Gods Sabbath

O PPOSING P RINCIPLES OF O PERATION

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which He is not prepared to give Himself. In Christ, God proved this by making the greatest personal sacrifice of all. John the Baptist had understood and lived these principles by yielding himself for life or for death as would best serve the cause he loved. When he died, he was exemplifying these ideals by shar ing in the sufferings of Christ, and would as surely become a partaker with Him in His glory. John demonstrated that he was not concerned with this transient earthly kingdom, but with that glorious land where there is no death, suffering, and decay. Had the disciples boldly answered the Jews with such argu ments, they would have both strengthened their own faith and silenced their opposers. But as long as they continued to plan the conduct of Christ ac cording to their own ideas, it was no wonder that they could not answer their enemies and defend the course Christ was pursuing! The disciples of Jesus had no excuse for their ignorance of Je hovah’s ways, as they had past history to guide them. Careful, prayer-filled study should have shown them that every time God’s people, in their deep desire to see the work advance, had left the plan making to the Creator Himself, nothing had gone wrong, whereas as soon as they began to usurp this role, success swiftly changed to failure. The love and zeal of the disciples for God’s cause did not com pensate for the wrong course adopted. Good intentions and sin cerity of purpose do not change wrong procedures into success ful ones. This lesson has to be learned thoroughly by all who are members of Christ’s body. The disciples’ inability to understand Christ’s behavior, did not justify their doubt, their accusations against Him, and the consequent unrest. Nor was it reason to formulate alternative plans and exert pressure on Him to accept them. They were re quired to trust God in the unknown because of what they had learned of Him in the known, and to leave the work of plan mak ing and problem solving to Him alone, no matter how chaotic the situation might appear. Had they done this, they would have No Excuse