Earlier text: SERPENT (“NACHASH”) SERAPHEditorial Correspondence.
By John Nevins Andrews
How shall the work of God be advanced in this field of missionary labor? is the question present in my mind during all my wakeful hours. One of the first things which suggested itself to my mind when I first thought seriously of this mission was that advertisements, setting forth the object of the mission and asking responses from those interested, should be inserted in at least one leading journal of each country of Europe. On reading Eld. Jones’ reports from London some time later, I was pleased to see that he was acting on this very plan with respect to England, Scotland, and Ireland, and that he was seeing some good result from it. Therefore, when I met the Swiss brethren in our first general meeting, I named this as one of the things that I thought advisable to do. They assented freely to this proposition, and this was all that I desired. I told them that as this was an experiment, no money should come out of their treasury for its execution, and that I would willingly bear the expense of the first trial myself. If it should prove a success, so that we should desire to repeat it in other countries, then they might do all that they found themselves able and willing to do. I will now state the result of advertising in the Journal de Genève, so far as that result has been reached. My call was addressed to those who observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, or who are interested to examine the subject. The first response was from a professor of languages in one of the institutions at Geneva. He is a first-day man, and in response to his letter I addressed him a communication in behalf of the seventh day, and sent him some Sabbath publications. My second letter was from a gentleman who stated that he was proprietor of an extensive watch factory in Geneva. He also is a first-day man. He wrote me that he finds it difficult to establish the sacredness of the Christian Sabbath in the minds of his workmen, and asked counsel as to the proper course. I responded by showing him that the difficulty lies in the nature of the institution; that if he would return to the Sabbath which God ordained, he would find the authority of God’s law to back it up, whereas now he has nothing but a human institution and no greater authority to move the conscience than the authority of man. I sent him also publications on the Sabbath. My third letter is from a gentleman of Geneva who states that himself and his family are adherents to the seventh-day doctrine, and that he desires to enter into communication with me upon the subject. In signing his name he styles himself “maître imprimeur,” meaning, if I understand the term, foreman of a printing office. I have written this gentleman from this place, and have not yet had time for his reply. But to get knowledge of this seventh-day family in Geneva gives me no little joy. My fourth letter is from a gentleman, also a resident of Geneva, who thinks “le Dimanche,” that is, Sunday, the day to be hallowed, but he wishes publications. I shall write him at once, and send him what publications I can. But alas! my stock is almost exhausted. My fifth letter is in English, though from the name and the style I am sure that the writer is a Frenchman. He also is a resident of Geneva. The penmanship is very beautiful. I omit the first sentence it is so warmly expressed. The remainder of the letter reads thus:— “Having just read your appeal inserted in the Journal de Genève, I hasten to let you know that my wife and myself are observers of the divine command relative to the seventh-day rest, and desirous to see it fully observed. Therefore, we are quite willing to hear from you any communication on this most important subject. May the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless your gospel mission to Europe.
“Yours respectfully, M. de C.”
I have just written to this gentleman concerning our sacred work, and given him quite a full account of the Sabbath-keepers throughout the world. These five letters are all that I have thus far received in response to my advertisement. But two of these letters are from seventh-day families! If it please God, I shall very soon after my return to Neuchatel visit these Geneva friends. These things greatly interest our friends here in Prussia. I expect them to meet the expense of advertising in an Amsterdam paper for Holland Sabbath-keepers, and in a Berlin paper for other Sabbath-keepers in Prussia or in the German Empire. We shall thus expend about forty dollars. It gives me great pain to find that I have no publications. Some time must elapse before we can have many either in German or in French. But wherever I go I find people who can either speak or read English. In the educated families, there is almost always some member that can read English. If I only had a plenty of our works in English these would actually go far toward meeting some of the most urgent calls, even in Germany itself. I brought all the books that I could, and from choice I paid for them myself. Now I feel free to beg. My books are gone. Here are candid men and women that can read English, and that would take our books and read them to others if I only had them to hand out. I think I could circulate the books without throwing them away. If the friends of Christ in America feel it a privilege to do so, I trust they will meet the expense of such a