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THE SABBATH

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Publishing Committee · SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. · Dec 9, 1851

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 2, No. 8.

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THE SABBATH.

By Editor

We see by the late numbers of the "Harbinger and Advocate," beginning with Nov. 1st, that M., the editor, is replying to our review of his article entitled "Seventh Day Sabbath Abolished."
In our review of M. we quoted largely and fairly from his article, and endeavored not to mis-state his position, but show from the Bible that it is incorrect. And we think that it deserves a more candid and fair reply than the remarks of M. We think the spirit of his reply really bitter, and some of his unkind, denunciatory assertions unlike the professed motto of the "Harbinger," which is, "Speak the truth in love." Let the sincere judge.
To this portion of the remarks of M. we make no reply. It needs none. It must condemn itself in the estimation of every honest seeker for truth. But, as we have before stated, we are happy to meet our opponents on bible ground, and candid investigation is our hope for the final triumph of the Sabbath of the Lord. While we thus speak we feel our own weakness. Our trust is in God. We fully believe that the time for the commandments of God to be clearly understood has come, and the Sabbath of the fourth, observed by the people of God; therefore, every reasonable objection can be, and should be answered scripturally, and in the meek spirit of the gospel.
It is stated by M. that we mistake "in blending Sabbath and Seventh day in one and the same meaning, whereas they are of different significations." This we have not done. The "mistake" is with M. Who does not know that the seventh day of the first week of time signifies the seventh in order, and that Sabbath signifies Rest? That the Sabbath was instituted, or "made for man," at the close of the first week of time we fully believe, and, we think, from the best authority. The plain facts in their order are as follows: First, the work of creation was in six days; second, God rested on the seventh day; and third, he "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested." God did not first sanctify and bless the seventh day, and then rest upon it, neither did he sanctify and bless the day by resting upon it; but he first rested upon that day, and then "blessed the seventh day and sanctified it" for the spiritual benefit of man, and his own glory, "because that in it he had rested from all his work." The seventh day is the Sabbath [Rest] of the Lord, because God rested on that day. Then God blessed and sanctified his Rest-day, and gave it to man to observe as a weekly memorial of the Living God that made heaven and earth.
The fourth commandment fully confirms this position. God's reason in that commandment for observing the seventh day is as old as the world. He says, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it," Ex. xx, 11. Here are some things worthy of special notice. First, the given reason for the sanctification of the seventh day is, because God rested upon it after the work of creation in six; second, "the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it," at the close of the first week of time, and nowhere else; and third, the seventh day is called the Sabbath-day at the time when God sanctified and blessed it. No one will say that Gen. ii, 3, contains an account of God's blessing the seventh day after the world was 2,500 years old; neither can it be shown that God "blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it" at any other time than at the close of the first week.
"The seventh day is the Sabbath [Rest] of the Lord thy God." It is the Creator's Rest-day that man is required to commemorate. But M. says that God could just as well have constituted either of the other days a day of rest, as the seventh, but in his wisdom he saw fit to select the seventh for this purpose. "Will M. please to read the fourth commandment, and in the place of the "seventh day" substitute the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth day, and see what perfect nonsense it will make of the commandment of God. It is evident that if another day had been selected, another commandment would have been given, another reason assigned for the institution.
But M. objects to the Sabbath being made at the close of the first week of time, because man was then in Paradise. And as he had not then sinned, and did not obtain his bread by the sweat of the brow, he needed no Sabbath. He says:
"Man, before he sinned, did not have to gain his bread by the sweat of the brow, hence he needed no Sabbath. All days were alike to him then; and doubtless would have continued so to his posterity till now, had sin never entered. To say there was a Sabbath before the fall of Adam, is the same as to say sin, toil and wearisome labor existed before that time. No, no; these things did not exist in that pure state, but they were witnessed after that time; and poor fallen man has had to pursue a course of tiresome labor ever since, to gain a living."
