This issue features pioneer Uriah Smith, writer, editor, and author of the well known book: "Daniel and the Revelation".
Broken On the Rock
Uriah Smith -- Pioneer SDA Author and Editor
by Marlene Steinweg
Ellen White was greatly concerned because Uriah Smith opposed the message of righteousness by faith. But, when she prayed and labored for him, he fell on the Rock and was broken.
Apparent heart trouble caused Ellen White to return to Battle Creek at a time when Elder Uriah Smith could be impressed by the Holy Spirit. She arrived December 30, 1890, and could not sleep that night. Next morning she wrote a 12-page appeal to Elder Smith--Letter 40, 1890, 1888 Material, pp. 790-801. opening up to him the peril of his course.
She spoke Friday night, January 2, to a full house at the Tabernacle and again on Sabbath, January 3. "I spoke from Matthew 11:16-27. I made a decided application of this lesson to those who had great light, precious opportunities, and wonderful privileges, and yet their spiritual growth and advancement was not in accordance with the blessings of the light and knowledge given of God. There was a solemn impression made upon the congregation. ..."--Letter 32, 1891, published in Manuscript Releases, Volume 1, p. 5.
If anyone fit this description, it was Uriah Smith, whose influence since the 1888 General Conference in Minneapolis was against the message on righteousness by faith brought forward by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner.
January 5, Elder Smith and Ellen White had an earnest talk. He expressed his desire to come into harmony with the testimonies of the spirit of God. January 6, he requested her presence at a meeting of a select few. At this meeting he "read the letter ... to them all, and said he accepted it as from the Lord. He went back to the Minneapolis meeting and made a confession of the spirit he had occupied. ...
"Brother Smith has fallen on the Rock, and is broken, and the Lord Jesus will now work with him. He took my hand as he left the room, and said, 'If the Lord will forgive me for the sorrow and burdens I have brought upon you, I tell you this will be the last. ... The testimonies of God shall hold this place in my experience.'"--Letter 32, 1891, 2MR, p. 6.
On several following Sabbaths, January 10 and 17, Elder Smith made public confession of his error. Mrs. White wrote, "This work of confession going forward will clear the King's highway. ... Our confidence in him [Brother Smith] is restored."--Diary entry dated Battle Creek, Jan. 20, 1891, 3MR, p. 200.
Although Smith made a beginning, he and other leading brethren could never regain what they had lost.--See 1888 Materials, p. 1128. In his future work he did not fully place his influence on the side of the message of righteousness by faith. Ellen White told him, "If you had received the truth ... God would have given you a testimony clear, powerful and convincing."--Letter 24, 1892, 1888 Materials, p. 1052.
"The Laodicean message has been sounding. ... Justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ are the themes to be presented to a perishing world. O that you may open your heart to Jesus! ... My desire is that you shall triumph with the third angel's message."--Ibid. p. 1054.
Determined to Overcome
Annie Smith -- Pioneer Review Worker and Poetess
Adapted from an article by Arthur W. Spalding
Annie Smith, Uriah Smith's sister, was to make an ineffaceable impression upon our cause by her brief but vital service and by her hymns. This brief biography tells her triumphant but sad story.
Mrs. Rebekah Smith and her children believed the doctrine of William Miller in the 1844 movement; but after the Disappointment the children lost interest. However, in 1851, after hearing Joseph Bates speak, Rebekah began keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. She "continually strove to guide her children into a deep Christian experience."--Poems: With a Sketch of the Life and Experience of Annie R. Smith, p. 98, by Mrs. Rebekah Smith.
According to Elder Loughborough, Annie attended "a young lady's seminary in Charlestown, Massachusetts." Mrs. Smith indicates that Annie had finished her training at the Ladies' Female Seminary, preparing herself to teach French and oil painting.
She strained her eyes while sketching Boston and Charles-town from a hill three miles distant and almost completely lost her sight. Bitterly disappointed, she was resting and taking treatment. Because of her mother's prayers and invitations, Annie decided to go hear Elder Bates in 1851.
The night before the meeting, she dreamed she was late to the meeting. Upon entering, she took the only vacant seat, a chair by the door, and saw a tall, noble, pleasant-looking man pointing to a chart. The man was preaching, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." That night, Elder Bates dreamed the same dream from his point of view.
Annie started for the meeting early, but missed the way, so that she actually arrived late. Every point in her dream came to pass, and when Elder Bates saw her enter, his dream flashed into his mind. The coincidence brought them together in reciprocal states of mind, and, says her mother, "In about three weeks" Annie "committed herself upon the Sabbath and its attendant truths."
