Seventh Day Adventists

A Korean tribunal sentenced Missionary C. A. Haysmeir to three years in jail because he had painted "Thief" on the cheeks of a little native boy who had sinned. The painting was done with silver nitrate, permanent. All good Seventh Day Adventists deplored the work of their missionary, dismissed him from service. The incident created a great furore in Korean and Asiatic circles; even in the U. S. people noted forcibly the words: Seventh Day Adventists. History. A few New Englanders, formerly devout First-Day Adventists, began in 1844 to observe the seventh day of the week (Saturday) as the Sabbath and to preach new doctrines. In 1860, at a conference in Battle Creek, Mich., the sect organized under the name "Seventh Day Adventist Denomination." In 1910 the religion had absorbed 400 ministers and 60,000 members, being more numerous in the U. S. than in Europe. Doctrines. The Seventh Day Adventists have no formal or written creed. The Bible is their rule of faith and practice. Their characteristic doctrines are: (1) The "Venerable Day of the Sun," from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, is the Sabbath established by God's law and should be observed as such. (2) The personal, visible coming of Christ is near* at hand, and is to precede the millenium. At the close of the millenium, Christ and all His people will return to the earth; Satan and his sinners will come, will be ousted forever by the Righteous; then the earth will be made the fit abode of the people of God throughout the ages. (3) The service of washing one another's feet is observed at the quarterly meetings, the men and women meeting separately for this purpose, previous to the celebration of the Lord's Supper, when they meet together. (4) According to the Gospel, immersion is the only proper form of baptism. Carlyle B. Waynes, militant Seventh Day Adventist, stated his creed with eloquence, in Brooklyn last week: "Doctrinally, Seventh Day Adventists are among the strongest evangelical Christians--fundamentalists of the fundamentalists . . . . The historic faith of the church is our faith, Christ the divine One, Christ the miracle worker, Christ the sacrifice for sins, Christ dead, Christ risen, Christ ascended, Christ our present high priest, Christ our present life, and Christ coming again. "Ours certainly is a full gospel. . . . We believe that it was Christ who created the world in six literal days, and rested on the seventh day; that it was Christ who gave the Ten Commandment law on Mt. Sinai, a part of which is to observe the seventh-day Sabbath."

*Seventh Day Adventists set no exact date for the coming of Christ, and so they are spared the numerous dissappointments of plain Adventists.