CONFESSION OF ELDER R. S. DONNELL

I feel unworthy to stand before this large assembly of my brethren this morning. Very early in life I was taught to reverence and to love the Word of God; and when reading in it how God used to talk to his people, correcting their wrongs, and guiding them in all their ways, when a mere boy I used to say: “Why don’t we have a prophet? Why doesn’t God talk to us now as he used to do?”GCB April 23, 1901, page 422.3

When I found this people, I was more than glad to know that there was a prophet among them, and from the first I have been a firm believer in, and a warm advocate of, the Testimonies and the Spirit of prophecy. It has been suggested to me at times in the past, that the test on this point of faith comes when the Testimony comes directly to us. As nearly all of you know, in the Testimony of yesterday morning the test came to me. But, brethren, I can thank God this morning that my faith in the Spirit of prophecy remains unshaken. God has spoken. He says I was wrong, and I answer, God is right, and I am wrong. Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar. I am very, very sorry that I have done that which would mar the cause of God, and lead any one in the wrong way. I have asked God to forgive me, and I know that he has done it. As delegates and representatives of the cause of God in the earth, I now ask you to forgive me my sins, and I ask your prayers for strength and wisdom to walk aright in the future. It is my determination by the help of God, to join glad hands with you in the kingdom of God.GCB April 23, 1901, page 422.4