OBEDIENCE VERSUS SACRIFICE.
THE Lord set apart the seventh day as the Sabbath, as a memorial of His rest in honor of the great creation work. He blessed it and sanctified it, or made it holy. He did this "for man" (Mark 2:27), that is, for the benefit of man. It then became the duty of man to "keep it holy." But the "carnal mind," being "enmity against God," is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Therefore it is susceptible to the wiles of the adversary, and becomes an instrument in his persistent endeavor to destroy the law of God. To this end a false Sabbath is set up by an apostate church. Various pleas are set up in defense of this unwarranted assumption, all of which are illogical and inconsistent. One argument which we have frequently heard from some who altogether reject the law of God on the Sabbath question, and wholly ignore His claim in the matter, is that Sunday is observed as a "free-will offering to the Lord." If it were possible for one excuse to be more absurd than another, this one would surely stand at the head. If it were true that God had come so to disregard the Sabbath as to utterly abolish the requirement, that would surely indicate that He did not want any more of it. Then what possible good could come of making an offering to the Lord of that which He did not want. Under such circumstance He would surely say, "Who hath required this at your hand?" Confessedly the "offering" is a work of supererogation; thus it is confessedly papal in spirit, as it is in historical fact. It is an invariable rule, that inventions of doctrine or service which the Lord has not required are observed at the expense of those things that are commanded. Disobedience is never condoned by "offerings." Were such a course possible, man could purchase his own salvation. The Lord has positively stated that "to obey is better than sacrifice."