Incidents at the Tent by D. M. Canright

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 13, 1875

Incidents at the Tent.

By D. M. Canright

A STRIKING illustration of bigotry, and the power of priests over their followers, has just come under my observation. A young couple came to our tent about one week and were greatly pleased. They were very grateful for the light they received upon the Bible and the prophecies, and they invited us to board with them.

But their minister, learning of this, visited them, told them that they were being deceived, that they were not able to judge on such matters, and warned them to stay away from the tent. They never came again. I talked with them about it, but the young man said, “I am a Methodist, and I shall never leave that church though hell stands before me.” He would stick to the church though it took him to hell! Poor, deluded soul! His love is not a love for God, and truth, and right, but for his church and party. Thousands of such are everywhere found.

Last evening the southern Methodist minister was at our meeting. I gave him liberty to speak, and among other things, he said that the Jews kept the Sabbath to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt. It so happened that a learned Jewish Rabbi and his lady were present, and to this assertion they both shook their heads and said, “No, no.” I then asked the Rabbi to give us their views of the Sabbath. He spoke very earnestly in favor of the Lord’s Sabbath, telling the congregation that it was an entirely wrong idea that it originated with Moses, but that it was as old as creation, and was kept by Adam and the patriarchs, and that its design was to commemorate creation. We keep the passover, said he, to commemorate our deliverance from Egypt, but he who breaks the Sabbath denies the Creator, the only true God.

This, of course, did not help the minister very much. I asked the Rabbi if there was any difference between the ten commandments and the other laws of the Old Testament. He said, “Oh, yes. The ten commandments are the foundation of everything. They are eternal and apply to all nations, while many of the other laws of Moses applied only to the Jews while in the land of Canaan.”

These statements strengthened our cause very much in the minds of the people.

D. M. CANRIGHT.