His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. xxii, 14.
The principle object of introducing this oft-repeated text is to consider whether we really do the commandments. To profess them is one thing, to do them is another.
But we will first notice the persons introduced in the text. They are, first, the speaker who pronounces this gracious blessing; second, the persons addressed , and, third, the person whose commandments are spoken of.
1. The speaker is the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants. John was the chosen instrument through which Jesus the Revelator spake. Chap. i, 1. Jesus, then, is the speaker. But, to settle this point beyond all doubt, read chap. xxii, 12, “And behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be,” and verse 16, “I Jesus have sent mine angel,” &c.
2. The persons addressed are the servants of God, The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things, &c. Chap. i, 2. Jesus then addresses the servants of God. The blessing of the text is offered to the church of God on conditions that they do his commandments.
3. The person whose commandments are spoken of, is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The commandments here mentioned, then, are not the commandments of the apostles, not the commandments of the Son, but the commandments of the Father.
The revelation of Jesus Christ to John was given as late as the year of our Lord 96, which was about sixty-five years after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ. And it is a fact of much interest that at that point of time the Son of God calls the attention of the church to the Father’s commandments, with the promise that they shall enter the gates of the golden city, if they do them. Then how say some that the Father’s commandments were abolished at the cross? God grant that the facts above stated may help such.
But we wish here to inquire of those who profess faith in the perpetuity of all ten of the Father’s moral precepts, Do you really keep these precepts? If you do, they will lead you to love God supremely, and your neighbor as yourself; for these two principles are the basis of the moral law.
The blind Jew may seek to live according to the letter of the moral law; but while gold is his worshiped god, and he lives for himself, without regard for the wants of others, he fails to do the Father’s commandments.
The Christian, with all his profession of faith in Christ, shutting his soul up to wealth and to self, is no better than the infidel Jew. The blessing of the text is promised to those only who do the commandments of God.
We must come still closer, and inquire of Sabbath-keepers, Do you really keep the Sabbath? Here is the Sabbath law:
“Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.
The words, “Remember the Sabbath-day,” suppose danger of forgetting it. Six days God gives to man to labor for a livelihood, while he reserves one only to himself. That is his, “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” In six days man is required to do his work, called, “thy work.” On the seventh day he is required to rest from the work necessary to a livelihood, and spend the day in the worship and work of God.
“In it thou shalt not do any work, (called thy work —necessary to a livelihood) thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
Here we would notice that the wife is left out. Every good wife would be willing to rest on the Sabbaths if her husband desired it, out of respect to her lord; but if she does not respect her head enough for this, he should not compel her to keep the Sabbath. But with the son and the daughter it is not so. It is the duty of the parents to require them to keep the Sabbath, as much as to keep it themselves. If it be said that young men and young women are too old to be compelled by their parents to keep the Sabbath, then we reply, they are too old to be at home. Parents should first use every argument patiently, and every possible means to lead their offspring into the path of truth; but when all such means fail, and the deciding point comes, whether the commandment of God is to be bartered and sold for the society of rebellious children, then every parent who trembles at the word of the Lord, and prizes eternal life, will decide in favor of the commandment.
But we have not only a duty in regard to our children, but our cattle, and the stranger within our gates. Ho who suffers his team to work on the seventh day, does not keep the Sabbath. And how can Sabbath-keepers take unbelieving boarders? How can they be in partnership with them, and keep the Sabbath according to the commandment?
But we may be right in all the above named particulars, and yet not enter fully into the spirit of the Sabbath, to keep it as we should. The following language from the prophet is to the point:
“And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. 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.” Isa. lviii, 12-14.
We must look upon this prophecy as setting forth the Sabbath reform of these last days. This reform is not only in theory, in regard to the day; but the prophecy relates to the spiritual manner in which this hallowed institution should be honored. It even reaches to our words. Six days are given in which to do our work. On these days we may converse upon the business of the six days; but on the seventh day, worldly labor, worldly thoughts and worldly conversation, all must be laid aside in order to keep the Sabbath.
But in a family of children many things will occur on the Sabbath to lead the mind and conversation to worldly things: How necessary, then, the first clause of the Sabbath law, “Remember the Sabbath day.”
The Sabbath was made for man, male and female, yet it is to be feared that the rest of the holy Sabbath is broken in many families by unnecessary cooking on that, day. The Sabbath being made for man, for the entire race, its observance is required equally strict during all time.
