Growing Laxity in Sabbath Observance
By F. M. W.
IN the Sabbath Recorder for April 7, J. Schepel discusses the question “Why Is Our Denomination Losing Ground?” referring to the Seventh-day Baptist people. He gives to this question the following significant answer: “It is on account of the carelessness and indifference with which the Sabbath of Jehovah is regarded by great numbers of our members.” This is certainly a startling charge to be made by a representative of this denomination which has for long years nobly stood in defense of the Sabbath of the Lord. The writer then proceeds to illustrate his statement by incidents which have come under his personal observation. He refers to the case of a barber who, while he closed his shop all day Saturday, kept it open during the Sabbath hours on Friday evening. His excuse was that it was necessary to do this in order to make a living. Reference is made to a prominent member of the church who sold ice-cream. In a quiet way this was dispensed on the Sabbath, and that, too, to members of the church. “Time and again,” he says, “I have seen members have the bus call at their homes on Sabbath afternoon to take them to the railway station, where they would take the train to a neighboring city.” Our object in referring to this is not to call attention to the laxity of our Seventh-day Baptist brethren and sisters, for whom we entertain a very kindly regard, but we have wondered if these same conditions in some measure may not be found among the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Have we as Seventh-day Adventists that sincere, careful regard for the Sabbath of the Lord which once marked the history of this people? Some, we believe, have maintained their simplicity of faith and practise, but we regret to say that our observation leads us to believe that there are altogether too many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who are manifesting a growing laxity in Sabbath observance. Little by little the spirit in which Sunday is regarded in the world has been intruding itself into the practise of some of our members. The edges of the Sabbath are infringed upon. The week’s work is not finished early Friday afternoon. Needful preparations are not completed, and perhaps the whole of Friday evening and a part of Sabbath morning are taken up with affairs which should have been carefully attended to before the Sabbath began. There is great danger that as in the days of Amos some will be led to say: “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?” We preach to the world a message of Sabbath reform. That message needs to be sounded to-day among the churches of Seventh-day Adventists. We need to recognize anew the difference between the sacred and the profane, the holy and the common. We believe it would be an excellent thing if our church elders and our ministers throughout the field would take up the consideration of this question in our churches. A Sabbath service once a year devoted to the consideration of proper Sabbath-keeping would prove most helpful in enabling us to bear in mind continually the Sabbath of the Lord and our relationship to it. Let us hold fast in sincerity and faithfulness to the precious truth which God has committed to us. F. M. W.