Eccl. iii, 17. “I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
The Judgment of the great day is an event certain to transpire. “He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” Acts xvii, 31. What God hath appointed is sure to arrive in due time. The resurrection of Christ is an assurance to all men of the final Judgment. It is not the fact of the Judgment, however, but the order of its work that, at this time, engages our attention. The work to be accomplished is of immense magnitude. The Judgment relates, 1. To all the righteous. 2. To all the wicked. 3. To all the evil angels. The number of cases, therefore, to be acted upon at this grand tribunal exceeds our powers of conception. We must not, however, suppose that there will be any difficulty on the part of the Judge in acting upon every case individually. Far from this, “There is a time there for every purpose and for every work.” The Judgment, indeed, pertains to an immense number of beings; yet every one of them shall give account of himself to God. Rom. xiv, 12. It will not relate to so vast a number as to make it otherwise than a strictly personal matter. Nor will there be aught of confusion or disorder in that final reckoning. God has plenty of time for the work, and he has no lack of agents to do his bidding. That he has order in this work, the Scriptures clearly teach.
1. The righteous are to judge the wicked; yet the righteous are themselves to pass the test of the Judgment. Whence it follows that the Judgment must pass upon the righteous before they can sit in judgment upon the wicked.
This is a very important proposition. That it is truthful, we know from the express testimony of the Scriptures.
1 Cor. vi, 2, 3: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”
Rev. xx, 4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands: and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Dan. vii, 21, 22: “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them: until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”
Here is the exalted work of the saints in the Judgment. They are to take part in the examination of the cases of all wicked men and fallen angels. But this is not to be till they have been changed to immortality, and exalted to thrones of glory. They do not, therefore, have their cases decided at the same time with the wicked. We believe the reader will acknowledge the justice of this reasoning. Let us state another proposition:
2. The trump of God sounds as the Saviour descends from Heaven. When that trump is heard, all the righteous are, in the twinkling of an eye, changed to immortality. There can be no examination after this to determine whether they shall be counted worthy of eternal life, for they have already laid hold upon it. From this it follows that the examination and decision of the cases of the righteous takes place before the advent of Christ. The resurrection of the righteous to immortality is decisive proof that they have already passed the test of the Judgment, and have been accepted of the Judge. That they are thus raised to immortality, the following texts plainly teach:
1 Cor. xv, 42: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.”
Verse 43: “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.”
Verse 44: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
Verses 51, 52: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: We shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
These passages are perfectly convincing. The resurrection of the saints is to immortal life, and they are made immortal in the very act of the resurrection. The decision of their cases is, therefore, passed before their resurrection, for the nature of their resurrection is declarative of their eternal salvation. But the fact, that the decision of the judgment in the case of the righteous, precedes the advent, is proved by another proposition, as follows:
3. The righteous are raised before the wicked have their resurrection. This shows that the examination of their cases takes place before they are raised, for the final discrimination is made in the very act of raising the just and leaving the unjust to the resurrection of damnation.
Rev. xx, 5, 6: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Luke xx, 35, 36: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for they are equal to the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.”
Phil. iii, 11: “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” (Literally “the resurrection out from the dead ones.”)
1 Cor. xv, 22, 23: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
There is a resurrection which bears the inspired designation of the “first resurrection.” All who have part in this resurrection are pronounced “blessed and holy.” On them, “the second death hath no power.” This resurrection is out from among the dead. Paul earnestly labored to attain unto it. It is to be at the coming of Christ. Only those who are Christ’s shall have part in it. All that have part in it are the children of God, because they are the children of the resurrection to life. These facts clearly prove that the examination of the cases of the righteous precedes their resurrection at the advent of Christ; that event being really declarative of their innocence in the sight of God, and of their eternal salvation. Such as are accepted of God are resurrected; the others sleep till the resurrection to damnation. These facts are decisive proof that the righteous are judged before they are resurrected.
