Separation from the Church
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attributes of the mind,—abject fear. The love of Jesus attracts; it will
subdue the hardest heart.”
It was some months after this conversation before I heard anything
further concerning this doctrine; but during this time my mind had
been much exercised upon the subject. When I heard it preached, I
believed it to be the truth. From the time that light in regard to the sleep
of the dead dawned upon my mind, the mystery that had enshrouded
the resurrection vanished, and the great event itself assumed a new and
sublime importance. My mind had often been disturbed by its efforts
to reconcile the immediate reward or punishment of the dead with the
undoubted fact of a future resurrection and judgment. If at death the
soul entered upon eternal happiness or misery, where was the need of
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a resurrection of the poor moldering body?
But this new and beautiful faith taught me the reason why inspired
writers had dwelt so much upon the resurrection of the body; it was
because the entire being was slumbering in the grave. I could now
clearly perceive the fallacy of our former position on this question.
The Pastor’s Visit
Our family were all deeply interested in the doctrine of the Lord’s
soon coming. My father had stood as one of the pillars of the Methodist
church. He had acted as exhorter, and as leader of meetings held in
homes at a distance from the city. However, the Methodist minister
made us a special visit, and took the occasion to inform us that our
faith and Methodism could not agree. He did not inquire our reasons
for believing as we did, nor make any reference to the Bible in order
to convince us of our error; but he stated that we had adopted a new
and strange belief that the Methodist church could not accept.
My father replied that he must be mistaken in calling this a new and
strange doctrine; that Christ Himself, in His teachings to His disciples,
had preached His second advent. He had said: “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.”
John 14:2, 3
. When He was taken up to heaven, as
His faithful followers stood gazing after their vanishing Lord, “behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of