Tent Meetings in Essex, Vt.
By A. S. Hutchins
THESE meetings closed Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10. For several reasons the meetings here were not as interesting and encouraging as those at Fletcher, yet from their commencement to their close, we had a few attentive hearers. The doctrine of the Second Advent of our Lord, has been preached much in this section, in past years; the people have rejected light, and now their hearts are filled with sour prejudice against it. They wish to hear no more on this subject. The sight of our hand bills and the tent was enough for many of them. With few exceptions, everything in religious matters here bears the stamp of old age, with marks of sure and immediate destruction. May these few be among the saved. Again, the season was quite hurrying, and the weather wet. As the preachers did not come to the tent, the Tuesday before we closed our meetings, we addressed a note to the Methodist, Baptist and Congregationalist ministers of Essex, stating that we believe man is mortal, and in death is unconscious;* that the hope of the Christian hinges on the coming of the Lord, which is near, even at the doors; and that the seventh-day Sabbath is binding on Christians, inviting them, if they believed us to be advocating false doctrines to meet us in public discussion upon the points on which we differ. All was silence from this quarter till past 10 o'clock, Sunday morning, when Eld. Marsh, a Congregationalist from Underhill, came forward for discussion. Our time for work was short as we had stated to the preachers and people that our labors would close here Sunday evening. But we were glad to hear from our note to the preachers even at this late date, Eld. Marsh having seen one of them, and urged his brother Congregationalist, to meet us who refused, not being prepared. The subject agreed upon for discussion was the Sabbath. The question read as follows, "Resolved that the Sabbath has been changed from the Seventh to the first-day of the week, by Divine authority." Elder M. was to affirm, and Bro. D. T. Bourdeau was to deny. Time of discussion, two hours or longer, to be divided into half-hour speeches. At 2 o'clock, P. M. the discussion opened, a goodly number being present to listen. Mr. Marsh led out in a speech of 25 minutes, basing his remarks upon Acts xx, 7. In the outset he remarked that he believed the Sabbath was perpetual; that the Seventh-day Sabbath was binding till the Resurrection of Christ, but from that time it was evident the first-day was the Sabbath, "Some," said he, "may wonder why the evidence of this fact is no more clearly stated in the Bible, but the Bible does not make so much of the name of a thing as of the thing itself." (The thing here was the first-day Sabbath, though not called so). He then attempted to show that the custom of the apostles was to meet for religious worship upon the first-day. This, said he, they would not have done, if it had not been the Sabbath. It could not have been the Sabbath unless it had been changed, hence the apostles had changed it by Divine authority. Here is the heart, the bulk of his proof. But his premises were shown to be false, and hence his conclusion erroneous, by Bro. Bourdeau. In the Elder's next speech he worried through four minutes and sat down. In the next he spoke two minutes and was about to seat himself again when Bro. B. told him he might use the remaining half hour if he would read the text that teaches when, where and by whom the Sabbath was changed. This he said could not be done, but he could show the "essence" of the change. Bro. B. asked if essence had not some form that rendered it visible. Said he "I can see it but I can't give you my eyes to see it with." One Adventist, Bro. Harvey Spaulding, came out strong on the Sabbath. Others are deeply convicted. May the Lord help them to obey him and live.