REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 2, 1869

REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA.

By John Norton Loughborough

Our last report was made some two weeks since. At that time we were just returning to Petaluma. Bro. Bourdeau and myself spent a week together in Petaluma, visiting from house to house, and holding meetings here. Last Sabbath and first-day, Bro. Bourdeau spoke with freedom in Petaluma; while I gave four discourses in Windsor. The last was in reply to a discourse by a Methodist minister on the Sabbath question. This discourse was principally designed to show that the day of the Sabbath was indefinite, and that in different dispensations God had selected different days for different objects. That God gave a day to the first inhabitants of the world, to commemorate creation; that Noah had a day to commemorate the resting of the ark upon Mount Ararat. It was claimed that the reckoning of time by sevens of days by Noah, in sending out the dove and raven, were probably only sevens of days from the time the ark rested, not corresponding with the seven days from creation.

Again it was claimed that God gave the Israelites a day to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt; that God gave them manna six days, and the seventh day was a sabbath, but that there was no evidence that these days corresponded with the days from creation, but were reckoned from the time the manna began to fall. Mention, however, was not made by the elder that God in the fourth commandment pointed out the day on which the manna was withheld as the day he rested upon, blessed, and sanctified, at creation. Again, if the sanctifying of that day at creation placed obligation upon Israel at Mt. Sinai to keep it, of course that obligation existed in the days of Noah, and shows that the day he observed was one with the Sabbath at creation and Mt. Sinai.

The elder claimed that Christ had given the first day of the week to be kept in honor of his resurrection. It was frankly admitted that there was no command to keep that day, and an effort was made to show that the seventh day commanded in the fourth commandment was any seventh day after six days of labor, and not the seventh day of the week. Luke xxiii, 56, and xxiv, 1, compared, show that the seventh day of the commandment corresponds with the seventh day of the week.

This discourse and reply only served to strengthen those who have taken their stand on the truth. About a dozen have taken their stand with us in Windsor, and a Sabbath School and Bible Class, as well as regular Sabbath meeting have been started.

In Petaluma there is still an ear to hear, and an increasing interest with those who have come out, to get near the Lord, and do their duty. We expect to spend the coming Sabbath and first-day here. The Sabbath following, I go to Windsor again, while Bro. Bourdeau will probably remain here. The same Methodist elder is to speak on “Natural Immortality of the Soul,” at Windsor. After returning from Windsor, we design to enter another new place as the way may open before us.

Our prayer is that we may move with simplicity, humility, zeal, and faith in God, and see of his salvation attending our efforts. It is very muddy on the adobe soil now, so we shall have to take a place to labor where the roads are better, so as to get the people out. The weather is mild here, though there is much rain. It seems more like spring than winter.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Petaluma, Jan. 14, 1869.