The Wilderness of the People
By Josiah Hebner
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—I have thought what a blessing it was from God to us, who are so widely separated from those of like precious faith, and have not the privilege of the gospel ministry of the messengers of God, who are proclaiming the third angel's message, that he has opened another way by which his truth can be communicated to us. The Review comes a welcome messenger, laden with truth, and communications from the dear saints scattered abroad. I do rejoice that God has said, "And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." Eze. xx, 35-37. His reason for bringing ancient Israel into the wilderness, he says, was to try them. "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no." Deut. viii, 2. God is about bringing us into the wilderness of the people to try us and to prove us and to know what is in our hearts, and to know whether we would keep his commandments or no, taught in the third angel's message—the last message mixed with mercy that ever will be proclaimed to this world. The church here have been under severe trial, but we feel thankful to God that we have been able to confess our faults to one another, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. The church, we trust, will become more healthy and again begin to breathe the free atmosphere of heaven. We all join in the Macedonian cry, praying the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest; for the harvest is great and the laborers are few. There seems to be quite an interest existing in the minds of some individuals in this place, with regard to the Spirit Manifestations as they are increasing quite fast here. There seems to be quite a number who appear to manifest a desire to hear for themselves, and it seems to me that if some of God's servants could feel it duty to come and present the truth, and the whole truth, before the minds of the people, that some would be added to the commandment-keepers—such as shall be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. May the Lord speed the messengers, is my sincere prayer. Yours striving to be an overcomer through the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony.
JOSIAH HEBNER.
Oakwood, C. W., Feb. 19th, 1854