Earlier text: WHO CHANGED THE SABBATH?More Objections, or the Cross in the Way.
By Wm. Penniman
A FIRST-DAY Adventist lately said to me that he had been almost persuaded to keep the Sabbath. He seemed friendly to our people, having formerly been connected in business with one of our brethren whom he much esteemed. He appeared to be doing a pretty good business, and perhaps thinks keeping the Sabbath will interfere with it. Said he had read the debate between Elders Grant and Cornell, and had come to the conclusion that it is right to obey the laws of the land, and to live in obedience to the “powers that be.” He then said Christ had fulfilled the law, therefore we are not under it. The law simply brought us to Christ, &c. After he had done speaking, I calmly replied to him by proving that so far as human law is founded upon, and accords with, God’s law, it is right, and should be obeyed; but when it plainly conflicts, we are under no obligation to obey it. To prove this, I quoted the language of Peter and John to the rulers, elders, scribes, and the high priest, when they commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” Acts 4: 18, 19. “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matt. 15: 9. When our government makes a law requiring us to worship the image (which is not far in the future), it is plain to a reasonable mind that we are not bound to obey it. If human law is to be obeyed in preference to the law of God, millions of martyrs have died in vain. It will not do to take the position that Christ fulfilled the law in the sense of bringing it to an end, abolishing, or destroying it. How will it do to give it this meaning in the following texts? “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill [abolish] all righteousness.” Matt. 3: 15. “For all the law is fulfilled [abolished] in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Eph. 5: 14. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill [abolish] the law of Christ.” Gal. 6: 2. The evident meaning of fulfill in these texts is to accomplish or carry out. When Christ said he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill, Matt. 5: 17, he did not mean that since he had come there was no longer any need of a law, and that he was the end in the sense of a termination, as no-law men would have it; for the first part of the text plainly teaches the contrary. It says he came not to destroy. It is plain that our Saviour came to do his Father’s will, to establish, magnify the law and make it honorable. Isa. 42: 21. In his sermon on the mount he clearly recognized it when he taught, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments [his Father’s], and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.” Matt. 5: 19. When will men cease their quibblings and frivolous objections concerning the law of God, and their duty to keep it? Some never will, until the storms of God’s wrath overtake them, and they see their awful folly. Now is the time to seek refuge from the storm that is soon coming, by fleeing to the ark of God, keeping his commandments and the faith of Jesus. JOS. CLARKE
By JOS. CLARKE
Are increasing to an alarming extent. An old resident of this county recently observed to me with much feeling, that divorces were becoming so frequent in Ohio, and were obtained on such frivolous pretexts, and the laws were so favorable to this, that it threatened the loss of all public virtue; and this man was not one who viewed the matter from a prophetic, but rather from a practical stand point. You will find men who are considered pillars in society who apply for divorce from less than the Scripture reason; and who have long nurtured the intention of divorce, but have only waited for the maturity of children to release themselves from the scolding wife, whose irascible temper has been lacerated to the core by the knowledge of the fact that such an intention existed for a long period of time. Such a state of things has a tendency to let down the standard and to form in the public mind an idea that marriage is only a civil contract, to be dissolved at any time, either by mutual consent, or by private whim or pretext, whenever a desire to do so should become strong enough to apply to the court for an act of divorce. What can be more mischievous to the public morals than such a state of things, if for years a man of character may harbor in his mind the thought that the virtuous, laborious mother, whose life has been devoted to the domestic care of his household, and who has been the companion of his choice, may harbor such an intention in his heart, and hold it over the head of the poor victim until she become a very vixen and demoniac. How beautiful the rule laid down by our Lord and Saviour, that only one cause should justify his people for granting authority for divorce. The family relation is, in fact, when rightfully understood, a reformatory institution, and should be so viewed by its members. How does the husband know what his example and patient fortitude and unwearied love may effect for his impatient wife? Or what may not the patient and meek and gentle wife not effect for the irascible temper of her companion? Or, failing in this, these fruitless, unselfish labors will win bright laurels for the victor when the Judge shall arrange his jewels; for no unselfish act shall lose its reward. But alas how selfish is the heart that will anticipate such a thing as divorce without just and wholesome reasons, and irrefragable proofs of guilt. Read Malachi 2: 13–17, and take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. Increase of European Armies.
