A Defense of Seventh-day Adventists
A RECENT number of the Malaysia Message, a professedly religious paper published in Singapore, Straits Settlements, contained an attack by a Methodist minister upon Seventh-day Adventists and their teaching. This moved the Eastern Daily Mail, a secular paper published in the same place, to take up the matter in an editorial article of nearly a full column. From this article we take the following extracts:— We hold no brief for the Seventh-day Adventists, and are not believers in their peculiar doctrines, but we have had an intimate knowledge of the people and their beliefs for about twelve years, and believe that a few words in their defense as well as in defense of the spirit of Christian amity, which is so much needed in Singapore, might not be out of place. . . . We have always found the Adventists to be considerably more Christ-like than the ordinary Christian. They do not, for instance, rush into print to call their fellow Christians “unchristian” and “antichristian,” but bear with great meekness the fierce persecution which they everywhere meet. They are also more like the Mohammedans than like the other classes of Christians, in practising what they preach. Perhaps this is “unchristian”! They keep the Sabbath, which they believe to be Saturday, with a conscientious regard for its sanctity which would put the ordinary Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian to shame, though all preach the same law: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” . . . After reading their literature and hearing their preaching, occasionally, for over twelve years, we have failed to discover anything of the “vile” in either. As regards the “wolfish” tendency referred to by the writer, he doubtless means that the particular church to which he belongs has lost some of its adherents by their going over to the Adventists. In the same way John Wesley, who must have been a terrible “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” founded the church to which that writer belongs by taking over a large number of adherents from the Church of England, a practise which has been continued by the local non-conformists. We are personally acquainted with the men who have been maligned by this writer, and we do not hesitate to say that there are no better Christian gentlemen in Singapore, men who are possessed of a meek humility which well becomes their profession, and who exhibit anything but “wolfish” tendencies. Thus does a secular writer rebuke those who are making unfounded charges against Seventh-day Adventists. The case is both interesting and suggestive.