[Sabbath Controversy #3] A Vindication of the Seventh-day Sabbath, and the Commandments of God

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BIBLE ADVOCATE

SIR - I was very glad when I learned that your columns were to be opened for the discussion of the Sabbath question, for I thought if you would allow this subject to be fairly brought out, God’s holy law would be vindicated and more strictly revered; but I soon perceived that you did not keep the ship on her course. The first part of C. Stowe’s article, to cover the whole ground, has never yet appeared, and should it come forth at this late hour of the discussion, it would probably avail as much as you mean it shall in its isolated state. But to prevent what you did publish for her, in the same paper, (Sept.2nd,) you gave your own unscriptural view, to go with it. This, of course, still more prejudiced your hearers, as you had before that stated objections. I am not sorry, however, that it is still going on in some shape, if it is partly in disguise. We hear that you have now on hand five times as much matter against the Sabbath as you have for it. This is all natural enough, God’s word has ever been advocated by the minority. And when such blasphemous language against the Saviour we are looking for, was permitted to blacken your columns, and again reiterated that he was right, and you not only let it pass unnoticed, but were endeavoring to screen him by withdrawing his real name from God’s children. The inference is, and must be, strong against you. Look at your position now! THE BIBLE ADVOCATE!! Show if you can the chapter and verse where the BIBLE allows any man to advocate God’s word, that ever withheld his real name and where those that stood in high places were trying to screen them, because as we should have a good right to suppose, that they were in fellowship with their doctrine. How do the columns of THE BIBLE ADVOCATE look now, since you have opened the way for them to follow your unrighteous course, to debase and still hold up God’s holy law as a Jewish ritual, that had been abolished. It looks to me like the same horn that is to “prevail against the saints until the ancient of days comes.” “He thought to change times and laws;” (God’s laws without doubt.) He, then, through this agency has been blackening your columns with his iron hoof. The Devil has been too long engaged in this war to pass any one’s enclosure, who has left his gate open for him to tread you down. Another thing: In your paper of Dec.23rd, you say, “Br.Turner, have you sent your second article on the Sabbath? We have not received it.” Why in so much haste for this wonderful promised article, to overthrow history, after he has overthrown himself by the Bible? Why not publish some of the so much manuscript you have already on hand? I cannot help thinking, after all, that you have no faith in your own argument of a no-Sabbath, no-commandment system, hence this partial call for J.Turner to speak again. His view is really the very thing! It is just as it used to be. If T. has got it right the discussion is forever ended, and we have always been right, but did not know it; if we had, we should not have resorted to these puzzling arguments of Paul to prove that there is no Sabbath, to get clear of plain, Bible doctrine! SC3 165.7

As I have answered nearly all your arguments against the Sabbath and commandments, in my work on the Sabbath, and Waymarks, and lastly in my reply to the Advent Harbinger, under the head of the Four Pillar system, I shall be brief, because I want to say a word upon another subject that you have named. You say, “to assume or infer that the Sabbath was commanded to men before the Exodus from Egypt, is to walk as blind men. But at creation Adam’s first day was the seventh day, or day on which God rested. Hence, if Adam kept Sabbath, he kept the first day, and then worked six days.” Who said so? Not the Bible. You would try to make out that Adam contradicted and disobeyed God’s law, just as you have. Suppose you were born on Friday, the sixth day, would the next day, the seventh, be your first or second day? Your argument is not worth a straw; Adam’s first day was Friday, the sixth day, and if he had been created the seventh day, that would have made no difference. How strange you talk! Because man should happen to come into life upon any other than the first day, then he must surely violate the Sabbath by doing his six days work first! This is in perfect keeping with “let every man be persuaded in his own mind,” and not keep any. God rested the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it. Surely it is not so dangerous to follow God’s example as it is to contradict and disobey him. Such as these are the blind men. [See first three pages of work on the Sabbath.] SC3 167.1