box, and the General Conference Committee will manage the matter so as to incur the least expense, and to have the least delay. The box can be sent through Morris’s European Express, 50 Broadway, N. Y. I ask especially for copies of the History of the Sabbath. I shall be grateful for whatever is sent. I will try to have our friends in Europe do their full duty relative to helping in the support of the cause. But when they have done this, our means are very limited compared with the expense of the work before us. We shall not incur debts. We will do all that the providence of God renders possible, but we will keep within our means, that God’s work be not dishonored by debts which we cannot pay. Something must shortly be done for the friends in Italy. Though we study the strictest economy as to the expense of a journey, it does, nevertheless, cost something to travel several hundred miles. I have never taken pleasure in past years in making long journeys backward and forward and not stopping to labor in the places visited. I have no more disposition to this course here than I had in America. But some of these journeys at present must be taken, though I will labor earnestly to make them of some account. The past week has been one of earnest, constant labor. One of the greatest difficulties in our way here is the great expense of hiring a hall. This is something like three times the expense in the United States. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to reach the public. I am not willing to leave Germany till I see Bro. Ertzenberger well under way in a course of public lectures. We have therefore sought every opening for meetings, and have spoken in every place where there has been any room to be had. We have meetings nearly every day and some days have two. I will give our experience in the village of Hilden, Thursday evening last, to show what kind of things are to be met in this country. The only hall that could be obtained is a large hall in the second story of a hotel. There is a custom connected with such halls that I did not know. It is in good order to drink beer and to smoke while listening to the speaker. The first intimation that I had of this was when entering the hall I saw that four rows of tables extended the entire length of that large hall, and that the chairs were placed by the side of these tables, and on each table was a match case. A good congregation assembled, very intelligent in appearance, and they were very well dressed. Before our services commenced, a waiter handed about beer, and he renewed this from time to time during the meeting! Moreover, a considerable number smoked during the service! The reader will say, perhaps, that it would have served them right had I turned away and left them. But it was this place or none. Paul says, “Instant in season, out of season.” If this was not a good place, it was at least a poor one, and that is better than none at all. But now I will say that these people paid the strictest attention. I could never turn my eye to any part of the hall in which I did not see every eye fixed steadfastly upon me. And when prayer was offered by Bro. Ertzenberger at the commencement and at the close, every person stood up and remained motionless. We had a very solemn meeting, and God gave great freedom in speaking. The meeting next evening was at a private house. Here the smokers came again, though they ceased to smoke on coming in. But to see men sit before you with pipes about four feet long is a strange sight. As some of them seemed possessed of fair mental powers, I watched them to detect some tinge of shame for having such implements of folly in their hands. But I looked in vain. These persons smoke during their entire waking hours. I am told that they take their pipes with them to their beds, and smoke as they lie down to sleep! Tobacco is the god they worship; or rather their base appetite is their god, and the tobacco is the incense which they burn to the demon they worship. The Sabbath truth is too pure to dwell in the same heart with this vile weed; and it is no small witness to this that our German Sabbath-keepers are wholly clear from tobacco. I cannot close without mentioning a very interesting item that appeared in the German papers of last week. It is this: That a few days since there died at Prague, in Bohemia, a Sabbatarian, aged one hundred and five years. From some cause he has been very highly honored by the last two Austrian emperors, and at their request has visited them both in their palaces. The papers say that this man was the last of the sect of the Sabbath-keepers. I do not believe this statement; for though Sabbath-keepers have always been in a minority, God has always had these witnesses to his truth, and though their enemies have wished them to die out, and have thought from age to age that they would, they have thus far waited in vain. The smoking flax will not be quenched till God shall send forth judgment unto victory, and the time shall come when from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Hereafter, if God will, I will tell the readers of the Review something more concerning the Sabbath-keepers in Bohemia. The incident, however, is a confirmation of the facts stated in the History of the Sabbath, pp. 463, 464. These Sabbath-keepers have existed from the time of the Reformation, and I have no idea that they are now extinct. Elberfeld, Prussia, Feb. 21, 1875. Astounding Logic.