If the Sabbath was made merely because man needed a day of rest from wearisome labor, as taught by M., then the view that it was made before the fall is incorrect. If it was made because man sinned, and was driven from Paradise, where he had to "gain his bread by the sweat of the brow," then it follows of necessity that the Sabbath is needed from Paradise lost at the fall, to Paradise gained in immortality. And if, as taught by M. the Sabbath was made because of the curse, then it necessarily follows that the Sabbath should run parallel with that curse. This view locates the necessity of the Sabbath at the fall of man, and extends it quite through the period of man's toil and wearisome labor, to immortality, when free from the curse. If we are not very much mistaken as to the position of M. here, it is perfectly destructive of his main position, that the Sabbath was a Jewish institution, designed for the Jews alone for about 1,600 years, only a little more than five-twelfths of the long period in which "poor fallen man" needed a Sabbath to rest from wearisome labor! Mark well the assertion of M. as follows: "To say there was a Sabbath before the fall of Adam, is the same as to say sin, toil and wearisome labor existed before that time." No one will fail to see that M. has the Sabbath inseparably connected with wearisome labor; therefore, according to his position, to say that "toil and wearisome labor" has existed for 6,000 years, is the same as to say that the Sabbath has existed ever since the fall of man,which destroys his main position that the Sabbath is a Jewish institution.
But M. evidently mistakes the design of the Sabbath of the Lord. We know of no scripture testimony to show that it was given because man needed a day to rest from toil, when weary. Men have argued the necessity of the Sabbath because man needed rest; but setting the law of the Sabbath, and its great and glorious object, aside, would it not be as well, or even better for man to rest one seventh part of each day, than one whole day in seven?
God rested from his work on the seventh day, or ceased from creating on that day; and man was to rest, or cease from the work assigned him, on the same day of each week. But M. will not say that the Creator was tired, and rested because he was weary! Neither should he suppose that the Creator gave his Rest-day to man merely because he needed rest from toil. The law of Moses required that the "land" should "rest" and keep a sabbath unto the Lord one year in seven, [Lev. xxv, 1-5,] yet the land could not be weary; it only ceased to be sown, reaped, &c. The sabbath of the Jewish law frequently occurred on the sixth day of the week, therefore the Jews did not rest on the seventh day, or Sabbath of the Lord, because they were weary, having rested the day before.
But when we view the institution of the weekly Sabbath in its true light it will be seen that its grand and glorious design was the honor of the Creator, and the spiritual good of man. Before the fall, man was placed in "the garden of Eden to dress it, and to keep it;" and although he knew no thing then of wearisome labor any more, perhaps, than his Creator, yet for the glory of God, and his own spiritual good he could cease from the work assigned him, and rest on the seventh day, as God rested on that day from the work of creation. In the original design of the Sabbath we view man's rest of the same nature of the Creator's, but its object different. God rested to set an example, and to lay the foundation of a holy institution, while man was to rest in honor of his Creator, and for his own spiritual benefit. If man's spiritual good was not in danger, then why did he ever fall? If he was in no danger of, in some sense, forgetting Him who said, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," why did he listen to him who said, "ye shall not surely die"? And what could better keep fresh in the mind of man the Great Creator's power, than for him to cease from his appointed work, on the seventh day, in honor of Him who first rested on that day after the work of creation in six days? But, although God set bounds for man, and sanctified his Rest-day, a weekly memorial of Himself, for man's benefit, yet he sinned, and was driven from Paradise.
And when we look down through the long period of toil, while the curse rests upon man, and the earth, we see additional necessity of the Sabbath, to keep in memory the living God that made heaven and earth. And then in the restitution we see it in its Eden glory, observed by "ALL FLESH!" No discord there, but all the redeemed family of that New Earth, with holy awe, and in sweet submission will bow to this institution of Jehovah, See Isa. lxvi, 22, 23. If the Sabbath will not then be for man's spiritual benefit, it will certainly be for the glory of the Creator. But as "ALL FLESH!" are to "come to WORSHIP" before the Lord, "from one Sabbath to another," we conclude that it will be for the delight and benefit of the redeemed, as well as the honor of God.
