“‘I have often thought that we then enjoyed a foretaste of the love and fellowship of the saints in light. Why is it not so now? The reason is as obvious as the sun at noonday. We have been drawn from our _first principles_ by wicked and designing men, who have crept in among us and drawn us into parties, to follow men instead of God, and to form new tests instead of the Bible. Some of our lecturers first began the confusion by declaring an unholy crusade against the sects, which brought in men of blood instead of men of peace. True, after the manner of men, the sects had provoked us to the course we took by all the wicked arts and misrepresentation of our views and motives that human and satanic agency could invent—by slander, ridicule, and wresting the word of God from the meaning which had long been laid down in their own creeds, and departing from those rules by which their fathers, for centuries, had applied mystic Babylon to the church of Rome. We were not called, in my humble opinion, to engage in so universal a war. I think we have, in this, “left our first principles,” which were to preach the blessed hope, and beseech men to be ready for the “glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” without personal or denominational considerations. While we pursued this course, God blessed us in our work. We were commanded by the word to be patient, sober, to judge not, not to be high-minded, but to fear, and, by so doing, manifest the same spirit that was in Christ. What have been the fruits of this departure from the plain line of duty? Surely, they have not been love, peace, and joy, such as we formerly experienced, when we believed in our hearts that Christ was at the door. On the contrary, it has, in many instances, separated those who had been knit together in the closest friendship, fomented jealousies, produced “lo! heres, and lo! theres!” while some have blasphemously arrogated to themselves names and titles which belong to Christ. With such I have no sympathy, no fellowship. I will refer them to Christ’s words, Rev. 3:3: “Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” “‘The glorious appearing of Christ is my only hope; to this I cling—it is my anchor; and all who look for and love his appearing are my brothers and sisters, and with such I have fellowship in the Lord, and exhort them to watch. “‘WILLIAM MILLER.’