p. 150 | Extracts from Letters

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 26, 1861

Extracts from Letters.

Bro. M. S. Kellogg writes from Ionia Mich.: "It is with feelings of pleasure that I write a few lines again to let my brethren and sisters know that I am still trying to make my way to heaven. Although it is with feeble steps that I march along, yet my confidence in God's promises, which are left on record for the finally faithful is unshaken. The Lord is good and greatly to be praised. His mercy endureth forever. We have been highly privileged and considerably strengthened of late by hearing God's truth from the mouth of Bro. Bates, in the town of Orange, Ionia Co., where he has been giving a course of lectures. There are some thirteen honest souls keeping the Sabbath in that place, and others are convicted of the truth. Many gave their expression in favor of the Lord's Sabbath that do not see the importance, or have not yet moral courage enough to step out and take a decided stand amid the opposition of the multitude."

Bro. T. Bryant jr. writes from Jay, Me.: "I still love the precious truths of the present message and its advocates, and am striving to press forward and gain the victory over every evil of my heart and become prepared for the coming of our blessed Master. I feel glad that souls are being gathered into the truth in distant places, and also hope that the time will soon come when the East will be visited with the blessing of the Lord."

Bro. W. H. Ball writes from Washington, N. H.: "I have thought many times that I would like to write a few lines to the brethren and sisters scattered abroad, but have endeavored to excuse myself, like hundreds

of others, for want of ability. Of late, however, I have become satisfied that such excuses will avail us nothing in the coming day. We sometimes hear persons express themselves something like this, if I was as gifted as such a brother or sister, if I could only pray or exhort like this, that, or the other one, then I would be willing to bear my cross; but I am so weak, and my talent is so small, that I feel as though it is of but little use for me to try to do anything. Now when I hear individuals express themselves like this, it enforces upon my mind two conclusions: 1. That if such possessed the desired abilities for praying, exhorting, or writing, they would do so merely to let the brethren and sisters know that they were talented. 2. That if such should ever get to heaven and should not find as many stars in their crown as some others had, they would almost consider them worthless. To my mind, brethren and sisters, the great difficulty with many of us lies here: we are ashamed to appear in our true colors; unwilling to work in our own harness, so to speak; we feel an unwillingness to appear small in the world. This ought not so to be. Let us not despise the day of small things. If the Lord has given us but one talent, we should be just as willing to improve upon that as though we had five or ten. Let us not accuse the Lord of being a hard Master. If we have but one talent, our brethren will not expect as much from us as from those who have greater abilities, neither does the Lord require it; but he does require faithfulness with what he has committed to our trust, and will demand his own with usury.

"I would say to the dear brethren and sisters that it has been a little more than two years since myself and companion decided to go with the remnant to Mt. Zion. As it may not be uninteresting to some I will relate some of the dealings of the Lord with us in the past in preparing our hearts to receive the truth. A few months previous to our embracing the Sabbath, death entered our little circle, and claimed as its victim our youngest boy, then two years old. My companion at the same time was confined to her bed, being very sick, even nigh unto death. At the same time a horse ran away with me, and I barely escaped with my life. About this time we began to consider our unsafe position while living in a backslidden state, without God and without hope in the world. We finally made a covenant with the Lord, that if he would have mercy upon us, and pardon our many sins, the remnant of our days should be spent in his service; that we would bear any cross or make any sacrifice he might require at our hands. We soon were made to rejoice, believing that the Lord had heard our cries, and for Jesus' sake forgiven our sins. Soon after this some books upon the Sabbath question were kindly loaned us, which awakened a deep interest in our hearts to search to see if these things were so. We examined the subject carefully, and at the same time sought the aid of the divine Spirit to lead us into all truth. We soon saw a perfect harmony between the arguments used and the Bible. In searching the New Testament we were astonished at the amount of testimony to prove the obligation and perpetuity of the Sabbath. As the light began to shine, our pre-possessed opinions and prejudices began to give way, and, the soil of our hearts being in a prepared state, the truth soon took root and sprung up. We stepped out upon the sure platform, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, believing it to be far more safe to follow the teachings of the word than the traditions of men. We came out under great opposition. My friends being all bitterly opposed to the Advent doctrine, many hard speeches were spoken against us. I will give one here as a specimen, not that we feel in our hearts in any degree a spirit of retaliation, or would say or do anything to injure any one, God forbid; but merely to show the dragonic spirit manifested, and the truthfulness of Rev. xii, 17. Soon after embracing the Sabbath we went to visit a brother of mine, as we had often done previous. The first salutation after we got into the house, was, Well, I don't suppose you will have to work any more for a living. I expect the Lord will feed you upon manna, as he did the Israelites, seeing you have gone back under the law. Said he wished my wife had died when she was so sick, and when I was run away with, that I had been killed. He hoped we would move off where we never should be heard from again, &c. What had we done to offend this dear brother? What crime were we guilty of? The only charge brought against us was, that we had gone back under the law, and gone to keeping the old Jewish Sabbath, and had joined the Adventists. But thanks to the Lord, none of these things moved us, for we had counted well the cost before starting. We knew that He that was for us was more than all that could be against us.

"We feel to praise the Lord for the way in which he has led us. He has done great things for us, whereof we would be glad. We love his truth, we love his people, and above all we love the glorious appearing of our Saviour, which is near, even at the doors. We are striving to get rid of every idol, and every secret fault, that we may be fully prepared to hail his coming with joy. I hail with delight the weekly visits of the Review . I have distributed among the circle of my acquaintances nearly as many papers as I have received, not but that I should have been as glad as any one to keep them, but I have had the object in view of benefiting my fellow-men. There are none of us but have friends, or acquaintances, who might possibly be benefited by reading the paper, and the cost of sending off a few copies now and then is but a mere trifle. There are but few of us with means so limited that we may not be instrumental in doing some little good in this way. There is a fearful responsibility resting upon us, as believers in the near coming of the Lord; and it is high time that we awake out of sleep, and bestir ourselves. A few faint desires never will save us. There must be vigorous action. It would seem from outward appearances that some suppose if they only keep the Sabbath, even in a sleek and loose manner, and are considered as being numbered with the remnant, that this is about all that is required of them. Such I fear will find too late their mistake. May the Lord enable us to so examine and prove our own selves, and search our hearts, and try our ways, that we may not be deceived. Let us be sure that our hope is well grounded, and reaches to that within the vail, that when he who is our life shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming."