Publishing Committee · Saratoga Springs, N. Y. · Aug 19, 1851
Address to Advent Believers
By William Miller
The following excellent "Address" from the pen of Bro. Miller was presented to the conference of Advent believers, held at Low Hampton, [N. Y.] Dec. 28th and 29th, and was published in the "Advent Herald" of January 15th, 1845. "During the conference," says the Herald, "the following address prepared by Bro. Miller at the request of the brethren, was presented by a committee, and unanimously adopted by the conference."
Address to Advent Believers.
To the dear Second Advent brethren, scattered abroad, despised, but not forsaken; poor, yet making many rich; discarded by the proud pharisees of our day, yet not discouraged; cruelly treated for the doctrine you love, and yet holding firmly to your hope of salvation at the door.
We the undersigned, partakers of the same hope, children of the same faith, looking for the same deliverance, loving the same Lord, feeding on the same word, enjoying the same Spirit, suffering the same trials, subjected to like disappointments, and having the same care and fellowship for your welfare and furtherance in the truth—as ye have one for another and for us,—address you by this our epistle, in the way of consolation and advice; knowing that while we may comfort and console your hearts, we are establishing and strengthening our own. For if through many disappointments, temptations and trials, you stand fast in the faith once delivered to the saints, we rejoice in your steadfastness, are comforted together with you, and are strengthened even in the inner and the outer man. We thank God always on your behalf, when we hear, as we already have heard, that your and our late disappointment has produced in you, and we hope in us also, a deep humiliation and close inspection of our hearts; and although we are humbled, and in some measure pained in our hearts to see and hear the scoffs and jeers of a wicked and perverse generation, yet we are in no wise terrified or cast down by the adversaries of our faith. We pray you, then, brethren, to "let patience have its perfect work," knowing "that patience worketh experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." No, we are not ashamed, for we all know why we hope. You can and will, all of you, from the least of you to the greatest, old or young, when inquired of for the reason of your hope, open your Bibles, and with meekness and fear show the inquirer why you hope in the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. You need not in a single instance refer the inquirer to your minister to give the reason of your faith and hope. We bless God for you, my brethren, that you are all taught of the Lord. Your creed is the Scriptures; your spelling-book is the Bible; your grammar is the Word indited by the Spirit; your geography respects the promised inheritance of the holy land; your astronomy respects the bright starry crown of righteousness; your philosophy is the wisdom which cometh down from God; your bond of union is the love and fellowship of the saints; your teacher is the Holy Ghost; and your professor the Lord Jesus Christ; your recitation room is your closet; your recitations are heard in your prayers, and your songs fill up your vacations.—We speak not of rewards, diplomas and degrees, for these are reserved in heaven for us, when these dusty walls of this tabernacle shall be dissolved,
and we are called home into the New Heavens and the New Earth, to a full fruition of that hope of which we are not ashamed. Ashamed of this hope? No. Ashamed of looking for this hope? No. Ashamed of expecting Jesus? Why, what a question is that! When we look do we not expect? The ministers of our formal churches, some of them, say "they look, but do not expect." Yet, brethren, we have expected, time and again, and have been disappointed, but are not ashamed.
We would not yield a hair's breadth of our expectations for all the honors of Caesar's household, with all the popular applause of a worldly church. We exhort you, then, by all the love and fellowship of the saints, to hold fast to this hope. It is warranted by every promise of the word of God—It is secured to you by the two immutable things, the council and oath of God, in which it is impossible for God to lie. It is ratified and sealed by the death, blood, resurrection and life of Jesus Christ. You have already had a foretaste of the bliss of this hope, in the seventh month, when every moment you looked for the heavens to open, and reveal unto your anxious gaze the King of Glory.—Yes, then your whole soul was ravished with a holy joy, when you expected every moment to hear the shout of the heavenly host descending from the Father's glory, to welcome you, a weary pilgrim, to your blessed abode of eternal rest. In that eventful period, where was the world with all its vain allurements and empty show? It was gone. If our Saviour then had come as we expected, no tears would have fallen for a receding world, nor sighs have heaved our breasts for a dissolving earth with all its pomp, its pleasures, or its praises. All this was then no more to us than is a bubble in Niagara's cataract. God's goodness gave us then a slight repast, like Elijah's meat, that lasted forty days. And how can you, or we, give up a hope so full of joy, of holy love, and heavenly anticipation, as is this? The world may frown and scoff; the unbelieving church may laugh and sneer, and try to call us back. They may and will report their slanderous tales to complete our trials, vainly supposing they can wound our pride, and by this means take away our hope, and make us, like themselves, a whitened sepulchre. In all our trials, those who have obtained this blessed hope by the study of the Scriptures, have remained steadfast and immovable among the scoffs and jeers with which we have been assailed.
