NOT CONVENIENT TO KEEP THE SABBATH.
By B. CLARKE
As this excuse of some dear friends (who had been gone for many years) might suit some others also, I would inquire concerning it. Our friends had been with the Freewill Baptists; therefore said, "It had not been convenient to keep the seventh day." A thought occurred to me—would it be convenient for those making such excuses to "have right to the tree of life and to enter in through the gates into the city?" Our Lord said to the young man who inquired of him, if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments." Matt. xix, 17. Again there is not all the church, but only a "remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. xii, 17. Again, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. Again, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the trec of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." I would kindly ask any of our dear religious friends who make such excuses here, whether they think they can stand up in the judgment and say, It was not convenient for me to "rest the seventh day according to the commandment," or it was not convenient for me to keep the Sabbath which Christ said "was made for man." Suppose that Noah had said It is not convenient for me to build an ark; or if Daniel had said, It is not convenient for me to be cast into the den of lions; or if the three Hebrews had said, It will not be convenient now for us not to follow the fashion of all the people, and bow down to the great image which the king of Babylon has set up; we shall be unpopular and out of fashion; besides it will not be convenient for us to disobey the great king and be cast into the fiery furnace! Would they have been blest of God? Was it convenient for our dear Saviour to lay down his life for us? And was it convenient for his blessed apostles and prophets, and for millions of the martyrs of Jesus to lay down their lives rather than to vary one single iota from what they believed to be truth? The writer of this knows a little how to sympathize with the lone ones, having lived one season in a city where no others were known to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. Dear reader "those that are with him (the King of kings) are called, and chosen, and faithful." Rev. xiii, 14.