MRS. R. SMITH by Mrs. R. Smith

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1859

MRS. R. SMITH

By Mrs. R. Smith

From Sister Smith.

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I write because I feel constrained thus to do. About three weeks since my mind was exercised with peculiar love for the children of God. I never before so realized the strength and glory of their being united, and one in Christ Jesus. O, thought I, the refreshing is coming! God is about to shed abroad his love in the hearts of the honest ones who will give up all for him and his cause. This will fit them for the loud cry of the third angel, and the latter rain. I felt a desire to see them all, that I might tell them of the love that was glowing in my heart. It then occurred to me that I could speak to many of them through the Review.

I have prized the paper since it first started with the present truth, and have professed to believe it of the Lord; but since this exercise of mind, I have felt a living witness, a consciousness within, better felt than described, that the Review is approved of the Lord, and those connected with it are his people; and however much I may have prized it in past time, it is now doubly dear. This reminds me of an incident in April of 1843. I had for some months professed to believe the Lord was coming, but did not feel the assurance I wanted. While reading a pamphlet, "The Test of Saving Faith," I resolved to seek until I obtained the evidence I desired. I found the faith, and a great blessing with it; and could say without a doubt from that time till the tenth day of the seventh month passed, The Lord is coming!

This inward teaching can be no hindrance, and does not by any means supercede the necessity of understanding the argument from the word of God, which must be a great privilege to those able to do so. The commandments of God, all can understand, with the Faith of Jesus, and all may keep them and enter into life. The love of God in the heart will overcome a selfish and covetous disposition, and love of the world. It will make us esteem others better than ourselves. We shall feel that no glory belongs to us if we have not, as yet, been publicly rebuked and classed among the erring. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." The Lord scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, and he knows what will best effect a reconciliation. Pride must be humbled, and we must be kept in the furnace till the dross is consumed. There may be a calm, the result of cases being so desperate that they are left without chastisement, of whom it may have been said, They are joined to their idols, let them alone. Who has not reason to fear while indulging in sin that the Spirit is being grieved for the last time? Sin so blinds the mind, and darkens the understanding, that it makes us insensible to our condition. Some may apparently be in fellowship with the saints whose last chance has passed unimproved. But the separation must come. When the love of God takes full possession of the heart, in each will be seen the image of Jesus. Past wrongs will be forgiven and forgotten in the simplicity and love that will pervade their entire being. Their interests will be one. Each will lay his own advantage by to do his brother good. Those who are lovers of themselves, their gold, appetites and passions, more than lovers of God and his cause, will not go with this united company. Their faces will gather blackness, and they will want to hide from the light of the glory that will attend those fully prepared to work for God. We shall then discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. How precious the passing moments to those for whom there is yet hope! May we so improve them that we may have eternal life.

MRS. R. SMITH

West Wilton, N. H., Jan. 6th, 1859.