Untitled article by F. GOULD.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, December 31, 1867

I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MIND

By F. GOULD.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Heb. viii, 10.

Previous to the above declaration, Paul was speaking in relation to the old covenant, which was faulty, and then in verse 8 says, “For finding fault with them [the people, because they did not continue in his covenant, the ten commandments], he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant [the ten commandments], and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.” We understand that the ceremonial law was added because of transgression until the promised seed should come. Christ being the seed of promise, that law expired at the cross by limitation, and was taken out of the way. At the beginning of the gospel dispensation, God changed the ministration of the ten-commandment law, and called it a new covenant. In the minds of all those who by faith yielded to the claims of God's law, and obeyed the principles which Jesus gave, he wrote his law. This was true with respect to the early church. They were a class of law-abiding and commandment-keeping Christians, such as God owns and approbates. During the wicked and oppressive rule of that Antichristian power, the Papacy, the work of God almost ceased, except with a few who were worried and hunted like the wild beasts of the forests, and even martyred for the word of God, and the testimony which they held. At such a condition of things, the prophet might well say, “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” Isa. lix, 14.

God has promised a restitution of truth. Thy law is the truth. [Psa. cxix, 142.] The law will be restored to the people of God. This will be completed and finished under the third angel's message, which is now being proclaimed. When the third angel pronounced his solemn message to the world, and the awful threatenings of wrath upon those who worship the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, he further adds: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. xiv, 12. The work of God in writing his law in the mind, is progressive, and so far as his people live out the principles of the law, it being a transcript of the divine mind, so far they will be sanctified through the truth, and thus be fitted for translation. Christ will soon present to himself a glorious church, not having a spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Dear reader, may you and I be numbered among those of whom it is said, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” Isa. xxvi, 2.

F. GOULD.