Meetings in Portland, Mich.
By Joseph Bates
DEAR BRO. SMITH: A few weeks since we spent a few days with the church at Otsego, Mich. They have been in a state of trial and lack of consecration and spirituality for several months past: false teachings also with disaffected members, &c. From all these they have separated themselves, and begun anew to serve the Lord with all their hearts, and to live out all the precious truths in the last message. According to previous arrangements we appointed to lecture in the school-house in Richland, some twenty-two miles from Battle Creek. Bro. Babcock and family were the only Sabbath-keepers in the neighborhood. We commenced June 13th, with a full house, and the people apparently much interested. When we came to attend our eighth meeting, the house was locked and no one prepared to explain. We learned afterwards that the Sabbath question, which was up the previous evening, troubled some of the professors very much. Our meetings continued without further interruption at the house of Bro. Babcock, where we were invited to preach some four evenings. Wm. Osburn, of the M. E. Church, had been holding protracted meetings in the school-house for some time, and a number had professed to be converted under his labors. On hearing of our protracted meeting, I was told that he labored hard to prejudice the people against the Advent doctrine, and advised them not to attend the meetings. After we were locked out, I attended one of his meetings. The main object of his discourse was to show up Advent Sabbath-keepers in a ridiculous and contemptible light. He exhorted his brethren to believe in Christ. Said he: They believe he is no better than Peter, and that man has no spirit any more than snakes and hogs; and our business was to scatter, divide, and destroy the churches, with much more of the same tenor, unbecoming the character of his profession. As he was personal in his remarks and labored to single me out before his audience several times, when he closed his meeting, I asked for the privilege of the house the next forenoon (First-day) to review his discourse; this was denied, rendering as an excuse, it would desecrate the Sabbath. I then asked Mr. O. what knew he about me or of me, or if he had ever seen me before? He said that he had not. To whom then were you directing your remarks? He replied, to Advent Sabbath-keepers. Where and when have you known them? O, said he, I have known enough of them. Where, sir, have you known them? Said he, in Monterey. Any where else? No, that was enough. What a sensible well-bred minister and teacher in Israel, to entertain an audience by directing the main portion of a long discourse, to a people living in a scattered neighborhood 25 miles from the place of his meeting! What he said about them after his meeting particularly, I considered unbecoming the character of an honest man. From what I learned afterwards, his unjust remarks against the Sabbath brethren at Monterey arose from a statement of his own, which he could not sustain. He therefore resorted to such ways to justify himself. Many of them once belonged to his church. The next day a Mr. Parmenter, another Methodist preacher, came, as he said, to preach the immortality of the soul. He endeavored to show that man was made first, and then the soul, and that these were distinct, and the soul was separated from the body at death, and passed off to the spirit world. He endeavored two or three times, to describe the soul as a principle. When he had finished his subject, he challenged any person to show that he had not proved it by the Bible. Now, said he, I will show what these Adventists believe about the soul. He quoted several texts and gave his opinion of them, and then held us up to ridicule and contempt for believing contrary to his view of the subject. We asked the privilege to reply. He refused, and closed the meeting. We reviewed his subject the next evening, and trust that those who heard were satisfied that his position was without foundation in the Scriptures. We were invited and held two evening meetings in the adjoining district school-house. On leaving the place we learned that a number were satisfied that we had the truth on the Sabbath, and they were making up their minds to keep it. Battle Creek, July 8th, 1858.