This, to us, is a source of great joy; and it shows conclusively where our faith is founded and our hope predicated. It is upon the sure word of prophecy, and no other evidence, that we rely. This is our main support, as even our opposers will, and do admit; or why do they in their attacks upon us, first try to show that prophecy is not to be understood, or if it is, that it is couched in such mystical and ambiguous language, that the ignorant and unlearned, (as they are pleased to call us poor Bible students, in their mighty clemency,) cannot comprehend its true import? Or why do they ridicule us, as a set of fanatical, unlearned heretics in trying to understand the sure word of prophecy, without first coming to our Bishops, or themselves to learn what the original text may mean? Why do they use these and similar arguments in order to overthrow us, if they are not sensible of the fact, that the prophecies of God's word are our main pillar? Why do they, without any discrimination, try to make our sure word of prophecy so dark, mysterious and incomprehensible, and in many instances acknowledge their own ignorance, and then call us heretics, because we search and believe what to us looks clear, consistent, and harmonious, with every part of God's holy word? But, say they, "time has proved you in an error: unerring time has favored us, and proved what you say we failed to do."
True, gentlemen, time has failed us in one or two instances, yet you cannot show why. And as you do not show any reason for the failure, permit us to give ours before we take your ground, and deny that prophecy can be understood. Every man of common intellect and information knows that we are dependant in some things on what we call human chronology, for the conclusion of our premises as it respects time. Again, they well know that our most learned and studious writers and historians disagree in the chronology of the events from which we date, some four or five years. It is true that we who have been most efficient in presenting this subject before the public, have chosen, and we think wisely too, the earliest possible time at which these momentous things might be expected to transpire, believing that it would be infinitely better for the souls of our fellow beings to come short of the time rather than to pass over. And indeed, we do not see any good reason now, why we should not have done in this matter as we have; for if we had looked only to the very last point of disputed time, and the accomplishment had come before that, or even at that time, how could there have been a tarrying time as the Bible predicts?
How could there have been a time for the trial of our faith and patience, and the purifying and sanctifying of the whole house of the true Israel? If we had not anticipated the time a little, with what propriety could the wicked scoffer, and those who professedly belong to the house of Israel say, "The days are prolonged and every vision faileth?" and what has God said we shall answer this rebellious house of Israel with? With another specified time? No. How then shall we ever silence their caviling and scoffing, if we can fix no future time? We answer, that is not our work to do.—God has promised to do that work. Hark! and hear what the Lord saith. "I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel." God will perform his engagements in his own time and manner. We have only to believe, and be patient. But we are taunted with "Oh you have prolonged your vision again and again; and you have failed every time; now wont you give it up, and come back to us? you are not honest if you will not." When they thus call us dishonest, have we nothing we can say? If we altogether hold our peace, they will be wise in their own conceits, and go and report that they have shut up our mouths, so that we could not say a word for ourselves; and thus the cause would be injured. But never fear brethren; God has told you what to say; do as he bids you, and he will take care of the consequences. God says, "but say unto them, the days are at hand, and the effect of every vision." Eze. xii, 21—25. So we see, God has been in this thing. He well knew into what a straitened place we should be brought. He knew what the rebellious house of Israel would say, and he has given us the best weapon of defence.
The word of God has a sufficiency of all armor, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work. We therefore hope that none of us will try to change the chronology of the visions; for they must all fail in all our eyes; and if any vision should be so construed as to fix another definite time in the future, we cannot conceive how the Scripture would be fulfilled, that "every vision faileth." Let us then be satisfied in ardently waiting for God's time. But let us be careful that we do not lay off our armour, cease our watching, go to sleep at our post, or be caught in a snare, when the Son of man shall come. It is better to be ready before the time, and wait awhile, than not to be ready when the time shall come, and10be lost. We exhort you then with the Lord's advice, "be like men waiting for their Lord, that when he cometh they may open to him immediately."
