Isaiah 58:12, commentary and pictures

The breach is a break in God's law where the seventh-day Sabbath was torn out, trampled underfoot and replaced by the first day as a common working day. That breach was made by the man of sin exalting himself above God to change times and laws, and then nourished by the Protestant world and the whole nation following after the spurious sabbath. The foundations to be raised are God's everlasting law and especially the Sabbath as His memorial of creation and perpetual sign between Him and His people through their generations. To build the old waste places is to magnify the law and exalt the true Sabbath to its rightful place, restoring obedience to all the commandments and turning from one's own ways, pleasures and words on God's holy day to call it a delight. This same repairing work is done by the true fast of loosing wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the poor and clothing the naked, which belongs to God's commandment-keeping people in the last days as the closing work of earth's history.

Breach Foundations and History

The breach is a break made in God's law, and above all in the fourth commandment, where the Sabbath command was broken, torn from its place, trampled underfoot, and displaced by the exalting of a common working day in its stead. That forsaken ordinance is the seventh-day Sabbath, and the break is its change by human authority, with a false sabbath exalted in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah so that many have lost their bearings and the right path has been lost sight of. Restoring the paths means restoring that divine institution and pointing out the right path again, calling people to obey all the precepts of the Decalogue.

The breach was made by the man of sin, the papacy and Papal power, Roman and Romish power, and the Pope under Satan, exalting himself above God and thinking to change times and laws by changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week. That spurious first-day sabbath has no sacredness, is a day of man's invention not instituted by God, was cradled by the Papacy and nourished by the Protestant world as a child of the Papacy, and the whole nation followed after it. In this way allegiance to the law was broken down, the fourth commandment was torn down and covered up so that people forget God, and God is robbed of His holy time every week. Even when arrested for working on the first day, the builders refuse the spurious day and keep the divine seventh day, willing to make prison a home and sing within prison walls.

The foundations of many generations are the law of Jehovah, His everlasting law, the foundation of heaven and earth and the principles on which God's kingdom rests, safeguarding justice, truth, and purity. Specifically the foundation is the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord, His memorial of creation that He created heaven and earth in six days and rested and blessed the seventh day, the sign between God and His people throughout their generations. It remains an enduring sign pointing to the true Creator, witnessed by every tree, shrub, and flower and by His own declaration that in six days He made heaven and earth. Lifting up that law in obedience honors God more than any other work, and those who do it stand loyal and true to the God of heaven instead of on the side of the man of sin.

That Sabbath foundation was hallowed by God's rest and blessing at creation, and it was kept by Adam in innocence in holy Eden and by Adam fallen yet repentant after he was driven out. It was kept by all the patriarchs from Abel to Noah to Abraham to Jacob. When Israel in bondage in Egypt lost knowledge of God's law amid idolatry, God delivered them and proclaimed His law to the assembled multitude so they might know His will and fear and obey Him forever. From Sinai to the present that knowledge has been preserved in the earth and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been kept, and even in the period of the trampling power's supremacy there were faithful souls hidden in secret places who honored the Creator's rest day. Since 1844 some who had kept the first day of the week following the papacy have returned to the commandments and the faith of Jesus into which they are to be baptized for a new life of faithful service, and as the law is restored the waste places begin to be built up.

Those who work at that broken-down line, lifting up the true Sabbath and keeping it from selfish pleasure and work, shall be called among the heavenly intelligences the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in. God records their names in heaven as such, and they are registered in the books of heaven as repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in for maintaining truth even amid the bitterest opposition. What it means to be this restorer is shown by Exodus 31 beginning with verse 12. Turning away the foot from the Sabbath, refusing to speak one's own words or do one's own pleasure on that holy day, is plain duty to be perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, and then continued in the new earth where from Sabbath to Sabbath all come up before the Lord, for the day God made for man and all upon the earth is never left behind.

The chapter is a description of a nation's present condition and the reason for its calamity. The people have forsaken and forgotten God, chosen other gods and corrupt ways, trampled God's law, broken His everlasting covenant, and despised the Sabbath. That condition is linked also to an unrighteous war.

