The Seventh-Day Adventists.
UNDER the above head appears an article in the London Christian Shield, of Jan. 30, 1874, from the pen of Eld. W. M. Jones, the pastor of the Seventh-day Baptist church in that city. It was called out by the publication in that paper of an attack upon ourselves copied from an American paper. THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.
The Seventh-day Adventists are Christians who observe the seventh day of the week instead of the first day as the Sabbath of the Lord God. About the year 1836, Captain William Miller, a member of the Low Hampton, Baptist church, Washington Co., State of New York, began to lecture on the second coming of Christ, which he affirmed would take place in 1843. Being of irreproachable character and very devout, his preaching attracted attention among Baptists and others, and many adopted his views. At first, the people were called Millerites. Their views on the speedy and set time of the Saviour's coming, as they spread, elicited great opposition. In some cases, churches were divided, and in others, members were excluded. Since 1843, they have organized churches and a national Conference. After the death of Mr. Miller, Elder Joshua V. Himes became the leading spirit among the Adventists. The converts were numbered by thousands, grouped in societies of three and a score over a vast extent of country, and to propagate their views they have spared no pains in giving themselves and their property to what they consider the work of the Lord. About 1846, two of their ministers met a Seventh-day Baptist sister in the State of New Hampshire, from whom they received tracts on the Sabbath question, and upon investigation adopted the view stated above. From that circumstance and that time begins the history of Seventh-day Adventists. They practice believers’ baptism, enjoin the giving of the tenth of their income for benevolent work, discard in all its forms the use of tobacco, and also of alcoholic beverages, and many of the grotesque fashions in dress. . . . While they believe in the speedy coming of Christ, they do not fix upon the time. They number about 6,000 communicants, and are found from Maine to California. Numbers of people favor their sentiments who are not members. They have a mission in Switzerland, and home missions among the Danes, Swedes, Germans, and French. A large steam-power press is worked at Battle Creek, Michigan, and they contemplate publishing establishments on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Their publications, besides Sabbath and other tracts and books, are the ADVENT REVIEW AND HERALD OF THE SABBATH, a weekly; the True Missionary, a monthly; the Danish Advent Tidende, and the Svensk Advent Harold, both monthlies; besides contemplated monthlies in German and French. Confessedly they combine learning, talent, energy, and devotion. In their school at Battle Creek, Michigan, the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and modern languages, and the sciences, are taught. In the last issue of the HERALD it is stated that they have 30,000 dollars' worth “of publications ready to ship,” which means that they are sent everywhere. Theirs is an itinerant ministry, the ministers often being absent from their families months at a time. They say “the field is the world, and the original commission, ‘go ye,’ has the same weight and power for the consciences of all true ministers of Christ, and the same fire for their souls, as it had nearly nineteen centuries ago for Christ’s first ministers.” REMARKS. The above statements are substantially correct. The introduction of the Sabbath, however, to the Advent people was in 1844 instead of 1846. They have now three power-presses in active operation, and use two large offices for their work of publication at Battle Creek. The third is also erected, and will soon be used in the same manner.