2143.—A Stumbling-Block.
By Editor
Is not the Sabbath question as now agitated throuout the country a stumbling-block to men? It has so proved to me. I know many in the same spiritual condition; no fruitage on account of the controversy. I wish you could keep the same day, as long as it might be regulated by the legislature for the good of all. There is not, nor can there be, life in such disturbance. If a matter of legislature, then it is not the mark of the beast. The Sabbath may be a stumbling-block, that is, people may make it so. So they did Christ Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. So the prophets declared He would be, seven hundred years before He came, "And He shall be . . . for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense." Compare Isa. 8:14 and 28:16 with 1 Peter 2:6-8. Note also that those who make Him a stone of stumbling are those who are disobedient, for they "stumble at the word, being disobedient." And yet in God's plan He never should be a stumbling-block, nor should any precept of His law. There is one way by which the Sabbath need not be a stumbling-block to this troubled soul, and the Lord makes that way very plain. He declares (Ps. 119:165), "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and they have no occasion of stumbling." Do you say that you do not love His law?—Then let the Holy Spirit into your heart, for by that the love of God is shed abroad. Rom. 5:5. "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. Do you say that you do not have His Spirit?—Then "ask and it shall be given you," for He is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than earthly parents are to give good gifts unto their children. See Luke 11:9-13. How true it is and how all of the sad and triumphant history of human experience demonstrates, that the "ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall fall therein." God's law is spiritual; if by the Spirit it is written in our hearts there is life in it. Others may differ, may not have the Spirit, and make the law a mere matter of controversy. There is no life in controversy. Neither is there life in following a multitude to do evil, for the Lord expressly tells us that we shall not do this, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." Life is found only in connection with Jesus Christ, and if we walk in His way we must walk in the way of righteousness. Prov. 12:28; Matt. 19:17. If the Sabbath is a matter of human legislation, it certainly is in that very respect a mark of the beast, for a beast is ever used to represent civil government; but civil government has no right to legislate in religious matters.