By Uriah Smith
The Restitution has just struck its heaviest blow against the visions of sister White. It falls upon them with the crushing weight of eider-down. It runs thus:— Christ said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man;” but in Experience and Views, Mrs. W. says, “Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.” So, says the Restitution, the word of the Lord is plainly contradicted, and the visions should be instantly rejected by all who believe the Bible. Strange that no one of the many thousands who regard the views of sister White as the result of the work of the Spirit of God, according to the teaching of the New Testament on that point, could see so glaring a contradiction, but the world had to wait till the Restitution adjusted its antiquated spectacles, before it could be put on its guard by so weighty an objection against receiving them. But let us search for the point that is made if any can be found. No man knoweth the day or the hour. Does the vision say that any one knows the day or the hour? No. Then there is no contradiction. Does the Scripture say that no man ever will know? No. Then there is nothing in it to show that what the vision says may not at some time be true, and we know the day and hour, though we do not know it now. Mark includes with men, both angels and the Son of God himself. Is the Son of God never to know the day and hour of his coming? Such a thought would be most absurd. This has led critics to investigate the true signification of the word knoweth in this connection. They find it to mean, “maketh known.” Simply then, no man is to make known the day and hour of Christ’s coming; angels are not to make it known, neither the Son, but the Father only. This implies that at some time the Father will make it known. With this the vision accords by saying that at the voice of God, the Father, this was made known. When is the voice of God uttered? Under the seventh and last plague, Rev. 16:17, just before the coming of Christ. Does the Restitution know why God utters his voice then? and what it is that that voice proclaims? The view of Sr. W. is that then is made known to the saints the hour of their deliverance, as Noah was informed seven days before the flood, of the day and hour when God would fulfill his word by opening the windows of heaven upon the earth. Is there anything to contradict it? The Restitution further betrays its lack of critical thought, in applying the words, “one shall be taken and the other left,” to the coming of Christ. Luke 17:34-36. The word, taken, there means to seize as beasts seize their prey. It don’t mean, “taken” up to meet the Lord, while the wicked are “left” on the earth to perish. The word, left, means to escape. At the time of which Luke speaks, some are seized and others escape. Can any one tell who is seized while others escape at Christ’s coming? The seizing is done by the plagues before Christ comes, and those who escape are the righteous. In this connection an allusion may be in place, to the long and labored efforts of another paper to show that the visions contradict themselves. It is accomplished (?) in the following manner: 1. A quotation is made from some of the earlier visions; then 2. Somebody’s statement of what he thought the vision meant; then 3. Views now held differing from that individual’s opinion. Therefore the visions contradict themselves! Thus they treat the matter about as intelligently as the little boy in a certain town in Connecticut, who couldn’t tell who made the hills about there, as his father only moved into the place the week before! U. S. Future Punishment.
By W. C. Gage
INTELLIGENT readers of the popular religious press cannot fail to see that the question of future punishment is assuming a new phase in the theological world. Under the pressure of so-called “liberalism” the old dogma of endless misery is giving way to less revolting views of the justice and mercy of God. A few years ago, to barely question the doctrine was regarded as rank heresy, while at the present day, writers in the most popular of our religious journals openly scout the old views of punishment, and even the more radically “orthodox” papers treat the question as on the debatable ground. In some respects this change is encouraging. Many minds which have regarded the dogma as a scriptural one, and hence have been steeled against any assault upon it, upon having their faith in it shaken will be better prepared to investigate the subject candidly from a scriptural standpoint, and be enabled to understandingly accept the truth. While this will doubtless be true with many as the result of the agitation, with others the result will not be so favorable. The reaction will carry many to the other extreme. While the all-pervading idea of inherent immortality remains as a constituent element of religious creeds, the demolition of the eternal-torment dogma necessarily conduces to the spread of Universalism. Indeed, the popular reaction on this question is already assuming that aspect, as evinced by the tone of its discussion in the religious press. A recent article in the Christian Union, in which the doctrine of eternal misery is openly assailed, instead of questioning the popular interpretation of the Scripture phraseology on which the doctrine is supposed to be based, and giving a more rational exposition of its meaning, flatly denies the belief in “everlasting punishment.” Such a course cannot fail to be subversive of sound scriptural interpretation. Instead of denying the assertions and statements of Scripture, theologians had better seek to arrive at their true meaning. The doctrine of “everlasting punishment” is a scriptural one, and instead of disputing it, our first care should be to ascertain whether that punishment is misery or death. The Bible declares the latter to be the wages of sin; hence the punishment of the wicked must be the “everlasting destruction” mentioned in 2 Thess. 1:9. On the whole, therefore, while we must look upon the agitation of this question as indicative of hopeful results, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the doctrine of natural immortality is responsible for much of the skepticism and error in regard to the great question of the final destiny of wicked men. W. C. GAGE. The Papists Among the Freedmen
We have occasionally referred to the efforts being made by the Roman Catholic Church to win the colored people to their communion. They are meeting with no little success. Dr. Fulton writes from the South of the progress of their work: “Black nuns are beginning to abound; schools for the education of Romish priests are beginning to appear. Churches decorated with the choicest products of art, and flaming with tinselry and show, are seen in most of our large cities crowded with colored people. Black people are welcomed to Romish churches, because Rome intends to increase her power by the colored vote, and appreciates the magnitude of her opportunity. In Baltimore there are fourteen colored schools. The Douglas Institute has a fine hall, a library and reading-room, owned by colored people.”—Ex. A Good Word from Missouri.
