Progress of the Third Angel’s Message
By Samuel Everett
DEAR BRO. WHITE: The progress of the third angel's message is not so rapid as we could wish in this vicinity, still there are a few of us who not only believe it, but are constrained to spread it. And it will not be in vain. The message not only gives the warning, but it gives the happy result: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." It is a comfort to us on the Sabbath to know that others are keeping it at the same time. We find it good to keep the day of God's rest. Blessed be God for the Sabbath. How cheering the anticipation that all the scattered remnant of saints in these last days, will soon be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and prepared to meet their coming King! Let those who carry the message be patient, and humble and faithful, and "bear all things." The Lord will bless the labor of love. The restoring of the fourth commandment to its place in the Decalogue exhibits the law of God in its true light, an unbroken chain, holy, just and good; "under the old ministration written on tables of stone by the finger of God; under the new ministration, "written on fleshy tables of the heart" by the Spirit of God. The ministration of death is abolished. The ceremonial law of "shadows" is nailed to the cross of Christ. The veiled glory of Moses' face is done away by the unveiled glory of the Son of God, who is "the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person." But the moral law, formerly "engraven on stone," is established, and not abolished, by being written on "fleshy tables of the heart;" and its righteous precepts are the rule of duty. Surely this is the harmony of the law and gospel. It has often been asserted that the Sabbath is not enjoined by the New Testament. But I am now sure this is a mistake. 1. It was instituted at the close of creation. Christ declares, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man, is Lord also of the Sabbath." If it was said that the First-day was made for man by the resurrection of Christ, and that the Son of man is Lord also of the First-day, it would be regarded as good authority that the Rest-day is changed from the seventh to the first. 2. Christ and the apostles kept the Sabbath. 3. It is recorded of the christian women who made preparation to embalm the body of Jesus in the tomb, that they "rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment." Luke thus sanctions the fourth commandment many years after the death of Christ. Luke xxiii, 56. 4. Christ taught the disciples to "pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day," proving that the disciples would enjoy a Sabbath after his death and resurrection. The destruction of Jerusalem was about 23 years after the cross. There remains therefore a Sabbath to the people of God, till the heavenly rest comes with Jesus. I am yours in love,
SAMUEL EVERETT.
North Leveret, Mass., April 14th, 1852.