Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 10, 1861

REVIEW NO. 13.

By John Norton Loughborough

I HAVE just received and read Review No. 13, of present volume. I think its testimony is timely. It seems to me that God's people may, if we will, clearly discern this time. I feel for one stirred up to take hold with greater diligence in this work. The angels are holding the winds that God's servants may be sealed. It has seemed as though some awful scene of death and blood were right before us, and yet they linger, for what? God's servants are not sealed.

Brethren and sisters, is not now our time to work? If the Lord is taking the affair of this nation into his own hand, and his angels holding the winds, will he not help those who fearlessly go forth and declare the plain, cutting truths of his word? While reading sister White's testimony of the desperate character of slave-holders at the South, and the illustration that was given of the matter by the case of Pharaoh and his host following the people of God into the Red sea, it reminded me of what I had just read from a Southern paper. I will send it along as a testimony concerning their character. It seems from the note, and other remarks in the same paper, that this “Devoted Band” expect to make desolation in the North, and then lose their lives. This looks some like going into the Red sea. Read it from a Richmond paper:

“‘The Devoted Band.’—Fire and Sword.—The shortest path to peace is that which carries havoc and desolation to our invaders. It is believed that there are five or ten thousand men in the South ready and willing to share the fate of Curtins, and devote themselves to the salvation of their country. It is proposed that all who are willing to make this sacrifice, shall arm themselves with a sword, two five-shooters, and a carbine each, and meet on horseback, at some place to be designated, convenient for the great work on hand. Fire and sword must be carried to the houses of those who are visiting those blessings upon their neighbors. Philadelphia, and even New York, is not beyond the reach of a long and brave arm. The moral people of these cities cannot be better taught the virtues of invasion than by the blazing light of their own dwellings.

“None need apply for admission to ‘The Devoted Band’ but those who are prepared to take their lives in their hand, and who would indulge not the least expectation of ever returning. They dedicate their lives to the destruction of their enemies.

“A S B D B, Richmond.

“All Southern papers are requested to give this notice a few insertions.”

It seems the South is bent on invading the North, and rushing on New York and various points. The army of McCulloch are making their way up into Missouri, and threatening with a large force the south line of Illinois. But God's power can aid the efficient forces gathering, and hold them back, or discomfit them as he did Pharaoh and his host.