Part 3 (1/2)

Out of the great ma.s.s of advent believers in '44, I do not believe you knew of twenty that did not think the days were ended in '44. We will try to show, by-and-by, who have followed sound reason; and who have got ”the plain word of G.o.d.” You say you ”know enough of the effect of that theory that teaches the 2300 days are ended.” Allow me to tell you that you do not know so much about it as you think you do, or as you will wish you had. You are as much afloat here as you are on the subject of the Sabbath and commandments. That portion who abandoned the idea of the days being ended, of which you boast, are of those that organized and entered the state of the Laodocean church, ”neither hot nor cold;” neither in one position nor yet in another; ”always learning and never coming to the knowledge of (the present) truth.” The ending of the 2300 days was the great burden of the advent teaching in '43 and '44; ”then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” You will have it that this cannot be before the coming of the Lord, and you see he may come at any time; yes, now, by the first of January, as your Bible Advocate states. You have now heard something of the character of this J. Weston. He would have us believe that he was so full of the spirit of the Lord, that G.o.d had revealed to him that Jesus would come the 24th of December, or by the 1st of January. All good-we will publish it! What about the 2300 days, Br. W.? Oh, no matter, Jesus is coming now. H. H. Gross has refuted this time, but look at _him_ last spring; the 1335 days must end the 18th day of April, and the resurrection, or they would not end under forty-five years. Well, he confessed that he was wrong in ever believing that they had ended in '44.

Come, then, where will they end here? Oh, somewhere a little while before the 1335 days end in the spring of 1847. Well, time has pa.s.sed on; out he comes again and says the Lord will come in the spring of 1848. Where will the 2300 and 1335 days end, friend Gross? Can't say-that is, he don't say-neither does J. Weston, and he does not correct him for this; it is only because the advent cannot be until spring. And here I will ask an opinion-that there is not a man in the whole advent ranks-(it seems to me that I will not even except you)-that can show that the Lord will come this winter or next spring. H. H. Gross is just as much mistaken in his calculation this coming spring, as he was the last. Now you may go on and call us what it seems to you good, we are confident that you have not got the present truth, neither have you had it since you have followed any thing but ”_the word of G.o.d and sound reason_.” And this is the main reason why you cannot answer brother Fuller's important questions on THE OPEN BOOK OF REV. x: 2. It requires some one that has followed the truth, the present truth, nearer than you have, to reply to such questions, and _they_ as surely involve the days as a cry at midnight brought us to the end of them. Do you not see how you are first blowing hot and then blowing cold? Six weeks ago, you said you knew enough of the effect of that theory that the _days_ are ended. You say ”all will see by reading the article, what are Br. F.'s views.” That is, he is one that we have no fellows.h.i.+p for. But, you say, we hope that he and many others may be benefitted by a careful and prayerful investigation of some of the many questions he has asked. &c. &c. Now this is the right and only way to investigate. But if some one undertakes to follow your advice by the scripture, it would not amount to much, for we should expect to see you right out against them, for those that have rejected plain scripture, connected with experience, as you have, and ridiculed those who had faith in it, have but little hope now, since you have become an editor. We deeply lamented that you should have taken such a course; but we have seen since, that it required something more than common moral courage, for a shepherd to remain with the tried and tempted flock, when he sees that _all_ his fellow shepherds were deserting them. The warnings you have had, have no doubt brought many solemn convictions to yours and their minds, or else we should not find you in this lukewarm state. Yes, you have been faithfully warned by your old, firm friends, not to come out with your Advocate; you have heard their voice, that two were enough to give the light on the doctrine of the advent, and they had hard work to get along. But no, your paper was going to take different ground, in some things! In one respect, it has shown pretty clearly, as the scriptures fully demonstrate, that ”the dead know not any thing;” and allow me here to tell you, if you go on with your no-law-of-G.o.d and no-commandment system, and continue to reject the clear fulfillment of prophecy, in our past experience, you will as clearly prove that you know but a very _little_ more. But after all you have said and done, you are following hard on in the track-the same old deep-cut rut, made by your predecessors. Pharaoh's host like, the ruts so deep you can neither back nor turn out; but on you drive after them, thinking, no doubt, that you are going to accomplish something for G.o.d and his cause.

The only way that I can see for you to do that, will be, either to abandon your load, or s.h.i.+ft the tongue of your chariot on the opposite end, drive back with all speed, and get into the highway of the Waymarks and high heaps, that you so wilfully abandoned more than three years ago.

