DEAR BRO. WHITE :—I feel that the truth is good, and I desire to have the whole truth. Christ has given us the blessed assurance that if we continue in his word, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. The law of God is a "law of liberty," or freedom, to those who are delivered from its condemnation, through Jesus Christ, and are not forgetful hearers but doers of the work. But I do not envy the freedom of those who think that the phrase "law of liberty," implies a liberty to break God's law.—They are the persons that are entangled in a "yoke of bondage."
I am glad that the word informs us that God will have a people that will be "alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord." Thank the Lord; he has a people on the earth. And when I look around to find them, I confess the search is vain, till my eye rests upon the remnant who "keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Glory to God! I see his people coming from all places, whither they have been driven, in the dark and cloudy day, and rallying around the standard raised by the third angel. These are the people that are going to Mount Zion, and I want to go with them.
I have visited a portion of Canada West, in company with Bro. Lindsey. We found a few brethren in Mariposa, Reach and Whitby, who are striving to let their light shine amidst the surrounding darkness. May the Lord bless them, and give them grace according to their circumstances. We had not calculated on a sufficient length of time to visit all the scattered brethren in C. W., and as we were there with a sleigh, and the prospect for sleighing was doubtful, we hastened homeward. We regret that we were not prepared to visit all the scattered flock in that country, and also that our visit in Whitby was so short. We found some in the vicinity of St. Catharines who seem desirous to gain the kingdom. They showed no disposition to oppose the truth, but rather seemed convicted. May they, in the strength of the Lord, take a bold stand in favor of the truth. May all the remnant keep in that humble place where the Lord can bless them. Let us not be lifted up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Let nothing take our eyes from the prize at the end of the race.
In hope of immortality, R. F. COTTRELL.
Mill Grove, Feb. 23d, 1853.
ELON EVERTS
By Elon Everts
From Bro. Everts.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—When we look at things through inspiration, it plainly shows that we may expect that some who arose to meet the Lord, will desire, again, the country from whence they came out; therefore, will make unto themselves captains desiring to go back to bondage.
Therefore when we meet with opposition to the last message of mercy, we should not be discouraged, although caused to weep and mourn over them.
Dear Bro. Sperry and I started on a tour Feb. 1st, visited Castleton, Fairhaven, and Low Hampton, and found some who acknowledged the Sabbath &c., but strange as it is, do not feel the importance of not breaking this great commandment, for which Nehemiah said, "did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city."
How can one think or act as though God lightly esteemed the offence of breaking the commandment which reveals his holy name, and who will punish with death for breaking the least of them.
From Low Hampton we went to Fort Ann, Welchhollow, found some favorable to the commandments; thence to Dresden, Port Marshall, found some dear, humble children struggling along for life. O, how sad a spectacle are they, who have seen and felt the Sabbath truth, and shrunk at the cross, and try to climb up some other way, how soon they are left to fight against the way of eternal life.
ELON EVERTS
New Haven, Vt., Feb. 14th, 1853.
A. S. HUTCHINS
By A. S. Hutchins
From Bro. Hutchins.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—As I read from the Review the increasing interest in the cause of truth, where the sound of the third angel's message is spreading, it affords me much consolation.
Truly it is encouraging and gratifying to learn that many honest souls are already aware of the "famine" in the land among all professed Christians, who reject the message of Rev. xiv, 9-12; "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord." Amos viii, 11.
Jan. 29th I spent the Sabbath with Bro. Barr in Corinth, (where I formerly stood connected with the F. W. Baptist church,) and though none have yet embraced the present truth in that place, the way seems preparing for honest souls to be saved by its reception. O, that the Lord would speed the time!
Feb. 1st and 2d we held meetings in Reading, where we found a few keeping the Sabbath, and others desirous of knowing what they must do to be saved. On the 6th day of the same week, Bro. Barr left for Boston. Sabbath following, I met with a few of the dear brethren in Bridgewater, and endeavored to comfort them and persuade them to remember that "yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." Last Sabbath we enjoyed another very good meeting at Waterbury, and from a number who spoke, I heard it said, "this begins to seem like our meetings in 1844."
