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.] A GLORY IN THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
I grew up a Methodist. In 1860, living with my parents in Wisconsin, a few numbers of the Review and Herald found their way into our home. My father became interested in an article on the “History of the Sabbath,” by J. N. Andrews, and to prevent his destroying the harmony that I thought then existed in the family, I began the study of the Sunday question. To get at it in the quickest way, I appealed to our local Methodist preacher, and asked him to give me the Bible proof for Sunday-keeping. Taking his Bible he read Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2; Luke 24:1. While he was reading these texts I noticed that the Sabbath was mentioned as being the day before the first day of the week. While reading the last text, my eyes rested on the closing verses of chapter 23. “See here, elder,” said I, “would not the disciples of Christ, who had been with Him during His public ministry, whom He had taught, have known of any change in the Sabbath? Yet, without seeming to recognize any change, they ‘rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment,’ and the next day was the first day of the week. Now, elder, turn to the commandment, and that will tell us just which day is the Sabbath.” Turning to Ex. 20:8–11, he read the fourth precept of the Decalogue. “But,” said I, “I want the command for keeping Sunday.” “That is all the command there is in the Bible for the observance of a Sabbath,” he replied. “What! and you go to that command to prove Sunday-keeping?” “Certainly, since that is the only Bible command for Sabbath observance.” “Well, then, we might just as well give up first as last; for that text positively declares that ‘the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.’” I stood trembling before the command of God. Instantly my mind was illuminated, and I saw a glory in the fourth commandment that I had never seen before, and my whole being cried out for the living God. Soon Satan suggested, you must not accept this without further study; but I thank God that His sweet Spirit did not leave me, but ever kept the commandment before my eyes; and, at last, when I did yield to the gentle entreaties of the Holy Spirit, what a peace pervaded my soul; it was a new conversion; and I found my father, mother, sister, and her husband ready to unite with me in the observance of all God’s commands. To-day I find myself in perfect accord with all the truths of the Third Angel’s Message, and hope to share a home forever with the servants of God in the earth made new. There are many; the paramount reason is that God requires it. He spoke it, and wrote it as one of the commands of His law upon enduring stone. Ex. 24:12. No other part of God’s Word has been so honored by this distinction. He also says, “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.” Ps. 89:34. In honoring God we should never rest on mere opinion, but His Word. The saying of Christ, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9), may as well refer to individual opinion averse to His Word as to the command of others. Every command of God bears its own reasons with convincing power. So with the Sabbath command: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8–11. The Sabbath therefore antedated sin, and is thus incorporated in the original, eternal law of love. He “rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” The resting marks a period to His work, and sets a seal to His creation, indicating that His labor is eternally fixed. No rebellion could thwart His purposes. He established not the earth “in vain.” Isa. 45:18. No act of God is selfish. His resting and refreshing was a necessity, that His creatures might enjoy “His rest.” “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Heb. 4:8. It is the hallowed souvenir to bless His creatures of faith in the renewal by the Gospel. As it is God’s rest, nothing can surpass it, and this the Gospel renews as a gift to the believer in Christ. Matt. 11:28. “The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” It “was made for man,” that the refreshings of God should bless him. Mark 2:28; Gen. 2:1–3. Personally I was led to keep the Sabbath day, not only because of parental influence, but by the express command of God. The fleshly birth does not make free. “Ye must be born again.” John 3:1–3. The power of the new birth is found in the Sabbath commandment, as that is creative power, and nothing less is capable of producing it. It is the “all power” of the Gospel. Matt. 28:18; Rom. 1:18. So the Sabbath is the memorial and sign of creative, sanctifying power. Ex. 31:13. To sum up individual reasons for Sabbath-keeping: (1) The command of God showing the Sabbath to antedate sin; (2) His unalterable Word; (3) it is vain worship to teach for doctrine the commandments of men, and there is no other command for any day except the seventh day; (4) it belongs to the Gospel from first to last.