The Saviour's admonition to the Philadelphia state of the church, which was forming in '43 and '44, was to hold fast that which we had-and he would ”write upon us his new name.” This is what we are endeavoring to do; and when we see you doing the opposite, we know you are wrong. You quote Paul to the Hebrews, viii: 10, ”Saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts.” Whose hearts? Answer-the house of Israel; of course, all of G.o.d's people. What is this done for?

Answer-that he may be our G.o.d and we may know him and be his people. Can you tell your no-law no-commandment readers which law of G.o.d Paul meant?

Whether it was the one you say he abolished in Col., Gal., Cor. and Romans, or was it another code of laws which he had made for our purpose, and then hid them from us. If you know in what book, or chapter, or verse they are in the bible, I beseech you to let us know immediately, for I see by John's visions in the Rev. that in the last days there certainly will be a company keeping them, and the Devil will persecute them for it; but they will eventually be saved, and enter the city. Rev. xii: 17; xiv: 12; xxii: 14. And finally, if you cannot find any others than those which G.o.d gave by his own mouth and wrote with his own finger on Mount Sinai, more than 3300 years since, the same which Jesus confirmed to us more than 1800 years ago with his Gospel, won't you make that known by publicly confessing that it is impossible for you to tell what other object G.o.d had in view than our keeping these same laws; and that you had, contrary to the direct teachings of G.o.d, derided both his law and his willing, obedient children. Don't tell us that this law is the ”_law_ of _Christ_ or the _law_ of _grace_,” or any other name unless you can show us how many commandments they contain, because James has told us ”if we fail in one we are guilty of the whole.” Jesus never gave but one commandment.

P. S. As I predicted on your second page, J. Turner's piece has come. The _child_ is fairly born, and you have fallen in love with it. Now brethren, just haul down all your other colors, J. Turner has got the very thing!

The first day of the week is the seventh-day Sabbath! We have always been right, but we never knew it till now! Thanks to J. Turner for confounding the whole world, and now no more about this much vexed question! ”We shall fill our paper mostly with other matter for the future.” The wind has favored us and we have made a first rate tack to windward, and now we can breathe much freer seeing our enemies are under our lee. Hear what he says? ”We supposed and still do suppose that Barnabas had reference to a cla.s.s well known to the adventists in Connecticut and Ma.s.sachusetts, who went into the shut door, and staid in, and almost every other door but the true one into the sheepfold, and _many_ of which became great sticklers for the seventh day.” &c. Now he goes on and speaks in high praise of those who have been writing for the Sabbath-_they_ are consistent Christians, &c. And now, says he, ”we must all be _exceedingly_ careful how we _write_ and _speak_; the enemy seeks to devour us, and one of his most artful wiles is to divide the saints by _dark insinuations_, _evil speaking_, and _jealousies_,” &c.-See Bible Advocate, Dec. 30th, p. 160.

Why this caution after the above unsparing epithets; are you afraid that some of these misguided, mistaken people will get into your open door? If they should happen to, and confess that they were wrong in believing in the shut door, no matter how many others they had been guilty of entering into what you call almost every door, they would immediately become consistent Christians! Out of hundreds who have crawled into your open door and made such confessions, causing the hypocrites and unbelievers to rejoice, and the hearts of the righteous to be sad, &c., I will just name a few: J. and C. Pearsons, F. G. Brown, of wonderful memory; and now a few Sabbath keepers: W. M. Ingham, John Howell, of vascillating memory, and J.

Turner, your fellow laborer. Well, you are not so far to windward as you think for; here comes another head flaw, that will drive you down on that lee sh.o.r.e again, where you may see the awful havoc you have made of those who are following in your wake. See them das.h.i.+ng there upon the rocks and into those overwhelming breakers! Your whirlwind of doctrine has utterly dismantled them, and their cry for help is unavailing! and unless you put forth some more strenuous efforts to avoid these dangerous seas, you will never get off from this lee sh.o.r.e, while under these deceitful and flattering winds of doctrine.

Again he says-”We take the liberty to add, that Br. T.'s article is IRREFUTABLE, and that we are now observing the Sabbath of the Lord our G.o.d, and not the Jewish, nor a Pagan Sabbath.” Where is he now? Does he mean that J. T.'s Sabbath is ”the Sabbath of the Lord our G.o.d?” He has always insisted, in his former articles, that ”the Sabbath of the Lord our G.o.d,” _was_ the Jewish Sabbath. There is but one named in the bible. If this what he calls ”the plain word of the Lord,” I doubt whether any one will understand him.