To say that the Sabbath was made merely because man needed rest from toil, is degrading this holy institution, and bringing it down to the very dust. But when we see that it is the sanctified Rest-day of the Almighty that man is to celebrate, for his own spiritual benefit, and the honor of the Creator, then the institution appears in its glory and greatness, what it really is, the Holy Sabbath of the Lord our God. What a connecting link between God and man, Heaven and earth! How perfectly calculated to keep fresh in the memory of man the power of the Eternal God. What a safe-guard against infidelity and idolatry! And how much higher the object of the Creator in making the Sabbath, than merely because man needed to rest from toil! We say, as much higher, as heaven is above the earth, or as man's eternal welfare and the honor of God are above man's temporal wants.
Though the Sabbath was made for man, it is not called man's Sabbath, or the Sabbath of man, but it is styled as follows: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD THY GOD." "To-morrow is the rest of the HOLY SABBATH UNTO THE LORD." "THE HOLY SABBATH." "MY SABBATH." "MY HOLY DAY," and "THE HOLY OF THE LORD."
M. continues: "He has needed rest from his hard labors, and God in his good pleasure, in giving his law, the law of Moses, to his chosen people, provided a day of rest for them, and through them to all mankind who would submit to law. He made the Sabbath for man, and the scriptures plainly tell us when it was made. It was made just at the time when we should suppose infinite wisdom would make it, namely, when he saw fit to give a law to his chosen people."
If man "has needed rest from his hard labors" ever since the fall, as stated by M., and if the Sabbath was given merely on that account, it really looks surprising that "Infinite Wisdom" should look on and see poor man toil 2,500 years without giving him that which he so much needed!
We cannot reconcile the statement of M. that "there is not a shade of evidence in the Bible" that the Sabbath was made before God gave the law of Moses, with the fact that the Sabbath was observed by Israel in the wilderness of Sin, and miraculously guarded by God in giving the manna, thirty days before Israel saw Sinai where the law of Moses was given. M. knows that the law of Moses was not given in the wilderness of Sin; he also knows that the Sabbath was observed there, and that the law of Moses was given at another place, thirty-two days afterward. Those who will learn the facts as recorded in Ex. xvi-xx, will not be deceived by this assertion of M. which is positively untrue.
And again, M. states that the Sabbath "was made just at the time when we should suppose infinite wisdom would make it." Now look at M's position as follows: The Sabbath a Jewish institution, therefore, "Infinite Wisdom" saw man toil 2,500 years without the needed day of rest. Then after the children of Israel were brought into the wilderness, where their bread was rained from heaven, and their clothes miraculously preserved, therefore they did not toil for either, consequently did not need rest from toil, that was the very place that "Infinite Wisdom" gave the Sabbath purposely for man to rest!! We fail to see "Infinite Wisdom" in this view of the subject, but finite weakness is very apparent. It is true that the people gathered and cooked their manna, and washed their clothes, but none will say that they needed a day to rest from toil. Then if rest from "wearisome labor" is the design of the Sabbath, it seems that "Infinite Wisdom" mocked the seed of Abraham forty years with a day of rest that they did not need!!

THE COVENANT MADE IN HOREB.

We first inquire, when was this covenant made? The covenant is mentioned in Deut. v, 2, 3; and verse 5 plainly shows where it was made, as follows: "I," says Moses, "stood between the Lord and you AT THAT TIME, to show you the word of the Lord; for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount." The "mount" referred to is Mount Sinai; therefore the covenant was made after the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the third month. Let this fact be clearly seen, that whatever may be understood by making the covenant in Horeb, it cannot be dated back one day prior to the fifteenth day of the third month.
We now inquire, what was the covenant made in Horeb? M. affirms that it was the ten commandments. To this view we object for the following reasons.
1. Because when the covenant was made, Moses took the words of the Lord and showed them to the people, which was not the case when the ten commandments were spoken from Sinai. God declared them with an audible voice to ALL THE PEOPLE.