We have repeatedly commented, in these columns, on the increase of the total number of soldiers in the armies of Europe. To the fact of increase there is not a single exception; even England has since 1859 nearly doubled her forces. The Berlin correspondent of the London Times has prepared a table of the present armaments of the European powers as compared with those of 1859, a period of fifteen years. The total army of Austria has advanced from 634,000 to 856,980; of Russia, from 1,134,200 to 1,401,510; of Italy, from 317,650 to 605,200; of Germany, from 836,000 to 1,261,160; of France, from 640,500 to 977,600; of England, from 245,800 to 478,820. We will not go over the list for the minor States, but it demonstrates that all Europe moves in the same direction. The crown of its civilization is war. With such facts before us, we cannot hope for progress toward a more peaceful era. The highest proportion of soldiers to each million of inhabitants is reached by Germany, 36,815; next comes Denmark with 30,392; next France, with 29,059; and, far behind, England with 16,088. These are the numbers of soldiers enrolled, drilled, and available for service; they are divided into those liable to duty in offensive war, and those subject to service at home. But the magnitude of the preparations for offensive war is seen from the fact that this part of the German army reaches the total of 710,130 men, of the Russian 665,810, Italian 322,000, and the French, 525,000. Von Moltke said last winter that what Germany had won in six months she must keep by watchfulness and “the hand on the sword” for fifty years. This means liability to hostilities at any moment. This is an uneasy mode of living, but Europe knows no better, and despairs of any other. We live here in America by the side of two powers, both of inferior numerical strength, but on peaceful terms. Our one war of conquest, beneficial as were its results, our best thinkers have been heartily ashamed of. Now that the slave-power is gone, we shall not be likely to see such another. We may well prefer our peace to all of Europe’s “glory.” It is entirely consistent that Prince Gortschakoff should issue a call for an International Congress at Brussels on the 15th of July. As war is always imminent among them, it is wise in the nations of Europe to agree to place it under well-defined limitations. Even the trade of destruction is susceptible of mitigation, and should have better defined rules for the protection of private property and of peaceful populations. We may accept these mitigations till Europe shall agree to disarm.—The Methodist. In terrible agony, a soldier lay dying in the hospital. A visitor asked him: “What church are you of?” “Of the church of Christ,” he replied. “I mean, of what persuasion are you?” “Persuasion!” said the dying man, as his eyes looked heavenward, beaming with love to the Saviour, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” A Baptism Interrupted by a Horse
When the hospital was out of the city far up town, the late Rev. Wm. Parkinson, of this city, had twenty-one candidates to baptize, and about one thousand people assembled to witness what was then a novel scene. A man attempted to disturb the solemnity of the occasion by riding his horse into the water, as one of the candidates was led in; but the horse, as if aware of the impropriety, threw the rider into the water and walked out, trotting away, while the ceremony was completed without further interruption. The Spirit of Sacrifice.