He says further-”If Friday was the sixth day-every transaction on the day of our Lord's crucifixion is involved in utter confusion-and the law of types in a like failure, and makes it an impossibility for the Sabbath of the Lord our G.o.d to be kept the next day, for this [_wise_] reason, that it was a feast day”! and quotes John xix: 31, again and again, for positive proof. I wonder if he can tell how, and when, and where the Jews lost that day, since the crucifixion, and where is the history to show that they did really pa.s.s over the seventh-day Sabbath and keep the first day for the Sabbath? I have already answered this in J. Turner's article; there you will see the reason why John called this ”an high day.” Now, as he has spoken of the law of types, I ask where is the chapter and verse in the bible in which the Jews were ever forbidden to hold a feast, when it fell on the seventh-day Sabbath? for, as I before stated, this always did occur every year. Besides this Jewish feast was an holy convocation; no servile work was to be done on this day. This was always continued seven days, and the last day was like the first. Lev. xxiii: 6-8. Now then, all that they did on these feast Sabbaths, was to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d by their offerings. You see that on G.o.d's holy seventh-day Sabbath, [see J. T.'s article,] they always offered four lambs; therefore, whenever the other Sabbaths, or holy convocations fell on the seventh day, they were equally observed, as is positively proved by the direction of G.o.d in the 37th and 38th verses of this same chapter, ”every thing upon his day besides the Sabbaths of the Lord,” &c. Now see-here are seven holy convocations, Sabbath feasts named in this chapter, which the Jews were required to keep besides the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, and when their feasts fell on the holy Sabbath of the Lord, all the extra labor was in offering to G.o.d the extra bullocks, lambs &c. Do let me entreat you, before you further expose yourself, to read in connection with this, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapter of Numbers, for here you will find every identical thing specified: therefore, when one of these seven holy convocation days of every year came on the weekly Sabbath, it was of more importance, inasmuch that they had more offerings to make to G.o.d, and hence John or any one else, might call it ”an high day;” but none the less holy, any more than for us, instead of a.s.sembling together on the Sabbath, in our several places for wors.h.i.+p, to have a general conference meeting in Boston, to continue over the Sabbath.

But J. Turner, instead of overthrowing history, as he promised he should, is exulting, and says, ”unless I utterly misapprehend the technical veracity of Christ and his apostles, _I have the argument_ by their concurrent testimony.” In his Note 3, he says, ”But if the day that followed the crucifixion was the seventh-day Sabbath, it could not be said that the Sabbath drew on, for it was even then _began_. It commenced at evening, at the same time the pascal lamb was slain in the law, at which time according to the record, Jesus expired.”

Now, I say, this is not true, and he or the editor who published it, knows it to be so. I presume that both of them have stated in their preaching, again and again, that Jesus expired on the cross at the ninth hour, as the Evangelists testify, which was at three o'clock in the afternoon, and three hours before the Sabbath commenced. If he can a.s.sert such positive falsehoods as these, and others which I have stated, to prove what never has, nor never will take place, and at the same time have mult.i.tudes crying ”amen!” ”that's true!” &c., it is no wonder he can ”set _as calm as heaven_!”

But I have one other proof to offer, which will destroy their whole foundation. I had overlooked it in the mult.i.tude of texts that had come up here, but G.o.d in answer to our prayers, both in our closet and at meetings, for wisdom to guide us in giving the _present truth_ to the little flock in this work, at this important crisis, has so directed that I may have it in time to put into this Postscript, just as it is going to press. [I could not see before why it was that the printer could not get his promised help, in order to proceed faster with this work. I see it now-it is all in G.o.d's own wise way. He was not willing, (as it now appears to me,) that my work should come out to check or disturb you, until you began to settle somewhere on this subject.] The proof then, I transcribe from a letter received from Br. JAMES WHITE, dated Topsham, Me.

January 2d, 1848. Here it is:

”The plain, simple truth in regard to the holy Sabbath flows out from the blessed bible in one clear, strait channel; while erroneous views are fated to run crooked and devour themselves. I think that those who are not fully settled as to what day of the week is the seventh or Sabbath, would do well to refer to the type, in Lev. xxii: 5-21. Here are three types which were fulfilled at the time of the first advent. Every adventist in the land once believed that these types were exactly fulfilled as to time. The paschal lamb was slain on the 14th day of the first month. So was Jesus crucified on the 14th day of the first month.

