NOT A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE.
By G.
THE inconvenience of it, is the plea that many people make when confronted with the duty to keep the Sabbath "according to the commandment." This is the plea of men who admit that the obligation is plain, and that the seventh day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath enjoined in the Word of God, and the only Sabbath of any kind bearing the divine sanction in the present dispensation. It is evident that those who make such a plea regard their own convenience and the good opinion of their fellow-men as of more importance than obedience to God. Many people would serve God (or imagine that they would) if it involved no sacrifice of worldly goods and comforts, or of the good opinion and friendship of friends and neighbors. It was many times demonstrated in the days of Christ that multitudes would have become His disciples had it not been for fear of persecution or the loss of reputation. Even "among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagog; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." John 12:42, 43. Worldly convenience and favor are to such people paramount to all other claims. Many look to the course of the multitude, to the opinions and dictum of the majority, as the criterion of right judgment, and therefore as their proper rule of action. Yet the positive Word of God is, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." The ancient servants of God whose example the Spirit expressly commends did not regard duty so lightly. The world mocked and scourged them, but they did not yield their faith. When tortured they accepted not deliverance at the cost of turning away from the Lord. And their only hope of reward was in the resurrection of the just. "Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:36-40. Had they sought their own convenience, or cared for their reputation in this life, they could have avoided all this; but at what a cost!—even the loss of eternal life. Like the apostle Paul, they reckoned all worldly advantage as the merest refuse, that they might win Christ. And the same principle was illustrated in the humiliation of Christ, when He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. 2:7, 8. Now the Spirit is saying to us, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." If we are to be followers of Christ, we must manifest this same disregard of the estimate the world will place upon us, or of the inconvenience it will entail, if we boldly step out to "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Moreover, the real condition of the one—whether professor or non-professor of Christ—who sets temporal convenience or deference to the world before duty to God, is portrayed by the apostle John, who says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Conforming to the world, instead of to God's law, manifests a love of the world above the love of God. And Jesus lays down this principle as an axiom, when He says, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Obedience is therefore the test of love and of true allegiance.