WHAT DO WORDS MEAN?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 3, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 56.

WHAT DO WORDS MEAN?

UNDER the heading of “Loyalty to Christ,” Rev. J. M. Foster, in the Christian Statesman, lays down as his first three propositions the following:—

1. The believer’s purpose is to serve Christ.

2. The believer accepts Christ’s will as the perfect rule of life.

3. The believer accepts Christ’s life as his model.

All these are good; but to serve Christ is to do as Christ commands. Jesus says, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Christ’s will is the will of his Father. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” God’s will is his holy law. Ps. 40:7, 8. Christ’s life was the life of the law of God manifested in the flesh. Christ kept his Father’s commandments; he observed them all. He made no discrimination—there was no difference. His life was the exemplification of the whole Decalogue.

By this will of Christ Mr. Foster has reference to the Decalogue, but in the light of what he here says how can he justify what he has said so many other times in regard to the first-day sabbath? Christ never commanded Sunday observance as a part of his service—it is not a part of his will, and it was not kept nor observed in his life. The seventh-day Sabbath was. Christ commanded it. He says, “Keep the commandments.” It is his will; he was one with the Father in giving it, and he himself observed it. What, therefore, is the duty of those who follow him, but to take the life of Christ as their model? But all who thus do must of necessity, if they understand what it means, become seventh-day observers. What does Christ’s service, Christ’s rule of life, Christ’s example, mean? Are they all to be set aside by the traditions of men?