By James White
At a very early period in the history of fallen man we see the plan of redemption demanding sacrifice. The first sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord. Abel's was acceptable. Cain's was not. Noah, the ancient preacher of righteousness, spent one hundred and twenty years in an almost thankless ministry, and at the same time invested a fortune in the ark. And at the close of his year's confinement in that dismal old ship, he made an altar and sacrificed one-seventh part of all the clean beasts and fowls which had been secured in the ark. This was a great sacrifice for the patriarch to make under the circumstances. His investment in the ark was not then worth one per cent. True, he had a large amount of real estate in the market, but in bad condition, and sales for a long time must have been very limited. The unclean beasts, such as swine, were preserved in the ark in pairs. These were of no available value to Noah. They were saved as scavengers. The clean beasts and fowls went into the ark by sevens. These were of immense value just then. Provisions secured in the ark must have been getting short, and the naked soil, which had been drenched for a long year, could afford but little, if any, immediate sustenance. It was under these circumstances that righteous Noah made a burnt offering of one-seventh part of his precious stock. As we go back to consider the circumstances of this thank-offering of the patriarch, we are impressed with the fact that those sacrifices which God has required and accepted of his people in past time, were those of the greatest value. The great sacrifice for sinners on the part of Heaven was divine, perfect, immense. It was the highest, holiest, and most costly that could have been made. And it was freely made. The offering of the Son of God was ever to be an example to sinful men in the presentation of their sacrifices to the Lord. They should not only be freely given, but should be of that which is of the greatest value to the giver. Some men will consecrate their most doubtful dues to the Lord, with the vow that they will give all, or a certain per cent, if collected. So they virtually send Providence over the road on a collecting trip! Their best dues are put into their own pockets. If some of the bad ones are collected, and these men do not change their minds, the sums are coolly, and perhaps noisily thrown into the Lord's treasury. The sacrifice of Christ was immense. And self-denial and bearing his cross are the great conditions of discipleship. The early disciples left all that was most dear and followed Christ at the expense of their lives, excepting John. The holy martyrs made the dearest sacrifices possible. The reformers were men of toil and sacrifices immense. And when we come down to the last generation, to those who are to witness the destruction of all earthly treasures by the seven last plagues, and the transition to the eternal value of the immortal state, how appropriate are their sacrifices, in a tenfold greater degree and of that which is dear to them, in the accomplishment of the last great, world-wide warning. The cause of God requires means in order to its advancement. And the greater the work to be accomplished in a short time, the greater the demand for means. But money, by no means, is the greatest sacrifice that men can make. God calls for laborers, men who will cheerfully deny themselves of ease, luxury, and, if necessary, even the common blessings of this life, and wear and grow prematurely old in the service. Men suffered exposures and hardships, and lived two years in one, and hundreds of thousands gave their lives, in the recent American war. Where are the men who will do half as much for Christ, Heaven, and for poor sinners? Here is true sacrifice. But few of our ministers are making any real sacrifices. Our system of benevolence secures to them a support, and the larger portion of them are taking the work leisurely. Some of them are living a far easier life, and are taking things more leisurely than their brethren who toil ten or more hours six days in the week to obtain a livelihood, and that they may have means to support their ease-loving ministers. More recently we have seen the hand of God in calling penniless men first to the work of the third angel's message. Eld. Joseph Bates, first in this cause, sat down to write his first pamphlet upon the Sabbath question with only a York shilling in his purse, all he possessed in this world. About one year later we commenced to publish on a small scale, and with Mrs. W. to travel in second-class cars, with money earned chopping wood and in the hay field. The cattle on a thousand hills were the Lord's twenty-eight years since, the same as now or in David's time. If necessary, God could have rained gold and silver from Heaven in 1846 for the pioneers in this cause to use in publishing and in traveling, as easily as he set a