Again, we exhort you, brethren, that every one may edify and be edified, that ye forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as often as your situation and circumstances shall permit; that we may comfort and console each other in our trials, be established ourselves in the present truth, and our minds be stirred up to remember that our Judge is now standing at the door. How can we who have taken so great delight in the study of the blessed Bible, again return to the beggarly elements of vain philosophy, and tradition of the fathers? We cannot sit under preaching where the Bible is discarded from the pulpit, except as a text book, and the plainest passages of Scripture are mysticised and explained away, our hope in the resurrection of the body taken from us, and the kingdom of heaven preached as in this state of division, persecution and death, and the promise of being caught up in the air ridiculed by the oft repeated slang of ascension robes. These things we cannot fellowship, we will not hear them repeated. We therefore advise you, dear brethren, to hold meetings for prayer, reading of the Scriptures, exhortation and singing, if you may not be able to obtain a lecturer or preacher. And may the Spirit of God bless you with his presence, and preserve you blameless unto his coming.
Again we exhort you, brethren, to be faithful in business. Let every one labor with his hands, in the several callings in which God has placed us, that none of us may be a burden to any, and that we may all of us have wherewith to communicate and do good, for it is more blessed to give than to receive; and that we may none of us give any occasion to our enemies to reproach us with being busy bodies in other men's matters, or as not providing for our own house. In thus doing we may put to silence the reproaches of those who are seeking every occasion to destroy the doctrine that we rejoice to believe. We may, while we are engaged in our several occupations, be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. If we could not, it would be evidence that we were not engaged in a proper calling, or that our hearts were not right with God. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, labored with his hands that he might not be chargeable to the saints; and what was duty then, will be duty as long as the gospel remains to be preached. And we thank God we have never preached any other doctrine, you yourselves being our judges.
We also beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye be not led about by every spirit; but try the spirits. For every spirit is not of God; and it is now evident that there are many spirits in the earth,—even the three unclean spirits which are working miracles, and deceiving not only kings but the whole earth. It therefore becomes us to be very cautious by what spirit we are led. The spirit of error will lead us from the truth; and the Spirit of God will lead us into truth. But say you, a man may be in an error, and think he has the truth. What then? We answer, the Spirit and word agree. If a man judges himself by the word of God, and finds a perfect harmony through the whole word, then we must believe we have the truth; but if he finds the spirit by which he is led does not harmonize with the whole tenor of God's law, or book, then let us walk carefully, lest we be caught in the snare of the devil, and fall from our own steadfastness; and so be deceived, and lose the crown for which we are running.—Let us follow the teachings of the apostle Paul to Titus, ii, 12, "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" or as Peter tells us in his 2d epistle, iii, 11, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." In both cases the context teaches us to look for the coming of the day of God; or which is the same thing, "the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." There are a few individuals among us who are teaching that Christ has come, and that we were not mistaken in the time, but only in the manner of his coming. Let us be careful, lest we cease from our watchfulness, and so that day come upon us unawares. Remember that the same Jesus will come in like manner as they saw him ascend; and every eye shall see him, and we shall see him as he is, and be like him, when that day shall come for which we look; and then "the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat." If the one can be spiritualized away, all the rest, must of course be spiritualized in like manner; and it would make the whole description of the judgment but a jumble of nonsense. We hope but few will be carried away by such vain trifling with the Bible. If God does not mean what he says, to whom shall we go for instruction? Who has been his counsellor, and who has sat in the council chamber of the Almighty? Man is but grass, and the flower thereof fadeth. He is but of yesterday, and his life but a breath. "Cursed is the man who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Hold on then, brethren, to the sure word of prophecy, for you will reap soon the fruits of your faith, if you faint not.