From a private letter just received from Bro. N. W. Allen, of Missouri, we take the liberty to make the following extract for the benefit of our readers:— I met with very encouraging success in Franklin Co. All that heard all my lectures have embraced the Sabbath, and several others who could come only occasionally are very much interested. The weather turned so bad that it was almost impossible to travel, especially at night; and the most of the people there lived two or three miles apart, so that they could not come at all regularly. We therefore concluded that it was best to postpone the meetings till May. Immediately, on coming home, my brother printed some circulars and we distributed them through our little village and neighborhood. Although the roads are extremely muddy, and the streets appear almost impassable, we have a large audience every time, never less than sixty-five, and oftener seventy-five. This is a large audience for this place (about twenty-five families). Lecture every night. Great interest is manifested by all, even by those who have never paid any attention to religious matters. The Lord is surely greatly blessing us and our labors. Pray for us, that we may walk humbly before God, that we may share richly in his blessing, and be the instruments in his hands of saving many souls. It is a blessed privilege to be a light-bearer in God’s holy work! The set of books and The Voice of Truth have been received by the Mercantile Library. The Public School Library have the same offer, and have returned a vote of thanks. There are many who are anxious to investigate present truth, who will thus have an opportunity to do so. The Race and the Prize.
By Addie McWilliams
LIFE is a race. The prize at the end is a crown of endless life, an inheritance within the pearly gates of the jasper walls of a city of gold. This city whose streets are three hundred and seventy-five miles in length, all paved with purest gold, while on either side are mansions of surpassing beauty and grandeur, is to be the “everlasting habitation” of the finally faithful. In the “midst of the street of it” flows a river, pure and life-giving, upon whose banks the tree of life will ever yield its celestial fruit. Oh! could that beautiful home, overshadowed by the glory of God, be caused to pass in grand review before our mortal vision, we could not behold it. The sun itself would be a shade. We could only say, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” There are many ways purporting to lead to the city above, but there is only one that reaches there. That way is a straight and narrow and rugged road. Its entrance is through the straight gate of repentance and confession. We find in the race-course no resting place. We must ever be advancing, or we are losing ground; and though our feet may weary, and the heart grow faint, there are attendant angels to raise the falling, and give strength to the weak. There is help ever ready if the arm of faith only reaches to receive it. “Let us therefore lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,” for the strength that we need, to “so run” that we “may obtain” the incorruptible crown. Then onward and upward! Let this be our cry
Till the journey of life shall be ended,
Then the care and the toil and the earth-born sigh
With the new song shall never be blended. In that heavenly city no night shall be known,
The light of the sun pales before it.
For the glory of God and the Lamb’s dazzling throne,
Shed their glory unceasingly o’er it. Soldier Valley, Iowa, Feb. 5, 1875. ONLY two ways. One broad, the other narrow; one leads to destruction, the other to life; many go by the one, few by the other. Which is your way? Only two sorts of people. Many sorts in man's opinion—many societies, classes, sects, denominations. Only two in God's sight—the righteous and the wicked, the wheat and the chaff, the living and the dead. Which are you? Only two deaths—the death of the righteous, and the death of the wicked. Which do you think you will die? Which do you wish to die? Which would it be if you were to die this moment? Only two sides at the day of Judgment—the right hand and the left. Only these two. Those on the right hand will be blessed—“Come, ye blessed of my Father.” Those on the left hand will be cursed—“Depart, ye cursed.” All must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. What word shall be spoken to you? On which side of the throne will you stand? Our Responsibility.
