WHEN the claims of God's holy Sabbath are presented and its observance is urged upon the people, then every effort is made by its opponents to belittle the Sabbath as an institution of but trifling account. It is said to be only a ceremonial precept given simply for man's convenience, and that its observance or non-observance is a matter of little importance. While it is admitted that all the other precepts of the decalogue are moral and their observance all-important, yet it is asserted that the fourth commandment is of a very different nature, containing no test of moral character. The only importance that is attached to it is as a day for physical rest and religious gatherings.
While the Sabbath is regarded in this light, of course men will not feel very particular about observing it. We propose, therefore, to show that the nature and design of God's Sabbath day is as much higher than this view of it as heaven is higher than the earth; that it is not only a moral institution, but that it is the most important precept in the whole decalogue. In proof that the Sabbath is a moral precept we offer the following facts:
I. Moral duties and precepts are such as grow out of the attributes of God. Creative power is the distinguishing attribute of the living God, and the Sabbath grew directly out of the exercise of this attribute in the creation of the world.
I do not see how the truthfulness of this proposition can be denied by any one. Why are we morally bound to serve God? Because he created us and all the blessings which we enjoy. None will deny that this is the basis of all our duties to God. A little reflection will show that it is not so much the wisdom, or the justice, or the holiness, or any other attribute of the Deity, as it is his act of creating us, which makes it our moral duty to obey him. Notwithstanding God is infinitely wise, just, holy, &c., yet could we bring ourselves into existence and sustain ourselves without his aid, we would be under no obligation to serve him. This is an important fact which we wish the reader to weigh carefully. It is, then, God's attribute of creative power above all others, that is the basis of all our moral duties to him. He made us by his power as a Creator, and by his power he can destroy us; hence he has a perfect right to say what we shall, or shall not, do. So Paul argues in Rom. 9:20–23. Now the very basis of the Sabbath was God's act of creating the world in six days and resting upon the seventh. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. * For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore (for this reason) the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8–11; Gen. 2:1–3.
The foundation of the Sabbatic precept, then, is the same as that of all other moral precepts; and hence it must be moral.
II. The Sabbath, like all other moral precepts, rests upon eternal and unalterable facts.
In creating the world, God worked the first six days of the first week of time. He then rested upon the seventh day. That act made it his rest day, or Sabbath day. Sabbath is a Hebrew word, signifying rest. Hence the Sabbath day of the Lord signifies the rest day of the Lord. Therefore, when God had rested upon the seventh day, that day had thus become distinguished from all the other days of the week as God's rest, or Sabbath, day. When a man is born upon a certain day, that day becomes his birth day. No other day in the year is his birth day. So the day upon which God rested, the seventh day, and no other, is God's Sabbath day.
These facts of creation are just as true now as they were when the Sabbath was first given, six thousand years ago. Is it not as true now as it was then that God did work the first six days of the week? Certainly. Then these are still only working days, as the Lord has properly named them. "Thus saith the Lord God, The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east, shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened." Eze. 46:1. Is it not also just as true now as it was then that the seventh day is God's Sabbath day? Is it not still the day upon which he rested, and hence his rest day? Can you change your birth day from the day upon which you were born to one upon which you were not born? Of course not. Neither can the Lord's rest day be changed from the day upon which he did rest to one upon which he did not rest. Has the first day of the week become the Sabbath (rest) day of the Lord? Impossible, because no day can become God's rest day till he has first rested upon that day. But God never did rest upon any day except the seventh. Hence the Sabbath day of the Lord is unchangeably fixed to the seventh day. This will always remain a fixed fact while the earth stands, which will be eternally. For this earth is to be purified and become the everlasting abode of the righteous. Isa. 65:17–25; 2 Pet. 3:7–13; Isa. 66:22, 23. So long as days shall continue to succeed each other, so long must the seventh day continue to be the Creator's Sabbath day. And so we read in Isa. 66:22, 23: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." This evidence proves my proposition true, that the Sabbath is founded upon unchangeable and eternal facts, the same as all moral principles are. Here, also, it seems to me that all must admit the truthfulness of this proposition.
III. The principle of every moral precept existed before the fall, and would have existed if man had never fallen. This is true of the Sabbath. But all ceremonial precepts were introduced after the fall, to shadow forth redemption.
