Chapter 22—Sacredness of God’s Commandments
Much-respected Brother K,
In January, 1875, I was shown that there are hindrances in the
way of the spiritual prosperity of the church. The Spirit of God is
grieved because many are not right in heart and life; their professed
faith does not harmonize with their works. The sacred rest day of
Jehovah is not observed as it should be. Every week God is robbed by
some infringement upon the borders of His holy time; and the hours
that should be devoted to prayer and meditation are given to worldly
employments.
God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in,
but to be obeyed. The great Jehovah, when He had laid the foundations
of the earth, had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and
had filled it with things useful to man,—when He had created all the
wonders of the land and the sea,—instituted the Sabbath day and made
it holy. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, because He rested
upon it from all His wondrous work of creation. The Sabbath was
made for man, and God would have him put by his labor on that day,
as He Himself rested after His six days’ work of creation.
Those who reverence the commandments of Jehovah will, after
light has been given them in reference to the fourth precept of the
Decalogue, obey it without questioning the feasibility or convenience
of such obedience. God made man in His own image and then gave
him an example of observing the seventh day, which He sanctified and
made holy. He designed that upon that day man should worship Him
and engage in no secular pursuits. No one who disregards the fourth
commandment, after becoming enlightened concerning the claims of
the Sabbath, can be held guiltless in the sight of God.
Brother K, you acknowledge the requirements of God to keep the
Sabbath, but your works do not harmonize with your declared faith.
You give your influence to the side of the unbeliever, insofar as you
transgress the law of God. When your temporal circumstances seem to
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require attention, you violate the fourth commandment without com-
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