We would advise and recommend that none be too impatient; "let patience have its perfect work." "For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye may receive the promise; for yet, (after ye have done the will of God,) a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." Then have we done the will of God in proclaiming the year 1843? We could have done no better with the light we then had.—The seventh month also was for the purpose of filling up those prophecies, which could not be accomplished while we had a future time in view.—For instance how could our faith and patience be fairly tested, while we had definite time to hold on to? A man might believe in our time of '43 and the seventh month, and pin his faith on the arguments of men, and yet have no real faith in God. As long as we can lean on man for any support, we are always prone to do it. In all the history of the past, when God has wrought deliverance for his people, he has brought them where no human wisdom, strength, or foresight could help; and where nothing but faith and patience could sustain. Then God has wrought deliverance, and "his own arm has brought down salvation" for us. And in this last trial, and the greatest deliverance of all, will he not deliver in his own way? It therefore becomes us to stand fast in faith. We know that when '43 passed, many went back and walked no more with us. Their faith was tested. So likewise it was in the seventh month: the faith of many then failed. And so will it be, and so must it be, until the Sanctuary is cleansed. For, Mal. iii, 18, "In the day when the Lord of Hosts makes up his jewels, then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked," &c. Why? "For the day cometh that shall burn as an oven." It had not come when the test was made. No. Rev. xxii, 11, "He that is unjust let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." And what shall follow? "And behold I come quickly." Quickly, after what? Any one may see it is quickly after the test is made, which tries the real characters of men. And what can be a greater test, than to believe God, when to all calculation which man has made or can make, the word of God has failed? Yet believe God. O foolishness, says the Greek, the Infidel, and Pharisee. Yet it is truth; God tried Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, and the three worthies with such a test, and they were not ashamed to own their faith to, or before a scoffing multitude, and persecuting kings. So we must be tested, and if the two trials we have passed are not sufficient, the next will be blood. Preserve us Lord from falling from our faith and from our blessed hope. And come Lord Jesus, Oh! come quickly. Yours in the patient waiting.
WM. MILLER, Low Hampton, N. Y.
E. MARTIN, Benson, Vt.
A. HURD, Weybridge, "
A. W. SMITH, Castleton, "
B. F. GILBERT, Fairhaven, "
R. FIELD, Westhaven, "
R. TRACY, Burlington, "
Committee.
Bro. J. B. Cook on the Sabbath.
By J. B. Cook
Bro. Crosier: The letter I wrote you may be published from the point where the subject of the Sabbath begins, if you find it at all convenient.—The more I think of this grand, primary, and yet typical institution of Jehovah, the more fully I am impressed with its importance. The few thoughts I penned to you, were in haste; but they embody the most impressive conception that I can form of the Sabbath institution: one that is to my mind irresistible. I wish to be found on the side of revealed truth, whenever and wherever sides are taken in relation to any doctrine. Sink or swim, (in the estimation of this world,) I know that God's "word is truth." It will stand when all human associations and monuments shall have perished. Those who build on revealed truth, build on the rock. The rain may fall, the winds may blow, the floods may come, yet that "house will stand, for it is founded on a rock."
No mortal can point to a formal repeal of the Sabbatic law, no one can find an example or precept for keeping the first day, that has anything more than human authority. The day before the resurrection of Jesus, was observed as the Sabbath; for "they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Then on the morning of the resurrection, they were all activity—up and off for the sepulchre—running to and from the sepulchre, some going to Emmaus with Jesus, and returning a distance of 15 miles; then, "at evening," Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them. "Peace be unto you." The pious women surely had no thought of keeping the Sabbath twice a week. They had no command for that, at that time. Then the entire record is out against such a notion. Neither the women, nor the disciples, nor the angels, nor their risen, wondrous Lord rested, or kept Sabbath. The activities about the sepulchre, the scene of wonder, more nearly resembles the busy bees in a bright morning, when about to swarm. The holy of both earth and heaven all astir. Why, the event was too joyous, too glorious, not to excite both angels and men. Well, this is the substance of the evidence, that that resurrection day was the first Sabbath day under the new dispensation. Rest from labor is essential to the idea of a Sabbath.
Now, it does seem clear that we ought to look at these facts. All the evidence for the first day Sabbath, dissolves under the light of facts, furnished by the inspired record. It was "eight days after" that first meeting of Jesus with his disciples, on the evening of that first day that Jesus came again. Eight days would carry the point of time beyond our Sunday. The apostle's meeting with the disciples on the first day of the week, when they came together to break bread, was at night. This must have answered to our Saturday night; because they were to keep their Sabbath, and of course to begin their day, at even—"from even to even," says the word. Had this meeting been on our Sunday night, it would necessarily have been on the Jewish second day.
