“The law is spiritual,” and “the carnal mind [the natural mind, the minding of the flesh] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God.” Rom. 7:14; 8:7, 8.
How then shall we please God? How shall we become subject to the law of God? The Saviour says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh;” and we have just read in Romans that “they that are in the flesh can not please God.” But the Saviour says, further, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Therefore it is certain that except we are born of the Spirit, we can not please God; we can not be subject to the law of God, which is spiritual, and demands spiritual service. This, too, is precisely what the Saviour says: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”
We know that some will say that the kingdom of God here referred to is the kingdom of glory, and that the new birth, the birth of the Spirit, is not until the resurrection, and that then we enter the kingdom of God. But such a view is altogether wrong. Except a man be born of the Spirit, he must still remain in the flesh. But the Scripture says, “They that are in the flesh can not please God.” And the man who does not please God will never see the kingdom of God, whether it be the kingdom of grace or of glory.
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God, whether of grace or of glory, is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17. Except a man be born again, he can not see, nor enter into, the righteousness of God; he can not see, nor enter into, the peace of God, which passes all understanding; and except he be born of the Spirit of God, how can he see, or enter into, that “joy in the Holy Ghost”?
Except a man be born again—born of the Spirit—before he dies, he will never see the resurrection unto life. This is shown in Rom. 8:11: “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
It is certain, therefore, that except the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, we can not be raised from the dead to life. But except his Spirit dwells in us, we are yet in the flesh. And if we are in the flesh, we can not please God. And if we do not please God here, we can never see the kingdom of God, either here or hereafter.
Again: it is by birth that we are the children of the first Adam; and if we shall ever be children of the last Adam, it must be by a new birth. The first Adam was natural, and we are his children by natural birth; the last Adam is spiritual, and if we become his children, it must be by spiritual birth. The first Adam was of the earth, earthy, and we are his children by an earthly birth; the last Adam is the Lord from heaven, from above; and if we are to be his children, it must be by a heavenly birth, a birth from above.
“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.” The earthy is “natural”—of the flesh. And “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;” “because they are spiritually discerned,” and “they that are in the flesh can not please God.” Such is the birthright, and all the birthright, that we receive from the first Adam.
But, thank the Lord, “as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” The heavenly is spiritual; he is “a life-giving Spirit;” and the spiritual man receives the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. He can please God because he is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; for the Spirit of God dwells in him. He is, and can be, subject to the law of God, because the carnal mind is destroyed, and he has the mind of Christ, the heavenly.
Such is the birthright of the last Adam, the one from above. And all the privileges, the blessings, and the joys of this birthright are ours when we are born from above. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born from above.” “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above, he can not see the kingdom of God.” With the argument of this paragraph, please study 1 Cor. 15:45–48; John 3:3–8; 1 Cor. 3:11–16; Rom. 8:5–10.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17. As a new creature he lives a new life, a life of faith. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” But it is a faith that works; for without works faith is dead.
In Christ nothing avails but a new creature; he lives by faith; it is a faith that works, and the work is the keeping of the commandments of God. Thus saith the Scripture:—
1. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Gal. 6:15.
2. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Gal. 5:6.
3. “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19.
Again: it is “faith which worketh by love,” that avails; and “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3. And “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. Therefore, in Christ Jesus the faith that avails is the faith that keeps the commandments of God, the faith that fulfills the law of God.
Once more: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. “Created in Christ Jesus,” is to be made a “new creature” in Christ Jesus. But we are created in him “unto good works,” and these good works are those which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
That is to say, God before ordained good works in which we should walk. But we have not walked in them. Now he creates us anew in Christ, so that we may walk in these good works in which before we failed to walk. These good works are the commandments, the law, of God. These commandments express the whole duty of man, but man has failed to do his duty; “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” But now Christ is manifested to take away our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.
We are made new creatures in him, that in him and by him we may perform acceptable service, and do the duty, keep the commandments of God, which before we failed to do, and which, out of him, all must ever fail to do. For he himself said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” This is according to that which we have before shown: “What the law could not do,” “God sending his own Son” did, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4.
Therefore when the Third Angel’s Message calls, as it now does call, upon all men to “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” it simply calls all men to the performance of the whole duty of man—as he now exists. And when, under this message, we urge men to keep the commandments of God strictly according to the letter, we mean that they must be kept strictly according to the spirit, too. When we press upon all the obligation of keeping the commandments of God, it is always the obligation of keeping them the only way in which they can be kept, that is, by faith of Jesus Christ; it is always the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; it is that all must be made perfect by his perfect righteousness; and that all our righteousness must be the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, and that righteousness witnessed by the law and the prophets.
