ANALECTA EPISTOLARIA.
ELPIS ISRAEL APPRECIATED.
Dear Brother:
I want you to send me another copy of Elpis Israel as I have parted with the one I had to a mutual friend. Do not unnecessarily delay sending it, as I feel quite at a loss without it. I prize it far more than gold or silver. I want to take the Herald of the Kingdom as long as I live and can raise two dollars to pay for it. I am a poor man, but if I had the funds your writings should never be suspended for want of means. Though you have many difficulties to contend with, I hope the truth in your hands will gain the day, and bring all its enemies and yours to naught. It is mighty and will prevail sooner or later; therefore you need not fear. I am single-handed here, but I hope I shall not stand so much longer; for Elpis Israel is gone out, and is able to confound, confute, and convert many. It will go into the hands of some of the learned, as they are esteemed. But I think after they have read that valuable book, if they would act according to honest conviction, they would give up their vain theories, or perversions which they preach for gospel.
I remain yours truly in Israel’s Hope,
J. D. DRAKE.
Sturgeonville, Virginia, September 1, 1852.
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ELPIS ISRAEL AMONG THE DOCTORS.
Dear Brother:
My copy of Elpis Israel has been circulating nearly all the time since I received it several months ago. Not a few of the clergy here have had the perusal of it. It is not to be expected that Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist, preachers could read it, and have no objections to its contents. ‘It is a smart work,’ say they; or, ‘on the whole an interesting book; but the Sabbath,’ or ‘the Devil,’ or some other minor objection is suggested; all agree, however, that it is ‘a most interesting work;’ and several of them have got Dr. D—, of the First Presbyterian church, to send to Baltimore for one after reading mine. This gentleman has left this country for a year on a visit to Europe and the Holy Land. He is a whole-souled Millenarian, and correct as far as a Presbyterian can be. I have frequent intercourse with him. He was much delighted with your letter to Kossuth. He sent for me to come and see him; and gave me a manuscript copy of a letter he addressed to the great Magyar about the same time. He was astonished at the similarity of sentiment. We have had a Baptist preacher here for the last year or more, who has read my Elpis Israel twice. He has, for the time I mention, boldly and eloquently advocated the appearing of the Lord, and various other matters very much as Elpis Israel exhibits them. I supplied him with the Herald as I read it. He has gone to Hamilton, C. W. Go on brother Thomas. Care nothing about Mr. Campbell’s spitefulness. He can’t write so excellent a book. The spirit of blind party zeal unfits him for the enterprise. Notwithstanding the injustice of himself and friends, who condemn without reading, which is disgraceful, Elpis Israel is, and will be, a blessing to the world. A bitter party spirit is the spirit of Campbellism. As in Bethany, so it is in Detroit. The Campbellite disciple is like his master. Would that they knew the truth, and what a glorious thing it is to the impracticable and selfish schemes which distract and divert their attention from the word!
The last number of the Herald is most interesting, both as regards the Devil and Spirits. I feel anxious to see the next. Your views of Satan and the Devil, I think, are correct. Your articles on ‘Odology’ are splendid. They kill Spirit-Rappings completely; and explain many passages of scripture not easily understood. So say several that have read my Herald. The view of the book of life is grand. A gentleman who read the article on returning the paper said, ‘I never read anything that pleased me more; it is first rate.’ I hope you will elaborate the subject still more, as bearing on Spirit-Rappings, Swedenborgianism, &c, &c. Your exposition is the best, or rather, it is the antidote to these old delusions newly revived.
That your valuable life may be long spared to advocate the whole truth, and to correct public sentiment wherever it tends to make it of none effect; and that the truth’s friends may do themselves the honour, and gladly avail themselves of the privilege of keeping the pen in your hand, by according to you the ‘material aid’ necessary to carry on the great and important work in which you are engaged—is the earnest prayer of your brother in the hope of the Kingdom.
J. DONALDSON.
Detroit, Michigan, August 22, 1852.
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ELPIS ISRAEL LUCIFEROUS.
Dear Sir:
Last April I left England on a visit to this country, where I have found Elpis Israel. I have began to study it, and am fully convinced of that which I have studied.
I may be called home any day, so I write to ask if you will give me the address of some believer residing in Liverpool, of whom I may enquire concerning things I may not understand; because when I return, I shall have none to teach me, but all will be against me.
Previous to coming out here, I was a member of the Church of England; but thanks be to God that light has come in upon me, even the light of life.
Thinking you may desire to know something of my character before introducing me to any one I subjoin the copy of a letter I bear from my former pastor.
He writes—“I have much pleasure in certifying for the satisfaction of all whom it may concern, and especially any of the clergy in foreign parts, that Mr. James Whitehead, of this place, who is leaving England for America, is a young man of most exemplary character, a regular attendant and communicant at the parish church, and well reported of by his late employers, the Messrs. Akroyd & Son, the largest manufacturers in this large and populous parish—and that he carries with him the good opinion and best wishes of all with whom he has to do.
Signed. “Charles Musgrave, D. D.
