XXXII by H. SHULTZ

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 51.

XXXII

By H. SHULTZ

In the summer of 1873 several Adventist ministers held meetings in our district school-house. I did not go; but the members of the church to which I belonged attended their meetings. One day a couple of my brethren came to see me, and asked me why I did not attend the meetings at the school-house. I said I did not believe in following every wind of doctrine. They replied that unless the doctrine of the Adventists could be proved false, many of the brethren and sisters would keep Saturday; and they wanted me to clear up this matter. I said, “Go to our minister.” They replied, “We have been to him, and he says he can not do anything with it.” I was provoked to think that we had a preacher who did not know enough to show up the error of the Adventists in keeping the seventh day. So I said, “All right, I will clear up the matter.” I did not know what a job I was undertaking. For three weeks I worked night and day to find the texts that taught us to keep the first day of the week holy; but, like Rachel, wept because they could not be found. I searched the good Book, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, but found not the much-longed-for texts because they were not. Alas, it was Sabbath, Sabbath everywhere, and Sunday nowhere. Then I propped myself up on two texts— one of these the text which speaks of Christ as the end of the law. I reasoned that the law ended when Christ came; but when I found the text my hope was gone; for I saw that the law was given as a rule of righteousness; that it could not justify me, because I had broken it. Then it held me as a criminal until I turned to Jesus, found forgiveness and righteousness, when it would let go its hold upon me. Hence Christ is the end of the law’s condemnation of me, because I was made righteous by faith in Him; but it stood ready to condemn me again if I broke it again. When I saw that the law could not be abolished, it left me with but one more prop, and that was, “Behold, I make all things new.” I said that it (the law) was all right, but God had made a new Sabbath. Hope revived in my heart that the Adventists would be proven wrong by this text. Search was made for the scripture, but O, when I found it (Rev. 21:1-7), my heart and last ray of hope for Sunday-keeping sank into my shoes. Here I saw that when God makes all things new, there will be no more death, no sorrow, no pain, no weeping. God will wipe away all tears from all eyes. I saw that the text had no reference to either Sabbath or Sunday keeping, but to a new state of things which does not exist yet. So nothing remained but to obey God and keep His commandments. H. SHULTZ.