We will go back to the giving of the manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and see the special directions there given touching the subject of cooking on the Sabbath.
“Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord bath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” Ex. xvi, 4, 5, 22, 23.
It was a violation of the rest of the Sabbath for them to cook their manna on the seventh day. And is it any less a violation of the holy Sabbath to cook our food on that day, which can be cooked on the sixth day ?
We have the account [Num. xv, 32-37] that while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day, for which he was stoned to death. We are not told for what purpose he gathered them; but probably to kindle a fire. As they had need of fires only to wash their clothes, and to cook their manna, and were commanded to cook on the sixth day food necessary for the seventh, this act of gathering sticks for a fire was evidently a violation of the law of the Sabbath contained in the fourth commandment.
The Israelites while in the wilderness did not need fires on the Sabbath-day. They were in a mild climate; their food was rained down from heaven, and their clothes were miraculously preserved. “There was not one feeble person among their tribes.” Ps. cv, 37. For them, under such circumstances, to kindle fires on the Sabbath, was an open violation of the Sabbath law.
We are differently situated. We live in an age when the race has become comparatively feeble, and in the cold season of the year we kindle a fire on the Sabbath as an act of mercy and necessity, the same as we would water an ox or a horse, or lift a sheep from a pit. Such acts, the “Lord of the Sabbath” pronounced “lawful.” But it is evidently wrong, and a violation of the Sabbath, to neglect to make those necessary preparations for the rest of the holy Sabbath which can be consistently made on the sixth day. The Sabbath law did not oblige the Jews to suffer either cold or hunger; neither does it us, for “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good.”
But for us to kindle fires, in summer or winter, expressly to cook food on the Sabbath, that it may be warm and better indulge the appetite, is no less a sin than the cooking of the manna on the Sabbath in the wilderness.
Brethren and sisters, be entreated to put away this unnecessary cooking on the Sabbath as a sin in the sight of God. Plain food, cooked on the sixth day of the week, is sufficient on the Sabbath for all persons in health. The lessons taught by the Lord of the Sabbath touching acts of mercy and necessity on the seventh day, are sufficient to guide us in all cases of sickness.
Be careful and not rob God of any of his holy time. Do you work till the sun goes down and then spend from five to sixty minutes in doing chores, shaving, washing and preparing for the Sabbath? If this be your custom, then you rob the God of heaven. “Will a man rob God ?” Beware! Do not thus mar the first end of the Sabbath. As the sixth day is drawing to a close, make all necessary preparations for the Sabbath. Do all this while the sun is shining, and let the Sabbath find you and yours waiting at the altar of prayer for the Sabbath to come. An excellent time for family worship—the reading of the Scriptures and prayer —Just as old time is passing from the sixth day of the week to the seventh.
And be careful and not mar the last end of the Sabbath. Give God all his time. Again, as the Sabbath is closing, and you are entering upon another week of care and toil, what an excellent time for family devotion. In this way preserve both ends of the Sabbath, and make it a delight through all the day, and the blessings promised faithful Sabbath-keepers in this blessings promised faithful Sabbath-keepers in this life will be yours while strangers here, and at the end of your pilgrimage you will find the golden gates of the city of God open to receive you, and Christ and angels to welcome you to the tree of life, and to all the joys of the kingdom of God for ever. Amen. J. W.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Jan. 12, 1860
DOWN in Virginia, the other day, a circus clown took occasion to preach a sermon in behalf of the clergy, which had some unexpected results. At the same time with the visit of the menagerie and circus a religious convocation was in session. The jester in his painted face and mottled garments, arose in the tent and delivered the following speech :—
“We have taken in six hundred dollars here today; more money, I venture to say, than any minister of the gospel in this community would receive for a whole year’s services. A large portion of this money was given by church-members, and a large portion of this audience is made up of members of the church. And yet, when your preacher asks you to aid him in supporting the gospel, you are too poor to give anything. But you come here and pay dollars to hear me talk nonsense. I am a fool because I am paid for it; I make my living by it. You profess to be wise, and yet you support me in my folly. But perhaps you say you did not come to see the circus, but the animals. If you came simply to see the animals, why did you not simply look at them and leave? Now, is not this a pretty place for Christians to be in? Do you not feel ashamed of yourselves? You ought to blush in such a place as this.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Jan. 15, 1880