Seventh-day Adventists

“ In the face of strong opposition, the people known as Seventh-day Adventists have arisen to bear their testimony for the Sabbath of the Lord. They have had perils from open foes, and from false brethren; but they have thus far overcome the difficulties of the way, and from each have gathered strength for the conflict before them. They have a definite work which they hope to [509] accomplish. It is to make ready a people prepared for the advent of the Lord.
Honorable mention should be made of the Seventh-day Adventists of Switzerland. ”

“ If the Sabbath is of so little importance as not to be a test of Christian fellowship and eternal salvation; if men who break the Sabbath should be embraced in our fellowship the same as if they observed it; and if they can reach Heaven as surely in violating the fourth commandment as in keeping it; why not abandon it at once, and cease to agitate the public mind with a question of no real importance which is so unpleasant and annoying.
Seventh-day Adventists believe that in the restoration of the Bible Sabbath, under the last message of mercy, God designs to make it a test to the people. ”

“ Most zealous in propagating their views by journals and tracts, evangelists and missionaries, is a branch of the sect founded by James White of Michigan, whose adherents, because they keep the Sabbath in place of the Lord’s Day, are called Seventh Day Adventists. ”

“ No Protestant living today has ever yet obeyed that command, preferring to follow the apostate church referred to than his teacher the Bible, which, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches no other doctrine, should the Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists be correct. Both sides appeal to the Bible as their "infallible" teacher. Let the Bible decide whether Saturday or Sunday be the day enjoined by God. ”

“ Seventh-day Adventists are charged with making the Sabbath a test. And some will have it that we denounce and reject all who do not believe as we do. It is true that we teach that God is testing the people by his law. But we deny the charge that we denounce and reject those who differ from us. Our course toward all men whom we can reach with our publications, our sermons and our entreaties, proves the charge false. We beseech all men, without respect to profession of religion, color, or rank in society, to turn from their sins, keep God’s commandments and live. ”

“ I do not believe that all ministers who differ with us in faith and practice are alike guilty with this man. No decent man, in or out of the ministry, would take [319] pleasure in uttering such vile slander before a car full of ladies and gentlemen, however much he might feel opposed to the religious sentiments of Seventh-day Adventists. I believe there are God-fearing ministers in all the churches who would no sooner bear false witness of a slanderous character against those who are devoting their lives to the cause of Christ, than they would have the same done to themselves. ”

“ As early as 1844, sister Preston, a Seventh-day Baptist, who was a believer in the soon coming of Christ, introduced the Sabbath to the Adventists of Washington, N. H., and made a good impression. With the help of the publications of her people, and the blessing of God, about forty embraced the Sabbath. The truth on this subject reached other points in New Hampshire. About that time Elder T. M. Preble embraced the Sabbath, and began to teach it. ”

“ The Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, need not be embarrassed by the arguments of Adventists, since the Church of Christ in this last dispensation has the warrant of God's word, by direct revelation, for keeping holy the Lord's day, that is, the first day of the week, as a day Of public worship and thanksgiving, a holy Sabbath unto the Lord. ”

“ It is impossible for all the earth to keep the Sabbath at the same time."
"Well, I never thought of that before," said Mary, as her Adventism began to leave her about as quickly as it came.
"Now the fact is, too, Mary," said Robert, "that the Catholics did not change the Sabbath-day. They may claim to have done so and the Adventists accept the claim, it appears, but the early Christians kept the first day of the week Sunday, long before there was any Roman Catholic Church or any pope at Rome. Adventists twist history here just like they twist the Scriptures." ”

“ This is so plain that all who have been engaged and laboring in the Second Advent Doctrine must admit it to represent William Miller, and those of his faith, as the flying messengers preaching the advent of Jesus to their fellow men, since 1840. Invisible angels never yet preached the gospel to men; but as it has been here—man preaching to man,—then these angels represent our own neighbors, preaching, lecturing, and exhorting us with loud voices to listen to their message, for the judgment was at hand. ”

“ It is painful to me to expose the errors of one whom I have so long venerated, and still love for the flood of light he has given the world in respect to the Second Advent of our Saviour; but God's word must be vindicated if we have to cut off a right arm, "there is nothing true but truth!" I pray God to forgive him in joining the great multitude of Advent believers, to sound the retreat back beyond the tarrying time, just when the virgins had gained a glorious victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil! ”

“ On the Sabbath-day Jesus lay cold in death in the borrowed tomb while the sad and disconsolate disciples mourned the death of the Prince of Israel, their Savior. But on Sunday morning Christ arose triumphant (John 20:1) and in memory of it Christians began early to observe Sunday as a day of worship."
"Mary, you were just about to be entangled with a yoke of bondage, a yoke of man's making," said Robert. "This Sabbath doctrine of the Adventists is utterly man-made. ”

“ Prentiss or myself have ever had any sympathy with Second Adventists. All the talk about it seems to us mere speculation and probable doom to disappointment. I do not see that it is as powerful a stimulant to holiness as the uncertainty of life is. Christ may come any day; but He may not come for ages; but we must and shall die in the merest fragment of an age, and see Him as He is. ”

