Chapter 3 - part 2
"But, my dear
man," expostulated the minister, you are under the old covenant when
you keep the law, but I am under the new covenant which frees me from the
bondage of the law.
"I beg your
pardon, but you are mistaken," went on Richards. "The covenant
is a promise concerning the law, and are not the law itself. Covenant
means promise, not law. The old covenant was Israel’s agreement to keep
the law in their own strength, by works. They failed, as they were sure
to. The new covenant is God’s promise that the Christian is able to keep
the law, the same law, through the strength of Christ. I am under the new
covenant when I keep the law by the power of Christ. I will keep the
Sabbath command, as I will keep the command against murder. Both are in
the same law."
"Speaking of
the Sabbath," said the preacher, you should know that it doesn’t
make any real difference which day of the week you keep, just so you
observe one day in seven."
"Then why do
you insist that we ought to keep Sunday?"
"Well, to be
in harmony with our surroundings. Everybody else does, you know."
"But everybody
else doesn’t. More than half the people in America do not even profess
to keep Sunday. And Jews keep Saturday and Moslems keep Friday, and the
heathen keep all sorts of days. If you were in a Mohammedan country would
you keep Friday to be in harmony? The very essence of Christianity is in
standing for principle, no matter what others do. I prefer to be in
harmony with God rather than men."
"But why make so
much of a mere day? Every day looks alike to me."
"Because God does.
God said in the most definite language He ever used, ‘The seventh day
is the Sabbath,’ and these words are in the very center of His law.
God is particular, regardless of whether we see the reason for it or not.
If He had meant any day in the week He would have said so. If
nothing else, the definite Sabbath day is a test to us to see if we will
do just as God says, or insist on having our own way.
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