Here again we find that true of the Sabbath which is true of all moral commandments, viz., that it was a primary institution existing before the fall of man. But this is not true of any ceremonial statute. Idolatry, image worship, profanity, lying, stealing, &c., would all have been morally wrong before the fall as after. Hence moral duties may be defined as those resting upon primary principles, or those which did exist before man fell, or before any remedial system was instituted. Ceremonial precepts are those which came in consequence of the fall, and which would never have existed but for sin. They grew out of the creature's action as a sinner, and shadowed forth his coming redemption. This is a plainly marked and undeniable distinction between moral and ceremonial precepts. Now we only have to ask to which of these two classes the Sabbath belongs, in order to determine whether it is a moral or a ceremonial precept.
Only one answer can be given to this. Every fact and principle upon which the Sabbath ever was based did exist before Adam sinned. Creation's work was ended, and the Lord's rest upon the seventh day was in the past. God had placed his blessing upon the seventh day and had set it apart to a sacred use. Thus the record reads: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which God created and made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:1–3.
This is a plain, chronological narration of what occurred in Eden. God worked six days, rested the seventh day, blessed it, and then sanctified it. Sanctify is thus defined by Webster: "To separate, set apart, or appoint, to a holy or religious use." Then the Lord did set apart to a holy use the seventh day in Eden. Every reference afterwards to the origin of the Sabbath always points back to Eden. See Ex. 16:23; 20:8–11; 31:17; Mark 2:27. The Sabbath is a memorial of creation as I will soon show; and hence became necessary as soon as creation week was ended. But what were types, and shadows, and ceremonies for? To point to redemption through Christ who was to come. Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1. But these were not given until man needed redemption; and he did not need redemption till after he had sinned. But the Sabbath was given before man sinned; and hence was not a typical or ceremonial institution. So we find that the Sabbath is a primary institution, all the reasons for which, like every moral precept, existed before the fall. The following established principle in law applies in this case: "Where there is no law by statute, but a reason for such law exists, the law itself is presumed to be in force." Broom's Legal Maxims.
Every fact and reason upon which the Sabbath was founded did exist before man fell in Eden. Hence the record in Gen. 2:1–3 is true and reasonable, which says that God made, blest, and set apart, the Sabbath day in Eden. Hence it cannot be typical or ceremonial.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
Love to God Unselfish.
By R. A. Morton
THERE are but three ways in which man's affections may run. First, Love of self. Second, Love to fellow man. Third, Love to God. Each of these has its respective place in the heart. Love of self is the only one susceptible of abuse. The highest order of affection is love to God. When the heart is filled with this, love of self and our fellow man will, in every instance, be duly exercised.
When Christ was asked, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" he answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matt. 22:37.
So long as man's mind is in harmony with these two great principles upon which the law hangs, so long will he avoid the destructive vortex of the consequences of selfishness. The first four commandments of the law are but the amplification of the highest order of love, containing an everlasting memorial of God. The last six are an amplification of the principle of love to man.
All affections not allowed by this immutable law of the Most High are wholly selfish; hence selfishness is a violation of the law of God. It is included in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. For, says John, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world," 1 John 2:16. All the poverty, pain and sickness, all the unbelief, crime and misery, are either the direct or indirect consequences of selfishness.
Every orphan's cry is a faint voice of the effects of selfishness. The rich man's money hoarded up, and watched and cared for day and night, is one of the most awful instances of selfishness. "Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." James 5:1-3.
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matt. 6:19-21. "If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon (riches, margin), who will commit to your trust the true riches." Again, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness."
James says, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James 4:4. Paul says, Rom. 8:7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God." Then to be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God, not subject to his law.
The enemies of God are becoming alarmingly numerous. They are found everywhere. Every circle of society is altogether worldly. Even the voice of God's professed servants is heard in gay festivals of folly and feasting, mingling in joy with worldly guests, thus wedding the flock of Christ with the world going on to ruin.
"If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." He is, therefore, a living enemy of God, breaking the two great principles of his law.
R. A. Morton.
Watsonville, Cal.
Weeds in Society.
