MEETINGS IN POTTEN, C. E.
By A. S. Hutchins
DEAR BRO. WHITE: Under the labors of Bro. Evans, there has been some interest awakened in the cause of present truth, in Potten, this summer. A few have embraced the Sabbath of the Lord. There has been, and still is, bitter opposition to the truth in that place. I have spent one Sabbath and two first-days there since Bro. Evans left. While there first, I had an appointment to preach in the school-house on first-day, but the night previous to this the old school-house was burned down, it was believed purposely. This suspicion was heightened from the fact that the school-books were all carried across the road and safely laid away. But this neither discouraged nor prevented us from holding our meeting. Aug. 4, Elds. Merrill and Blake, who had left their flock here for weeks, came to settle the minds of the people on the Sabbath question, by showing that the first day is the Sabbath for the gospel dispensation. reached the place about the time Eld. Merrill was commencing the difficult task, upon which he entered in good earnest. His positions were new, and important, if correct. He attempted to prove, first, that the seventh-day Sabbath was a type of the rest which the Jews would have enjoyed, had they received Christ at his first advent; but as they did not, both the type and the proffered rest were lost. Second, that the seventh-day Sabbath was then changed to the first-day, which is the type of our future rest. As might be expected, Eld. M.'s stroke against the Sabbath killed all the ten commandments. This was a terrible slaughter to prove the expiration of a type and the change of the same, but how could this otherwise be effected? As these discourses closed we found we were left in midnight darkness as to the number of the commandments now binding, and as to how and by whom they became obligatory. I gave notice that I should review these discourses at 5 P. M., the same day, and invited the preachers to be present and hear for themselves, but they did not come. The hall in which these discourses were preached was refused us, but a dwelling-house was opened in which I spoke with freedom to a goodly number of friends, nearly all of whom are satisfied that we have the truth on the Sabbath question. May the Lord help others to walk in the light while they have it. Now is the time to endure persecutions and hardships for the cause of our divine Master; but soon the time will come for the faithful to reign with him. O, may we be of that number.