Power of The Truth by J. B. Goodrich

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 19, 1882

Power of The Truth.

By J. B. Goodrich

BY ELD. J. B. GOODRICH.

"For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." 2 Cor. 13 : 8.

On entering new fields of labor I have often been reminded of this scripture. Men will arise and oppose the plain teaching of the word of God, thinking thereby to stop the work. But they who engage in opposing the truth engage in an uneven warfare. "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." What is truth? David said : "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth." Ps. 119 : 142. Jesus said : "Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth." John 17 : 17. And the Apostle Paul said : "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2. Tim. 2 : 15. God spoke the ten commandments with his own voice, and wrote them on the tables of stone with his own finger. Deut. 4 : 12, 13. These are his law—they are the truth. They are given to men as moral agents ; they are God's moral law, and of course cannot be changed or repealed.

Paul says of some that they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." Rom. 1 : 25. A lie never changes and becomes a truth by reason of age. Neither does truth grow old and turn into a lie. "Holy and reverend is his name," will always be truth, and it will be equally true that "the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." So it will always be truth that "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." The fourth commandment still speaks the truth—and truth which will remain as immovable as the throne of Heaven.

But the Catholic power thought to change the divine command, and substitute another day for the hallowed rest day of God. The first-day Sabbath rests on no divine authority. God revealed to his servant Daniel the work which that power would do, and what it would think to do. And all history, as well as that power itself, testifies that it has done that very work as described in the prophecy.

And God has just as distinctly spoken through his prophets, describing the work of restoring the Sabbath. He has shown that the true people of God will be keeping his commandments and the faith of his dear Son before Jesus comes. Isa. 58 : 12, 13 ; Rev. 12 : 17 ; 14 : 12 ; and 22 : 14. So the Lord is causing a proclamation to be given to the inhabitants of the earth ; a message is going forth calling for Sabbath reform ; and they who oppose this work are engaged in an unequal warfare. They will yet be made to realize that their efforts are vain. God, who can make the wrath of man praise him, has said they can do nothing against the truth. Their opposition will only open the way "for the truth."

We have a forcible illustration of this in Paul's experience. The Lord sent him to labor in Macedonia. With full assurance that he was called of God to that field, he commenced his work in Philippi. He preached on the Sabbath day by the river side, and one household was converted. As he was there certain days, a damsel having a spirit of divination troubled him, and he rebuked the unclean spirit and cast it out. This enraged the masters of the damsel, and they brought Paul and Silas before the rulers ; and after many stripes were laid upon them they were thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the stocks. Then their enemies thought they had them secure, and they would have no more trouble with them and their doctrine ; they imagined that the disturbance caused by their preaching would soon die out, and the city would again have peace and quiet. But did not the Lord send Paul to preach the truth to that people? He did. And did not Jesus say, "Lo, I am with you unto the end of the world?" Yes. Will the purpose and promise of God fail? No, never. The Lord by an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. When the jailor was about to kill himself Paul cried out, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here."

Had they been put in prison for theft, or murder, or any crime, they would probably have done as the guilty do now—they would have secreted themselves. But Paul knew that the effort made to crush the truth would, in the Lord's own time, serve to advance it, and be the means of saving souls for whom Christ died. And so it was. The jailor asked for instruction in the way of salvation, and believed the word spoken, and he and all his house were baptized that same night. All their malice and persecution of the servants of God could do nothing against the truth. And so we now may say, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. 8 : 31.

Hartland, Maine.