PIONEER PROFILES: Rachel Oakes-Preston

RACHEL OAKES-PRESTON (1809-1868)

A song says, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” The spark was an action taken by the General Conference of American Seventh Day Baptists held in 1843. The fire is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries most Christians referred to Sunday as the Sabbath and were zealous to enact laws to enforce its observance.  These political maneuvers brought renewed public interest in the Sabbath along with a measure of uneasiness for Seventh Day Baptists.

This uneasiness moved the General Conference to vote “that the first day of November next be observed by our churches as a day of fasting and prayer that Almighty God would arise and plead for his holy Sabbath” (Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, vol. 1, p. 185).

Rachel Oakes (later married to Nathan T. Preston) took this challenge personally.  In early 1844, she visited her daughter, Delight, in Washington, New Hampshire.  There were no Sabbatarians in the area, so Rachel and Delight observed the seventh day Sabbath alone.  However, they attended a church on Sunday for Christian fellowship.  

The church celebrated the Lord’s Supper that Sunday.  The preacher, Frederick Wheeler, spoke on the 10 commandments.  He preached of the importance of keeping all God’s commandments if we call Him Lord and eat of His Supper.  Oakes could barely hold her peace.  After the service, she confronted Wheeler and pointed out that he was preaching about the 10 commandments while breaking the fourth.

Wheeler studied the subject himself, and was soon observing and sharing this truth with others. One of those others was Joseph Bates, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (now 15 million members worldwide).  Mrs. Oakes-Preston eventually switched from the Seventh Day Baptists to the Seventh-day Adventists.