Dear Brother Bates
15
Sabbath looked glorious—a halo of glory was all around it. I saw
that the Sabbath was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine
commandments were; and we are at liberty to go forth and break them
all, as well as to break the fourth. I saw that God had not changed
the Sabbath, for He never changes. [
Malachi 3:6
.] But the Pope had
changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to
change times and laws. [
Daniel 7:25
.]
And I saw that if God had changed the Sabbath, from the seventh
to the first day, He would have changed the writing of the Sabbath
commandment, written on the tables of stone, which are now in the ark,
in the Most Holy Place of the Temple in heaven; [
Revelation 11:19
.]
and it would read thus: the first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
[19]
But I saw that it read the same as when written on the tables of stone
by the finger of God, and delivered to Moses in Sinai, “But the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” [
Exodus 20:10
.] I saw that the
holy Sabbath is, and will be, the separating wall between the true Israel
of God and unbelievers; and that the Sabbath is the great question, to
unite the hearts of God’s dear waiting saints. And if one believed, and
kept the Sabbath, and received the blessing attending it, and then gave
it up, and broke the holy commandment, they would shut the gates
of the Holy City against themselves, as sure as there was a God that
rules in heaven above. I saw that God had children, who do not see
and keep the Sabbath. They had not rejected the light on it. And at the
commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy
Ghost as we went forth [
Hosea 6:2, 3
.] and proclaimed the Sabbath
more fully. This enraged the church, and nominal Adventists, as they
could not refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time, God’s chosen,
all saw clearly that we had the truth, and they came out and endured
the persecution with us. And I saw the sword, famine, pestilence, and
great confusion in the land. [
Ezekiel 7:10-19
. 2 Esdras 15:5-27] The
wicked thought that we had brought the judgments down on them.
They rose up and took counsel to rid the earth of us, thinking that then
the evil would be stayed. [
2 Esdras 16:68-74.
]
I saw all that “would not receive the mark of the Beast, and of
his Image, in their foreheads or in their hands,” could not buy or
sell. [
Revelation 13:15-17
.] I saw that the number (666) of the Image
Beast was made up; [
Revelation 13:18
.] and that it was the Beast that
changed the Sabbath, and the Image Beast had followed on after, and