[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.]
HOW THE SABBATH CAME TO ME.
From my father’s death, when I was seven years of age, I was for eight years in the family of Methodist grandparents, and attended Methodist Sunday-school. One week, when I was at the age of ten years, we were to commit to memory the Ten Commandments. The same week, in the day school, we repeated in concert the number and names of the days of the week. When others would say, “Sunday, the first day,” I would say, “Monday, the first day.” I was threatened with punishment if I did not repeat it as the rest did. Rather than be whipped I joined the rest. In the evening I asked a pious aunt, “Is Saturday the Sabbath?” I thought Saturday must be the Sabbath, for the fourth commandment says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” The reply given me was “Saturday used to be the Sabbath, but Christ changed it to the first day of the week.”
When sixteen years of age I united by baptism with the First-day Adventists. The next year I commenced to preach for them. It was then the belief of that people that the Ten Commandments were done away by Christ. Once only while among them, when I was about twenty years of age, I gave a discourse on the law; and while repeating from Matt. 5:17–19, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,” the thought passed like a barbed arrow through my mind, and, as distinct as though spoken in an audible tone, “Heaven and earth have not passed yet.” And as I read, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,” the conviction came, “The law there spoken of is all binding, and all to be kept.” This conviction clung to me until I accepted the Sabbath truth.
On Sept. 26, 1852, some three months after the above occurrence, I listened to a discourse from Brother J. N. Andrews on the topic, “What law was abolished by Christ?” He treated of the two laws, one binding upon all men—the moral code, the other the law regulating those sacrificial offerings that pointed to Christ, and which ceased to be of obligation when Christ died. This cleared away my difficulties on the law question. With the next Sabbath I began its observance, and have now kept it for nearly fifty years. I rejoice in the privilege of calling “The Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable.” Isa. 58:13.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Oakland, Cal.
THE MOST HELPFUL HELPER.
My attention was first called to the Sabbath by one of our canvassers, who simply told me that the first day of the week was not the Sabbath, but that the Bible said, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” In keeping Sunday, the first day of the week, we were simply “obeying the Catholic Church.” This set me to studying the Bible, and then I bought “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation;” subscribed for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and Evangeliets Sendebud. This gave me a good start, but I did not become fully settled in my mind and begin to keep the Sabbath until I had read “Great Controversy.” In reading this book I found such convincing truth that it settled me for all time, and I have never since wavered. I love this truth, and it looks brighter and better to me to-day than ever before.
H. C. J. WOLLEKAR.
Seattle, Wash.
WHAT JESUS DID.
I was born of praying parents; taught to reverence God and His Word, as expounded by the church.
I was told that Christ and His followers, by their example, taught Sunday-keeping. In searching for such example, I found Christ’s words in John 15:10, “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” His Father commanded the seventh day to be kept. Ex. 20:8–11. Jesus says that He kept it. I found in Luke 23:56 that the women which followed Jesus kept the Sabbath, “according to the commandment.” There is no day in the commandment but the seventh day, then I knew that the seventh day was the Sabbath, and I therefore kept it.
