MAY 20, Elder S. B. Horton, a Seventh-day Adventist minister, at present located at Church Hill, Md., where he has been laboring for some months, and where a small church of that faith has been raised up, received the following notice, which we give verbatim et literatim:—
Church Hill, Md.
We the undersigned company of citizens of Co. Q. A. [meaning Queen Anne County] do hereby notifie you Mr. Horton wife and the young man that you have there as a spye to move out by the 21st of June 1894 (that is tomorrow) with your goods and chattels and not to return for we have put up with you as long we intend. As you are causing our heretofore law abideing citizens to be brought before the Justice of the peace for violation, to serve a term in Jail or the house of correction, whereas their families will have to suffer the wants of support. All due respect to you as man but none of your doctrine. We are a determined set. CITIZENS OF VACINITY.
(Cross-bones and bloodstains.
Writing to a brother minister concerning this notice, Elder Horton says:—
I have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have treated all men with consideration, and have been recognized as a citizen, having been called upon to pay town taxes, and have not interfered with the civil or religious rights of men. They charge me with stirring up the people and teaching them anarchy, when, as a matter of fact, I have endeavored only to hold forth the word of life which is the Holy Scriptures. For this they are seeking my destruction.
Some of our church company have been arrested for working on Sunday ostensibly, but in reality because they are keeping the Sabbath of Almighty God. It is well known that others work on Sunday without protest. But “Satan has come down with great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time,” and the poor misguided opponents of the truth are being deluded into fighting against God and his people. I well know that the words of the Saviour, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you,” are just as true to-day as when spoken in person by the Lord. And I well know that our Master was accused of perverting the nation, stirring up and teaching the people contrary to the established religion. But the Lord has said, “Remember the word that I said unto you. The servant is not greater than his lord, If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you…. But all these things will they do for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me…. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” And so the Lord’s will be done, “for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is [212] able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
At this writing, Elder Horton is still at Church Hill, and will doubtless remain there until it is thought best by the officers of the Atlantic Conference, under whose directions he is laboring, to go elsewhere. True, the people of Church Hill may do him violence. Such things have happened even in the nineteenth century, and in “free America,” but they can go only as far as God permits; and in this case as in all others, he will make the wrath of men to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. Elder Horton’s confidence is not misplaced. The ill temper of the people of Church Hill, or we should say of a portion of the people of Church Hill, will only fall out to the furtherance of the gospel; others will have a curiosity to know what all the stir is about, and when they discover that Elder Horton teaches only Bible doctrine, being able to give a “Thus saith the Lord” for every position taken, and doctrine inculcated, some of them will be honest enough to obey the truth notwithstanding the wrath of men and devils.
There is nothing meaner than the spirit of persecution. These Church Hill people profess great indignation because Adventists do not obey the civil law in the matter of keeping Sunday, and then they unlawfully warn a man out of town and threaten him with violence if he refuses to go! What regard they must have for the law of the State, to be sure! [212]