How They Became Convinced
By Editor
[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.] IN the winter of 1894-95, altho county surveyor, I was teaming in Mariposa County, Cal., with headquarters at Mormon Bar. I rested with my team on Sunday, but I met and became acquainted with another teamster by the name of Warren, who rested with his team on the Sabbath (Saturday). I inquired the reason of his faith, when he referred me to various passages in the Word, and, among other things, told me to read the fourth chapter of Hebrews, when I went home. Soon after, I told my wife of the conversation with him, and read to her the chapter above mentioned. Not finding the explanation I wanted, I said from my heart, as in prayer, "This does not satisfy me. I do wish I could get more light on this Sabbath question." At this time we were at my sister's home in Jerseydale, she having gone to Pea Ridge. I had scarcely finished the sentence, when my wife handed me a book, saying, "Here is a book I found in the sitting-room to-day, which I think would be good to read." She had only glanced through it, and had brought it out and laid it on the table in the dining-room, being as yet ignorant of its contents. I took the book, opened it incidentally, and, on looking down, found a chapter about the Sabbath. After glancing at a few lines, I said, "Why, Addie, here is the very light that I want." So I read the chapter through. I then noticed that the book was entitled, "The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan." I afterward started at the beginning and read to my wife every evening. The book was so intensely interesting, that I could not quit reading it until eleven or twelve o'clock, beginning as early as six in the evening. The reading was necessarily slow, because I followed every foot-note, and searched the Bible for every reference given, forming my conclusions from the Word alone. In two weeks we had completed about three-fourths of the book. But on a Friday I had to go back to Mormon Bar; so I told my wife that I was going to begin keeping the Sabbath the next day, and she replied, "I will go with you." Praise God for answering my prayer; and may He ever bless Brother Warren and his good wife for bringing us into the truth. When my sister returned, we found that she had bought the "Great Controversy" from a one-armed man, through sympathy, and had laid it away without knowing what it was about. STONEWALL JACKSON HARRIS.
County Surveyor Mariposa Co., and U. S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor, Mariposa, Cal. HAVING been reared in the Roman Catholic faith, I was taught that the church had the right to make laws binding on the human conscience. So I kept Sunday until I was about eighteen years old, when I began drifting away, and did not go to any church for several years. Then, as I happened to move near a church of United Brethren, I attended their meetings for a while, until a man loaned me a book, "The Great Controversy." Before I had read it half through, I was converted and accepted present truth with gladness, and it is becoming dearer to me every day. I want to be among those of whom it is said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." HAVING been brought up by God-fearing parents, I have in consequence a fair knowledge of the Bible. Until the year 1897, all of us were Sunday-keepers, and I used to wonder very often why Sunday was observed as the Sabbath when it was quite evident that it was the first day of the week. In the year above mentioned my father, after careful searching of the Scriptures, announced his determination to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. It needed very little argument to convince me that Saturday was the right day, and now, I am glad to say, we are all Sabbath-keepers through God's great mercy. G. E. HUNTER-DAVIS, M. D.