“ The Adventists baptize by immersion, and are congregational in polity, except the Seven Day branch and the Church of God, which have a general conference that is supreme. Since their organization, the Adventists have divided into seven bodies. The Evangelical Adventists began to call themselves by that name in 1845. They believe that all the dead will be raised, the saints first to eternal bliss and the wicked last to eternal punishment. The Advent Christians formed a general association in 1861. They believe that the dead are unconscious and the wicked are punished by annihilation. ”

“ The fact that a few fanatics worked their way into the ranks of Adventists is no more a reason to decide that the movement was not of God, than was the presence of fanatics and deceivers in the church in Paul's or Luther's day a sufficient excuse for condemning their work. ”

“ If the true history of the advent doctrine from 1842 to the autumn of 1844, had, with the subsequent events in our history up to 1848, been published 1800 years ago from the Advent Heralds, and their conductors had been called the fathers—it would have puzzled all the wise heads in Christendom, in this age, to have expounded their meaning; for we see it requires all the energies of the human mind to trace their crooked tracks, even when right before us. ”

“ Do we love God with all our hearts, and our neighbour as ourselves? Do we live up to all the commands of God? Are we conformed to His moral image? Is it the business of our lives to do all that God has commanded? Are we believing all the truth, and living up to all the light we have? If so, WE ARE Christ's; and being Christ's, WE ARE "Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." It is not strange that the nominal Church should lose her identity. But when we hear Adventists inquire, Who we are, it comes with an ill grace. ”

“ Under God, it owes its prosperity to the prudent management and untiring energy of Eld. James White.
The Advent Review has at the present time (Nov., 1873) a circulation of about 5000 copies. The Youth’s Instructor, a monthly paper designed for the children of Sabbath-keeping Adventists, began to be issued in 1852, and has now attained a circulation of nearly 5000 copies.
The Advent Tidende, a Danish monthly with a circulation of 800, is published for the benefit of those who speak the Danish and Norwegian tongues, of whom a considerable number have embraced the Sabbath. ”

“ Every year thousands of new voices join in telling it. Printing presses are printing it in many languages. Schools and colleges in every continent are educating thousands of Seventh-day Adventist youth, keeping before them, as the highest aim of life, the hastening of the advent message to the world. Sanitariums in many lands, while training medical missionary evangelists, are at the same time ministering to the sick, [Pg 255] and teaching the principles of Bible health and temperance. ”

“ I have been actively engaged in the proclamation of the doctrine of the second advent for more than twenty-five years, and have traveled and preached in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Canada, and have not met a person who has seen an Adventist thus attired, or one that was able to give better proofs that anything of the kind ever did occur than vague reports. ”

“ And as you pass along through these peace and safety valves in your prophetical history, watching and anxiously waiting for God to give the fourth sign of the coming of Jesus by shaking the heavens and earth, the sea and all nations, and give you the time of Jesus' coming, you will more clearly discover the widening track these advocates are pursuing with almost to a unit every professed advent minister in their train. You will also see that the Waymarks and high heaps in your pathway, past and present, are the only sure earthly guides to the peaceful haven of eternal rest. ”

“ The position of all Adventists after the passing of the time, was at best a very trying one, and the work for a time moved slowly, attended with much opposition. To “hold fast the beginning of their confidence” [265] in the great movement, in the face of a scoffing world and church, and amid violent opposition from those who were drawing back from the faith, was a severe trial of faith and patience. ”

“ Heartfelt confessions were made, and the members of the household labored for the salvation of those who were nearest and dearest. Often was heard the sound of earnest intercession. Everywhere were souls in deep anguish, pleading with God. Many wrestled all night in prayer for the assurance that their own sins were pardoned, or for the conversion of their relatives or neighbors.
All classes flocked to the Adventist meetings. Rich and poor, high and low, were, from various causes, anxious to hear for themselves the doctrine of the second advent. ”

“ The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God. For the worship of God is based upon the fact that he is the Creator and that all other beings were created by him. The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and his creatures. ”

“ For as Christ at His first Advent came in great infirmity of the flesh, in poverty and contempt, so He hath thereby deserved to come in His second Advent with great strength, glory, and majesty. His Power and strength shall appear in that at His command all the dead shall arise in a moment; in that all men, angels, and devils shall behold and worship Him as their God, their Lord, and their judge ”

“ The world can bear testimony to this. The cry, ‘The hour of his Judgment is come,’ sounded through all Christendom. The multitudes heard, and scoffed, or trembled. By what body of believers was this proclamation made? Not by those who taught that that Judgment was a thousand years in the future. No church which holds to the doctrine of a spiritual reign can be that body, as the elements of their proclamation flatly contradict those elements above stated. Such a body now existing can be found alone among those who constitute the Advent believers in Europe and America. ”

“ Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent message. They came from different denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled to the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms; the unscriptural hope of a temporal millennium was abandoned, false views of the second advent were corrected, pride and conformity to the world were swept away; wrongs were made right; hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme. ”

“ The teaching of Advent, all important as it is, too often affects but little such poor creatures of the present as we are. We are exhorted to look back to the first coming of Christ, to see what He suffered and did for us, what a foundation He laid for us to build on. We are exhorted to look forward to the second advent, to consider what Christ will do, to anticipate the glorious completion of us in Him as the building of God. ”