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The Enduring Memorial

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 19, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 3.

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The Enduring Memorial

By W. E. HASKELL

W. E. HASKELL
While humanity in sin has been drawing away and separating from God, he, in love to man, has been continually reaching out to reconcile and to restore the lost unity. He is constantly expressing in innumerable ways his desire for renewed companionship.
1. Unto what does he call us in the life of faith?
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Cor. 1:9.
2. How highly does he prize this privilege?
“Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Heb. 12:2.
3. What was this joy?
“Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” 1 Thess. 5:10.
So love not only wills the highest good of the ones loved, but longs for companionship with them. Infinite creative love, though in the highest degree complete and independent in itself, could not rest satisfied in itself alone, but must create those upon whom to bestow, and from whom to receive, that fulness of love that binds in closest fellowship and highest joy.
Thus creation itself is an expression of the love of God; and the Sabbath is a sign, a memorial, of that creative love which longs for and rejoices in companionship with his people.
The enduring, unchanging memorial is a sign of the enduring, unchanging love of him who “having loved his own, . . . loved them unto the end.”
Let us notice the important place that the Sabbath occupies in our progress in the present, and in our preparation for the future.
4. How is the Sabbath to be kept?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Ex. 20:8.
5. Who first made it holy?
“Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:11.
6. How does the Lord make anything holy?
“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. . . . God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” Ex. 3:2, 4, 5.
The Lord makes things holy by his presence in a special manner, making a difference between that wherein his presence is specially manifested and other places or things.
So Christ blessed the Sabbath by placing his presence in the day for man, in a special manner, thus making it holy, making a difference between it and other days.
The sinner in repentance may come to Christ on any day, at any moment, and receive pardon, peace, and the blessing of his presence.
The Christian may continually, and at any time of need, receive a larger measure of his blessing. But over and above and in addition to all this, there is a Sabbath blessing and manifestation of his presence, that comes at no other time, that we can receive in no other way, that makes a distinction, a difference, between the Sabbath and every other day.
On the Sabbath we have the privilege of a double blessing, a double measure of his presence.
7. What did the Lord do on the Sabbath?
“And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” Gen. 2:2.
8. What kind of rest was this?
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?” Isa. 40:28.
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Gen. 1:31.
“And on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed” (greatly delighted, one version). Ex. 31:17.
It was spiritual rest, satisfaction and delight in his work, and especially in man and in companionship with him.
9. What kind of rest, then, should ours be, to be true Sabbath observance?
“For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. . . . There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.” Heb. 4:4, 5, 9, 11.
Our rest should be the same,—the Lord’s rest; spiritual rest.
10. What gives this rest?
“And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Ex. 33:14. Christ’s special presence in the Sabbath gives a special and increased rest of soul to all who recognize and receive it by faith.
11. So what will the Sabbath be to those who truly enter into the Lord’s rest?
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight.” Isa. 58:13.
12. But what will they find in the Sabbath that makes it a delight?
“Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isa. 58:14.
Thus we see that the Sabbath is a double sign. On the Lord’s part, it is a sign of his love and delight in us. On our part, its true observance is a sign of our love for and delight in him.
This makes the Sabbath of vast importance, for the degree of fellowship that we have with Christ, and of delight in his presence, is the real measure of our progress in the Christian life. True, loving companionship with him is the supreme test of our fitness for eternal companionship with him in the kingdom of God.
When we know the Sabbath in its true significance, it becomes as it were a spiritual thermometer. The way we treat it is a sign to the Lord of our spiritual condition, of our progress or backsliding, of our fitness or unfitness for eternal companionship. Our attitude toward it, then, is, in reality, our attitude toward Christ himself. If the Sabbath is irksome, or a burden, so also would the presence of Christ be, even in heaven itself. If we ignore or forget it, so also would we him. But if we long for a closer walk with the Lord, with what glad, eager expectancy and delight will we hail the approach of the day that makes possible a more intimate union, that opens to us a new, deeper, higher, truer companionship with him.
(To be concluded)