Thomas Motherwell Preble (1810–1907) was a
Free Will Baptist
Free Will Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal est ...
minister in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and a
Millerite
Millerite is a nickel sulfide mineral, Ni S. It is brassy in colour and has an acicular habit, often forming radiating masses and furry aggregates. It can be distinguished from pentlandite by crystal habit, its duller colour, and general l ...
preacher. After accepting the teachings of
William Miller, Preble was
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
from his church.
Preble appears to have accepted the seventh-day
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...
in 1844, possibly from Frederick Wheeler or someone associated with the
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, New Hampshire, church. Preble was the first Millerite to advocate the Sabbath in print. In the Feb. 28, 1845, issue of the ''Hope of Israel'', an Adventist periodical in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
, was reprinted in tract form in March, 1845, with the title, ''Tract, Showing That the Seventh Day Should be Observed as the Sabbath.'' This tract led to the conversion of
J. N. Andrews
John Nevins Andrews (July 22, 1829 – October 21, 1883) was a Seventh-day Adventist minister, the first official Seventh-day Adventist missionary, writer, editor, and scholar. Andrews University (Michigan, USA), a university owned and operated b ...
and other Adventist families in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, Maine, as well as to
Joseph Bates.
Two years later, however, Preble repudiated the Sabbath and later wrote some articles against the Seventh-Day Sabbath in ''
The World's Crisis
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' and a book, entitled ''First-Day Sabbath''.
Family History
Preble's great-grandparents were massacred by Natives in 1758 in Woolwich, Maine. Their children, among whom was Preble's grandfather, Ebenezer Preble, Jr., were captured and sold to the French in Quebec, Canada, from where they were later found and brought back by their maternal grandfather. Preble's father, Motherwell Preble, was named after Thomas Motherwell, who married Rebecca Preble, the sister of Ebenezer Preble, Jr. and who was also captured by the Indians.
[For T.M. Preble's genealogy, se]
Descendants of Robert Preble
in which his murdered great-grandfather is person no. 23, his captured grandfather, Ebenezer, Jr., is no. 32, and his father, Motherwell, is no. 42.
See also
*
Millerites
The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller, who in 1831 first shared publicly his belief that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would occur in roughly the year 1843–1844. Coming during the Second Great Awakening, his ...
* ''The
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia
The ''Seventh-day Adventist Commentary Reference Series'' is a set of volumes produced primarily by Seventh-day Adventist scholars, and designed for both scholarly and popular level use. It includes the seven-volume ''Seventh-day Adventist Bibl ...
'', 1996 ed., has a helpful biographical entry on T. M. Preble.
*
Ellen G. White Estate
Ellen Gould White ( née Harmon; November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was an American woman author and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, she ...
's ''Legacy of Light'' CD-ROM.
Notes
External links
''A Tract, Showing that the Seventh Day Should be Observed as the Sabbath, Instead of the First Day; “According to the Commandment.”''by T. M. Preble
''The First-day Sabbath, Clearly Proved by Showing that the Old Covenant, or Ten Commandments, have been Changed, or made Complete, in the Christian Dispensation''by T. M. Preble, Buchanan, Michigan, W. A. C. P. Association, 1867.
''The Last Tragedy of the Indian Wars: The Preble Massacre at the Kennebec''by Rev. Henry O. Thayer
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preble, Thomas M.
1810 births
1907 deaths
Adventism
Millerites
People excommunicated by Baptist churches