“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
It is bad enough for a man to be deceived by another; but it is worse to be deceived by himself. But this verse gives the true corrective and preventive of self-deception—and it is found in a man’s thinking himself truly what he is; that is, nothing.
But this is not natural. The natural thing is for each one to think himself something; and then continue so to think until he becomes more and more something, and the chiefest of all. That is simply the secret and the spirit of self-exaltation.
But the truth is that of himself man is nothing; and the true way for any man to find this truth is to confess that he is nothing. That is simply the way of self-abnegation.
And then he can become something.
Now the reason of all this is that man is separated from God; and this separation was accomplished by his accepting the suggestion, and following the way, of the one who originally, in his self-exaltation, declared: “I will be like the Most High.” And the end of this course, with that one, is that he shall be absolutely nothing. For of him at the end of his course it is written: “Never shalt thou be any more.” Eze. 28:19. And when he entered upon that course which inevitably ends only in his being absolutely nothing, then it is certain that at the beginning of it he practically made himself nothing, and that all through his course he was truly nothing.
It is so also with the man who accepted the leadership, and followed in the way, of this one. By this the man made himself nothing. And so it is written: “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.” Isa. 40:17. And “they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.” Isa. 41:12.
Yet the original leader, and, from him, all who are led in this course, really think themselves to be something, when, in very truth, they are nothing.
Now there is a way out of this nothingness into that which is something, and in which each one shall be truly something. And this way is the way of Christ—the way of the cross. Christ is the example: he has led the way; for “he emptied himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Thus he gave himself up to be, and to become, lost and nothing, that he might redeem those who are lost and nothing.
Therefore all are exhorted: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [a thing to be seized upon and to be held fast] to be equal with God: but emptied himself,” and became nothing. And because he did this, and through his doing it, “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:5, 9–11.
Therefore the first of all things for any man to do to help himself, to set himself in the way of deliverance from nothingness, is to recognize truly that he is nothing. Then, in Christ he becomes something, and shall be something, even though, in himself, he is ever nothing. As it is written: “In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.” 2 Cor. 12:11. This, because697we are not “sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” 3:5. “As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 6:16. This is “the mystery of God:” God manifest in the flesh: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
And these things are written “that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 1 Cor. 4:6, 7.
When it is true of every man that he has nothing, absolutely nothing, even to his existence, which he did not receive from God; then, without God, what is he?—Plainly, he is nothing. And that is just the condition of men as they are in the world, naturally, “without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12.
Thus, it being strictly true, in the nature of things, that, without God, any creature is nothing; man, being without God, is truly nothing. Then, when, in this condition, man thinks himself something, in that very thing he asserts self-existence—equality with God. And this is true of man in his condition of sin and separation from God; because that was the very thing which was asserted to him and expected by him when sin entered: “Ye shall be like God.”
But self-existence is not true of any creature: self-existence is true only of God. All persons and things are from him, and by him; and in him all things “live, and move, and have their being;” each in itself nothing, but in him something, according as his mind, his will, his purpose, is manifest therein.
Thus the self-deception of a man in his thinking himself to be something, when, in absolute truth, he is nothing, is the worst and most destructive of all deceptions, because it is the deception of asserting of himself self-existence,—divinity; “showing himself that he is God,”—the only end of which is to become, indeed, absolutely nothing, in the awful consummation that is declared. “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Ps. 37:10.
But only let a man accept, in his heart and life, the truth that he is nothing; let him accept the manifestation of Christ, which alone can ever hold him in the place where he shall know that, in truth, of himself he is nothing; let Christ live in him; let God be manifest in his flesh; let the mind, the will, the purpose, of God thus be manifest in him,—and of him it will be also true that, because of this, “God also hath highly exalted him.” For it is written: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21. Jesus said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” This is so because, without him, ye are nothing. For to be without Christ is to be “without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12); and to be without God is to be nothing.
Only the way of Christ, the way of the cross, is the way of life, the way of something. Any other way is only the way of death, the way of nothing. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who . . . emptied himself.”
Bishop Thoburn on the Coming of Great Empires
In the Rock River (Ill.) M. E. Conference, October 6, Bishop Thoburn, speaking on “Expansion,” said:—
God’s manifest plan is to do away with all small nations, and build up great empires. The time is coming when there will be only a few great nations. I predict that within one hundred years the world will embrace only six or seven great empires. Among them will be the great United States of America, which I might say will extend from Cape Horn to the north pole. There will be the United States of Europe, the empire of Germany and Austria, the Russian Empire, the empire of Great Britain, the empire of Africa, the empire of eastern Asia, and the empire of western Asia. When this point in the world’s progress is reached, the petty strifes of nations will cease. It will be a time when nations will learn no more of war. Such a condition is only possible when the petty small nations are absorbed by the big empires.