The next week she sent her poem, "Fear Not, Little Flock," to the Review and Herald. That was her first poem to appear in the Review, September 16, 1851. Her next poem, which is still popular as a hymn, was published four numbers later:
"Long upon the mountains weary Have the scattered flock been torn. Dark the desert paths, and dreary; Grievous trials have they borne."
James and Ellen White immediately invited Annie to connect with the paper being published at that time in Saratoga Springs, New York. Annie told them she couldn't because of her eyes. "Come anyway," they answered. Annie went. Upon her arrival, they prayed for her recovery, and immediately her eyes were healed and strengthened, so that she began her duties at once as assistant to the editor.
"With strong faith and fervent zeal, she entered heartily into the work. She rejoiced in the newfound truth," her mother wrote. "The whole current of her mind was changed, and nobler aspirations took possession of her heart." Annie wrote, "Oh, praise His name for what He has done for me! I feel a sweet foretaste of the glories of that better world--an earnest of that inheritance,--and I am determined by His grace to overcome every obstacle, endure the cross, despising the shame, so that an entrance may be administered ... into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."--Review and Herald, November 25, 1851, page 53.
Annie lived only three more years. She served during those earliest years of the publishing work. Her sweet, self-effacing, inspiring spirit has left its mark upon our work to this day. She contracted tuberculosis in Rochester, where the Review moved in 1852, and died at her home July 28, 1855. "How Far From Home?" and "The Blessed Hope" are just two of the eternal legacy of living hymns Annie R. Smith wrote which have continued to inspire believers through the years.--Arthur W. Spalding, adapted from Footprints of the Pioneers, Review & Herald Publishing Association, 1947, pp. 124-127.
The Visions of Mrs. E. G. White
A Manifestation of Spiritual Gifts According to Scriptures
One of the most important subjects treated upon in the New Testament, is the doctrine of Spiritual Gifts. Paul gives it equal rank with the great question of the state of the dead, and says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." (1Cor. 12:1)
Did the Lord design that to his first disciples the supply should be continual and without measure, while to his followers in later and more degenerate ages, it should be intermittent and meager? Impossible!
Seventh-day Adventists do believe in the Gifts of the Spirit as above set forth. They believe that the varied operations of the Spirit of God, having been once expressly "set in the church," were designed to continue therein to the end, because they are not limited, and God has never withdrawn them from the church; just as they believe that the original blessing placed in the beginning upon the seventh day, is there still, because God never has withdrawn it, nor placed it upon any other day. To them, the doctrine of Spiritual Gifts, is as much a special doctrine of Revelation, as is the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the State of the Dead, or the Second Advent. Taking the Scriptures to be in deed and in truth the word of God, they cannot reject it. In addition to this theoretical view of the subject, and in addition to the ordinary operations of the Spirit of God, they believe that they have in their midst a special manifestation, answering to one at least of these gifts which have been placed in the Christian church. This is found in the visions of Mrs. E. G. White. Every test which can be brought to bear upon such manifestations, proves these genuine. The evidence which supports them, internal and external, is conclusive. They agree with the word of God, and with themselves. They are given, unless those best qualified to judge are invariably deceived, when the Spirit of God is especially present. They are free from the disgusting contortions and grimaces which attend the counterfeit manifestations of Spiritualism. Calm, dignified, impressive, they commend themselves to every beholder, as the very opposite of that which is false or fanatical. The influence is not mesmeric; for this people, reprobating the use of that agency, studiously refuse to learn the principles of its application, or to have aught to do with its practical workings; besides, the hallucinations of a mesmerized subject embrace only such facts and scenes as previously exist in the mind of the mesmerizing power; but the visions take cognizance of persons and things, and bring to light facts known, not only by no person present, but not even by the one through whom the visions are given. They are not the effect of disease; for no disease has ever yet been known to have the effect of repeatedly suspending the functions of the lungs, muscles, and every bodily sense, from fifteen to one hundred and eighty minutes, while in obedience to some influence which evidently has supreme possession of the mind, and in obedience to that alone, the eyes would see, the lips speak, and the limbs move. Further, their fruit is such as to show that the source from which they spring is the opposite of evil.
1. They tend to the purest morality. They dis-countenance every vice, and exhort to the practice of every virtue. They reveal the devices of Satan. They warn us against his snares. They have aroused and re-aroused us to greater consecration to God, more zealous efforts for holiness of heart, and greater diligence in the cause and service of our Master.
2. They lead us to Christ. They portray before us in living characters His holy life and His godly example, and with irresistible appeals they urge us to follow in His steps.
3. They lead us to the Bible. They set forth that book as the inspired and unalterable word of God. They exhort us to take that word as the man of our counsel, and the rule of our faith and practice. And with a compelling power, they entreat us to study long and diligently its pages, and become familiar with its teaching, for it is to judge us in the last day.
