p. 47 | PRAIRIE ROSE, KANSAS by J. N. Ayers

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 8, 1877

PRAIRIE ROSE, KANSAS.

By J. N. Ayers

The meetings at this place closed last night. One united with the Sterling church. Several others are deeply interested, some of whom, we think, will soon take hold of the Sabbath. The weather was very stormy during the first of our meetings, and when the weather settled, the ministers became worse than the weather had been. I was reviewed on the kingdom by a Congregationalist. He took the position that the United States was the fifth kingdom, represented by the stone in Dan. 2:44, 45, and that the New Jerusalem would be located on the head waters of the Mississippi River.

Then Eld. Ross, a Methodist, spoke twice against the Sabbath. He spent the most of his first discourse trying to prove that no one ever had kept the commandments, therefore no one ever could keep them, and that it was not necessary to keep the Sabbath, if it had been the Saviour would have said so in Matt. 19:16.

I showed from Gen. 26:5, Ps. 119:55, John 15:10, that they had been kept by Abraham, David, and Christ; that they would be kept by the remnant church, by Rev. 14:12; that the angels keep them, by Ps. 103:20; that it was necessary to keep them, from Rev. 22:14; Matt. 19:16; 5:17, 18; Eccl. 12:13. He then claimed that they were holy, just and good, that they were our rule of life, and that he kept the fourth commandment by keeping the first day of the week. I referred him to the commandment, showing that it said the seventh, not the first, and that it never had been changed.

The people not being satisfied with this, they sent to Sterling for a Methodist presiding elder by the name of Honey, who had been in the ministry twenty-five years, a Greek and Latin scholar, and, as they claim, the sharpest man they have in these parts. He came, and made a great bluster, a great many assertions, and closed by giving a public challenge for a discussion, but refused to let me speak at the close of his discourse. I then offered the following, which he accepted:—

Do the Holy Scriptures teach that the Sabbath of the Lord has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week by divine authority?

We held four sessions of two hours each. He went to history to prove his change, at the same time claiming that he need not go outside of the Bible. He read from Ignatius, Barnabas, and Justin Martyr; then made the assertion that this was the best evidence extant and better than the different translations of the Bible. I showed from Mosheim, Neander, and others, that his best evidence could not be depended upon. Driven from history, he went to Col. 2:14-17, to show that it was done away, as he could not prove the change. Finding that this line of defense was not secure, he then took his stand on the seventh part of time.

But being routed from this, he fell back behind the fortification of lost time, and went back to the time when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and from that claimed that it was impossible to tell when the seventh day was. But here he got into trouble, for he had just stated that we must keep the first day, for that was the only day that had been set apart, and that was made holy at the time of the resurrection; so we had no trouble in finding the seventh day, as it is, of course, the day just before the first.

He then made a flank move, and declared that we could keep the commandments in spirit and violate the letter. I cited him to the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments. He then claimed that they were all fulfilled on the mount of transfiguration, that Moses there delivered up the law to Christ, and we should hear him. I called his attention to Matt. 19:18; Rev. 22:14. He then with much spirit (he says a Christian should not get mad) declared that we could break every one of those commandments (pointing to the chart), and still go to Heaven; therefore it was not necessary to keep the “Jewish Sabbath,” and if we were saved, it would be by grace and not by keeping the old Mosaic decalogue. He then went off into an old-fashioned Methodist exhortation of about fifteen minutes and so the discussion ended.

The house was filled to its utmost capacity, and some went away because they could not get in. I have had several calls for labor in this part of the State, which I cannot fill at present, but will try to come back some time next spring. Those desiring labor in their community can correspond with me at Garnett, Kansas.

J. N. AYERS.

Sterling, Jan. 30, 1877.