“WEEK-END EXCURSIONS ON THE RAILWAYS”

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 135, 4 March 1929, Page 13

“WEEK-END EXCURSIONS ON THE RAILWAYS”

Sir, —You did very well to call attention to this subject in your leader today. Do these week-end excursions accord with British law? No —nor with the King’s oath. Work upon Sunday is unlawful. A Palmerston North storekeeper was fined £5 for selling ice cream on a Sunday, so trading is unlawful. Wherein, then, comes the right for the New Zealand Government to run weekend excursions on Sunday according to British law? It is in opposition to the law of God. the fourth precept of the Ten Commandments forbids it. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal, Thy Godj in it. thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant; nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.” Why this definite command? And if it is not very important, why does it begin with the first word “Remember”? Ex. 20: 8-11. The Eternal Himself gives the answer. The reason : “For' in six days (of 24 hours each) the Eternal made heaven and earth, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Eternal blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” Then all created beings should be Sabbath keepers, to honour the Creator. j

The reason for keeping the Sabbath is almost forgotten. When we are told that it is the Creator’s memorial' of the birthday of creation, then by the . weekly observance of the day we are compelled to remember the Creator. Dr. Chalmers said: “No Sabbath, no God." Then it , would be no Creation. What then but evolution? The serious consequences of evolution, if taught in our State schools, was well set forth in the iletter of yesterday’s issue (March 1). Then with regard to our disobedience to the laws of God and those of the Government, we may truly confess: “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. 53:6). By setting aside all restraint of the laws, we are lawless, and will take the advantage of the week-end excursions. “Wbere there is no law there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). All the trouble is with the mind and heart. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for, it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be” (Rom. 8:7). What can any Church or Government do with inhabitants who are against God and unable to keep the law? In your leading article it is well said: “The Church has been slow to recognise that modern people cannot be forced into conventional grooves by sumptuary edicts. They may be led by argument and appeals founded on reason into different paths, but they cannot be driven.” Why cannot we learn by past history? The world would not, and could not, be governed by “The men who begin to call themselves by the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26, margin). The result was, “The earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). So “The flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:27). Even righteous Lot could not restrain the “Filthy conversations of the wicked. Fire and brimstone came from heaven and destroyed them all” (v. 29.2, Peter 2:6-8). The world was not controlled by the Law of Moses, and the Prophets; and Stephen gives the rebuke: “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:52). The world was not converted by Him that “Wrought miracles that no man can do.” Or by Him that spake as never man spake” (John 3:2; 7:46). Then all through the twenty centuries we have had ”-e world controlled by “The Church” with persecutions, and even “Drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,” as foretold it would be. Rev 17:5-6. We cannot and do not expect the world to be converted before the coming of Jesus, Christ, tor at that time all the wicked will be slain, as they were in the days of, Noah, Gen. 7:22. Luke 17: 26. There will be none left for' the so-called millenium. “Let favour (the day of grace) be showed to the wicked, yet he will not learn right-doing; but when Thy judgments (“Judgments of His Mouth, Ps. 105:5) are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa. 26: 10.9). “That will be m the new earth” (Heb. 8:11).

What does the prophetic Word tell us will be the result of disobedience? Isa. 24- 5-6 “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have ■ transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the. everlasting covenant Therefore the inhabitants, ot the earth are burned.” The few men left will be the righteous, as it was with Nonh and his family (Gen. 8:16).. The week-end excursions may continue, for “An impious spirit inspires the ungodly man” (Ps. 37: 1, M’s Trsn.). There has ever been a conflict between the Almighty God and the god of this world. 2 Cor 4’4. So it is with the just and the unjust. “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnnsheth upon him with his teeth" (Ps. 37:12-15). But all those who fear God and keen His commandments will not journey with the week-end excursions, for the so-called Sunday bv the New Zealand Almanac is the Seventh Day Sabbath on. accouiff of the national change of the Bible Sabbath into Sunday in New Zealand—l am, etc., DAVID NIELD. Wellington. March 2.