Untitled article | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 3, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 12

PROF. BUSH ON THE SABBATH.

In Bush's Notes on Gen. ii, among other excellent remarks relative to the Sabbath, we find the following:

God's sanctifying the day is equivalent to his commanding men to sanctify it. As at the close of the creation the seventh day was thus set apart by the Most High for such purposes, without limitation to age or country, the observance of it is obligatory upon the whole human race to whom, in the wisdom of Providence, it may be communicated. This farther appears from the reason why God blessed and sanctified it, viz., “because that in it he had rested,” &c., which is a reason of equal force at all times, and equally applying to all the posterity of Adam; and if it formed a just ground for sanctifying the first day, which dawned upon the finished system of the universe, it must be equally so for sanctifying every seventh day to the end of time. The observance of the day is moreover enjoined in the decalogue, which was not abolished with the peculiar polity of the Jews, but remains unalterably binding upon Christians in every age of the world. Some commentators and divines have indeed thought that the mention here made of the Sabbath is merely by anticipation; and that the appointment never took place till the days of Moses, Ex. xx, 11. But if this be the case it is not easy to see how Moses came to specify the circumstances of God's resting on the seventh day, as the reason for that appointment. It would have been a good reason for our first parents and their immediate descendants to hallow the day; but it could be no reason at all to those who lived almost five and twenty hundred years after the event; more especially, when so obvious and cogent a reason as their deliverance out of Egypt was assigned at the very same time. But if the command given to the Jews was a repetition of the injunction given to Adam, then there was an obvious propriety in assigning the reason that was obligatory upon all, as well as that which formed an additional obligation on the Jewish nation in particular. Besides, there are traces of a Sabbath from the beginning of the world. For, if no Sabbath had ever been given, whence came the practice of measuring time by weeks? Yet that custom obtained both in the antediluvian and the patriarchal ages. Gen. viii, 10, 12; xxix, 27, 28. Again, although the observance of the Sabbath had no doubt been much neglected in Egypt, yet the remembrance of it was not wholly effaced; for Moses before the giving of the law, speaks of the Sabbath as an institution known and received among them, Ex. xvi, 23. And without any express direction, they gathered on the sixth day a double portion of manna to serve them on the Sabbath, which surely could not have been expected that they would have done had no such institution existed. It can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that the Sabbath is as old as the creation, and of the wisdom of such an appointment a moment's reflection will convince us. As God made all things for himself, so he instituted the Sabbath in order that his rational creatures might have stated opportunities of paying him their tribute of prayer and praise. If no period had been fixed by him for the solemnities of public worship, it would have been impossible to bring mankind to an agreement respecting the time when they should render to him their united homage. They would all acknowledge the propriety of serving him in concert; but each would be ready to consult his own convenience. And probably a difference of sentiment would arise as to the length of time to be allotted to his service. Thus there would never be one hour when all should join together in celebrating their Creator's praise. But by an authoritative separation of the seventh day, God has provided that the whole race of men shall acknowledge him, and that his goodness shall be had in everlasting remembrance. This act of separation he has seen good to express by the word “sanctify,” which is used in the Scriptures primarily to denote the setting apart, devoting, or appropriating any thing from a common to a peculiar and generally to a sacred use. Thus God is said to have “sanctified,” or set apart for a holy use, the first-fruits of the earth, the tabernacle with its various furniture, the tribe of Levi to the office of priests, &c. In this sense to sanctify is the same as to “hallow,” and is opposed to calling or treating any thing as “unclean,” or “common.” The sanctification of the seventh day in the present case, can only be understood of its being set apart to the special worship and service of God; for it is to be remembered, that at this time, every thing was holy so far as moral purity was concerned.