Chapter 56—July 6-7, 1850

George I. Butler (1834-1918) Recalls the 1850 Meeting When the Brother “Who Had Not Been in the Advent” Was Converted. 

We personally remember this time as though it were but yesterday, although it was in 1850. Mother had been keeping the Sabbath about a year. Father was much opposed to it, though a strong believer in the great Advent movement of the past. The light on the sanctuary subject brought him to accept the seventh-day Sabbath. We notice this meeting because the name of Bro. Churchill is mentioned. His was one of the very first cases of conversion from the world to the present truth, which occurred after 1844. As we have said, their work hitherto had been almost wholly for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”—the old Advent believers. They saw that unbelievers showed no interest in the truths which were so precious to them, and therefore their attention was directed to those who loved the Advent faith, and they labored ardently for them. This, evidently, was in the order of God. SDD 41.1

Heman Churchill, of Stowe, Vt., the one here mentioned, had not been engaged in the Advent movement of 1844. He had married, after this, a daughter of Sr. Benson, a ’44 Adventist. I remember him well as he came to Waterbury, Vt., and attended meeting in my father’s house, where a few met from time to time. They were quite surprised at first that one who had been an unbeliever should manifest an interest in the Advent doctrine. He was not repulsed but welcomed. He was earnest and zealous; and as they discerned in him sincerity, they accepted him as a true convert. I cannot remember the exact date when he commenced to seek God, though I recollect clearly his attending meetings in Waterbury, Vt. But we know from this letter of Elder Bates’s, that it was previous to this meeting held in the fall of 1850; for he was then at the meeting referred to in Waitsfield, Vt., as a believer. Bro. Bates calls him “Brother.” His conversion was noised abroad quite extensively. SDD 41.2

Now if our opponents were correct in their statements that the believers held to a shut door which entirely excluded all except old Adventists, how could Heman Churchill have been received as a true convert? This is positive evidence that their assertions are untrue. There is not an instance which can be found in the early history of this cause where anyone manifesting sincerity in seeking God was ever repulsed.—George I. Butler, The Review and Herald, April 7, 1885, p. 217. SDD 41.3