The Third Angel's Message (1893) - Alonzo T. Jones

wageworking classes as to entirely fail to
understand their wants, desires and aspirations, and
hence as a result, when they do speak in our name,
they misrepresent us, as they have in this case. This
has occurred so frequently and universally that the
respect and reverence for the Church held by the
working people in the past, has been destroyed to
such an extent that the Church itself has become
alarmed. With a few exceptions, and upon rare
occasions, a suggestion to have a clergyman open
or participate in our conventions or mass-meetings
would be met with contemptuous ridicule. Tens of
thousands of wage-workers who like myself have
passed from infancy to manhood within the folds
of the Church, and in being forced from it, have
retained a fervid love for the moral principles
taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, realize not
only the wickedness embodied in the acts of the
clergy in shutting the workers out of the fair, but
also understand the effect it will have in further
alienating the working classes from and
intensifying their hostility toward the Church.
Speaking as we do, with this intimate personal
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