The typical sacrifices continued, till superceded by their antitype. The typical priesthood extended to the time when the antitypical priesthood of Messiah began. Marriage, the type or illustration of the union between Jesus and his redeemed church is to reach to the opening scenes of that grand and glorious event. Why then shall not the typical Sabbatic institution stretch forward to the great Sabbatism—"the rest which remaineth to the people of God?" The reason for this is confirmed by the Great Teacher, where he said, "The Sabbath was made for man"—for the good of man. He recognizes the Sabbath law, as plainly as He does the other institution of Eden. He does not abolish or "make void the law" in either case.—Nay, He establishes the law by example and precept, designed to regulate the observance of the Sabbath, thus rendering its observance more perfect, and better adapted to accomplish the objects of its original institution. Then to crown the divine testimony and prove from the lips of the Lord himself that He did not abolish the Sabbath, or so far "destroy the law and the prophets." He recognizes the Sabbath as existing among Christians near 40 years after His ascension. "Pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath11day." The remarks which distinguished brethren have made, relative to the first day's being called also the "Sabbath," or to the word's being always plural in the New Testament, are false.—They speak ignorantly, or carelessly, whenever they affirm any such thing. It is true that the Jews had Sabbath weeks. It is true also that they had what Jehovah and Jesus call "the Sabbath day," brethren, uninformed or unbelieving, to the contrary notwithstanding.
The only show of reason that remains for believing that the Sabbatic law has been abolished, is that derived from the apostle Paul's reference to "the sabbaths" (this word is plural,) and particular days. Rom. xiv, Col. ii. Now, as the Spirit is "speaking expressly" of Jewish ceremonial institutions in the context, is not speaking distinctly of the Sabbath law; and certainly does not contradict the Saviour who recognizes the Sabbath, both before and after the time when Paul wrote this, I conclude confidently that we are to understand the apostle (as the connection requires) as referring to those holy days and sabbath days, which were peculiarly Jewish. All of "which was done away in Christ." Thus we find the "nail driven by the Maker of Assemblies." Let us see that it is also clinched. The apostle in dissuading the over-zealous Jew from urging his ceremonials on the Gentile worshippers—also the Gentiles from trifling with the prejudices of the Jews, and vice versa. He is enjoining mutual forbearance, and urging that all be "done unto edifying." This being so—certainly so, the Sabbatic nail "is fastened in a sure place," from which none can wrest it. The Sabbath remains a type of the Millenium—the Sabbatism "which remains for the people of God." *
Bro. Bates' pamphlet on the Sabbath is good.
Yours in hope,
J. B. Cook.
Marseville, O., Dec. 16, '46.
An Illustration of the Sabbath Question
By J. B. Cook
“The following is the illustration to which Bro. Cook refers:
“I have been looking over the Sabbath question. Let me illustrate it as it lies in my mind.
“Put out one arm, reach back to creation. Gen. ii, 1—3. There you find the Sabbath as firm as the world. Then he [God] did not make or derive it for the Jews. He made it “known” to them.—Neh. ix, 14. Ex. xvi, 23,—and adapted it to their edification. He reveals its importance in Isa. lvi, and lviii, and connects large promises with obediences, and in Eze. xx, dreadful curses with disobedience. Then Jesus affirms it as really as any precept of the moral code. He seems not to legislate, as if giving a new law in this case, any more than in that of marriage. He explains its spirituality and affirms that it was “made for man.” Thus harmonizing with the Spirit’s teaching in ancient times. If it be made for man, man needs it, will suffer without it as he would without other provisions that his Creator has made for him. He and his disciples rested on the Sabbath after his crucifixion. They did it “according to the commandment” and the original institution.
“Now, let your person, in the illustration, with your arms extended, represent Jesus. There you find him affirming the Sabbath and the principle on which it is founded. Nay, more, you find him recognizing the Sabbath as really as a winter at the destruction of Jerusalem, 37 years this side of you, as we proceed down the stream of time. Then at the end [of your arm, representing time, across this dispensation to “the rest,”] you find the Sabbatism, the antitype of “the Sabbath of the Lord our God”—“the rest” which “remains for the people of God.”