2. Because the law of God existed before Israel came to the wilderness of Sinai. Though the ten precepts of that law were not previously written out in the form that they were written on the tables of stone at Sinai, yet to say that God's law did not exist in some form, is virtually saying that sin did not exist until 2,500 years after the fall of man, for St. Paul says, "where no law is, there is no transgression," Rom. iv, 15. He also says in Chap. v, 13, "For until the law, [when its precepts were written in stone] sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." "Sin," says St. John, "is the transgression of the law." Therefore, as sin did reign "from Adam to Moses," God's law necessarily existed in some form during that time.
3. We object to M's position, because, if the covenant made in Horeb was the commandments of God, then they were all made there, and the Sabbath could not exist prior to the fifteenth day of the third month after Israel left Egypt. Now go back thirty days before this covenant was made, to the wilderness of Sin, [Ex. xvi] and there you will see God raining manna from heaven for his chosen people. They gather an omer each day till the sixth day, then the people gathered two omers of manna for one man. And when the rulers told Moses, he replied, "This is that which the Lord hath said, 'To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord.'" He did not say, the seventh day will be the Sabbath, after the law shall be given at Sinai; but "is the rest of the Holy Sabbath."
On the Seventh day the heavens gave no manna. But some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my COMMANDMENTS and my LAWS? See, for that the Lord hath given you the SABBATH. . . . So the people rested on the seventh day." Ex. xvi, 28-30. Is it said that the people were then wholly ignorant of the Sabbath, and the other nine commandments, and that God made them in the wilderness of Sin? then we would call attention to the manner in which, as it is said, God first introduces them. "How long," says the Law-giver, "refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath." Who can for a moment suppose that God would introduce his law in this manner to a people wholly ignorant of it? This view makes God a tyrant, instead of a tender parent.
Again, if the commandments and laws of God, including the Sabbath, were made in the wilderness of Sin, and if they are the covenant made also in Horeb thirty-two days afterward, then they were certainly made twice! This is more like having the Sabbath abolished twice, first, before Christ began to heal on the Sabbath ("otherwise" he "became a transgressor," says M.) and then again at the cross. See Harbinger of Sept. 27, 1851, page 114, first column.
As the Sabbath was guarded by Jehovah in giving the manna in the wilderness of Sin, observed there by Israel, and as the violation of it was to "refuse" to keep God's "commandments and laws," how absurd the position that the covenant made thirty days later, in another place, was the commandments of God, one of which was the Sabbath! Here M. finds a serious difficulty which he tries to avoid by saying that the Sabbath "was not fully instituted until some days after it was given to the people." He has it "given" at the wilderness of Sin, we suppose, and then "instituted" at Sinai, thirty-two days later.
Query. Were the Israelites so weary, at the time that they did not have to labor for food or clothing, that "Infinite Wisdom" was moved to give them a day of rest thirty-two days before it was made for man? "It was made" says M. "just at the time when we should suppose infinite wisdom would make it, namely, when he saw fit to give a law to his chosen people." Was the law given in the wilderness of Sin? Certainly not; M. will say it was given at Sinai; thirty-two days after the manna was given. Yet he has the Sabbath given to Israel thirty-two days before "Infinite Wisdom" gave the law and made the Sabbath for man.
In another place M. says "that the Sabbath was not instituted until God gave it to the children of Israel." Here he has it instituted when given. And five lines only above this assertion, he states that it was given some days before it was instituted. The fact that the Sabbath was understood, and observed in the wilderness of Sin, is greatly in M.'s way. It is positive proof that his position is incorrect that the Sabbath was made thirty-two days afterward, when the covenant was made in Horeb.
Again, he refers to Neh. ix, 13, 14, where it is said, "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, . . . and madest known thy Holy Sabbath." He thinks that this is certain proof that the Sabbath was not "instituted," or "made known," until that time. He then states that the Review contends that they knew all about it, and that it was instituted before that time, and adds, "Which will you believe? the Review, or Nehemiah?"
In trying to array Nehemiah against the "Review," M. evidently arrays the testimony of the prophet of the Lord against plainly revealed facts found in Ex. xvi. We inquire, When Moses said to the rulers, "To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord," did they not know something about it? And when they gathered and cooked two omers of manna for a man on the sixth day, that they might have one to eat on the Sabbath, and when they saw that none was given on the seventh day, were they ignorant of the design of God in this thing? And when God said, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? see, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath," did not Moses and the people understand the Lord? The following shows that they did well understand the Sabbath. "So the people rested on the seventh day." Verse 30. Let it be understood that all this took place thirty-two days before the Lord came down on Mount Sinai.
