“‘Therefore, let us all be modest, unassuming, and godlike, pressing on to the mark. Let us not, therefore, judge one another any more. Rom. 14:13: “But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” 1 Cor. 8:9-13: “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. If my brother is truly perfect in every good work, he will bear with me and my weakness.” Rom. 15:1: “We, then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” 1 Cor. 9:22: “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”
“‘I have not written this to condemn my “perfect” brother, or to call out a reply. He may call one thing perfect sanctification, and I another. If he is “perfect” and strong, he can bear my weakness. If he wants contention, it will show that he is not perfect, but contentious. I beg of my brother to let me follow on to know the Lord; and God forbid that I should call him back. I hope he will not boastingly exclude me from the path he would tread. May God sanctify and prepare us for his own use, and deliver us from the wrath to come.
“‘Yours, in the blessed hope,
Wm. Miller.
“‘Castleton, Vt., Oct. 12, 1843.’
“Not only Mr. Miller, but all who were in his confidence, took a decided position against all fanatical extravagances. They never gave them any quarter; while those who regarded them with favor soon arrayed themselves against Mr. Miller and his adherents. Their fanaticism increased; and though opposed by Mr. Miller and his friends, the religious and secular press very generally, but unjustly, connected his name with it;—he being no more responsible for it than Luther and Wesley were for similar manifestations in their day.
CHAPTER XIV.
HOME OF MR. MILLER—TOUR INTO WESTERN NEW YORK—HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE—ADDRESS TO ALL DENOMINATIONS—VISIT TO WASHINGTON, ETC.
“In the interval between Mr. Miller’s return from Boston to his home at Low Hampton and the recommencement of his public labors, he was visited by his dearly beloved friend, the late Elder Nathaniel Southard, who wrote as follows of