DEAR BRO. WHITE :—I am still trying to overcome, and my prayer is that I may be sanctified through the truth.
I accidentally took up a religious periodical the other day, (The Morning Star,) in which a writer in giving an account of a revival, says that some 25 or 30 persons have been converted and many added to the church in that place, (Mich.,) and the good work has been going on until within a few days past, since a Millerite has been holding forth that there is no such thing as eternal punishment, and that the doctrines preached here before are false; and then he winds up by saying that it was too much like the doctrine preached to Adam and Eve in the garden.
The question now arises, What was the first false teaching that Adam and Eve heard after God had placed them in the garden and commanded them what trees to eat and what not to eat? We are taught that the Devil is a liar; and the Son of God was manifest to destroy the works of the Devil. The first lie he ever told mankind was in preaching the doctrine that "thou shalt not surely die:" a falsehood which has caused all the sin and sorrow, pain and death that has ever been felt by mortals here. Blindness in part has happened to Israel, says Paul; and if the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the ditch. I would exclaim like Peter, that we have not followed cunningly devised fables, but have a more sure word of prophecy, and we do well to take heed thereunto as unto a light that shines in a dark place.