The Examiner Speaks of “Conscientious Christian People”
The Examiner speaks of “conscientious Christian people” who “are strong in their conviction that the Fourth Commandment is of perpetual validity, and are laboring with commendable assiduity for the restoration of the sanctity of the day of rest;” yet who, “at the same time,” are “indifferent to the at least equally binding requirement of New Testament baptism,” saying that “the mode is ‘non-essential.’” Surely, in this the Examiner has written without due consideration. For there are only two Christian peoples in the world who are laboring for the restoration of the sanctity of the day of rest of the Fourth Commandment, and both of these hold strictly to New Testament baptism in mode and everything else—as strictly as does the Examiner itself. One of these peoples are indeed, and have always been, Baptists—the Seventh-day Baptists. The other, though not bearing the denominational name of Baptists, are, as to the form and everything else, as truly holding New Testament baptism as are any Baptists in the world. These are the Seventh-day Adventists. Now the Seventh-day Baptists and the Seventh-day Adventists are the only Christian people in the world who are laboring for the restoration of the sanctity of the day of rest of the Fourth Commandment. And both thoroughly hold New Testament baptism. Why, then, should the Examiner imply that these have “such a punctilious regard for one of God’s requirements, and such very improper indifference to another”?