True-Very True by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 24, 1879

True—Very True.

By Editor

THE horrible tragedy in Pocasset, Mass., has received its due share of attention, but perhaps no more than it deserves. Among the utterances which it called forth, none is more true than the following from Messiah’s Herald, of Boston, which, (with a change of name), is the oldest Adventist paper in the country. Speaking of the danger of following impressions, it says:—

"The Spirit of God never moves men to act contrary to the written word of God."

These very words we have uttered scores of times; and we are prepared to make another statement which is very explicit, and has a direct bearing on the transaction which has horrified the whole country. Our statement is this:—

"The Spirit of God never moves men to violate the ten commandments, or any one of them."

We have spent years in an effort to bring the people to accept this statement; unfortunately, the majority do not accept it, though its acceptance would prove a cure for innumerable evils which afflict our world. For holding to this doctrine, many professed Christians accuse us of being "legalists," of denying the grace of Christ, and of trying to restrain Christians of their "liberty" in the gospel! The liberty they claim is that which is pleasing to the carnal mind, which "is not subject to the law of God." Rom. 8:7.

We believe in bringing everything to the test of the infallible word of God. The tendency of the Antinomianism of the present day is to deny the authority of law, of tangible commandments, and to let each one give such evidence of his "love" as his own heart and conscience shall prompt. Of this theory we only say, that it is a good thing for society that the lives of such theorists, under the restraints effected by better teaching, are better than their theories demand. Obedience is the only test of love; and as, "where no law is there is no transgression," so where there is no commandment there is no obedience. That which is done without respect to precept is either disobedience or will-worship,—both alike displeasing to God. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."

These Scripture truths are so plain, so easily understood, that they who reject them must stand without excuse in that day when God, in the light of his commandments, "shall bring every work into judgment." Eccl. 12:13, 14.