The testimony of Nehemiah does not conflict with other portions of the Divine Record, nor the position of the Review. It is evident that the children of Israel understood the Sabbath when they rested on the seventh day in the wilderness of Sin. But when Jehovah descended in awful grandeur upon Mount Sinai, and spake the ten precepts of the "Royal Law," he then made known his Holy Rest-day in a manner calculated to deeply impress them with its importance.
The word of God plainly shows that the Sabbath was understood in the wilderness of Sin; but M. has it "made for man," "instituted," "given," thirty-two days later, when the covenant was made in Horeb. We will not ask which will you believe, M. or the word of God; for we know our readers will all say in the language of the Apostle, "let God be true, but every man a liar."
But what was the covenant made in Horeb? and not with the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A covenant is a mutual agreement between two parties, or, according to its second definition, it is a writing containing the terms of agreement.—Webster.
We say that the covenant under consideration, was, according to the first definition, a mutual agreement between God and his chosen people. The proposition on the part of God stands thus. "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, Ex. xix, 3-7. The answer of the people was as follows. "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Verse 8.
This mutual agreement between the two parties was the covenant made in Horeb. The ten commandments are also called a covenant, the ark of God is called the ark of the covenant, and the two tables of stone are called the tables of the covenant, because they, according to the second definition of the word, contained the terms of agreement. The Sabbath alone is "a perpetual covenant" that those who keep it may know that the Lord sanctifies them. Ex. xxxi, 16.
But M. states with much positiveness, [see Harbinger of Nov. 15] and offers proof, that the ten commandments were God's covenant, written on the tables of stone, and that it embraced the Sabbath. All this we fully believe. But it by no means proves that the commandments of God was the covenant made in Horeb. What folly to assert that the law of God which embraces the Sabbath, was not made until thirty-two days after it was observed by the people, and its transgression rebuked by the Law-giver!
Let it here be understood that what was written in the BOOK of the COVENANT, [2 Chron. xxxiv, 30; 2 Kings xxiii, 21; Neh. viii, 1-3; Deut. xxxi, 21-25.] was called the covenant, and that which was written in the TABLES of the COVENANT, [Deut. ix, 9-11; iv, 13; Ex. xxiv, 12; xxxi, 18; xxxiv, 28, 29.] was also called the covenant. One embraced the mutual agreement between God and his chosen people, with all the ordinances of the Jewish religion, while the other embraced only the ten commandments. One was made in Horeb, or at Mount Sinai, consequently not made with the fathers; but the other containing the principles of God's moral government, must have existed parallel with the existence of man; therefore Abraham could keep God's "commandments statutes and laws," as well as Israel in the wilderness of Sin, before the covenant was made in Horeb.
Paul, in Rom. viii, is contrasting the old covenant with the new. No one will say that the new covenant here is the ten commandments; neither should they say that they are the old covenant. The conditions of the new covenant are to obey God's laws put in the mind, and written in the heart, while the terms of agreement in the old covenant were to obey them engraven in stones. This faulty covenant, made when God led his people out of Egypt was the covenant not made with the fathers. We inquire, were the ten commandments faulty? No one finds fault with any but the fourth, and M. should not find fault with that, seeing, as he states, that poor fallen man so much needed a day of rest from toil.
We understand by better covenant, and faulty covenant, that the promises on which the old was established are inferior to those on which the new is based. We will now look at some of the promises of the old"If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." Ex. xix, 5.
"If ye walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely." Lev. xxvi, 3-5.
These promises and many others of the kind, were faulty or inferior, because they did not take hold of eternal life. They related only to the prosperity of God's people in Canaan, or in this life. And it will be seen that God's covenant of ten commandments was the terms of agreement in this, the first covenant.
