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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 18, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 3.

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"Sabbatarians."

By Editor

WE are under obligations to the New York Examiner (Baptist) for emphasizing a distinction that is thought of by but few. Speaking of certain papers which had characterized the New York Sunday movement as a "Sabbatarian movement," it says:—
"They ought to know that the only Sabbatarians in this country are the people who observe the seventh day of the week, and the chief among them are the Jews and the Seventh-day Baptists. We have heard of no public movement to promote the observance of Saturday as the Christian Sabbath."
The Examiner omitted Seventh-day Adventists, but it was not to this oversight that we designed to call attention, but to the conclusion deducible from its statement of fact. Sabbatarians are those who keep the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. This is substantially Webster's definition. Very good. Then no one is a Sabbatarian, or Sabbath-keeper, who does not keep the seventh day. This is what we teach as a Bible doctrine. We teach the commandment, and leave others to make the application, which the Examiner has done in this instance, by confessing itself to be among the Sabbath-breakers.
Again, many people delight to excuse themselves from keeping the Sabbath, by saying that they are not sure which day is the seventh day. The Examiner has no doubts on this point, but says that it is the day which the Jews and Seventh-day Baptists keep. Now how can the Examiner, and the Baptist denomination, which it represents, excuse themselves for not keeping the Sabbath of the Lord? The commandment is plain: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." If they were consistent with their profession to abide solely by the Bible, there would be no such distinction as Baptists and Seventh-day Baptists. To be sure, they might be "stigmatized" as Sabbatarians, but what of that? It is no uncommon thing for a person to be stigmatized for doing right, as the Baptists themselves can testify.