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Called By God
Minnie to go with him. They made an attractive couple, she with dark brown hair, 5’ 7
1/2” tall, he with black hair, about the same height.
Minnie Day and Logan Sype joined their lives in marriage March 6, 1889, a month
before Minnie’s twentieth birthday. The newlyweds agreed to disagree on matters of religion, she being a member of the Christian Church and he a Seventh-day Adventist.
They committed to respect each other’s religion and accompany one another to both
churches. They had worship together with prayer and Bible reading, carefully staying
away from controversial topics.
When Minnie attended Logan’s church, she noticed that the members were energetic
Bible students. They could cite many texts in support of their beliefs. She began
wondering why her husband worshiped on the seventh day of the week while she
worshiped on the first day. Wasn’t that strange when they were both basing their practice on the same Bible?
Expecting help in finding Biblical support for her beliefs, Minnie went to see her pastor.
The minister’s inability to com-ply with this request for Biblical evidence supporting
Sunday observance proved a painful disappointment to Minnie; secretly she had hoped
that she would be able to persuade her husband to worship on Sunday with her.
Minnie’s father-in-law, Mr. J. L. Sype, studied the Bible with her. He had been elder of
the Afton, Iowa, church for years and was well prepared to guide his eager young
daughter-in-law. Minnie approached the Bible as ravenous people come to food. While
washing dishes, she memorized Bible verses. Many times after the day’s work was over,
her father-in-law would walk over from his farm across the road and answer Minnie’s
Bible questions until midnight. The millennium, the resurrection, the second coming of
Christ, and Bible prophecies for the last days all were investigated. Minnie developed
ever greater admiration for God’s Word. The longi ng to know more about God that had
pained her throughout her childhood was finally being satisfied.
After several months of intensive Bible study, Minnie saw clearly that the seventh day
is the Sabbath. This put her in a difficult position: she had to choose between satisfying
her conscience, on the one hand, or remaining in a comfortable tradition on the other.
One Sabbath Minnie worshiped with the little company to which her husband
belonged; then on Sunday she stood in her doorway watching dearly loved friends make
their way to the church that she had shared with them for years. Her friends were going
one way, literally, while she was about to go another. The separation seemed more than
she could bear. In her anguish she cried out, “Oh, my God! Do you ask this of me?”
Minnie went into her sitting room and knelt down with her Bible open to the Ten
Commandments. She told God that she could not knowingly break one of those
commandments while living as a committed Christian. The fourth commandment cried
out from the surface of the page, “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
(Exodus 20:10, emphasis supplied.) She knew that she must keep the seventh-day
Sabbath. On her knees she promised to do this, asking God to give her strength.
In July 1889, Minnie Day Sype became part of the body of Christ in the Seventh-day
Adventist Church.
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