Is it true that it has been only the “petty small nations” that did the fighting throughout history? Has it not been the great and mighty nations— the world empires —that have invariably gone to ruin?
TO YOU.
By Uriah Smith
“Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.” Acts 13:26. Paul and Barnabas had been preaching the gospel to the house of Israel. Indeed, Paul said (verse 46) that “it was necessary” that it should first be preached to them. God had ordained that they should have the first opportunity of hearing the words of life. But notwithstanding this great honor and favor shown them, Satan had worked up their spirit to that degree of perverseness that they scouted the words with contradiction and blasphemy. The apostles saw that their testimony was rendered null and void, and turning away with sadness from this obdurate behavior, they pronounced upon them (verse 46) this terrible sentence: “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
This is in accordance with the words of the angel to Daniel, that seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, were to be cut off from the twenty-three hundred days, or years, beginning 457 B. C.; and so much of that period was allotted to Daniel and his people. When the seventy weeks ended, the apostles were at liberty to turn with the gospel to other people. Those weeks ended in A. D. 34; and these words were spoken to the Jews in A. D. 45, according to Bible chronology, only eleven years from the ending of the period that had been allotted to them. It was then certain that they were well past the time to which the restriction applied. The seventy weeks expired; the allotted time during which the Jews were to be regarded as the people of God, and, as the depositaries of the law of God, were to have the first announcement of the gospel set before them, had terminated; and the Jews, formally, and in the most effectual manner in their power, had set it aside, in the martyrdom of Stephen. Then the apostles had full liberty, according to prophecy, to turn to the Gentiles. And they turned to them, knowing that the gospel was freely to go to them. Happy thing for us that it was so arranged, and that the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles was broken down, and that those who had been accounted Gentiles might come in and be reckoned as members of “the household of God” and “fellow citizens with the saints.” Eph. 2:19. Thus the apostles could open “the mystery of God” to the gaze and acceptance of all the world. This accords also with what Paul says of them in another place, that the fall of them (literal Israel) was the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the “riches of the Gentiles.” Rom. 11:12.
This act of the apostles in turning to the Gentiles when the Jews would not receive the truth, contains a solemn warning for us. For if we refuse the truth that is sent to us, it may be withdrawn forever beyond our reach, and given to those who show themselves willing to receive it. Thus Christ in one of his parables taught the Jews that the kingdom would be taken from them, and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof. Matt. 21:43.
“The word of this salvation” that is sent to the people is the testimony that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. It is the word that promises forgiveness to all who will separate from sin through faith in him. It is, in a word, the promise of perfect salvation through the risen Saviour. Acts 13:32, 33. This declaration applies in its degree to every truth, in every age; that is, to the “present truth” of every age. “To you is the word of this salvation sent.” This word was spoken directly and primarily to the Jews; but it is “to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
Put the emphasis on the word “you.” The design seems to be to intensify the personality of the promise, and prevent persons from giving it all away to somebody else. It is “to you,” “to you,” the word of salvation is sent. So, if any are disposed to grow doubtful and despondent, and say, “O yes, I know that the invitation is sent out, and the promise is made, to a great many; but it is not for me,” the writer of the gospel answers, No, no; “to you is the word of this salvation sent,”—to you, as much as if there were not another person in all the world to receive it.
The Jews had especial reasons for believing it, and receiving it, as a word of salvation; for “their sacred prophecies were exactly fulfilled in the death and the resurrection of Christ. And the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus was the long-promised and waited-for Messiah and Redeemer. In what they had done, they had unwittingly fulfilled what was written of him; and this, although the words of the prophets were heard by them every Sabbath day. He does not excuse the acts of his betrayers and murderers, though he does not here sharply denounce them. His aim seems to be to impress upon them their deeper responsibility in receiving this knowledge, which those who crucified Christ did not so clearly possess. With the statement of these two facts, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, as disclosed in their Scriptures, he proceeds, in a warmer tone of feeling, to press this word of salvation, these good tidings, upon them. He shows that, according to the tenor of prophetic disclosure, the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ, the eternal life and reign of Jesus, comprised the very substance and complete fulfillment of God’s original and oft-repeated promise to the fathers. Peter and Stephen had made this grand point, and Paul always insisted upon it.
