Apr 26, 2019
Reprinted from the Sabbath Recorder, May 2011.
This Recorder reprint is focused on the conflicts between Sabbath convictions and our working lives. I suspect few topics strike such a personal nerve with the Recorder’s readers. Rare indeed is the SDB who has not had to make a hard decision about a job or activity because it falls on the Sabbath. These conflicts are contemporary concerns for us. But despite that fact, they aren’t just contemporary concerns—the Sabbath has been a call to conscience for hundreds of years. Our predecessors in these struggles can inspire us to persevere and to thrive.
One poignant story which the Historical Society archives details is that of Alexander Campbell (1801-1888). Campbell was a prominent Seventh Day Baptist in the middle part of the 1800s, and tremendously influential in our evangelistic outreach on the American frontier and in the creation of SDB educational institutions like Alfred University. But before he found his place among Seventh Day Baptists, Campbell was a Presbyterian with a conviction problem.
In a booklet he wrote years later, Campbell described the circumstances which surrounded his eventual arrival among SDBs. At age 22, he heard SDB missionary Russell Wells speak and sing. It was the first time he heard about Sabbath, and the experience led him on an exploration of Sunday and the Sabbath. This exploration proved to be painful for Campbell, as he struggled against the weight of the Scriptures and his own desire to honor what he found there, though he ultimately decided to respond to his convictions and keep the Sabbath. This decision, however, led him to difficulties in his working life, as he describes:
Should I change my practices according to my convictions as it then seemed to me I must and sacrifice all my earthly interests, hopes and prospects? I was young and just beginning life. I was running a small store of dry goods and groceries, had six young men in my employ and not a Sabbath keeper in the neighborhood. What shall I, what can I do?
After a period of indecision about how to proceed, Campbell ultimately decided to close his store on the Sabbath. Having made the decision, he fully expected his six employees to leave and find other work. Addressing them on the topic, Campbell recounts the conversation:
I made it my first business to call them together…and talked the matter over with them, giving them a brief account of my experience and trials. As I should do no more work myself on Sabbath, nor allow any work to be done for me…I supposed it would be their choice to leave me, and of course I could not object.
At this point, however, the conversation took an interesting turn:
One of these young men by this time was all broken down and weeping said, “I will not leave you, I will stand by you and keep the day with you.” Then another said the same until all five of the number pledged themselves to stand by me and keep the Sabbath with me.
Campbell reports that all six of his coworkers knew he was struggling, but didn’t know what about. Having shared his convictions, he gave his coworkers an opportunity to respond as well. As a result of this struggle with Sabbath convictions in the workplace, several people in the area began keeping Sabbath as well.
So often, we are afraid to share our convictions in the marketplace for fear of the results, but it may be the case that God wants to use us where we are, not only to witness to the Sabbath, but to the entire Bible and the God revealed there in Christ. The challenge to us is to carefully consider how our Sabbath convictions can be used to magnify God in our workplaces, whether we meet with acceptance or persecution.