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The Sabbath

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 24, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 6.

Read the full edition

The Sabbath.

By S. Summerbell

“The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2: 27.
I. WHAT IS THE SABBATH?
II. DESIGN OF THE SABBATH.
III. HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.
IV. OBJECTIONS TO THE SABBATH.
I. The Sabbath is a heavenly day, appointed by our God for rest from earthly toil. The Sabbath is a day of Heaven, on earth; a day appointed by our good Father for all his children to rest, and be refreshed; a day when the weary may forget his toil, and the anxious his care; when the miser will look up from his gold, and all nations come before the Lord; a day saved from the curse of sin because reserved before sin, ever reminding us of life in Paradise. It is a day appointed of God from the very beginning; a day hallowed, and sanctified, and blessed; for the observance of which we have the example of the great Jehovah himself. It is called the Sabbath of the Lord our God; God’s holy day; the Lord’s day; for the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath-day. It is a part of religion peculiar in that it does not suppose sin. Other commandments command righteousness or forbid transgression; but this was given before sin, and supposes holiness. It is in the spirit of a father calling his children around him to rest and be “refreshed.” Ex. 23: 12.
The first Sabbath-keeper was God himself. It was kept by man before sin. It is a day belonging to no peculiar creed, or age, or race, but as universal as Heaven’s care over its children. It is to man an earnest of his heavenly home, a part of Heaven struck off to earth, not to be desecrated by earthly toil, and to be reserved from the moral wreck to come. After the fall it was a souvenir of Eden, and an emblem of Heaven; not of the church—“For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief”—but of Heaven above, where all is light, and all is love. Of this, the Sabbath worship in the church is an emblem, where we sing:
“I have been there, and still would go— ’Tis like a little Heaven below; At once they sing, at once they pray— They hear of Heaven, and learn the way!”

II. DESIGN OF THE SABBATH.

The Sabbath is a day of rest for all; “in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” When all our race, and even the burden-bearing brute, may be refreshed. Ex. 23: 12. It is needed for the great, that they may rest from care; and for the small, that they may learn the ways of God. It is needed for the student, that his mind may relax, and for the ignorant, that their minds may be replenished. It is good for the covetous, that custom may drive him from absorbing care; and it is good for the dependent, that they be sometimes free. It is demanded by our physical nature, and by our moral, spiritual, and social nature; for resuscitation, cultivation, purification, and salvation. It is not only a day of rest, but it is a day of devotion. We are to sanctify the day, and hallow it; to bear no burden, but to “hearken unto the Lord.” It was made for man, to meet a need as universal as toil, rest, or devotion. It was made for man, when it was made. But how can it benefit man? Only by its observance; therefore it was observed from the beginning. The law of the Sabbath supposes known existing laws before the laws of Sinai; a law not for Jews or for Gentiles, as such, but for all. That all may rest, all worship, and all be blessed. The rich and poor; the bond and free; the weak and the strong; the weary and the refreshed; that all may come to God, all be blessed that come.

III. HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.

In Exodus 16: 28, God, in reproving Sabbath-breakers, says: “How long refuse ye to keep my LAWS?” This “How long?” proves that these Sabbath laws had long been known in the most ancient church during the patriarchal ages. Accordingly we find it said: Abraham will command his children to keep the way of the Lord; and Abraham did obey God’s voice, his commandments, and his LAWS, Gen. 18: 19; 26: 5. And we know that the way of the Lord as shown in the beginning was to rest on the seventh day. The interval from Adam to Abraham was spanned by the lives of two men, Methuselah and Shem. Methuselah lived 243 years during the time of Adam, dying the year of the flood, when Shem was 97 years old. Shem lived till Abraham was 150 years old, consequently two men could communicate from the lips of Adam, words concerning the first Sabbath, and the great Creator’s example, down to generations living in the days of Abraham. Abraham himself traveled in Egypt, where legends of the Sabbath yet exist. On a scroll, found in Egypt, written on papyrus in hieroglyphics 4600 years ago, are these words:—
“THE GOVERNMENT IS MINE, WHO AM THE PRINCE, THE LORD OF THE FESTIVE ASSEMBLIES OF THE MOST HOLY WHO HAVE ORDERED THE SOLAR YEARS, WHO HAVE COMMANDED THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK, AND THE CELEBRATION OF THE NEW MOON AT OR THE CITY OF THE SUN.”
One of the first laws of Constantine the Great, concerning religion, commands rest on the day sanctified to the sun. Although this is not the seventh; yet it is a seventh day, and we readily see by the law that it was no new thing.
“Just as it seemed most improper that the day of the sun, noted by its worship, should be occupied by contending disputes and injurious quarrels of parties, so (it seemed) agreeable and delightful that the sacrifices which are greatest, be paid upon that day; and, therefore, upon the festival day all have liberty of emancipating and manumitting, and besides these things, business is not prohibited.”
Nearly all the ancient nations, Persians and Assyrians, Hindoos and Chinese, as well as Egyptians, had their week of seven days. Our names of the days are derived from the old Saxon, Druid, and Scandinavian nations, and are the names of their gods; as, Sun’s day, Moon’s day, Tuisco’s day, Odin’s day, Thor’s day, Freá’s or Freaga’s day, Saturn’s day. Sunday, dies solis, was dedicated to the sun among the Romans, long before it was adopted by the Christians. Homer, the Grecian poet, speaks of the Sabbath thus: “Afterward came the seventh, the sacred day.” Hesiod speaks also of the seventh, as “the sacred day.” It was no new thing when placed in the decalogue, but something remembered: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This day had been observed from the beginning.

Sabbath under the Law.

When God instituted a national church, the Sabbath, as in Eden, held a prominent place. It was set in the midst of the moral code, as a gem amid jewels. It stands in the advance surrounded by laws which pale the light of advancing ages, and defy the criticism of the skeptic; laws which stand to-day as the constitution of the civilized world. The fourth commandment in these immortal laws, reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,” etc. The greatest possible sacredness is attached to the day. The promises, many of them, rest upon it, as though it included all good. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight—not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” If we “profane the Sabbath day,” God will bring all this evil upon us.
The Sabbath stands prominent in the gospel. No other day is so frequently named. Jesus himself, who first preached the gospel, introduced it on the Sabbath day. After his baptism and temptation, he returned to Galilee, and went into the synagogue, as his custom was, and read: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel.” Luke 4: 1–18. Soon after this, we read in Mark 6: 2: “But when the Sabbath was come, he began to teach in the synagogue.” When he was accused of violating the Sabbath, he did not say that its obligation had ceased, but proclaimed its sanctity, saying that he himself was “Lord of the Sabbath day,” and that “the Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2: 27, 28. He also proved that he had done no more to violate the day than the most scrupulous Sabbath-keeper would do. Had he healed a woman? They would pull a beast out of a ditch on the Sabbath day. Had his disciples plucked the standing grain? David, and those with him, ate the show-bread. Not one word did he say to lessen the sanctity, or to destroy the obligations, of the Sabbath. When speaking of the distant future, he anticipated its existence, when he said, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Indeed, the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as still to be existing when the new heavens and the new earth shall appear. Isa. 66: 22, 23.

Custom of Jesus and his Apostles.

Luke says, 4: 16, 18, that Jesus, “as his custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.” This custom was followed by his disciples. We read, Acts 17: 2: “Paul, as his manner was, preached on the Sabbath day.” When the great Creator had finished the work of the first great week, he rested on the Sabbath; and so Jesus, when his great work was accomplished, rested in the tomb on the seventh day. The disciples continued the example to the end.
After his death, the women prepared spices to anoint the body, but rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Coming to the sepulcher, they resume their work on the first day of the week. Thus the true disciple is ever seeking the sepulcher; ever resuming his work; and ever announcing a living Saviour on the first day of the week.
The Manner of the Apostles at Antioch.—“Paul preached on the Sabbath day; and the Gentiles besought him to preach the next Sabbath day, and on the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” The Gentiles did not ask him to preach the next day, nor did he make an appointment; but for the next Sabbath day. Acts 13: 14, 42, 44.
The Manner of the Apostles at Philippi.—On the Sabbath day they went out to the river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and preached—and Lydia was converted. Acts 16: 13.
The Manner of Paul at Thessalonica.—Paul, as his manner was, preached on the Sabbath day, continuing there and preaching three Sabbath days. Acts 17: 2.
The Manner of Paul at Corinth.—Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath day for “one year and six months,” or more than seventy Sabbath days. Acts 18: 4, 11.
The Custom and Manner of the Apostles.—Such was the manner of Jesus, and such the custom of his apostles. The assumption that Jesus abrogated, changed, or did away, the day, is gratuitous, and without any warrant in the word of God, and well-instructed ministers know better.

