The Day OF Rest and the Man AT Rest
By G. W. Reycroft
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” specifies Jehovah. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” says Jesus. “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Do not be afraid to ask, “How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin.” “Hear, O earth, the words of My mouth,” says the everlasting Father. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” “How forcible are right words!” But there is more to this vital truth than the correct time. Let us not be a wrong man in a right day. Staying in a barn does not make a man a horse. Nor does stopping in an apothecary shop make one a druggist. Neither does sliding my scale of observance twenty-four hours to the left or right, make a SABBATH-KEEPER of me. When I COME to BEING right, I can GO to DOING right; not before. “Come unto Me,” says Jesus, “and I will give you rest.” “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can not rest.” Isa. 57: 20. “Learn of Me,” again says Jesus, “and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” “He that is entered into HIS rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.” Heb. 4: 10. “Let us LABOR therefore to enter into THAT REST.” Verse 11. July 4 is set apart, commemorative of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But to repudiate the righteous principles for which that day and that signatured document stand, and merely to waste time and money in celebration on the correct day, is but hollow mockery, and dire folly. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” It is no effort to determine the correct day. All Bibles say the seventh day is the Sabbath. All calendars, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and standard books of authority, determine that from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday is the seventh day. But the correct proportionate portion of time is one thing; and the acceptable observation of it, another. The day is divinely set apart as a monument to eternal power and vital principle. To neglect to assimilate into one’s daily breath and character, the blessed tranquility crowning the beautiful fellowship of a perfect relation with God and man, and yet seek to please God, or benefit men, by formal attitudes and lifeless ceremonies on a specified day, is shallow theft, and compassless worship. There is a “blessed quietness” to one’s soul in godly labor, even on the rest-day. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” said Jesus. “It is lawful to do well,” says He, even “on the Sabbath days.” There is royal rest in reactive righteousness, at all times; but no man can rest right, in any moment, while working wrong. Keep things working right, through the days; and you can rest all—and doubly in ONE—of them: but work wrong—by your ways—and you can not rest at all, in any of them. What one of us,—composite of desires, purposes, and plans, to defraud, smirch, betray, or damage our fellow men,—can, by changing locality, building, or outward attitudes—without alteration of character-consistency—find peace and rest in himself or herself? No one, surely! Again, let me emphasize the words of Christ, “My Father WORKETH hitherto, and I WORK.” John 5: 17. Study of the context will reveal that this utterance was in reference to His usage of the Sabbath day, too. I would not be misunderstood; so I quickly determine that His work was not manual effort, prompted by selfishly ambitious grasp after temporal gain. But Himself was as strenuously exercised in dutiful, blessed, helpful effort to heal, comfort, and aid others, as any man could be in energy expended otherwise. The observation of the Sabbath, therefore, does not consist in not working; but in not doing “thy work” (Ex. 20: 9); “for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from HIS OWN WORKS.” Yet, “this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” Titus 3: 8. And “the Sabbath was made for man;” wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” That being who on the Sabbath, works most according to God’s law, rests most. And such a one as seeks to rest from working righteousness, rests least. For only the soul AT rest, truly observes the day OF rest. “And this will we do, if God permit.” Heb. 6: 3.