everlasting-gospels.gif Meet Uriah Smith
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May 4 - Meet Uriah Smith

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The gospel must first be published among all nations. Mark 13:10.
 
Uriah Smith (1832-1903) would become one of the foremost Seventh-day Adventists in setting the denomination's message before the world in print.

He got off to kind of a rough start. At an early age he had to have his left leg amputated halfway between the thigh and knee. That was bad enough, but the 29-minute operation took place on the family's kitchen table with no anesthesia. All he had for comfort was his mother's hand. Most of us have little concept of what it meant to live in the "good old days."

Uriah's mother became a Millerite, and the young boy was baptized by an Adventist elder in the summer of 1844. The hope of October 1844 deeply impressed him, but when Jesus didn't come he gave up his Adventism and set about educating himself for a good place on earth. The heavenly concerns highlighted by the Adventists receded further and further from his vision.

At age 16 he entered Phillips Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire, one of the most prestigious private secondary schools of its day. many of the nation's "greats" have walked through its doors as students. The ambitious young Uriah fully intended to enter Harvard College after graduation. He was aiming at a teaching career in one of the nation's highest schools and certainly had the intelligence for the role.

But God had other plans for the young intellectural. And so did his mother. We saw some weeks ago how Uriah's sister, Annie, had been led to Adventism through her mother's prayers, a dream given to both Annie and Joseph Bates, and Bates' aggressive evangelistic activities. Annie joined the Sabbatarians in 1852, and thereafter the talented Uriah also had her influence to contend with.

Finally in September 1852 the 20-year-old agreed to attend an Adventist meeting, at which he heard James and Ellen White explaining the reason for the 1844 disappointment and the adoption of the seventh-day Sabbath. That led to more than two months of intensive study on the topic. The crisis point came in December 1852 with the death of his father. Brought face to face with reality, Uriah gave himself wholeheartedly to the Lord, who would use him mightily.

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Lord, how we struggle against full surrender to You. Help me this day to give myself wholly to Your cause. Use me, Lord, to be a blessing this very day.
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