IV. OBJECTIONS TO THE SABBATH.

The objections to the Sabbath are, firstly, that the law is done away; yet no believer in the Bible believes that the law is done away; secondly, that “every day is alike;” but no Christian believes that, literally, every day is alike. That is, the objections brought against the Sabbath by believers are none of them believed by believers. No minister will say to his congregation, use every day alike. There is no difference in the sight of God. Work on the first day, or rest on the seventh day, or work all days. No minister will say it. The weakness of such objections strengthens the argument for the Sabbath. Do you ask, Did not Christ come to do away the law? He says that he did not! The law is against sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin.
Did Christ do away with the law against idolatry, profanity, murder, adultery, theft, falsehood, covetousness, and commanding the worship of God, the Sabbath, and our duty to our parents? Did he? Yet these are the laws of the decalogue where the Sabbath is placed. If Christ did away with these laws to establish the gospel, it was a fruitless work; for where there is no law there is no transgression; and, therefore, no gospel is needed. But would Christ do away, or would any good man want him to do away for one moment, the law against murder, or any of these laws, so that there could be one moment when a man might deny God, steal, or kill, without sin? Then the Sabbath is of a law far older than the decalogue, as we have shown, and therefore could not be done away because it were done away. But these laws could not be done away at all. They are not Jewish, but general, and far more essential to our happiness than to God’s glory. They are not the arbitrary enactments of oppression; but a father’s careful provision for his children, not only essential to our happiness, but to our existence, and could only be done away by a great wrong. Please to read the decalogue, and tell us which of the commandments you would do away.

What did Christ do away?

Christ did away with those laws which were peculiar to the Hebrew State Church. The ceremonial law; the law concerning the priesthood, and sacrifices, and meats, and drinks; and Christ delivers those who trust in him from all the penalties of the law which were against us. But the Sabbath was not against us, but for us.
“Day of all the days the best, Emblem of eternal rest.”
Can we know the day? Yes; if we can know any day. If we can tell which is the first day, we can tell which is the seventh. If we know when Saturday comes, we can tell when Sunday comes. God ordained the Sabbath in Eden for our race. It was re-ordained on Sinai, in the darkness, the thunders, and the clouds; and it cannot be done away by less authority than that which gave it. The blessings of the Sabbath are innumerable. Like an ever-repeated voice from Heaven, it weekly calls hundreds of millions of weary toilers to rest. Toil, but for this merciful provision, would have no rest. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
It gives one day out of seven for rest, for refreshment, for purification, for social enjoyment, for cultivation, for education in religion, for moral reform, for worship. Blessed be God’s holy name. It provides a standing opportunity for the preaching of the gospel, the reading of God’s holy word, the instruction of children, and the ministration of good works. It is a standing monument of the goodness of God and the truth of revelation.
Christians should be punctual in the observance of the Sabbath. They should avoid all unnecessary toil. Such provision for the table should be made the day previous as will require the least labor on the Sabbath. They should not visit, to make the day a holiday, and cause others to labor. They should not permit others to keep them from the house of God. John Quincy Adams always went to church on the Sabbath, politely inviting his company, but never remaining away on their account. I make it a practice to close my house at church time; all visitors being expected to go to church, or to go away, unless they are unwell. Christians should avoid worldly conversation, gossip, and foolish jesting, especially on the Sabbath day. On this day, parents should rest, pray, read the Scriptures, instruct the family, or do such other things as are for the glory of God or the good of men. No gentleman, or lady, much less Christians of intelligence or propriety, will thrust themselves upon a family so as to cause them to entertain company, cook, or otherwise prevent the rest and quiet of the few hours which the Sabbath would otherwise secure to them. Ministers who go abroad to preach should be very careful of their deportment on the Sabbath. They should not only be careful to do no harm, but they should be careful to do good. In families they should be sober and devotional, and, if opportunity offers, instruct the children, and try to win them to Christ.—S. SUMMERBELL, D. D., in Christian Pulpit.