I AM a Baptist, because I believe the Baptist principle of interpretation to be sound; viz., that whatever is commanded by an institution, is to be learned from the law of the institution, and not from other sources. Therefore, finding the ordinance of baptism in the New Testament, we are not to go back to the law of circumcision to determine who are the proper subjects of the ordinance; and in respect to the mode, or what baptism is, the only rule to determine this is the meaning of the word, the manner of its use in the New Testament, and the circumstances attending its administration as therein recorded. In other words, the law of the institution is the only rule of obedience. This is the reason why I am a Baptist.
And the reason why I am more than a Baptist is, I apply the same mode of reasoning and interpretation to other institutions and duties of revealed religion. For example, take the Sabbatic institution. I know of no rule of obedience, but the the fourth commandment. And taking this law for the rule of action, I can keep no other day as the Sabbath, but the one expressly named in the commandment, the seventh day. Therefore I am a Seventh-day Baptist.
And I am more than this. Applying the same obvious, common-sense rules of interpretation to the prophecies, or in other words, to the promises of the Scriptures, that I do to their institutions and laws, I find that Jesus, when he was about to leave the world and go to his Father, promised that he would come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, attended by all the holy angels. And he gave certain signs of his return, by which believers might know when his coming would be near, even at the doors.
These signs have appeared. I believe his promises, and I believe that the promised signs have been fulfilled; and hence, that his second advent is near, even at the doors. Therefore I am an Adventist.
But if it is time that the true people of God should be Adventists in the sense of believing that Christ's advent is even at the doors, it is certainly time that the advent messages, prophesied in Rev. 14:6-12, should be in process of fulfillment, being distinctly proclaimed in the world, by the believers in Jesus Christ. True Adventists will find their duty and their history clearly marked out in this prophetic sketch. Those who cannot point out their progress in the advent proclamation by the use of this unerring prophetic outline, are not genuine Adventists, though they may bear the name.
The genuine experience of Adventists is here given in advance. And the final advent message develops the true people of God, distinguished as those "who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Are these the distinguishing marks of those Adventists who hold that the commandments of God have been superseded and abolished by the faith of Jesus? A person is not a commandment-keeper who breaks one of the commandments. Such should be described as those who break the commandments. And the Sabbath law is one of the commandments of God.
Therefore No-Sabbath Adventists are not the ones described in this prophecy. And the words of this commandment have not been changed. It still says, "The SEVENTH DAY is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Therefore I am a Seventh-day Baptist Adventist.