Remember the Sabbath Day by Philip Giddings

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 17, 1910

Remember the Sabbath Day

By Philip Giddings

PHILIP GIDDINGS

No Scripture truth is more diligently urged by us upon others than Ex. 20: 8-11. And yet, as we look upon it in all phases of requirements, we may find cause for full personal application.

The day is to be kept holy, in the sense of the whole of it, in all its aspects, in a sacred way.

As applied to others, we would have them quit their work, but as applied to ourselves, we should not forget that it means to quit our words, as well. The common every-day topic must be left below, while we climb to Pisgah’s top, to see how near another six-days’ travel has brought us to the promised land. And shall we talk Moab in full view of Canaan?—Nay! our theme for the holy day should be found on the other side of the Dead Sea. “Half in the speech of Ashdod” and “according to the language” of Ammon and Moab, must be given up for full-rounded Hebrew. To-day, in a special way, we come “to the general assembly and church of the First-born, which are written in heaven.” The Persian daric, the Greek drachma and stater, the Roman denarius, as, and quadrans—all earth’s currencies—must for heaven’s day be exchanged into heaven’s coinage. To-day we should stop, and, unstooping from the earth-raking, view the celestial crown. To-day we should pass on from common nouns up to the proper. Vulgar conversation, like such strange, common fire, should not be brought to the altar of incense on heaven’s high day. We must have fire from above. The text of our Sabbath conduct and conversation should be heaven, and earth and the things therein, only thought of as similes that “the kingdom of heaven is like unto.”

The dressmaker should see change of raiment (Zech. 3:4; Rev. 19:8); the laundress, robes made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14); the lady of the house—and that term comes from two roots meaning loaf-kneader—should talk of leaven only as that silent grace working in the hearts of her home to leaven the whole lump for God; the farmer may talk of his field “like unto” “the planting of the Lord,” his harvest the final ingathering of souls, of whom he is one; the merchant seeking goodly pearls ought to consider that wisdom which is more precious than rubies, and that its possession makes a man more “precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (Prov. 3:14, 15; Isa. 13:12); the fisherman’s net may serve as a symbol of the gospel net by which men are to be gathered into the kingdom of the Lord (Matt. 13:33-48); the carpenter, the goldsmith, the blacksmith, and other smiths should all, from the different view-points of their callings, hear the high calling to harmoniously build the kingdom of heaven. Isa. 41:1-7.

Put in the language of the definition of a parable I learned when a boy,—“A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,”—unless our earthly stories and stores have heavenly meanings, they are nonsense and nothings. Ah, yes; earth is the parable of heaven, and we should keep it beneath our feet, to keep our head heavenward. Treated thus, earth is full of heavenly voices to ears not earth-stopped.

And yet men talk of their trade and truck, their tools and toys, not as the “like unto” something better, but, seemingly, as the things they love best. Absent from the body their business may be, but present in the heart, in the abundance whereof the mouth speaketh. And it is Sabbath-breaking whether we carry trade into Sabbath or Sabbath out to trade, whether we use mouth or hands on secular things in sacred time.

How is it that this little speck of a world can so fully furnish material for conversation for six solid days, and heaven—the land of “many mansions,” where no sin, nor sorrow, nor death will ever enter, of whose beauties man can have no conception,—how is it that it can not furnish conversation enough for one day? Why must our thoughts and conversation continually hark back to the trifling affairs of this little wandering star?

Those who “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” will not be at neap tide, but spring-tide, of spiritual eloquence; they will overflow the banks. They have, during the week, touched the common metals of daily experiences in such a way as, with the aid of the Divine Alchemist, to transmute them into Sabbath

gold. To such the Sabbath comes as both a compliment and a complement, rich and full with six days’ water turned wine at last. Having gone around Jericho for six days, on the Sabbath its walls must fall flat at their feet, as with trumpets and shout and the ark of the Lord Jehovah, they celebrate.

“Those who are not fully converted to the truth, frequently let their minds run freely upon worldly business, and although they may rest from physical toil upon the Sabbath, their tongues speak out what is in their minds; hence these words concerning cattle, crops, losses, and gains. All this is Sabbath-breaking. If the mind is running upon worldly matters, the tongue will reveal it; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

“The example of ministers especially should be circumspect in this respect. Upon the Sabbath they should conscientiously restrict themselves to conversation upon religious themes,—to present truth, present duty, the Christian’s hopes and fears, trials, conflicts, and afflictions; to overcoming at last, and the reward to be received.

“Ministers of Jesus should stand as reprovers to those who fail to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. They should kindly and solemnly reprove those who engage in worldly conversation upon the Sabbath, and at the same time claim to be Sabbath-keepers. They should encourage devotion to God upon his holy day.”—“Gospel Workers,” page 208.

“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then . . .” Isa. 58: 13, 14.

Roseau, Dominica, W. I.