“By sacrifice and ceremonial, prophecy and promise, in history and psalm, through symbols and fact; through dark sayings and plain, the entire Old Testament revelation comprises, as its one only theme, the Messiah, the Son of God and Son of man, the self-moved offerer, the divinely appointed and accepted offering, for the sin of man. His voluntary death, his self-resurrection, his quickening power and eternal sovereignty,—these are included in the promise of mercy, first to Adam, afterward to Abraham and his descendants, emphatically to David; these comprise the substance of all ancient revelation. They are the facts upon which we rest, and which make the Old Testament, one promise of glad tidings, still of vital force and value to all who accept the Christ of God. So Paul teaches here, and so we must believe. In all these citations and statements, Paul is only adding to and enforcing the Scriptural proofs of Christ’s resurrection and abiding life; because this is the main fact to be substantiated, first, as having been foretold, and, next, as having been fulfilled. Upon this, as Paul elsewhere plainly asserts, hang the entire truth of Christianity and the sole hope of guilty man.”—Butler.
As the language applies to all persons in all time, so it applies to all truths that may be developed in the fulfillments of prophecy. It applies to the present truth of to-day. What a privilege to have our location on the stream of time pointed out, to have coming events made clear, to have dangers revealed, that we may know how to escape them, to see the path of safety opened before us, and know how to reach the haven of rest.
If you have come face to face with the alternative of truth or error for this time, the path of ease or the path of safety, things temporal and transitory or things glorious and eternal, and are hesitating on account of the cross, doubtful, and perplexed as to which to choose, and what course to take in regard to them, may these words of the Scripture ring with double force in your ears, “To you is the word of this salvation sent.” God is calling to you through it, by all the providential means by which he has caused it to come to your notice. To accept it is to have salvation; to reject it is to place yourself in that class of whom Paul says, “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish.” Acts 13:41.
And remember that no truth ever leaves a man as it found him. It is out of your power to be unaffected698by the gospel. It must either save you or increase your condemnation. How, then, will you receive it? To reject it deliberately, decidedly, and persistently, would be a terrible determination. To foolishly and basely delay your reply is a dangerous course. Many will put it off till too late, and will perish by so doing. To play the hypocrite, and pretend to receive it, while in heart rejecting it, is not only to lose the truth, but to add to the loss that most heinous of all sins in the sight of the Lord, the sin of hypocrisy. It would be a sad thing indeed if, while the invitations of the gospel are going through our assemblies, anyone should have to be singled out, and it be told him, This is not for you. But no one has anything of this kind as yet to say; for “to you is the word of this salvation sent.”
It is related of a minister who once had to preach in a city jail, that he was accompanied by a young man of fine mind and cultivated intellect, but who was not a Christian. As the minister looked over the audience, he preached to them Jesus with so much earnestness as deeply to impress his companion. On their return home, the young man said, “The men to whom you preached to-day must have been moved by the utterance of such truths. Such preaching can not fail to influence.” “My dear young friend,” answered the minister, “were you influenced by it? Were you impelled by the words you heard to-day, to choose God as your portion?” “You were not preaching to me, but to your convicts,” was the quick response. “You mistake,” the minister answered; “I was preaching to you as much as to them. You need the same Saviour as they. For all, there is but one way of salvation. Just as much for you as for these poor prisoners was the message this afternoon. Will you heed it?” This direct application was blessed to the conversion of the young man.
Some one has condensed from Ralph Erskine, a forcible summary of this subject, as follows: “To whom is it that the God of salvation sent the word of salvation?”—He sent it to all sinners that hear it. It is a word that suits the case of sinners; and therefore it is sent to them. If it be inquired, For what purpose is it sent to sinners? I answer, It is sent as a word of pardon to the condemned sinner. Hence may every condemned sinner take hold of it, saying, This word is sent to me. It is sent as a word of peace to the rebellious sinner. It is sent as a word of life to the dead. It is a word of liberty to the captives, of healing for the diseased, of cleansing for the polluted. It is a word of direction to the bewildered, and of refreshment to the weary. It is sent as a comforting word to the disconsolate, and as a drawing word and a strengthening word to the soul destitute of strength. It is sent, in short, as a word of salvation, and all sorts of salvation, and redemption to the lost soul, saying, Christ came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’” U. S.
Germany's Educational Reforms Under Emperor William
In 1890 the present Emperor William called a congress of educators in Berlin, and directed it to prepare a schedule for the high schools of Germany, which would make the pupils “not good Greeks or good Romans, but good Germans.” The immediate result was a reduction of the Latin course by twenty per cent., and of the Greek by ten per cent. The emperor would not send the crown prince to a classical school, but sent him to a technical school. And now the young man is to enter the University of Bonn, “without any knowledge of Greek, and with but little of Latin.” And finally, up to date, only a short time ago two conventions were held in Germany, “attended by the leading schoolmen from the whole of Germany,” both of which demanded that graduates from the high schools and the scientific schools shall be admitted to full university privileges and examinations without classical standing, and even without any knowledge of Latin or Greek, except candidates for the theological courses. “Thus,” says the Independent of August 30, from which this information is gathered, “practically the entire educational world of Germany, at least officially, favors a more or less radical innovation in the direction of non-classical preparatory work for the universities.” If only people would observe and think, they might without much difficulty detect the secret of Germany’s clear and powerful leadership among the nations, which has been so rapidly attained, and is so strongly held, under the reign of the present young emperor.
HEALTH REFORM IN THE SABBATH.
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
The Lord made our bodies to be the temple of the Holy Ghost. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17.
When sin entered into the world, man lost the image of God; his body, which was the temple of the Holy Spirit, was marred, and returned to dust. But it is God’s purpose to carry out his original design, and have the body become the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit; for it was created in his own image. Christ gave himself a ransom for fallen man, to bring back not only the moral image of God, but the body which was lost by sin.
The work of the third day was the creation of vegetation. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good.” Gen. 1:11, 12.
One use of this vegetation was to supply the physical needs of man, whom the Lord created upon the sixth day: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Gen. 1:29. Everything that God had created on each successive day, was good in itself; but when he adapted that which he had created to the direct object for which it was created, then “it was very good.” Verse 31.
The Sabbath brings us into communion with nature, because nature was brought into existence during the first six days, and the Sabbath was instituted to keep in memory the creation of nature. There is no more fitting time for man to commune with God through nature than upon the Sabbath. In the song of the bird, in the sighing of the trees, in the music of the sea, in the gentle breeze of the wind, we may hear the voice of him who talked with Adam in the cool of the day, and communed with him upon the first Sabbath that was ever given to man. It was in this communion with God, with Christ, with angels, that Adam and Eve found the blessing upon their first Sabbath. It is this power in the voice of God, who created angels, as well as heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, that speaks light to the soul. He “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
It was on the third day that God gathered the waters together, so that the dry land might appear, and then called the dry land Earth, and the water Seas; and then, for the benefit of man, he brought forth vegetation. It did not require years for these trees to grow. They were created full-grown, laden with luscious fruit. No seed was planted, but the trees were created full of fruit, with seed in themselves to perpetuate the same kind of trees. “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” Gen. 2:5, 6.
Here is God’s creative power displayed, which becomes an eternal pledge that he will provide for the temporal wants of every person who keeps his commandments. The Sabbath was to keep in memory this creative power; so when we see a tree laden with fruit, or when we see the seed and the grass, we should remember God’s creative power, and that this same power has been pledged to preserve alive man, the crowning work of creation, and to supply his physical necessities.
But let us carry this matter a step further. The herb and the fruit, etc., which were brought into existence on the third day, God says were created for one purpose,—that they should be given to man for food. Their adaptation to man for his physical sustenance is one of the things God did during the six days. The Sabbath, therefore, keeps in memory this as well as the fact that on the third day God created the trees bearing fruit.
Sin perverted man’s appetite. Flesh has become a prominent article of food. After the Lord had given the original, simple bill of fare, and had adapted all the work of creation to the object he had in creating nature, the chapter closes with these words: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” It was thus in all God’s creation during the first six days. Nothing did he create to stand apart from relationship to other objects of his creation. The atmosphere was created for man to breathe. This was the work of the second day.
The Sabbath, therefore, can not be commemorated according to God’s design, by him who subsists upon a diet of flesh. In other words, man can not perfectly observe the Sabbath while his diet is not in harmony with God’s original design. Flesh diet was not given to man on the six days of creation; but came in as a consequence of sin. Sunday would be a more fitting memorial of flesh diet; but this would not be in harmony with the first word of the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day.” The Sabbath should be remembered during the entire week. The restoration of the Sabbath brings man’s mind back to God’s original bill of fare. The true observance of the Sabbath will bring to mind not only the fact of the creation of fruits and grains, but the object of their creation, which was that they might be used for man’s diet. In properly keeping the Sabbath, and in remembering it during the laboring portion of each week, man will return to the original bill of fare. Thus health reform is found in the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. S. N. H.