How They Became Convinced
[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 spring of 1894, at Spartanburg, N. C., I, for the time, met a Seventh-day Adventist. He was introduced to me as Elder Webster, an Adventist minister. I heard him give two readings on the “little horn” of Daniel 7. He had a wonderful chart, which, as I then thought, had “all manner of four-footed beasts and fowls” on it. Those two readings of that dear brother, whom I have not since seen, set me to thinking. I read and studied for three years, during which time I lost my health. But now I can say with David, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept Thy Words. . . . It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.” Ps. 119:67, 71. I learned from Isa. 42:21 that Christ was not to abolish, or make the law void; but that He was to magnify and make it honorable. In Matt. 5:17–19, 27, 28, I saw that He fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. In 1 Thess. 5:21, Paul tells me to “hold fast that which is good;” and in Rom. 7:12, he says, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Therefore I concluded I had better obey. Peter tells me that I purify my soul by obeying the truth. 1 Peter 1:22. In Ps. 119:142, 151, I learned that the law is the truth, and that every one of the commandments is the truth. In James 2:8–12, I learned that if I disobeyed in one, I was “guilty of all.” So I saw that the only sensible thing for me to do was to render obedience to the entire Decalogue, which, of course, included the seventh-day Sabbath. Now I can say with John, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. In my early years my attention was called to the Sabbath question by listening to the conversation of an aged Seventh-day Baptist. Later, at the age of fifteen, while comparing scripture with scripture, the Lord favored me with serious conviction. I wished people would keep the seventh day, and I could not see why they failed to do so. I thought that if I had a home of my own I would do so. But when such men as Martin Luther, Whitefield, and the Wesleys kept Sunday, who was I, to question their conclusions? Surely they must have found evidence for the change. Nevertheless as the years rolled by, the Spirit renewed the convictions again and again. I studied a book entitled “Willison on the Sabbath.” There was a good “Thus saith the Lord” for seventh-day sacredness shown from scripture all along down to the crucifixion; but the historical and traditional argument from that point on failed to be satisfactory. Then Brother M. E. Cornell lectured in Saugatuck, Mich., in the winter of 1856–57. Books purchased from him again aroused inquiry and conviction until, whenever I knelt for prayer, the Lord seemed saying to me, “You know the seventh day is the Sabbath; will you keep it?” My prayers did not seem to rise higher than my head, and I could not live without communion with God. I said, If all these godly men could find a change, I can. Bible in hand, I devoted both days to a prayerful investigation. My sister joined me soon in the effort. A few weeks later we dropped the Sunday, to observe the Sabbath of the Lord ever after. It was not altogether as easy a matter to keep Saturday in my own house as the girl of fifteen had imagined. However, “Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”