OUR BAPTIST NEIGHBORS by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1880

OUR BAPTIST NEIGHBORS.

By James White

WE have before congratulated the Baptists of California in their having so worthy an organ in the Herald of Truth, published in Oakland. In its issue of October 1, we find the following notice of our late camp-meeting:—

"One of the largest camp-meetings, as such, ever held in California, was that of the Seventh-day Adventists, recently, in Alameda. It was indeed a 'city of tents.' Its management was excellent, as might be expected from so worthy a people. Its spirit was serious and decided. This body of believers has for its advocacy the conviction that it is called to stand for the restoration of Christianity to the worship of God on the seventh day of the week, and to enforce upon the attention of men an immediate expectation of the return of the Lord. It has the best of the argument on the question of the Sabbath, if the authority for the change from the seventh to the first day of the week is to rest upon a precept, either of Jesus or of his apostles, enjoining this change. It does not have the argument, however, with those to whom the example of Christ and his apostles is as binding as law. We believe in looking for and hastening unto the day of our Lord. His personal return is no small part of the joy of our faith. The certainty of that return has unquestionably been the faith of the ages. Of its uncertainty with respect to time, in view of the stupendous failures of not a few calculations in the present century, we have this remark only to make—that upon this uncertainty, as Alford has well expressed it, 'hope may be stimulated, and watchfulness aroused.' As a matter of fact, after Father Miller's erroneous expectations in 1843, he wrote as follows: 'I have fixed my mind on another time; and here I mean to stand till God gives me more light, and that is, to-day, to-day, to-day, until he comes.' And so he watched and waited till, in 1849, there came an angel, not the angel of the trumpet, but one who spoke to the old man alone, saying that the Lord was not coming to him, but that he should now depart, and be with the Lord.

"Thus writes Prof. Norman Fox, in the National Baptist, with whose judgment we are quite in sympathy, that 'on the calendar of eternity it is just as bold to expect the advent in a given century as in a given year.' In stating this as our opinion, we nevertheless deplore the large silence of the universal Christian church upon the sublime and inspiring second advent thought. That thought seems to us to be interwoven with almost every thread of New Testament inspiration."

We are glad to find in that paper such an expression on the doctrine of the advent; and we shall strive to always deserve so good a notice as a people, for which we return thanks. It is just what we should expect from that source. We are in no fear of ever having any injustice done to us by Dr. Abbott, the editor, who is every whit a Christian gentleman. His course has been in marked contrast with that of some California editors, who seem to let their prejudices control their judgment. The former has in them, perhaps, the controlling power. We have treated all with courtesy, and if some of them have not seen fit to return it, we bear them no ill will. If they find pleasure in indulging splenetic feelings, they shall enjoy it alone.

Now we wish to have a little brotherly talk with the editor of the Herald of Truth. We do not forget the years in which "we took sweet counsel" with our Baptist brethren, in whose fellowship we walked. For many things we highly regard them as a people. Yet we have "somewhat against them," and we request them to listen to a word of admonition.

If the Israelites were ever greater sinners than "the nations," it was not because their actions were worse, but because their privileges were greater. "Sin by the commandment becomes exceeding sinful." In this respect their "sin abounded." Applying this principle to the Baptists, the fact that they are jealous of their claim to being consistent with the Bible, makes their inconsistency appear the greater whenever it is manifested. The papists are not at all inconsistent in the following tradition, for that is their profession. The pedo-baptists are not inconsistent in their practice of infant baptism, for their principles and processes of reasoning admit of inference and supposed examples as the basis of institutions. But when the Baptists scout such principles, deny all tradition, and call for an "explicit Scripture warrant" for an action or for an institution, their inconsistency is too evident to be hid when they follow tradition, practice on an inference, and allow supposed examples to take precedence of law. And that is just what they do on the subject of the Sabbath. While we esteem Dr. Abbott truly as a brother battling for the right, and hope that he may succeed in his efforts to raise the name of the Baptists of California from the unenviable position to which designing men have sunk it, we think his position on the Sabbath, as taken in the above article, is not consistent with Baptist principles.

1. If the Doctor esteems the example of Christ as equal, or superior, to law, why does he discard his example, explicitly recorded as such, in the case of feet-washing? And in this case the precept accompanied the example. We promise to keep Sunday with the Baptists, and sprinkle infants with the pedo-baptists, when they will show as good authority for these practices as we show for washing the feet of the disciples.

2. Were we to admit the example of Christ to be equal in all things to legal warrant, we should still be a Seventh-day Adventist, as we are not aware that even an inference exists on which it is claimed that Christ honored the seventh day.

3. We have explicit statement, oft repeated, that the seventh day belongs to the Lord, as a sanctified, hallowed, consecrated day,—"the holy of the Lord," the memorial rest-day of the Creator, of which the Son of man is also Lord. While not even a shadow of an inference from Scripture can be produced for calling the first day of the week "the Lord's day," as the Baptists do.

4. As the Baptists, without any warrant of Scripture, observe the Sunday instead of the Sabbath which Jehovah enjoined in his commandment, we inquire, by what right do they demand a warrant of Scripture for infant baptism? We honestly think that any candid person must admit that the inferences are as strong in favor of infant baptism as in favor of Sunday-keeping. If inferences are admissible as the ground of institutions, why do Baptists show this partiality?

5. As Baptists so confidently refer to the testimony of "the early fathers," and to church history, to prove the early practice of Sunday-keeping, from which they infer its authority, why do they reject the same testimony, and deny the same inference in favor of infant baptism? It is matter of the clearest proof that infant baptism was practiced in the days of Cyprian and of Tertullian, and that it was based on inferences drawn from Scripture. Sunday, as a subject of tradition, can show no better record. Why, then, discriminate in its favor?

Our first connection with the Baptists dates nearly forty years back. From our earliest remembrance it was the custom of pedo-baptists to taunt them with their inconsistency,—a charge from which they can never clear themselves while they observe Sunday. They may, indeed, as a last resort, claim that "example is as binding as law." But they cannot produce a clear example; certainly they cannot destroy the force of the apostle's declarations, that "By the law is the knowledge of sin;" and that "Where no law is there is no transgression;" that the man of God is "thoroughly furnished unto all good works," by "the holy Scriptures," and that "God will bring every work into judgment" by "his commandments." These considerations moved us to "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." And we hope to be found among those who are so doing, when Jesus our Master shall appear, to redeem his people. Rev. 14:9-14. J. H. W.