p. 139 | THAT FIFTY DAYS by Smith Sharp

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1878

THAT FIFTY DAYS.

By Smith Sharp

I have always been in the habit of pressing our no-law friends to tell me what law governed the world between the cross and Pentecost, and I find them very loth to talk about it. A few days ago one of them who had heard me speak on the law, came over a mile, through the rain, to have a private talk with me, so as to set me right on that subject. He argued in the strongest terms that all law passed away at the cross, and the new law came in at Pentecost.

Said I, “Paul says sin is not imputed where there is no law, and where no law is there is no transgression. Now please to tell me what law governed the world between the cross and Pentecost?”

He tried several times to evade the question, but finding I was determined to have an answer, he said, “Sir, I believe God is able to hold the world for fifty days in such restraint that no sin will be committed.”

I thought it required an intimation from the word of God to make me believe there was a period of nearly two months during which time not one of the teeming millions of our earth sinned in thought, word or deed; and he thought it more blessed to believe without seeing or hearing.

SMITH SHARP.