A Testimony of Deliverance and Faith
By J. W. West
Dear Bro. White:—I once more sit down to write you and the trusting children of the Advent faith, a few words of encouragement. I stated to you last Winter, how that God, through his divine providence, had brought me out of the great southern Sodom, from Baltimore to New Orleans, where I never thought it possible that a Slave could enjoy freedom, and landed me safe on free soil in the State of New York. And as I stated to you, when in the slave states, it pleased God for Christ's sake, to change the darkness of my soul into light, Sept. 1840. When adopted into the family of heaven, I joined the Methodist branch of the church and in a few weeks felt it duty to go and call sinners to repentance, and tell what the Lord had done for me. I was then recommended by the class to which I belonged, to the Leaders' meeting, and from them to the quarterly conference, for license to exhort. This was granted me; and I increased in faith, and God carried on his work in adding souls to his people. You may be aware that in the Methodist order of the church, an exhorter is not allowed to preach until he is duly recommended and tried by the quarterly conference. So in 1851, I applied for local license to preach in the city of New Orleans, and obtained it from the presiding elder. Soon after I removed north, to the free states where I could have a better opportunity of seeking for the whole truth. Dear Brethren and Sisters, who hold to the principles of the Advent faith, I am with you in seeking for the whole truth of God, and looking for the hope of the soon coming of Christ. I am excommunicated from the Methodists; and there are but two here in Peterboro Village, besides myself, who have embraced the truth of the third angel's message. We see by the signs of the times, and the state of foreign nations, that our redemption draweth nigh. The kingdoms of this world will soon be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel, and become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. Yours in the patient waiting.
J. W. West.
Peterboro', Mad. Co., N. Y., 1854.