Adventist Work and Washington Headquarters
IN the Washington Post of Monday, May 9, there was quite a full abstract of an address given by Elder A. G. Daniells at the M Street church in connection with the dedicatory services, which are reported elsewhere in this issue. The subject of the address was “The Work of the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Reasons for Choosing Washington, D. C., as Denominational Headquarters.” We quote the closing paragraphs of the abstract as they appeared in the Post:— “The great object in coming to the capital of the nation with our general headquarters is that we may the more easily and successfully come into contact with the great world, and proclaim the truths of our faith. We did not come here to lobby at the seat of Congress. We ask nothing of any legislature in the world save to be left alone. We ask no government to favor us, but we wish all governments to keep their hands off of religious matters.” “We want to be good citizens, good neighbors, and a social help. The world needs not only positive teaching, but positive living and example. We may be misunderstood, but we can be clean, upright, and helpful. This is what we hope to accomplish here, and from here to reach out to the rest of the world.” Referring to the work and creed of the Seventh-day Adventists, Elder Daniells discussed at length and lucidly the prophecies and their relation to history. He told of the reform movements instituted by Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, each a step in advance of the other, but none complete in itself. No other church, he said, keeps all the commandments in the decalogue, as do the Seventh-day Adventists, for they alone respect the fourth commandment to rest upon the seventh day and keep it holy. “We teach all that the others do, and a little more,” he said. “This is true not only of keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath, but in all the relations of our church.”