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The Seventh-day Sabbath a Perpetual Institution

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 28.

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The Seventh-day Sabbath a Perpetual Institution

By M. G. HUFFMAN

M. G. HUFFMAN
OUR Lord Jesus Christ, in entering upon his mission in this world for the salvation of mankind, said in one of his discourses: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18.
This law, of which the Sabbath is a part, is perpetual, unchangeable. The seventh-day Sabbath being of divine origin, it was instituted to supply the perpetual moral need of man. “For the Sabbath was made for man,”—man in the broadest sense of the word,—for all men in all ages. The very nature of the law establishes the Sabbath as a perpetual institution. The Sabbath was made for all men in the Old Testament times, and for all men in the New Testament times; hence it can not be abrogated.
Christ has not abrogated the law of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made before man sinned; therefore the seventh-day Sabbath institution was made and kept before the time of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. The Sabbath was given to ancient Israel as a perpetual memorial and comes from them to us.
Christ lifted the Sabbath up out of the Jewish tradition, and gave it to us in its original design and purpose, for man's spiritual and eternal benefit. The Sabbath institution is not something independent of the seventh day of the week, an institution that can be moved either backward or forward, and placed on any day of the week. No, no; “the seventh day is the Sabbath,” a part of God's eternal purpose. It constitutes a sign between man and his Creator, by which man may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else; and the Word declares: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Hutchinson, Kan.