By David Downer
“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin.” John 15:22. The sin of the Jews which aggravated all their former iniquities was the rejection of Christ as the Messiah. His coming had been foretold by the prophets; and they who waited for him, such as Simeon and Anna, no sooner saw him than they rejoiced. But because he did not come arrayed in pomp, and clothed with the outward garnishing of a prince, they shut their eyes against him. Truly he was a root out of dry ground, and despised. Nor were they content until their fiendish malice had been fully glutted by sitting down at the foot of the cross, and beholding the terrible agonies of his death by crucifixion. The sin of the Jews is being repeated by many of our wicked generation. That which they did once is now being done every day by professed Christians. And now let us look at the parallel between our case and that of the Jews. The coming of Christ, the work to be done by him, and many important things in the history of his humble life, had been predicted by the prophets. So plainly had the prophets foretold his coming that, had the Jews been perfect in character previous to his first advent, a rejection of him would have unchristianized every one found in unbelief. If, then, the Jews were rejected for rejecting him at his first coming, and for their cruel unbelief, how can we of this generation expect to be saved because we have been accepted of God in the past, if we reject the doctrine of his second coming and kindred truths, as the Jews rejected that of his first coming? Are we not more guilty than they if we do not heed the warning of the trumpet’s certain sound? We have their sad history to warn us of the results of unbelief. But the text says, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin.” True, his coming filled the picture previously drawn of him by the prophets. He came and declared to them, The time is fulfilled; I am he that was spoken of by the prophets. One of their sins consisted in believing in God and at the same time rejecting Christ. One of the sins of this age is accepting Christ, and opposing the Father’s law. Which will be most condemned in the Judgment? those who accept Christ now, but reject God’s law, or, those who rejected Christ and acknowledged God and his law? When the Jews listened to the doctrines taught by Christ and his followers, and despised them, little did they think they were virtually despising God in despising his ambassadors, but it proved so to be. Oh! if people now could know that in despising God’s poor, care-worn servants, they are grieving him who sent them, they would welcome them with the truth they bring. We often think of Christ while on the mount, as looking through the fast-falling tears he cried, Oh! how oft would I have gathered thy children, but ye would not. He had a special message, but himself, his message—all, were rejected, until when one would follow him, he replied, I have not where to lay my head. How many times while we are passing through great cities, we look at the costly spires of houses called churches of God, and feel that God has special truths which ought to be declared from the thousands of pulpits. But our hearts are sad; for the great doors of popular churches are shut in our faces. Why? Because we cannot, we dare not preach smooth things. Too terrible are the times in which we live. Christ told his hearers, Ye say, If we had lived in the days of the fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Many say they would not have rejected Christ; they would have believed in the days of the flood. But stop. Are not some of you who read these lines guilty of already rejecting clearer light than they had? How true the words of the text: If I had not spoken, they had not had sin. But he has spoken. Hear him: “When ye see all these signs, know it [or he] is near,95even at the doors.” How plainly he has spoken. But where are people looking? To the signs of the times? to God’s law? to their carnal hearts? to a preparation? No. Hear Christ: “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:38, 39. What were they doing? Eating and drinking. How long did they continue to do this? Until the flood took them all away. Is this terrible picture being filled out before our very eyes? Yes. Appetite and fashion rule the world. A gallon of oysters will call together a larger assembly than the preaching of God’s pure, blessed truth. May the Lord help us to be terribly in earnest in giving the trumpet the certain sound. Lose a dollar in the ashes, and there is a stir. All are carefully sifting and looking for it. But precious truth has been smouldering under the ashes of fires kindled by the great apostasy; and shall not we dig out and bring to light the truth that the martyrs died to maintain? Can we not give our time and means to support a cause which first cost our Saviour his blood, the apostles their lives, and the martyrs such suffering as pen cannot describe? I weep at my own coldness, my unbelief, and cry, O Christ, hold thou me up, lest I fall and there be one less to do battle for God. If the time in which we live, the soon coming of our dear