Your ShelfYour Projects

Beginning and Closing the Sabbath With Prayer

25%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Sep 5, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 36.

Read the full edition

Beginning and Closing the Sabbath With Prayer

There was a time when in practically every Seventh-day Adventist home the holy hours of the Sabbath were welcomed by prayer, and the same season of spiritual refreshing was enjoyed at the closing Sabbath hour. With some of our people this excellent practise has fallen into disuse. In some families but little attention is paid to the early Sabbath hour. The labors of the week are permitted to encroach upon sacred time. If family worship is engaged in, it is in the late evening rather than at the going down of the sun. In the families of those who are careless in regard to the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord, there is a carelessness also in other things pertaining to Christian experience. The spirit of indifference has entered into their hearts. The family altar has been cast down; sacred prayer is neglected. They do not distinguish clearly between common things and the things of God.
We urge that these indifferent ones stop and consider where they are drifting. The spirit which now possesses them, if allowed to grow, will separate them from God and from his truth. It will affect the hearts of their children, and lead them to carelessness and indifference. On the other hand, the maintenance of the family altar through the week would foster in their hearts a careful regard for the Sabbath hours. From the going down of the sun Friday evening to the same hour Saturday evening, hedge in the Sabbath with prayer and Bible study. This will prove a safeguard in the experience of the entire family.
Do not violate the Sabbath of the Lord at any period of its existence. The first hour, the first minute, is as sacred as any time throughout the period. Honor God by showing reverence for his sacred institutions. In return he will honor you by the presence of his Holy Spirit, and the altar of prayer through the week and at the holy Sabbath hour will become a place where you will meet God face to face, as did Israel of old.