The handful of the first fruits of the harvest was waved before the Lord on the 16th of the first month; so was Jesus the first fruits of the resurrection, raised from the tomb the 16th of the first month. [See 1st Cor. xv: 20.] Now if the resurrection day, which was the first day of the week, was the 16th of the first month, then it follows that the 14th of the first month when Jesus was crucified, which was Friday, was the sixth day of the week; Sat.u.r.day, the seventh day or Sabbath, and Sunday, the first day of the week.

”St. Paul preached that Christ would rise the third day, according to the scriptures. He certainly could refer to no other scripture but the type. Our Lord, while preaching the resurrection to the two, on their way to Emmeas, began at Moses. So we are not on forbidden ground when we go there also, to prove that he arose on the third day.-See Luke xxiv: 27, 44-46. Jesus came not to break, but to fulfill every jot and t.i.ttle of the law-therefore he arose Sunday, the 16th day of the first month, which harmonizes with the joint testimony of the Apostles and Christ himself, that he arose on the third day.”

Other brethren, (in reference to J. Turner's article,) from Canandaigua, N. Y. and Dorchester, Ma.s.s. have also, about this same time, referred us to this strong hold, for which we thank them and praise the Lord for this light, that forever settles the question. A most striking proof of the _unity_ of the saints in their patience, (Rev. xiv: 12,) no matter where located, though hundreds and thousands of miles apart, they are one on this question. This is as we now understand the Sabbath of the Lord our G.o.d, to be the rallying point of all those who are truly looking for the speedy coming of Jesus. Whosoever, therefore, shall attempt to destroy or _displace_ G.o.d's holy Sabbath, will have to pa.s.s the examination of the host. Paul to the Corinthians, 5th chapter and seventh verse, says, ”For even Christ our pa.s.sover is sacrificed for us.” How? Answer-expired on Friday, the 14th day of the first month, at 3 o'clock, P. M., in exact fulfillment of the type by Moses, in Exo. xii: 6, 11-14, continued for 1670 years. He rested from _all_ his works only one twenty-four hour day, and that was G.o.d's holy day. Paul tells the Romans that ”he was raised again for our justification.” iv: 25; and the Corinthians ”that he is risen and become the first fruits of them that slept.” 1st Cor. xv: 20; and Col. i: 18, ”first born from the dead.” Again, ”should be the _first_ that should rise from the dead.” Acts xxvi: 23. John says, ”The first begotten of the dead.” He arose on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, before sunrise-say about 5 A. M.-having been dead about thirty-eight hours. Thus he fulfilled the type in Lev. xxiii: 10-11 verses-the first fruits of the harvest, the handful of barley, called the wafe sheaf, which was waved by the priest, with the offering of a lamb, [emblem of Christ,]

as first fruits of the resurrection, on the morrow after the Sabbath-the 16th of the first month-the Sabbath, or feast day, always being on the 15th of the same month. Then, from the 14th, at 3 P. M. to the 16th, at about 6 P. M. is but thirty-eight hours, _two_ whole nights, (not three,) one whole day, a part of Friday and a part of Sunday. ”Thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the _third day_.” This is his own testimony a few hours after his resurrection; also a few hours after the offering of the wafe sheaf. If this can be overthrown then can also the time of his crucifixion. The chaotic confusion that you would make about this great feast day which always followed the pa.s.sover, is answered here. It so happened in the order of time to come on G.o.d's holy Sabbath; and that G.o.d so ordered it that Christ should rest from all his works on his holy day, was without doubt, to fulfill some glorious event yet to come.

Now, friend Timothy, if you will not reverence G.o.d's holy Sabbath and commandments according to the clear precept, do you let them alone, if you do not want a worse thing to befal you, for just so sure as you fight against them they will destroy you. This beating the air, is some like daubing with untempered mortar; you cannot make any of it stay put. If I were in your place, I should a great deal rather have been fast asleep than to be caught in such heaven-daring business-fighting against G.o.d!

This looks like ”_following anything but _'the word of G.o.d and sound reason.'”