Again, you say, “how long was the covenant or law of ten commandments to remain in force and effect, and answer Galatians 3, till Christ shall come.” Under the third Pillar, I have answered this. The law of circumcision, and not the law of God, is Paul’s whole argument here. The 17th verse shows the covenant is the one with Abraham, four hundred and thirty years before the law to Moses. There is not an intimation of the abolition of the law of commandments. Here it is the law of Abraham and Moses. Therefore it is right for the advocates of the seventh-day Sabbath to demand of you to prove a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day; and the reason we demand it is, because we positively know you have none. You also say that the Apostles availed themselves of the opportunity to preach to the judaizing Christians in their synagogues on the seventh day, at the same time keeping up the Christian solemnity and worship on the first day.” I say you cannot prove this. You cannot present a passage in the scriptures that shows that the disciples ever met together for worship, in the day time, on the first day of the week, and only once of an evening; and not one word about that being a holy day or a day for them to worship, but to break bread. But why do you want to prove this if all the commandments are abolished? The fact is, as soon as you leave the law of God, you are all adrift, with neither oar or rudder, at the mercy of the tide. Again, you say “the ministration of the law is done away, is abolished.” That is just what we say. Suppose you had ceased your ministration ten years ago, would that have abolished the Gospel? This is your reasoning, and it is the best argument you and others bring for the abolition of the commandments in 2nd 2 Corinthians 3 There is nothing there but the ministration abolished, which no more affects the law of God, than the moving of your old sermons out of your house would affect the house. SC3 167.2

Now will you just turn over your file to Nov. 4th, where you come out against J.P.M.Peck, about the sanctuary. As I have twice presented my view of the sanctuary’s being in the heavens, I shall not stop here, only to say, that there is abundant Bible proof for this view, and but one place for it, where Jesus, the High Priest is. But the one you advocate is first one thing and then another: Palestine, or Canaan, or Jerusalem, or mountains about Jerusalem; Mount Zion, and generally, the whole world. The reason for this is, because you have no proof of any certain place, after you leave Paul, in Hebrews 8:2 But you say, “I deny that it has been any thing like a general belief that the twenty-three hundred days ended in ‘44. There were a portion of the adventists that embraced, for a while, that theory. But they soon abandoned it, with the exception of a few, who have followed anything but the word of God and sound reason; and they now have no fellowship for, or connection with those who truly look for the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the end of the days; and we have as little fellowship for their teaching as they have for us and our view of the plain word of God. We know enough of the effect of that theory that teaches the 2300 days ended in’44, and scores of Shakers can tell you more even than we can.” SC3 168.1

Out of the great mass of advent believers in’44, I do not believe you knew of twenty that did not think the days were ended in ‘44. We will try to show, by-and-by, who have followed sound reason, and who have got “the plain word of God.” You say you “know enough of the effect of that theory that teaches the 2300 days are ended.” Allow me to tell you that you do not know so much about it as you think you do, or as you will wish you had. You are as much afloat here as you are on the subject of the Sabbath and commandments. That portion who abandoned the idea of the days being ended, of which you boast, are of those that organized and entered the state of the Laodicean church, “neither hot nor cold;” neither in one position nor yet in another; “always learning and never coming to the knowledge of (the present) truth”. The ending of the 2300 days was the great burden of the advent teaching in’43 and’44; ‘then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” You will have it that this cannot be before the coming of the Lord, and you see he may come at any time; yes, now, by the first of January, as your Bible Advocate states. You have now heard something of the character of this J.Weston. He would have us believe that he was so full of the spirit of the Lord, that God had revealed to him that Jesus would come the 24th of December, or by the 1st of January. All good - we will publish it! What about the 2300 days, Br.W.? Oh, no matter, Jesus is coming now. H.H.Gross has refuted this time, but look at him last spring; the 1335 days must end the 18th day of April, and the resurrection, or they would not end under forty-five years. Well, he confessed that he was wrong in ever believing that they had ended in’44. Come, then, where will they end here? On, somewhere a little while before the 1335 days end in the spring of 1847. Well, time has passed on; out he comes again and says the Lord will come in the spring of 1848. Where will the 2300 and 1335 days end, friend Gross? Can’t say - that is, he doesn’t say - neither does J.Weston, and he does not correct him for this; it is only because the advent cannot be until spring. And here I will risk an opinion - that there is not a man in the whole advent ranks - (it seems to me that I will not even except you) - that can show that the Lord will come this winter or next spring. H.H.Gross is just as much mistaken in his calculation this coming spring, as he was the last. Now you may go on and call us what it seems to you good, we are confident that you have not got the present truth, neither have you had it since you have followed any thing but “the word of God and sound reason.” And this is the main reason why you cannot answer brother Fuller’s important questions on THE OPEN BOOK OF Revelation 10:2 It requires some one that has followed the truth, the present truth, nearer than you have, to reply to such questions, and they as surely involve the days as a cry at midnight brought us to the end of them. Do you not see how you are first blowing hot and then blowing cold? Six weeks ago, you said you knew enough of the effect of that theory that the days are ended. You say “all will see by reading the article, what are Br. F’s views.” That is, he is one that we have no fellowship for. But, you say, we hope that he and many others may be benefited by a careful and prayerful investigation of some of the many questions he has asked, etc.etc. Now this is the right and only way to investigate. But if some one undertakes to follow your advice by the Scripture, it would not amount to much, for we should expect to see you right out against them, for these that have rejected plain Scripture, connected with experience, as you have, and ridiculed those who had faith in it, have but little hope now, since you have become an editor. We deeply lamented that you should have taken such a course; but we have seen since, that it required something more than common moral courage, for a shepherd to remain with the tried and tempted flock, when he sees that all his fellow shepherds were deserting them. The warnings you have had, have no doubt brought many solemn convictions to yours and their minds, or else we should not find you in this luke-warm state. Yes, you have been faithfully warned by your old, firm friends, not to come out with your Advocate; you have heard their voice, that two were enough to give the light on the doctrine of the advent, and they had hard work to get along. But no, your paper was going to take different ground, in some things! In one respect, it has shown pretty clearly, as the Scriptures fully demonstrate, that “the dead know not any thing;” and allow me here to tell you, if you go on with your no-law-of-God and no-commandment system, and continue to reject the clear fulfillment of prophecy, in our past experience, you will as clearly prove that you know but a very little more. But after all you have said and done, you are following hard on in the track - the same old deep-cut rut, made by your predecessors. Pharoah’s host like, the ruts so deep you can neither back nor turn out; but on you drive after them, thinking, no doubt, that you are going to accomplish something for God and his cause. The only way that I can see for you to do that, will be, either to abandon your load, or shift the tongue of your chariot on the opposite end, drive back with all speed, and get into the highway of the Waymarks and high heaps, that you so willfully abandoned more than three years ago. SC3 169.1