table in the wilderness for the vast camp of Israel. But it was God's plan, in choosing the pioneers in poverty, to set an example of faith, humility, and perseverance, to all those who should afterward enter the field. He designed to have men of faith, of sacrifice, and power of endurance, in his last great work. Probably no one thing has so seriously threatened the welfare of the cause as unconsecrated laborers with their eyes upon a full treasury. And now as the cause is branching out and calling for men to enter the different departments of it, God's dealings with the pioneers must not be lost sight of. When the work was commenced in the English language, it was by penniless men in great humility. And Bro. Matteson commenced the work with the Danes under the greatest discouragements. Neither the Wisconsin Conference nor the Publishing Association gave him that encouragement that his mission really demanded. But he went out among the Danish people, and, by the grace of God, made his friends and his patronage. The few converts from that people raised him about one thousand dollars. With this he went to the REVIEW Office, and learned to set the types. He translated, and set the types, and paid for the stock and printing of editions of our works in the Danish language, amounting to more than one thousand pages. And when all was paid for, there were three hundred dollars left, which was made over to the general book fund. In this, our dear Bro. Matteson followed the example of those before him, and also set an example for those who should follow. And when the time had fully come for the work in the Swedish language, God chose Bro. Lee in poverty and in the furnace of affliction. He went out on foot, and suffered weariness and hunger, and sometimes slept on the ground in the midst of his long journeys for want of a few shillings to pay for a shelter and a bed. And one of the most interesting memorials now at the Review Office is the very suit of clothes in which Bro. Lee stood in converting nearly two hundred of his countrymen to God and his truth. This was exchanged for a suit given him less than a year since. This is kept for the benefit of those who can afford to do the work of God only for cash. We called for twenty-five hundred dollars to give the work a good start for the Swedes. The money is coming in, and the donors who have cheerfully given of their means have a right to expect the same, or, at least very similar, sacrifices and labors on the part of those who are using it in publishing, as was seen in those who led off in the work in the English and Danish languages. And now there is a call for a paper and publications in the French language. If the men can be found who will take hold of this work in the true spirit of sacrifice, as others have done before them, our people are all ready to help them. They need not go to the office to set the types, as Bro. Matteson did. Neither need they look to the few converts from the French to sustain the work. But they may depend upon it, there is toil in such an enterprise that planning and shifting, and traveling long journeys, will never accomplish. This may expend means and make a show; but will not accomplish the work. The General Conference will do the planning and furnish the means when the men can be found to do the work. Bro. D. T. Bourdeau is feeble and can do but little alone at present. But God has lifted up men who were lower in the scale of health. Could his brother and family, with a new and full consecration, join him in the work in French, under the good counsel of the President of the General Conference, and one or two of our western young men go to Vermont, a much better state of things might exist in that good old State, and a good work be accomplished among the French in our country. We are fully aroused to the fact that the treasury must be sacredly guarded. It was a terrible calamity that befell the cause in 1866-9, when the general management and handling of means fell into inexperienced and unconsecrated hands. The waste of means bears hardly the slightest comparison to the shaking of the confidence of those who had furnished it. Right there more than a score of our rich men got a blow from which they have not recovered, and probably will not. They still nominally observe the Sabbath; but are too far benumbed with the spirit of this world to respond to the calls for means to carry forward the several branches of the work. In order to push forward the work in all its numerous branches and new enterprises, a great amount of means must be raised. The spirit of sacrifice must therefore be encouraged among our people. And nothing will contribute to this like the manifestation of the true spirit of sacrifice on the part of those who are supported by the liberalities of a confiding people. To shake their confidence would be a terrible blow to the cause. Will the Wicked Live through Endless Ages?