But we have a still more explicit statement yet to notice. Says our Lord: “But they which shall be ACCOUNTED WORTHY TO OBTAIN THAT WORLD AND THE RESURRECTION from the dead,” &c. Then it is certain that the act of ACCOUNTING WORTHY to obtain the resurrection from among the dead, and a part in the world to come, does precede the resurrection of the righteous. But this act of accounting men worthy of a part in the kingdom of God is the very act of acquitting them in the Judgment. The investigative Judgment in the cases of the righteous is, therefore, past when they are resurrected. As the resurrection of the just is at the advent of Christ, it follows that they pass their examination, and are counted worthy of a place in the kingdom of God before the Saviour returns to the earth to gather them to himself.
The Blessed Hope.
We are, at present, living in the land of our adversary. We are absent from our Lord. We walk by faith, not by sight. We are liable at any hour to close our eyes in death. Ours is the land of the dying and the dead. Our dearest friends are being cut down all around us. The tenderest associations are ready, at any moment, to be dissolved. Here have we no continuing city and no abiding place. Nevertheless our hearts are cheerful in God. Everything that we can desire is ours by promise. Our faith in the things promised, and our love for them, give to the promise a divine reality. We hope for the things promised. This hope is of such unspeakable worth to us that we are made rich by it, though at present acquainted with poverty and want. Though we have nothing, we possess all things.
We are not in possession of the good things, only as they are ours in the promise of God. But we rely upon that with such confidence that it is to us almost as though we had the things promised. We cheerfully wait its fulfilment, and murmur not at the inconveniences we experience. This is our night of watching. But we know that the morning will dawn. Our hearts yearn for the coming of the long-expected day. We know that our Lord must return in his glory before we can enter upon our inheritance. He must bind our great adversary before he delivers our dear friends who sleep in the silent dust. He must slay death before our land shall be in strict truth, “the land of the living.” He must purge sin from our earth by the fires of the last day, before the curse can be removed from it. We can have no Paradise in the absence of our Lord. We do not even desire to have our inheritance till we can have our King with us. He has promised to come again. We depend upon that promise. We never can be satisfied till we behold his face. His return shall change our world. Now it is the land of Edom. But when he shall transform it, then it shall be the Canaan of promise. Thenceforward we shall weep no more, for we shall never be separated from our Lord. All the family shall then be united, and death shall never enter the family of Adam the second, as it has that of Adam the first.
Christ Must Return.
If our Lord should fail to return again, then all our hopes of future blessedness must fail. He has gone away to prepare a place for us. John xiv, 1-3. If he should lose his interest in our behalf, or forget to return for us, then we can never be with him. He has pledged himself to come again. Certainly, we must depend on the fulfilment of this promise, for we cannot go to him. But we may be sure that he will not come for his people till he has first prepared the place for them. When that is accomplished, his word pledges him to return. It is the event on which is suspended all our hope. For with his return come the resurrection, translation, immortality, the crown of life, and our gathering together unto him. 1 Cor. xv, 51-54; 1 Thess. iv, 14-18; 2 Thess. ii, 1; 1 Pet. v, 4.
When he says, “I will come again and receive you unto myself,” he does not mean to say that he will send the consumption, or the small pox, or the typhoid fever. No, that would do us no good. It is not the pains of dissolution, but the change to immortality, that we desire. Our Lord must come himself. He will never send our “last enemy” as a substitute for himself. 1 Cor. xv, 26. The most of his people are even now in the cold embrace of death. We have already enough of death. But our Lord comes to destroy that cruel monster. He comes to awaken his people, and to give them immortal life. His coming is with the sound of the trump of God. When that trump breaks upon the ear of the silent sleepers, in one moment of time every one of them shall awaken to immortal life. And all the living saints shall, at the same moment, be changed to immortality. Then the angels of God shall gather all the saints to the presence of Christ, thenceforward to be forever with him.157
The Signs of Christ’s Advent May Be Disregarded.
