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Appendix
341
also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh
as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me
early, but they shall not find me.”
Proverbs 1:24-28
. And the warning
of the last message is going to all the world. It also is clear and
decisive in its utterance. “The commandments of God,” which it
enforces, are not obscure or hard to be understood. The fourth says,
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” This was
the Lord’s day—his holy day—from the creation of the world. He
claims no other as his; he sanctified no other; he never commanded
any other to be observed. They who turn away from a truth so plain,
who reject a warning so solemn, will have no answer to make when
the Lord commands them to depart.
But terrible as these words of threatening are, the message is
given in mercy. It is a last effort on the part of the Lord to arouse
men to a sense of their danger; to induce them to turn from their evil
ways—from their transgressions of his holy law—that they may have
eternal life. The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Ezekiel 33:11
. But if
they will not come unto him that they may have life; if they choose
to follow the multitude to do evil, rather than to walk in the way
of God’s commandments, then they must bear their iniquity. Their
blood will be upon their own heads. God gives them the power to
choose, and warns them against the evil which lies before them.
Against all his entreaties, they do despite to the spirit of grace, and
trample on the precious blood of Christ which was shed for their
redemption.
Note 8. Page 396.—These words are based upon the prophecy
of
Revelation 13
and 14. The people with whom the author stands
connected have taught for years that all classes except “the little
[502]
flock” will unite to exalt the sunday and enforce it upon all by
stringent laws. It may assist the reader in understanding the points
in the latter part of chapter XXX. To notice the facts of the prophecy
on which this idea is based.
1. The beast of
Revelation 13:1-10
is understood to refer to the
papal power. This
has been
the general opinion of Protestants.