I would further add that for some months past, the cause of truth has been gaining ground in Northern Vermont. Old stubborn prejudices against the truth are fast giving away in many places, and ears are open to hear and hearts to receive the truth. May the Lord enable all of his children to remember and heed the words of the blessed Saviour, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
A. S. HUTCHINS
Johnson, Vt., Feb. 17th 1853.
A New Convert to the Sabbath
By Albert Avery
From Bro. Avery.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—I feel to praise the Lord that I ever had a desire to know the truth, and that I live in this time when the truth is shining with such clearness, and the message of the third angel is being given. It is but a little more than three months since I received the first light on the Sabbath question, (I was then reading the Advent Harbinger and thought the Sabbath was abolished,) through the Review and other works on the Sabbath. Also, by a careful examination of the word of God, I found that none of the commandments of God were abolished, (as Mr. Marsh would have them,) but were his immutable precepts, that Paul calls holy, just and good; [Rom. vii, 12;] and that that James calls the perfect law of liberty. James i, 25.
I read the Review with pleasure, and thank God for the light I received on the present truth through its pages, also, through the labors of Bro. M. E. Cornell, a few weeks since. I am with nine or ten others in this place, trying to keep all the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Rev. xiv, 12. Others are investigating. We have prayer-meetings every Sabbath, the Lord is with us, there is a good degree of the spirit of sacrifice among the little band here. All that I possess of this world's good, I cheerfully lay upon the altar to speed the last message of mercy to this ungodly world.
Yours in hope of soon seeing Jesus,
ALBERT AVERY.
Locke, Mich., Feb. 14th, 1853.
The Cause Prosperous in Michigan
Bro. M. G. Kellogg writes from Lapeer, Mich., Feb. 15th, 1853:—"The cause of truth is prospering in Michigan. Jan. 6th I met Bro. Case at Grand Rapids, where he gave ten lectures to a congregation of from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty persons, who had never heard a lecture on the second coming of Christ. A few there embraced the present truth.
"From this place we went to Bedford, arrived there Jan. 1st. On First-day, Bro. Case buried seventeen by baptism. In the evening we came together and had a good meeting. We felt that we were sitting together in a heavenly place in Christ Jesus. The brethren and sisters in Bedford, are persuaded that neither death, life, angels, principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth nor any other creature, shall be able to separate them from the love of God, and the keeping of his commandments, and the faith of Jesus. This band, numbering eleven, were once turned from the truth; but thank the Lord, they were his, and they would not stay turned away. And now instead of eleven, they number twenty.
"From Bedford we went to Jackson. Spent one Sabbath there. Left there Feb. 2d, to attend the Conference at Tyrone. The band here numbers over twenty. God was with us in very deed. Such a scene I never before witnessed. It was a time of breaking down of hearts before the Lord. We were all fed from our Master's table.
"God is at work in the West. The message is beginning to rise, and may God grant that the messengers may rise with it; rise in the Spirit and power of Israel's God. The interest is increasing, and little bands are springing up here and there all around us. And we hear the cry, 'Come over and help us.' O, that God would raise up laborers after his own heart, that are dead to the world and alive to Christ, having a good understanding of his truth, and fill them with his Spirit, that they may be enabled to handle his Word discreetly, that they may carry this last message of mercy to the children of men."
The Seventh-day Sabbath not a type of the Christian's Rest. Heb. iv, 4, 9.
By J. H. Waggoner
BY J. H. WAGGONER.
WHEN God made the promise to Abraham to give the land to him and to his seed, &c., [Gen. xii, 7.] he foretold him of the bondage of his seed, and also said, that "in the fourth generation they shall come hither again," and that they should possess the land of "the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." Chap. xv, 7-21.
