How They Became Convinced
By Editor
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.] In 1891, a canvasser called at my home, and I bought several tracts, and a copy of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. He asked for something to eat, and while I prepared dinner he talked with my father, and we found that he was an Adventist. After my father’s death I was placed in other environments, and had charge of a little Sunday-school on the Weihkah River, in Washington, for a short time. In 1895-6, I was a servant in the family of a Methodist minister at Union, British Columbia. I could not unite with the church because I still kept thinking about the seventh day being the Sabbath. But I was not brave enough to ask any questions about it. One day, while walking home from church, I picked up a piece of paper to wipe the mud off a child’s coat, when my eye fell on the words, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” I threw the paper down, and made up my mind to think no more about it. When I returned to Aberdeen in 1897, I found that my sister and other friends had accepted the true Sabbath, and had been baptized. I attended a meeting at the Borden schoolhouse shortly after this, and a lady said to me, “You are not offended at the stand your sister has taken, are you?” “No, no,” I answered; “it is the truth, and I am very glad she has been brave enough to accept it.” “Aren’t you?” asked Sister Nellis. “Me?” why I’m a Congregationalist,” I answered. “I keep Sunday.” At different times I heard the Scriptures explained, and how beautiful it all was! I wondered why it took people so long to see and accept the Sabbath truth; and just at this point, when I was questioning God’s wisdom, is where Satan led me such a long, dark way, and I was deceived with his delusions. Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Christian Science, Hypnotism, and New Thought were held out to me as the real truth; and I almost lost my hold on the dear Saviour. After I had become quite paralyzed by the delusions I had been feeding upon, when I thought I hadn’t a friend in all the world, the word of the Lord, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;” “His commandments are not grievous,” came to me like a living voice, and with such force that I was powerless to resist any longer. I knew God’s will toward me then, and that I should never have any peace until I accepted His truth. A sister sent me a little tract, “How the Sabbath Came to Me,” and after a careful reading, my Sabbath question was settled forever. Since 1898 I have kept the seventh day, and have been blessed and happy in so doing. LEPHIA BRYANT LARSON. “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. I had been a member of the Christian Church thirty-one years when Brother L. W. Terry came to Rocky Comfort, Mo., to preach “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Being the janitor of the church where he preached, I was one of his audience. After hearing him, I took the good old Book to search for the truth of what he taught. I asked the Lord to show me the scriptures on the subject, and then held the Bible in my hands, and let it come open itself, or, as I have since thought, the Lord opened it for me. At any rate the text that I have quoted was the first on which my eye rested. I also read Acts 18:4, 11 and many other scriptures. I am now a worker for the truth, with books, papers, and tracts, and in visiting my neighbors. I pray that the Lord will keep me at work in His vineyard, keep me filled with His Spirit, and give me a still better understanding of His Word. Mrs. D. A. BURGER.