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TEST OF OBEDIENCE

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 43.

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TEST OF OBEDIENCE.

By R. F. Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
MEN can see the propriety and the reasonableness of all the ten commandments except the fourth. And they admit also that it is reasonable that man should devote a portion of his time, say one-seventh, to religious duties. But that a particular day should be required to be regarded as more sacred than the rest, and men be required to abstain from worldly employment on that day, and that the consecration of another day will not answer the purpose just as well, they cannot see to be reasonable.
Such should remember that God has a right to test their loyalty and fidelity. God had the right to reserve one tree in Eden; and it was not man's prerogative to question the propriety of the prohibition, and say, If I leave another to God, I may partake of the fruit of this; though he might see no reason why that particular tree should be withholden.
The Sabbath of the Lord stands among the days of the week like the interdicted tree among the trees of the garden; and the commandment for its holy observance, in like manner, stands in the midst of the holy, just, and good precepts of the moral law. And a good and sufficient reason is given why it should be distinguished and honored above other days; it being the day on which God rested from the work of creation, for which reason it was set apart; so that to observe it, is to honor him; and to disregard it, is to dishonor him. To choose another in its place, is to choose our own will in preference to the expressed will of God.
The Sabbath is a good test of obedience. Therefore it was chosen in preference to any other precept, when God said concerning Israel, "That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no." See Ex. 16:4, and the context following. And so this down-trodden precept is the grand test in the third angel's message (Rev. 14:9-12), well calculated to separate the worshipers of God from the worshipers of the beast. What God does is right.