By Herald; Presbyter
I DON'T know of any kind of labor which requires as much patience as weeding. Nor of any which so tempts one to moralize. I am weeding. Well what is a weed? Here is a poppy from the hills. There are millions of them in some of the wheat fields, and the farmers try hard to exterminate them. They call them weeds out in the country and pull them up or plow them under. But this poppy I am cultivating with great care. Beside it is a bunch of alfalfa. The farmer who has a field full of such bunches rejoices greatly. Thousands are cultivating the alfalfa, and hoping that it will enrich them with five crops of hay in a year. But I pull it up, as it grows beside and over shadows my wild poppy. I call the alfalfa a weed in my grounds. Why is it a weed to me and not to the farmer? and why is the poppy a weed to him and not to me? What is a weed? Webster says it is "any plant that is useless or troublesome;" but alfalfa is not useless. Many weeds are valuable as medicines. This is not a good definition, and the lexicographer seems to suspect as much, for he adds this note: "The weed has no definite application to any particular plant or species of plants. Whatever plants grow among corn, or grass, or in hedges, or elsewhere, and which are of no use to man, injurious to crops, or unsightly or out of place, are denominated weeds." Well, we stumble on a definition at last. A weed is not necessarily "unsightly;" it may be beautiful. It is not necessarily injurious; it may be useful. But it is everywhere and always a plant out of place—a plant, however ornamental or valuable in itself, that is where it is not wanted. Poppies are out of place in a wheat field, and alfalfa is out of place in a garden. Hence we will pull up in one locality what we would cultivate in another.
There are weeds in society, weeds in our churches, weeds in congress, in all our legislatures and conventions. Men out of place—intelligent, amiable, conscientious, yet useless, because they are not in the sphere to which they are adapted. I knew a man years ago who was a very good shoemaker, but thought he ought to be a lawyer. So he changed his lap-stone for a Blackstone, and instead of an honest and useful mechanic he became a miserable pettifogger. Out of his place, he had just brains enough to stir up strife and become as great a nuisance as the Canada thistle. I have known other men who were highly gifted and cultured, but who would not use their talents for the good of society, who would not let their foliage shed and refresh the weary, or the blossoms of their genius ripen into the fruits of useful deeds. Such men in their selfish seclusion are plants out of place. If any of our readers feel that they are useless, it may be that they are like the alfalfa in my garden; that they have drifted out of their true sphere and need only to get where they really belong and try to do their duty there in order to be both useful and happy. There are not a few Christians over here and elsewhere who are weeds because they neglect to occupy that position in the church and in the great benevolent movements of the day to which they are called by the providence and Spirit of God. They grow, they prosper in material things, but they bear no fruit, and choke the plants around them that try to be useful. Sad will be the reckoning hereafter with those who have luxuriated as weeds in the richest soil of this life.—Herald and Presbyter.
Be just before you are generous.
The Signs of the Times
By J. N. Andrews
OAKLAND, CAL., FIFTH-DAY, DEC. 3, 1874.
The Cause in Europe.
To a class of people who expect the truths we hold to go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, it is a matter of the deepest interest to note the establishment and progress of our Foreign Missions. Many of the readers of the SIGNS have read the “History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week,” by Eld. J. N. Andrews. It was the decision of our General Conference, at its session in August last, to send Bro. Andrews as a missionary to Switzerland, and to look after the interests of the cause of Seventh-day Adventists in Europe.
Bro. Andrews left Boston Sept. 14th, and has arrived in Switzerland. He spent a few days in England on his way. We quote below from the reports of his journey published in the Advent Review. You will notice some interesting facts in his article relative to the early Sabbatarians in England. He speaks of persons who are mentioned in his Sabbath History.
In a letter dated London, Oct. 5th, he says:
Our journey from Liverpool to London was one of deep interest. We bought third-class tickets, the expense being only about half that of first-class. The cars are divided into apartments which are entered at the side. The same train has first, second, and third-class accommodations. We had our apartment wholly to ourselves. We were about six hours in coming to London, a distance of about 200 miles. The beauty of the country through which we came is very great. The fields are all clothed in living green, and fenced up into small tracts by hedges which are kept neatly trimmed. Everywhere the land indicates a high state of cultivation.
