"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." [All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. The same question can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. It is well always to enclose a stamp for reply.] 2173.—New and Old Testament.
By Editor
Is not the New Testament ahead of the Old? No, in nowise. Both are the Scriptures. The Scriptures to which the New Testament writers constantly refer are the Old Testament Scriptures. They knew no other Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ met all the mighty power of the great adversary's temptations by quoting three passages from the Old Testament, each one of them from the Book of Deuteronomy. See Matthew 4. The New Testament is enclosed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is disclosed in the New. Of course there are many things in the Old Testament which have been either fulfilled and are history, or which were but shadows pointing to Jesus Christ. These are done away, but not one single moral truth of God taught in the Old Testament is abolished, or can be abolished. And this is the teaching of Jesus Christ. See Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17; Rom. 3:31; James 2:8-12. The text itself is very clear, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in nowise lose his reward." The thought is identification with Christ and His cause. The very smallest act is taken to show how fully the Lord identifies Himself with every soul who takes a step toward Him. That man who would give in the name of Christ, the smallest thing to one of Christ's disciples, because he was one of Christ's disciples, who would count himself nothing and Christ everything, would in that very thing identify himself with the Lord and place himself in the channel of God's blessing. As to whether that reward should be in this life or in the life to come would depend on the faith and trust of the individual who does yield himself to the Lord. 2175.—Meats Clean and Unclean.
In the first scripture there was no question between Jesus and the Jews as to what meats were clean and unclean. All agreed as to that. The law which made the distinction between beasts was given by the Son of God, the eternal Word. John 1:1-3. What He said was to reprove them for their own superstitious ceremonies and observances which they had added to God's laws. They were among the plants that God had not planted. Matt. 15:13. Then, too, no outward ceremony can cleanse the heart or make the deeds right. The text in Timothy does not apply to flesh food, but all food. The word "meat" means all kinds of food, as we speak of the meat of nuts. The word "creature" means anything created. The word "sanctified" means "separated," or "set apart." Now God's word has separated, sanctified, set apart, certain foods not fit to eat. See Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14. God did not distinguish between clean and unclean beasts arbitrarily, but because of the very nature of these animals. They were in their very nature unfit for food. Since that time, they have not changed; they are unclean, unwholesome, still. Why should God's children eat those things which are not good, because a perverted appetite calls for them? Yet there is no salvation in eating or not eating. We are not saved by our teeth or our stomach or our bill of fare. "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Rom. 14:17. But he who knows God's righteousness should have the desire to continue therein. He should seek to glorify God in his body, to make the temple clean and effective. Therefore in his eating and drinking, and in all conduct, he will seek to glorify God, and not consult a perverted appetite. But can it glorify God to put into that which He has cleansed that which He has pronounced "unclean" and an "abomination"? Swine's flesh would keep a strong man alive for a while, but it is not good, and there are so many better foods. Why should a Christian want to eat it? 2176.—Attacking Catholics.
Why does the SIGNS OF THE TIMES follow the policy of attacking the Roman Catholic Church, directly and by inferential statements? Against Roman Catholics the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has absolutely nothing but the kindliest feelings. That is true, so far as we know, of all connected with it. They are men and women, human beings the same as all others. They are entitled to the same rights as we, the right to believe or to disbelieve, the right to teach their belief or not to teach. Our controversy is not with them as individuals at all. We do not, however, believe in their teaching. We believe that in the very nature of it, it is inherently bad; it exalts man in the place of God; it perverts the simplicity of the Gospel, placing between the great, kind Father and His Son Jesus Christ, cordons and circles of humanity and creature intermediaries. It teaches the union of religion and the State, that which has been a curse to the world in all ages. On these very principles it is riding to power and exaltation, and our protest is against the principles. We war with principles, not with men. Roman Catholics have the same right to differ with their opponents as have we, and they use it; and our legal friend who asks us the above question has certainly read in a very limited way not to know this. We could quote by columns what is said by teachers in the Roman Catholic Church in regard to Protestants and the positions which they hold, and they are working hard and earnestly to confederate all they can, and that is their right and privilege. And so with all kindness toward Roman Catholics, among whom are many devoted souls who are Christians despite the errors they hold, we are laboring, and shall still labor, to convert them from the error of their ways. But we have never abused them for practising their religion, nor consciously in any way spoken evil of that people. 2177.—Defending Sunday Laws.
