A CLERGYMAN recently remarked to us that, as a rule, ministers will give their people anything they want, and so it happens, perhaps, that as city congregations are supposed to dislike the thunders of the law, the pastors prophesy smooth things. It is a pity, but yet it is true. Faith and love are everything, repentance of little moment; the mercy of God is duly presented; his justice is almost ignored; the glories of the New Jerusalem are much descanted on, but the pains of hell are studiously kept in the background. It would appear to be deemed unfashionable to urge sinners to “flee from the wrath to come;” yet is it not as needful now to warn the unrepentant of their doom as it was when our Saviour spake to his followers of the undying worm, and the fire that never shall be quenched?
God's invitations of mercy are found on almost every page of the Scriptures; but the warnings and threatenings are uttered with impressive frequency too. It is therefore plainly a minister's duty to give as due prominence to the admonitory teachings of holy Writ as did He “who knoweth the heart,” and who commands his servants to proclaim a full gospel whether men will hear or forbear.
It is high time that pastors ceased to feed their people with such husks as those referred to. We want ministers who shall “not shun to declare the whole counsel of God,” Baxters who will exhort to holy living and the godly bringing up of the young, and who will tell their hearers that if they continue in sin they are lost; for we are of those who believe just what the Bible teaches about the day of final reckoning, when the tares shall be separated from the wheat. We believe that there will be a catastrophe; that in some way, to be perceived or understood by us, the trumpet will sound and the dead will rise, and the thrones will be set, and the books will be opened, and high and low, rich and poor, shall walk with equal step up to the judgment-seat of God, to be condemned or justified, “and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”
Many sermons now-a-days have little Bible truth about them but the text. The elaborate essay with a profusion of illustrations from the great names in ancient and modern philosophy, is the thing. The Apostle of the Gentiles preferred to tell his people of what was said and done by the holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps such themes are considered too trite and homely as subjects for sermons to fashionable audiences. They were not so in the hands of Paul, who declares in Hebrews 11th that time failed him to tell all the thoughts and feelings about them, that came surging to his lips. The rousing spirit of his eloquence, as he discourses of their faith and achievements, makes one's hair stand on end. Ministers err in supposing that this preaching to the intellect merely is satisfying to those who come to hear it. Even worldly and unconverted people easily discern that it is not “the truth as it is in Jesus.” It may be very fine, but it does not feed the soul with that bread of life of which if a man eat he shall never hunger. Educated business men, no matter how careless about these things, can discriminate readily between a flourish of rhetoric and that simple truth which is the power of God unto salvation.
Then there are ministers of evangelical churches, who never once from January to December enjoin the practice of family worship upon their people. It is not fashionable. Neither is the weight of their influence thrown into the scale, as it should be, against pernicious amusements and social dissipations which are so demoralizing, especially to the young, for even the theater has been furnished with a cloak of respectability from the pulpit, and church members taught that even frequent attendance at it was quite consistent with regular communion at the Lord's table. Do the natural proclivities of our youth need such encouragement? Such things indicate the lack of deep convictions in pastors, and if they know not themselves “the terror of the Lord,” how can they persuade men?—Christian Intelligencer.
“WE FAINT NOT.”
By Mrs. Leslie M. Carlisle
“For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” How great is our happiness to know that though our bodies are becoming weaker and more diseased, our spiritual life is growing strong in the Lord. What is there to prevent our souls from being filled with unutterable gladness when we have such a compassionate Saviour to love and care for us, and who will if we are faithful, give us a crown of never-fading glory, and eternal life? I do not come to him because I am sinless, but because I am covered with infirmities and filled with transgressions. And I realize my great weakness and need of his divine presence continually. I want to feel drawn out to him in trust and love, and I desire to live so near him that I can feel his sweet peace in my heart every moment. I want an overcoming faith that can smile at the present trials and discomforts of life.
Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” How important that we have Jesus abide in us that we may ever recognize his voice! How can we doubt God’s love for us? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “He laid down his life for the sheep.” He knoweth his own, and if one strays from the fold, how quickly he seeks out the wandering one, and brings it safely within the fold again! And why should we not have the spirit of our blessed Master, and instead of sitting with folded hands, seek out the straying ones and strive with all our hearts to bring them back to Jesus?
