R. W. REED by R. W. Reed

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 9, 1864

R. W. REED

By R. W. Reed

From Bro. Reed.

My location for the present is in the Chippewa valley, Wis., in a cold region where the mercury freezes. About one year ago, Bro. Ingraham came to this place and gave several lectures. He presented the Bible evidences in favor of the Sabbath of the ten commandments. I saw the light and confessed, and embraced it. I had never before heard a lecture on this subject, nor had I ever investigated it, but allowed myself to believe that there was no particular importance attached to the subject. But I learned my mistake when I saw the relation that the Sabbath sustained to the law of God—its position as an everlasting memorial of the great work of creation, and its peculiar sacredness, not only on account of its being of divine appointment, but that the Author himself observed it as a day of rest, setting us an example that we should remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.

The next subject that claimed my attention was the immortality of the soul. I can but blush when I think of my former ignorance on this subject. I had investigated this question to some extent in past years, and found myself in some difficulty with certain texts of Scripture, as Romans ii, 7, where we are instructed to seek for immortality; also, 1 Cor. xv, 18, 19, where, independent of the resurrection, hope is confined to this life, and a miserable one at that; also, 1 Tim. vi, 16, where we are told that God only hath immortality; and Ps. vi, 6, where David declares that in death there is no remembrance of God. Now, my conclusion was that memory was a faculty of the soul, and of course was immortal; but if in death there was no remembrance of God, then this faculty of the immortal soul was dead. I used to read with some perplexity Eccl. ix, 5, 6, where Solomon tells us that the dead know not anything; but I tried to believe that the dead knew more than the living; that is, that the soul, which was

the great fountain of knowledge, combining the faculties of love, hatred, envy, &c., were at death brought into a full exercise and perfection. But Solomon would tell me they were all perished. Knowledge, love, hatred and envy, all alike are consigned to the grave. Then whither went my immortal soul? and what were its constituent powers? No knowledge, no love, no hatred, no envy. What is it, and where is it? If in Heaven it cannot love God, for it has no knowledge of him. If in hell it cannot hate him, for the power to hate is perished. Sad dilemma I was in. I often thought I should have to yield the point, but this was an idol that I had paid homage to for a long time, and that all the world worshiped. And I am satisfied now that I had more will than evidence in its favor. But as God ordered it in his good providence, when Bro. Ingraham presented in clear light the Bible evidences of man's natural mortality, my foundation gave way, and my superstructure fell; and I fell on to a rock which broke me off forever from that old tradition. Thank God for the light.

Another subject that used to trouble me considerably was the final doom of the wicked. Eld. Blain's nondescript dictionary, which he charges upon modern theology, I could not adopt; viz., That to be dead meant to be more conscious; to die, is to live on in woe; to lose life, is to preserve a miserable existence; life means happiness; to burn up, is to make a living salamander; to destroy, is to preserve whole; to devour, perish, consume, &c., mean to make indestructible and immortal; not to be, is to be without end. And yet, I regard this now as no misrepresentation of the modern method of interpreting the Scriptures. My mind was never fully settled on this question until I saw it in the light in which it is now held by Seventh-day Adventists.

There are more than one hundred texts in the Bible that declare that the wicked shall die, be destroyed, perish, go to perdition, be consumed, devoured, slain, come to an end, be rooted out, cut off, burned up, and be as though they had never been. Now all these texts must be defined by the nondescript dictionary, while the eight or nine claimed by the sticklers for endless misery are to be interpreted literally! The wicked are compared to tares, chaff, and other combustible and destructible materials, which would be utterly subversive of the idea of an eternally perpetuated existence in consuming fire. May God save us from the punishment of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.

Our little church is holding on by faith, looking for the blessed hope. We keep up a meeting every Sabbath, and I preach once in two weeks on first-day evenings. One of our brethren was drafted, but he paid the three hundred dollars rather than take the sword. One more has lately commenced to keep the Sabbath. The opposition that we meet here is very feeble, especially from the pulpit. We only get a little ridicule occasionally, such as "mad heads paddling in dirty water," "preaching about horns," and "prying into mysteries," &c. What is all this, when the magnitude of our work is considered?

R. W. REED

Durand, Pepin Co., Wis.