The Saviour’s admonition to the Philadelphia state of the church, which was forming in’43 and’44, was to hold fast that which we had and he would “write upon us his new name.” This is what we are endeavoring to do; and when we see you doing the opposite, we know you are wrong. You quote Paul to the Hebrews 8:10 “Saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts.” Whose hearts? Answer - the house of Israel; of course, all of God’s people. What is this done for? Answer - that he may be our God and we may know him and be his people. Can you tell your no-law no-commandment readers which law of God Paul meant? Whether it was the one you say he abolished in Col., Gal., Cor. and Romans, or was it another code of laws which he had made for our purpose, and then hid them from us. If you know in what book, or chapter, or verse they are in the Bible, I beseech you to let us know immediately, for I see by John’s visions in the Rev. that in the last days there certainly will be a company keeping them, and the Devil will persecute them for it; but they will eventually be saved, and enter the city. Revelation 12:17;14:12; 22:14 And finally, if you cannot find any others than those which God gave by his own mouth and wrote with his own finger on Mount Sinai, more than 3300 years since, the same which Jesus confirmed to us more than 1800 years ago with his Gospel, won’t you make that known by publicly confessing that it is impossible for you to tell what other object God had in view than our keeping these same laws; and that you had, contrary to the direct teachings of God, derided both his law and his willing, obedient children. Don’t tell us that this law is the “law of Christ or the law of grace,” or any other name unless you can show us how many commandments they contain, because James has told us “if we fail in one we are guilty of the whole.” Jesus never gave but one commandment. SC3 171.1

P.S. As I predicted on your second page, J.Turner’s piece has come. The child is fairly born, and you have fallen in love with it. Now brethren, just haul down all your other colors, J.Turner has got the very thing! The first day of the week is the seventh-day Sabbath! We have always been right, but we never knew it till now! Thanks to J.Turner for confounding the whole world, and now no more about this much vexed question! “We shall fill our paper mostly with other matter for the future.” The wind has favored us and we have made a first rate tack to windward, and now we can breathe much freer seeing our enemies are under our lee. Hear what he says? “We supposed and still do suppose that Barnabas had reference to a class well known to the Adventists in Connecticut and Massachusetts, who went into the shut door, and staid in, and almost every other door but the true one into the sheepfold, and many of which became great sticklers for the seventh day.” etc. Now he goes on and speaks in high praise of those who have been writing for the Sabbath - they are consistent Christians, etc. And now, says he, “we must all be exceedingly careful how we write and speak; the enemy seeks to devour us, and one of his most artful wiles is to divide the saints by dark insinuations, evil speaking, and jealousies,” etc. - See Bible Advocate, Dec. 30th, p.160 Why this caution after the above unsparing epithets; are you afraid that some of these misguided, mistaken people will get into your open door? If they should happen to, and confess that they were wrong in believing in the shut door, no matter how many others they had been guilty of entering into what you call almost every door they would immediately become consistent Christians! Out of hundreds who have crawled into your open door and made such confessions, causing the hypocrites and unbelievers to rejoice, and the hearts of the righteous to be sad, etc., I will just name a few: J. and C.Pearsons, F.G.Brown, of wonderful memory; and now a few Sabbath keepers: W.M.Ingham, John Howell, of vacillating memory, and J.Turner, your fellow laborer. Well, you are not so far to windward as you think for; here comes another head flaw, that will drive you down on that lee shore again, where you may see the awful havoc you have made of those who are following in your wake. See them dashing there upon the rocks and into those overwhelming breakers! Your whirlwind of doctrine has utterly dismantled them, and their cry for help is unavailing! and unless you put forth some more strenuous efforts to avoid these dangerous seas, you will never get off from this lee shore, while under these deceitful and flattering winds of doctrine. SC3 172.1

