p. 45 | FOXES OF THE DESERT by W. A. Wilber

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 7, 1878

FOXES OF THE DESERT.

By W. A. Wilber

This is no “desert” place, yet, already, the ground is well spotted with fox-holes of various construction, none, however, of sufficient depth to furnish a resting-place in the light of God’s holy truth.

Jesus says: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” Sad comfort indeed! this searching Spirit of truth must be to the weary, wandering soul, seeking rest and finding none.

The readers of the REVIEW, doubtless, are familiar with almost every conceivable excuse that can be presented by advocates of Sunday-keeping. But, as I remarked, this is no “desert place,” and most surely it is not, in the matter of making excuse. And, in fact, “they all with one consent began to make excuse.” I will give one example of the way the word of God is handled by a Sunday-keeper, and a leading member in the church, just across the way. When I first presented the Sabbath question to him, he said if he could be convinced that our seventh day corresponded to the seventh day or Sabbath of the Old Testament, he should keep it. With this encouragement, I procured suitable reading matter for him, to clear up that point, and from that day to this he has been driven and tossed, until he has taken, and tried to maintain, twenty-eight different positions, from the “example of the apostles” all over this “round world,” including the “polar regions,” down through the “Dark Ages,” where the “law was abolished,” finally bringing up in “Cæsar’s kingdom,” a new place of refuge, as you will presently see.

I had urged him again and again to get into a position where if one should ask him for a Bible reason for keeping Sunday, he could give it, and when he informed me that he had been searching the Scriptures and had found the proof, I confess I was curious to know what scripture he was resting upon; for he had said, “They are the words of Jesus.” And here you have them: “Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s.” Said he, “We have a civil law making Sunday our Sabbath, and therefore to obey Jesus we must keep the first day of the week.”

I replied, “And unto God the things that are God’s.” Have you properly considered the last part of the command as well as the first? As for me, I will render unto Cæsar the first day, since he claims it, and unto my God the Sabbath, since he claims it as his, and he made it.

Another man of high church standing says he will not keep the seventh day because he “hates the Jews,” and will not keep the day they keep anyhow!

My Lord, have mercy. Spare, O spare and forgive, for they know not what they do, who so unthinkingly break the commands of their Maker. Lord, hasten the time when the Jew, a stumbling-block, and Gentile, a stumbling-block also, may meet on one common ground of love and obedience to God, and faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

W. A. WILBER.