A Strange Statement by J. H. W.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 25, 1874

A Strange Statement.

By J. H. W.

A BROTHER from Canada, at the recent camp-meeting, called my attention to the following statement made by a Presbyterian minister in his neighborhood.

The minister said that the fourth commandment should read, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it wholly,” i. e., entirely, or in other words, an entire day is to be kept.

Now we do not object to the idea that the entire Sabbath—the whole day—is to be observed; but the above statement is not true. If the said minister knows anything at all of the original, he knows that he made a false statement. The original word is the same that is rendered sanctified in Gen. 2: 3, and hallowed in Ex. 20: 11; the same word that is found in Lev. 11: 44; 19: 2; Isa. 56: 13; &c.

And equally strange as the statement, is the fact that it was seized upon with avidity by the opposers of the Sabbath as an argument against the observance of the seventh day! The fourth commandment says that the seventh day is the Sabbath; that God rested on it from all his work of creation; and that he hallowed or sanctified it. Now suppose it also said that we must observe the entire day, would that be an argument against its observance?

We can only pity the individuals who catch at such straws to justify their opposition to the law of Jehovah. We would that they would heed the warning, and not try to screen themselves from the holy commandments by which every work shall be brought into judgment. In that day God’s law will find them, though they shut their eyes against its claims now.

The fear of the Lord has nearly departed from the earth. His authority is scarcely recognized, and the flimsiest excuse is deemed sufficient to justify a denial of the claims of his law. But the light of the third angel’s message is dispelling the darkness, and exposing every vain excuse to which men resort. May the Lord speed on the work, till the world is fully tested on “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

J. H. W.