“Vicar of Halifax and Archdeacon of Craven.”
Halifax Vicarage, April 5, 1852.
A reply as soon as convenient will much oblige, as I may have to return to England in a few days.
I remain, yours truly,
JAMES WHITEHEAD.
Geneva, Illinois, August 16, 1852.
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ELPIS ISRAEL AMONG THE DIGGINGS.
Dear Sir:
I have Elpis Israel with me here in the mountains of California. I have read it, and claim to be one of its greatest and most devoted admirers. A person’s realisation of my attachment to the work, would be to him a sure commendation in its author’s behalf, with the expressed wish that all, or many at least, might be no less favoured than with the benefit it helps to bring in their way. Others may delight in what seems to them, ‘good light reading,’ but let me indulge in the substantial. This being only a slip I have not room for detail. What I have suggested is sufficient, I trust, to assure you of my hearty cooperation in the promulgation of that only good so much needed among mankind. I hope my friend and agent will send you full means to cover the expense of the volumes of the Herald for the past and future, &c., as also sufficient to prepay postage for some time to come, as I cannot leave California yet.
In conclusion allow me to say, that from the first of my acquaintance with your teachings, I was captivated with their coincidence with ‘the word,’ and especially with the subject of ‘the Future Age.’ This is to me of all absorbing interest; and engages my attention more than all other subjects whatever. You will hear from me again. In hope of the restitution of all things, spoken of by the prophets since Moses, I remain yours,
ALBERT H. OTIS.
Centreville, Grass Valley, California.
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THE SIMPLE MADE WISE IN THE WORD BY ELPIS ISRAEL.
Dear Brother:
I feel it my duty to return to you my thanks for the much trouble and pains you took in answering my inquiries concerning ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ in our February Herald. The pamphlet you sent me intitled ‘The Wisdom of the Clergy proved to be Folly,’ answered my purpose. I discovered as soon as I read it, that I had understood the gospel, and had been contending for it with the preachers here for twelve or eighteen months. I am happy to inform you, that I have not only understood and believed it, but I have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has been delivered to me; and am now rejoicing in the hope, that when the Lord Jesus appears in power and great glory to re-establish Israel’s kingdom, and ascend the throne of his father David, and in Mount Zion and Jerusalem to reign before his ancients gloriously—he will raise me from the dead, (for I have no expectation of living to witness his descent, as I am old and very infirm) give me a body incorruptible and immortal, ‘equal to the angels,’ and honour me with a share in the kingdom, that I may live and reign with him a thousand years over the nations of the earth.
You intimate the probability of the Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come being discontinued unless those who believe it advocates the truth sustain it better than they did last year. This will never do. We can’t begin to think of its discontinuance so long as it sheds such a flood of light on the divine testimony of the Prophets and Apostles. I am not able to do as much as brother Lemon; but I will give ten dollars.
As for Elpis Israel, I do not know what estimate to place upon it. It is valuable indeed; for since I have understood the gospel, and read Elpis Israel, the Bible is like another book; the prophecies of the old, and parables of the new, scriptures that were formerly mysterious and unintelligible, are now plain to me.
Old friend-----is getting along in the faith of the kingdom. I think he will get straight after a while. I applied to him to immerse me. He sent out, and convened his brethren, and spoke beautifully on the Restoration of the Kingdom to Israel, and the subjugation of the nations to their king. He supposed some persons might blame him for immersing me as I had been immersed before; but he could not refuse to immerse a man, who had added more to his faith than he.
Wishing you health and length of days, I subscribe myself, in the hope of the speedy appearance of the King,
Your Brother,
NATHANIEL ANTHONY.
Fayette County, Tennessee, August 5, 1852.
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TESTIMONY AGAINST METHODISM.
BY ONE WHO WAS A METHODIST.
Dear Sir:
I take the liberty of writing these few lines as an humble acknowledgment for the scriptural light and knowledge I have derived through you, both by your lectures in Birmingham, and by carefully perusing your talented writings. Truly I have found them what you designed they should be, ‘Books to open the understanding that the scriptures may be understood;’ for before I heard you lecture and read your work, I was as profoundly ignorant of ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom’ as any infant suckling the Bishop of Exeter ever sprinkled for its baptismal regeneration. And yet, sir, enshrouded in theological darkness as I was, I laboured under the impression that I was basking in the bright sunshine of gospel light; because I was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, conforming to all their rules and usages in attending regularly to the preaching of their gospel, going regularly to class meeting, paying my penny per week and shilling per quarter, as well as to the numerous collections, &c., &c.; and besides I had undergone their process of conversion in having been dragged up to the penitent bench, and there, with the assistance of some of the pious brethren, I was persuaded into the spurious belief that God had, for Christ’s sake, pardoned all my sins; and consequently, ready at death for my soul to wing its way to mansions in the skies, as preached from their sacred desks, and sung with pious strains by a willingly ignorant congregation, in such words as the following from Wesley’s hymns:
“Beyond the bounds of time and space,
Remove me to that heavenly place;
The Saints’ secure abode.”