It is a prevalent idea, that the signs of the advent cannot have been witnessed, because the mass of mankind have no faith in any such thing. The public seem to consider it a settled question, that the signs of Christ’s advent will be such as to compel faith on the part of those who witness them. Yet it is perfectly evident from the teaching of our Lord, that such is not the truth. In Matt. xxiv, our Lord gives a list of signs of his advent. Then he adds: “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Verse 33. But he proceeds to say, that “as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” He says of the antediluvians, that they “knew not till the flood came and took them all away.” He adds concerning his second advent: “So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” We may be safe in concluding,
1. That the signs of Christ’s advent will be of so marked a character that all who have faith in his word will be able to know from their fulfilment that he is even at the doors.
2. But that these signs will not be such as to compel wicked men to believe. They will have no idea that the day of God is at hand. They will, therefore, completely deceive themselves in this matter, by explaining away the tokens of the coming Judgment.
3. And this is wonderfully illustrated by our Lord’s reference to the case of the old world. Though the people were warned by Noah, yet such was the power of unbelief that when the deluge came it took them all by surprise. And in the last days, though the faithful watchman gives the world warning, the day of God shall come upon the world as a thief. So it is evident that God will give signs sufficient for faith to grasp, but not such as to compel unbelief to acknowledge their warning voice.
THE CLOSING MESSAGES.—No. 13.
By R. F. Cottrill
BABYLON is not the Roman Catholic church alone.
1. The name, confusion, does not represent one undivided church. Rome stands conspicuous as the head and representative of all this apostasy and confusion in the Christian world; but this church alone cannot fill the entire picture. If she stands at the head of the anti-christian family, as the mother of harlots, other churches that follow in her footsteps must fill the place of daughters. If she has no harlot daughters, she is not the mother of harlots. Hence, a single apostate church, which is a unit the world over, cannot fulfill the prophecy. The true church is plurality in unity—many members and many separate congregations in one body. The false church is unity in plurality—one in apostasy and corruption, but composed of many discordant bodies. Hence, Babylon, confusion, is her proper and comprehensive appellation.
But it is worthy of remark, that the reproach of Babylon is not in the name. Emerging from the darkness of papal errors, when for centuries the Scriptures had been hidden from the people, the churches of the Reformation, in searching for truth buried deep beneath the rubbish of tradition, as truth after truth was exhumed, were almost necessarily divided and in confusion. But as light increased, the established churches should have yielded their creeds and accepted the truth. Churches were born in Babylon, but not born harlots. They were pure in infancy, living to the light they had, and God blessed them. He would have healed them if they would be healed—if they would walk in the increasing light. Pure in youth, it is the course they take in riper years which determines their character. Rejecting advancing light and choosing the course of the corrupt mother, is what constitutes them harlots. And it is not until the last effort to heal Babylon has failed, that the people of God are led to forsake her.
2. The fall of Babylon is a moral fall, and not her destruction; for after her fall she becomes the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Then the people of God are called out of her, that they partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues. Then, having filled up the cup of her iniquity—her sins having reached to Heaven—her plagues come suddenly upon her, and she is utterly destroyed. God’s people are in her and are called out after her fall and escape her destruction; hence, it is a moral fall—a point in her apostasy where God abandons her, the spirits of devils rush in to fill the place of the Spirit of God, and worldly, unconverted persons flock in and make her a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
When did the church of Rome meet with such a fall? If she ever did, it was long before the days of Luther, and before those long centuries of bloody persecution that preceded the Reformation. Hence, Luther lived hundreds of years too late to announce the fact that the Spirit of God had abandoned the church of Rome, and given her over into the hands of the devil. That point she had reached before the Papacy was established. Therefore the announcement of her fall should have been made before the martyrdom of the saints at her hand. But where does the prophecy place the announcement of the fall of Babylon? Just before the second coming of Christ, even after the proclamation of the hour of God’s judgment came. Rev. xiv, 6–14. Those promised proclamations never were made to the world—the prophecy never had its fulfillment—till within the present century. But the fall of Babylon was distinctly announced in 1844. Hence, the announcement of the fall of Babylon must have reference especially to the daughters, instead of the mother, since it must have been the youngest and least corrupt of the family who were given over as irreclaimable at that point of time. And I would suggest (making no one else responsible) that the repetition in the announcement makes it sound very much like the announcement of a fatal relapse after a partial recovery. As though, after the great Roman apostasy, the Reformation promised well for a cure; but when the reform churches rejected the good news of the everlasting kingdom at hand, the last resort and the only thing that could heal their dissensions and make them one in Christ Jesus, the last hope was gone, cherished expectation was crushed, and, as if a second fall had sealed her doom, it is said, Babylon is fallen! is fallen!!