When we reached Euston station in London, we found Bro. and sister Jones, who had come four miles to meet us and to extend to us a cordial Christian greeting. It was an occasion for heartfelt gratitude to God that we should meet such kind friends in a land of strangers.
Bro. Wm. M. Jones of London was formerly a missionary of the first-day Baptists to the island of Hayti. He embraced the Sabbath while on a visit to the United States. He was nevertheless sent back by that people, though he frankly told them that he was keeping the seventh day. They had confidence in his moral worth, and they probably thought that he would soon relinquish the observance of the seventh day. But his Sabbath-keeping in Hayti led those who were connected with the mission work in that island to arrange for an interchange of views between Eld. Jones and Eld. J. W. Morton the Presbyterian missionary to H. The result of that interview and of the tracts which Eld. J. gave to Eld. M. was that the latter within a few days’ time became an observer of the Sabbath of the Lord. Both these brethren lost their places as missionaries in a brief time after this.
Mill Yard church, of which Bro. Jones is now the pastor, consists of but a handful of Sabbath-keepers, yet it is a church in which all observers of the seventh day must feel a very deep interest. It is the oldest existing Sabbath-keeping church of which we have knowledge. Its oldest records were destroyed in a disastrous fire many years since, and it is not known how it originated, nor by whom it was organized. Probably the earliest Sabbath-keepers in England received the Sabbath truth from those who witnessed for it during the Dark Ages. This is the church of which the martyr John James was once pastor. The first object of interest to me in London was the spot where Mr. James’ head was set on a pole, which is but a short distance from the Mill Yard church. And next to this I felt a lively interest to examine other memorials of ancient Sabbath-keepers of which this church and its graveyard constitute an important part.
Since the coming of Bro. Jones, the inside of the church building has been repaired, and it presents a very neat, tasty appearance. Bro. Jones is laboring with great earnestness and perseverance to vindicate the claims of the Sabbath and the law of God, and to bring men through the power of the gospel of Christ to the fulfillment of the righteousness of the law of God. He is also by means of advertisements opening a correspondence with all the scattered Sabbath-keepers in Great Britain and Ireland, and with all who are friendly to the Sabbath. There are some very encouraging things in the discovery of Sabbath-keepers and in the conversion of a few here and elsewhere to the observance of the commandments of God. Sister Jones, the daughter of the former pastor of this church, Eld. W. H. Black, is an efficient helper in this sacred work.
Last Sabbath was an occasion of deep interest to me. In the forenoon Eld. Jones expounded the 8th Psalm. In the afternoon I spoke on the duties and responsibilities of those to whom God has committed his Sabbath from James 2 : 12. Then it being the day for the celebration of the supper of the Lord we united in the sacred ordinance.
Hereafter I will speak something of the causes which have so nearly exterminated the observance of the Sabbath in Great Britain. This morning I start with Eld. Jones to visit those in Tewkesbury and Glasgow who observe the Sabbath, or who are interested to understand concerning it. This is all that I can do in this country at this time, and this much seems plainly to be duty. I will then give some general view of the Sabbath-keepers in Great Britain. I believe the time has come when a special effort should be made for this country and when the state of things is propitious for such an effort. I have been sensible of the presence of God every day since we left Boston, and especially since we came to England. I am sure that God is ready to bless the preaching of his truth if we only walk before him to his acceptance.
In a letter from Paris, Oct. 14, Bro. Andrews says of London:
Here are some deeply interesting memorials of the Sabbath during the past 250 years. Mill Yard church was founded not far from the time when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, A. D. 1620. In John James’ time, A. D. 1661, it assembled in Bull Stake Court, which is but a short distance from its present site, Mill Yard. Names never seem to change in London, and so this narrow court still exists, bearing this very name upon its walls. Opposite to the entrance of this court in White chapel street is the spot where Mr. James’ head was set on a pole.
Mill Yard owes its name to the fact that a mill once stood near this site, and this ground was a part of its yard. But the stream now flows underground through the sewers, and the mill is gone. The chapel is an old brick edifice, but within it is very tasty and comfortable, the interior having been recently renewed. Connected with this chapel is the parsonage where brother and sister Jones keep the house of Gaius as described by Bunyan.
