The Sabbath by M. E. STEWARD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 8, 1910

The Sabbath

By M. E. STEWARD

M. E. STEWARD

A MEMORIAL is intended to compare in dignity and importance with that which it commemorates. The Sabbath is the memorial of the stupendous miracle of the creation of the world. God honors his Sabbath.

The Sabbath existed in each of the three great periods of the world's history:—

1. The Sabbath was made at the beginning of the patriarchal age. Gen. 2:2, 3. It is the seventh day, and can not be changed to any other day of the week; for six working-days precede the Bible Sabbath. Near the close of the first period, in connection with the giving of the manna, the Sabbath was mentioned as having previously been in existence. Exodus 16.

2. The Sabbath was honored in earth's second period. In order to preserve the knowledge of the great Creator, and thus provide for the perpetuity of the law, the creation Sabbath was now placed, where it ever belongs, in the heart of the decalogue. It reads as follows: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8-11.

3. The Sabbath is to be kept in the last, or Christian, dispensation. In his teachings, Christ referred to its claims in this period. The apostles likewise recognize the Sabbatic institution.

There is no account given or referred to anywhere in the Bible of a change of the Sabbath:—

1. Christ did not change it; for the holy women who had long listened to his teachings “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” after his crucifixion. Early Sunday morning they were ready to go to work again. Luke 23:56; 24:1.

2. The apostles did not change it. Even Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, kept the Sabbath with them; and surely he would have told them of the change, had there been one. Acts 13:42, 43.

3. The last writer in the Bible mentions the Sabbath as “the Lord's day;” it is the Christian Sabbath. Proof: Christ was the Creator of the world. John 1:3. Hence Christ was the one who made the Sabbath at creation; and the seventh day is Christ's day, “the Lord's day.”

The scope and meaning of the Sabbath may be thus summarized:—

1. “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. Man, without a modifier, includes the whole human family, from Adam to the last man who lives.

2. The seventh day—and nothing else—memorializes creative power. It is both a memorial and a sign. It celebrates both creation and redemption, which is re-creation “in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:10. “I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12. How comforting it is to know that salvation is just as much a fact as the Sabbath is!

3. The holy Sabbath represents the Creator's right to the supreme reverence, love, and loyalty of his creatures, body, soul, and spirit.

Sanitarium, Cal.