Sabbath Restoration Work

To build the old waste places and raise up the foundations of many generations is to magnify the law and make it honorable by exalting the true Sabbath to its rightful, exalted place as God's rest day. The breach to be repaired is the break in God's law made when the Sabbath was changed by Roman and Romish power, the man of sin, and the time has come for that divine institution to be restored. That restoration means restoring obedience to all the precepts of the Decalogue and restoring the right paths in which people may live and walk, showing that God's law underlies enduring reform. Amid widespread departure from truth and righteousness the people who do this restore the principles on which God's kingdom rests, the law that protects His people and safeguards justice, truth and purity, with the Sabbath as memorial of creation and reminder of God's power. Moved by Christ's love they rebuild what has been laid waste, and those who do this work are given the name that marks them as menders of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in.

Restoring the Sabbath means turning the feet from trampling the fourth commandment and honoring God's holy day. It means not doing one's own ways nor finding one's own pleasure nor speaking one's own words on that day, refraining from ordinary labor and selfish pleasure and work. It means calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable and holy, and honoring God in conduct and speech. That keeping is inseparably joined to the true fast that comes first — loosing wickedness and bands of wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, feeding the hungry, housing the poor and cast-out, clothing the naked, and putting away oppression and vanity — without which the day cannot be kept holy. Those who do both rebuild ruined places and raise lasting foundations and are known as restorers, with the promise of delight in the Lord, being caused to ride upon the high places of the earth, receiving the heritage of Jacob, with righteousness going before them and the glory of the Lord as rereward.

The breach is repaired by calling attention to it by precept and example, proclaiming truth clearly and powerfully and carrying it forward by writing, speaking and every possible means. It requires lifting up the voice like a trumpet with a certain sound, like John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord, bearing decided testimony whether men will hear or forbear and refusing to join with the sins of the people. It requires searching Scripture earnestly and prayerfully, setting aside prejudice and mistaken ideas, standing in God's wisdom rather than human wisdom, and rebuilding what has been neglected in God's commandments. Sabbath truth is to appear in strong contrast with error and never be covered up, maintaining truth because it is truth even in face of the bitterest opposition, so that through the messages sent for this time Christianity is established upon an eternal basis. This building up is done without needlessly attacking other denominations or stirring contention among those who profess to keep God's commandments, even while meeting difficulty.

This restoration faces opposition from laws that would compel observance of the first day of the week instead of the seventh. Faithfulness means refusing the spurious first day and keeping the divine seventh-day Sabbath even when arrested for working on the first day, rejoicing in the privilege of bringing truth before the people, willing to make prison a home and sing within prison walls. Like the rebuilding of Jerusalem's ruined wall, those who restore obedience and prepare a people to stand in the day of God must expect discouragement and opposition, including betrayal and weakness among professed friends and helpers. The work must continue in the face of strong opposition by relying on God rather than human wisdom, standing in God's strength to uphold present truth and establish Christianity on an enduring foundation.

The Sabbath to be restored is God's memorial of creation and perpetual sign between Him and His people marking those whom He sanctifies, made for man by the Creator and of perpetual obligation. It is the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord, the memorial that God created heaven and earth in six days and rested and blessed the seventh day, witnessed by every tree, shrub and flower and by His own declaration. Restoring it means lifting up the true Sabbath where the seventh day has been torn down and trampled and a spurious first-day sabbath with no sacredness has been put in its place, proclaiming the truth and raising up companies of Sabbathkeepers. That work is carried forward with increasing urgency as the end approaches by building places for worship and extending the message into new communities, countries, cities and places where Sabbathkeepers are established, providing workers with means and facilities so those places bear witness that God gave the seventh day as rest day and sign.

Mercy and True Fast

The fast God has chosen comes first, before the promise of rebuilding, and it consists in loosing wickedness and bands of wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, dealing bread to the hungry, housing the poor and cast-out, clothing the naked, not hiding from one's own flesh, and putting away oppression, vanity and vain speech. Praying and mere abstinence from food avail nothing without resolutely laying hold of this work by living faith, without letting one day pass. The needy are to be searched out rather than waited for to entreat a home, for the whole chapter is of the highest importance in specifying the work required.

Those who practice this unselfish service of freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor and clothing the naked will build up old ruined places, raise lasting foundations for future generations, and be called repairers of broken walls and restorers of paths where people can live. This promise stands between assurances of light, healing and health, righteousness going before, the glory of the Lord behind, answered prayer, continual guidance, satisfaction in drought, refreshment like a watered garden and an unfailing spring, and the call to Sabbath delight. Repairing the breach is done through a message calling people to this work of mercy and justice, borne by God's ambassadors. In this setting the breach is also the break in God's law, especially the displacement of the seventh-day Sabbath, so that honoring the Sabbath belongs closely together with works of mercy.

This practical care includes personal help for children, youth, widows, fatherless children, orphans, the poor, the aged, fellow believers, distressed families, those cast out, and those who suffer for courageously accepting the truth. It is to be done by church members personally with love, sympathy and compassion rather than by delegating it or by removing needy people from the community. It includes taking the homeless poor into the house, clothing the naked, not turning away from needy kin, relieving distressed families, and helping children in need find homes where godly character is formed and obedience to all God's statutes is kept before tender minds. Rebuilding ruined places and laying foundations for future generations means this practical care for fellow men when poverty abounds, joined to keeping the Sabbath holy.

Building the waste places and standing in the breach is medical missionary work ordained of God to be done unselfishly in all places, with no part neglected. The most wide-awake missionaries are to be sent to the most neglected portion, and need is greatest determines the call, with the work and its advantages shared rather than concentrated in one place. It means relieving oppression, meeting the needs of the hungry and afflicted, lifting up the oppressed, strengthening weak hands, doing justice and exalting truth in practical work for those looked down upon, despised and rejected. Failure to do this work is departing from right principles, while carrying it out with zeal, piety and missionary understanding increases spiritual growth and influence, overcomes selfishness, and lets faith shine to the world through godly example. Love revealed for suffering humanity gives significance and power to the truth, mingling Sabbath reform with compassion, benevolence and healing action.

Fasting and prayer, many meetings, and profession with zeal in a false faith do not prove devotion when mercy and love for God and people are neglected. True religion is shown by right action, benevolence, practical godliness and Bible religion, doing justice and mercy and elevating the purest principles of the kingdom of God. Outward display of humility such as lying in sackcloth does not commend anyone to God, and selfless care rather than reluctance to help expands the soul and brings God's blessing. By walling the soul with God's restrictions and overcoming selfishness and covetousness with Christlike unselfishness, formal prayer ends and praying in the Spirit that is heard and answered becomes possible.

Last Days People

The repairing work belongs to the last days and to the closing work of earth's history, and it is the work for the present time, named as present work in 1894. Just prior to the great day of God a message is sent forth to warn the people to come back to their allegiance to the law that antichrist has broken down, after the fourth commandment was trampled by the man of sin who exalted himself above God and thought to change times and laws from the seventh day to the first. Amid widespread departure from truth and righteousness this people restore the principles on which God's kingdom rests and show that God's law underlies enduring reform, rebuilding what has been laid waste and restoring the foundations of earlier generations and the paths in which people should walk. The breach to be repaired is the breach in God's law caused by keeping the first day instead of the Lord's Sabbath, and those who turn from breaking the Sabbath to keeping it, calling it a delight and honoring God, are called repairer of the breach and restorer of paths to dwell in.

Those who do it are God's commandment-keeping people, the little company living at the time the third angel flies warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, who in marked contrast to the world will not swerve from allegiance to God. They are the remnant church standing in the breach and making up the hedge, rebuilding what had been laid waste and restoring the foundations handed down through generations and the law's claims amid apostasy. Seventh-day Adventists stand in the breach by teaching the true Sabbath and calling people back to obedience and respect for God's law, especially the Sabbath commandment, whose restored paths are safe paths. The Sabbath truth is the third angel's message to be proclaimed to the world with a loud voice, in clear distinct lines, with the power of the Holy Spirit, not by gradually preparing the way for the Sabbath question.

The chapter's message, including the whole of Isaiah 58:1-14, applies to people living in the final period of earth's history and must be proclaimed plainly as a warning, delivered whether people accept or reject it. Isaiah foretold this work of presenting a warning message that lays God's requirements before churches and transgressors and calls people to recognize how worldly policies and principles have led them away from the Lord's ordinances into transgression of God's law. The work does not cloak sin as a matter of little consequence but presents it as guilt against the Son of God that deprives Him of glory, holding the exceeding sinfulness of sin before the people just as it is, and then lifts up the Saviour and tells them that immortality comes only through belief in Christ and receiving Him as personal Saviour. Those who receive the message of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus do the repairing by calling attention to the breach by precept and example and keeping the commandments as the apple of the eye, and truth gathers people even in unfavorable places so that many embrace the Lord's Sabbath in response.

Like the builders of the walls of Jerusalem the repairers must expect discouragement and opposition, including betrayal and weakness among professed friends and helpers, with enemies opposing by every means to hinder, yet the broken-down wall steadily goes up because God is in the work and angels work with His faithful servants. If the repairers watch and pray and work as those builders did, God will fight their battles and give them precious victories, and when rulers rank with the man of sin and only divine power can counteract satanic agencies, angels that excel in strength unite with human agencies. The work given to God's commandment-keeping people is to be cherished as very precious and grows stronger and more efficient as time advances through the power of His grace, with constant growth in assurance and power as He opens doors of opportunity when they labor as the Spirit directs, even while the enemy seeks to becloud discernment and weaken efficiency. Those who take it up walk before God in humility, confess and forsake sins so they go beforehand to judgment to be blotted out, cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfect holiness in the fear of God, depart from all iniquity, and build up rather than tear down what God's workers are accomplishing in different branches of His cause, until the Lord descends from heaven with power and great glory to set His seal of final triumph upon His faithful ones.

United Missionary Ministry

The chapter sets forth the union of medical missionary work and the gospel ministry, with ministering to suffering people joined to bringing the light of truth before a perishing world, and no one is to separate what God has united in His word. Carried on in right lines as the work of the third angel's message, this united work keeps the ministry from an inferior place and keeps the poor and sick from neglect, serving the message as a hand serves the body and not burying its principles of truth. It lays upon Sabbathkeepers the responsibility of mercy and benevolence, with medical missionary work bound up with the message and sealed with the seal of God. Restoring obedience to the law, including honoring the trampled memorial, is therefore joined inseparably with compassion and practical care for the poor, sick, suffering, and sinful, and with restoring God's moral image in humanity.

To be called repairer of the breach and restorer of paths to dwell in means to build the old wastes and raise up former desolations by bringing a different order of things into the schooling of children and youth. This is the work appointed to all who have part in educational work in the last days, with changes belonging to the time when the first, second, and third angels' messages came, which have taken much time to understand. As children in the old dispensation were kept familiar with the typical sacrifices pointing to redemption, so now obedience to all God's statutes and commandments must be kept before tender minds, including honoring the Sabbath by turning from self-pleasure, self-ways, and self-words and treating it as delight and honorable and holy, unto delight in the Lord and the heritage of Jacob. Schools are to be built after the order of the schools of the prophets, with small sanitariums connected with schools, and students taught physical labor, simple natural remedies, and care for the sick under Christ's direction, and prepared to understand and give the message. Following this right course brings the blessings specified in the chapter and avoids the faults condemned in ancient Israel, by calm unwavering trust in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and by parents and ministers taking Jesus wherever they go and, like the patriarchs, erecting an altar to the Lord wherever they pitch the tent, having God in the household.

Publishing institutions cooperate in this rebuilding by presenting God's law, calling people to obey all His commandments, and showing the Sabbath as the Creator's memorial and witness directing attention to the Creator. The Echo office was appointed to help rebuild the old waste places by publishing the final message of mercy and upholding the seventh-day Sabbath, with workers and publications making truth visible in practice and keeping soul-saving as the highest interest to save souls. This is the same preparatory work John the Baptist did for Christ's first coming, now done for His coming by exalting the downtrodden law and presenting in clear distinct lines the necessity of perfect obedience, with a restoring influence calling people to investigate the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as God's constant reminder. It is a picture of work to be done in new territory by raising God's standard and carrying the warning through missionary work by preaching and the press. All who are brethren in Christ are to stand each in appointed lot and place in perfect harmony and strengthen and build up the waste places by holding aloft the Bible standard, voicing the third angel's message, living the truth, and exercising mercy and the love of God.