Why are you so zealous to defend those who violate the Sunday law, claiming it as a union of Church and State? The thought is, we suppose, that Sunday is a union of Church and State, which it is; or, in other words, it is following a dogma of the church by civil statute, against all American principle and right principle in jurisprudence. "The powers that be are ordained of God," but they have their limit. Upon this we refer our inquirer to an article entitled, "The Powers That Be," in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of July 17. We think this will fully answer his question. No civil government has the right to do other than conserve and defend the equal right of those who are subject to it, or live within its jurisdiction. When it usurps the place of God or seeks to bind or control human conscience, it has stepped out of its sphere, and it ought to be the duty of every Christian and every other one to protest against it. Thank God, there are many who do, and who utterly repudiate all State aid and State interference. It is in fact a denial of faith in the Gospel for man to turn from Jesus Christ, who has given all power and authority to His church, to ask the aid of civil power to protect a "Christian" institution. The government has no right to enforce any institution of any part of its people, whether that part be the smallest minority or the greatest majority. It has no right to make class distinction by laws between men who are otherwise entitled to equal rights. It has no right to tax one man 16⅔ per cent. of his time in paying deference to the belief of another. These propositions seem so self-evident to us that we can not conceive how people can look upon them otherwise. There would be no trouble whatever in seeing it if the shoe were upon the other foot; if the Congress of the United States should enact laws enforcing quiet upon the seventh day of the week, compelling all Sunday-keepers to rest upon that day, they would have no question whatever as to its injustice. And it would be unjust; and every true seventh-day Christian in the United States would rise up with all his might and protest against it. Let the State keep to its own work. The union of Church and State spells ruin to both. In your answer to question No. 2071, entitled "Mention of the Sabbath," you say, referring to Col. 2:14-16, it is the yearly sabbaths which are referred to. Allow me to ask you how you know it means the yearly sabbaths. How many yearly sabbaths were there? In the scripture referred to, the word is in the plural and without any qualifying word. Is it not logical then to believe that it means the whole list of sabbaths? Leviticus 23 gives us quite a complete list of the holy days which were kept by Israel, or as the American Revised Version calls it, "set feasts," beginning with the fourth verse, in connection with the Passover, Pentecostal, and other feasts of the year. You will see by reading that several of them were kept as sabbaths when no manner of servile work must be done. In the 38th verse we read again that these are the "set feasts" of Jehovah, set apart as feast-days and sacrifices, besides the Sabbath of Jehovah. The Sabbaths of Jehovah were the regular weekly Sabbaths, of which it is said in Ex. 20:10, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God." Now the text in Col. 2:14 does have qualifying terms which very clearly indicate the sabbaths referred to. All shadows, symbols, and types came in in consequence of sin, and after sin entered into the world. The seventh day, or weekly Sabbath, originated before sin entered into the world. Gen. 2:2, 3. It is therefore not a type or a shadow of things to come; but all the yearly sabbaths connected with the great feasts are types, or shadows, of better things to come. They center in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so the apostle tells us that the feast-days and new moons and sabbath days are shadows, but the body is Christ's. That, it seems to us, clearly designates the sabbaths referred to by the apostle. Is it possible for a grown man or woman to be brought forth, or be born, a second time in this life? Does born or birth mean the production of an entity or an organism? Does begotten by God mean a birth? 1 John 3:9. There is great danger sometimes of quibbling over technical terms. The great thought of the words of Jesus in John 3:3 is, "Except one be born anew, he can not see the kingdom of God." See margin, "born from above." The great truth which Jesus designed to teach Nicodemus was that his nature must be changed, the carnal heart must be taken away, a new, spiritual life must enter the soul. That change is by the "renewing of your mind." Rom. 12:2. That is, the carnal mind must be taken away and the spiritual mind of God must be begotten in the heart. Rom. 8:6-9. And therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There is literally a new creation. In another sense he is begotten again, and the great new birth will be complete when our Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time; but as regards the moral nature, there must be a complete change in the man, just as complete as would take place by a rebirth. When Christ comes He will not change our characters, but our bodies. Christ and the Sabbath
By H. W. Cottrell
The Sabbath a Christian Institution.
CHRIST, the divine Son, from the eternity to the eternity, changeth never. He is the example of His people in everything. The seventh day was made the Sabbath; it was made for man; Christ, the Author of Christianity, is its Author. Christ having made the seventh day the Sabbath, it is, therefore, the Christian Sabbath, and inseparable from the Sabbath institution. When on earth, He followed the humble occupation of a carpenter, toiling all week long until the approach of the Sabbath, during which time He was found, not in the carpenter's shop, but in the place of public worship; for we read, "And when the Sabbath day was come, He began to teach in the synagog; and many hearing Him were astonished." Mark 6:2. Sabbath-Keeping Christ's Custom.
