AS HE HATH COMMANDED by D. A. Ball

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1901

AS HE HATH COMMANDED.

By D. A. Ball

D. A. BALL. (Ellicottville, N. Y.)

“EXAMINE yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves,” is the exhortation of Paul in 2 Cor. 13:5.

Criticising others will sap our spirituality, but we may reserve the right to criticise self; and if our actions are compared with the Word, where God’s requirements are found, we shall be profited by it.

The devil is clever at counterfeiting, and is highly pleased that mankind should have a form of doctrine, and the nearer it resembles the genuine, the better satisfied he is with it. I am sometimes surprised to see how numerous his incursions are, how cunningly they are devised, and how well mankind is satisfied with them.

The Sabbath is one of the fundamentals of religion,—the test of loyalty to God. The devil sees there would be no hope of success if he should try to induce men to give up the observance of a day, so he selects a day which is just as far from the one the Lord has named as possible; for the Lord has selected the last day of the week, while Satan has chosen the first,—six days apart from the nearest point. God says, Work six days, and rest the seventh; Satan says, Rest one day, and then do the work. After he has instilled it into the minds to do this, he will inspire men to come to the defense of it by infusing his own spirit into them; and when their pet theme is assailed, and they are unable to meet the argument with a “Thus saith the Lord,” they clamor for law to compel men to act as they desire them to.

Now do you regard this as too strong ground to occupy? Let me refer you to two scriptures, Ex. 20:8-11 and Mark 16:1, 2. The former makes the day definite in the Old Testament, and the latter in the New; for none who read can fail to see that the Sabbath passes in the New before the first day begins.

Baptism is laid down by Paul in Hebrews as one of a quartet of doctrines that compose the foundation of the Christian religion. Here again, instead of trying to uproot the foundation, Satan tries the easier way, that of counterfeiting, and in this he has succeeded better in name than in nature; for while baptism was to represent the burial of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, we find nothing in the nature of sprinkling which would remind one of the event that it commemorates. The Lord’s estimate of this ordinance will be seen in Luke 7:30. The Pharisees and lawyers, in rejecting it, rejected the counsel of God, against themselves and there is danger of our doing the same thing in this day of increased light and knowledge.

The Lord’s Supper is another ordinance of the New Testament, and the wisdom of God is seen in selecting the emblems to represent the bruised body and spilt blood. No one can look upon the red wine without being reminded of crimson blood; and the bread is just as appropriate to represent His body. The bread is made of grain, which grows out of the earth; the body was formed from the ground also. You sow a kernel of grain, and all you get out of the seed sown is the life. Christ says, in John 12:24, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

There is danger of our ignorantly falling under the censure of the Lord, as expressed in Mal. 1:7, where He says, “Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar.” Then we to-day will use the words of ancient Israel, “Wherein have we polluted thee?” Paul says Christ is our passover, sacrificed for us. Anciently the Israelites were to subsist upon unleavened bread while they observed the feast. Leaven, being the result of a decaying process, cannot well represent the body of Christ, as He was not dead long enough for corruption to take place. Fermented wine also shows corruption in the thing it represents,—a thought too repulsive to be entertained in the mind for one moment.

The Spirit of the Lord tells us that leavened bread must not be used to commemorate the Lord’s Supper; and in the light of the foregoing, we can see why it is not to be used.

Many are perplexed to know what to do with the fragments that remain; for there is always some left. In the institution of the Passover, the Israelites were told to burn with fire that which remained. Ex. 12:10. And again we read: “If aught of the flesh of the consecrations, or of the bread remain until the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten.” Ex. 29:34.

Let us ascertain just what the Lord wishes us to do, and then to do it in every minutia, thus honoring Him; for it is the willing and obedient who shall eat the good of the land.