Questions by Bro. Merriam.
By J. D. Merriam
BRO. SMITH: It is now about sixteen months since I yielded to my convictions on the Sabbath question, and commenced to observe it as a religious duty. I have usually found it a delight, though it has brought me into many trying positions. Still I feel the need of the Sabbath, and think it best to observe the day the Lord himself sanctified and blessed for man, rather than the day observed by professing Christians generally. There is one argument used by those who think the Sabbath is not binding, I cannot answer satisfactorily to my own mind. It is found in Gal. iii. The law was added till the seed should come, &c. The position taken is, that the law of the ten commandments was added to the promise till Christ came, and then ceased. The law was (not is) our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Can the law there spoken of refer to the ten commandments? I have read most of your publications on what is termed "the present truth;" but there are difficulties in my way which have prevented me from endorsing fully the views advocated. I don't know as I ought to burden you with them; but as one brother said to me, "Why don't you write your difficulties to the Review?" I thought it might not do any harm, if it did no good. So I will present some of them. 1. If the 2300 days cover the whole vision of Dan. viii, and they ended in 1844, what event answers to the breaking of the little horn without hand? This is one of the events seen in the vision: and the vision was 2300 days in duration: and I am unable to see how the days can end and that event not take place. 2. Do the 1335 days of Dan. xii, 12, reach to the end of the wonders, in answer to the question, (verse 6) How long? &c. What blessing is given to those who wait and come to those days? If they ended in 1844, what is understood by the last verse, Thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days? If the prophetic periods are all ended, in what time are we living now, and how long will it last? 3. If keeping the Sabbath is to be the distinguishing mark or seal of God in the foreheads of saints during the time of the two-horned beast's reign now considered future; what was the seal of God under the sounding of the fifth angel? Rev. ix, 4. In what position is a person that is sealed? i. e., can he fall from it? 4. If I understand your position in regard to the two-horned beast of Rev. xiii, it is, that the United States are to fulfill the prophecy: that it has not yet done its miracles and wonders to deceive; of course has not yet caused the earth to make an image to the beast. The difficulty to my mind is this: if it has but just arisen so as to show its two horns, and is to exercise all the power of the first beast, and is to cause the earth, and them which dwell therein, to worship it; is to do great wonders, make fire come down, &c., is to deceive the people and cause them to make an image and worship it on pain of death; is to cause all to receive a mark of homage, &c., and all before the coming of Christ, then we have got something before us to watch for instead of watching for the Lord! To me it looks like putting the coming of Christ too far in the future. Still I may not understand it right. 5. Much has been said of late of the loud cry of the third angel. Can that cry be made before the beast is fully developed? Now, dear brother, if you think any of these ideas worth noticing, I would be glad to hear from you, through the paper or otherwise, as I most earnestly desire truth and not error. My sympathies are more with the seventh-day keepers, than any other class of people, though as you see I am not in full fellowship with them. I think and believe there are good people who do not understand some things as I do; but I must believe a man must possess the meekness and gentleness of Christ in order to be his disciple. Such are my brethren, whether I can see eye to eye with them or not, believing the time near, when we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known; when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Yours in hope of eternal life at the coming of Jesus.
J. D. MERRIAM.