A Clear Commission by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1909

A Clear Commission

By Editor

Editorial

A Clear Commission. — In No. 4 of our first paper, the Present Truth (September, 1849), the leading article, by James White, was on “Repairing the Breach in the Law of God,” and the leading text: “And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath,” etc.

Repairing the Breach. — We rejoice now with the early pioneers in spirit, as we think how delighted they were, as they studied, to see more and more clearly unfolded the setting of the Sabbath truth in the grand scheme of fulfilling prophecy. Here was the call of the Lord by Isaiah for a people to repair the breach in God’s law. The article said:—

If we repair a breach by teaching and observing the Sabbath according to the fourth commandment, then it necessarily follows that the breach has been caused by those who have been trampling down this commandment. Therefore the breach that has been made, and is now being repaired, is in the law of God.

The Time of Prophecy. — This prophecy of Isaiah, with its call to Sabbath reform, fitted exactly into the prophecy of Daniel, with which the advent believers were so familiar. Elder White further wrote:—

It seems plain that Isaiah looked down in prophetic vision to this very time, when the breach in the law, first made by the little horn (see Dan. 7:25) is being repaired. Ezekiel speaks of the same breach, “Ye have not gone up into the gaps [“breaches,” margin], neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.” Eze. 13:5. The day of the Lord has but one place, and that is just before us. This prophecy has not been fulfilled in past time; for its fulfilment is closely connected with the day of the Lord, which is future.

The little paper gave the trumpet a certain sound in calling the scattered advent believers to the work of repairing the breach. Thus the great Sabbath reform message, that closes the gospel work, began to go to the world.

In the Setting of Prophecy. — It is its place in prophecy that gives the Sabbath reform its power to lay hold with compelling force on hearts. It is when the Lord says that his salvation is near to come and his righteousness to be revealed that he pronounces the beatitude, “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Isa. 56:2. The Sabbath truth finds its true setting at this time in the third angel’s message of Revelation 14. When the Seventh-day Baptists, who had had the light of the true Sabbath for centuries, failed to follow on into the advent truths, they lost the opportunity to lead the Sabbath reformation; while the little band of Adventists who saw the place of the Sabbath reform in prophecy have spread into all the world.