By John Nevins Andrews
SUCH cannot be the case in the light of the plain testimony of the Bible already adduced. Yet several texts which speak of future punishment are considered by many as decisive proof that the wicked will live to all eternity. We quote the most prominent of these. The Saviour says to them on the left hand: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25: 41. But we have proved that the fire in which the wicked will be punished is that fire which shall burn the earth, when it melts with fervent heat. And we have also proved that this fire will at some time cease to burn, and that new heavens and new earth will be formed from the elements which have been dissolved by it. It is plain therefore that the fire is not called everlasting on the ground that it shall burn eternally. We have a parallel case in what is said of the “eternal fire” which the Sodomites are represented as suffering, and which turned the city to ashes. Jude 7; 2 Pet. 2: 6. But that fire having burned Sodom, the Dead Sea now covers the place of the conflagration. The word is evidently used as in Heb. 6: 2, where “eternal judgment” is mentioned. The Judgment will not be in session to all eternity, but the consequences of the Judgment will be eternal. To prove that the wicked shall live eternally in torment the following is also quoted: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” Matt. 25: 46. It is asserted that the wicked who are cast into the everlasting fire will live as long therein as do the righteous who go away into “life eternal.” But this is to make the wicked immortal in a higher sense than are the righteous. For the righteous who eat of the tree of life, and drink of the river of God’s pleasures, will in that state of infinite blessedness live no longer than do the wicked in the torments of hell fire, and absolutely excluded from the tree of life for the express purpose that they may not “live forever.” Gen. 3: 22–24. But it is not necessary to conclude that wicked men will live to all eternity in the fire. The punishment of the wicked is when they come up around the camp of the saints and the beloved city. There, in sight of the unspeakable blessedness of the righteous, absolute despair falls upon the wicked, and they realize the infinite loss which they have sustained. Then the devouring fire falls upon them from God out of heaven. Rev. 20: 9. We have no idea that the act of consuming the wicked will be one of momentary or comparatively brief duration. The Scriptures declare that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10: 31. They represent the punishment of the wicked as “much sorer” than that inflicted upon those who were stoned in the wilderness. Verse 29. There remains to the sinner a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Verse 27. And Christ speaks of the tying a millstone to one’s neck and drowning him in the depths of the sea as a light matter compared with the casting of the sinner into the unquenchable fire. Mark. 9: 42–44. But none of these texts necessarily imply that the wicked shall live to all eternity in the devouring fire. Everlasting punishment is everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. 2 Thess. 1: 8, 9. And this destruction is the result of continued and terrible suffering from the fire attended with the intolerable weight of absolute despair. How awful is the retribution of the ungodly is shown by Christ in the following words which he in substance thrice utters: “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9: 43, 44. We can well understand the unquenchable nature of the fire into which the wicked will be cast by calling to mind the great fact that this fire is constituted, as we have proved, by the burning of our earth, and that when this shall take place the elements will all be melted and dissolved in the devouring fire. Not only will the combustible elements take fire, but the non-combustible also, and even those which are now capable of extinguishing combustion will come under the power of the fire, for the streams shall be turned into pitch and the dust into brimstone. Isa. 34: 9. Such a fire may well be termed unquenchable. Yet an unquenchable fire is not necessarily a fire that shall burn eternally, but a fire that cannot be extinguished, and which will burn until it dissolves all that it feeds upon. This is the fire which will consume our earth, and in which the wicked will have their fearful retribution. 2 Pet. 3. Jerusalem was burned in a fire which God said should never be quenched. Jer. 17: 27. But when that fire had burned all the houses in Jerusalem, it ceased of itself. Jer. 52: 12, 13. The chaff is burned up in unquenchable fire. Matt. 3: 12. It is not cast into the fire to be preserved, but to be destroyed. And the fire can only continue while it has something upon which to feed. There is also another representation of the suffering of the ungodly. “Their worm shall not die.” Now whether this worm represents the sinner, or some agent of torture that shall prey upon him, the thing represented is indescribably awful. When it is said, “Their worm shall not die,” the words may be understood in an absolute sense as signifying that the worm shall live to all eternity, or they may be understood in a limited sense as indicating that they shall not die on being cast into the fire, but shall live therein till each sinner has received his full measure of tribulation and anguish. Rom. 