A Clear Call to Reformation by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

A Clear Call to Reformation

By Editor

Editorial

_A Clear Call to Reformation._— The first numbers of our first paper, the Present Truth, in the summer of 1849, were filled with the clear call to Sabbath reform. It was the next step for the believers in the second advent,—among whom most of the paper’s first readers were found,—and with no uncertain tone the little paper called men to follow Christ in the obedience of faith. The time of reformation had come that was to bring out the people of the prophecy, keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

_At the Bar of God._— The first number of the paper dealt with the institution of the Sabbath at creation, the perpetuity of God’s law, and the distinction between the law of God, the ten commandments, and the ceremonial precepts. Summing up the array of Bible evidence presented, the editor, James White, wrote:—

The ten commandments are the foundation of the whole Bible. They are God’s moral, royal law, given to man to live by, and by it he will be judged. In our courts of justice, men are tried by the same laws that are given them to live by. Then we can not avoid the conclusion that we are to meet the ten commandments in the day of Judgment, at the bar of God. “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:12. This law is called the royal law, for it came forth from the King Eternal. James has quoted two of the commandments from the decalogue in verse 11, which shows that the royal law of liberty by which man is to be judged, is the ten commandments. Reader, how will you feel before the great white throne, when judged by the law of God, if you break the fourth commandment—the Sabbath law?

_The Judgment and the Sabbath._— How divinely appropriate that the judgment-hour message should have immediately associated with it the call to Sabbath reform. With the judgment at hand, the time had come to lift up anew the standard of judgment, the law of God, the fourth precept of which still declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” As our first publications sounded the solemn cry so long foretold by prophets, loyal hearts began to respond. Now many in lands and tongues scarcely known in that earlier time are thanking God for the “blessed hope” and the blessed Sabbath day. Let the world still scoff as it may, no one, when Jesus comes, will be ashamed to be found among those who are keeping the day that Jesus kept and blessed.

“I love to meet among them now, Before thy righteous throne to bow, Though weakest of them all; Nor can I bear the piercing thought, To have my worthless name left out, When thou for them shalt call.”