4. They have brought comfort and consolation to many hearts. They have brought order out of confusion, made crooked places straight, and thrown light on what was dark and obscure.
And no person, with an unprejudiced mind, can read their stirring appeals for a pure and lofty morality, their exaltation of God and the Saviour, their denunciations of every evil, and their exhortations to everything that is holy and of good report, without being compelled to say, "These are not the words of him that hath a devil."
Yet with all this array of good fruit which they are able to present, with all this innocency of any charge of evil that can be brought against them, they everywhere encounter the bitterest opposition. They are the object of the blindest prejudice, the intensest hate, and most malignant bitterness. Worldlings and formal professors of all denominations, join in one general outcry against them of vituperation and abuse. Many will go a long distance out of their way for the purpose of giving them an uncalled-for and malicious thrust. And false-hearted brethren in our own ranks make them the butt of their first attacks, as they launch off into apostasy and rebellion. Why is all this? Whence all this war against that of which no evil can be said? From the example of Cain who slew his brother, of the Jews who clamored for the blood of the innocent Saviour, of the infidel who storms with passion at the very name of Jesus, and from the principle of the carnal heart which is at enmity with everything that is holy and spiritual, we leave the reader to answer.
We believe, love, and defend the visions, on the grounds above set forth, their unvarying tendency to good, and because they so admirably answer the purpose for which the Scriptures assure us that the gifts were set in the church, namely, to comfort, encourage, and edify the saints, and bring them to the unity of the faith. On what ground can they be objected to? What is there in fact that a person among Seventh-day Adventists, a sincere Christian, has visions and has published them to the world, to excite all the stir and opposition that is everywhere raised over them? They do no hurt; what is the matter? They injure no one; then why not let the person enjoy her gift undisturbed, and those who choose to believe in it, believe in it in peace?--Excerpted from book by Uriah Smith--Book printed on SDA Steam Press, 1868, pp. 3-9
A Spiritual Giant
by Stella Parker Peterson
When one encounters the name of Uriah Smith, for half a century a household word in Seventh-day Adventist ranks, memories come flashing one after another. A truly remarkable man, in any environment he would have towered above his fellows, for he was the type that towers. In the history of our church he is one of the giants.
"Uriah, the youngest of four children, was born on May 2, 1832. When he was about twelve or thirteen years old, he was treated during an illness with what must have been an overdose of calomel. As a result there developed in his left leg a sore which became so aggravated that amputation was thought necessary. The limb was removed at a point about half way between the knee and the thigh."[1]
Not much is known of Uriah Smith's early life, save that he grew up in West Wilton, New Hampshire. As in another Life, the childhood years are hidden until he reached the age of twelve, which was a momentous year in a long, eventful life. The lad Uriah that year passed through the disappointment. His mother, a godly women, was a devout believer in the expected coming of Christ on October 22, 1844.
After the disappointment Uriah Smith lost touch with the message and devoted himself earnestly to securing the highest education possible.
"In 1848 Uriah entered Phillips Academy at Exeter, having previously attended the academy at Hancock, New Hampshire, during the autumn terms of 1845 and 1846. ... When ... [he] finished his work at Exeter, in 1851, he planned to continue his schooling at Harvard College, where he would have enrolled as a sophomore."[2]
In 1851, through a remarkable dream, Annie Smith came to the decision of throwing her young life into the spread of the message, and soon after entered the Review office, then at Saratoga Springs, New York.
In April of 1852 James White secured a building in Rochester, New York, and set up a printing establishment.
In August, in response to a burden shared by Elder and Mrs. White, The Youth's Instructor came from the pioneer printing press. Its only illustration was a woodcut by Uriah Smith. He whittled it out by hand, and must have had many a serious thought as he cut out that symbolic tree with the fruits of the Spirit.
In the fall he attended a conference of Adventist believers at Washington, New Hampshire. Here twenty-year-old Uriah heard explained, for the first time, the reason for the disappointment. Also he heard the Sabbath truth presented. For three months he studied, struggling over the problem. He was ambitious to become a success in the world; yet he knew that if he became an Adventist, he must throw himself, with all his energy and talent, into that movement.
On December 1 his father passed away. Undoubtedly his mother's and sister's influence and prayers at this time of family sorrow had their effect, for in early December Uriah Smith kept his first Sabbath--and set the current of his life in the advent movement.
In January of 1853 there came an offer to join the faculty of a new academy at Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, for $1,000 a year and board on a three-year contract [which he declined].
On March 17, 1853, the first literary production of Uriah Smith appeared in the paper he was later to edit. It was a lengthy poem entitled "The Warning Voice of Time and Prophecy" which ran in the Review until August 11.
