[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.]
CLXVII.
I WAS converted about fifteen years ago on the ocean, having followed the sea for over twenty-five years. I had a strong desire to tell the “old, old story” everywhere, and soon became assistant superintendent of the Bowery Mission, New York, and joined the M. E. Church. Soon I became a local preacher, but kept on praying for more light on the Bible. About a year afterward I was immersed and received a license to preach in the Baptist Church. Here, soon after, I absolutely refused to be a party to the church festivals, which were not at all spiritual, but rather theatrical; I denounced them with no uncertain sounding, in consequence of which I had to resign, and I felt very unhappy. I next connected with the Plymouth Brethren, where I labored earnestly, writing tracts, and preaching to show the people the absurdity of trying to keep the law of God.
But I still kept on praying for light, and it came. In July, 1901, we moved to the Inverness Apartment House, on 57th Street, New York, when a young worker from Elder Haskell’s Training-school came to our door, and my wife asked him in. To my great delight he asked me if we would like to study the Bible with him some evening, to which I gladly consented, thinking that in a short time I could convince him that the Plymouth Brethren were right in their belief. In three readings I was convinced that the Third Angel’s Message swept everything before it, leaving me nothing to stand upon excepting “the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” I soon learned the lesson that not I, but Christ in me, keeps the law.
I told my employers, a millionaire real estate concern, that I intended to keep the Sabbath at any cost. They weighed the matter for five months, but then the crisis came, and I received my ultimatum, either to work on the Sabbath, at least some, or retire. I praise the Lord that I had the courage to retire; because I have been in the work ever since, and the Lord has used me to bring others into the truth.
W. R. UCHTMANN.
CLXVIII.
I WAS converted when nineteen years of age, and united with the M. E. Church. I had been a member of that church about eighteen years when I went to work one Saturday morning for a family where the daughter kept that day as the Sabbath. She asked me why I did not keep the Sabbath, and I replied, “To-morrow is the Sabbath.” I had not heard of a Seventh-day Adventist until I met this girl, altho I knew of Adventists who kept the first day of the week.
I asked my Sunday-school teacher why we kept Sunday for the Sabbath, and he said we kept it in memory of the resurrection of Christ. But I commenced studying the Bible for myself, and was unable to find any Scripture warrant for Sunday observance.
One evening, in a store, I noticed some bills announcing a discourse on the subject of the Sabbath, in a tent. I attended the meeting, and continued to attend further meetings; so by prayer and study of the Scriptures, I became fully convinced that the seventh day is the true Sabbath. Brethren Willoughby and Colcord gave me “Great Controversy,” and “History of the Sabbath.” I was also convinced that I had not been baptized, as I had only been sprinkled. So I was baptized by immersion. This was in 1887, and I have rejoiced in the truth ever since, hoping to remain faithful until Jesus comes.