It was the life-practise of the Saviour to sacredly observe the rest day of Jehovah. The scripture records His life-example on the Sabbath question in a few words, as follows: "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as His custom was, He went into the synagog on the Sabbath day." Luke 4:16. In Christ's memorable Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matt. 5:17. Whatsoever He declared of the law as a whole He equally declared of every commandment or letter of the law; therefore, Christ did not destroy the law—Sabbath commandment or any other commandment in the law. He admonished the disciples and the multitude not to even think that He had "come to destroy the law." To "fulfil" means to establish. To place any other meaning on the term as herein used, would be to wrest it from its divine setting, for it must be in harmony with the statement, "I am not come to destroy." However, should any one insist that "fulfil" means to bring to an end, we will let inspiration settle the question by comparing this saying of Christ with Gal. 6:2, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." If fulfil in this connection means to end, abolish, destroy, then the text would read, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so end, abolish, or destroy, the law of Christ. If "the law of Christ" herein mentioned is different from the moral law, it must refer specifically to the Gospel of love. It can not be true that the law and the Gospel of Christ's love have been abolished, for that would place all men in the attitude of aliens to "the life of God," "having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 4:18; 2:12. Christ came to "magnify the law," and introduce the Gospel to "save His people from their sins." John says, "Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. The Law, Like Its Author, Abides Forever.
The great Teacher continued, saying, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Heaven and earth still remain, but both would pass away before "one jot" (the smallest Hebrew letter) or "one tittle" (a little distinguishing point of a letter) should "pass from the law." "Till all be fulfilled." The term all refers to both the law and the prophets as mentioned in the 17th verse, and it will take eternity to fulfil some of the prophecies. For example, "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 Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23. This prophecy concerning the children of God in the eternal world coming every "Sabbath" to worship before the Lord, will be continually in process of fulfilment thru all eternity. Therefore, until all the Bible prophecies are fulfilled, not a command of that eternal law can pass away, is the conclusion of the Master in verse 18. In verse 19, He openly avows in no unmistakable terms the perpetuity of the law of which the Sabbath is a part. "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Macknight renders this text, "Whosoever, therefore, shall violate, or teach others to violate, were it the least of these commandments, shall be in no esteem in the Reign of Heaven." Prophecy Concerning Christ and the Law.
Isaiah prophesied of Christ and the law as follows, "He will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. 42:21. To magnify an object does not abolish it. It does not alter it. True, it appears larger, and the perfect or imperfect features are made more manifest. The Jews had made the law appear dishonorable by attaching to it many of their traditional laws. They had also come to believe that to break God's holy law was only a matter of the overt act. But Christ stripped their traditions from the law, and it appeared again in its true light in the sight of men, "honorable;" and He showed that the violation of the law involved the thoughts and heart intentions as well as the outward acts. Quoting again from the sermon, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment; but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." Matt. 5:21, 22. Christ placed law-breaking first of all in the thought and intention of the heart; thus He magnified the law. His teaching moved men and women to faith and obedience. Thirty years after His ascension the apostle Paul stated very emphatically that he believed all things that were written in the law. "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law." Acts 24:14. It is written in the law, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." He lived consistent with his faith in Christ and in the Master's teaching, and therefore observed the Sabbath; for we read, "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." The psalmist David extols the law, saying, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting4the soul." Ps. 19:7. The apostle James also declares the law to be perfect. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blest in his deed." James 1:25. Not only is the law perfect, but it does perfect work in pointing out the sins of the soul—"converting the soul;" as by looking in the mirror, smirch on the face is discovered. The mirror can not remove the smirch; the cleansing is in the water. Neither can the law remove guilt; the cleansing is in Christ. For the benefit of all who desire to know His will, Jesus placed the Sabbath law in the new dispensation as follows: "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day." Matt. 12:12. Nothing could be said to be "lawful" on the Sabbath, unless there were both the Sabbath and the law controlling it. Fruit of Christ's Teaching.