Redeemer, an abundant entrance into the golden city, will not stir us all to work, then stop one moment, hear our Saviour’s groans, look at that pale brow all covered with blood, that cold hand mangled by that terrible nail! Oh! what has the poor sufferer done? Why, nothing wrong. It is all for sinners, such as we. But the world does not love him. No, that prayer in the garden would almost melt the rocks, rent at the time of his death, yet who weeps for Christ now? I never wanted to see Jesus as I do to-day. How his heart must swell when he sees his children leave their tribulation for the heavenly gates, which will ever stand ajar for us to enter. The prophet says he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Isa. 53:11. The text says, “But now they have no cloak for their sins.” A cloak covers all garments worn beneath it. A soiled dress might be worn under a cloak, when if there was no cloak a clean garment would be put on. Christ has taken away the cloak, that our real characters may appear uncovered. Adultery, murder, and theft, are all deadly sins. But they can all be cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. To reject Christ destroys man hopelessly. If the man on the scaffold rejects pardon, does he not murder himself? In rejecting Christ, as the Jews did, there is a combination of sins. There is pride, rebellion, and high treason; for you reject a king. He who sins ignorantly has some excuse; but he that sins against light, sins presumptuously. The sin of unbelief blackens every other sin. Unbelief is the file with which you sharpen the ax of every other sin. If there ever were a people on earth to which this text applies it is this generation. If there is one portion of the race who will have more to account for than others it is those who are living now. Christ has taken away the cloak. Yes, sinner, it will not cover you longer from the storm which will soon sweep the earth of its pollution and sin. One says, I have heard the gospel, but professors have set me a poor example. How fond some are of finding fault with others. Oh! stop, there is no cloak for your sin. There has been an example set for you that ought to cause you to blush, and that is the life of Christ. But I must solemnly point you to the great day before I leave you. Pause, sinner, at the scenes just before you. Shops are deserted; streets are filled; all men stand still; they now see that the great Judgment day has come. Presently a great white cloud appears. On that cloud sits the Son of man. Every eye looks at the awful scene of grandeur. Then is heard the trump of God, and the voice of the archangel that raises the dead. There is a unanimous shout, It is he, it is he! On one hand is heard, Lo this is our Lord, we have waited for him. But mingled with the cry, We have waited for him, will be the wailing of the condemned, Rocks fall on us, and hide us from Him that sitteth on the throne. What do the sinners hear? Depart, ye cursed. Do you linger? Depart. Do you seek a blessing? Ye are cursed. Do you seek to escape? It is everlasting fire. Do you stop and plead? I called, and ye refused, is the answer. My heart sinks within me. I see a wicked world who laugh at my tears and warning. Shall this be so with you, reader? I pray it may not. Let us plead that the fire that has been kindled by the third angel’s message may run along the ground, and cross to other nations, till the entire world shall be ablaze with its warning light, and we finally be gathered with the faithful. “Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where wroughtest thou?” Ruth 2:19. WHERE hast thou gleaned to-day,
Where found thy task,
And what reward is thine?
Thus will God ask. Where hast thou gleaned to-day,
Where wroughtest thou?
What bringest thou in sheaves
To garner now? In every path of life
My knee I bow;
And I glean truth from all.
Thus answer thou: I sorrow that I bring
So little fruit,
Among the reapers oft
My tongue was mute, Because I dared not ask
For what I sought,
Lest I should offer Thee
What cost me naught. No garland rare have I,
Nor branch nor leaf;
I bring Thy truth alone—
My only sheaf. Well done, my faithful child!
Thus will God say.
Then sing its “Harvest Home”
Thy glad soul may; For earthly work is done,
Night comes at last.
When God says “Welcome thou,”
Thy toil is past. Thy day of gleaning o’er—
How soon it sped!
Thy evening hours are come;
Seek thou thy bed. Christ reaches down his hand,
All doubt is fled;
On that all-tender hand
Rest thou thy head, What glorious change! From night
To endless day!
Gleaner, in “Heavenly Home”
Rest thou alway. Wisconsin: Meetings at Big Cooly, Pepin County
By N. M. Jordon
For the last four weeks I have been holding meetings five miles west of Arkensaw, Pepin Co., Wis., at a place called the Big Cooly, in a heavy timbered country. The people are very poor and their habits bad. The weather was terribly cold. The interest has been good, and the Lord has blessed his truth. The result is that ten or twelve have decided to keep the Lord’s Sabbath, and others are deeply interested. May the Lord help them to decide for the truth is my prayer. N. M. Jordon. The Calls for Help.