In company with Bro. Jones I visited the spot where Mr. Trask, because of his Sabbatarian principles, was placed in the pillory, and whipped from thence to Fleet prison, a distance of more than two miles. We walked over this route in order to judge of the time that was occupied in whipping Mr. Trask, as he walked this distance under the lashes of his brutal enemies. Then he was imprisoned in a most wretched prison to remain for life. What he suffered probably destroyed his mind, for at the end of one year he recanted. His wife for the same crime as her husband was also imprisoned, but was not placed in the pillory, nor was she whipped. She remained some fifteen years till released by death. Newgate prison in which she was confined for a time was also the place of John James’ imprisonment, and from thence he was drawn to the place of execution at Tyburn, distant some three miles or more. Newgate prison still stands to remind the observer of the sufferings of many of God’s noblest servants. I felt interested to visit the spot on which stood the gallows at Tyburn. It is within the present limits of London and just at the edge of St. James’ Park. The gallows is gone, but the spot, where not malefactors only, but also some of the noblest servants of God have laid down their lives, is marked by a pillar and an inscription. Here they stood in a cart with a noose about their necks, and the cart was drawn from under them, so that they died simply from strangulation. I asked myself the question whether I could be thus faithful, even unto death.
Francis Bampfield, who was the means of gathering a second church of Sabbath-keepers in London, was also imprisoned and cruelly treated so that he died from his sufferings. Pinnei’s Hall is the place where his congregation assembled. I visited this hall which still bears this very name. His church has become extinct within the present generation. Stephen Mumford, the first who carried the Sabbath to America, was a member of Mr. Bampfield’s church.
In the rear of Mill Yard chapel is a cemetery in which sleep several of the pastors and a considerable number of members of the Mill Yard church. The name of Joseph Davis is worthy of particular mention. The Mill Yard property was secured to that church by his generous liberality. He did this that the Sabbath cause might not be destroyed in London. In the persecutions suffered by the early Sabbath-keepers Mr. Davis also shared. He was cruelly imprisoned, and robbed of all his property. After his release he began business in a small way, and God being pleased to prosper him, he became quite wealthy. With this property he endowed the Mill Yard church, giving to it the chapel, the parsonage, and the cemetery, and making provision for an annual income to meet current expenses.
The Sabbath is very low in Great Britain, and has seemed threatened with extinction. There are, however, adequate causes for this sad change. The Sabbath has suffered from the errors of its friends. After the severe persecution which they suffered, and after they had been stripped of their worldly goods, there came a time of comparative quiet. They began to prosper in acquiring wealth. With wealth came not consecration to God, but covetousness and a desire to obtain the favor of the great. They acquired wealth, and instead of using it for God, they hoarded it up to curse their children. And the children coming to wealth renounced the Sabbath and plunged into the world. The spirit of consecration was lost by both ministers and people to a fearful extent. To gain the favor of first-day churches the Sabbath was made of minor consequence. And so the Spirit of God was grieved, worldliness entered, and apostasy followed in very many cases. There were, however, many honorable exceptions, and the Sabbath-keepers in America owe a debt of gratitude to God in behalf of the Sabbath cause in Great Britain for the light of truth respecting the Sabbath. May they not be slow to acknowledge this obligation.
Being very desirous to ascertain the strength of the Sabbath cause in Great Britain and to form an acquaintance with the observers of the Sabbath, and with those known to be friendly thereto, I arranged with Bro. Jones that an appointment should be sent to the little Notton church near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, and also that the few Sabbath-keepers in Scotland and the north of Ireland should be invited to meet us in Glasgow, Monday, Oct. 5. Bro. Jones and myself went to Tewkesbury and were hospitably entertained by the pastor of the Notton church, who is a first-day Baptist preacher. Tuesday forenoon he accompanied us to the hamlet of Notton, where we met at their own chapel three of the five members composing their church, two being unavoidably absent. Several generations since an ancestor of one of the present members of this church built this chapel as a part of the building which he erected for his own residence. This he secured to the Sabbath-keeping church, and he also walled off a cemetery for the use of the church. In addition to this, he secured to the church an annual income of about $25.00, to be paid from the farm which he transmitted to his descendants. But though the chapel and the burying ground remain to the church, the payment of the money has in some way been set aside by an apostate descendant. We had a most interesting season in rehearsing the progress of the Sabbath cause in America, and in stating some of the reasons for our observance of the fourth commandment. I will make some further mention of Notton church hereafter.
