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.] I BECAME interested in the true Sabbath when a child. The older members of my father's family argued that Sunday was the first day of the week. I was very sure that it was the seventh day. When told that I was mistaken, I said, "The seventh day is the Sabbath, for the Bible says so." From that time I could not be satisfied with Sunday. When quite young I was converted through reading the Bible and secret prayer. Then I prayed earnestly for the whole truth, and to know what church the Lord would have me join. I decided to give my whole lifetime to the search for truth until I found it. My father attended a tent-meeting one day when in a town thirteen miles away. He brought home one little tract, which I read and preserved five years, waiting for an opportunity to send for other publications listed on the last page. Father said the preachers were Seventh-day Adventists. What does that mean? I asked. He answered, "They keep the ancient seventh day, and not Sunday, for the Sabbath. They believe in the soon-coming or advent of Christ. They do not set time, as we have been wrongly informed." That name awakened in me an interest in the true Sabbath and people of God that never left me. A few years later I heard two or three sermons at a tent, and became intensely interested in the subject of the Sanctuary. I was too bashful to speak to the minister, but another tract fell into my hands which I kept also. At the age of twenty I sent to the office for copies of the Review and Herald, and subscribed for a year. I have been a constant reader of that paper ever since—a period of over twenty-two years. I also sent for a work on the Sanctuary question, and for the "History of the Sabbath," and other books. I continued searching my Bible in connection with these publications, and in six months received all that I had hoped for in a lifetime. One short winter (1882-83) of study and prayer settled the question forever. I have been keeping the Sabbath ever since and have always felt that I owed the balance of my earthly lifetime to the work of placing these publications in the homes of the people. This I am now doing, by the aid of a wagon filled with Bibles and Seventh-day Adventist books, tracts, and papers.
DANIEL GRABER. IT was the study of the second, seventh, and eighth chapters of Daniel, with the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Revelation, that led me into the truth.
W. H. GRAYSON. IN 1863 two strange ministers came to our town and pitched a tent. My parents, who were members of the Christian Church, attended these services. My mother was among the first to embrace the Sabbath reform. Soon after this the pastor of our church called on us. At this time I was only sixteen years old. But I took a great interest in hearing discussions on Bible subjects. The minister said to mother that he understood she had gone over to the Adventists. Mother replied that she had begun to keep the true Sabbath; and that as a Christian she professed to follow the teaching of the Bible. She then brought the family Bible and asked the minister to show her some authority for Sunday-keeping. This he did not attempt to do, but laid the Bible down and told her that the rules of the church required the members to keep Sunday. Mother replied that the Christian Church had no creed but the Bible, and she proposed to stand by that creed. This satisfied me that there was nothing in the Bible for Sunday-keeping. Soon after this I began to study the Bible for myself, and became convinced that Sabbath-keeping is an act of worship, whereby we acknowledge God as Creator, whereas by keeping Sunday we acknowledge the authority of the Roman apostasy. Since that time I have endeavored to observe the Bible Sabbath.
C. H. BLISS.