Time is speeding us onward, and what is done must be done quickly. We are fast nearing that blessed city “whose builder and maker is God.”
It seemeth not so far away,
As it shines to our eyes through faith by day,
And e’en by night
It glimmers with a soft and dazzling light.
It speaks to our hearts of peace and love;
It tells of Christ, who dwelleth above.
And our Father dear,
And angels too. Why need we fear?
Yea, yea, praise God, we are almost there.
Let us trust, have faith, and never despair.
Blest world to come,
In which, thank God, shall be our home.
Let us never grow weary of God’s work, but lean hard upon the strong arm of the Lord, and he will sustain us, that we faint not by the way.
MRS. LESLIE M. CARLISLE.
West Randolph, Vermont.
WHAT KILLED HIM?
As I look out of my study window, I see in the village the late cozy residence of a departed preacher. He was a fine-looking man, in the maturity of his manhood, and was, to all appearances, a noble specimen of our best New England clergymen. He was a pastor in Connecticut, and was probably much respected and beloved by his hearers. But his brain gave way; he found his nerves would not permit him to go on in his holy vocation, and he retired from his pulpit and came to Vineland for the benefit of his health; and he was here just regarded as one of our best Christian citizens. He looked hale and hearty—it was the mind that was shattered.
One of our doctors remarked to him one day, “Mr. T. ——, why do you not follow your vocation, and preach the gospel? You look competent to the task.”
“Oh!” said he, “I cannot do it. I cannot compose a sermon. My mind will not permit continuous thought. This is what keeps me from work.”
In reply the doctor said, “Allow me to say, then, in all frankness, that this chaos of the mind is the result of your free use of tobacco; and you may expect, as the next result, paralysis, which will wholly use you up.”
He admitted that this might be so, but could not and would not pledge himself to abstinence. The will-power of the mind was too far gone to cope with and break the binding chains of this slavery. He continued the use of the quid and pipe, and within a few months a paralytic shock was experienced; the body and mind at once both fell into ruin. He lingered for a year or more, and died.
Now, what destroyed this worthy, good man, drove him from the pulpit and hurried him to the grave in the zenith of his manhood and capabilities? Not too much brain or head work; but that deadly poison, the oil of nicotine found in tobacco. After many years’ observation, and some sad lessons of experience, I am satisfied more minds are shattered into chaos and nervous irritability by narcotics, opiates, and dissipating stimulants, than by fasting, prayer, and earnest work. The body and the mind are made for work; they will bear much hard, earnest, and steady labor; but the nervous system is delicate and complicated, and will bear but little abuse, and when goaded on to desperation by stimulation, will be sure to make reprisals.—Watchman and Reflector.
UNIVERSALISM IN A NUTSHELL.
“I am a Universalist,” said C. G., boastingly, “and you orthodox are not fair in saying that our system is inconsistent with reason.” “I will prove the irrationality of your system,” said his friend. “You believe that Christ died to save all men?” “Yes, I do.” “And you don’t believe there is a hell?” “No, I don’t.” “You don’t believe there is any punishment hereafter?” “No, I do not; men are punished for their sins in this life.” “Well, now, let us put your rational system together. It amounts to just this—that Christ the Saviour died to save all men from nothing at all. Not from hell, because, according to you, there is none. Not from punishment in a future state of being, for man receives his whole punishment in this life. Yours is the absurd spectacle of ropes and life-preservers thrown at an immense expense to a man who is on dry land and in no danger of being drowned.”
Mushrooms Lift a Heavy Flagstone
A SQUARE flag-stone of some eighty pounds' weight was recently shoved out of place in an English town by the united efforts of only three mushrooms growing under it.
HOME AGAIN.
By James White
BATTLE CREEK has never seemed more like home, so far as a pilgrim and stranger can have a home in this world, than at the present time. We were six days from Oakland, Cal., to Battle Creek, Mich., where we arrived on the 17th. The 19th, we spoke to a large congregation. The gallery and all the seats below were crowded. In this packed condition, the congregation gave earnest attention Sabbath morning, while the heat was such as to wilt the leaves of the clover in the yard. We had our usual freedom of spirit and thought at this old post of battle. There were present at the Sabbath-school in the morning two hundred and sixty-one persons.