3. If the church of Rome alone is the Babylon of Revelation, then the people of God are found in that church just before the great day of wrath and the second coming of Christ. But is that the case? Are the mass of real Christians to-day in the church of Rome? Doubtless our Protestant churches would claim their full share of these, but the people of God are in Babylon just before her plagues come which terminate in her utter destruction, and the only way for them to escape this ruin with her, is to forsake her. The place where they are when the Judgment messages are announced will not retain them, but they will leave it as Lot left the doomed cities of the plain. May God be merciful to them, as he was to the family of Lot (Gen. xix, 16), that they may escape the storm of vengeance which is about to descend upon the great city of confusion. And let those who have started to flee “Remember Lot’s wife.” R. F. COTTRILL.
INTERESTING FROM WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
Bro. J. F. Wood, of Washington Territory, heard Bro. Loughborough and Bourdeau in California, received the present truth, returned home and went to work. He writes, Sept. 25, 1869:
“I wish for a small stock of books, to either sell or give away, as occasion may offer, and I send you $7.00 as a book fund on my own account. I find that I am very weak here as yet; can do but little, partly because I am poor in this world's goods, and more because there is more prejudice here than in any place I have seen. I lived here nine years previous to moving to California, and it was known that I had become an Adventist before I returned. Hence old friends seem to be afraid of me, and though I have said but little, I have been fired at from the pulpit several times. I give them something to study, whenever I get an opportunity. There are seven of us, all told, who are keeping the Sabbath and trying to get ready for the coming of the Lord.
“We hope and pray that the little leaven here will leaven the whole lump. Two of our company, Stephen Maxson and wife, my wife's father and mother, were raised Seventh-day Baptists, and always kept that faith, but now see all the truths of the Bible as taught by Seventh-day Adventists. The rest of us all belong to the family, except Sr. Morehouse. We are determined to prove faithful. We desire to live humbly, in the fear of God. I did expect to try and get Bro. Loughborough up here this winter, but the way is not yet open. I cannot as yet obtain a suitable place to hold meetings. May the Lord open the way, if there are any here who would receive the truth.
“Yours, &c.”
Again Bro. Wood writes, Oct. 19:
“Since my return to this place I have been a sort of mark for everybody to shoot at. Opposition and false statements were carried so high that I concluded to go to work and defend present truth to the best of my ability. Bishop Weaver, of the United Brethren church, stated here that he knew many Adventists in Michigan, and that they denied the divinity of Christ, and the resurrection. He stated that their doctrines were very obnoxious, and advised people to keep away from them.
“I am teaching school in the settlement in which I have resided for years, hence am acquainted with many of the people. I announced that I would lecture on Spiritualism, as that and the immortality question were being discussed quite extensively. The people turned out en masse. They seemed to be interested. I have since lectured on immortality and future punishment. The interest is increasing. A Methodist Elder was sent to upset me, but he only confirmed the truth in the minds of many. The Lord has helped me, and I intend to lecture each Sunday evening as long as I can do any good. Some of the preachers are squirming; but the people seem to think they do not amount to much.