2: 7–9. We might accept the first of these views, and affirm that the wicked will live forever in the fire, were it not that a multitude of passages assert the contrary. But the second view is in strict harmony with the tenor of the whole Bible. The wicked shall not die till they have continued in the fire for such a space of time as shall inflict the full measure of suffering which God awards to each sinner. But this being accomplished, they shall die. Take these passages as a sample of the testimony of the Bible on the death of the sinner in the lake of fire: Eze. 18: 4; Matt. 10: 28; Rom. 6: 23; Rev. 2: 11; 20: 14, 15; 21: 8. There is a limit beyond which those who are cast into the lake of fire shall not live. They shall not die till they have experienced the full measure of indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. With the last pang of tribulation they cease to exist. We have the following fearful declarations concerning certain classes of the wicked: “If any man worship the beast . . . he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” Rev. 14: 9–11. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of Heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” In these passages the retribution of Satan and some of his principal servants is set forth in most fearful language. We have no disposition to deny that fire and brimstone will both be employed in the punishment of the wicked. God used these in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Gen. 19. He will punish the wicked at the last day according to this very example. Luke 17: 29, 30; 2 Pet. 2: 6. “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.”37 The torment of the wicked is in the fire which burns our earth. Now it is a remarkable fact that similar language is used with respect to the burning earth. “The smoke thereof shall go up forever.” Isa. 34: 10. Yet the earth, though doubtless burning for a long time, will not burn eternally, for the conflagration is to be succeeded by the new heavens and new earth. Even those who apply this language of Isaiah to literal Idumea or Edom must acknowledge that the burning of Idumea does not absolutely fill eternal ages. But wherever the fire has power to create smoke, there, in the end, the object on which the fire preys will be consumed. Smoke is a certain sign that the destroying process is going on, and as the substances to be consumed are not unlimited in quantity they must finally be dissolved. Thus David says: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Ps. 37: 20. There will be degrees of punishment. Some will be beaten with many stripes, and some with comparatively few. Luke 12: 47, 48. Of certain hypocrites, Christ said: “The same shall receive greater damnation.” Luke 20: 47. The pains of the second death with some may be comparatively brief, and with others of much length. In the case of Satan, they may continue during the entire period which shall be required for the burning of our earth. But does not the expression, “tormented day and night forever and ever,” necessarily assert the eternal existence of Satan and his most wicked agents, the beast and the false prophet? The term does certainly imply that they shall be tormented during the entire period of their existence, however long, under the circumstances it is possible for that to continue. And so it is with the blessedness of the righteous. It shall continue forever and ever, that is, as long as it is possible for immortal beings, in actual possession of Paradise, to continue in existence. But God has given unconditional immortality to no being while upon probation. He has not, therefore, made it a necessity that any wicked being shall have an eternal existence. But though the absolute gift of immortality is not made till the Judgment determines who are worthy, yet the original grant of life both to angels and to men had no curse connected with it. While Adam remained upon probation, his life was held upon condition of obedience, which condition would cease when his fidelity was fully proved. Such, it is by no means impossible, was the case with the angels. And when a portion rebelled, though they possessed this high measure of life, they did not possess the unconditional gift of absolute immortality. They are therefore capable of enduring inexpressibly awful sufferings, and that of long continuance. Though we are constrained to deny the endless existence of sin and sinners, because of many plain Scripture facts and testimonies, we believe that the retribution of the Judgment will be awful in the anguish which shall be experienced, and that in the case of many of the wicked this suffering will be of long continuance. But the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head. Gen. 3: 15. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Rom. 16: 20. Christ, through death, is to destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Heb. 2: 14. The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3: 8. The anguish of the sinner will end, not in his restoration to God’s favor, but in the destruction of soul and body in the lake of fire which is the second death. Matt. 10: 28; Rev. 21: 8. Sin was not a part of God’s original creation, but was planted therein by Satan. It shall not remain a permanent fixture. God will again have a clean universe, and every being remaining alive will unite in his acceptable worship. Rev. 5: 13. Why Not Be Honest?