This is becoming a point of great interest to our cause. The students at the College, the patients at the Health Institute, those connected with our printing house, with a large membership, make up a congregation that gives great importance to the Sabbath service. There were not less than five hundred grown persons present last Sabbath. A fourth house of worship must soon be erected, capable of comfortably seating not less than 1000 persons. The growth of the cause and work at this point is indicated in some respects by the sizes of the several houses built for our congregation. The first was 20x28 feet; the second, 28x44; the third, 40x66. The fourth is needed more than the second and third at the time when they were built.
From the time, about twenty months since, when Eld. Smith, Prof. Brownsberger, Dr. Kellogg, Mrs. W., and the writer, solemnly vowed to God in a covenant with each other, upon our knees in a grove near this city, to be true to God who had planted our institutions here, and to each other in laboring to establish discipline and order, and to resist the wrong, the moral heavens have been clearing and brightening. Having no other means than a pocket knife to mark the spot of our sacred covenant, we cut five notches in an oak sapling. By the grace of God we design to hold this fort, and give no place to the devil. God is greatly blessing this people with unity and the spirit of perpetual revival.
There is not a shade of discouragement over our beloved Battle Creek College. The attendance is large at the spring term, compared with older schools. We shall be disappointed if there are not as many as three hundred at the fall and winter terms. The Health Institute, under the charge of J. H. Kellogg, M. D., and his congenial associates, is prospering gloriously. When we have been urged to build during the past three or four years, we have objected on the ground that our buildings and facilities were equal to our doctors. Now that we have men of ability, refinement, and sterling sense, educated at the best medical schools on the continent, we are ready to build. Not less than $25,000 will be laid out in building the present summer.
Among the great changes that have taken place at the Institute is a change in the moral worth and numbers of patients. Twice as many have been treated the past winter as during previous winters, and these have been men and women of mind and position, many of whom have crowded our place of worship, and have heard with deep interest for the first time the reasons of our faith. Ample provisions will be made to treat not less than one hundred and fifty patients.
Five years since, we became satisfied that our Health Institute could not rise to eminence and the full measure of usefulness without thoroughly educated physicians to stand at the head of it. We laid our plans to gain this point, and without assistance or sympathy from any one we have pressed this matter forward. Dr. J. H. Kellogg has been as true as steel. Drs. Fairfield and Sprague, who are studying under him, will graduate at the highest medical school on the continent in the spring of 1878. It is a disgrace to Seventh-day Adventists to do a second-class job in anything.
THE HEALTH REFORMER is the ablest and most practical health journal printed. Its influence has called many discerning people to Battle Creek for treatment at our Health Institute, to be disappointed with buildings, facilities, managers, and physicians. They have said, “Your publishing buildings and your College are first-class; but your health department is third rate.” And after staying a few days, many first-class patients have left. A large proportion of the patients have been “dead heads,” or on reduced pay. And so the Institute has continued a feeble existence. But the time has come to bring up this branch of our work equal to others, so that all our institutions here shall be number one. This is our working time. And those who have respect to the reward will seek to do in a manner to merit the “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We are invited to attend the camp-meetings; but we dare not risk the strain. Should we go on to our camp-meeting grounds, and visit, and take an easy and indolent course, like many of our young preachers, we should do the meetings more harm than good. And we dare not risk another round like that of last year. Our people could have made it easier for us. Most of them cannot see the difference between attending camp-meeting one week and doing nothing only to hear, and attending fifteen in succession, with an intermission of three weeks, to labor within an inch of our lives at every meeting. The scene is novel to them, and full of interest during the one week, and they feel no need of change from camp-meeting life during that short week. They know nothing of the agony we have felt from the strain of perpetual care of camp-meeting life from sixteen to twenty hours each day. Hence we could not make them see that a comfortable ride each day away from the tent we live on the camp was anything but a needless, if not sinful, indulgence.
We never go on to a camp-ground, to visit, or to talk of feebleness, weariness, and pains. We put all the courage, good cheer, and faith into our labors possible. Hence when the meeting closes, we are like wilted leaves. Then comes the struggle of taking down tent, packing trunks, while crowded by careless visitors to take a hasty good-bye, or to attend to business they have neglected until the last moment. This is always the trying point at every camp-meeting season. We have been carried off the grounds several times fainting because of her hard labor, and the indiscretion of friends at the breaking up.
