“If the seventh day ought to be observed as the Christian Sabbath, then all congregations that observe the first day as such must be Sabbath-breakers.... I must leave those gentlemen on the contrary side to their own sentiments; and to vindicate the practice of becoming pastors to a people whom in their conscience they must believe to be breakers of the Sabbath.”[1086]
Doubtless there have been noble exceptions to this course; but the body of English Sabbatarians for many years have failed to faithfully discharge the high trust committed to them.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SABBATH IN AMERICA.
The first Sabbath-keeping church in America—Names of its members—Origin of the second—Organization of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference—Statistics of the Denomination at that time—Nature of its organization—Present Statistics—Educational facilities—Missionary work—The American Sabbath Tract Society—Responsibility for the light of the Sabbath—The German S. D. Baptists of Pennsylvania—Reference to Sabbath-keepers in Hungary—In Siberia—The Seventh-day Adventists—Their origin—Labors of Joseph Bates—Of James White—The Publishing Association—Systematic Benevolence—The work of the preachers mainly in new fields—Organization of the S. D. Adventists—Statistics—Peculiarities of their faith—Their object—The S. D. Adventists of Switzerland—Why the Sabbath is of priceless value to mankind—The nations of the saved observe the Sabbath in the new earth.
The first Sabbatarian church in America originated at Newport, R. I. The first Sabbath-keeper in America was Stephen Mumford, who left London three years after the martyrdom of John James, and forty-four years after the landing of the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth. Mr. Mumford, it appears, came as a missionary from the English Sabbath-keepers.[1087] Mr. Isaac Backus, the historian of the early New England Baptists, makes the following record:—
“Stephen Mumford came over from London in 1664, and brought the opinion with him that the whole of the ten commandments, as they were delivered from Mount Sinai, were moral and immutable; and that it was the Antichristian power which thought to change times and laws, that changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Several members of the first church in Newport embraced this sentiment, and yet continued with the church for some years, until two men and their wives who had so done, turned back to the keeping of the first day again.”[1088]
Mr. Mumford, on his arrival, went earnestly to work to convert men to the observance of the fourth commandment, as we infer from the following record:—
“Stephen Mumford, the first Sabbath-keeper in America, came from London in 1664. Tacy Hubbard commenced keeping the Sabbath, March 11, 1665. Samuel Hubbard commenced April 1, 1665. Rachel Langworthy, January 15, 1666. Roger Baxter, April 15, 1666, and William Hiscox, April 28, 1666. These were the first Sabbath-keepers in America. A controversy, lasting several years, sprung up between them and members of the church. They desired to retain their connection with the church, but were, at last, compelled to withdraw, that they might peaceably enjoy and keep God’s holy day.”[1089] [Baxter is Baster in the S. D. B. Memorial.]
Though Mr. Mumford faithfully taught the truth, he seems to have cherished the ideas of the English Sabbatarians, that it was possible for first-day and seventh-day observers to walk together in church fellowship. Had the first-day people been of the same mind, the light of the Sabbath would have been extinguished within a few years, as the history of English Sabbath-keepers clearly proves. But, in the providence of God, the danger was averted by the opposition which these commandment-keepers had to encounter.