Editorial by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 42.

Editorial.

By Editor

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."—2 Tim. 3:16.

"AND thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." Christ came to save us from sin and not in sin. God's love could not permit us to perish in sin, and his purity and righteousness could not save us in sin. He therefore saves his people not only from the penalty of sin,—eternal death,—but from sin itself. In this his great love and infinite power are manifest.

EVERY victory strengthens the soul for future conquests. The impatient word unuttered, the uncharitable thought repressed, the evil impulse held in check, the impure suggestion banished from the mind,—such victories, though seemingly small in their scope and importance, fit the soul for greater triumphs, and enable it to stand amid the great crises of life, even as the oak in storm and tempest.

"AND He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made." The nature of God, immortal and infinite as he is, can know nothing of physical weariness. Hence God's rest was a spiritual rest, and his refreshing in consequence was a spiritual refreshing. This, then, is the primary reason why the Sabbath was given to man, that he in it might find spiritual rest. But man is so constituted physically that physical rest is necessary to the highest attainment of spiritual rest, hence in God's order both physical rest is obtained at night, and also in the refreshing obtained from the Sabbath rest. The physical rest is material, and embraces in its scope the whole animal kingdom. Not so, however, with the spiritual rest. It only can be obtained by those possessing spiritual natures, those in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ and the word of righteousness. Then it is only those created in the image of God anew in Christ Jesus who can obtain from God's holy rest day the fullness of blessing in the spiritual refreshing it is designed to give. Christ in the Sabbath and Christ in us will bring into the holy day a heavenly union and a spiritual communion of which the world could never know. Only in realizing and experiencing this blessed relationship can we truly exclaim with David, "O, how love I thy law!" Then will the Sabbath be indeed "a delight, the holy of the Lord and honorable."

THE truth of doctrine is not measured by its following in the world nor by its popularity among men. The test of its genuineness is its correspondence with God, its harmony with the principles of truth and righteousness. A doctrine may be scouted by the wisdom of this world—indeed this has ever been the reception met by God's truth—but the Infinite Word may hold that doctrine as a part and parcel of its sacred self. The word of God is the test of every doctrine. It is the test of every word and work, the gauge of every character; characters wrought by its instructions here will stand the test of the hereafter. All others will be found wanting in the final test.