We stated at each camp-meeting last season that we were taking our last full round at meetings. We made a strong and successful effort in camp-meeting reports for the secular papers. We did this at the risk, and, we have feared, even the expense, of life. This added greatly to our care and labors, as we had to educate each meeting, and this trial came each week. Our able reporter threw her whole soul into the work, and often suffered from wet and cold for want of a suitable stove, which could have been provided at trifling expense. She has been failing in health since the season closed, and is at the present time past labor.
It is painful to us to pen these sad lines. But we dare not withhold the facts in the case, lest we be censured for not making arrangements for attending and reporting meetings as last year. We have gone our utmost distance in that direction. We have set our people a good example in thorough preparations for, and in the manner of conducting, our camp-meetings. We have shown them how reporting can be done in the secular papers. Vigilance, study of men and things, and firmness when necessary, controlled all the reporters, inasmuch that only a few lines in two or three instances appeared in the secular prints that were not dictated by our able reporter. We may recover from the labors of our last camp-meeting season. Our reporter was not able to travel from Oakland with us. May God give her to us again to help us in our work. We are at present as free from the burden of the camp-meetings as if we were in Heaven.
We now design to spend July and August in Colorado. This will give us time, free from business cares, to study the wants of the cause, perfect as far as possible the system of Tract and Missionary labor, and finish several works nearly ready for the press. Eld. Haskell says that the T. and M. workers should circulate 25,000 copies of a pioneer sheet in 1878. That is right. And we are glad to see some of our strong western States taking hold of this work. This is right also. They are simply taking hold in good time for next year. Those who move so very slowly, after long deliberation, are none too fast for next year. But when shall the pioneer sheet be issued? The South is opening wonderfully, and is quite as good a resort in winter for those whom wear and years have unfitted to endure the cold of Northern winters as is the Pacific Coast. Expenses of travel are also very much less.
And to business men it looks like a crazy policy to ship twenty tons of paper from the East to Oakland, at an expense of six hundred dollars, to be printed there at a cost of twenty per cent more than printing costs this side the Rocky Mountains, to be brought back by the United States Mail, and received from five to eight days from the press. The pioneer sheet for 1878, to be circulated this side the Rocky Mountains, will not be printed in Oakland, Cal. We are happy to report that the Pacific Press can be fully sustained by patrons in the Pacific Coast States and Territories. With $10,000 from the Eastern fund, raised to fully equip that Office, it is supplied with presses, types, etc., sufficient to do all denominational work, and take the lead in book and job work at Oakland, a city of 30,000 inhabitants. This leaves in the treasury of the Eastern fund $4,000, one half the amount needed to purchase press, types, etc., for an Eastern Office. Where and when it shall be located will be decided in the near future. For circulation in the South, it might be well to locate as far down as Virginia. This would also be comparatively near the several State, Tract and Missionary fields. It might not be best to build or purchase. In that case, three or four thousand more would be sufficient to set the Atlantic Press running in glorious good order.
J. W.
WHAT WAS THE PENALTY?
By J. W. S.
The second statement and conclusion that appear upon the sheet mentioned last week are these:—
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1.
“If Gen. 2:17 means physical death, then the just are in a state of condemnation, for they die.”
The author has placed himself astride the blind hobby of spiritualization, and declaring that God did not mean physical death in Gen. 2:17, he closes his eyes to everything else, and drives on. But these words of Paul, against which he has relied upon, have no relation to Adam’s sin or the penalty. Paul is giving a discourse upon the relation of the law of God to the sinner and to them that are in Christ Jesus. In this discourse he says that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. He shows that while we are living in a state of sin, we are under the condemnation of the law; that when we become convicted of sin by the law of God (Rom. 7:7), we die to sin (verse 9); and that in that last condition the sinner looks to Christ as his only deliverer, crying in the language of Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Verse 24, marginal reading. To the question raised in this cry, Paul gives the answer in the next verse: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord;” that is, I thank God, I shall be delivered from it through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then Paul draws this conclusion: “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” There is no condemnation to such on account of their own sins. They have found pardon through Christ, and are free from the condemnation of the law just as long as they are obedient to it, walking after the Spirit. Paul never intimates that we shall be excused from suffering death, even that death which comes in consequence of Adam’s sin. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,” says Paul. Rom. 5:12. “As in Adam all die,” he says. 1 Cor. 15:22. But if we have obtained forgiveness of our sins, we shall be redeemed from this penalty; “for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Here are his third statement and conclusion:— “The saved in Heaven are delivered from all penalty. ‘And there shall be no more death.’ Rev. 21:4. If corporeal death is the penalty, then they are in a state of condemnation; for their bodies are dead.”