There is an increasing demand for books. But few know anything about our publications, excepting what I have told them. I have had none yet to spare. I sent you $7.00 which I hope to hear from soon, probably before you receive this.
“My father-in-law, Stephen Maxson, has given me the enclosed $20.00 for books, in addition to what I have already sent. We will give them away, if we158cannot sell them. Enclosed is a list of what I think will be most in demand here at present. I do not know anything about wholesale prices, so I will leave it with you to send what you can for the money.
“Yours respectfully.”
In response to the last order, we have sent $25.00 worth of books, adding only postage to wholesale prices. We have given $5.00 from the book fund, to enable these distant friends of the cause to give publications where they cannot sell them. We shall cheerfully give more for the same purpose when needed.
The people must have our publications. These friends are acting a noble part. God will bless their efforts. Let other scattered friends also do what they can in this work, and it will be the delight of the old friends of the cause to help them in the circulation of our publications.
“GO WORK IN MY VINEYARD.”
By J. Clarke
WORKERS are called for. Everywhere work is to be done. Satan has work to be done, for which he repays his laborers eternal death; for death is the wages of sin. But the call above quoted is made by the Lord of all, and his wages are liberal; for the gift of God is eternal life.
We are called to work in his employ. Precious call! Can we accept any other call? For weeks past I have been thinking of this call to work for God, and often it rests with weight upon my mind.
To work for God we need a preparation of heart. We must, if we work for him, be just right at heart, and must always be found doing what is acceptable in his sight. This is our first work in his vineyard, to order our thoughts, and words, and ways, aright; then can we enter with zeal upon the work of helping others around us.
To work for God we need not sail across the ocean, nor travel across the continent; but here, close by, near at hand, are ears which can hear our words, and eyes to witness our acts. Let us, then, begin to work for God, first, by overcoming the foe within, next, by helping those near us. J. CLARKE.
Book and Tract Department.
By Editor
Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.
EDITED BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.
In this department we design to speak freely relative to the importance of book and tract circulation, and the plans and means by which this work may be carried forward. We also wish to give all important facts relative to the good that has already been accomplished by the circulation of our publications. There are hundreds among us who have been led to embrace the present truth from reading a pamphlet, or a tract, or a copy of the REVIEW AND HERALD, which had providentially fallen into their hands. Will these give us the simple facts in the case, briefly and clearly stated?
We also invite our scattered friends to make their wants of our publications known. The field is opening before us wonderfully. May God help us to take it, and labor in the harvest till the work be finished. At present the laborers are few. Much must be done by our publications.
MAINE STATE CONFERENCE.
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
WHEN I left Maine last March I had no thought of returning there this year, but it seemed necessary for some one to attend the Conference, and no one else could conveniently go. However, it was not my wish to go, as I knew there were individuals there in much need of help, who had not been inclined to accept it from me, and I hoped that some one might go whom they would hear.
This session of Conference was a season of trying labor for several reasons. The church of South Norridgewock was in a very low condition, not at all calculated to exert a good, healthy influence over those who came to worship with them. In the preparations for Conference this fact has not been taken into account. No kindly gathering influence had been exerted there by those who should have cared for their souls. I do not enter this as a complaint, but as a warning, as an admonition in regard to future gatherings.
Also the spirit of self and sectionalism, of which Bro. White has several times spoken, still prevailed to some extent. The disorganizing spirit manifested by most of the first-day Adventists has largely prevailed in Maine; and when the brethren who planted the standard of present truth introduced the order which the Scriptures teach, and we have adopted, they were met with suspicion and jealousy. This has always made it hard laboring in that State. And two things may always be noticed: Where anarchy and confusion prevail, there self triumphs; and, when individuals or a church get cold and backslidden, their sympathies are always ready to go on the wrong side. Labor for self is acceptable to such, as it accords with their own feelings; labor for the cause of God and for his name is rejected, because their hearts are not prepared to appreciate it, and they suspect the motives of those who would show them their errors and their danger.