Again he says - “We take the liberty to add, that Br. T.’s article is IRREFUTABLE, and that we are now observing the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and not the Jewish, nor a Pagan Sabbath.” Where is he now? Does he mean that J.T.’s Sabbath is “the Sabbath of the Lord our God?” He has always insisted, in his former articles, that “the Sabbath of the Lord our God,” was the Jewish Sabbath.” There is but one named in the Bible. If this is what he calls “the plain word of the Lord,” I doubt whether any one will understand him. SC3 173.1

He says further - “If Friday was the sixth day - every transaction on the day of our Lord’s crucifixion is involved in utter confusion - and the law of types in a like failure, and makes it an impossibility for the Sabbath of the Lord our God to be kept the next day, for this [wise] reason, that it was a feast day”! and quotes John 19:31, again and again, for positive proof. I wonder if he can tell how, and when, and where the Jews lost that day, since the crucifixion, and where is the history to show that they did really pass over the seventh-day Sabbath and keep the first day for the Sabbath? I have already answered this in J.Turner’s article; there you will see the reason why John called this “an high day.” Now, as he has spoken of the law of types, I ask where is the chapter and verse in the Bible in which the Jews were ever forbidden to hold a feast, when it fell on the seventh-day Sabbath? For, as I before stated, this always did occur every year. Besides this Jewish feast was an holy convocation; no servile work was to be done on this day. This was always continued seven days, and the last day was like the first. Leviticus 23:6-8 Now then, all that they did on these feast Sabbaths, was to worship God by their offerings. You see that on God’s holy seventh-day Sabbath, [see J.T.’s article,] they always offered four lambs; therefore, whenever the other Sabbaths, or holy convocations fell on the seventh day, they were equally observed, as is positively proved by the direction of God in the 37th and 38th verses of this same chapter, “every thing upon his day besides the Sabbaths of the Lord,” etc. Now see - here is seven holy convocation, Sabbath feasts named in this chapter, which the Jews were required to keep besides the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, and when their feasts fell on the holy Sabbath of the Lord, all the extra labor was in offering to God the extra bullocks, lambs etc. Do let me entreat you, before you further expose yourself, to read in connection with this, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapter of Numbers, for here you will find every identical thing specified: therefore, when one of these seven holy convocation days of every year came on the weekly Sabbath, it was of more importance, inasmuch that they had more offerings to make to God, and hence John or any one else, might call it “an high day;” but none the less holy, any more than for us, instead of assembling together on the Sabbath, in our several places for worship, to have a general conference meeting in Boston, to continue over the Sabbath. SC3 173.2

But J.Turner, instead of overthrowing history, as he promised he should, is exulting, and says, “unless I utterly misapprehend the technical veracity of Christ and his apostles, I have the argument by their concurrent testimony.” In his Note 3, he says, “But if the day that followed the crucifixion was the seventh-day Sabbath, it could not be said that the Sabbath drew on, for it was even then began. It commenced at evening, at the same time the pascal lamb was slain in the law, at which time according to the record, Jesus expired.” SC3 174.1

Now I say, this is not true, and he or the editor who published it, knows it to be so. I presume that both of them have stated in their preaching, again and again, that Jesus expired on the cross at the ninth hour, as the Evangelists testify, which was at three o’clock in the afternoon, and three hours before the Sabbath commenced. If he can assert such positive falsehoods as these, and others which I have stated, to prove what never has, nor never will take place, and at the same time have multitudes crying ‘amen!’ ‘that’s true!’ etc., it is no wonder he can “set as calm as heaven!” SC3 175.1