When the author will prove that there are any such anomalies in Heaven as saints whose bodies are dead, or who have no bodies, then we may conclude that the serpent told Eve the truth, and that the devil is not the father of lies.
The fourth statement is, “Death passed on all men, for all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. If corporeal death is meant here, and death is the penalty of sin, then Enoch and Elijah and all who remain when Christ comes a second time are exceptions, and physical death is not the penalty.
What a puzzle! Hear it again: If corporeal death is meant here, then certain ones are exceptions, and corporeal death is not meant here. What kind of logic is that? When he says, “if death is the penalty of sin,” we wonder if he ever read this: “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. Enoch, Elijah, and those that remain when Christ comes, are exceptions, and the very statement that they are exceptions is an admission that the general rule is death. Paul says they are exceptions. He says, “We shall not all sleep [die], 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.”
“His fifth idea is this: ‘Corporeal death is by divine appointment for purposes of mercy. Gen. 3:19; Heb. 9:27. If death were the penalty for sin, then the wicked dead ought not to be raised, for then they would suffer the penalty twice according to annihilation theories.’”
He says death is by divine appointment. That is true. “It is appointed unto men once to die,” and this because our first parents sinned. Rom. 5:12. He also says that it is for purposes of mercy. Not so true. Death and the grave are everywhere in the Scriptures represented as enemies. The saints finally shout victory over them. 1 Cor. 15:55. Death itself shall be destroyed. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Verse 26. But let us turn to Gen. 3:19, to which he refers, and see what was the purpose of the death there appointed, see why it was pronounced upon Adam. The death sentence of Gen. 3:19 reads thus: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Now what is that for? Was it as a special favor to Adam? for a merciful purpose? No. It was Adam’s punishment because he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. It is the very punishment threatened in Gen. 2:17, and the Lord directly refers to the same in giving this sentence. He says, “Because thou hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,” thou shalt return unto the ground—shalt die.
If such language as is contained in Gen. 2:17 and 3:21 and intermediate verses should be used in a common book or newspaper, it would be taken to mean just what it says. Why not let it mean what it says where it is, and not wrest the inspired language of Moses, abuse logic, and ignore common sense, to sustain a theory that is contradicted by the united testimony of Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles!
J. W. S.
TRACT SOCIETIES AND PREMIUMS.
By S. N. Haskell
The Publishing Association has been very liberal to the Tract Societies in various ways since they have commenced their systematic labor; and it is still anxious to do all in its power to encourage systematic labor in the spread of the truth. The premiums offered to encourage tract workers in obtaining subscribers for our periodicals have been very liberal. The “Way of Life” is furnished at cost, giving all the profit to the Tract Societies, providing they will take them in large quantities, and use them to obtain subscribers for our periodicals. That there might be no barrier in the way of this work, the Association proposed further to take back those copies of the “Way of Life” that are not used, if unsold, the Tract Society paying transportation both ways.
Notwithstanding this, some Tract Societies are obtaining more or less names for the Review, and ordering the “Way of Life” sent directly from the Office. The friends at the Office are willing to do all they can, but there must be a co-operation on the part of the Tract Societies to build up the Association. It can be readily seen that if all the Tract Societies should pursue this course, it would put the Association to great expense without any profit, as it would require much additional help to do the business. The Office needs the benefit of the retail price on its retail trade, to pay packing, shipping, etc.
