Letter From Bro. Carver.
By H. E. Carver
Bro. Smith: It is with feelings of gratitude to our Father in heaven that I take my pen to give, in few words, the history of my conversion to the "present truth." My mind has never been perfectly at ease since I first heard the evidence (in part) several years ago; but I framed a no-Sabbath theory, for myself with which I tried to be satisfied; and thus several years passed, gradually losing that spiritual mindedness that I enjoyed under the messages of the first and second angels; and since Bro. J. N. A. so effectually demolished my arguments in the Review, several years ago, I have rather shunned the further investigation of the Sabbath question, and entrenched myself in my no-Sabbath theory. Thus I stood having no definite views relative to God's present dealings with the church or world; only I still firmly believed that we were living near the end of earthly governments, as revealed in God's word. When I heard that two Sabbath-keeping brethren were about to visit Iowa City, I was preparing to move on to my farm, and I hurried my preparations so as to be away when the Tent came; but the providence of God interfered, and I was detained and had time to think; and it was impressed upon my mind that the time had come that I must decide whether these things were so, and if they were, that I must decide either to believe and keep the ten commandments as well as the faith of Jesus, or I must reject them to my own condemnation; and I resolved, without consulting with flesh and blood, that by the grace of God I would investigate the subject, and having learned, if possible, the will of God, that I would obey it, let the consequences be what they might. In this frame of mind I listened to the evidences produced from the Bible by Brn. Waggoner and Hull. The consequence is, that I do verily regard the royal law of God contained in the ten commandments, as of full force in the gospel dispensation, and that the seventh day is as much the Sabbath of the Lord now as it was at the time God rested from his creative work and sanctified the seventh day and set it apart for man. I also see a harmony in the subjects of the Third Message, and the two horned beast, as presented by Bro. Waggoner, and in the writings on the same, that I have read since, such as I never expected to see again in the prophecies. In studying the matter over from day to day there appears such a harmony between the law of God, and the gospel of salvation, that it seems to me it only requires to have it presented to the mind, for all to see and admire it. I am reminded by my own experience that I must not expect too much, nor be too impatient. My heavenly Father has had long patience with me, and at last almost forced me into the truth, for which I give him glory. I feel that not to me but to God be all the praise for my reception of the truth. And now brethren I feel more than I ever did the weight of responsibility that rests upon me to magnify the grace of God in saving me from the transgression of his law, that my life may correspond with the glorious stand the Lord has called on me to take, and that in thought, word, and action, I may not bring a reproach on the holy cause of God. Of myself I am insufficient for these things. By the grace of God I am what I am; and by his grace I hope to prove faithful to the end that at last I may, with all my brethren and sisters in Christ, have right to the tree of life and enter the holy city of our King, and have a seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Yours in Christ.
Iowa City, Sept., 1858.
H. E. CARVER.