From Tewkesbury, we took a night train for Glasgow in a third-class compartment which contains simply two wooden seats facing each other, and extending across the car, the entrance being by doors in either side of the car. The notice of our meeting was sent to all the known friends of the Sabbath in Ireland and Scotland. It brought together six persons besides ourselves. Those not able to come to this little gathering sent letters which were read at the meeting. One Sabbath keeper came from the north of Scotland, and one was present who was a native of Ireland, and whose father has begun to observe the Sabbath in Belfast, Ireland. The meeting was organized and interesting remarks were made by the chairman, and then followed a statement by Bro. Jones and myself respecting the work of Sabbath reform, especially in America, and what we hoped to be able to do in Great Britain. Those present stated their individual experiences. The occasion was one of great interest. A regular Sabbath meeting was appointed to be kept up by these friends. Our meeting was cheering, for we hope to see a good work follow. The brother from the north of Scotland was baptized, and was much blessed.
Oct. 9, we returned to London. On the Sabbath, I spoke twice to the Mill Yard church. Monday evening, we took the cars for New Haven. Here, after five hours’ delay, we took a steamer for Dieppe, which we reached about ten next morning. After a brief detention by the custom-house officers we took the train for Paris, and reached this city at 3 o’clock. To-morrow if the Lord will we shall again set forth on our way, and the day following we hope to be in Switzerland.—Advent Review.
The Seventh-day Adventists.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THEIR ORIGIN, PROGRESS,
AND PRINCIPLES.
Our field of inquiry leads us back only to the great Advent movement of 1840–1844. Respecting that movement it is presumed that the public are more or less informed. They may not be so well aware of the causes which have led since that time to the rise of a class of people calling themselves Seventh-day Adventists.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT.
Adventists looked for the end of the world in 1844, because of the prophecy in Dan. 8 : 14, which says that at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days the sanctuary should be cleansed. They computed that time to end in that year. They held that the earth was the sanctuary then to be cleansed, that its cleansing was to be accomplished with fire which would accompany the manifestation of the Lord from heaven. Hence they supposed the Lord would then come. There were, of course, many other facts and arguments in support of the view that the second coming of Christ was near, but what we have stated was the principal argument for fixing upon that particular time for the occurrence of the event.
The time passed, and the coming of Christ did not take place as was expected. It then became apparent that a mistake had been made in one or both of the following points: either the period of 2300 days did not end at that time, or the cleansing of the sanctuary was not to be the burning of the earth by fire at the second coming of Christ. While there was a possibility of their being mistaken on both these points, a mistake on either one would be sufficient to account for the fact that the Lord did not then appear.
A movement which had enlisted the whole interest of thousands upon thousands, would not of course be abandoned without reflection. The ground was looked over and two methods adopted for explaining the disappointment. One class jumped at the conclusion at once that they were wrong on time, and the prophetic periods had not ended. Another class, on a careful survey of the whole field, impressed with the strength and harmony of the argument on chronology, saw no ground to change their views upon that point, but became satisfied that the mistake lay in the subject of the sanctuary and its cleansing. This class are the ones now known as Seventh-day Adventists. This brings us to note
THE DIFFERENCE
Between Seventh-day Adventists and First-day, or No-day Adventists, as respects chronology. The latter, believing that the prophetic periods were given to make known the time of Christ's coming, and that they have not yet ended, are held to one of two conclusions: either that all that is said in the Bible about these periods is so much of revelation unrevealed, or else that the time of Christ's coming is to be known. The first conclusion, as consistent believers in the Bible, they cannot adopt, and hence their continual efforts to re-adjust the prophetic periods and fix upon the time for Christ to come. From this has arisen in these later years all the fantastic time-setting which has very properly disgusted the world, and worse than this, has brought reproach on prophetical study. On the other hand
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS SET NO TIME.
