In Defense of the Faith

Danger of Worldliness

“Our great and constant danger is that we shall become ‘choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life’ (Luke 8:14); and so bear no fruit for the Lord. To obviate this, the Lord has interposed the Sabbath after six days of labor, to break up the tide of worldliness and call man’s attention back to God. If it were not for this provision, the business of the world would absorb all man’s attention, and God would soon be forgotten. Man needs a constant reminder of his duty to God, an oft-recurring test of his own spiritual condition. For this purpose, no other precept is like the Sabbath. DOF 119.2

“We have before shown that the principle involved in the violation of all the other commandments is also involved in the violation of the Sabbath. A man covets his neighbor’s property. This leads him to steal it. So a man covets God’s time for his own work; hence he proceeds to take it and use it for himself, and he thus robs God. A man who will knowingly and deliberately use God’s holy day for his own worldly, selfish purposes, would also steal if he could do it with the same impunity. If a man will steal from his Creator, will he not from his fellow men? I know that men do not like to regard it in this light, but it is true, notwithstanding. When we come to look at the claims and sacredness of the Sabbath day in a proper light, it must be seen that it is no slight offense to disregard the Sabbath. I cannot conceive how a man could set at naught God’s authority in so defiant a manner as this. DOF 119.3

“Look at the facts a moment. The omnipotent God, whose glory fills all heaven, whose hands have made the universe, has created our earth, ourselves, and every blessing which we enjoy. To commemorate this great work, He has set apart, as sacred to Himself, the Sabbath day. With a voice that shook the earth, He has forbidden us to use this day in doing our own work. With a full knowledge of these facts before him, with the law of God pointing out his duty, with the eyes of Jehovah upon him, a man arises Sabbath morning and deliberately proceeds to use this holy time in his own business. How must such an act appear in the eyes of God? How will it appear on the record in the judgment? What act could puny man perform which would more deliberately set at naught the law and authority of the great Creator? Reader, we beseech you to stop and think seriously of this matter, and consider whether the observance of the Sabbath is not of greater importance than you have hitherto considered it.”—Ibid., pp. 89-91. DOF 120.1

“With all these facts before us, we appeal to the reader’s judgment and conscience to decide whether or not the Sabbath is of so little importance as its opponents are wont to represent it. Is it not, on the other hand, the keystone of God’s great, moral law, without which the law would have no strength to stand? Dear reader, as you value your soul and the favor of your Creator, do not pass by the light which God in His providence is now causing to shine out so clearly upon the subject of His holy but downtrodden Sabbath day. May the Lord help you to turn away your feet from the Sabbath, and call it ‘a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable.”—Ibid., P. 96. DOF 120.2

What a pity that, after seeing so clearly the light concerning the great moral obligation of the Sabbath, Mr. Canright should later have gone so far into darkness, that he could no longer discern this light. He referred to the Sabbath as the keystone of the great moral law, and then later, when he renounced Seventh-day Adventism, he proceeded to try to remove this keystone and thus destroy the law in its entirety. DOF 120.3

In 1898 D. L. Moody published his little book Weighed and Wanting, devoted to a discussion of the Ten Commandments. In his chapter on the fourth commandment, although he was not an observer of the seventh day, Mr. Moody speaks of those who try to excuse themselves from the obligation to keep the Sabbath, as follows: DOF 121.1

“But some one says: ‘Mr. Moody, what are you going to do? I have to work seven days a week or starve.’ DOF 121.2

“Then starve! Wouldn’t it be a grand thing to have a martyr in the nineteenth century? ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’ Some one says the seed is getting very low; it has been a long time since we have had any seed. I would give something to erect a monument to such a martyr to his fidelity to God’s law. I would go around the world to attend his funeral. DOF 121.3

“We want today men who will make up their minds to do what is right, and stand by it if the heavens tumble on their heads.... Let men call you narrow and bigoted, but be man enough to stand by God’s law, and you will have power and blessing. That is the kind of Christianity we want just now in this country. Any man can go with the crowd, but we’ want men who will go against the current. DOF 121.4

“Sabbath breaker, are you ready to step into the scales-pages 61, 62. DOF 121.5