How They Became Convinced

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 29, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 44.

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.]

XXII.

I WAS reared in a minister’s home, father having preached for sixty years. All my people are Methodists. Mother dedicated me to the ministry the hour I was born. After a Christian experience of some years in young manhood, I drifted into infidelity. Twenty-five years ago I got hold of “Daniel and the Revelation,” by Uriah Smith and the wonderful fulfilment of prophecy cured me of my unbelief. In the same work I found the Sabbath question presented. The following texts contained the convincing argument on the question: Gen. 1:1; Isa. 45:18; Gen. 1:26; Heb. 1:3; John 1:3, 10; Heb. 1:1-3; Eph. 3:9; John 17:5; Gen. 2:7; Ps. 115:16; Eccl. 1:4.

In these texts I learned that Christ was associated with the Father in creation, and that He, Christ, was the maker of all things. Mark 2:27. Gen. 2:1-3 showed me the steps taken and materials used to make the holy day. Exodus 16 forever settled the question as to whether the Sabbath was “the seventh part of time,” or a definite day. I found the universal command in Ex. 20:8-11, and the Sabbath a test upon Israel in Jer. 17:24-27. 2 Chron. 36:17-21; Nehemiah 13; the prophecy of Jer. 31:31; Ps. 40:6-8; Gal. 3:29, and Matt. 5:17, convinced me that Christ came to live in harmony with, and to do the Father’s will (Matt. 7:21). The covenant made (Matt. 26:26), ratified (Gal. 3:15; Heb. 9:16, 17), to my mind left no place for a change this side the death of the Testator. The Sabbath recognized in prophecy (Matt. 24:20), and enjoyed by the seer of Patmos (Rev. 1:10), seemed the only day that had any claim to my devotions. The declarations of Christ (John 4:34; 5:19; 9:4; 17:4; and 19:30) declare a finished work and an unrepealed law, which in the ark was underneath the mercy seat from which was dispensed mercy above law to the violators thereof. With this view of the earthly and a glimpse of the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8 and 9, also Rev. 11:19), and the declarations of the apostles (Rom. 7:7; 3:31; 7:12; and James 2:10-12), there came the settled conviction that the moral law is the foundation of God’s moral government, and as stable as Deity Himself. I confessed my sins in March, 1881, and in April went to a church some ten miles away, where Elder A. M. Mann buried me with Christ,—from which burial (by the grace of God) I was resurrected to a new life. I attended the Ohio camp-meeting in August, and in September began to preach the precious message the Lord had given me, and from that day until this my confidence has never wavered, but my faith is stronger and hopes brighter than when I first believed. D. E. LINDSEY.

Clyde, Ohio.