The Signs of the Times
August 26, 1913
The Word of God Can Not Fail
Let none for a moment deceive themselves with the thought that their sin will not bring its merited punishment. Their transgressions will be visited with the rod, because they have had the light, but have walked directly contrary to it. God will not more lightly pass over any violation of His law now than in the day when He pronounced judgment against Adam. The Saviour of the world raises His voice in protest against those who regard the law of God with carelessness and indifference. Said He: “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.” ST August 26, 1913, par. 1
It is the grossest presumption for mortal man to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty, in order to secure his own temporal interests. “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,” is thundered from Sinai; and we may not disregard that voice because the words were spoken more than three thousand years ago, and were addressed to the lineal descendants of Abraham. The Lord requires willing sacrifice. No partial obedience, no divided interest, is accepted by Him who declares that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, and that He will show mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His commandments. ST August 26, 1913, par. 2
There is nothing in the word of God to be thrown aside; there is nothing in the plan of redemption that is unimportant or that may be lightly disregarded. The Bible gives us an account of the dealings of God with man from the creation to the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven; it carries us even farther into the future, and opens before us the glories of the city of God, and the beauty and perfection of the earth made new, the saints’ secure abode. But altho the long line of events extends through so many centuries, and new and important truths are from time to time developed, that which was truth in the beginning is the truth still. The increased light of the present day does not contradict or make of none effect the dimmer light of the past. ST August 26, 1913, par. 3