By I. Sanborn
A FEW weeks ago, I put a notice in the REVIEW without qualification, requesting any person who wanted preaching in his locality to write to me. Within ten days, I have received twenty letters calling for help; one from New Jersey; three from Illinois; five from Iowa; five from Wisconsin; the rest from Kansas, Dakotah, Nebraska, and New York. And I consider most all of them good openings. But where are the consecrated men to fill these calls? Truly the harvest is great, and the laborers are few. Why should we not pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest? I wish to say to those dear friends, not in the Wisconsin Conference, who have written to me, If it were possible for me to come over and help you, I would most gladly do it. The people in different parts of the Wisconsin Conference are urging and pleading for help. My spirit is stirred within me when I read such pleading calls. Dear brethren, pray on—continue to send up your cries to the Lord of the harvest, and believe that he hears you, because none ever cried to him in vain. I notice that several of the calls above referred to are the result of an interest awakened by reading a tract or a trial volume of the REVIEW, which has caused the readers to see light in God’s word. Some have already commenced keeping the Sabbath, and are calling for preaching. May the Lord send them the living preacher soon, is my prayer. I will, with the blessing of God, answer the calls from Wisconsin as fast as possible. I am now trying to follow up one here in Baraboo, Sauk County. I have had four meetings with good interest, considering the circumstances. By the grace of God to help me, henceforth I shall give all there is of me to this precious work. Pray for me. No Escape from Work.
By S.
It is trying work to be such a Seventh-day Adventist as I ought. The theory is fine, just according to the Bible; but it compels me to work for my neighbors, who, on presentation of the unpopular truth, shrug their shoulders, lift one corner of the upper lip, shake their heads, and treat me with the forbearance they would probably show to a mild lunatic, or some blinded pilgrim on his way to Mecca, with his shoes filled with pebbles. If I could sit down in a quiet, well-ordered house, in a room well lighted, warmed, and tastily furnished, and read the publications from Battle Creek, enjoy the propositions set forth by the gifted brethren, and not be obliged to come in contact with that air, which plainly tells me that I am a poor, deluded fanatic; because I “have Saturday for my Sunday,” I could get along easier. Many times my companion and myself would sit down by the fire at home and study; but feeling that to be a wrong to others, get up, put on our wraps, take some tracts or periodicals, visit our neighbors one or two miles distant perhaps, and try “once more” to say a few words, oftentimes ill-chosen and untimely perhaps, but the best we can do with our limited gifts. I often fancy we could accomplish more if we were not so poor; but who knows but we might be so engrossed with the care of our houses, lands, and cattle, if we had them, that we would forget that our “possessions would consume away into smoke,” and choke the sinner whom we now labor to save? Once when we were building a house (in our imaginations) we were interrupted by the shrill whistle of the locomotive. We both stopped, looked at each other, and commenced talking of something else. We are so fortunate as to hear, in our country home, four times a day, the announcement that this is the “day of God’s preparation.” I never see a train without thinking of it, and sometimes my eyes fill with tears because of the unthinking multitudes, who regard not the sign. It is wearisome work to warn those whom it is so hard to arouse. How often my thoughts run back to those poor, tired pioneers in the work, those who carried or sent the truth from point to point till it reached our ears, and thanks fill my heart that we were permitted to see the truth. Let us all labor in our neighborhoods, that we may prepare the way for a minister, and that our skirts may be clear in “that day.” S. Morgan, Vermont.
By D. T. Bourdeau
I REMAINED in Morgan sixteen days, held sixteen meetings, and left seven keeping the commandments. Two were keeping the Sabbath when I came to the place. Others showed respect for the truth, but had not taken their stand. The work here, as in Philippi of old, commenced with “women.” May these through consecration and diligence in the missionary work, be as successful as were Lydia and others in Philippi, that God’s blessing may attend them. Acts 16. I met an opposition effort by Eld. Blake, Adventist. Replied the same day. Eld. B. was present, but made no response, yet some of his friends got up a feeling bordering, as I thought, upon fanaticism; so that he had to check them, telling them he wanted them to form their opinions independently of him. It is due Eld. Blake that I here state that he treated us with Christian courtesy, and that he made some, very candid, and truthful admissions. He acknowledged that the Bible did not teach that it was right to keep the first day; that to prove this we must go to tradition; that those whose conscience taught them they should keep a day (the seventh day) would sin if they did not keep it, etc. I leave Bro. Worthen to follow up the interest, while I seek for some other opening. Burke, Vt., March 9, 1875.