WHERE IS THAT YOKE OF BONDAGE?
By C. W. Stone
DAVID says, “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Ps. 1:2. And again, “How love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” This is the testimony of a man after God’s own heart concerning that law which Jesus obeyed (John 15:10), which he said should remain in force while the earth stands (Matt. 5:17–19), which Paul said faith in Christ does not make void, and which he established (Rom. 3:31), that law by which James says we shall be judged (James 2:12), and which he calls the “law of liberty.” Such has been the testimony, not only of prophets and apostles, but of Christian men of all ages down to near the present time. Thirty-three years ago, in the providence of God a move was inaugurated for the restoration of the true Sabbath. This is in accordance with the purpose of God, as we now see that he revealed this very move to his servants the prophets more than eighteen hundred years ago. But this, like every true reform that has taken place since Adam’s day, cuts right across the practice of the world and a formal, lifeless church; and when the claims of the Lord’s Sabbath are brought to bear with irresistible force, men arise and say the law of God is abolished. No one ever thought of such a position until they found that law condemned their acts; then, instead of squaring their lives by the law, the93great and perfect rule of right, they think to destroy the law, and then stand free. Now how do they get rid of it? I will tell you one way: they mix it up with the ceremonial law regulating circumcision, the priesthood, and all the ceremonies pertaining to that form of religion, and then call it all a yoke of bondage, and say it was done away at the cross. This is a quick method of easing the conscience, but not a very safe one. Now a person can see at once that it is the ceremonial law that Paul calls a yoke of bondage in Gal. 5:1, as the two next verses plainly show that the yoke of bondage was the law enforcing circumcision. So at the council of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, the grand theme of discussion was circumcision. Acts 15:1. Paul arose to discuss the matter, and he there said that this law of circumcision and ceremonies was a yoke that their fathers were not able to bear. It was at length decided by that council that they should not further teach that law (verse 24), save to recommend four “necessary things” found in it,—to “abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.” Now the moral law does not tell us what meats to eat, nor to abstain from blood, but the ceremonial law does. They were not, therefore, discussing the moral law. It is a remarkable fact that the sharpest of our opponents, when called upon to point out the “yoke of bondage” in God’s holy law, do not dare to locate it in the ten commandments, after all. While at Newburyport, Mass., several weeks ago, I had a conversation with Dr. J. Litch, a man who once enjoyed great light upon the prophetic word. Said he, “That law of God is all done away. It is what the apostle called a yoke of bondage.” Said I, “Do you make any distinction between the ten commandments and the ceremonial law?” He said he did not; “they were simply different installments of the same law. When God gave the ten commandments, he would have given the rest also; but the people besought him to speak no more to them, and God delivered the balance to Moses in the mountain.” I asked him how it happened that God stopped writing on the tables of stone when he had written the ten commandments; and without waiting for a reply I said, “I would like to ask you a few questions.” “You say the law of God is a yoke of bondage. Now as I read in that law, please tell me when I come to the yoke.” I then read the first commandment, and said, “Was not that always just and good, and will it not always be so?” I read the second, and asked, “Are you and I so anxious to make a wooden god and worship it that this command is a yoke?” Then I read the third, and queried, “Are you and I so full of cursing and swearing that this commandment is a grievous yoke to bear?” I read the fifth. “Was it not always right, will it not always be right, that children should honor their parents?” I read the last five with similar questions, and received like answers. Then I read, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” “Is it not right to keep holy the Sabbath day, and will it not always be so?” “Then where is your yoke of bondage?” “Oh! it is not in that part of it, unless it be in that Jewish Sabbath.” I found that the trouble was not so much with the Sabbath, after all, as it was with the day on which it comes. But the Lord pronounces a blessing on the men that shall “call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable,” and that keep the Sabbath from polluting it. Isa. 58:13; 56:2. If men were willing to obey the Lord, the Bible would mean the same to everybody, and all men would understand it to mean just what it says.