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The Seventh Day Is the True Sabbath

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 10.

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The Seventh Day Is the True Sabbath

MORE and more frequently we are seeing in the secular press declarations to the effect that the seventh day of the week is the only true Sabbath. The following from the Morning Oregonian of February 20 is an interesting testimony to this effect:—
A writer in the Salem Statesman, who calls Sunday “The Sabbath,” proposes the following conundrum to the Oregonian:—
“Will the editor of the Oregonian come out frankly and say that while American patriots keep up the remembrance of the heroic lives of Washington and Lincoln by the celebration of their birthdays, Christians act ‘ludicrously’ in celebrating religiously the resurrection day of the world’s Redeemer?”
No; the Oregonian will say nothing of the sort. It is well to celebrate the resurrection day of the Redeemer as religiously as one’s conscience directs; but it is not well to try to compel all men to celebrate it in the same way. Nor is it well to try to force those to celebrate it who do not feel so disposed. In this matter every person should be free to celebrate or not, according to his own desire. It is not “ludicrous” to observe Sunday as a day of rest and worship. On the other hand, it should not be made unlawful to divert one’s self at a picnic, a game in the fields or to the theater. The trouble with Sabbatarians like this writer is that they are not satisfied with reasonable liberty for themselves; they wish to compel everybody else to forego liberty.
Our learned commentator adds that “He who created man made the Sabbath for him.” This may be so. But if it is, we are surprised that the erudite theologian of the Statesman does not keep the Sabbath instead of substituting for it an entirely different day. What authority has he from the Creator of man and the Sabbath for this illicit substitution?
The Oregonian is right upon the matter of religious liberty. It also sees the goal aimed at by those who are advocating Sunday laws. It is also right in denominating the Sunday institution an “illicit substitution.” We are glad that the readers of the Oregonian have had the matter of the true Sabbath thus brought to their attention. As the Oregonian makes no profession of religion or religious practise, this testimony upon the Sabbath question is almost a case of the stones crying out in defense of the truth.