Letter from Bro. Waggoner by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 20, 1856

Letter from Bro. Waggoner.

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

BRO. SMITH: Though I have not yet been able to satisfy my own mind in regard to some things in the letter to the Philadelphia church, yet I feel constrained to add my testimony as to the lukewarm condition of the professed Sabbath-keepers. This fact has long been a deep grief to me. Especially have I been burdened with the state of those who have for years professed the faith. Almost every church of several years' standing is in this deplorable state. There is still a growing conformity to the fashions and follies of the world. And when the searching truths of the Third Angel's Message, and the light already elicited on the churches fail to awake sufficient interest to produce an attendance on the ordinary means of grace, and especially the prayer-meeting, it has seemed to me that "cold" would be a more appropriate term than "lukewarm," to describe their state; and I have felt to exclaim, Is it possible that those who have long "seemed to be pillars," will be yet spued out as a nauseous and disgusting thing? But I rejoice to see by the correspondence of the Review that many are beginning to realize these things. And as I read the testimony from different parts of the field, and hear how the minds of the scattered ones have been impressed on this subject, who have not yet conferred with one another in regard to it, I feel to say, Amen. It is of the Lord. May the good work go on till all the little flock are "zealous" and "repent."

God has given us joy over the fruit of our labors during the past season. I hope that our zeal in laboring may not abate in this dark time of peril.

Six believers in this place were baptized on the second Sabbath in October, and my hope now is that others in this section will see and obey the present truth.

J. H. W.

Addison, Mich.