The Signs of the Times
March 12, 1894
Whom Are We Serving?
(Continued from page 259, No. 17.)
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Professed Christians would do well to inquire what God they are serving. Are they serving the God that made heaven and earth, who gave the human race his law, in the bosom of which he placed the fourth commandment, requiring men to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”? The seventh-day Sabbath is a memorial of the creative power of God, and is to be sacredly observed throughout all generations. ST March 12, 1894, par. 1
After Israel had been in bondage in Egypt, and through witnessing idolatry had almost forgotten God and the precepts which he had given, the Lord led them forth into the wilderness. He had them assemble about Mount Sinai, and there, amid awful grandeur, Jesus Christ, who was the founder of the whole Jewish economy, spoke the ten precepts of God to the people. Christ unites in himself both the law and the gospel; they are not divided. Those who are offering prayers to the God of heaven and earth will not refuse to be obedient to the plainest precept of the law. They will listen to the voice of Christ, and will “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” as the day on which the Creator of the heavens and the earth rested from all the work which he had done. They will not turn away from the holy commandment, and accept a spurious sabbath instead of the holy, sanctified day that God instituted in Eden as a memorial of his creative power. The Sabbath was given to man as a sign that was to show to whom the allegiance of the people was given. ST March 12, 1894, par. 2
In the counsels of the synagogue of Satan it was determined to obliterate the sign of allegiance to God in the world. Antichrist, the man of sin, exalted himself as supreme in the earth, and through him Satan has worked in a masterly way to create rebellion against the law of God and against the memorial of his created works. Is this not sin and iniquity? What greater contempt could be cast upon the Lord God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, than is cast upon him by ignoring the Sabbath, which he instituted, sanctified, and blessed, that it might ever be a memorial of his power as Creator? How dare men change and profane the day which God has sanctified? How dare the Christian world accept the spurious sabbath, the child of the Papacy? The Christian world has nourished and cherished the spurious sabbath, as though it had a divine origin, when the fact is that it originated with the father of lies, and was introduced to the world by his human agent, the man of sin. The false sabbath has been upheld through superhuman agency in order that God might be dishonored. It is a sign of Satan's supremacy in the earth, for men are worshiping the God of this world. ST March 12, 1894, par. 3
The Prince of Light and the prince of darkness are contending for the victory. When Jesus, the Prince of Life, came forth from Joseph's sepulcher, his triumph was assured. As he came forth from the grave, and proclaimed himself the resurrection and the life, the end of Satan's reign on the earth was made certain; but well may the hosts of heaven be astonished to see men exalting him who is the leader of the great rebellion against God. Those who are choosing to honor Satan by exalting the spurious sabbath are making a choice similar to that which the people made when they rejected Christ, that Barabbas, a robber and murderer, should be given unto them. ST March 12, 1894, par. 4
But because the great majority of the world have accepted the spurious sabbath, it does not give it importance and sanctity in the eyes of heaven. The dishonor to God is none the less because great numbers accept the false sabbath and ignore the Sabbath of the Lord their God. The confederacy of evil in the earth has always been to outward appearance the largest confederacy. At a time of rebellion in Israel men of renown, men famous in the congregation, joined with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in their work of rebellion. In spirit and principle the whole congregation of Israel were one with the workers of iniquity. After the earth had opened and swallowed up the most prominent of the rebels, and a fire from the Lord had burst forth and consumed two hundred and fifty of the princes of Israel, the people were still full of unbelief and rebellion. They came to Moses and Aaron the next day, saying, “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” They persisted in stubborn resistance of light, and would not be convinced, even when God worked in a miraculous way to convince them of the truth. But large numbers on the side of error do not strengthen the cause of iniquity. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” ST March 12, 1894, par. 5
The Lord hath a controversy with his people, and, although in his great mercy he bear long with them, yet if they persist in living in transgression of his law, they will not stand in the day of his rebuke. He has seen the backsliding and iniquity of his professed people. He has noted the unbelief, the hypocrisy, the pride, the selfishness, the disobedience to his law, and he will punish for these things. God cannot be in harmony with the people who will not obey his commandments who are wickedly departing from his precepts and by their example of disobedience at leading their children and their neighbor in the way of transgression. The professed church of Christ is strengthening the hand of sinners in their evil work by making void through their traditions, the commandment of Jehovah. ST March 12, 1894, par. 6
If parents had educated their children to reverence the law of God, as Christ enjoined that they should educate them, we should not see wickedness reaching so great proportions. Through disobedience the world is fast becoming as it was in the days before the flood and as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. The church has taken the world into her fellowship, and has given her affections to the enemies of holiness. The church and the world are standing on the same ground in transgression of the law of God. The church prefers to assimilate to the world rather than separate from its customs and vanities. ST March 12, 1894, par. 7
But God will bless all those who do his commandments. He will give grace upon grace to all them that fear him, and walk in the light of truth as they find it by diligently and prayerfully searching the Scriptures. There will be a remnant who will do the will of God. “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” ST March 12, 1894, par. 8