The final fruit of Christ's teaching regarding the Sabbath will be seen in His children at His second coming to reap the harvest of the world. At that time the words come forth from celestial lips in musical strains, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Commandment-keeping includes the seventh-day Sabbath. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. . . . And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:12, 14-16. Herein is the blessed assurance that the faithful and obedient will be there and have heavenly recognition. The Day of the Sabbath
By A. T. Robinson
I T seems remarkable, to any one who gives the subject careful thought, that there should ever be any question as to which day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord. I remember, when a small boy, having learned in the Sunday-school to repeat the Ten Commandments, that the query was awakened in my mind as to why we observed the first day of the week instead of the seventh day, as enjoined in the fourth commandment. In my childish theological difficulty, I appealed to my God-fearing mother, who set my conscience at rest by telling me that before the death of Christ the seventh day was kept, but that since that event the first day has been kept in honor of Christ's resurrection. This set my mind at rest, and I thought no more of the question until nearly eight years later, when I chanced to read Matt. 5:17, 18, in which passage Christ says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." How could I harmonize this statement of the Saviour with what my mother had told me? I could not again appeal to her, as she had been laid away to rest to await the call of the Life-giver. Appealed to the Highest Tribunal.
In my perplexity and anxiety, I turned to the word of God as the only source of appeal. I found that more than seven hundred years before the birth of Christ it had been prophesied of Him, "He will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. 42:21. Turning to that law, of which Christ declared, "One jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law," and which it was His mission to "magnify" and make "honorable," it declared in words that had been heard amid the awful grandeur of Mount Sinai, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." Ex. 20:8-11. Another passage declares, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of My lips." To make sure that God's covenant here referred to is the Ten Commandments we have only to read another statement as follows: "And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:13. Scripture Prophecy of Sabbath Change.
Seeking for some scripture bearing upon the change of the Sabbath from the day which God appointed, a passage is found in the prophecy of Daniel which declares of a certain anti-Christian power, that "he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hands until a time and times and half a time." Dan. 7:25. Since Jesus Himself admonishes us not to think that He has made any change in the law of God, and since it has been predicted of a wicked, anti-Christian power that it would lay unholy hands upon that sacred law, and think to effect a change therein, it seems passing strange that the professed followers of Christ, in our day, persistently charge the world's Redeemer with having done that which He declared He would not do. How the Sabbath Was Made.
The Sabbath was one of the things made during, and at the close of, the first week of time. It was made by three specific acts performed. First, God rested upon the first seventh day of time, thus forever fixing the seventh day of the week as God's Sabbath, or rest day. Secondly, He blessed the seventh day "because that in it He had rested." Thirdly, He sanctified—set apart for a holy or sacred use—the seventh day. The first of these three acts, resting upon the day, took place upon the seventh day of the first week of time. After resting upon that day, God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath. Therefore, the blessing and sanctifying of the Sabbath pertained, not to the first seventh day, which had already passed, but to the seventh day of each succeeding weekly cycle. Gen. 2:2, 3. Nowhere in all the Bible is there an intimation that God rested upon, blessed, or sanctified any other day of the week. The Saviour declares that the Sabbath was made, not for any one particular race of men, but "for man." Mark 2:27. God made the holy Sabbath to be an everlasting sign or memorial of His creative and sanctifying power. "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." Ex. 31:17. Just so long as the fact remains that God created in six days and rested upon the seventh, the Sabbath stands as a weekly sign or memorial to the Israel of God of His creative power. "Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." "And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. 20:12, 20. The power that created is the only power that can recreate, or redeem. The holy Sabbath, therefore, stands as a double sign of creation and of redemption. The history of the Sabbath has ever been, on the part of God's people, a test of loyalty and obedience. After bringing His people out of Egyptian bondage, in order that they might keep the Sabbath, the Lord said, "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. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." Ex. 16:4, 5, 27-29. This took place thirty-three days before the people encamped at the base of Mount Sinai, which proves beyond question that the law of God, of which the Sabbath is a part, existed prior to its promulgation by the voice of God to the assembled host of Israel. When the law was proclaimed, thirty-three5days later, the fourth precept of the Decalogue was introduced by the words, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," showing the Sabbath to have been an existing institution. Sabbath Rest and Recreation.
