The Sabbath by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 31, 1866

The Sabbath.

By R. F. Cottrell

ELD. B. T. ROBERTS:—Dear Brother,—The love of truth, and a desire for the salvation of men, are my apology for taking this liberty of addressing you. In your paper of April, I notice an article under the above heading, written in reply to the following question from a correspondent: "Is it not just as much an act of disobedience in us to observe the first-day of the week as being holy to the Lord, when he commands us to observe the seventh, as it would have been for Naaman, the leper, to have gone to some other river when he was commanded to wash in Jordan?"

You preface your reply by saying, "We would not knowingly pervert the word of the Lord." This, from the character you bear, I am bound to believe. And I am glad you feel thus when approaching this subject, which you admit "is an important one." I esteem it truly important. But, while I would not question your sincerity, I wish to convince you, in the spirit of meekness, that your position is in reality a perversion of the word of the Lord. I hope you may see it so, and seeing it, turn your feet into the testimony of the Lord.

After quoting the fourth commandment, you ask, "What is the essential thing in this commandment?" If I were to answer this question, I should say, It is all essential—every word of it. Our Saviour said, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." It should be obeyed then just as it reads. Your question implies that there is something non-essential in it. Did you mean so? Did the great Jehovah engrave non-essentials with his own finger on the tables of his testimony? Should any one ask concerning any other command of the Decalogue, what is the essential thing in it, you would think it a strange question. You would doubtless say, When God commands, it is essential that we obey.

But, after raising this question, you reply, "It is evidently to keep holy one-seventh part of time." Is it so, then, that the essential thing in the command is something not mentioned in it at all? The Sabbath truly is one-seventh part of our time, but the command makes no allusion to this fact. The idea is as foreign to the subject matter of the command, as it would be the truth to say that Americans make it a point to honor one-three hundred and sixty fifth part of their time, in remembrance of the declaration of independence. It is the fourth of July, and not an indefinite one-three hundred and sixty fifth part of time, that is honored on account of the declaration.

You further say, "Whosoever works six days and then keeps as sacred unto the Lord one day, meets the letter and spirit of this command. He keeps the seventh day." Is it so? Does not the command say, Remember the Sabbath day? Sabbath means rest; the Sabbath day is the Rest day. Whose Sabbath is it? The Lord's. Why? Because the Lord rested upon it. When he made the world in six days, he rested on the seventh; and for this reason he blessed and sanctified what? a seventh part of time? No, verily. He blessed and sanctified the day on which he had rested. "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested." Supposing the law of our land required us to remember and honor the day of the declaration of independence. Would I satisfy the law by observing the first of January? That would be one-three hundred and sixty fifth part of time. Would it "meet the letter and spirit of the command?"

Please imagine Naaman, the Leper, reasoning just as you have reasoned. Elisha had commanded him to go and wash in Jordan. He reasons with himself: "What is the essential thing in this command? It is evidently to wash in water. The rivers of Damascus are composed of water, and I have a preference for them. 'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean?'" Will not this "meet the letter and spirit of the command?" No, no! He reasoned not thus. I do him injustice. He knew that such a substitute would not be accepted as obedience; and so "he turned and went away in a rage." Jordan, however, is nothing more nor less than a stream of water; and the Sabbath is one of the seven days of the week. So the cases are perfectly parallel. But the Jordan was not to be found in Damascus, neither is any one of "the six working days," [Eze. xlvi, 1] the Sabbath. This title God gave exclusively to the day on which he rested. No other day of the seven is called the Sabbath in the Bible, and no other day ever can possibly become the Rest day of the Lord, until it become a fact that he rested on some other day.

Now dear brother, (for such I esteem you as long as you reverence God's holy word and desire to know and obey the truth,) I beseech you, in the spirit of meekness, to review this subject. If God rested on a particular day of the weekly cycle—on the definite seventh day, and not on an indefinite seventh part of time; if he blessed and sanctified the day on which he had rested, and not some other seventh part of the week; if he requires men to remember His Rest day to keep it holy; and if the seventh day has always come regularly to all the inhabitants of the earth, in Asia, Africa, Europe, and America—to all who are settled on any part of the globe; then all the sailing around the world that ever was or ever will be, either upon the seas or upon paper, whether eastward or westward, never can unsettle or frustrate the purpose of Him who made this rolling world and man to inhabit it, make void his law, so that he cannot justly judge by it those who have a knowledge of it, or remove his blessing and sanctification from the day, in its weekly return, upon which he has bestowed such abundant honor. If we honor this his day, we honor him. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." "If you worship God in spirit and in truth, and love him with all your heart, there is no doubt" you will obey him in all his known requirements. Then you will not be under the necessity of falling back upon the "thousands of others" who have lived and died in ignorance of what you know. It is light rejected that brings condemnation.

You are right in saying, "The idea is preposterous," that "God has so arranged it that his children cannot keep one of the most important of his ordinances." He "did not intend that the same absolute time should be observed as the Sabbath," but the seventh day as it comes to the several localities of earth. It has never failed to come regularly and in its order, since the Almighty said, "Let there be light," and the evening and the morning constituted the first day. All, Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians are agreed in the numbering of the days of the week. God's providence has preserved the knowledge of the true seventh day. To suppose otherwise is preposterous. Had he not preserved this knowledge, he would have put it out of the power of his children to obey him.

Toward the close of your article you say, "But in a matter of so great importance, uniformity is desirable." The Lord knew it; and therefore did not leave it to us to choose a day, but appointed one himself.

But if the keeping of any one-seventh part of time "meets the letter and spirit of the command," then the term, "the Sabbath," must be just equivalent to "one-seventh part of time." It follows, then, that when Paul "reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath," he must have reasoned there every one-seventh part of time, that is, all the time, leaving him no time to work at his trade of tent making, nor even to sleep. And further, if Paul did reason in the synagogue every Sabbath, as the sacred text affirms, and those Sabbath days were no other than those in which the Jews were accustomed to assemble, as none can reasonably deny, then there was no other Sabbath at that time, than the one that is now called, by way of reproach, the Jewish Sabbath; for if those were truly every Sabbath, no other day of the week was, at that time, the Sabbath nor a Sabbath of any kind. What is popularly called the Christian Sabbath, had not come into existence, when Paul's travels and labors were committed to parchment.

Yours in love.

R. F. COTTRELL.

Ridgway, Orleans Co., N. Y.