By Uriah Smith
A WRITER in a recent number of The Restitution, on the question, “Who are required to keep the Sabbath?” says:— “For two thousand five hundred years after the creation, we hear nothing of the Sabbath. Then God, in fulfilment of his promise to Abraham, took his natural descendants by the hand and led them out of bondage, and on the same day made a covenant with them. Nehemiah says (9:14), ‘And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.’ If the Sabbath had been known to, and observed by, Abraham and the fathers, God could not have made it known to them by the hand of Moses.” A more careful perusal of the record would have revealed to this writer that what Nehemiah speaks of as made known to the children of Israel, was made known at Sinai, not before. Take the verse before, in connection with the one above quoted, and we have this record: “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.” The Sabbath is spoken of as here made known, not by Moses, but by God; and when was it? When he came down upon Sinai. Had the people no knowledge of it before this time? We turn to the 16th of Exodus and there learn that one month and three days before they came to Sinai, the people well understood in regard to the Sabbath, and God took the Sabbath commandment as the one by which to test the obedience of the people to his law! Yet the Restitution puts the matter in such a way as to try to mislead the unguarded reader into the idea that previous to the time of which Nehemiah speaks, the people had no knowledge of that institution! The record of Ex. 16 cannot be ignored. To write upon the Sabbath question without being aware of the events recorded in that chapter, is to treat the subject ignorantly; to be aware of them, and then try to keep the attention of the reader from them, is to treat the subject dishonestly. Nehemiah says that God made known the Sabbath on Sinai; Moses, in Ex. 16, says that they knew of it more than a month before they came to Sinai. If the position of the Restitution on Nehemiah’s testimony is correct, there is a hopeless contradiction between these two passages. But before coming to such a hasty and summary conclusion, the candid investigator will ask another question; namely, Does the expression, “madest known,” necessarily signify bringing to one’s knowledge for the first time? If it does, there is a contradiction between Neh. 9, and Ex. 16. If it does not, the argument which the Restitution makes on the point becomes null and void. We prefer to take the ground that the Restitution is wrong, rather than that the Bible contradicts itself. What, then, is the meaning of the expression, “madest known,” used by Nehemiah in reference to the Sabbath at Sinai? and how was it made known? It was made known in the same way that God made himself known to Israel in Egypt: “Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt.” Eze. 20: 5. Yet the children of Israel in Egypt were not without a knowledge of God; for the Hebrew midwives feared him, Ex. 1: 17; and the people in their distress cried unto him. Num. 20: 16; Deut 26:7, &c. His making himself known unto them was therefore simply a more full and immediate revelation of himself to them. Just as it was said to the Jews, that Moses gave them circumcision, though this ordinance was established with Abraham. So of the Sabbath at Sinai; it was unfolded before them in a more formal, impressive, and complete manner than ever before, by the voice of God; and in this sense it was made known to them, though they had a knowledge of it, and kept it before that time. As to the silence of Genesis respecting the Sabbath, the explicit account we have of the institution of the Sabbath at the beginning, the fact that time was reckoned by weeks, which could come from nothing but the institution of the Sabbath, the fact that the principles of the moral law were well understood, and that Abraham kept God’s statutes, commandments, and laws, is certainly enough in a brief record which condenses the history of 2500 years into fifty chapters, and aims to touch only upon the more important historical points of that time. But however men may attempt to prove the Sabbath not binding because of the silence of Genesis, their efforts are all rendered abortive by the fact that the Sabbath comes to the surface in Ex. 16, as an institution well known, more than a month before the giving of the law on Sinai. Two facts are exceedingly troublesome to opposers of the Sabbath: 1. The fact that the Sabbath was known and kept before Sinai, as we have shown, and 2. The fact that the disciples of Christ kept it according to the commandment, this side the cross. Luke 23:56. For if the Sabbath was observed before Sinai, it is impossible to show that it was not kept from creation down. And if it was binding upon the disciples the day after the crucifixion, it is impossible to show that it is not binding now. If they could only confine the Sabbath to the period between Sinai and the cross, how they would rejoice. The jubilee of Rev. 11:10, would be acted over again. But they cannot do this; hence this wriggling and chafing, and fretting and twisting, over irrefragable, but unwelcome, facts. But we have no sympathy to waste upon them, till they shall be willing to humble their hearts enough to bow to the cross and accept the truth.