LEANDER M. JONES by Leander M. Jones

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 4, 1858

LEANDER M. JONES

By Leander M. Jones

From Bro. Jones

BRO. SMITH: It is some over two years since I commenced keeping the Sabbath of the Lord, and I can say of a truth it has been the happiest part of my life. I look back to be sure and see some crooked steps that I have made, but on the other hand I can call to mind many a time when the Lord has met with and blessed me. O how cheering it is to look back the last two years and see so many bright spots on my pathway; not only in public meetings but in the field, and in the grove, in the closet and around my own family altar. Truly the Lord has been chief among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely.

I hail the weekly visit of the Review as I would a long absent friend; and while I read the cheering epistles from brethren and sisters in different parts of the field, my heart burns within me.

The light of the Third Angel's Message surely appears "like the path of the just, which is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." That the two first messages are in the past, I believe with all my heart. I well remember the

movement in 1843-4, when the servants of God went out as it were with their lives in their hands, and proclaimed the coming of the Son of man; and how on the tenth day of the seventh month, with longing, streaming eyes they looked for the second coming of the lovely Son of God. But he did not come. There were yet other important scriptures to be fulfilled; the heavenly sanctuary to be cleansed; the last solemn message to be given; the saints of the living God to be sealed; the decree to go forth that we shall neither buy nor sell; the seven vials of God's wrath to be poured out.

Dear brother or sister, how can we doubt these solemn truths any longer with such a flood of light? Why I bless God for the strong unyielding faith I have in the Third Angel's Message. I believe it to be the work of God, and it will go forward though men and devils may oppose.

The Third Angel's Message brings along with it the Sabbath; and I found after I embraced the Sabbath it was like a great lantern, shedding light on the past Advent movement, harmonizing the past with the future. I do thank God for the true light that is now shining. Come, my weak brother, I say to you, be strong; doubt no longer; take hold of the strong arm of the Lord; fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life. Plead earnestly; overcome the wicked one; die to the world, and to self, and everything around you; live for God and him only; wrestle like Jacob of old, until you know that God owns and blesses you as his child; and remember that in a little from this it will be said in heaven "It is done." The solemn decree will go forth, "he that is holy let him be holy still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy still."

Yours in hope of everlasting life.

LEANDER M. JONES

Monterey, Mich., Jan., 26th, 1858.