How They Became Convinced
By James Blankenship
[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 the winter of 1896, I met Brother Ebert, the first Seventh-day Adventist I ever saw. I had never heard of such a people before. He was reading his Bible, and was well able to give a reason for the hope that was in him. He told me he was a Seventh-day Adventist, and I asked him what that meant. He said he kept the seventh-day Sabbath, according to the commandment, and believed in the nearness of the coming of Christ. That to me was a blessed thought; but I returned home and did not give the subject much consideration for a while. Soon after this I was married, and in 1899 we moved to a neighborhood where there was a family of Sabbath-keepers. In September of the same year, Brethren Fellow and Collins conducted a series of meetings in a schoolhouse near us. I soon fell in love with the way they made the Scriptures explain themselves. When they took up the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, I became very much interested. I soon saw that Christ never changed the Sabbath (Matt. 5:17), but kept it (John 15:10; Luke 4:16). I saw that, according to 1 John 3:4, “sin is the transgression of the law.” The law says that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8-11. Christ “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22); therefore He could not change or break the Sabbath, nor teach men so (Matt. 5:19); “the man of sin,” “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped” (2 Thess. 2:3-10), had only thought to “change times and laws” (Dan. 7:25). I began to keep the Sabbath at once, and find it a “delight” and “honorable.” Isa. 58:13. The good old SIGNS has been a very helpful companion ever since I accepted the blessed truth. That all Sabbath-keepers will do all they can to help to double its subscription list, is my prayer.