A HEATHEN PREACHES THE SABBATH.
Joseph Booth, who was born in Australia, decided, in 1891, to devote his life to mission work, and afterward went to Africa, has recently told his experience in investigating the Sabbath question. While on his way to his field of labor in Africa he came in contact with those who “kept the Sabbath according to the commandment.” At this time his mind was not favorably impressed toward the truth, nor was he afterward when it was again brought to his notice. In course of time, however, God used the heathen for whom he was laboring to bring the truth home to his conscience, and he soon began to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. This experience we give below in his own words:— I came to Chatyika, the chief of the Manganja tribe. He remembered Livingston very well. I sent to the house of the chief to ask if I could stay there. I asked the people outside if I could speak. I wanted to speak for God. They all believe in Mutunga, the great Supreme Being. But they did not wish to have me speak. They wanted to go on with their beer drinking. They were calling the people together from eleven villages. I thought I must leave something on record; I must be a witness for God, whether welcome or unwelcome. I shut my eyes, put my arms behind me, and began to sing two or three of their hymns. One was, “When He Cometh,” and another was, “Come to Jesus.” At the close of those two hymns I opened my eyes very cautiously, because I had noticed that the Central Africans will often run away. The women are very modest. If you look at them straightly they will shrink away from you. I began to look at the children, and to sing to them. The songs are so easy for the children, and they soon begin to pick them up. I sang, “Come to Jesus Just Now.” The little children took hold of it nicely. The mothers were standing around, and a great crowd of men behind. I began to speak before the chief came out, and6he stood in the rear. I thought, “What is that man going to say? He is going to take me to account somehow.” In about twenty minutes I said, “It is not good for me to do all the talking. What have your hearts to say? Is there anything in your hearts that you wish to say?” The chief said, “Yes;” they had listened to my words, and I had not done what I had said to them. I had said I would tell them some words that God spoke, and I had not told them any words but my own. Now would I please tell them, if I knew, any words that God had spoken? Would I tell them? And it was this which took me to the commandments. This was the first time I was led by the natives to speak of the commandments of God. I then expounded the commandments of God, but did not get past the fourth commandment. Suddenly that man turned upon me, saying, “Ah, now we know for the first time which is the day.” And he put this direct question to me: “Which is the seventh day?” It surprised me. I tried to put him off a little; but he said, “I want to know which is that day, the seventh.” I could not lie, so I said, “This day on which I am speaking to you is the day on which we white men worship; this is the first day of the week. The day of which this commandment speaks was yesterday, the seventh day.” I thought to make a clean breast of it at the beginning. “Who Gave Men Power Greater than God?”
He looked back at me so sharply,—“What! you white men choose another day! You white men have more power than God! Who gave you power greater than God?” I was confounded. I said I had not come to talk about this thing. I had told him the truth, that white men gave the first day to the worship of God; and he could do what he liked. I had read to him the law of God, and he had asked which was the day, and I had said that it was the seventh day. But he would not let me escape that way; he inquired who gave us more power than God had. And I escaped in the usual fashion, by saying that it was not good for us to go on talking about this thing. I felt that I was getting into a trap. The Lord says, “My word . . . shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” It seemed to me that God was raising up this man as a witness against me. I had a native with me who soon afterward began to do the will of God. And some of the men who were there in 1893, soon after began preaching. These natives had heard the words of that chief, and about a fortnight afterward, when I got back to where I was settled, they said, “We have been talking about the words of Chatyika, and we think he is right; and if you will let us, we want to begin to keep the seventh day.” And so the young men, about fourteen of them, began to keep the seventh day, and left me stranded, a first-day keeper. Personal Experience with the Sabbath Truth.
I am ashamed that I was so dull in regard to the Sabbath. First there came the call at Cape Town; next there came the warning through Brother James—well, practically it was all one, because it came from the Adventist society. My reason for rejecting Brother James’ teaching was that I could not take it all in, and he would not be satisfied with anything less than all. So I said, “It must all go.” When I came to the natives, and the same Sabbath truth came again so forcibly, from a man who had been a heathen, who was a heathen when he met me, when the Word of God came to him—when it came to me in that way I was somewhat startled. This seemed like the voice of God speaking to me; and when the native young men began to keep the seventh day, I felt very strange. After these natives began the observance of the Sabbath, they said to me, “Are we annoying you? Does it hurt you that we keep the seventh day, and you keep the first day?” I said, “No; I have not come here to put you in bondage. If the Word of God says to you, Keep the seventh day; keep it, and you will have peace with God. As for myself, I am not quite clear.” They said, “It is better for us all to do one thing.” Some of the natives made trouble. They said of these natives who were keeping the Sabbath, “You do not work on the seventh day;” and of me they said, “You stop all work on the first day; you do not keep the seventh day.” “Does He give you two days? Is that the way He does?” Of those natives who were keeping the Sabbath they said, “Now you are becoming teachers. Do you know better than the white man? Who is right?” And so these natives came and asked me if it was right to keep that day. “It makes us trouble. Do you want us to keep the seventh day, or do you want us to keep the first day? Do you want us to do as you do?” I replied: “I want you to do what your heart says is right. I do not want to have to answer to God for your sins. Never mind what those people say. The fear or favor of man is deceitful. Perhaps by and by I shall keep the seventh day; but I need a little more knowledge and light. When I have examined the subject thoroughly, then it may be that I shall be with you. I will either be with you or against you then; but now I can only say to you, I keep the first day because my fathers did, and because my people do; and you keep the seventh day because the Word of God says you should.” I found no rest till I decided to obey God. Mr. Booth is now in Africa preaching the truth of the Gospel.