During '43 and '44, Dowling, Stewart, Colver, Chase, Bush and others, took their stand against William Miller and his brethren, to demolish Daniel's vision of the 2300 days. You remember that no two of these agreed, but each started upon a theory of his own; but G.o.d's children were united and on the one point, and therefore triumphed over them all. Now you leading men are acting the drama over again, with regard to the Sabbath and commandments of G.o.d. See how it looks; William Miller believes the first day is the Sabbath; J. V. Himes believes in selecting any day, just as you are persuaded, but still _calls the first the Sabbath_; Joseph Marsh is not particular, don't believe there is either law, Sabbath or commandments-says we are under the law of grace; but still he will have it, that Sunday is the Sabbath! you say the first day is the seventh of the Lord our G.o.d, but it is not the Jewish Sabbath,-that is; the one which is in the decalogue. It is something new-I don't understand you; don't think you can make your brethren understand it, either. J. Turner says the first day is the true seventh-day Sabbath! D. B. Wait says the commandments are right, but the first day is the true seventh-day.

Barnabas says ”the Jews were right in killing our Lord for a notorious Sabbath breaker, if he did not abolish all the law when he commenced his ministry,” three years before he abolished Moses' law. Up starts another mighty man, G. Needham, and says G.o.d told him that the commandments were all abolished in 2d Corinthians, chapter 3d. And a great portion of your flattering readers are flying like Mother Cary's Chickens(2) to get into your WAKE to pick up the crumbs! Don't smile, gentle reader, the picture is not overdrawn. These are some of the princ.i.p.al leaders in the second advent; they will tell you to your face that they have renounced all sectarian creeds and formulas, and believe every word of G.o.d. Now the ”_great sticklers for the seventh day_,” are all united on the Sabbath and commandments; they believe G.o.d, if they keep his Sabbath, that they shall be sanctified and ride upon the high places of the earth.-Ezekiel and Isaiah. They believe Jesus, that the law and the prophets hang upon the commandments, and that the keeping of them will give eternal life and great esteem in the reign of heaven. This carries them beyond the Jewish, Gospel, and all other dispensations. See also Rev. xxii: 14. They believe the holy Apostles, Paul, John and James-that ”the law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good.” ”Here are they [Jan. 1848] that keep the commandments of G.o.d and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. xiv: 12. ”If we keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all.” They feel perfectly secure in following such leaders, and they understand that though you be ever so moral in regard to the nine commandments, you fail in the fourth, the Sabbath. They believe this to be the ”plain word of the Lord,” and on this Sabbath question they will all be united, waiting for Jesus. And just so sure as the first cla.s.s of expositors were overthrown by rejecting the sure word, just so sure you will be overwhelmed in utter confusion that oppose G.o.d's holy Sabbath and commandments, and your case is now hanging in awful suspense. O Lord, let the clear light s.h.i.+ne.

A word more-as your wonderful prototype has also threatened to unsettle the world with respect to the history of the seventh-day Sabbath. If he proceeds with it as he has with the unerring word of G.o.d, our minds will have to be remodelled, to believe with him. If any of the little flock feel desirous of spending an hour in looking into this subject, I would recommend them to send to the New York Sabbath Tract Society, and purchase Sabbath tract No. 4, vol. 1, 48 pages. This will save the labor of poring over Roman and English history, or of following the sophistical arguments of the blind leading the blind. Much reliance is placed upon the history of the ”early fathers,” so called, who succeeded the Apostles, to settle the question. We ought to remember that these were uninspired men, and we do not know even so much about their characters, as we do of the uninspired fathers of the last century, whose teaching led us all into Babylon. If the true history of the advent doctrine from 1842 to the autumn of 1844, had, with the subsequent events in our history up to 1848, been published 1800 years ago from the Advent Heralds, and their conductors had been called the fathers-it would have puzzled all the wise heads in Christendom, in this age, to have expounded their meaning; for we see it requires all the energies of the human mind to trace their crooked tracks, even when right before us. For this reason, I have said but little about history; my whole and entire reliance being upon the inspired word of the living G.o.d. This, we are told, will make us ”_perfect_ and _entire_-_wanting nothing_.”-2d Tim. iii: 17.

If what I have and may here present in this work will not stand the test of what we have seen and felt ourselves-fulfilling the clear word of G.o.d in these last days, then I shall fail in my object of comforting and strengthening the flock of G.o.d. I fully believe in history, when all deductions are fully allowed.

PAST AND PRESENT EXPERIENCE.

TO WILLIAM MILLER,