Steps were taken in this Conference which relieved the feelings of the friends of the cause. It was voted to favor the organization of a New England Conference and to merge the State organization into that when it shall be formed. In the meantime a committee of lay brethren, business men, was elected, who have an interest to see that both labor and means are judiciously applied.
I had a strong feeling over the inconsistency prevailing to such an alarming extent, of professing faith in the "Testimonies to the Church," and yet utterly neglecting them on the health reform, and other questions. It was my most earnest desire to press this home to the consciences of all assembled. Bro. Goodrich seconded my efforts in this direction. May the Lord give him the hearts of the people in this respect, that all may yet see their true condition and the cause of their lukewarmness. We are nearing the close of our work, and we must be faithful, "giving all diligence," or soon wake up to the terrible fact that we have labored under a fatal delusion. May the Lord spare his people and bring not his heritage to reproach; and may the weeping spirit be laid upon his ministers; Joel ii, 17; that God may be entreated in our behalf, for the time of trouble is near.
In our labors for the cause and for individuals we believe that good was accomplished, and causes of darkness and trial removed. All hearts were made glad by the position taken by Bro. Howard before the meetings closed. Our prayer is that he may have a large experience in the spirit and power of present truth, and become a useful laborer to God's glory. Whether I shall ever return to Maine I cannot tell; perhaps it may be better for others to work there who have had no experience of the difficulties of the past. But this much I think I can safely say, that whoever the General Conference shall see fit to send to Maine will be kindly and cordially welcomed by both ministers and people.
J. H. WAGGONER.
MEETINGS IN WISCONSIN.
By I. SANBORN
As Bro. WHITE has spoken but briefly of our good camp-meeting, held at Clinton Junction, I will mention a few things in addition.
Although it was a good meeting, the good fruits of which will be more fully realized at the Judgment, yet we believe that the heavy rain and wind storm that we had on Friday afternoon very seriously affected the interest of the meeting; and I fear that perhaps some who got there that afternoon, and before, without means of shelter, felt slighted because they were not looked after as closely as they would have been but for the many additional cares brought upon every one by the great rain. I hope no one will cherish any hardness.
As many solemn vows were made at this meeting, promising God that they would put away their sins, and live in obedience to his holy will, we hope the vows will be faithfully kept by all, remembering that God says in his word that it is better not to vow, than to vow and not pay. Eccl. v, 4-7.
On Monday, at the close of the meeting, eleven were baptized, two of the number young men from Chicago, who had been brought up Catholics. May the Lord bless these young men who have thus been led to forsake the worship of the beast and the doctrines and commandments of men, to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Bro. Andrews has spoken briefly of the good meeting at Waterloo. It was continued five days after he left, closing last Sunday evening. Five more were baptized, and eight united with the church. Notwithstanding we were all disappointed in not seeing Bro. and Sr. White, the Lord made the meeting a great blessing to his people, and also to sinners, for which we praise his holy name. We still hope and pray that the Lord will open the way for Bro. and Sr. White to come to Waterloo.
Oct. 26, I started to my new field of labor, stopping at Lone Rock to see our dear Bro. Thompson, who is in severe affliction, suffering with intermittent and inflammatory fever. Cannot some of the brethren of the Sand Prairie church visit him in his affliction, and cheer him up in his trials!