The president of one of our Tract Societies makes the following proposition: “Charge our Society with 20 ‘Way of Life’; then, as we obtain subscribers, and wish them, we will order them and you can charge the postage.” Now with all respect to the Tract Society, this we think a little sharp on the Association. After writing repeatedly letters of explanation to the proper officers, we have pursued the following course: we have sent to the secretary of that Conf. Tract Society 50 ‘Way of Life,’ so that they can fill orders to individuals in that State165themselves. Whatever number of the “Way of Life” is not used, sometime in the future can be returned to this Office, as above mentioned.
S. N. HASKELL.
A PLAIN TALK TO THE MURMURERS.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
Some Facts for Those Who Are not in Harmony with the Body.
(Continued.)
Now behold the result. Soon their little paper began to question one point and then another. Our position on the sanctuary was given up; the position on the two-horned beast was denied; the first message was applied somewhere else, the second moved out of its place, and finally the third message as applying to our work, was scouted. Well, in a short time the little piping paper brought the news that one of their two principal men, Elder Brinkerhoff, had renounced the faith entirely, and was a full-fledged Universalist. He had given up Sabbath, Advent, and all, and that was the last of his connection with the work. Still more astonishing, but a few months had rolled around when the forlorn little Hope came out with flag at half mast, sorrowfully announcing that its reverend father, Elder Snook, had apostatized from the faith, and was now preaching for the Universalists!
Soon the news also came that Daniel Hull had forsaken the frail boat, and taken a berth among the spiritualists, where he is now. After a few years' struggle, Eld. Shortridge enlisted in the same craft, and to-day is an unworthy member of even the spiritualist crowd. Did not that party see their mistake by this time, and, like honest men, confess their errors, and take their stand with the people of God? Some did; but most of them did not. Rebellion is like the leprosy. Once in the system it is about incurable. How men, after the hand of God had blasted them and scattered them like that, could be so blinded as to persevere in such a work is more than I can understand.
While these older and abler hands, the fathers and founders of the work, were forsaking their cause, new recruits of smaller talent came in, to take their places, evidently hoping to get a little notoriety out of the thing, if nothing more. Almost anybody would be received, who made any show of helping their cause. Take an example or two, as we have not time to dwell upon all. One Eld. Nathan Fuller, of Pennsylvania, quite a talented man, had been with us for several years. But about this time, he turned out to be a most corrupt man. He had committed adultery time and again under the most aggravating circumstances. When this became public, the neighborhood was terribly incensed against him—threatened to mob him. Of course this was a terrible disgrace to our cause, and we felt it as such. The best we could do was to expose the man and his crimes through our paper; and this we did. Neither he nor any one pretended to deny our charges. Indeed he confessed them squarely, because he was compelled to do so.
And now (who could have believed it?) this very man, Fuller, but a short time afterwards went to the head-quarters of that party where their paper was published, and professed to have changed his views, and to have rejected the visions, etc. Though they well knew of his crimes, yet his rejection of the visions was enough to recommend him there. He was received among them as a Christian minister, and taken in to preach for them, which he did; and further than that, they undertook to defend him as a Christian man, not denying however the licentiousness and adultery of which he had been guilty. Well, as we might know, that did not last long. Finding that Eld. Fuller did not help their cause, but was rather a stink in the nostrils of the better part of their own party, they dropped him.
Soon after that, the next prominent man in that movement was one Eld. Goodenough, of Wisconsin. He also was one of the crooked sticks dropped out of our ranks. Being reproved by our people, he professed to have changed his views on the visions, and went over to that party. That was sufficient to recommend him to them. They received him with open arms, notwithstanding his record among us. For two or three years this man flourished among them like a green bay-tree. Their little paper was crowded with his writings, and heavy books of a dozen pages or more came forth from his pen. Like the others he boasted great things. The Battle Creek party was going down, he said, and they were rapidly coming up. At Brighton, Iowa, about five years ago, he told me that their party had forty ministers, and that they had flourishing churches here and there, and others were rapidly forming. He thought that in a very few years' time our people would be entirely scattered, and others would take the great work in hand of warning the world. He succeeded in dividing our churches at both Brighton and Richland. But, alas for the party! that was about the end of him. The next thing I heard was that the church had expelled him for bad conduct. He was turned out of the church, and silenced as a preacher; and whenever they expel men, it is morally certain that they are pretty bad men.
