The Law and the Sabbath by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 5, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 48.

The Law and the Sabbath

By Editor

"The Law and the Sabbath."—A correspondent sends us a copy of El-Bethel Messenger, "devoted to the missionary news of the El-Bethel Mission." This sixteen-page issue constitutes two issues of a quarterly; and more than fourteen of its pages are used in an endeavor to show that "the royal law" of the eternal God (James 2:8-12), which He spoke with His own voice, which He wrote with His own finger (Deut. 5:22), of which our Lord declares that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17), which Jesus affirmed and observed (Matt. 5:17-20; John 15:10), which is the full standard of human duty, and the rule of eternal judgment (Eccl. 12:13, 14; James 2:8-12), which points out sin (1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7), which is distinctly by and of itself called "a law" (Ex. 24:12), which approves and shows to be correct the righteousness by faith with which God clothes the sinner (Rom. 3:21, 22), and against which the Scripture places one thing only, namely, the carnal mind (Rom. 8:7), is abolished. God makes clear distinction between this great moral code and the ecclesiastical, ceremonial, and temporal codes, in the nature of the laws themselves, in the manner and material of giving, in their preservation, in the word of the Scriptures. God gave one Himself; He gave the others through Moses. Neh. 9:13, 14. The one was perfect, perpetual, holy (Ps. 19:7; 111:7, 8; Rom. 7:12); the other was imposed only to the time of a reformation pointing to Christ (Heb. 9:10). He in whose heart God's grace has written His holy law, will say with the psalmist, "O how love I Thy law," and with John, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous."