p. 16 | LOYALTY DEMANDED by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 41.

LOYALTY DEMANDED.

By Editor

ONE of the noblest qualities in a soldier is loyalty to the law of his king and captain, and bravery to follow where that king leads. He has no right to pervert the law or construe the commands of his commander or follow in the footstep of an enemy. The Christian Soldier, of Louisville, Kentucky, has the following note:—

"Suppose some Sunday you board a train, reader, and after a few miles' ride, the whole is wrecked. Immediately you wake up before the Judge of all men with the Fourth Commandment in characters of living fire blazing down on you. Then what? If you do not know what the Fourth Commandment is, look it up in Ex. 20: 8-10. It is good, substantial reading, but is much neglected by the bulk of the people."

But the Fourth Commandment, which by the way includes Ex. 20: 8-11, says nothing about Sunday. It enjoins another day, the seventh day, the day just before the first day of the week. Loyalty to the King would demand obedience to his law as he gave it, and loyalty to the Captain of our salvation, together with true bravery, should, it seems to us, lead the Soldier to follow in his steps. But Christ kept the Sabbath, the seventh day. Why does not the Christian Soldier follow him?

"God changes not. We change. Conditions change. Necessarily an unchangeable God always asks the same things in the same conditions, but different things in different conditions. So every command that fits a universal need must be universal. A restudy of the purpose of the Sabbath as given last month shows that it fits a universal need; hence it is for all. Again, it is plain that the Sabbath fits the physical, mental, social and moral need of the individual, society, and nation. God has written the law in man's nature, hence his revealed law of the Sabbath must be universal."—Christian Endeavor.

That is a real good Sabbath argument. A good argument for the perpetuity of the law of God, and its unchangeable nature. True, "God changes not;" yet the author of that sentiment believes that he has changed his law, which is the expression of his character, and has changed it in the very important part that comprises the seal of the law. The Sabbath "fits a universal need;" then why attempt to change it? David says: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Then the alleged change of the Sabbath, if such a thing were possible, must of necessity produce an imperfect Sabbath and an imperfect law. Surely none but an adversary of God would instigate such a pretense. The "Lord of the Sabbath" has declared that, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."