But I have one other proof to offer, which will destroy their whole foundation. I had overlooked it in the multitude of texts that had come up here, but God in answer to our prayers, both in our closet and at meetings, for wisdom to guide us in giving the present truth to the little flock in this work, at this important crisis, has so directed that I may have it in time to put into this Postscript, just as it is going to press. [I could not see before why it was that the printer could not get his promised help, in order to proceed faster with this work. I see it now - it is all in God’s own wise way. He was not willing, (as it now appears to me,) that my work should come out to check or disturb you, until you began to settle somewhere on this subject.] The proof then, I transcribe from a letter received from Br.JAMES WHITE, dated Topsham, Me. January 2nd, 1848. Here it is: SC3 175.2

“The plain, simple truth in regard to the holy Sabbath flows out from the blessed Bible in one clear, strait channel; while erroneous views are fated to run crooked and devour themselves. I think that those who are not fully settled as to what day of the week is the seventh or Sabbath, would do well to refer to the type, in Leviticus 23:5-21 Here are three types which were fulfilled at the time of the first advent. Every Adventist in the land once believed that these types were exactly fulfilled as to time. The paschal lamb was slain on the 14th day of the first month. So was Jesus crucified on the 14th day of the first month. The handful of the first fruits of the harvest was waved before the Lord on the 16th of the first month; so was Jesus the first fruits of the resurrection, raised from the tomb the 16th of the first month. [See 1st 1 Corinthians 15:20] Now if the resurrection day, which was the first day of the week, was the 16th of the first month, then it follows that the 14th of the first month when Jesus was crucified, which was Friday, was the sixth day of the week; Saturday, the seventh day or Sabbath, and Sunday, the first day of the week. SC3 175.3

“St. Paul preached that Christ would rise the third day, according to the scriptures. He certainly could refer to no other Scripture but the type. Our Lord, while preaching the resurrection to the two, on their way to Emmaus, began at Moses. So we are not on forbidden ground when we go there also, to prove that he arose on the third day. - See Luke 24:27, 44-46 Jesus came not to break, but to fulfill every jot and tittle of the law - therefore he arose Sunday, the 16th day of the first month, which harmonizes with the joint testimony of the Apostles and Christ himself, that he arose on the third day.” SC3 176.1

Other brethren, (in reference to J.Turner’s article,) from Canandaigua, N.Y. and Dorchester, Mass. have also, about this same time, referred us to this strong hold, for which we thank them and praise the Lord for this light, that forever settles the question. A most striking proof of the unity of the saints in their patience, (Revelation 14:12,) no matter where located, though hundreds and thousands of miles apart, they are one on this question. This is as we now understand the Sabbath of the Lord our God, to be the rallying point of all those who are truly looking for the speedy coming of Jesus. Whosoever, therefore, shall attempt to destroy or displace God’s holy Sabbath, will have to pass the examination of the host. Paul to the Corinthians, 5th chapter and seventh verse, says, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” How? Answer - expired on Friday, the 14th day of the first month, at 3 o’clock, P.M., in exact fulfillment of the type by Moses, in Exodus 12:6, 11-14, continued for 1670 years. He rested from all his works only one twenty-four hour day, and that was God’s holy day. Paul tells the Romans that “he was raised again for our justification.” 4:25; and the Corinthians “that he is risen and become the first fruits of them that slept.” 1st 1 Corinthians 15:20; and Colossians 1:18, “first born from the dead.” Again, “should be the first that should rise from the dead.” Acts 26:23 John says, “The first begotten of the dead.” He arose on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, before sunrise - say about 5 A.M. - having been dead about thirty-eight-eight hours. Thus he fulfilled the type in Leviticus 23:10-11 verses - the first fruits of the harvest, the handful of barley, called the wave sheaf, which was waved by the priest, with the offering of a lamb, [emblem of Christ,] as first fruits of the resurrection, on the morrow after the Sabbath - the 16th of the first month - the Sabbath, or feast day, always being on the 15th of the same month. Then, from the 14th, at 3 P.M. to the 16th, at about 5 P.M. is but thirty-eight hours, two whole nights, (not three,) one whole day, a part of Friday and a part of Sunday. “Thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.” This is his own testimony a few hours after his resurrection; also a few hours after the offering of the wave sheaf. If this can be overthrown then can also the time of his crucifixion. The chaotic confusion that you would make about this great feast day which always followed the passover, is answered here. It so happened in the order of time to come on God’s holy Sabbath; and that God so ordered it that Christ should rest from all his works on his holy day, was without doubt, to fulfill some glorious event yet to come. SC3 176.2

