p. 190 | Sabbath Observance by Charles P. Whitford

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 31, 1870

Sabbath Observance.

By Charles P. Whitford

There are but few commands of divine origin and authority so little understood, and so lightly esteemed, as that which enjoins the universal obligation to “remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.” The Sabbath, by many, is looked upon as a Jewish institution, and therefore having no claims on men now. Nothing could be more false. The Sabbath never was a Jewish institution, except incidentally. It was ordained when man was made; because, as the Saviour declared, it “was made for man.” It existed before the Jews; but when the law of special dispensation was given to them, as a special people, then the Sabbath law was repeated as one of the ten commands. But it was before all races, and all systems, and will remain to the end of time a human necessity, and one of the wisest and most merciful of the Creator’s appointments.

While man’s physical needs and necessities demand one day of rest in seven, yet the religious claims and benefits of the Sabbath deserve a higher regard than any of a merely temporal character. The best spiritual welfare of man, as well as the best interests of society, are intimately connected with a due appreciation and proper observance of the Sabbath. In every heart, in the sanctuary of every home, on all the customs of society, on business and pleasure, in high places and low, should be written, as of divine authority and for human good, to be revered, loved and obeyed, “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.”

CHARLES P. WHITFORD.