[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 300 words. Let us hear from all.]
CXXXV.
ABOUT the year 1862, when the Civil War was at its height, Brethren J. N. Loughborough and Moses Hull pitched a tent and began a series of meetings in Charlotte, Mich. I was publishing a newspaper there, and, as is customary in such cases, the preachers called to have a notice of their meetings inserted in the next issue, which was willingly done as an item of news.
I attended most of the meetings, partly from curiosity and partly to enable me to give an account of the services. I was from the first very much interested by the clear, convincing manner in which the preachers handled their different subjects, especially the Sabbath question. The subject was not entirely new to me, for, as foreman of a newspaper in Battle Creek, I had previously employed two Adventist printers, who always quit work Friday evening, and did not return until Monday morning.
The meetings made such a stir in Charlotte and vicinity, particularly among the ministers, that one of them challenged the Adventists to a discussion of the Sabbath question, based on the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue. The challenge was promptly accepted, Mr. Hull taking the affirmative side and Mr. Jones (a Methodist) the negative. It scarcely need be said that the argument and abundant scriptural proof presented by Mr. Hull in favor of the seventh-day Sabbath completely overwhelmed his opponent's flimsy argument; so almost the entire audience decided, and it seemed very clear to me.
The next year I sold out my business in Charlotte and with my family returned to California (where I had lived in '50 and '51), and eventually settled in Woodland, and again became publisher of a newspaper. In the early '70s notices appeared in the Petaluma and other exchanges of "tent-meetings, conducted by Elder Loughborough, a Seventh-day Adventist."
In 1872—ten years from the time I had heard him in Charlotte, Mich., and 3,000 miles away—the same Elder Loughborough pitched his tent in Woodland, and commenced preaching his "peculiar doctrines," assisted at different times by Dr. M. G. Kellogg, and later on by Elders M. E. Cornell, W. N. Healey, Mrs. E. G. White, and Elder James White. We entertained the ministers, attended the meetings, bought and read the books explaining the doctrines preached, and thus became fully convinced that it was duty to obey. WM. SAUNDERS.
XXXVI.
I WAS brought up a member of the Church of England, and observed Sunday until about five years ago, when I became acquainted with Brother H. A. Davis, who convinced me of my error. Then we were instrumental in convincing my sister, with whom I then lived. While she was alive we had many happy meetings in her house. She died two years ago, but I still hold to the truth, and bless God that I met Brother Davis. J. B. PRATT.
[Brother H. A. Davis, who is a medical missionary in India, tells us that this brother is very poor, is totally blind in one eye, and able to see but little with the other.]