Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 8 (1893)

Ms 67, 1893

Diary Fragment — Dedication of the Ormondville Church

Napier, New Zealand

November [20?], 1893

Previously unpublished.

A sister died very suddenly. Elder Wilson officiated, and I made some remarks appropriate for the occasion. The friends were gratified that I consented to address those present for a short time, some of whom, they stated, would never have heard my voice had it not been for my speaking on that occasion. The Lord gave me much freedom to speak. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 1

Wednesday I visited a Sister Wilson. Her husband is not a believer. We had a very precious season. We did not see her husband until he came from his work. He is carrying on a large boot and shoe establishment. I addressed to him words of entreaty and warning and plainly set before him his obligations to God, to love to serve and obey Him; that the Lord wanted just such men in His service, to engage in His work. We then had a season of prayer and took the hack for Dr. Caro’s, where I make my home. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 2

Thursday it was raining, but we called on Brother and Sister Stephens and had [a] two hours and a half visit with them, and a praying season. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 3

Friday at eleven o’clock left Napier for Ormondville. Arrived at Ormondville ten minutes after two o’clock. Brother and Sister McCullagh were rejoiced to see us. Emily and I rode out with Brother McCullagh about three miles to call upon Sister Wilkinson. She keeps the Sabbath; also her daughter. Her husband has not accepted the truth. These women walk to meeting in the rain, and they have not many days that it does not rain. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 4

Sabbath I spoke to the people for the last time in the little hired house in which they had assembled for months. The house was crowded. I had great freedom in speaking to believers and unbelievers. The rain poured down all day. A covered carriage was sent from Norseville to take me to my appointment November 19. I spoke to an interested audience of Scandinavians. All can understand English. I presented to them the necessity of keeping the law of God, including His fourth commandment just as it reads. There was a very solemn impression left on the hearers. God grant that the labors shall not be in vain. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 5

We returned again to Ormondville, and I feared it would be too much for me to speak the second time and give the dedicatory discourse, but when the hour drew near, the blessing of God came upon me far exceeding my expectations. Before I entered the church I felt refreshed, renewed in body and in the spirit of my mind. As I stepped over the threshold my heart was filled with thanksgiving and rejoicing. The chapel was neat and beautified with natural flowers—roses, pinks, lilies and ferns—profusely arranged with much taste and skill. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 6

Close across the road was the little Catholic church. The worshipers in that church are a part of the great whole of a power that has thought to change times and laws and has aggregated to itself the power to change the Sabbath of the fourth commandment which the Lord had bidden the inhabitants of the world to keep throughout their generations forever and ever as an everlasting covenant that should never be disannulled. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 7

Here stands the little church as God’s witness, to keep before the minds of the people in Ormondville that God’s Sabbath is to be observed as the only true, genuine Sabbath, disputing the authority of the assumptions of the man of sin. The Lord gave me a message. I had selected a subject to speak upon, but another was opened to me, and I knew that this message I must bear. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 8

As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man shall be revealed. I stated we were Seventh-day Adventists. We kept the Sabbath because it was instituted in Eden when the foundations of the earth were laid. God had finished His work of creation. He rested on the seventh day and sanctified and blessed the day on which He had rested and set that day apart as a day of rest to be kept holy. “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” Exodus 20:9, 10. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 9

This day was to be ever observed in commemoration of creation, testifying through eternal ages that God was the only living, true God who created the heavens and the earth and rested on the seventh day. It was to be observed and to be “a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Exodus 31:13. The statement is made, “Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign.” Let us remember this is spoken by God to all created intelligences. Therefore we are Seventh-day Adventists. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 10

In the fourteenth chapter of John, the first three verses, Christ plainly sets before His disciples His second coming. He tells them: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.” [Verses 1-3.] 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 11

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:8, 11. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 12

You may now all understand we are Seventh-day Adventists and we are thus because we believe the words of God are verity and truth. Now no lie is of the truth. The Sunday theory claims Sunday to be the Christian Sabbath. Is it thus? No. It is a fable, instituted and supported by him who rebelled against the law of God in heaven. In order to make of none effect the whole moral law he has made of none effect the Sabbath, which defines who the living God is. There are but two classes in our world—the loyal and obedient to all God’s commandments and the disloyal and disobedient. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 13

David says, “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” Psalm 119:6. It is not the Seventh-day Adventists that should be ashamed of their faith, but all those who build their faith upon a falsehood, even the words of the first great rebel. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 14

Saith John in his first epistle, (chapter 2, verse 4): “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Oh let us search the Word of God critically, without prejudice, with contrite hearts and we shall know the truth! “Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby we know that we are in him. ... Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.” Vs. 5, 7. Then who is it that should be ashamed? Not those who walk in faith and love and obedience to all of God’s commandments. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 15

This meeting was a decided victory for the believers in the truth. Brother McCullagh has worked with persevering energy against the most determined opposition, but he has been imbued with the spirit of the Master that he would not fail nor be discouraged and he can now look back upon the labor God has used him as an instrument to do and can praise the name of the Lord. Several families have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. The mighty cleaver of truth has taken them, rough stones from the quarry of the world, and brought them into His workshop to hew them and square them and fit them for a place in His temple. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 16

We praise God for that which He has wrought. We can but admire the zeal and determined purpose with which all the newly organized church in Ormondville have taken hold of the work to build a house wherein they can assemble together to worship God. “Them that honor me,” saith God, “I will honor.” 1 Samuel 2:30. The blessing of God will rest upon all those who have rendered to Him willing service. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 17

Of Cornelius it was said, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” Acts 10:4. We may be assured that the earnest faith and the willing offerings and the hearty, zealous labor of this church have come up for a memorial before God, and His blessing will rest upon them if they walk humbly before Him, ever learning of Jesus, ever looking unto Him who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. We know that in many places churches will have to be erected, and when it is taken hold of with a determination and spirit of self-sacrifice the Lord will open the way. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 18

Be determined not to dedicate to the Lord a house cumbered with debt. This is a precious example given by our brethren and sisters in Ormondville. Let the same effort be made in other places, and as you will arise to build a house for the Lord He will surely work with your efforts. Some of those who are not in the faith have shown their sympathy and good will to our brethren in Ormondville in aiding them by their influence and means. May the Lord bless them and may they see the truth as it is in the Word of God, and obey it from the heart, is our most sincere prayer. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 19

Monday was pleasant. Rode ten miles to reach a stream of water where Brother McCullagh administered the ordinance of baptism to six in a beautiful, swift-running stream. We then returned and prepared to take the cars en route for Wellington, which we reached ten minutes of ten p.m. 8LtMs, Ms 67, 1893, par. 20