Sabbath-keeping | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 12, 1865

Sabbath-keeping.

THERE is danger of servility in keeping the Sabbath which is inconsistent with the "liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." It is possible to make the day one of constraint and penance by dwelling too much on what we should not do, instead of attending to what we should do. Especially in the case of children can the day be spoiled as to its immediate influence, and shaded with unhappy memories for a lifetime, by dogging their steps from morn till bed-time with unceasing prohibitions.

The other extreme—that which is vastly in the ascendant, for it is the worldly way of Sabbath-keeping, is to abandon the mind to unrestrained worldliness of thought and conversation. This no Christian can approve, whatever may be his practice. But what shall be our guide to a true observance of that day? How shall we obey the command, particularly in private at our homes, to keep it holy? How avoid both a sanctimonious restraint and an unholy license? Not by trying to have a little of both, but by making it a sincere aim to make the most of the Sabbath as a religious day. Let the question be, "How much can I do for a growth in grace?" not "How little will barely gain the acceptance of God?"

A great many of our difficulties in this and in other duties arise from keeping too near the boundary between right and wrong. We must ask, not what will pass as allowable, but what is clearly according to a high standard. We must ask not so often, "Is this wrong?" as "How can I do that which will most fulfill the design of the precious day?" This course will carry us clear of doubtful cases by our letting doubtful things alone, and taking those which are unmistakably good and suitable.

Instead of saying, "What's the harm in worldly conversation?" we shall feel that there is harm in every thing that lowers the sanctity and distorts the religious usefulness of the Sabbath. Men may talk of making every day a Sabbath; but it means to have no Sabbath. Christian liberty in keeping the Sabbath is the same as in other duties, a rising above petty restraints, because one is so full of the proper Sabbath spirit, that its duties are done freely and joyfully. Christians need more of this kind of freedom,—such a devotion to high ends, that the minutiæ of means are spontaneous; such an interest in the journey, and the home at the end of it, that particular steps are hardly thought of. Such a Christian can keep the Sabbath, and can train his children to keep it, not so much by drilling them in "Do this" and "Do that," as by leading them to feel that the Sabbath is "a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable."