LETTER TO JOSEPH MARSH.
By Polly G. Pitts
DEAR SIR:—As you have talked with me weekly, for six or eight years, till of late, I felt a desire to talk with you a little, and remind you of some things you have said, and how they appear to me. In the Harbinger for Jan. 24, 1852, you say to R. C.—“Matt. xxiv, 20, does prove the perpetuity of the Sabbath until the destruction of Jerusalem. But with whom? With the disciples of our Lord? Evidently not.” Now you are bringing the disciples of our Lord into a dilemma, for if the disciples did not keep the Sabbath of the Lord our God, the Jews would have stoned them; and if they had kept it according to the commandment (you say the law of Moses) they would have fallen from grace, if you are right; and if they kept it for fear of the Jews, they would have sought to save their lives, and would have fallen under the fearful denunciations of our Saviour when he said, Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. Think you, that God would have drawn the Romans from the city, and opened a way for escape, for such selfish disciples? Nay, verily. You say, that if the disciples should flee from Jerusalem on that day, and carry their things, the Jews would embarrass their flight, and perhaps kill him. Now, why say, “carry their things?” You know our Saviour told them, not to take any thing out of their house; and those that were in the field, were commanded not to turn back to take their clothes. It seems to me that the Jews would not have waited until the destruction of the city, to have killed the disciples, if they had broke the Sabbath. You say that the Jews would be keeping the Sabbath, because they rejected Christ and his gospel. Now do you candidly believe it? Have you true faith that it was so? Remember that there can be no true faith (the faith that works by love, and purifies the heart, and overcomes the world) without a Divine revelation. So you used to reason. Now to the law and the testimony. Tell me where you find the word of God to prove it. For if you cannot, I shall say to you as you said to me, “it is an unqualified assumption to sustain an unscriptural theory.” It seems like false reasoning to me. I believe the Jews rejected Christ because they did not love and obey the law of God, the ten commandments. You know, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken than the fat of lambs. And to love God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, is more than all whole, burnt offerings and sacrifices. The Jews said, God was their Father. Jesus said, if God was your Father, ye would love me. Did they love Jesus? Jesus said, But now have they both seen and hated, both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. Again he saith, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do, he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. David saith, Thy law is the truth. Jesus said, Thy word is truth. Yes, bless the Lord, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, is truth, and man ought to live by it. For, for ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. But Jesus said unto them, But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth. And James says, But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet, if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do; as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. You see that it was the law, the ten commandments, that they broke. They were not abolished when the apostle James wrote, and there is a Sabbath in them too. The Jews were transgressors of the law, therefore they rejected Jesus. Now I pray you, in the fear of God, to do all of his commandments; lest haply ye be found to fight against God. In your remarks to Sr. E. D. M., in the same number of the Harbinger, you say, “When a Christian leaves the plain word of the Lord as taught in the New Testament, and makes the law of Moses the rule of his faith, and adopts his own, or some other man’s imagination as the criterion by which to expound the plain word that needs no expounding, he must unavoidably plunge into fatal errors.” Now what do you say, “Law of Moses” for? Why not say, Law of God, if they are both one? Would it not be as safe? I think not, for when we say, Law of Moses, I believe the mind of the Bible reader generally reverts back to the law that Israel received under the Levitical priesthood; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But when we say law of God, I believe the mind invariably reverts to the ten commandments, the law by which every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. Not the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. I suppose our sister took the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus for the rule of her faith and practice. And blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. You recommend to her, to abandon the mystical principle of interpretation, and adopt the literal; read the New Testament, and believe what it says, and she will be delivered from the yoke of bondage. Let us read a few passages from the New Testament, and believe what it says. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so; he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. v, 17-19. “But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. xix, 17. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments; * and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John v, 2, 3. No, no, there is no yoke of bondage in keeping them. In doing them there is great reward. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John ii, 3, 4. “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. xiv, 12. Is there any mysticism about these passages? We leave the candid reader to judge. In the same Harbinger you say to me, “It is unqualified assumption to sustain an unscriptural theory, that divides the law of Moses into two laws, or makes that one law, and the ten commandments another, they are one law—holy, just and good; which was not broken by Christ nor his apostles, but he abolished it.” Now why did you not prove, by the New Testament, that they were one law, as a faithful watchman ought to do? I have never seen it proved yet, in all the writings that I have read in the Harbinger, or any other paper. You say Moses’ law is abolished: so say I. But Christ and his apostles do prove in all their writings, that the law of God, the ten commandments are not abolished. Now why do you, to get rid of the Holy Sabbath, bring yourself into such a dilemma? You say sin is the transgression of the law, and the penalty of the law is death, and the sinner out of167Christ must die the second death. Now how can you prove the destruction of the wicked, without God's law? You cannot. And if you will still trample on the Holy Sabbath, and say God's law is abolished, you never should preach the destruction of the wicked again, neither should you recommend H. H. Dobney's work, to any man as truth. I want you to read the third chapter of the first part of that work, and you may see how your position looks to me. In conclusion, I pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on his holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. That you may do so, is the prayer of your friend,
POLLY G. PITTS.
Union, Wis.