p. 62 | ONE DAY IN SEVEN by F. A. BUZZELL

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 17, 1869

ONE DAY IN SEVEN.

By F. A. BUZZELL

Could the children of Israel keep any one day in seven as the Sabbath, without violating, not only a direct command of God, but also one of the fundamental laws of their being? Certainly not. Proof: "Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over, lay up for you, to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein." Ex. xvi, 20, 22-24.

By this we plainly see that it was the will of God that the children of Israel should all keep the day he had given them, and he was ready to perform a miracle on each seventh day in preserving their food. But had they desired to keep any day other than the seventh, they must have gone without food one day, or the Lord would have been required to work a miracle for their especial benefit.

We might infer from these verses that it was the Lord's will that they should perform some labor on each of the six days, according to the commandment; for how easy a matter it would have been for them to drop into slothfulness if they could have gathered more than a sufficiency for one day, or kept it over from one day to another.

But oh, how natural to disobey! After being shown the error of their ways in regard to their having the manna of one of the six days for the next, these people whom God was willing to bless and save, straightway broke the Sabbath. (Ex. xvi, 27.) This grieved the Lord, who, remembering their former transgressions, said unto Moses, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"

Oh! that we, as a people, may take warning from them, and walk in the light. The Lord will not hold us guiltless, if, after we have seen all the warnings and chastisements that the children of Israel received, and have enjoyed so much light as we have in the present truth, we think we can, with impunity, abrogate, change, or break "one of the least of these commandments."

May those who think the Lord makes exceptions in their case, and does not require their obedience to the fourth commandment, pause in their folly and "search the Scriptures." F. A. BUZZELL.

New Ipswich, N. H.