The promises on which the new covenant is established are indeed better. They bring to view eternal life through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And the law of God that was written in tables of stone during the old covenant, is now written in the heart, and contains the terms of agreement, or is the very foundation of the new covenant.
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my LAWS into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. viii, 10-12. Jer. xxxi, 31-34.
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. When one asked him, "What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life," he replied, "If thou wilt enter into LIFE, keep the COMMANDMENTS." Jesus then quotes five of the ten, which shows that he referred to the commandments of God.
We may now see that the ten commandments are neither the old nor the new covenant, but the terms, or foundation of both. The covenant made in Horeb was certainly the old covenant. It was not made with the fathers, but after the children of Israel were brought to Sinai. The ten commandments being the foundation of that covenant, or terms of agreement, we see them referred to in Deut. v, 7-21 immediately after the statements, that the Lord made a covenant in Horeb, that it was not made with the fathers; and that Moses stood between the Lord and the people at that time, to shew them the word of the Lord. It is true that Moses did take the words of the Lord and shew them to the people when the covenant was made in Horeb, see Ex. xix, 3-8; xx, 18-22, but it is positively untrue that he did so with the words of the ten commandments. The Lord spake them to all the people with an audible voice.
We have not space to notice every particular in the articles of M., neither is it necessary. We have, we think, fully shown his main positions incorrect, and we close by calling attention to his exhortation to those who read the "Review and Herald," and are, as he thinks, in danger of a "fearful fall" from grace, "into irretrievable ruin," by the sin of Sabbath-keeping!! He says, "And so far as any now seek to be justified by that dead law, they are fallen from grace." To this we reply, first, that it is unjust to represent us as teaching the observance of the dead law of Moses. We humbly claim the right to teach and observe that law which Paul called "holy, just, good, spiritual," which he served and delighted in, twenty-nine years after the law of Moses was abolished, See Rom. vii, And second, we seek for justification alone through Jesus Christ: "Do we make void the law through faith?" says Paul, "God for bid: yea we establish the law." We give a portion of M.'s warning against keeping the fourth commandment as follows:
"Pause in your course, and listen to the voice of truth! You may now retrace your steps, and again be established on the rock of truth, the plain word of the Lord. But if you turn a deaf ear to the voice of the Bible, and suffer yourself to be blinded to its clear light, by such darkness as envelopes the Review, and the mistaken theory that you will think, you will soon be beyond the reach of recovery, and will stumble into irretrievable ruin. O pause! in your mistaken course, and remember that without faith it is impossible to please God."
Here, a professed Minister of Christ, and a Christian Editor, raises his warning voice against keeping the fourth commandment! Certainly, one might think it a great sin to keep the commandments of God, that has called forth this warning. We are exhorted to pause in our course. Is it wrong to observe a day of rest which, according to M.'s position, poor fallen man so much needed? Why should those who are keeping the commandments of God "pause" and "retrace their steps?" Did not Jesus, the True Witness say, "Blessed are they that do his [his Father's] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the City?" Is not the fourth commandment one of the Father's? It is.
No, we will not "pause." Our course is onward. We will not "retrace our steps," for just before us is the Golden City, and the Tree of Life. "If thou wilt enter into Life, keep the commandments." Though the dragon be wroth with the "remnant" which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ," [Rev. xii, 17.] yet they will overcome. ONWARD! ONWARD! is their course, for their object is Eternal Life.
It is our settled conviction, however, that no sane man really believes that a Christian will "fall from grace" into "irretrievable ruin" for observing the Holy Sabbath of the Lord our God, in connection with other Christian duties.
Reader, be not deceived by such misrepresentations. We exhort you to obey the word of God. And you are aware that both Testaments enforce the observance of the law of God. Misrepresentation, you know, has ever been a weapon used against unpopular truths of the Bible. We now refer you to the Advent, Sonship of Christ, and Immortality and Eternal Life alone through Christ. You may have stood firmly on the word of God against the opposition and reproach that has arisen from receiving and advocating these precious doctrines, yet you may be in danger of being deceived here, and led astray from the commandments of God. May God save you from the soul-destroying influence of those who violate the commandment of God, and "teach men so."