After their full term of service in Egypt had expired, God made choice of Moses to go before them, and lead them out of the land of bondage. The Lord commanded Moses and the people with him thus: go up unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, "Unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." Ex. xxxiii, 1, 2. But God was wroth with the people for having made the golden calf, and refused to go with them; and Moses supplicated him, saying, "show me now thy way that I may know thee." And the Lord made answer, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Verses 13, 14. When they came near to the river Jordan, Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh desired their portion on the east side, to which Moses assented on condition that all the men of arms should go over and help subdue the nations on the other side, "until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond Jordan." Deut. iii, 20. After they had passed over Jordan and come in possession of the land, it is written, "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about according to all that he sware unto their fathers; and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand." Josh. xxi, 43, 44. Moses, however, was not permitted to cross Jordan, and the people entered into this rest under the leading of Joshua.
The apostle Paul said that "Moses was faithful in all his house [house of Israel,] as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over his own house; [household of faith,] whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Heb. iii, 5, 6. In verses 7-11, he quotes Psalm xcv, 7-11, as follows: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest."
When Moses desired to know the way of the Lord, he promised him rest; [Deut. xxxiii, 13, 14,] but they had not known his ways, and, therefore, could not enter into his rest. He then exhorts his brethren, to take heed lest there be in any of them "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;" for if those who fell in the wilderness entered not in because of unbelief, we should fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Faith is the condition of entering into this rest. They could not enter in for want of it; but we who believe enter into the rest of God, [Macknight's Trans.] as the promise was left us of entering into his rest since the children of Israel inherited the land of Canaan.—This rest is only to be entered into by the faithful, who hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. "He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works;" [verse 10,] and God's "works were finished from the foundation of the world;" therefore, (although the promise of entering therein extends to the future,) his rest dates from that period. This is proved by his speaking "in a certain place [Gen. ii, 2,] of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." Verses 3, 4. The promise that was left us is spoken of in David, [Ps. xcv,] and if Joshua had given them the rest contemplated in the promise made of God to the fathers, he would not afterward have spoken of another day.
The conclusion is therefore obvious, that "there remaineth a rest to the people of God." Heb. iv, 9; Rom. iv, 13; Heb. iii, 5. This rest must bear the same relation to the land of Canaan, that the household of faith does to the house of Israel, [Chap. iii, 6,] and that Christ does to Joshua, to wit: the antitype to the type. All types are similar in their nature and objects—they are shadows. Heb. x, 1; Col. ii, 17.
There is nothing in the origin or object of the Sabbath to make it an appropriate type of our future rest. Many have supposed that the Scripture under consideration, proves it to be typical, but to infer from the Apostle's argument in the iii and iv chapters of Hebrews, that God instituted a type or shadow of the believer's rest in Paradise—observed it himself—then blessed and hallowed it, and made it a sign of the sanctification of his people, is certainly stretching an assumption to its utmost limit. Gen. ii, 1-3; Ex. xx, 11; xxxi, 13, 17; Eze. xx, 12, 20; Isa. lvi, 6, 7; lviii, 13, 14. The quotation in verse 4 proves that the seventh day was God's rest day or Sabbath "from the foundation of the world;" and its observance was enforced before the law was given on Mount Sinai; [Ex. xvi;] therefore it could not be the rest given by Joshua. This, according to Josh. xxi, 43, 44; xxii, 1, consisted in the peaceable possession of the land, after their enemies had been driven from it, or destroyed from off it, as "the Lord had sworn unto their fathers." Gen. xv. Of this we cannot enjoy the antitype until "we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear;" [Luke i, 74;] which will not be till we stand on the Mount Zion, singing "the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb." Then will the faithful peaceably possess the land promised to Abraham and his seed. Rom. iv, 13, 14. For this rest we hope and pray with "earnest expectation," "for we that are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burdened;" [2 Cor. v, 4;] we "which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, namely, the redemption of the body." Rom. viii, 23.
Praise be to God, the time is hastening on, when those who keep the commandments, will enter through the gates into the city; and have right to the tree of life that grows in the midst of the Paradise of God. And he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.
"Soon shall we be from the wicked released,
Soon shall the weary for ever be blest,
Soon shall we lean upon Jesus' breast.
Then there is rest, there is rest."
C. MILLER
By C. Miller
From Sister Miller.
