Sabbath-Keeping and the Stranger
A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian Oracle in a late communication to that paper makes the proposition that “Adventists who pretend to keep that Sabbath law ought to do their utmost to compel all around them to keep the Sabbath,” and says, “They do not obey the commandment unless they do.” His proof (?) is as follows:— “Examine the Sabbath law of the decalogue. You must keep the Sabbath yourself. But is that all?—No indeed. You must compel others to do it too, and here are the ones named: (1) Your son; (2) your daughter; (3) your manservant; (4) your maidservant; (5) your cattle; (6) the stranger or the gentile.” The most notable feature in this exhibit is the omission, after the word stranger, of the words, “that is within thy gates.” The commandment says, “Nor the stranger that is within thy gates.” This requires Sabbath-keepers to require all upon their premises to refrain from labor upon the seventh day, but lays no duty upon them, and gives them no authority outside of that, as everybody knows, and as every honest man will admit. The Sabbath-keeper can and should say to a stranger who for any reason might desire to do any unnecessary work upon his premises on the Sabbath, “You must not do it;” but he would have no right to say it to his neighbor who wished to work upon his own premises, within his own gates.