A SEVENTH PART OF TIME by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1881

A SEVENTH PART OF TIME.

By W. H. Littlejohn

BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

WERE the seventh-part-of-time theory so commonly arrayed against the Sabbath of the Lord carried out, it would prove destructive of the highest interests of society.

When we speak of society and the confusion which would be created in it by a general and practical indorsement of the tenet before us, it is not with reference to that temporary disturbance which would arise from a change of views, but it is that permanent disorder which would result from the inauguration of a line of public policy which can never be reconciled with a state of things every way normal and necessary.

With this understanding of the declaration which stands at the head of this division of the subject, we see the weight which, if true, it ought to have in this discussion. For, as God the Creator and God the Lawgiver are one, certain it is that he has not approved in the first capacity that which he has condemned in the last; i. e., if God in his omniscience, has so related us to each other, socially, that a Sabbath which is not fixed would be a curse, then he has never given us such an one. That this would be the case, however, might be illustrated from every walk in life. Take, for example, the commercial world. In it men are intimately connected with, and largely dependent upon, each other for success. So true is this that even the most common transactions are seldom perfected without the joint action of several individuals, and, in many cases, that of a much larger number. Now let a certain portion, say one-seventh, of your business men retire each day from the active scenes of life. A glance reveals the fact that those who are not of this number would find themselves vexed and annoyed at every step, if not prevented from making any progress whatever, by the absence of those whose presence was to them indispensable in order to the accomplishment of their designs. This would be especially true with those more complicated organizations which have been created for the purpose of facilitating an exchange of commodities between cities and nations; such as railroad corporations, which are wholly dependent for success upon the united and timely effort of many individuals, scattered along a line stretching for hundreds, and sometimes for thousands, of miles. In fact, it may well be questioned whether they would not, from the very necessity of the case, perish immediately upon, and as a consequence of, the introduction of the change proposed.

Again, it would prove fatal to our educational system, since it is wholly dependent for success upon classification, and this can never be maintained, except through the regular attendance of pupils, a thing which would be altogether out of the question should they or their parents act upon the plan suggested.

But, as we have neither time nor disposition to examine in detail the many institutions which we so much cherish, and which distinguish civilized from barbarous life, in order to trace the effect which will be produced upon each, we propose to show at once that it would prove ruinous to them all, since it would utterly subvert that upon which they must depend for existence; viz., law and order.

While there is much in human governments to be regretted, there is, also, much which is commendable; and it is difficult to see how they could be dispensed with so long as men are either criminal in intention, or liable to err in judgment. Hence we are instructed in the word of God that we should be subject to the powers that be, as they are ordained by him; that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's; that rulers are a terror only to evil-doers. So important was the idea of a well-regulated State in the eyes of the Lord that he organized one for his chosen people, the laws of which have furnished a model for the ages which have followed. We unhesitatingly affirm, however, that neither that, nor any other government, can be administered upon the principle of a Sabbath movable at will; for the very idea of a government that is a condition of society regulated by law; but law enforced implies a judiciary, in some form or other, clothed with power to try cases and inflict penalties. That this, however, would be practically out of the question, with the condition of things alluded to, will be apparent from a moment's thought. We will suppose that the legislature, acting in good faith, and in supposed harmony with the will of Heaven, has enacted that every citizen shall be guaranteed the right of deciding for himself when he will solemnize the Sabbath; and the people, equally ingenuous in lauding the wisdom of this plan, proceed to act upon it. The result is that, from one motive or another, every one of the seven days of the week has been appropriated by a portion of the community to rest. Who does not see that, with this state of things, it would be the idlest nonsense to talk of administering justice through the courts? for the judge, having passed the period of his rest, might, perhaps, be ready to proceed to business at the very moment that the officers of the court are about to lay it aside, so that they may enter upon theirs.

This difficulty surmounted, after much delay, the calendar is taken up on this, and every subsequent, day of the week; but it is found, upon examination, that they cannot come to trial in a single case in the long list, since there is not one of them in which adjudication is not impossible because of the absence of either one or the other party, or of one of the counselors, or one or more of the witnesses, or some one of the twelve jurors, whose presence is indispensable, and yet who cannot be compelled to appear, because this would be an invasion of his legally-recognized right to consecrate to the worship of God whatever hours might seem to him good.

The result of such a state of things is apparent. Criminals, perceiving that the hilt of the sword of justice is in their own hands, become defiant, crime becomes rampant—the land is deluged with vice, the flood-gates of iniquity are thrown wide open—and no man can close them until the State is ruined, except by a repudiation of the fatal dogma, the legalization of which has caused all the trouble.

We have now been brought by five distinct processes of reasoning to the same result, viz., that the seventh, or last, day of the week, and no other, has been, and is now, the Sabbath of the Lord our God.

Have you, hitherto, by an unfortunate combination of circumstances, been found desecrating it through ignorance of its true character? Then an humble confession of your guilt will secure you the fullest pardon. But in this case, as in all others, the genuineness of the repentance is determined by the fruits which it brings forth. Should you, for the future, continue in the way of the transgressor, even the sins of the past cannot be blotted out. Is this the first time your attention has been called to the subject? Then your position is, indeed, a critical one. Thousands of staunch vessels have gone to pieces on the identical rock of decision that your bark is now approaching. Perhaps you have never in all your life been placed in a situation where your love for God and his word has been so thoroughly tested as it will be here. On one side of this question stands almost every consideration of a worldly nature. There, perhaps, are your friends. There is the multitude of wise men whose opinions you have been taught to revere. There are the churches with which you have acted so long and so pleasantly. There, it may be, are your property interests. There is your reputation and standing in society, while, on the other side are the tablets of the law, bearing the inscription, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Do you falter? Then listen to the voice of Him who, while he seeks to deter us from evil by fierce denunciations of wrath, also strives to win us to holiness by promises of future good, as precious as they are incomprehensible: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58: 13, 14.

Can language convey an idea of felicity more perfect than that which is portrayed in the above? If so, it will be found in the following benediction pronounced by our Saviour upon those who are seeking to obtain it: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22: 14. Not the city of an earthly king; not the Jerusalem of the land of Judea; but that of the "King of kings," "the Jerusalem which is above, whose builder and maker is God," the same which John saw coming down from God out of Heaven, shining with a light clear and beautiful as that of a living stone, with twelve gates of pearl, every several gate of one pearl, and each one guarded, not with a grim and frowning soldier, but by a mighty and shining angel of God; with walls of jasper, and twelve foundations, each of precious stone; with a street of gold, like unto transparent glass, through the center of which flowed "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal," and on either side of it was the tree of life, "which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month;" while at the head of the great avenue stood the throne of God and the Lamb, from which proceeded an effulgence so bright that the "city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb was the light thereof."

Such will be the future and eternal home, not of those who hear, but of those who do, God's commandments. There will be fulfilled to the courageous, God-fearing men of this generation— standing as they do in the last, or Laodicean, state of the church—those most mysterious words of the Lord: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 3: 21.

Would you be of this immortal number? Then remember that the promise is not to him that is overcome, but to him that overcometh; and that, if you fulfill the conditions named, the combined powers of earth and hell cannot separate you from your reward.