And now, brethren, I cannot close this treatise without uttering a
word of warning to every one of you, which will, I fear, be very
generally disregarded by you. Yet "wo is me" if I utter it not! Do
not, I beseech you, be angry at any thing I have written, or refuse to
hear my parting words because I am a "suspended minister." You have
loaded me with reproach, not because I have committed any crime, but
because I have plead for the integrity and immutability of the moral
law. I am neither a thief, nor a murderer, nor a robber of churches,
but I do most firmly believe, that the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord my God, and that you, and all others who do not keep it holy,
are guilty before God of a gross violation of the moral law. And can
I, under those circumstances, regard your reproaches as a legitimate
expression of the Divine displeasure? No. That I am really unworthy of
the gospel ministry, I confess. That I am not sufficient for these
things, I know. But, after having been regularly called to this
responsible work, I will not be driven from it, for such a cause. Know
then, ye rulers in the house of God, that I am still a minister of
Jesus Christ, sent forth to proclaim the terrors of God's law to the
rebellious and impenitent, and to promise the grace of the gospel to
the penitent and believing. Know also, ye professors of the Christian
religion who neglect the sanctification of the seventh day, and
especially ye ministers of Jesus who "teach men so," that you make
dark what God has made plain; that you pluck out of the hand of God's
schoolmaster one of those rods wherewith he would lash the carnal
heart; that you hide one of God's candles under a bushel, and compass
yourselves about with sparks, and a fire of your own kindling; that
you provoke the Holy Spirit, in rejecting his testimony, and teaching
for doctrine the commandments of men. Yes, brethren, though my words
fall upon your ears as an idle tale that you believe not, I declare to
you, in the name of Him whom your doctrine dishonors and your
philosophy insults--in the name of that _suspended Minister_, to whom
all the ends of the earth shall look for salvation--that, if you
repent not, the Holy Ghost will bear witness against you, in the awful
day of retribution, that you have refused his words, and that you have
"put darkness for light, and light for darkness!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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