The Third Angel's Message.
By J.
WE have shown that from A. D. 1844 onward is the time when the Third Angel's Message must be given to the world. We have shown that the beast and his image, against the worship of which this message warns the world, are the Papacy and the United States Government, when this Government, under the lead of the National Reform party, and by Constitutional Amendment, shall have formed a union of Church and State after the manner of the Papacy. We have shown that the keeping of "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus," to which the world is by this message called, is the keeping of the ten commandments in the only way in which they can be kept by the people on this earth, that is, through the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have shown that any attempt to keep the ten commandments, without faith in Christ, is a vain attempt. We have likewise shown by the Scriptures that faith in Christ must be shown by good works, and that these good works are the keeping of the commandments of God, in order to do which we are made new creatures—born again—in Christ Jesus, so that our fruit may be "unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Rom. 6:22. Thus in the Third Angel's Message is embodied the everlasting gospel, the grand purpose of which is to bring men to obedience to the holy law of God. And thus, as we have also shown, is given God's last call of men to obedience to his commandments, through faith in Christ, and this because "the hour of his Judgment is come," and this judgment is to be "by the law" and according to the gospel. Rev. 14:7; Rom. 2:12, 16. Certainly if there ever was a time when the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus should be most urgently insisted upon, that time is now. We stand now in the days of which the Scripture speaks, and the wickedness of which it portrays in a terrible list, the fitness of which can663be seen by any one who will give attention to the subject. We refer to the Scripture, 2 Tim. 3:1-5, which reads: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." It would seem that this is a complete picture of the very perfection of wickedness, but it is not. For in verse 13 of the same chapter we read of these same ones, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." The list that is here drawn out shows a condition of affairs that is frightfully bad; and instead of there being in it any promise of anything better, there stands the record that it will be "worse and worse." Yet there is a way of escape, and that is given in this word, "From such turn away." Such a torrent of wickedness shall not be allowed to flow except the Lord shall do somewhat. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Isa. 59:19. By this quotation which we have made from 2 Tim. 3, it is plain that in the last days, the enemy does come in, in a perfect flood of iniquity, and the standard which the Spirit of the Lord lifts up against him is the Third Angel's Message. And those who from this iniquity turn away, and flee to the standard thus lifted up by the Spirit of the Lord, gain "the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name," and stand upon the glassy sea "having the harps of God." For, "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." Isa. 59:20. This coming of the Redeemer follows closely upon the close of the Third Angel's Message, and when he comes it is to take unto himself those who have turned from transgression, to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14:14; 15:2. Again we say that the Third Angel's Message is the standard which the Spirit of the Lord lifts up against the iniquity of the last days. The inscription upon that standard is, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus;" and to that standard, and to it alone, there attaches "victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." We have shown that under the Third Angel's Message there will be a world-wide study of the ten commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ, such as there has not been since John stood on the Isle of Patmos. By this the question is brought to every one, and, reader, we ask you this question. Are you keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? We ask it in view of the word of God by James, that, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10. We ask it in view of the words of Christ, that, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. 5:18. And in answering this question all must be guided by the commandments themselves, and not by custom, nor by men's opinions of the commandments. For thus saith the Lord, "It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." Deut. 6:25. The question on this must be, How has God commanded to do? What does the word of God say? We are to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus in view of the fact that "the hour of his Judgment is come; and also in view of this fact we are commanded to "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14:7. Now the only one of the commandments of God which brings to view "him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" is the fourth commandment, which reads thus:— "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Thus in reading together the First and the Third Angel's Messages, it is evident that the attention of men is by them directed particularly to the keeping of the fourth commandment. For, as the first message commands to worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters; and as the third message directs attention to the commandments of God; and as the fourth commandment is the one and the only one which brings God to view as the one who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and this in the very words of the first message; therefore we say it is evident that in these messages the attention of men is to be directed particularly to the fourth commandment. And they are to be urged to keep the fourth commandment, not independent of all the others, but in addition to all the others, and as well as all the others. For to keep all and yet "offend in one point" vitiates all. In the fourth commandment God has plainly commanded the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord. In this commandment, he has not only told men that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and commanded them to keep it as such, but he has also given the reason for its existence, and the reason why it should be kept. And yet in spite of all this, the great majority of people, professed Christians as well as others, utterly disregard the Sabbath of the Lord. Although he has commanded to remember it to keep it holy, they neither remember it nor keep it holy. Although he has commanded that in the seventh day, "thou shalt not do any work," they yet go on with their work on that as on any other day. Such conduct is certainly just anything but the keeping of the commandment. It is true that those who profess to be the Lord's people offer for their disobedience the excuse that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week; and that they keep the first day in obedience to the commandment. But if the first day of the week is now the Sabbath, and should be kept as such according to the commandment, then why is not the commandment made to read thus:— Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the first day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now if that commandment were so printed any where in the world where the Bible is known, everybody would say at once that it was printed wrong. But that is precisely the way that people pretend to keep it. Therefore if to print the commandment so would be wrong, how can the keeping of it so be right? In short, if it would be wrong, as everybody knows that it would be, to print the fourth commandment or any other, even in a single letter different from the way in which God wrote it and as it is printed in the Bible, then the keeping of the commandment in any way different from the way in which God wrote it cannot possibly be right. This is precisely the teaching of Christ on this subject: "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot [the smallest letter] or one tittle [the smallest point of a letter] shall in no wise pass from the law." Then he enforces as the conclusion, this, "Whosoever therefore," for this reason, because not the smallest letter nor the smallest point of a letter shall pass from the law, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. 5:18, 19. From the premise which the Saviour lays down,—that one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,—it is evident that his conclusion enforces the doctrine that for men to swerve, even to the extent of one jot or one tittle, from the perfect integrity of a commandment of God, is to break that commandment; and that the keeping of the commandments is to conform to the perfect integrity of the law, in every jot and tittle of every commandment. Reader, God wrote, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." To not keep the seventh day is to break the commandment of God, and the Third Angel's Message now calls for those who will "turn from transgression in Jacob," for those who will keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. To these the Redeemer will come, and give triumphant victory in his glorious Heaven, in the presence of his throne. Isa. 59:20; Rev. 15:2.