DEAR. BRO. WHITE:—I feel desirous to say a word to the scattered flock of God, and I hope that he may speak through me to the comfort of some for whom Jesus died and rose again, who are brought nigh to him by his own blood which was shed so freely on Calvary, when he became the sacrifice for our transgressions. We have nothing to dishearten or cause us to despair, and cast away our confidence. The word of the Lord is immutable, and cannot fail; therefore let us hold on to the sure word of prophecy, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; and if he draw back, God will have no pleasure in him. Let us not draw back to perdition.
I rejoice that God has set watchmen upon the walls of Zion, which will never hold their peace; nor give him rest, until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, which will proclaim, behold thy salvation cometh, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And we may rejoice in spite of opposition, for the Lord has given us a banner, who fear his name; that it may be displayed because of its truth, and now when the enemy has come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard against him. Are there few, or many, who will rally around it? With hearts oppressed and sorrowing, let us wait upon the Lord; and be of good courage. I, for one, would have fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. This hope brings joy to the disconsolate mourner in Zion: and while we weep over our impenitent friends, and would do them good, and have them go with us to Mount Zion, we would resign them to a just God, still pleading at the throne of grace for his mercy to hide them in the day of his wrath.
C. MILLER
Syracuse, Feb. 27th, 1853.
Request to Return Number 16
By Editor
We have many calls for No. 16, containing the commencement of Bro. Andrews' article on the Sanctuary. But as that number falls short, we cannot supply them, unless some of our readers return that number. Those who do not wish to keep a regular file, will do us a favor to return No. 16.
Publications.
By Editor
THE BIBLE SABBATH, or a careful selection from the Publications of the American Sabbath Tract Society, including the History of the Sabbath—64 pages.
The Sanctuary and Twenty-three Hundred days, 68 pages.
We also have on hand our Hymn Book, well bound, price 30 cents. Postage 2 cents.
Perpetuity of the Law of God—32 pages.
The Seventh-day Sabbath—18 pages.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins—24 pages.
For Tracts.
M. Everts, B. Bryant, each $1. J. A. Loughhead, G. M. Burnett, each 60 cents. C. Woston, 50 cents. L. Carpenter, $1.25. S. H. Pock, $1.75. C. S. Hurlbut, $2. J. Y. Wilcox, $1.75. P. & M. Folsom, $5.
Letters received since Feb. 17th.
By Editor
E. Everts, M. C. Andrews, H. W. Lawrence, J. Lindsey, J. Bates, R. Cochran, A. R. Morse, W. S. Ingraham, A. A. Dodge, R. B. Brown, G. M. Burnett, A. S. Hutchins, C. D. Riggs, F. H. Cowin, H. Lyon, L. J. Richmond, H. S. Gurney, C. M. Brown, F. Wheeler, S. W. Rhodes, M. G. Kellogg, R. R. Chapin, H. Edson, J. Mc. Clennan, A. Stone, J. S. Nicholson.
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C. S. Hurlbut, L. Tarbell, F. Strong, J. L. Baker, E. Emery, D. Robbins, each $2. D. Daniels, $3. C. Weston, $1.50. J. Van'leavan, E. Clark, a Friend, each 50 cents. A. B. Pearsall, 36 cents. J. Miracle, 25 cents.
Eastern Bills Preferred
By Editor
Those who send money from the West, would do well to obtain New York or Eastern bills when convenient. Some one has sent a one dollar bill on the City Bank, Chicago, Illinois, which we would return if we knew who sent it, for it is of no value to us.
The Fall of the Advent Band
By Editor
WE would state for the information of our readers, that the fall of the Advent band, at Oswego, Ind., mentioned in Bro. Chaplin's letter, on another page, was the result of the no-Sabbath preaching. Truly, "by their fruits ye shall know them."
Requests for Answers
By Editor
SEVERAL have written to us quite recently requesting answers. We are sorry to say that we have no time to write letters at present.
Address Returned Papers Properly
By Editor
WHEN Papers are returned, the name and address should both be written on them.
Post Office Address of A. R. Morse
By Editor
Bro. A. R. MORSE wishes us to say that his Post Office address is Wolcott, Vt.