They do not believe that any prophetic period given in the Bible reaches to the coming of Christ, or was designed to mark the day or year of that event. As already mentioned, they believe the chronological argument of the great Advent movement of 1844, was all right, locating the termination of the longest prophetic period, the 2300 days, in the autumn of that year. The prophecy said that then the sanctuary should be cleansed. That sanctuary they found to be, not the earth, which is never so-called, but the sanctuary of which Paul so fully and definitely treats in his epistle to the Hebrews, "the sanctuary" and "true tabernacle" in Heaven, "which the Lord pitched and not man," of which Christ, our great High Priest, is minister while "on the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens." Heb. 8 : 1, 2. The tabernacle erected77by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai about 1500 years before Christ, Ex. 25 and onward, which was the sanctuary of the first covenant, Heb. 9 : 1, from that time till the first advent, was a type, figure, or pattern of this heavenly sanctuary of the new covenant. Heb. 9 : 9, 23, 24. The ministration of the sanctuary consisted of two grand divisions which were accomplished every year: the daily ministration, and a brief service in the most holy place, or second apartment of the sanctuary, which completed the yearly round of service. This latter work was called the cleansing of the sanctuary, and was performed by the priest. So likewise the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, Heb. 9 : 23, must be performed by Christ while yet a priest, before he takes his kingdom and appears in his glory.
The view we take of the prophecy, consequently, is that the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, brought us to the commencement of this last portion of Christ's work as priest in the true tabernacle above, called the cleansing of the sanctuary, not a cleansing from physical impurities, but from the presence of our sins, imparted to it through the blood of Christ there ministered in our behalf. This explains at once the mistake in 1844, and shows our present position. We are now in the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary; a period of brief but indefinite duration.
While, therefore, we do not throw away the prophetic periods, but believe they are to be understood, we believe also that they have been correctly interpreted, and have all terminated; so that we now have no data from which to reason respecting a definite time for the Lord to come.
THE SEVENTH DAY.
Two causes have operated to introduce the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among Adventists, and thus develop that class known as Seventh-day Adventists.
First, a Seventh-day Baptist sister, Mrs. Rachel D. Preston, from the State of New York, moved to Washington, N. H., where there was a church of Adventists. From them she received the doctrine of the soon-coming of Christ, and in return instructed them in reference to the claims of the fourth commandment of the decalogue. This was in 1844. Nearly that whole church immediately commenced the observance of the seventh day, and thus have the honor of being the first Seventh-day Adventist church in America. The ravages of death, and removals from the place, have considerably diminished their numbers; but the church there still lives to bear witness to the truth thus introduced among them.
The Sabbath question began immediately to be agitated among Adventists, and within a few months, many from their ranks commenced its observance. Among the earliest permanent converts to this doctrine, three deserve especial mention: 1. Eld. Joseph Bates, who with great zeal, devotion, and self-sacrifice, gave himself to its advocacy, and brought many to its observance. He fell asleep March 19, 1872, in the 80th year of his age. 2. Eld. James White, the founder and manager, to the present time, of the S. D. Adventist Publishing work, and now president of their five leading organizations; namely, The General Conference, The Publishing Association, The Health Reform Institute, The General Tract and Missionary Society, and the Educational Society. 3. Eld. J. N. Andrews, author of the History of the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the Three Messages, and other important works, and now absent as a missionary to Switzerland in Europe.
2. Another consideration which has tended to strengthen them in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is the subject of the sanctuary, to which we have already alluded. It was seen at once that the central object in the sanctuary, in whichever dispensation we view it, is the ark of God, which was enshrined in the most holy place. This ark was prepared expressly as a receptacle for the tables of stone on which were written the great moral precepts of God's government, the ten commandments. Thus attention was called to the law of God. It was also seen that if the law in the ark of the heavenly sanctuary, Rev. 11 : 19, is the great original, and that deposited in the typical sanctuary was only a copy or transcript, that law must read the same now as it read then, and the idea of any change is placed beyond the range of possibilities; that heaven and earth, as Christ in his first sermon declared, would sooner pass than one jot or tittle pass from the law; and that the fourth commandment requires of the second house of Israel, what it required of the first, and has required from Eden down, the observ-ance of the seventh day of the week, as the grand and glorious memorial of our creation at the hands of God.—URIAH SMITH, in Advent Review.
(Continued.)