ADVENTISTS (SEVENTH-DAY).
Strictly speaking, the denomination of Seventh Day Adventists originated in 1845. A large num ber who at that time, or shortly afterward, be came Seventh-Day Adventists were formerly Ad ventists. They had been actively connected with the great Advent movement of 1840-44. The dis appointment which they had suffered in the pass ing of the time at which they had expected the Lord to come in 1844 was caused by the almost universally accepted theory that the earth was the Sanctuary which was to be cleansed at the end of the prophetic periods of the Book of Daniel, which had been the basis of their calculations. When they had given to the subject a more care ful study they found that the sanctuary which was .to be cleansed at the end of the prophetic days was "the sanctuary and the true tabernacle" "in heaven," "which the Lord pitched," and of which the sanctuary built by Israel in the Wilder ness was but a figure (Heb. viii :1; ix :I 1, 23, 24; Rev. xi :19).
(1) Ten Commandments. The study of this subject led them irresistibly to the contempla tion of the Ten Commandments, which. "written with the finger of God," were deposited "in the ark of the testament" in both the figure and the true. In this study they were very strongly im• pressed with the conviction that the fourth com mandment of the ten requires the observance of the seventh day, or Saturday, as the Sabbath; and not the first day, or Sunday, as was, and is, the teaching of the churches.
In their proclamation of the soon coming of the Lord in t840-44, the two messages of Revela tion, xiv:6-8, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come," and "Babylon is fallen," had been the keynotes. And now, as they reviewed their positions and more carefully studied the Scriptures they saw that there is a third message following these two, and belonging inseparably with them, being indeed the essential complement of the former two. And in this third angel's message they also read the remarkable words, "Here are they which keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."
Having, in the study of the sanctuary, their at tention already directed to the commandments, and their minds so strongly convinced that they were not keeping the fourth commandment, this voice of the third angel, calling upon all to "keep the commandments of God," as well as the faith of Jesus, was to them the irresistible voice of God. They could not hesitate; they at once planted themselves firmly upon the Word in the keeping of all the commandments of God and also the faith of Jesus. From that day forward their motto has ever been the word of the third angel of Revelation xiv :12, "Here are they which keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Upon this leading and experience, the positive and clearly defined object, the well-understood purpose of existence, of the Seventh-Day Advent ists, has ever been to proclaim to every nation and kindred and tongue and people upon the earth, the threefold message of God, as written in Revelation xiv:6-t2.
The chief subject of this proclamation as there recorded is, in a word, "the everlasting gospel," emphasized by the fact that "the hour of his judgment is come." With this law of God, the Ten Commandments is unavoidably interwoven; because that law is the standard in the judw ment. All who in that day are found justified by the Gospel—the faith of Jesus—their justifi cation will be witnessed by the law: and all who in that day are not found justified by the Gospel will be irrevocably condemned by the law. Men are justified by the Gospel and judged by the law.
(2) Everlasting Gospel. This everlasting Gospel which we preach is the whole Gospel for the whole man. It is a Gospel of the salvation of the whole man, "body, soul and spirit." The body is as certainly a part of the man as is the soul or spirit. Jesus Christ died for the whole man. Ile redeems the body as well as the soul. This requires that the Christian shall care for his body as well as for his soul.