Bates Gets The Sabbath-4

March 3  Bates Gets The Sabbath-4

 


If you love me, obey my commandments. John 14:15, NLT.

The Adventist experience with the Sabbath in Washington, New Hampshire, during the spring of 1844 was significant. But of even more impact was the conversion of Thomas M. Preble to the biblical Sabbath. Preble, the pastor of the Free WIll Baptist congregation in nearby Nashua, had been a Millerite since 1841. It appears that he got the Sabbath from Frederick Wheeler, whose Washington congregation was about 35 miles from his home. Preble tells us he began to observe the Sabbath in the summer of 1844.

We have no record of any publications from Preble on the Sabbath issue before the October disappointment, although it is probable that he was part of the agitation that resulted in the several responses published in the Midnight Cry in September to put a damper on the discussion of the seventh day.

But in early 1845 Preble came out strong on the topic, publishing an artical on the Sabbath in the Hope of Israel on Februay 28. He concluded his study by noting that "all who keep the first day for 'the Sabbath,' are [the] Pope's Sunday keepers!! and GOD'S SABBATH-BREAKERS!!!"

"If I had but one day on this earth to spend," Preble declared, "I would give up error for truth, as soon as I could see it. May the Lord give us wisdom, and help us keep all 'his commandments that we may have right to the treeof life.' Rev. 22:14.

A 12-page pamphlet entitled A Tract, Showing That the Seventh Day Should Be Observed as the Sabbath, Instead of the First Day; "According to the Commandment" soon followed the article.

By April 1845 Bates had discovered Preble's article on the Sabbath in the Hope of Israel. He tells us that he "read and compared" Preble's evidence with the Bible and became convinced "that there never had been any change" of the Sabbath to the first day of the week.

"THIS IS TRUTH!" he declared to himself. And "in a few days," he reports, "my mind was made up to begin to keep the fourth commandment."

One of the impressive things about Bates is that he was willing to change firm opinions when faced with poper biblical evidence. God desires each of us to have teachable hearts and minds as He leads us in the path of life.

Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed under oppression and burdened with grief, pressed as a cart beneath sheaves and ready to die in discouragement. We should see angels flying swiftly to aid these tempted ones, who are standing as on the brink of a precipice. The angels from heaven force back the hosts of evil that encompass these souls, and guide them to plant their feet on the sure foundation. The battles waging between the two armies are as real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend(TFMB, 119).