THE IMPORTANCE OF OBEDIENCE.
By S. T. Belden
The subject of obedience is one to which is attached the most importance of any that can be found in the Bible. It is the foundation of all the law and the prophets. Says Jesus: [Matt. xxii, 40;] “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” It is a matter of course then, that all the promises of God are conditional, and can be obtained only by strict compliance with the conditions. It is not consistent that the promises of God should conflict with his own government or standard of right. Should he make promises which if fulfilled, he would be obliged to disregard or destroy his own government—the foundation of the Bible—we see that it would destroy the promise itself. Let those who profess to be looking for the blessed hope and are resting on the idea that God has abolished his law, the ten commandments, while they cannot present scripture testimony to prove their position, think of this, and be sure that they lay up for themselves a good foundation that they may be able to stand when this earth shall “reel to and fro like a drunkard; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” Isa. xxiv, 20. It is the delight of the true child of the Lord to study the blessed Bible. He finds it a sure foundation, a prop that he can ever lean upon with safety; and a sweet heavenly peace pervades his mind as he advances in the knowledge of it: he confidently relies on it as his guide. And although he may be surrounded with darkness and error on every hand, he will have light in his dwelling. Why is it that he thus loves his Bible? I answer, It is because he is obedient to its precepts. He feels when he reads it111that it does not condemn him; therefore, he can have confidence to believe that what is promised is for him, and he has a right to expect that what he asks for through the worthiness of Jesus, he will receive, because he loves God, and keeps his commandments, and does those things that are pleasing in his sight. This is the reason why he takes so much delight in it. They also have the promise that they shall know the truth. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” John vii, 17. Now mark! It is those who do his will that have this promise of his guidance in their investigations. Can any willing and obedient child of his, help loving to peruse its sacred pages for light and understanding, when he has such a promise connected with it? And can it also but inspire confidence in him that his labor will not be fruitless? And he can adopt the language of Job, “Neither have I gone back from the commandments of his lips: I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Job xxiii, 12. And more than that, he feels that there is a necessity of understanding these great truths of the Bible; for the prophet Hosea says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;” [Hos. iv, 6, 14;] “therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.” We see it is often repeated by the prophets to the Jewish church, that had they been obedient and hearkened to the voice of the Lord, they might have been blessed and exalted above all the nations of the earth, and their City would have remained for ever if they had kept the Sabbath. Jer. vii, 25. Read from Chap. i—xx, and see what promises were given to them if they would obey him; also, the destruction threatened if they still continued in disobedience. In chapter v, 1, he promised them that if they could find a man that executed judgment, that sought the truth, and he would pardon it. “Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Isa. xlviii, 18. Jeremiah lamented over the wickedness of Jerusalem as follows: “Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people, &c.” Jer. ix, 1. As Jesus beheld Jerusalem he wept over it saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Luke xix, 41–44. In view of these solemn declarations, we cannot fail to see and feel the importance of walking humbly before the Lord, and of searching carefully his word that we may know what is coming on the earth and be prepared to meet it before it is too late and not be left without a shelter in the time of trouble. Let us rather fear God, and keep his commandments which is the whole duty of man. I wish to notice some more of the testimony of the Bible relative to the promise. We may go back to our first parents and inquire what was lost by disobedience. They lost the favor of God, and a right to the tree of life: the earth was cursed, and man was driven from the beautiful garden where he had been placed, to labor under the curse, and till the ground for the support of his nature till he should return to the earth again. But praise the Lord, that there was left with him a ray of hope that the earth would not always remain in this deplorable condition. A promise was there given of a second Adam in this sense, that as Adam was the first transgressor, so death passed on all his posterity. So Christ, the first, perfectly obedient, or righteous Person, should bring his own, those begotten by him to a lively hope, again to eternal life; the earth again restored to its paradisiac state, and a way for fallen man to again have a right to the tree of life, and live in the sight of a holy God. See Rom. v, 12–21. No wonder that the patriarchs and prophets looked forward to such a glorious event with such earnestness. They very well knew what had befallen our race in consequence of transgression. They also knew very well, that through this Person was promised a restitution, and why should they not “search diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” Here we learn with what interest the prophets searched and inquired that they might understand relative to this salvation. And it seems that the plan of salvation was revealed to them and they testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. And it has always been the aim of the true church to inquire and search into this valuable treasure. There have been others whom the Lord calls righteous; viz., Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, &c., and this promise has been renewed or given to them, that through their seed should come the Deliverer. So we see that these holy men of God have ever been shut up to faith in the promise of God relative to it; and to those who have been obedient, it has been revealed by his Spirit, and they have seen them afar off, and have embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. O, what a glorious thought that all these righteous [obedient] men of God will come up in the resurrection of the just to receive the promise. But lest I wander farther from the subject before me, I will notice righteous Abraham. God has never forgotten his faithful servants. He met Abraham when he was performing one certain act of obedience, and made a promise to him that he should be called the father of the faithful, and that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. And in renewing the promise to Isaac, [Gen. xxvi, 4, 5,] it is stated that it was because that Abraham obeyed his voice and kept his commandments, his statutes and his laws. Here then is why the Lord loved him and gave him the promise; it follows then, that the true seed of Abraham are the faithful and righteous ones those who keep his commandments, his statutes and his laws, the holy Sabbath not excepted, unless you can prove that it is abolished. We might trace it down through the Bible and we would find that the obedient, are the ones that have the promises verified to them. Hear what the prophet Samuel said to Saul at a certain time when he had tried to improve upon the commandment of God, and declared that he had kept it, when in fact he had transgressed it.—The Lord told him to go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they had, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass, but instead of this, Saul spared the king and the best of his sheep, and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs to sacrifice unto the Lord. But Samuel said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifices, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. xv, 22.