In Defense of the Faith

Mr. Canright’s Confession

The strangest thing of all in connection with Mr. Canright’s case is the fact that he must have fully realized that in repudiating Adventism he was going from light into darkness, as is evidenced by a confession made by him after one of his disaffection experiences, when he, for a time, gave up preaching, but was still a member of the Adventist Church. This disaffection took place about 1882, and for some two years Mr. Canright worked on a farm. In 1894 he accepted an invitation to attend some general meeting’s to be held in Michigan by the Seventh-day Adventists, and while there he made a voluntary public confession, which was afterward published by him in the Review and Herald, the Seventh-day Adventist official church organ, in the issue bearing the date, October 7, 1884. In this confession he said in part: DOF 30.1

“Most of the readers of the Review know the part which I have acted in this cause for many years, both in preaching and in writing. They also know that for two years past I have dropped out of the work.” DOF 30.2

Then, after speaking of certain reproofs that were given him because of a wrong course he was taking in the conduct of his work, he added: DOF 30.3

“This I did not receive at all well, but felt hard toward Sister White, and soon quit the work entirely.... So I went to farming, resolved to live a devoted life, and to do all I could that way. But I soon found my doubts and fears increasing and my devotion decreasing, till at length I found myself largely swallowed up in my work, with little time, taste, or interest for religious work.... So it always is when a person lets go of one point of the truth, he begins to drift, he knows not whither. DOF 30.4

“A short time since I attended the Northern Michigan *camp meeting with Elder Butler. Here we had a long time for consultation, prayer, and careful examination of my difficulties. I began to see that at least some of my objections were not tenable, and that I myself was not right and in the light.... I saw that I had put a wrong meaning on some things, and that other things were certainly true. If these were true, then I had certainly been wrong all the way through.... Everything looked different. Then I felt how wrong,, sinful, and in the dark I had been. My sins came up before me as never before in all my life. Like Job 1 cried, ‘Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes ...... DOF 31.1

“Friday, September 26, while on the camp ground at Jackson, Michigan, I felt in my heart the most remarkable change that I ever experienced in all my life. It was a complete reversion of all my feelings. Light and faith came into my soul, and I felt that God had give me another heart. I never felt such a change before, not even when first connected.... I believe it was directly from heaven-the work the Spirit of God. I now believe the message as firmly and re understandingly than ever before.... Such nearness God, such earnest devotion, such solemn appeals to live a holy life, can only be prompted by the Spirit of God. Where at is, there I want to be. I am fully satisfied that my own salvation and my usefulness in saving others depends upon being connected with this people and this work, and here take my stand to risk all I am, or have, or hope for, in is life and the life to come, with this people and this work.” DOF 31.2

This remarkable statement was published by Mr. Canright only a little more than two years before he became grieved again at some of his associates, and finally dropped out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church altogether. He immediately began to advocate the doctrines which he had declared only two years before to be darkness. In the foregoing confession he graphically relates how the “Spirit of God” had led him out of the darkness of his fears and doubts and hard feelings, and had restored him to the light. He was led to feel “how wrong” sinful, and in the dark he had been. He had had a new conversion, and was convinced that his salvation depended upon his connection with this people and this work. Said he, “I believe it was directly from heaven-the work of the Spirit of God.” DOF 31.3

Let the reader remember that these words were not uttered and published by the “mere boy, uneducated, with no knowledge of the Bible, of history, or of other churches,” that Mr. Canright presents himself to have been when he first became a Seventh-day Adventist. But by a seasoned minister of some twenty-six years’ experience, and only about two years before he finally left the church and posed before the world as the great exposer of Seventh day Adventist errors! DOF 32.1