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The Cause

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 16, 1864

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 23, No. 12.

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The Cause.

By Editor

Good news is coming in from every point in reference to the progress of the cause of present truth. Bro. Ingraham writes that a recent quarterly meeting with the large church at Avon, Wis., was the best ever held in that place, and we are cheered by reports from other parts of the West. We know of no special declensions in Michigan. In the absence of several of our efficient preachers, the brethren are holding on their way united, and in some sections their numbers are increasing. No one, to our knowledge, in this State, who was fully united in faith with the body, has been in the least shaken by the apostasy of Moses Hull. His case will serve as a warning, and will prove a great blessing to our people. Some have been carried away with his style of preaching, while others have mourned over the lack in him, both in and out of the pulpit, of that spirit of devotion which every minister of Jesus Christ should possess. These feel a relief that he has left, while those carried away by the peculiarities of the man, mourn his loss. His pets, who lost their relish for the preaching of all others, after hearing him, are to be pitied. But these are very few, as such generally give up the faith in three or six months. In every place, West or East, where Moses Hull has held the leading influence for the last five years, the cause has dwindled to nearly, or quite, nothing. The day will come, if it has not already come, when those among us who have flattered this young man, and have manifested to him their preferences, will mourn over their folly. In so doing they fast crowded him on in the road to ruin, and sometimes deprived themselves of the benefits of the true laborers in the cause.
But while the cause, judging from the fruits of his labor the past five years, has suffered no real loss in his departure, the lessons learned from it will prove a great blessing to the cause. The world has been cursed long enough with sham revivals, where hundreds have been reported as converted, and in a few weeks not a score remained steadfast. In these there is nothing really gained; but there is a loss. Ministers who can draw a crowd, but can show but little, if any, fruits of their labors, are of no benefit to the cause of present truth. The labors of one such man as Eld. John Byington, or Eld. Stephen Pierce, or Eld. Albert Stone, are worth more than those of ten such men as Moses Hull has been. Brethren, the cause calls for laborers, men of experience and sound judgment, men of God. The scattered flock of God must be fed, and such men must be urged out to do their duty and fill their places. The carnal desire to hear something smart and witty has had a tendency to keep these men of God back from their proper places. Laborers! brethren. Let your prayers go up to Heaven for laborers in this cause. Let your tears, and cries, and groans, come up before the Lord of the harvest for laborers to enter the fields already white.
We are happy to hear that the Lord is blessing the labors of Bro. Taylor in the State of New York. It is most encouraging to know that the cause, which has so long suffered in that State, is fast reviving. And, then, the Eastern Mission is doing a good and glorious work. Good news comes in from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. But the work in New England has but just commenced. We trust that our Eastern brethren will become so united in spirit and labor with Bro. Loughborough and Cornell that they will be held in that field till they are called to another.
The brethren in the East should understand that order and thorough organization is the only hope of the cause in that field. Some who embrace the Sabbath will draw back at this, and choose to enjoy the same confusion that has been cursing New England Adventists for nearly twenty years. The present loose, confused state of things among them will make the labor to set things in order hard, and it will require a united struggle on the part of all the friends of the cause to bring things up to that state of order and harmony which will secure success.
It may be well for us to remind the friends in the East that these missionaries labor under the General Conference, and counsel with the Committee of that conference as to their labors. The friends in different localities of that field, who wish the labors of these missionaries, should set the matter before the General Conference Committee by letter. And it should be further understood that it is Eld. Cornell's specific work to lecture in new places, for which work his past experience has proved him eminently adapted, while the work of Eld. Loughborough at present is to visit the scattered friends of the cause, set things in order, and take the general oversight of the work.
It is truly gratifying to see the ready hand with which the cause is sustained. The missionary fund is kept good, and if thousands were needed, a few weeks would bring them promptly in. Sister Martin, and our afflicted Bro. Campbell, still call for a missionary at Ireland, and offer liberally to sustain the mission. It is the man to be spared, not the means, that is lacking. How happy the American brethren would be to send a missionary to Ireland, well supplied with publications, and defray all the expenses if necessary, if one could be spared. Bro. M. G. Kellogg has gathered around him in California some dozen of Sabbath-keepers. From that little band of commandment-keepers comes up the cry for help. How much good it would do our people to send a minister with a cart-load of tracts, pamphlets, and books, to California, if we had the man to spare. It does seem to us that we shall soon hear the prayer everywhere among our brethren to the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers.
It is with a good degree of pleasure that we view the present state of the cause. There is, indeed, much to be done for our people, and it is a matter of great encouragement that our ministers and leading men are getting into working order. Every day we witness the blessed benefits of order in the church of God. As a people we have our trials and discouragements, and we may expect them for time to come; but with the assurance that the Lord of hosts is in the work, we can and will go forward in his name.
The work of the third angel is to bring out of the rubbish of this world, men and women, and fit them for translation to Heaven at the second advent of Jesus Christ. What a vast work! How much to be done! How many burdens and trials to be borne! Thousands will believe for a while, then draw back, and become the bitterest enemies of the Lord. Oh, the blind hatred of an apostate, in whose heart is kindled the very fires of the Devil! The wrath of the open infidel and scoffer is mildness compared with it. These will follow the remnant with their accusations and bitterness all the way up to the gates of the golden city. Hence, as the Lord hath said, "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." He who unnecessarily stirs the ire of an apostate, may some day be bitterly stung by his reproaches.
Our work is to teach the truth, and meet the spirit of opposition with Christian confidence. We want men and women to embrace the truth for the truth's sake, and thus honor the God of truth. Friends gained by raising prejudice in their minds against their proper friends and teachers, may at the first trial they meet in the path of truth turn against us. But those friends gained through the influence of truth alone will be fast friends, and an honor to the cause. Let us hold up the truth in its harmony and beauty, and as far as possible, while bearing the plain testimony for unpopular truth, live in peace with all men.
We may depend upon this, that we as a people are watched. Many have watched us expecting that the cause would soon crumble to nothing, or that we as a people holding to the perpetuity of spiritual gifts, would run wild in fanaticism. And as they see our progress, and harmony, and prosperity, their interest in watching our course deepens. From the nature of the message, our testimony is a very pointed one, and there are those who violate the law of God, and teach men so, who would exult over an opportunity to charge our preachers with an unchristian spirit. The spirit of error sometimes takes a very mild and apparently pious form, when the faithful servants of Christ are to be accused on account of their pure testimony. Oh, may God give his servants wisdom, and Christian boldness, while battling for truth, and leading souls in the way to life.