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A RESPONSE

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 7, 1859

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 14, No. 7.

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A RESPONSE.

By A. S. Hutchins

DEAR BRO. SMITH: The Review, Nos. 3 & 4, are received. The report of the Conference at Battle Creek is indeed refreshing and interesting to me, as it must be to all interested in the advancement of the present gathering message.
I greatly rejoice that there is a saving truth being proclaimed, which is gathering the church together, and will bring them into the unity of the faith, and prepare them for the glorious coming of the Son of man. Through the influence of this sacred truth that large assembly of brethren and sisters were convened to attend the recent conference. O what gratitude to God should fill our hearts for causing the light of truth to shine upon our pathway. WATCHFULNESS and PRAYER should characterize us as a people. O let us not be stupid and inactive in a cause so glorious as the one in which we are engaged.
The Conference Address and the sermon on paying our vows unto God, I read with deep interest. Who has not broken resolutions and vows made unto the Lord? O how many I have made and broken! How many you, dear reader, have made and broken! What a catalogue would open before us, if all that we have made had been written and the book were open before us to-day. Solemn thought! Shall we ever pay them? Thank God, probation lasts, mercy lingers! May we all find grace to redeem our promises to the Lord, pay our vows and reduce all our good resolutions to practice.
The counsel to the Laodiceans comes home with power to my heart to-day. "Be zealous, therefore, and repent." These words strike me with force as I write. Shall we heed this counsel? If so, it will be well with us. But if, like Lot's wife, we look back, or stand still, we incur the displeasure of God. Our only means of escape is to press forward.
"So run," says the Apostle, "that ye may obtain." "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible" "And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."
Your brother hoping for the crown.
A. S. HUTCHINS.
Wolcott, Vt., June 21st, 1859.