Just as the Creator, after finishing His work and pronouncing everything that He had made "very good," rested on the Sabbath from the work of creation; so the world's Redeemer, after having completed the work of man's redemption, bowed His head, saying, "It is finished," and rested in the tomb on the Sabbath from the work of recreation. Never, before nor since, has the universe beheld so remarkable an instance of Sabbath observance. The holy women, having prepared spices, held the Sabbath in such sacred reverence that they refrained from going to the sepulcher on that day to anoint His body. It is recorded of them that they "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment," and that "upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke 23:56; 24:1. Prophecy foretells a reform message to go to all the world, just prior to the second coming of Christ, calling the attention of mankind to the down-trodden Sabbath of Jehovah. Such a message of the everlasting Gospel is now being heralded to earth's remotest bounds. Nearly one hundred thousand honest, God-fearing men and women have responded to the call, are keeping the Sabbath of Jehovah, and rejoicing in the saving power of the last Gospel message. The heralds of this glorious message of our soon-coming Lord are in every land and every clime. Soon the opening heavens will reveal One "like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle," coming to reap the harvest of the earth. See Rev. 14:12, 14-16. God grant that reader and writer, on that day, may be among those who will look up and exclaim, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Somebody Cares
By Eliza H. Morton
It's an awful thought that nobody cares
When the heart is wrapped in gloom,
That nobody cares when the soul aghast
Is facing the dreary tomb.
Somebody cares, the birds are singing,
Somebody cares, the bells are ringing,
Somebody cares for you. If nobody cared, thy soul adrift
Would be lost, a homeless dove,
But somebody cares, the blood-stained cross
is a pledge of wondrous love.
Somebody cares, the stars are flashing,
Somebody cares, the waves are dashing,
Somebody cares for you. 'Tis a restful thought that somebody cares,
Mid the whirl and rush of life,
That somebody cares when in bitterness,
There are tears and pain and strife.
Somebody cares, it is no dreaming,
Somebody cares, it is not seeming,
Somebody cares for you. Sabbath Observance
By Max Hill
REMEMBER the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' In the writing of the constitution for the government of this world God incorporated the law of Sabbath observance. This law has never been amended or annulled. It is in force, and can not be disobeyed by individual, corporation, community, or nation, with impunity." "So vital is this law and so vital are its relations that it can not be broken without breaking all the laws of the moral code. When the law of the Sabbath is put underfoot the whole Decalogue is being trampled upon, such is the unity of God's laws. The moral tone of a man is never higher than his regard for the Lord's day. The moral status of a community is indicated by its conduct in respect to the Sabbath. The man who has no regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath law can not be reckoned on as holding sacred any law." "A Nation of Law-Breakers."
Surprising as it may seem, this is a quotation from a Baptist paper, The Word and Way, of Kansas City, Mo. And here are a few more sentences from the same article: "We are a nation of law-breakers, that is, in regard to the Sabbath. In a large and alarming measure Sunday is being prostituted to commercial purposes. . . . The thing has come about so gradually and the people are so used to it that they do not realize the extent to which our Sunday has become secularized and commercialized." "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "This law has never been amended or annulled." "It can not be disobeyed with impunity." "We need a revival of Sabbath observance." All this is good and true, without question, but can it be true of Sunday by any manner or method of logic or argument? If the original Sabbath law has never been amended or annulled, then reason, logic, argument—a mere guess—could find no ground for applying these statements to any other day than the one in the mind of Him who gave "the constitution for this world." Look here. July fourth we celebrate with noisy demonstration as the natal day of the United States. We observe it as a holiday because on that day, in the month of July, 1776, our brave forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Will any other day do as well? Can you make any American, from the feeble old man to the noisy, thoughtless boy, believe that any other day will do as well?—No, indeed. But here is another point. Right along with the growth of civil freedom in the United States an awful system of human slavery developed. Men sold their fellow men to bondage as galling as was ever Egyptian bondage. At length the awful condition appealed so strongly to the liberty-loving American hearts that a part of the nation arose in arms to wipe out the dreadful evil. The same spirit that inspired those first brave men of the nation to fight for liberty inspired their sons to fight for the same precious boon, not for self, but for others. Four years the struggle waged, and then came victory. On April 9, 1865, the last flag of truce was raised, the war was ended. The news of the end of the struggle brought happiness to thousands upon thousands in the land, not only to those who were made free, but to those who sympathized with them. Now, why not celebrate April 9 as the natal day of the nation? Of course, July 4 was the actual day when national liberty was fully and formally determined upon, but April 9 is the day on which the final liberty of all was assured. Is it not of greater importance than July 4? Does it not mean more to us as a nation? We could read the Declaration of Independence on April 9 just the same, we could make our speeches and fire our fire-crackers just the same; it is just a day any way; any day in the year will do! Not many would agree with such an arrangement; indeed, it is doubtful whether any could be found at all who would agree to it. It could not be done. The Sabbath was made to commemorate a certain event. The Creator Himself set it apart for that purpose in the very beginning. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "This law has never been amended or annulled." "It can not be disobeyed with impunity." "We need a revival in Sabbath observance." Our contemporary furnishes all the argument needed for the observance of the true and only Sabbath.