Sacredness of God’s Commandments
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who will not worship the image of the beast and receive his mark in
their foreheads or in their hands? This solemn period is not far off.
Instead of becoming weak and irresolute, the people of God should be
gathering strength and courage for the time of trouble.
Jesus, our great Exemplar, in His life and death taught the strictest
obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty,
that the honor of God’s law might be preserved and yet man not utterly
perish. Sin is the transgression of the law. If the sin of Adam brought
such inexpressible wretchedness, requiring the sacrifice of God’s dear
Son, what will be the punishment of those, who, seeing the light of
truth, set at nought the fourth commandment of the Lord?
Circumstances will not justify anyone in working upon the Sabbath
for the sake of worldly profit. If God excuses one man, He may excuse
all. Why may not Brother L, who is a poor man, work upon the
Sabbath to earn means for a livelihood when he might by so doing be
better able to support his family? Why may not other brethren, or all
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of us, keep the Sabbath only when it is convenient to do so? The voice
from Sinai makes answer: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy
work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
Wrongs perpetrated by believers in the truth bring great weakness
upon the church. They are stumbling blocks in the way of sinners and
prevent them from coming to the light. Brother, God calls you to come
out fully upon His side and let your works show that you regard His
precepts and keep inviolate the Sabbath. He bids you wake up to your
duty and be true to the responsibilities that devolve upon you. These
solemn words are addressed to you: 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.”
Like many of our brethren, you are becoming entangled with the
transgressors of God’s law, viewing matters in their light and falling
into their errors. God will visit with His judgments those who are
professedly serving Him, yet really serving mammon. Those who
disregard the Lord’s express injunction for their personal advantage