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 year 1900 a friend said to me, "Do you believe in keeping the Ten Commandments?" "Yes," I said. "Then why do you work on the Sabbath?" "I do not work on Sunday," I replied. My friend remarked: "Sunday is not the Sabbath. The word 'Sunday' is not in the Bible." This caused me to think I never had seen the name Sunday in the Bible. Like a flash it came to me. Some one has given to God's day of rest a different name from what He gave it in His law. Then I began to inquire and to search in all available books of history for light upon this subject; and I was astonished to find that not only had the name of God's rest day been supplanted, but that man had attempted to change the Lord's holy time, and to place it upon another day in the week than that on which He had placed it at the creation of the world. I was educated in the Presbyterian faith, and at eighteen became a member of that church, where I remained until three years ago. All my people are Presbyterians. I can honestly say it was through the instructions of my mother, from early childhood, that I at last became convinced of the holy Sabbath day, for she taught me that the commandments were just, holy, and good, and that to break any one of them was a sin before God. A little time after I had learned of the change that human power had made in God's Word, a prominent, talented Presbyterian preacher, but now retired from the church, called on me. I had listened to his sermons for several years, and I said to him: "I am sincere; I do wish eternal life. I am now keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, in place of Sunday, the first day of the week. Am I in the right, or am I wrong in doing this?" Without one moment's hesitation he replied: "You are perfectly right; taking the Bible as your guide, you can not "keep for the Sabbath any other day than the seventh day of the week. The Sabbath day of the Fourth Commandment begins at the going down of the sun on Friday, and ends with the going down of the sun on Saturday. If this is what you do, you are right; for it is the only holy time given us. Those who are keeping Sunday, the first day of the week, have no authority from God for so doing. I give you my full and free authority to tell any one anywhere that I say this." In great astonishment I asked, "Why did you not tell the people this truth when you were preaching in that church across the way?" He replied, "When I stood behind that desk I could not say this; but now I have no church, I am free to say what I think and what I know." Praise God for bringing me out of the darkness, in which professed teachers of God's Word are leading the people. Alice C. Bush. I was traveling South for a ten years' service in the Lord's vineyard, before going to Africa. When I reached Elder Saxby's, at Cleveland, he invited me to spend the night with them and their workers. A short conversation upon the Bible, sacred history, and the little tract, "Which Day Do You Keep, and Why?" and I left my old ancestral Sunday forever for the Sabbath of the Lord my God. I saw that the Lord's Sabbath was the seal of His law, without which any law must be null and void. I now feel that it was because I was not obeying God by going South years before I did, that I did not meet any Northern Sabbath keepers, and thus have my attention called to the Sabbath truth before. The Sabbath has been a sweet morsel to me, and a foundation stone by which to help me to many other truths. It grows more precious every day. Mrs. H. M. Simers.