Oct. 28, I commenced meetings with the church at Hundred Mile Grove. Sabbath, the 30th, was set apart for fasting and prayer, and confession of sins, with a determination to put away our wrongs. It was a very solemn day for most all present. The Lord gave me good liberty in speaking his word, by which he stirred up the hearts of those who had fallen under wrong influences, and got into trouble among themselves. On Monday, before I left, the Lord helped me to get together those who were the most involved in the trouble. Then the Lord, by his Holy Spirit, also helped those in the wrong to see and confess their wrongs, and to write out a confession to read before the church, asking the forgiveness of all the church. Thus perfect peace and harmony were restored, where only confusion existed for some time in the past. The Lord be praised for the divine power of his truth and Spirit, by which he leads his poor, erring people out of darkness into his marvelous light. May the brethren and sisters of this church, and every other church in the land, remember that in all the troubles they get into among themselves, both parties are to blame. The apostle says, “Where . . . strife is there is confusion and every evil work.” Again he says, “Be at peace among yourselves,” and, “See that none render evil for evil unto any man.” 1 Thess. v, 13-15.
May the Lord help his people to preserve unity and harmony, and walk in love. I. SANBORN. Baraboo, Wis., Nov. 2, 1869.
REPORT OF LABORS.
By Philip Strong
AFTER the last report from the Michigan tent we attended the Owosso and Ceresco Camp-meetings, in which I trust I received much good which will be of lasting benefit to me.
September 3, we commenced meetings again in the tent near Coldwater. There was some interest manifested at the commencement, but it was not of the lasting kind, and soon died out. We pulled down the tent on the 19th, having held twenty-three meetings. Four decided to obey the truth. May the Lord bless them, and those that kindly entertained us while there, and help them to be shining lights in the way.
I here parted company with Bro. Lane, each to return home and prepare for the winter. On my way home I spent one week at, and near, Cedar Springs, Kent Co., holding ten meetings. There are fifteen keeping the Sabbath here, and desire baptism and organization; but on account of much sickness it was deferred till another time.
October 2, attended the Monthly Meeting at Bushnell. The brethren of this church have not lived up to their privileges, but it was said then that they would try to do better. Held two meetings. Brethren from Stanton, Greenville, and Orleans, were present. The Lord blessed in speaking, for which I feel thankful.
October 8, in company with Brn. Maynard and King, went to Deerfield, Mecosta Co., to spend the Sabbath. The cause here has been left to go down; but through the influence of two sisters who have kept up a prayer-meeting for four years, since they were last visited, there are eleven now keeping the Sabbath. Held six meetings with them, and baptized three. There is a more friendly feeling among outsiders here than formerly. May the Lord help some to cut loose from their idols, that they may be prepared to take further steps in organization.
October 16, spent the Sabbath with the church in Gaines. The Lord gave liberty in speaking. There were about fifty brethren present, most of whom gave in their testimony in favor of overcoming and working while the day lasts. Held four meetings with them; one business meeting, in which matters of difference were settled up.
October 18 and 19, met with the church of Leighton. They are trying to overcome and move out with the body. They meet with much opposition, and at present have no place to hold meetings, the school-houses being closed. They are agitating the question of building them a house of worship. May the Lord open the way before them, and sustain them in all that is for the good of the cause.
PHILIP STRONG.
Pine Grove.
MEETINGS IN MICHIGAN.
By Joseph Bates
SABBATH and first-day, Oct. 9 and 10, held four meetings with the church in Gaines. Stormy weather, and sickness in the families of Sabbath-keepers, prevented many from attending. If brethren realized the importance of attending the Sabbath-meetings, nothing but actual necessity would keep them away.
October 16 and 17, held seven interesting meetings, and celebrated the ordinances with the church in Orange. Members came from six, nine, and sixteen miles. The Lord blessed and strengthened his waiting people.
Evenings of the 19th and 20th, held three meetings with the church in Matherton. Many of their neighbors came to hear.
The 21st and 22d, visited Sabbath-keepers in St. Johns and Greenbush. Sabbath and first-day held six meetings with the church in Greenbush, and brethren from what is called the Colony, some seven miles distant. God grant that all his remnant people may have a realizing sense of the all-important and solemn hour in which we live, and make haste to confess and forsake all our transgressions and sins, and be on our watch for our Lord's return from the wedding.