“Thus you have the Sabbath from the beginning. A Sabbath reaching 15 hundred years across the old dispensation, or down one arm. Jesus in the centre putting down the Sabbatic stake deep in the necessities of man’s nature, and the constitution of the world. Thus you find the most holy of his honored attendants observing it after his crucifixion and while he lay in his humiliation. Again, it beams out clearly 37 years subsequent, and the substance shadowed forth by it at the termination of man’s toilsome, trying period of labor and sorrow—God’s great week of six great days, which are each as 1000 years.
“Now, if there be not a weight of testimony here that can not be thrown lightly aside, then I do indeed misjudge greatly. Do read Rom. xiv. Surely the apostle does not give us the Sabbath law there. No, no!! He gives us a rule to govern ourselves by in our intercourse with weak brethren who may not have been so well instructed as others. The connection makes it necessary that we understand the Good Spirit as referring to the Jewish ritual, concerning which both Gentiles and Jews were taught to be forbearing towards each other. We trace the Sabbatic institution from the beginning, through the former dispensation, see it observed according to the commandment, the day before the resurrection of Jesus, recognized by him 37 years afterward, and in the light of inspiration, we can see the blessed substance, shadowed forth by it at the close of earth’s laboring, groaning week of the curse. Then, I go for God’s institution.—Amen.
“As I want the antitype, I’ll follow out the type till we reach it. As I would share the substance, I’ll trace the shadow up to it. Amen! Lord help us. Then I’ll understand the Spirit speaking by Paul, as the connection clearly teaches, to speak of the Mosaic ritual services which find their antitype in Jesus and the coming glories of the great salvation, leaving the Sabbath by itself on its foundation, Jehovah and Jesus. Yours in +
Day-Dawn.] J. B. Cook.
The Cause Wounded
By Editor
The above from the pen of J. B. Cook will be read with deep interest by the friends of the Sabbath. In the main, his views were correct; yet the idea presented by him that the Sabbath is a type, we think is based on mere inference. All types must, sooner or later, be lost in their antitypes. But as the Sabbath was instituted before the fall, consequently primarily designed for a state of holiness and perfection as long as holy beings and God should exist; and as God by the Prophet Isaiah has shown that the Sabbath is to be observed as long as the "New Heavens and the New Earth," and the immortal "seed" remain, it certainly cannot be a type. If it is not a shadow, but a body of itself, instituted in Eden, and stretching on through all time, and in the New Earth observed to all eternity, then the Sabbath institution remains as firm as heaven.
But if it can be shown that the seventh-day Sabbath is a type of the seventh millennium, then as J. B. Cook has said so say we: "As I want the antitype, I’ll follow out the type till we reach it. As I would share the substance, I’ll trace the shadow up to it. Amen! Lord help us."
The remark of C. that Jesus "seems not to legislate, as if giving a new law" is to the point. Jesus says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law." He also says, "Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." John v, 19. "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." Chap. xii, 49.
Jehovah is the Great Law-giver. He alone could change or abolish his own law, and he has said I am the Lord I change not. Jesus did not intimate the least change in the Sabbath law, but said, "I have kept my Father’s commandments." With these facts before us, we see that it is absurd to teach that Jesus relaxed the Sabbath law.
But it may be said, "Bro. Cook has seen his error, and given up the Sabbath." True, he has given up the Sabbath, and has labored to tear down what he once built up; but God’s revealed truth remains the same, and the clear facts stated in his articles of ’46, are facts in ’51. God’s truth will stand forever, and those who build on this "rock" will stand firm when the rain descends, the storm beats, and the winds blow. But the shifting views and opinions of men are but sliding sand.—[Ed.
The Cause Wounded.
We see by the last "Harbinger," also by a letter from Bro. Rhodes, that O. R. L. Crozier and Peck have recently disturbed the Sabbath meeting of the brethren at Oswego; and that Bro. Lillis, by moving injudiciously, gave "place to the devil," [Eph. iv, 27,] so that the precious cause is wounded.
It seems that the meeting was at the house of Bro. Lillis, and that C., while attempting to speak to the brethren, was requested by Bro. Lillis not to speak; and was told that the brethren did not wish to hear him. At the request of C. a vote was taken to see who wished to hear him, and all were agreed that he should not speak. We should think that any minister of the gospel, or any gentleman, after being requested by the man of the house, and the vote of the entire congregation, to desist from speaking, would take his seat, or quietly retire from the meeting. But it seems that C. still claimed a right to speak in his own defence. And as Bro. Lillis is of a hasty turn, and very nervous, and not being on his watch, he was overcome by the devil, being tempted by the ungentlemanly course of C. in trying to speak after he found out that none wished to hear him, and told C. if he did not go out of his house he would put him out.