Now, friend Timothy, if you will not reverence God’s holy Sabbath and commandments according to the clear precept, do you let them alone, if you do not want a worse thing to befall you, for just so sure as you fight against them they will destroy you. This beating the air, is some like daubing with untempered mortar; you cannot make any of it stay put. If I were in your place, I should a great deal rather have been fast asleep than to be caught in such heaven-daring business - fighting against God! This looks like “following any thing but ‘the word of God and sound reason.’” SC3 177.1

During ‘43 and ‘44, Dowling, Stewart, Colver, Chase, Bush and others, took their stand against William Miller and his brethren, to demolish Daniel’s vision of the 2300 days. You remember that no two of these agreed, but each started upon a theory of his own; but God’s children were united and on the one point, and therefore triumphed over them all. Now you leading men are acting the drama over again, with regard to the Sabbath and commandments of God. See how it looks; J.V.Himes believes in selecting any day, just as you are persuaded! but still calls the first the Sabbath; Joseph Marsh is not particular, doesn’t believe there is either law, Sabbath or commandments - says we are under the law of grace; but still he will have it, that Sunday is the Sabbath! you say the first day is the seventh of the Lord our God, but it is not the Jewish Sabbath, - that is; the one which is in the decalogue. It is something new - I don’t understand you; don’t think you can make your brethren understand it, either. J.Turner says the first day is the true seventh-day Sabbath! D. B. Wait says the commandments are right, but the first day is the true seventh-day. Barnabas says “the Jews were right in killing our Lord for a notorious Sabbath breaker, if he did not abolish all the law when he commended his ministry,” three years before he abolished Moses’ law. Up starts another mighty man, G.Needham, and says God told him that the commandments were all abolished in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 3rd. And a great portion of your flattering readers are flying like Mother Cary’s Chickens ¹ to get into your WAKE to pick up the crumbs! Don’t smile, gentle reader, the picture is not overdrawn. These are some of the principal leaders in the second advent; they will tell you to your face that they have renounced all sectarian creeds and formulas, and believe every word of God. Now the “great sticklers for the seventh day,” are all united on the Sabbath and commandments; they believe God, if they keep his Sabbath, that they shall be sanctified and ride upon the high places of the earth. - Ezekiel and Isaiah. They believe Jesus, that the law and the prophets hang upon the commandments, and that the keeping of them will give eternal life and great esteem in the reign of heaven. This carries them beyond the Jewish, Gospel, and all other dispensations. See also Revelation 22:14 They believe the holy Apostles, Paul, John and James - that “the law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good.” “Here are they [Jan. 1848] that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12 “If we keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all.” They feel perfectly secure in following such leaders, and they understand that though you be ever so moral in regard to the nine commandments, you fail in the fourth, the Sabbath. They believe this to be the “plain word of the Lord,” and on this Sabbath question they will all be united, waiting for Jesus. And just so sure as the first class of expositors were overthrown by rejecting the sure word, just so sure you will be overwhelmed in utter confusion that oppose God’s holy Sabbath and commandments, and your case is now hanging in awful suspense. O Lord, let the clear light shine. SC3 177.2

A word more - as your wonderful prototype has also threatened to unsettle the world with respect to the history of the seventh-day Sabbath. If he proceeds with it as he has with the unerring word of God, our minds will have to be remodelled, to believe with him. If any of the little flock feel desirous of spending an hour in looking into this subject, I would recommend them to send to the New York Sabbath Tract Society, and purchase Sabbath tract No.4, vol. 1,48 pages. This will save the labor of poring over Roman and English history, or of following the sophistical arguments of the blind leading the blind. Much reliance is placed upon the history of the ‘early fathers,’ so called, who succeeded the Apostles, to settle the question. We ought to remember that these were uninspired men, and we do not know even so much about their characters, as we do of the uninspired fathers of the last century, whose teaching led us all into Babylon. 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. For this reason, I have said but little about history; my whole and entire reliance being upon the inspired word of the living God. This, we are told, will make us “perfect and entire - wanting nothing.” - 2nd 2 Timothy 3:17 SC3 179.1

If what I have and may here present in this work will not stand the test of what we have seen and felt ourselves - fulfilling the clear word of God in these last days, then I shall fail in my object of comforting and strengthening the flock of God. I fully believe in history, when all deductions are fully allowed. SC3 179.2