ANNETTE L. GUILFORD by Annette L. Guilford

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 24, 1863

ANNETTE L. GUILFORD

By Annette L. Guilford

From Sister Guilford.

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I have for some time felt it my duty to speak a few words to you through the Review. It is now four years and a half since I commenced to obey God by keeping all of his commandments. I started with a fixed determination to go through to the end. Time looked very short to me. I supposed that Jesus would have come before this. How joyful I was at the bright prospect before me. But alas! how exceedingly ignorant I was of the devices of Satan. I expected opposition from the world; but my trials came not in this direction. For a year or so I enjoyed my mind well, then gradually I fell into darkness. I felt as though I was shut in on all sides by thick darkness. Oh! how I longed for a ray of light from Heaven; yet none came to my relief. I fasted and prayed and wept before the Lord, that I might have the same joyful feeling that I had felt before; yet it came not. I continued in this state of mind for more than two years. A few months since it pleased God to lift or scatter the darkness a little, and by degrees the darkness has receded and light, sweet light! has entered my soul once more. I feel to praise the Lord for ever and ever. The Lord sees not as man sees. I now realize that the Lord permitted great darkness to come upon me to prove me whether I would remain steadfast in the truth or not. It has been good for me. It was altogether a different trial from anything I expected. It has caused me to feel my own weakness as perhaps nothing else would. I trust that I have learned a lesson that I shall never forget. I now feel a fixed determination to obey God under all circumstances, and in all places that I may be called to pass through. I feel that in this is my only safety. I feel in my heart that it is good to obey God, and to carry the cross of Jesus. Oh! I love my Saviour, and through the merits of his blood I expect to triumph at last, and wear a crown of bright glory, and wave a palm of victory, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

My kind Father has given me much strength of late. I can exercise faith that he cares for me, and that he is leading me through the very trials and temptations that will cleanse away all the dross, so that at last I may come forth pure in his sight.

Dear brethren and sisters, I expect to meet you soon on the bright plains of everlasting deliverance, where we shall shout “victory over the beast and over his image,” over death and the grave, over the Devil and all the powers of darkness, and dwell forever and ever with Him who died to save us. We shall range with joy, such as no mortal knows, over the glorious and immortal fields of the New Earth. Oh, the thrilling, transporting thought! May we all be there, and share in the rich glories which our dear Saviour has died to purchase for us.

Your sister in hope.

ANNETTE L. GUILFORD

St. Charles, Saginaw Co., Mich.