p. 5 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · December 17, 1867

Scripture Notes.

NECESSITY OF A SABBATH.

Ex. xx, 8: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”

Take this day from the calendar of the Christian, and all that remains will be cloudy and cheerless. Religion will instantly decay. Ignorance, error and vice will immediately triumph; the sense of duty vanish; morals fade away; the acknowledgment and even the remembrance of God be far removed from mankind; the glad tidings of salvation cease to sound; and the communication between Heaven and earth be cut off for ever.—Dwight.

EXCELLENCY OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

Ps. xix, 7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”

“These ten commands are from my God; and why should I be backward to vow my obedience to his laws! Are they any thing else but a method of living well and wisely, free from fears and injury? Do they not teach me to conduct myself so, that I may win the favor of God and good men, and be safe in the best, and happy in the worst condition? Can I wish greater felicity than to be [reverential and spiritually minded,] meek and patient, grateful and contented, temperate and industrious, just and bountiful, to converse with God, rejoice with angels, to imitate the saints, follow and trust in the blessed Jesus, and to seek everlasting joy? Doth God require any thing impossible, unjust, or unreasonable? Am I to bind myself to any more than that which my judgment and my conscience tell me is fit and expedient for me to do, although it had never been commanded? Is it any more than that which all the wisest and best men, the friends of God, and favorites of heaven, have done with the greatest delight—and which, therefore, is only the proof of a generous and noble spirit? Is not my God the best of all Masters; who covers the infirmities, and strengthens the weaknesses of his servants? Can I fail to please Him who excites the desire, and enables for the performance; who makes the way familiar and easy, pleasant and inviting, and yet, where there is a hearty endeavor, doth make many abatements, and accept the will for the deed; who begins his assistances early, and continues them till He hath perfected this excellent work? Shall I not be rewarded with a glorious crown in Heaven, for being so wise as to choose to be happy on earth?”—Comber.

MATTHEW HALE AND THE VENISON.

Ex. xxiii, 8: “And thou shalt take no gift; for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.”

Such is human nature, that a gift tends exceedingly to blind the understanding of the most sagacious, and to pervert the words or decisions, even of those who were otherwise righteous. It is recorded of Sir Matthew Hale, that upon his circuit as a judge, he refused to try the cause of a gentleman, who had sent him the customary present of venison, until he had paid for it; for he well understood the spirit of these excellent laws.—Scott.

HORNETS.

VERSE 28: “And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.”

I will send hornets before thee. ‘Repeated, Dent. vii, 20; we read of its fulfilment, [so Bochart, &c.] Josh. xxiv, 12. These were a large, very strong and bold species of wasp; and their sting was terrible. Ælian says, that the Phaselians (a people descended from the Canaanites,) were forced to leave their habitations by wasps; and many similar instances may be found in Bruder and Taylor.’—Williams. ‘That this is not a metaphor for fear and [pungent, stinging] terror, is proved by fear being mentioned in xxiii, 27. Rosenm. in Bruder. No account indeed is found, in the subsequent history, of hornets assaulting the armies which fought against Israel; but Joshua attests the fulfillment of the promise, in respect to the two kings of the Amorites, in a manner which proves that it was well known by all the people. (Josh. xxiv, 12.) It may be inferred, from the texts cited in the margin, that the hornets attacked the devoted nations, either before they engaged in battle, thus weakening and dismaying them, or after they were put to flight, and attempting to hide themselves in caverns or desolate places, to consume the remains of them, or drive them out of the land. And this may account for the silence of the history on the subject. Probably the three tribes here mentioned, were more dreadfully harrassed by the hornets than the rest were.—Scott.