"WILLING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF."
By E. Hilliard
A CERTAIN lawyer came to Jesus and asked him the most important question that is possible for a man to ask, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" To this vital question Christ replied by asking the lawyer a question that directed his attention to that which contained the answer, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" He answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said unto him: "This do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?" Jesus then told him of a certain man who fell among thieves while journeying to Jericho, and how they left him bruised and bleeding by the wayside. A priest and Levite came that way, but passed by on the other side, while the Samaritan dressed his wounds, took him to an inn, and paid his bills. He then asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?" He replied, "He that showed mercy on him." Then said Christ, "Go, and do thou likewise." When asked, "Why do you observe the seventh day," we point to the same scriptures to which Christ referred the lawyer, and ask, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" The answer comes back, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work," etc. But many, like the lawyer, willing to justify themselves, ask, "Which is the seventh day?" We reply by asking, "Why do you observe Sunday?" You answer, "To commemorate Christ's resurrection from the dead." "Upon what day does the Bible say Christ arose?" "Why," you say, "according to the scriptures it was upon the first day of the week." Then if Christ arose from the dead on Sunday, and the Bible says he arose on the first day of the week, is not Sunday the first day of the week? Having found the first day, will it be very difficult to find the seventh? Reader, this no-definite-Sabbath theory will not stand the test of the judgment; for the Scriptures point out the first and seventh days very clearly, denominating the seventh day the Sabbath, telling us that it comes the day before the first day. Matt. 28:1. It is a subterfuge behind which many hide, who are willing to justify themselves. E. HILLIARD.
Duluth, Minn.