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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
and death, rather than renounce their religion or yield the principles of
truth.
It is written: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say
he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” Every time you
put your hands to labor on the Sabbath day, you virtually deny your
faith. The Holy Scriptures teach us that faith without works is dead,
and that the testimony of one’s life proclaims to the world whether or
not he is true to the faith he professes. Your conduct lessens God’s law
in the estimation of your worldly friends. It says to them: “You may
or may not obey the commandments. I believe that the law of God
is, in a manner, binding upon men; but, after all, the Lord is not very
particular as to a strict observance of its precepts, and an occasional
transgression is not visited with severity on His part.”
Many excuse themselves for violating the Sabbath by referring
to your example. They argue that if so good a man, who believes
the seventh day is the Sabbath, can engage in worldly employments
on that day when circumstances seem to require it, surely they can
do the same without condemnation. Many souls will face you in the
judgment, making your influence an excuse for their disobedience of
God’s law. Although this will be no apology for their sin, yet it will
tell fearfully against you.
God has spoken, and He means that man shall obey. He does not
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inquire if it is convenient for him to do so. The Lord of life and glory
did not consult His convenience or pleasure when He left His station
of high command to become a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, accepting ignominy and death in order to deliver man from the
consequence of his disobedience. Jesus died, not to save man in his
sins, but from his sins. Man is to leave the error of his ways, to follow
the example of Christ, to take up his cross and follow Him, denying
self, and obeying God at any cost.
Said Jesus: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will
hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one,
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” If we
are true servants of God, there should be no question in our minds
as to whether we will obey His commandments or consult our own
temporal interests. If the believers in the truth are not sustained by
their faith in these comparatively peaceful days, what will uphold them
when the grand test comes and the decree goes forth against all those