On May 3, 1853, at twenty-one years of age, Uriah Smith began fifty years of service at the Review. In a very short time he had mastered many of the printing skills, and his ingenuity helped the office through many a crisis. Elder White soon recognized in this youth a valuable helper in editorial work, and laid much of that work upon his young shoulders when he and Mrs. White were away on their travels.
In 1855, the Review was moved to Battle Creek, and Uriah Smith's name appeared in the first issue--December 4, for the first time as--"Resident Editor." From that time forward he took a leading part in shaping the policies of the Review, and his life was inseparably linked with the progress of the church paper. Later he became associate editor, then editor-in-chief.
On June 7, 1857, he married Harriet M. Stevens, whose sister, Angeline, had married J. N. Andrews. "To this union were born five children. In addition to these, a girl lived in the Smith home as one of the family. It entailed considerable ingenuity to feed, clothe, and house a household of eight on a salary of from ten to twelve dollars a week."[3]
By 1858, in addition to his editorial work, he became secretary-treasurer of the printing office, and in charge of the mailing list, personally directing, by hand, each week, the list of nearly three thousand papers! In 1860 a hand-mailing machine was purchased, but he was the operator.
Then came the momentous year of 1863, when emerged "The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists," with John Byington the first president, and Uriah Smith the first secretary. The Review of May 26, 1863, contains a detailed article by him on the organization of the General Conference, a report full of interest to us today.
He served five intermittent terms, totaling a secretarial tenure of twenty years, longer than any tenure of the fifteen men who have served the church in that capacity. In 1863, following his selection as secretary, he began to exercise his gift in public speaking. In 1866 he was ordained to the ministry and soon began to travel, attending conferences and camp meetings, and making trips abroad.
Uriah "Smith perfected an articulated limb (jointed prosthesis) on which he received a patent, No. 39,361 ... , July 28, 1863. ... His invention served him so well that many who saw him walk believed that he was only lame.
"Twelve years after his first patent, Smith ... [perfected a] school seat and desk that would let the seat fold up from the rear instead of from the front. ... On May 25, 1875, he was granted patent No. 163,611. This he sold to the Union School Furniture Company in Battle Creek for $3000.00."[4] (See patented items on pp. 4 & 5.)
To Uriah Smith the church owes an unending debt. His first and foremost contribution to the denomination is the work of his gifted pen--his editorial work on the Review, his writing of Daniel and the Revelation and other books. He served on the General Conference Executive Committee; was the denomination's first college Bible instructor; held Bible institutes; was Sabbath school superintendent, and music leader.
When his books were translated, he donated all royalties from the translations to foreign mission advance.
He was an indefatigable worker and devoted to the work to the very day, almost the hour, of his sudden death. On his way to the office with editorial material, he was smitten down by a paralytic stroke. The burning of the Review office of December 30, 1902 may have precipitated the stroke of Friday, March 6, 1903. He was taken to his home, where he passed away two hours later. To Adventists it seemed hard to realize that there would be no more editorials with the familiar signature, "U. S."
"Like the patriarch of old, whose life course had pleased God, so it may be said of the subject of this sketch, 'He being dead yet speaketh.' His work will not only live through probationary hours to spur on the halting, but in the ages to come many will be able to say, 'His labors prompted me to be loyal to the message of truth.'"[5]--excerpted from "Uriah Smith", Review & Herald, December 18, 1944, pp. 6-8 with additional quotes as annotated.
The New Year, 1871
Earth trembles at the cannon's roar, War's murderous visage scours the plain; Its fairest spots are drenched with gore, Its fruitful fields are piled with slain. And what are all these slow-revolving years, But funeral pageants of distress and tears?
Contagions spread their wings of pall, Fierce tempests rage with blasting breath, And earthquake throes, engulfing all, Make short and sure the way to death. No peace, no safety, no enduring cheer, To him who builds his hopes and treasures here.
Yet glad we hail each New Year's morn; For from the great high throne of Heaven A royal fiat forth has gone, A glorious word to earth is given: Behold, says He who looks creation through, Where sin has marred my works, I make anew.
New earth to smile before his face, New heavens in crystal beauty dressed, New years to run a guiltless race, New joys for each immortal breast, New flowers upspringing from the sinless sod, New waters sparkling from the throne of God.
New bodies for these feeble forms, New life from e'en the moldering tomb, New skies unrent by raging storms, New beauty, new unfading bloom, New scenes the eternal era to begin, Of peace for war, of righteousness for sin.
Speed then away, O tardy years! Fly quickly, hours that intervene! Groaning we wait the time when tears Shall be but things that once have been. Dawn, thou blest morn, so long in promise given, The glorious glad New Year of God and Heaven.--Collection of Poems, pp. 143-145 -- Uriah Smith
Notes: