Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1873
Forty Answers
By D. T. Bourdeau
TO FORTY SO-CALLED OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE LAW AND SABBATH.
BY ELD. D. T. BOURDEAU.
Texts:—“And they send unto him certain Pharisees, and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.” Mark 12:13. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.
Objections are either real, or pretended and imaginary. No real objections can be sustained against the Bible, yet pretended objections are often raised against the Bible and Bible doctrines. These so-called objections, when answered, only serve to brighten up and increase the evidences in favor of the Bible and those Bible doctrines which are attacked. Such, we believe, is the case with those objections which are usually urged against the law and Sabbath, and which we purpose to briefly answer in the following pages.
Objection 1. Those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath go mainly to the Old Testament to prove their doctrine.
Answer. We go to both the Old and New Testaments, for they support each other, and the New Testament would have but little force without the Old. (1.) The New-Testament Scriptures are largely made up of references to, and quotations from, the Old. (2.) The Old-Testament Scriptures testify of Christ, and without them it would be difficult to show that Christ is the Messiah. (3.) Christ commands us to search them, John 5:39, and says, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4. (4.) They are all the Scriptures that the apostles and the primitive church had for years. (5.) Those who searched them in apostolic times were said to be more noble than those who did not. Acts 17:11. (6.) They inculcate a devotional spirit. This is emphatically true of the Psalms, etc. (7.) They benefit us by their admonitions against sin and sinners, as well as by their praises of virtue and the virtuous. (8.) They contain many prophecies which are fulfilling in the Christian age, and which shed much light on our pathway. (9.) “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15:4. (10.) The Holy Scriptures (that Timothy had known from a child) “are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:15–17. Surely we cannot get along without the old Scriptures. We go to them also because (11.) They establish the perpetuity of the Sabbath and of that perfect law of which the Sabbath is a part. For instance, how can we overlook the following forcible scriptures: “Oh! that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever.” Deut. 5:29. God is speaking of the ten commandments. “The faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” Deut. 7:9. “And showing mercy unto thousands [of generations understood. See French Trans.] of them that love me and keep my commandments.” Ex. 20:6. Allowing thirty years to a generation, only about two hundred generations have passed since creation. “All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. 111:7, 8. “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” “All thy commandments are righteousness.” “Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever.” Ps. 119:142, 172, 152. This psalm is a remarkable poem on the ten commandments, nearly every verse referring to them under one of such expressions: “the law of thy mouth,” verse 72, “thy commandments,” etc. “My righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law.” Isa. 51:6, 7. Of Christ, Isaiah says, “He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21.
But even our opponents go to the Old Testament to raise objections against the Sabbath, as we shall see.
Objection 2. The Sabbath was a Jewish institution.
Answer. The Bible nowhere calls it thus. How could the Sabbath be Jewish when it was made at creation—more than 2000 years before the Jews existed? When God had made the world in six days, he rested from his works on the seventh day, and thus the seventh day became his rest-day or Sabbath day. He then “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:1–3; Ex. 20:8–11. Thus the seventh day became God’s blessed and sanctified rest-day, or Sabbath day, and a memorial of his rest from his works. It will not do to call the Sabbath Jewish and give it to the Jews, simply because the Jews kept it. The Jews had the same God that we have, and looked forward to the same Messiah that we believe in. Christ and the apostles were Jews. Our Bible comes from the Jews. The new covenant was made with the Jews. Jer. 31:31, etc.; Rom. 9:4, 5. The advantage of the Jews was “much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” Rom. 3:1, 2; i. e., what God spoke or delivered orally, the ten commandments. See Webster’s definitions of oracle and oral. Acts 7:38; Deut. 4:8–13. In short, the Saviour says, “Salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22. Shall we reject these blessings simply because the Jews enjoyed them?
Objection 3. The Bible gives no account of the Sabbath being kept before the Jews came out of Egypt.
Answer. The obligation to keep the Sabbath day existed in the early ages of the world. It originated in God’s sanctifying the day of his rest in Eden. By blessing that day because that in it he had rested, he extolled it, pronouncing it for all time to come, a great day and a blessing to man. By sanctifying the day for the same reason, he set apart the seventh day in the future to a holy use (Webster); for past time cannot be recalled to be consecrated to the Lord. This act of sanctifying the seventh day could not be done without telling our first parents that they should not do their own work on that day, but should use it religiously, in memory of God’s resting upon it. Moses sanctified Mount Sinai for Jehovah to proclaim his law upon it by telling the people not to use it as they would common ground. Ex. 19:12, 23. So God sanctified the seventh day by commanding our first parents to keep it holy. Now, as this original obligation never was abrogated, if our opponents could even prove that the Sabbath was not kept from creation until the Jews came out of Egypt (which cannot be done) they have simply shown that all those living during that period were sinners. But this is not the case. (1.) Noah was a righteous man and a preacher of righteousness, Gen. 6:9; 7:1; 2 Pet. 2:5, which would not be true had he been a violator of the Sabbath. The same is true of Lot. 2 Pet. 2:7, 8. (2.) The patriarchs reckoned time by weeks and sevens of days. Gen. 29:27, 28; 8:10–12. This is good evidence that the example of God in the model of creation week was not entirely forgotten in the earth. (3.) Abraham kept God’s commandments, his statutes, and his laws. Gen. 26:5.
Therefore the fact that the Bible gives no definite account of Sabbath observance in the patriarchal age does not prove that the Sabbath was not observed in that age. This fact is no more remarkable than a great many others. For instance: The Sabbath is not mentioned in the Bible from Moses to David, a period of 500 years, during which it was enforced by the penalty of death. Again, the Bible does not contain a single instance of the observance of the jubilee, or of the day of atonement, the most solemn and important day in the typical system, and which the Jews observe to this day.
The manner in which the Lord and the children of Israel treated the Sabbath in the Wilderness of Sin about one month before the promulgation of the law (comp. Ex. chap. 16:1 and 19:1, 2) shows that the Sabbath was then an ancient institution. (1.) The Lord said to Moses respecting the keeping of the Sabbath: “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” Ex. 16:4. God then had a law on the Sabbath. (2.) The Israelites, of their own accord, and without any new commandment from the Lord or from Moses, prepared to keep the Sabbath, by gathering a double portion of manna on the sixth day, seemingly against the order of the Lord to gather “a certain rate every day.” Verse 4. Thus the Lord proved the people; and without his saying a word to them about the Sabbath, they showed a disposition to keep it. (3.) And when some of the Israelites had violated the Sabbath, the Lord reproved them, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Verse 28.
Finally, the idea of a previously existing institution is seen, not only in the first words of the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,”—but also in the closing words of that precept: “wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (at creation). Ex. 20:8–11. The very day enjoined by the fourth commandment was sanctified or set apart to a holy use in Eden. Therefore, the commandment to keep the Sabbath day is but the repetition of a previously existing law.
Objection 4. In the Wilderness of Sin, Moses said to the Jews, “The Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Ex. 16:29, and afterwards Nehemiah said, “Thou madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath.” Neh. 9:13, 14.
Answer. (1.) The Lord gave the Jews the Sabbath in placing them where they could keep it. They must have been measurably deprived of the Sabbath and Sabbath blessings in their servitude. (2.) The Lord made known the Sabbath as indicated in Neh. 9:13, 14, in proclaiming it in grandeur with the rest of his law on Sinai. The entire passage reads thus: “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath.” The French version reads: “taughtest them thy holy Sabbath.” We have shown they had a knowledge of it one month before this, at least. God says he made himself known to the house of Jacob, “in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” Eze. 20:5, 9. Who will claim that the children of Israel had no knowledge of God before this?
Objection 5. The Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and therefore commanded them to keep the Sabbath day. Deut. 5:15. Hence the Sabbath was a memorial of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
Answer. (1.) Deut. 5:15 forms no part of the original fourth commandment, but the connection thus cites back to that commandment as authority: “Keep the Sabbath day, to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.” Verse 12. This the Lord had done about forty years before. (2.) This entire passage says nothing about the origin of the Sabbath. The facts on this point are found in the grand reason of the fourth commandment: “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. 20:11. God did not make the world when Israel came out of Egypt, neither did he then rest on the seventh day, nor bless and sanctify that day. Here are the facts that brought the Sabbath into existence, and here is the event that the Sabbath commemorates. (3.) In this passage, special stress is laid on the Israelites giving their servants an opportunity to keep the Sabbath as well as keeping it themselves; and as an incentive to obedience, the Israelites are reminded of the fact that they were once servants in Egypt, and that the Lord brought them out thence. The Lord simply appeals to their gratitude, as parents do when they tell their children: We have been kind to you in doing you many favors; now obey us. The Lord uses the same motive and similar language to lead his people to be just and merciful to the stranger and fatherless and the widow: “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge; but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing.” Deut. 24:17, 18. Did the principles of justice and mercy originate with the deliverance of the Israelites from their servitude, and commemorate that deliverance? (4.) There is nothing in the Sabbath adapted to commemorate the deliverance from Egypt, as that was a flight upon the fifteenth day of the first month, and the Sabbath is a rest upon the seventh day of each week. But God did give the Hebrews a fitting memorial of their deliverance in the passover and feast of unleavened bread. Ex. 12:13.
Objection 6. God expressly states that the Sabbath was a sign between him and138the children of Israel throughout their generations. Ex. 31:13.
Answer. The Sabbath could not be said to be a sign between God and the children of Israel, because it was not to belong exclusively to the natural descendants of Israel, for the Gentiles, “or sons of the stranger,” are encouraged to observe the Sabbath as well as the Jews. Isa. 56:1–6. Ex. 31:13 tells us why the Sabbath is a sign: “that ye may know that I am the Lord.” But verse 17 fully informs us how the Sabbath is a sign. “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” To the children of Israel, the Sabbath properly kept was a sign that He who had made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day was their Lord; while to the Lord, the Sabbath thus observed by the children of Israel was a sign that they were his true worshipers, and his loyal and grateful people. The Sabbath was a sign between Jehovah and the Israelites because they were the only people who, as a nation, worshiped their Creator. All other nations had forsaken him to worship “the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth.” Jer. 10:11. Had the Sabbath always been kept, men never would have forgotten their Creator and run into idolatry. In that case, the Sabbath would have been a sign between the Lord and the whole race.
The Sabbath was thus to be a sign between God and the children of Israel forever. Though the word forever is sometimes limited in its meaning, it must here be taken in its broadest acceptation. (1.) The reason why the Sabbath was a sign is as applicable now as it ever was. The fact that God made heaven and earth is as interesting to the Gentiles as to the Jews. God is the Creator of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews, and his example in resting on the seventh day is as sacred to the Gentiles as to the Jews. (2.) The parties between which the Sabbath was to be a sign still exist, and as long as they continue, so long will the Sabbath be a sign between them. God still lives, and he has a true Israel in this dispensation, who have been grafted in where the Jews were broken off, Rom. 11:16, who are not “Jews outwardly,” but “Jews inwardly,” Rom. 2:28, 29, “Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile,” John 1:47 (“for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel,” Rom. 9:6), “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. Hence it is that between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals, and following the signs of the second advent, Rev. 6:12–17; 8:1, the four winds, representing general war, Jer. 25:32, 33, are held till the servants of God, “the children of Israel,” are sealed in their foreheads with the seal or sign of the living God. Rev. 7:1–3. A seal is a sign or mark of authority, and the word here rendered seal is by some translated sign, and by others, mark. Finally, we find the Sabbath and God’s true worshipers in the new earth: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23. See also Rev. 21:9–12, etc.
Objection 7. Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, showed his intention to abolish the Sabbath by breaking it.
Answer. Christ did not break the Sabbath; but he broke the traditions of the Jews, from which he labored so faithfully to rescue the Sabbath. He kept his Father’s commandments, John 15:10, and “did no sin.” 1 Pet. 2:22. He justified the merciful acts he performed on the Sabbath by appealing to the Sabbath law, Matt. 12:12; by referring to the course of the Jews toward their brute beasts, and to that of his Father, who had worked in mercifully sustaining his creatures on the Sabbath, John 5:17; and finally by falling back on the Sabbath as a merciful institution “made for man” in the beginning. Mark 2:24–28, etc. Those who accused the Saviour of violating the Sabbath also accused him of having a devil; and those who now charge him with having violated the Sabbath make him a transgressor, and virtually represent that we have a sinner to trust in, whose sacrifice was insufficient, and who needed to die for his own sins. Christ’s being Lord of the Sabbath does not intimate that he was to abolish the Sabbath. Christ is also Lord of his people, Rom. 14:8, 9, not to abolish or destroy them, but to preserve and protect them. In the same sense is he Lord of the Sabbath.
Objection 8. The Sabbath was not a moral precept, growing out of the nature of things, but a positive institution, depending wholly on the will of the Law-giver. Hence it could be abrogated.
Answer. Even admitting that the Sabbath depended simply on the will of the Law-giver, it would remain to be proved that that will has abolished it. But if there is one precept above another which is moral and grows out of the nature of things, it is that of the Sabbath, which is written on the very front of nature. This is the only precept of the ten which tells us how nature came into existence, and points us from nature to nature’s God. Without the facts on which it is based, we could not distinguish the God who gave the law of ten commandments from other gods, and that law would have no force. It grows out of man’s moral, mental, and physical wants. It is emphatically the precept of gratitude and love, and lies at the foundation of, and enforces all, moral law. It unfolds to our mind the grand fact that we owe our existence and all our blessings to God who made our fellow-creatures as well as ourselves, giving them the same blessings that he vouchsafes to us; and this fact involves an obligation to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. If we do this, we shall have no other gods before the true God, make no idols to worship them, use the name of God with reverence, and keep his rest-day, and shall honor parents, and pay a strict regard to the life, chastity, property, reputation, and interests of our fellow-men; and thus we shall keep all the ten commandments. Thus the Sabbath is the link that unites man to his Creator, and man to his fellow-men; and the moral duties we owe to God to those we owe to our fellow-men. It is the key that opens to all our moral duties. And if it is morally right to give our fellow-creatures their due, it is also morally right to give God his due, and the day that he claims as his own.
Objection 9. The Sabbath was a part of that one law which was “abolished,” “blotted out,” “taken out of the way,” and “nailed to the cross.” Eph. 2:14–16; Col. 2:14–17.
Answer. Eph. 2:14–16; Col. 2:14–17, are important scriptures to show that the seventh-day Sabbath was not abolished, and constitute a grand rule with which to go into the Old and New Testaments to determine what was done away, and what was not. This rule tells us that those commandments and ordinances that were done away were “the middle wall of partition,” were “against us” and “contrary to us,” and “a shadow of things to come.” Can this be said of the law of ten commandments? Instead of being a middle wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles, the Gentiles are said to have the works of this law written in their hearts, Rom. 2:12–15, and if the Gentiles fulfill or obey this law, they will judge the Jews who transgress it. Verse 27. And by this law, every mouth is stopped, and all the world are shown to be guilty before God. Rom. 3:19. This law grows out of the precepts of supreme love to God and equal love to our fellow-creatures. Can there be better precepts than these? Are these precepts shadowy? The Sabbath was made at creation, and before the fall. Was it a separating wall between the Jews and Gentiles, a shadow and against us? Would God punish our first parents by giving them an institution that was against them, before they did that which was against him?
But to be circumcised, to offer numberless sacrifices, to slay the willful transgressor on the spot, to not be permitted to eat with the Jews and to be separated from them in the temple by a literal partition, to observe the new moons, to let the land rest every seventh year, to go to Jerusalem three times a year with sacrifices, to keep three yearly feasts of the Jews, and in connection with these feasts, seven annual sabbaths, Ex. 23; Lev. 23, etc., falling on certain days of certain months, like Christmas, New Years, etc., etc., would indeed be a tremendous wall against us, and contrary to us, would be a yoke that we Gentiles could not bear. This entire system grew out of sin, showed forth the remedy for sin, and was abolished by Christ and nailed to the cross. But the moral law existed before man fell, and consequently before a remedy was needed, and of it Christ says, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law. . . Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” Matt. 5:17, 18.
While the annual sabbaths of the Jews were against us, of the seventh-day Sabbath, Christ says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. The annual sabbaths were designed especially for dwellers in the land of Canaan, and were not kept till the Jews reached Palestine, Ex. 12:25, etc.; but the seventh-day Sabbath was made for the race, and was kept long before the Jews saw Canaan. The annual sabbaths were shadowy and typical, pointing forward to Christ, but the seventh-day Sabbath is a memorial pointing back to creation, was made before man needed types, and will exist in the new earth, when all types and shadows will have vanished away. Isa. 66:22, 23.
The one-law theory puts a host of objections against the Bible, in the hands of infidels, showing that the law was abolished, and was not abolished, that it was for and against us, a yoke and a law of liberty. Acts 15:10; James 2:8–12, carnal and spiritual, etc. Rom. 7:14; Heb. 7:16. But the idea of two laws produces a harmony, and takes objections out of the hands of infidels.
The moral law either was or was not abolished. If it was, then there was a time when it was right for men to break it and to hate God and their neighbor with perfect hatred! Moral butchery! Horrible!
Objection 10. The Sabbath is not re-enacted, or commanded over as a new law by Christ or the apostles, in the New Testament.
Answer. The law of ten commandments was not repealed; hence, there was no necessity of re-enacting any part of it. Therefore, Christ and the apostles treat that law as authority. They quote from, and enforce, it on the same authority that proclaimed it on Sinai. Says Christ, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother.” And James says, “He that said [margin, that law which said] Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, then art thou become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:11, 12.
Christ and the apostles taught and enjoined the law as written in the Hebrew language, and without the alteration of one letter or tip of a letter, Matt. 5:17, 18, as known by the Jews, and of which the Jews boasted. Said Christ to the young man who wanted to know what he should do to have eternal life, “Thou knowest the commandments.” Mark 10:19; Matt. 19:17, etc. And to the Jew, Paul says, “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God?” Rom. 2:23.
Evidence is not wanting in the New Testament to prove that we should keep the Sabbath.
1. Christ said, “The Sabbath was made for man,” i. e., for Adam and all his posterity.
2. Christ took especial pains to show what was lawful on the Sabbath, thereby acknowledging the Sabbath law. Matt. 12:12.
3. Christ, as our example, kept the Sabbath. Luke 4:16. And let none offset against this fact the idea that Christ was circumcised. Says Paul, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19.
4. Christ commanded the disciples to pray that their flight from Judea should not be on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24:20. This flight took place A. D. 70, about forty years after the crucifixion. And Christ did not enjoin this duty upon them because the gates of Jerusalem would be shut on the Sabbath, so that they could not flee; for, (1.) Josephus (Jewish Wars, book ii., chap. 19) informs us that a few days before the flight, the Jews actually went out in battle against the Romans on the Sabbath; and, (2.) The command to flee is to those who would be in Judea. It was, therefore, because the Saviour regarded the Sabbath and wished to have Christians keep it, that he enjoined this duty on his followers; and history informs us that they did observe it. Surely, Christ has much to say about the Sabbath. Shall we hear him?
5. The disciples kept the fourth commandment this side of the cross. They “rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. And this is recorded by Luke, without comment, thirty years after the crucifixion, as though the disciples had done right.
6. The apostles held their regular religious meetings on the Sabbath. “And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made;” “and we spake unto the women which resorted thither.” And Lydia, a Greek woman, was converted, and the church of Philippi was started. Acts 16:13. “They came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. . . . And some of them believed, . . . and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude.” Acts 17:1–4. “After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. . . . And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. . . . And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” Acts 18:1–11. And thus the church of Corinth was raised. This was not merely to accommodate the Jews. Those who say that it was, beg the very point to be proved. They should first prove that the Sabbath was abolished. With the fourth commandment in force, we claim that they preached and worshiped on the Sabbath because they delighted to keep it holy.
7. Paul preached to the Gentiles, at their request, on the Sabbath. Acts 13:42, 44: “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. . . . And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.”
8. We read of the Lord’s day as existing in A. D. 96. Rev. 1:10. And which day is the Lord’s day? Is it the first day? That day is never claimed by the Lord as his day. But the Bible is a sufficient rule of faith. And we read, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. God calls it his holy day. Isa. 58:13. It is the day of which Christ styles himself the Lord. Mark 2:28. And to show that a day belongs to the Lord, we must cease to do our work on that day, and employ it in his service.
9. The seventh-day Sabbath is mentioned fifty-nine times in the New Testament, and is invariably spoken of as an existing institution.
10. All those scriptures in the New Testament which prove that the law of ten commandments is binding as a whole, prove the Sabbath to be in force. When Christ says he came not to destroy the law, we say he did not come to destroy the Sabbath, which is a part of that law. When he says every jot and tittle of the law shall hold good till heaven and earth pass, he makes the Sabbath binding at least throughout this dispensation. When he says unqualifiedly, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” he makes the keeping of the Sabbath a part of the condition of eternal life.
(To be Continued.)
THE CHANGE.
By Mary Martin
“—To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Isa. 61: 3.
From out life's ashes eternal bloom!
Most wondrous change! will it ever come?
And the aspirations and hopes most dear,
In the new earth live, though they perish here?
Will a Father's hand at last bestow
A richer beauty than mortals know?
A beauty that lives through endless years,
Unmarred by sorrow, undimmed by tears.
Will immortal light beam from the eye,
As the pilgrim layeth his armor by?
And the “oil of joy” be for mourning given,
In the “better land” which we call Heaven?
Will “the spirit of heaviness” pass away
From the heart that carries it day by day?
And “the garment of praise” on forms be seen,
Where the robes of toil and of sin have been?
Ah, yes; as the morn, with its crimson blush,
Is followed ever by evening's hush,
And the midnight stars give place to day,
So earthly trials will pass away.
As surely as leaves, now scarlet and gold,
Shall withered be by the frost-king's cold,
And snow-wreaths gather to vanish again,
So surely an ending will come to pain.
No mourning is there o'er the ashes of life,
For the weary heart will have ceased its strife.
And garments of beauty and praise will be given
To those who shall shine like the stars in Heaven.
And the crowns that glitter where care-marks have been,
Will tell there is freedom from sorrow and sin.
Though all this to mortal's weak vision looks strange,
God is true who has promised this beautiful change.
MARY MARTIN.
New Hampshire.
Value of Sleep.
Dr. Alexander was often heard to say in substance as follows: “Clergymen, authors, teachers, and other men of reflective habits, lose much health by losing sleep, and this because they carry their trains of thought to bed with them. In my earlier years I greatly injured my health by studying my sermons in bed. The best thing one can do is to take care of the last half hour before retiring. Devotion being ended, something may be done to quiet the strings of the harp, which otherwise would go on to vibrate. Let me commend to you this maxim, which I somewhere learned from Dr. Watts, who says that in his boyhood he received it from the lips of Dr. John Owen—a very good pedigree for a maxim: Break the chain of thought at bedtime by something at once serious and agreeable. By all means break the continuity, or sleep will be vexed, if not driven away. If you wish to know my method, it is to turn over the pages of my English Bible, alighting on a passage here, a passage there, backward and forward without plan, and without allowing my mind to fasten on any, leaving the place the moment it ceases to interest me. Some tranquilizing word often becomes a divine blessing of peace. ‘He giveth his beloved sleep.’”
The Love of Truth Is Humble and Docile
When any one loves the truth, he will find no difficulty in submitting to it; but the love of the truth is a humble and docile love.
There is nothing truly desirable upon earth, O God, but a humble temper of mind, constantly disposed to receive instruction from the oracles of thy law.
Walking with God.
By A. M. Lindsley
We have the account in the Bible of two, at least, who lived so righteously that it is recorded of them that they walked with God. Both of these persons lived at a time when the earth was so corrupt through the wickedness that prevailed, that the Lord repented that he had formed man. To both of them he displayed his faithfulness and power in a remarkable manner,—first, to Enoch in translating him to Heaven without seeing death,—and, secondly to Noah by preserving him and his family, as miraculously, from destruction brought upon the old world by the flood. In these times of apostasy from God, they stood out as beacons of light, faith, and obedience; by their righteousness condemning the ungodly, and shedding a holy influence upon those around them. Their lives were examples of holy living while surrounded with influences that constantly tended in an opposite direction. It shows that the grace of God is sufficient, if sought after and obtained, to sustain in the most trying times of danger and temptation. Their lives and experience are an ensample to us who live in an age of, perhaps, as great apostasy and degeneracy from God.
“In the case of Enoch, the desponding faithful were taught that, although living among a corrupt and sinful people, who were in open and daring rebellion against God, their CREATOR, yet if they would obey him, and have faith in the promised Redeemer, they could work righteousness like the faithful Enoch, be accepted of God, and finally exalted to his heavenly throne.
“Enoch, separating himself from the world, and spending much of his time in prayer and communion with God, represents God’s loyal people in the last days, who will be separate from the world. Unrighteousness will prevail to a dreadful extent upon the earth. Men will give themselves up to follow every imagination of their corrupt hearts, and carry out their deceptive philosophy, and rebel against the authority of high Heaven.
“God’s people will separate themselves from the unrighteous practices of those around them, and will seek for purity of thought, and holy conformity to his will, until his divine image will be reflected in them. Like Enoch, they will be fitting for translation to Heaven. While they endeavor to instruct and warn the world, they will not conform to the spirit and customs of unbelievers, but will condemn them by their holy conversation and godly example. Enoch’s translation to Heaven just before the destruction of the world by a flood represents the translation of all the living righteous from the earth previous to its destruction by fire.” “The Lord here teaches a lesson of the greatest importance by the translation of Enoch, a descendant of fallen Adam, that all would be rewarded who by faith would rely upon the promised SACRIFICE and faithfully obey his commandments. Two classes are here again represented, which were to exist till the second coming of Christ—the righteous and the wicked, the rebellious and the loyal. God will remember the righteous, who fear him. On account of his dear Son he will respect and honor them, and give them everlasting life. But the wicked, who trample upon his authority, he will cut off and destroy from the earth, and they will be as though they had not been.”—Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 3.
The inhabitants of earth have not quite filled up their measure of sin and iniquity, but every day we see it on the increase, and very soon, as they are individually tested by the proclamation of present truth, they will either fall back decidedly to the ranks of the enemy, or take their stand with the little few for whom the Lord will again display his miraculous power, by carrying them through the time of peril, and saving them from the destruction by fire of the world that now is.
Multitudes, according to the prophet, are gathering in the valley of decision. It is a fearful time. Shall we believe the word of warning that reaches us in numerous ways, take hold of it, square our lives by it, humble ourselves before God, and walk with him now, as those must who will be saved? There is very much comprehended in the idea of walking with God,—how much, we shall never know until we are so much in earnest in this matter as to fully seek and find his favor. Oh! that with weeping, and humbling of self, we may draw so near to him that we can get a view of his majesty, his purity of character, and realize the sinfulness of sin as he beholds it. Oh! for a longing in our hearts, begotten by the Holy Spirit, to be assimilated to the likeness of Christ,—that in our experience we may go from strength to strength, daily developing a perfect Christian character. Let us strive more for the graces of the Spirit, more holiness of heart, and not rest satisfied short of taking God himself for our portion. Then, “will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Then, will we have the Lord of hosts with us, the God of Jacob for our refuge.
A. M. LINDSLEY.
Salvation by Christ.
ALL through the Old Testament there was not a solitary prophet that undertook to lift the vail that separated between the present and the future, and peer out into the distance, but the cross of Christ loomed up before him; not a solitary sweet singer in Israel undertook to tune his harp, but its sweetest note told of Calvary. All the way from beginning to end, the idea of an atonement for your sins and mine is seen in almost every sentence in the blessed Bible.
Suppose I examine the Scriptures, where do I find the glory of Jesus? In his teachings, grand and beautiful! I do not wonder that Renan and others of that class have written, in these last days, that such a teacher never lived on the face of the earth as Jesus Christ. In his example, how beautiful and grand! A converted Jew to whom I once listened was trying in broken language to speak of Jesus, and being at a loss for a word, at last lifted up his eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, “How beautiful a character!”
But it is in the sufferings, in the blood, and in the death, of Jesus on the cross that we find the beauty of his character. It was there that the apostle fixed his heart and his eye when he said, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I can glory in his teachings, they so infinitely excel the teachings of all the philosophers of earth. I can glory in his example, because it so infinitely excels the most beautiful examples earth has ever seen; but when I glory in Jesus most of all, I get down at the foot of the cross; it is at Calvary, in thought and in heart, at least, I kneel at the feet of my Master, and give him all the glory for the salvation wrought out by his cross. This fact runs through the Old and New Testament Scriptures, that the faith of the church and of the individual believer is directed, not to the Father up yonder upon the throne, not so much to the teachings and example of our blessed Saviour, as it is to the sufferings, the death, and the blood, of Jesus. If this be so, how am I to accept the theory of some who, in these modern days, teach that the death of Jesus was nothing more than the death of a patriot, a philosopher, or a good man?—The Methodist.