Building the waste places means extending the message of truth into new communities, countries, cities, and unworked territory, opening missions in every city and place, establishing places of worship that witness that God gave the seventh day as rest day and sign that He sanctifies His people, and giving the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus before the way is hedged up. Workers are to be supported with means and facilities to bring truth where it has not been heard, with progressive plans, with less spent where the message has been fully preached, and with searching of highways and hedges for scattered sheep. This repairing and building is done by practicing self-denial and liberality, binding about supposed wants and refusing self-pleasing fancies in order to open new fields beyond and erect humble houses of worship for poor new believers who cannot build for themselves, which brings God's blessing and is a sure remedy for poor health. In the last days this precious extended work means more than sitting in churches Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching or having ministers hover about churches repeating the same truths to believers, but laboring together with God by working for friends and neighbors, visiting families, creating interest in present truth, planting the Word in many hearts, and dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls.

The verse calls God's people to arouse to give the last note of warning to save a perishing world, with the chapter read over many times giving deeper impression each time. It is ministry in present truth of laboring together with Christ in proclaiming mercy, using every talent for God's glory, treating the world as the vineyard to be cultivated in every city and village, in highways and byways near and far, sowing seed in good works for those without light, going forth arrayed in Christ's righteousness and sanctified by truth to labor for all classes with equal care, free from selfishness. It is the grand holy work appointed to God's denominated people to stand before nations and highest authority, proclaiming truth as it is in Jesus in all its bearings, giving warnings in all cities, reaching all classes through wisely planned camp meetings, reaching higher classes especially upon temperance, bringing converts to see saloons closed and the dealing out of poisoned liquor ended, and reaching the whole world with the law of God on the Sabbath question. Where truth is presented and lived through obedient unselfish action, with sin exposed as offense against Christ, it gathers people even in unfavorable places despite opposition and indifference from those who left safe paths.

Promises and Blessings

Precious promises belong to those who labor for restoration of the true Sabbath. After specifying the work He requires, God promises that those who practice the true fast of loosing wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the poor, clothing the naked, and putting away oppression and vain speech will rebuild ruined places, raise lasting foundations, and be called repairers of broken walls and restorers of paths where people can live. That promise stands between assurances of breaking light, healing and health, righteousness going before, the glory of the Lord behind, answered prayer, continual guidance, satisfaction in drought, renewed strength, and life like a watered garden and unfailing spring. Where this instruction applies and the time of its marked fulfillment is definitely fixed and not left to human conclusions, as made clear by the Sabbath keeping, honoring, and delighting in the Lord described in the verses that follow. God verifies His promise shortly to those who verify His Word without extremes.

That restoring identity is inseparably joined to keeping the Sabbath by turning from self-pleasing on God's holy day, calling it a delight and honoring God in conduct and speech. In a time of general departure from truth and righteousness the present duty is with interested effort to build the old waste places and raise up the foundation of many generations, repairing the breach by restoring the right paths and honoring the Sabbath as holy rather than pursuing one's own ways, pleasures, or words. Those who do so delight in the Lord, are caused to ride upon the high places of the earth, are fed with the heritage of Jacob, and receive divine comfort. In this is learned what constitutes true sanctification.

The promise is assurance that God stands behind His word and can be trusted for victory. Christ's followers carry forward His mission by rebuilding what has been ruined and restoring the way people are to live. Through grace the work grows stronger and more effective with continuing growth. Working to benefit and bless others brings satisfaction, the Lord creates peace in the soul of more value than gold, every faithful performance of duty stands registered in the books of heaven and receives more than an earthly reward, and it fulfills the sacred duty to receive God's grace in order to give it to others. To those who hope for the soon-coming morning the chapter offers the Lord's reviving and healing light and the enduring joy and reward of the righteous in the world to come.

God promises help in times of need, with angels available to help those who look to the Lord. Those who do justice and exalt truth in practical work for those who are looked down upon, despised and rejected have the Lord Himself as Keeper and Preserver, enabling them to do His will. To make up the breach is to worship God on His holy Sabbath day instituted in Eden, God is on the side of those who do this repairing work, and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels are engaged with them to help in it. Angels that excel in strength wait obedient to His command to unite with human agencies in this work of repair in this time of danger, prevailing iniquity, and national apostasy, and the Lord will interpose when matters have come to such a pass that none but a divine power can counteract the satanic agencies at work, for when His people are in greatest danger man's extremity is God's opportunity.

