bound together by the bonds of love—love for the truth, love for each other, and love for a perishing world—"which is stronger than death," all party feelings are lost. We are united in these great subjects: Christ's immediate, personal second Advent, and the observance of all of the commandments of God, and the faith of his Son Jesus Christ, as necessary to a readiness for his Advent. With Seventh-day Baptists, we agree in the institution, design and perpetuity of the Sabbath. Though53the pioneers of the Sabbath reform with us, investigated the subject, and entered the field before they saw your publications, yet the writings of the Seventh-day Baptists have been a great comfort and strength to us. As a people, we hold that it is the design of Heaven that the Sabbath should be extensively published, especially just prior to the Second Advent; and that in the fulfillment of the prophecy of Rev. xiv, 6-14, as the Second Advent movement, the "commandments of God" hold a place, as the last great testing truth, just before the Son of man takes his place on the white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. And here we adore the wisdom of God, in giving a truth so simple that every accountable person can learn it, yet so mighty, as the last great testing truth preparatory to the coming of the Son of man. Your Brother in Christ, JAMES WHITE.