We have not one word to say in justification of the course of Bro. Lillis. It was wrong, certainly, very wrong. And we venture to say that every Sabbath-keeper who is interested in the present truth will say the same. And we are glad that he is frank to confess his wrong, not only to the brethren, but to C.; notwithstanding C. seems willing to abuse all those who observe the Sabbath.
But C. states that he has been told that Bro. Lillis struck an old gentleman on his head a number of blows while he was praying, then adds: "That is the spirit that rules in the meetings of those who are keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and who are governed by the visions of one Mrs. James White." One who might have to take the testimony of C. alone, not knowing the facts in the case, would conclude that Advent Sabbath-keepers were a strange class of beings, and that Mrs. James White was a very wicked woman. We say, however, that this statement is utterly false. We do not charge C. of telling a wilful falsehood, but if he has charged a body of Christians with having a spirit that would lead them to beat an old gentleman over the head while praying; because he has been told that Bro. Lillis has done so and so, he ought to feel, if feel he can, that he has done very wickedly.
It is true that Bro. Lillis is of a rash turn; and no person could warn another more faithfully of any error, than Bro. Lillis has been warned of his rashness by Mrs. White. And the warning has not been wholly in vain, though in an evil moment he has been overcome to our great sorrow. But we have not the least idea that Bro. Lillis has ever dealt off blows upon a praying man. We know that the brethren in Oswego would at once disfellowship any such course. But admitting that Bro. Lillis is as bad as he is represented, how cruel, how unchristian for C. to say, "That is the spirit that rules the meetings of those who are keeping the seventh-day Sabbath," and thus brand a body of Christians with the error of one man.
This is the very course pursued by our wickedest opponents in 1843 and 1844, in opposing the coming of the Lord. Some few then were rash and fanatical, but that did not make us all so. A Sabbath-keeper may act injudiciously, but how unlike a Christian to seize upon the fact, and pour scandal upon all who "call the Sabbath a delight," and "honorable." This strikingly reminds us of the stories of "ascension-robes," and other reports so common in 1843.
We would inform C. that there is not one Advent Sabbath-keeper, to our knowledge, that would for a moment countenance such a spirit as he speaks of. If he will produce the testimony of one, that is in union with the body, who does, we will publish it in the "Review and Herald." We have no doubt that C. will regret that he has thus slandered a portion of the Advent people. But at this time of perfect war and hatred between the supporters of the "Herald" and "Harbinger," we may not expect to escape. Some seem to be out of their natural element, unless they are in a quarrel somewhere with those who choose to differ with them on some points. And strange to tell, this is the very people that say the commandments are to be fulfilled in love, while the precept of the law of God is abolished!!
The Brethren in Oswego have had much to bear with. Not long since their Sabbath-meeting was disturbed by M. H. Barton and a Mormon preacher, who claimed a right to speak, because, "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty;" the same reason given by C. But being requested to leave the room they complied without disturbance. As we may take up this matter again, we will close with a few lines from Bro. Rhodes’ letter, written Aug. 8th. Speaking of the brethren in Oswego, he says:
"Last Sabbath Peck and Crozier came among them, and the brethren being weak, did not all act discreetly, and brought a wound upon the cause by using threats to put them out of the house. But Bro. Lillis has made a confession."
Dialogue between a Minister of the Gospel and a Sabbatarian.
Sabbatarian. Did Jehovah ever sanctify one day above another? Minister. He did.
S. And what day was that? M. The seventh.
S. When? M. When he finished his creative work.
S. Where? M. In Eden.
S. On whom was it obligatory?
M. On our first parents, and all their posterity.
S. Did he ever unsanctify that day?
M. No.
S. Did he ever sanctify the first, or any other day than the seventh, as a day of rest?
M. Not that I know of.
S. Then do not those who neglect the seventh day, take away something from the word of God? And do not those who keep the first day add to that word? Read the threatenings of the Lord against such:—“If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”