THE SABBATH GUARANTEE by Eugene A. Brown

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 15, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 46.

THE SABBATH GUARANTEE.

By Eugene A. Brown

BY EUGENE A. BROWN.

BEFORE probation ends every man and woman will have decided for or against the Sabbath of the Lord. How often, in refusing to honor the claims of the seventh day words like these are uttered: "Yes, I know that's all true enough; and if I had plenty of money I would keep the seventh day; but I believe a man's first duty is to support his wife and children. God doesn't expect a man to let his family starve." And choosing his own way, the poor man, weak in faith, takes the very course that ends in sheer failure.

But lo! ages ago our God saw those very thoughts afar off; saw that trembling faith; and in the volume of His Word placed a foundation of enduring promises whereupon the timid follower might step out and stand secure.

Before His assembled church in the wilderness Jehovah added a visible revelation of His eternal law and put it in tangible form—even upon two tables of stone—that its appreciation by the outward senses might awaken its spiritual counterpart in the heart.

"And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:13. In respect to this law (Ex. 19:5-8) the people made a covenant with God, and had promised, saying: "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do."

Then the Israelites started in to keep (?) their promises, just as many people had done before and continued doing. The flesh indeed was weak, and they failed to keep their agreement.

They looked up at those great words expressive of God's ways, and found as declared in Isa. 55:9: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Human strength could not scale the height. To them the law virtually said:

"[I command that] thou shalt have no other gods before Me." "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." "In it [the Sabbath] thou shalt not do any work." "Thou shalt not kill." And so on.

Now, mark this: The Gospel was at that time no new idea. It had been preached in the patriarchal age (Gal. 3:8) and it was familiar to these people in the Levitical dispensation (Heb. 4:2). The Gospel always was and still is "the power of God unto salvation." Rom. 1:16. Israel could have received "the power of God" then just as truly as we can receive it to-day, to have saved them from transgressing the Divine law. But they had no faith (Heb. 4:2), just as many have none to-day.

Our own ability to-day to keep the law is just as ineffectual as was theirs, our promises fully as weak and as readily broken. Right here is where the Lord offers to come in with His mighty help. Read Jer. 31:31-34 concerning the great work He is ready to do for us.

"After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."

It is the same law that was written on stone, not a jot or tittle changed; written by the same God, but placed in the fountain-head of our every motive, thought, and action. When we let the Lord do that for us, there is no room for further doubts, there is no place in the heart for sin. There can be no more sin lurking in our hearts than was expressed upon the fair tables of stone upon which the Holy One had written His holy law.

Before this transaction we halted on our own failing promises under the first covenant; but standing on God's promises we find it true that "He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." Heb. 8:6. With the law of God in our hearts we are sustained by His promises in it, namely: "[I promise that] thou shalt have no other gods before Me," etc. "Thou shalt not kill," etc.

The promise is right there in the law when God writes it on our hearts. The command is there when it is written merely on the tables of stone.

But the most satisfying promise is in the Sabbath precept, the very one that so many reject, the very one upon which Israel was especially proven. Ex. 16:4. Any attempt to keep the seventh day in our own strength (on our own promise) is futile. But with the law in our heart the Sabbath precept is the seal of perfect rest. Others may draw back, fearful of ridicule, oppression, and starvation, but to us it confidently speaks: "No power in heaven or earth shall rob you of My watch-care;" (I promise that) "six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." Blessed assurance! Thousands may join hands to rob you of your God-given time, but all in vain, for "six days shalt thou labor," has the Word of God spoken. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." So the Lord has guaranteed the observer of His holy day a living, a period of work each week from Sunday morning till Friday night. Can a man starve with six days of labor and the blessing of the Lord added? The power of God unto salvation goes with that wonderful precept.

When the six days of walking with God in faithful service find their weekly ending, the second part of this Fourth Commandment promise will be fulfilled. The world may be turbulent with wild scenes of violence, but unto the one hidden in the secret places of the Most High, this precept assures safety and divinely-ordained repose: "In it [the Sabbath] thou shalt not do any work." With these words written in our heart, our Lord says that on His holy Sabbath we will be kept from doing any work—"Thou shalt not do any work."

Now, when we get to that place where we take God at His word and receive these precepts as divine promises in our hearts, He will work with us in power. Instead of our loved ones starving, "bread shall be given" and "waters shall be sure." Isa. 33:14-17.

And what of those who failed to enter in because of unbelief, who doubted the Lord and were afraid of starving if they served Him? who turned from the Sabbath to the man-made Sunday? Sad is the result: "My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed." Isa. 65:13.

A mightier hand than our own will lead us, if we are willing to be led in God's way. We can cast all our care on Him, knowing that He careth for us. Now the just shall LIVE by faith—not die by faith, not starve by faith, but LIVE by faith. My brother, my sister, "there remaineth therefore a REST for the people of God."

Phœnix, Ariz.