p. 755 | Delight in the Law by R. F. Cottrell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 48.

Delight in the Law.

By R. F. Cottrell

To DELIGHT in the law of God is a virtue, according to both the Old Testament and the New. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, . . . but his delight is in the law of the Lord." Ps. 1:1, 2. The psalmist repeatedly says, "Thy law is my delight." Ps. 119:77, 174. He prophesies of Christ, when he should come into the world (See Heb. 10:5-7); and the language of his heart is the same: "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." Ps. 40:8. Jesus obeyed the law,—"he did no sin,"—and he proclaimed it as the foundation truth of his mission. Obedience to its precepts was required by him from all people in all time to come, who would have a part in his kingdom. Matt. 5:17-20. The apostle Paul was a "chosen vessel" of his to bear his name to the Gentiles; and he could say, with his Master, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." Rom. 7:22.

Now I propose a question: Was the law in which David, and Jesus, and Paul delighted the very same law, or did one delight in one thing, another in another, and the third in something else? If it was the same law in each instance, could it require David to do one thing, and Paul to do another? Could the same law require David to rest from secular labor and business on the seventh day of the week, because God rested on that day from the work of creation, and require Paul to rest on the first day, because Jesus arose from the dead on that day? Since the Scriptures are silent on the subject of this change, an explanation from those who would enforce Sunday-keeping by civil law, would seem highly proper, and it would be duly appreciated. R. F. COTTRELL.