A Confession by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1863

A Confession.

By John Norton Loughborough

THE language of the prophet Isaiah applying to this time, is, “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the

people.” Isa. lxii, 10. Or as he says in chap. lvii, 14, “Take up the stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people.” This I understand calls upon us to remove every occasion of stumbling we may have laid in a brother’s way.

I have just read in Review No. 14, Bro. White’s report of the state of the cause in Ohio, and see I have some of the above work to do. I am one of those preachers who were present at the meeting spoken of, when Bro. Butler made a proposition concerning raising a fund to sustain the cause in Ohio, and did not see at the time that his move was against the body. I gave my sanction there to what was done in starting that matter. But I do not conceive that Bro. Butler designed by that move to strike against systematic benevolence. As far as I have said to any one that Bro. Butler was a “secesh” from the cause, on that point, I would say: Brethren, I was “secesh” too, in seconding the work. I want to take this out of the way of Bro. Butler, and hope the Lord will bless him, and enable him to find a place with the people of God, and finally a home with the saints.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Owasso, Mich., March 6, 1863.