The whole chapter with this verse is to be committed to memory with the rest of Isaiah 58 and repeated when temptation comes, walling the soul in with God's restrictions and instructions and answering with It is written when the mind is drawn to earthly and sensual things. It supplies clear evidence from God's word that those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are the people God is leading and by tests and provings is preparing to stand in the great day. It was preached as part of the closing verses of Isaiah 58 at a Sabbath worship service, after which three people were strengthened to decide to keep the Sabbath.

Church and Daily Application

Claiming the work of building ruined places and restoring lasting foundations requires first a deep and thorough reformation of heart and life. It means repentance and conversion, departing from iniquity and from departure from plain Bible truth, humbling the heart, living out the righteousness described in the chapter, and following the Bible and the directions God has given His people. Selfishness, covetousness, irritability, every self-exalting plan and love of supremacy must be put away, with meekness and lowliness of heart, standing united without fault-finding, praying much and wrestling in prayer for strength, bringing every thought into captivity to Jesus, and living at peace in unity. Then social meetings become pure, truth sanctifies, workers become learners of Christ who know how to restore and who build up rather than tear down, and renewed souls reflecting Christ's likeness become laborers together with God to make Him known in word and action. The chapter with this promise gives instruction, warning, and encouragement that brings light, life, goodness, and truth when received and applied personally and to individual life, calling the church to rely not on position or rank but on God's power and the favor and power of His Spirit, refusing human-made yokes and holding to moral and spiritual purity. This work and name belong now to churches, publishing houses, missionary stations, and sanitariums, and every faithful performance of duty stands registered in heaven and receives more than an earthly reward, with peace in the soul more valuable than gold and the sacred duty fulfilled of receiving God's grace in order to give it to others.

Institutions and churches fulfill the rebuilding by rejecting selfish principles, acting in harmony with Christ's work, and practicing what the truth teaches so its influence is preserved in their work. That means practicing self-denial, giving up luxuries and needless costly ornaments to make the sick, poor, and needy comfortable, caring for them in practical Christlike work, and so receiving the blessing promised in the chapter. It means supplying the sanitarium, with those who have means helping the Lord's work and lending without interest and giving money rather than spending all effort merely in commercial lines, laying up treasure beside the throne of God, and with those healed and helped showing appreciation by such support. It means establishing hospitals and sanitariums to relieve suffering and present the bread of heaven, charging fairly, connecting schools with sanitariums, and avoiding over-enlarged restaurant work that occupies gospel workers with serving tables. The call applies to ministers, physicians, nurses, parents, and workers in every field to proclaim an earnest message that stirs hearts, follow the instruction of God's Word with ever-growing understanding, uphold the Creator's memorial of the seventh-day Sabbath, make truth visible in practice, and read and practice the chapter together with loving God and neighbor.

Sabbathkeepers themselves must be reconverted to faithful Sabbath observance, honoring the day in practice and spirit. That means not bringing their own work, words, and unsanctified thoughts into it, upholding strict observance, turning from sin, living a sanctified Christian life, and speaking the message plainly rather than softening it.

In the home the lasting foundation for prosperous households is laid through training children, keeping obedience to all God's statutes and commandments before tender minds as children in the old dispensation were kept familiar with the typical sacrifices pointing to redemption. Parents are to give right instruction and carry out God's will, take Jesus wherever they go, erect an altar to the Lord wherever they pitch their tent as the patriarchs did, have God in the household, teach children the way of the Lord and train them for immortal life, and form character now fit for the society of the heavenly family. This includes honoring the Sabbath by turning from self-pleasure, self-ways, and self-words and treating it as delight and honorable and holy, with the result of delight in the Lord and receiving the heritage of Jacob, while parental and ministerial example helps prepare children either for salvation or for paths contrary to God's Word. Faithful religious care rebuilds what is ruined in Zion, sets up her gates and makes strong her walls for defense, and faithful influence can rebuild what has been damaged and bind a shaken family together. Building waste places also means entering hard places others left undone and setting things in order on an organized plan, taking the word of truth as counselor, following it so that light goes before and glory follows, until the gates of the city of God are thrown back to those who kept the truth.