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.] FOR more than twenty years I tried strenuously in three different States, to have my way, and, tho laboring severely and suffering intensely, I failed. Sorrow and misfortune followed me continually. At last I turned to God for help, and He gave it, tho for some eight years I sought a fellowship and consolation among many different churches, but could not find it. I felt a great void in my heart, an intense longing for a revelation of the truth as it is in Jesus. I knew it must be somewhere, or God would not have placed in my heart the earnest desire that absorbed all other purposes. However, my search at last brought a rich reward. In March, 1894, my most inveterate enemy, who intensely hated the truth and all its followers, sent me a large package of old Review and Heralds, and in three days' time I was convinced that this was the great and glorious thing that I had sought after so diligently. I accepted it all, believed it all, and kept the next Sabbath and every one since. Thus, tho the papers were sent as an insult, it proves how God can make the wrath of man to praise Him. This knowledge has proved so perfect and satisfactory! It grows grander and brighter, sweeter and better, every hour. It shows that all of the Bible is in accord, explaining itself. It fills the heart and mind full every day, and the next day we are surprised to find new depths to be explored, new heights to be surmounted; still God satisfies and fills all each day. After six months' labor, with the help of Brethren R. M. Kilgore and A. F. Harrison, all of my family, wife, son, and four daughters,—accepted the truth, and consecrated themselves to Christ's work. I thought the foreign mission work of the most consequence, and have tried to qualify all my children for it. My oldest daughter is now in far-off Sumatra with Brother Munson; and, tho all of the others are doing grandly in Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, I yet hope they will all labor in East India. B. T. WALKER. WHEN I was about seventeen years of age, two ministers came from Michigan and pitched a tent in our home town, Springdale, Arkansas. In company with the family I attended the meetings, but I do not remember that the preaching had any appreciable effect on me. But one evening father bought a package of tracts from one of the ministers, and among them was one entitled "Elihu on the Sabbath." The family gathered around the fireside while father read this tract to us. I was struck with the directness of its argument, and from that time was convinced that the seventh day was the true Sabbath, and that it should be observed. The particular texts that convinced me more than all others were, Mark 16:1, 2; Luke 23:55, 56 and 24:1; Acts 13:14, 42-44 and 16:13. When I saw that Inspiration spoke of the seventh day as the Sabbath long after the crucifixion and resurrection, I saw at once that it must still be the Sabbath. A few years later I was converted, and took my stand for the "commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." I find Isa. 58:13, 14 fulfilled in my case. W. F. MARTIN.