Excuses by D. H. Lamson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 19, 1871

Excuses.

By D. H. Lamson

How NATURALLY they flow from the human heart! How often and easily are they made. When the truth is made so clear and plain, when it is seen in all its beauty and perfection, in all its comeliness and fair proportions, so that men are constrained to say it is the truth and ought to be obeyed, and even when the hearers are made up largely of those who have an awakened conscience, or at least claim to have these, how astonishing then to see them join with others who make no pretensions to holiness, in the work of making excuses. With the course of the one, we are unable to reconcile their profession; for the other we can but have pity, and pray that God will yet touch their hearts. People will admit that we have the truth, yet with almost the same breath begin to make excuse. When the Sabbath is presented, they say it is clear, it appears to be true, but— But what? Oh! we would like to hear the other side of the question. Well, you have heard it all your lives, and you ought to be able to decide by this time. But let me inquire, If some should come to you and say that it was right to make and bow down to graven images, how would you answer them? Would you not turn to the second command of the decalogue which says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything? Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them?” Again, suppose some should say that it is right to profane the name of the Lord. Would you not turn again and read, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”? To all Protestants of any evangelical denomination, these scriptures would be the best of evidence and considered of sufficient force to outweigh all objections that any might bring.

But what bearing would it have upon the minds of Catholics to quote the second commandment who, as a body, have made it void by their own tradition? Or how would it affect the pagan or the spiritualist to read the third, to prove that profanity was wrong? Manifestly either course would affect neither in any degree. But all Protestants would object, and say that no tradition should stand for a moment against the plain letter of God’s word.

This position is evidently the true one. Then why not take it as opposed to the tradition which makes void the commandment which says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God”? and why do Protestants oppose both pope and pagan for doing that of which they themselves are guilty?

The Catholic says the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week has been handed down by an unbroken tradition from the days of the apostles themselves. Protestants have echoed and do re-echo the same. By tradition also Catholics worship the cross and host, and make images of their patron saints, and bow down and worship before them. Who can tell why one is received as Heaven-born truth while the other is rejected? And who can show that the logic is not as good that quotes the fourth command against the practice of the first as that which quotes the second against the practice of the other?

Then let me say in concluding on this point that time to decide is not a necessity in this case; for the command which says, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God is just as explicit as the one that forbids the making and worshiping of graven images, or the one which says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

But the excuse mentioned and commented on above, or rather the indecision, is not the least plausible by any means, or one which causes the greatest sorrow and even anguish of heart of the servant of God. Excuses which he is ashamed to hear are boldly made without any apparent concern as to consequences even by those who profess to love God, and daily come before him in prayer.

One said to me not long since, “I know it is my duty to keep all the commandments of God, the Sabbath not excepted. I feel its claims upon me, yet my business is in my way, I cannot sacrifice that.” He virtually said, “I cannot give up my business even for peace of mind here or a glorious immortality hereafter;” and he further said, that he knew the Lord did not hear him pray; “for,” said he, “my own heart condemns me.” God pity the men, and the women, too, who are in such a place as this; for there are many of both who are really in the same condition. My own heart is wrung with anguish while I write; and I pray earnestly that God will help them to add to their faith, courage. Take the next step, friends, and all will be easy. Take the next step, and the Lord will bless you. Then you will have confidence toward God; for your own heart will not condemn you.

One is a class leader in the church to which he belongs. How can he leave his connection with the people who have been his choice, although his conscience tells him he should take a different road and so cease to trample on the law of God.

Another is foreman in a lumbering district with men under his control, and is expected to labor as other men labor. How can he keep God’s holy day. Would God they could do as did Moses of old, “who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of reward.”

Again, a mother and daughters say, “How can we keep the Sabbath here, when the husband and father will not, and is even opposed to the very idea?” Another party, a husband and wife, are fully decided as to the truthfulness of positions taken, confess the necessity of obedience, yet strong fetters bind them to the old course of life. Oh! if the way to life was not narrow, if there were no crosses, if we should never be persecuted, or in affliction, or forsaken, how many would reach for the words of life instead of shrinking from them! How many would have the palm, the robe, the crown, if it was easy to keep unspotted from the world. But now we see before us the den of lions; shall we be as hopeful as was Daniel with the angel? Do we see the furnace of fire heated one seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated; and is our faith so strong that the form of the fourth will be with us? If so, not even the smell of fire will be on our garments. Do our enemies surround us as they did Elisha at Dothan? Then may God help us to say, “Ten thousand of foes shall not make me afraid, Ten thousand around me in battle arrayed,” and our deliverance will finally be as remarkable and as complete as was that of the prophet.

My Bible does not say, These are they which come out of great prosperity, but out of great tribulation. Can we mix with the world, and enjoy its peculiar pleasures? “But I have chosen you out of the world,” says the Saviour, “therefore the world hateth you.” Must I risk my reputation, give up my business, and forsake all that I have, social relations and all? “He that forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple.” What is for me then? “There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.” Must I give up my church and people, the brethren and sisters I have so dearly loved, if they will not with me keep the commandments of my God? And will they not cast my name out as evil, and even turn me out of the church? Oh! I cannot bear that! My friend, whoever you are, this feeling pressed heavily upon others almost two thousand years ago, and upon many, doubtless, from that time to the present. See John 12: 42: “Nevertheless, among the chief rulers many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” Is a place and a name among men better than a place and a name with Christ and the angels? Is a separation from friends here with a sure promise of more and better, and eternal life at last, more grievous to contemplate than the eternal separation at the consummation, and the blackness of darkness forever?

Oh! for the faith of our fathers, their courage and constancy, who were “tortured, not accepting deliverance,” “had trials of cruel mockings,” shrank not from the rack or the flame, “of whom the world was not worthy.” We shall need some of it before the final conflict is over. May God help us to prepare, for we must be made white and tried, and without fault before the throne of God. D. H. LAMSON.