Testimony of Sister Haselton
By Sarah Haselton
BRO. SMITH:—I love to read the testimony of those who are striving to live godly in Christ Jesus, and hoping that it may be for the glory of God, and edifying to those who love him, I would testify of his goodness in revealing to me his truth. My heart is at this moment filled with love and gratitude to that high and holy Being who would thus condescend to reveal to so unworthy a mortal as I, his glorious present truth; and that my heart was ever open to conviction, freed from prejudice, and filled with such love. The Commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus, O how precious and perfect! That our heavenly Father will help me to keep them is my earnest desire. For about two years I have received a number of tracts and also the Review from Bro. and Sr. Austin. In reading them, and reasoning upon the different theories contained in them, and in searching the scriptures, like king Agrippa, I was almost persuaded to be a Christian. I felt that I could not be a Christian unless I kept the Testimony of Jesus; or a child of God unless I kept his Commandments. It pleased the Lord to send Brn. Hutchins and Sperry this way, and may he reward them for their unwearied labor in proclaiming this truth. While listening to them I was both almost and altogether persuaded to try to be as they were—Bible Christians. I commenced keeping the Sabbath last August; I renounced my pretended or Catholic baptism, (sprinkling in infancy,) and was buried with Christ in baptism. In searching for truth I find that many learned Pagans embraced the Christian faith at an early age. The Gentiles were Pagans, and as the church began to decline and lose that Spirit which would have led them into all truth, they embraced many doctrines of the Pagans. The Pagans worshipped the sun on Sunday, and named the day in honor of it; but professed Christians make other excuses for honoring it, calling it holy, and robbing God of his Sabbath, and calling Sunday the Sabbath or Rest-day of the Lord. The Roman Catholic church has many other heathenish practices: such as sprinkling for baptism; and that man is immortal and goes directly to heaven or hell at death, thereby destroying the Christian's hope in the glories attending the resurrection, and also laying a platform for the Devil to work his wonders and deceptions upon this generation. In 1 Cor. xv, I find that it is not the natural man that hath immortality; yet Paul assures the Romans that by patient continuance in well doing all could obtain immortality and eternal life. The doctrine called the trinity, claiming that God is without form or parts; that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the three are one person, is another. Could God be without form or parts when he "spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto a friend?" [Ex. xxxiii, 11.] or when the Lord said unto him, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live? And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen. Ex. xxxiii, 20, 22, 23. Christ is the express image of his Father's person. Heb. i, 3. In John xvii, 21, 23, is shown how the Father and Son are one. In Jesus' prayer to his Father (not to himself) he prayed for them that should believe: that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, &c. The errors mentioned above are not only the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, but the Protestant churches are poisoned with the bane of the mother church. I know it is hard for people to get rid of opinions formed from traditions of men, handed down through many generations; but we must get rid of them if we would be prepared to meet the Lord. I am striving to be prepared, and hope I shall soon be able to say, as Paul did to Timothy, I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Will those love his appearing that knowingly keep the traditions of the elders instead of the Commandments of God? I fear not. But the Lord will have a people prepared to meet him, who love his appearing; and who have waited for him. May I be one of that number.