HEALING THE HURT by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 55.

"HEALING THE HURT."

By Editor

The Christian Statesman of some time ago has an editorial article on "Healing the Hurt Slightly." It says:—

The complaint of the prophet against the methods proposed by the statesmen of Israel for restoring national prosperity was that they did not go to the root of the trouble.

Among the sore evils which demand radical remedies the Statesman places drunkenness and Sabbath desecration, and it makes the nation the great transgressor in both.

With this we have no fault to find. The Statesman declares that "the government has compelled the railroads by its mail contracts to drive the iron wheels of traffic over the fourth commandment." The government has done that, but it has not done it in the way stated by the Statesman. The fourth commandment of God's law requires the observance of the seventh day of the week. It is upon this day above all others that the business world is a busy world. Even the Statesman dates its own paper as the day of publication upon the Sabbath of the Lord.

Now the only true way to heal the injury is to get to the very root of the matter. The way Israel of old endeavored to heal the hurt was to call on Egypt for help. The Statesman is pursuing just the same course. It is calling on the civil government as its chief physician to heal the hurt of the nation. As of old it will seek for peace but will find none. The only true Sabbath reform is a reform according to the law of God. To substitute another day for the day which God himself has given, is placing the one who so substitutes it above God. It is saying that God's law is defective, and the change which it proposes to make is better. In fact, it is making the law of God support that which the law does not require. It makes the law of truth a law of falsehood. The Statesman says:—

God is angry with us. His hand is upon us. We do not believe it will be removed until we truly and humbly repent of our sins and turn to righteousness. Oh, that we were wise, that we understood these things!

And we say, Oh, that the Statesman and its readers were simple enough to take God at his word, and humbly repent of their sins against his holy law! Then they would be truly wise in his wisdom. They would then certainly find a basis for the true Sabbath of the Lord which was eternal and sure. They would find a Sabbath which could not lose any portion of its sanctity by anything which man could do, and they would find in the Lord of the Sabbath all the help that was needed without calling upon the civil government to take its place.