The churches of which they once boasted, where are they now? All their able ministers have left them, and renounced the doctrine. They formed a society to publish the paper, but got into a quarrel among themselves, and the paper stopped. Each faction sent out circulars accusing the other of all sorts of wrong dealing. After a while a private individual for a small consideration gathered up the remnants of the office, and is now making a hard struggle to publish a semi-monthly. Of their old churches formed when they first started, I can now learn of only one or two where Sabbath meetings are regularly held. And even these have lost many members. The editor in a late paper says, “Our cause in Iowa has long been in a broken-down condition.” This is the story from their own lips. A very few new churches have been raised up within five years, and these are now in a fair way to follow the others. By the contributors to their paper, it is seen at a glance that they are simply composed of scattered material, one here, two or three there, but scarcely enough anywhere to maintain meetings.
As I look over the columns of their paper, I know the history of a large number of their contributors. They are largely those fault-finders who have fallen out of our ranks here and there in opposition to various moves our people have made. That this is where they mostly come from is thus confessed by the editor in a late number of his paper. Speaking of us he says, “When it is remembered that many of our readers were once connected with that organization,” etc. Yes, we know them well, many of them to our sorrow and the disgrace of the cause. Some who are prominent as writers in the paper have not kept the Sabbath for years, and do not keep it now, though they solemnly vowed when they left us that they would never give it up. Others are men who have preached for twenty years, and yet have not built up a single church anywhere, nor do they have a particle of influence where they are known. Those who were once with these preachers have forsaken them, and they are left dried up, dead, and alone; and the only way that the world knows of them is by their articles in that paper.
I know many of the persons who have left us, and I know them to be hard cases. That party may whitewash them, and defend them as long as they choose, but those are the facts. The principal business of that party is to give aid and comfort to the unworthy, unruly, disorderly members who have either been reproved in our churches, or expelled from them, or have been unable to find admittance into them. All such persons find a ready asylum among that party and a welcome hearing in their paper. The only recommendation they need is to write something against the visions or S. D. Adventists. It is published greedily. Nearly every number furnishes illustrations of this. I can count them by the dozen. A paper just at hand contains a letter from one of this class. Oh! how he was oppressed by the visions! What freedom he has now! Yes, I know him well. He had no trouble with the visions till they exposed his hypocrisy in pretending to keep the Sabbath while breaking it all the time. He worked upon it whenever his business pressed.
Here is another one, a woman, expelled from the church for falsehood, intimacy with a married man, etc. All these, and many more like them, are taken aboard the little craft with rejoicing. But most of these persons who have gone from us to them claim to have been abused and oppressed by the visions or by Bro. White. But I know this to be utterly false in the cases of many who claim it, and I believe it is in all. One man, for example, complains bitterly in their paper about being oppressed by the visions. Now neither Bro. nor Sr. White ever had a word to say to him, nor anything to do with him. No vision or testimony ever referred to him in the remotest manner. After being bored by him for several days, I gave him a sharp reproof for living in adultery, and leading brethren of the church indorsed what I said. Off he puts to the rebels with a doleful tale about the visions. That is enough. He is welcome.
Yes; to hear their story, they have all been terribly abused by us. But does this prove that it is so? Who does not know that crooked, disorderly members of any church when reproved or expelled always claim to have been abused? They haven't done anything wrong; oh! no. It reminds me of a story that Mr. Moody tells. He once visited a prison, and talked with the prisoners. He expected they would all feel very guilty, and be glad of offered mercy. But no. One had been unjustly accused, another said the judge had been bribed, another that false witnesses had been hired against him, another one claimed that they had got the wrong man, etc., etc. Says Mr. Moody, “These prisoners were the most innocent set of fellows I had ever found. The only guilty persons were the judge, the jurors, and the witnesses.”
So it is with those who have been so terribly oppressed by S. D. Adventists. To hear them you would think they were the only good Christians among us. The rest of us have either been bought or scared into submission to Bro. White or the visions. We are corrupt and oppressive. All of this is just what we might naturally expect them to say in order to justify themselves. But we are prepared to show that those accusations are wholly false. No one among us, who is walking with the Lord, knows anything about the oppression of which they complain.