Under this belief, teaching, and training, I continued three and a half years, and perhaps should have still continued; for although I could perceive very great discrepancies between their teaching and the word of God, yet the ‘ministers’ were, as I then considered, men called of God, and wholly set apart for the expounding of his word. I generally concluded that they ought, and did know better than I; and as I was only a poor illiterate layman, I had no business to question their decisions; in fact, such thoughts as doubting their teaching, or authority, I was led to believe to be nothing but suggestions of the Devil, and consequently a dangerous sin.
At length, one day as I was perusing a newspaper, I saw that a certain Dr. Thomas had come from America to England for the special purpose of denouncing the curses of God upon all Catholic and Protestant Europe; but more especially on Ireland; that the judgments of God would fall thick and heavy upon all these nations, and would end in the Advent of Christ! So stated the Stamford Mercury. I had heard of Johanna Southcott, Joe Smith, and many other similar impostors, and accordingly I only considered Dr. Thomas the latest edition of the fraternity. But as there was something novel in the newspaper paragraph, and as I had never yet heard any of the said fraternity, I resolved that for once I would go and hear one, if you should ever visit Birmingham. A short time after I saw a placard announcing that you would deliver a course of lectures at the British School Room, Ann street; but by some means or other I was prevented from going to hear you at that time, but in June following you were again announced to deliver a course of lectures in the same room on the Great European Earthquake: accordingly I resolved to attend and hear what I considered would be the ravings of a fanatic; but when you made your appearance, and began, with your calm and forcible manner, to explain and show the things of the Kingdom from the word of God, in such a way as I had never before been shown, I confess that I became riveted, and felt overwhelmed with shame and confusion; for instead of hearing a wild fanatic as I had expected to do, I found a cool, calm, reasonable, and really a sensible, man, expecting us to believe nothing but what the scriptures testified of; and that, too, set before us with such force, eloquence, and reasonableness, that no man unspoiled with philosophy and vain deceit, could gainsay or resist. I soon perceived that instead of my having for three and a half years basked in the sunshine of gospel light, I had been overwhelmed in a fog of mysterious superstition and folly, groping in the mazes of error and delusion.
At length your Elpis Israel came out. I obtained a copy and read it carefully, comparing it with the scriptures to see if the teachings it contained ‘were so,’ and I soon found that instead of Wesleyan Methodism being a system of Christianity, it was only one of the various forms of superstition constituting the aggregate of the strong delusion through which we believe a lie. As soon as I became thoroughly convinced of this, I renounced all connection with Wesleyanism, and endeavoured to find out a people whose teachings and practices were more in accordance with the teachings of scripture. Such a people I expected to find meeting together in the room you lectured in; but alas! I only found there a people like myself, just emerging from the labyrinth of error. They had broken up their little society, and had just formed what they called a class for the investigation of the scriptures; this they did by commencing with reading a chapter, each one reading a verse in rotation, and when any difficulty presented itself some explanation was endeavoured to be given by any one that considered himself competent to give it. This, instead of bringing about an acquaintance with the things of the kingdom, and an unity of the faith, only led to the development of each one’s peculiar ideas, which ultimately ended in discord and disunion, and the breaking up of the class, through the lukewarmness and apathetic spirit displayed by those that took the most prominent part in its proceedings; and who ought to have been the very life and soul of it in keeping it together. Since its final break up, about half a dozen of us have met together on each Lord’s day, in my house, to break bread, &c., and for our mutual instruction and edification; and four of us have been immersed into Israel’s hope, for which Paul was in bonds; which with two that had been previously immersed, make up all that at present meet together in Birmingham.
Now, sir, the great stumbling-block to some of the friends is: they say we are not baptised into Israel’s hope, because the brother that immersed us was himself immersed before he believed in the restoration of the tribes of Israel, and that we ought to have sent somewhere for some one duly qualified to immerse us, i.e., some one that you yourself had immersed. Now, sir, would you please to state through the Herald, at some convenient time, whether you consider the legality of our immersion in any way affected by our brother officiating in immersing us into Israel’s hope? My opinion is, that it is the faith which we who are immersed possess that justifies, independent of the faith that the officiating brother may possess; otherwise I cannot at present see any way of our being legally baptised save through apostolic succession; for if my salvation rests on another man’s faith, (and as it is impossible for me to know the heart of any one but myself,) it must be by some one that is duly authorised and appointed by God; and as I cannot find that God has appointed any since the days of the apostles, then, as a matter of course, it must come through succession, and this is too much of a camel for me to get down at present.
Perhaps, sir, a few lines from your able pen may help us over the difficulty; in the meantime I shall do my best towards promulgating the truth, by endeavouring to obtain as many subscribers as possible for the Herald, as I believe it to be the only true exponent of the truth, and herewith I annex a list of subscribers for the present volume as an earnest of what may come.
Hoping to meet you in the kingdom of God, I remain yours in Israel’s Hope,
GEORGE HATFIELD.
23 Cherry Street, Birmingham, England.
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