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Sabbath Reform

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 18, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 18.

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Sabbath Reform.

By Charles P. Whitford

FROM the first it has been the faith of Seventh-day Adventists that clear prophecies were recorded in the Bible of a Sabbath reform; and in harmony with this belief they are proclaiming the evidences upon which their faith is based. In Isa. 56:1, 2, we read: “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the Son of Man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”
From this testimony we learn that when God’s salvation is near to come, and his righteousness to be revealed, then a blessing is pronounced upon the man that lays hold of the Sabbath, and keeps it. From the testimony of Paul in Rom. 13, we learn that when the long, dark night of sin is far spent, then God’s salvation is near to come. Then will his righteousness soon be revealed. And when this time fully arrives, we learn from the prophet that a blessing is pronounced upon the man that lays hold of the Sabbath. We think that here a Sabbath reform is evidently and clearly pointed out; a coming back to the true Bible Sabbath; the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; for how else could it be said, Blessed is the man that layeth hold of it? Had we always observed the Sabbath, it could not properly be said of us that we had laid hold of it; but having embraced it as the truth of God, and trying to shape our lives in accordance thereto, it can be very properly and truthfully said that we have laid hold of the Sabbath. And we can testify that to us the Sabbath is a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honorable; and while we have tried to keep it as such, the promised blessing has been verified unto us.
But while we are among those who believe in a Sabbath reform, we greatly deplore the movement which is now in progress to maintain the observance of the first day of the week. The “Young Men’s Christian Associations” are rapidly becoming a power in the land, and they declare that “the Christian Sabbath must and shall be preserved.” In union with this association, the evangelical churches all over our country are raising an alarm that the Christian Sabbath, which they denominate one of the free institutions of our country, is being endangered. Time has sufficiently demonstrated that these combined efforts in the past to sustain this so-called free institution by the word of God, have all proved fruitless; until now they see and feel the necessity of an immediate and combined effort to preserve this darling institution by the strong arm of the civil law. This movement of itself is sufficient proof of the sandy foundation upon which the observance of the first day of the week is based. But very few of our people are aware of the depth and extent of the movement which is now in progress to secure a religious amendment of the constitution. It is proposed that the Christian principles of the people be incorporated into, and become an integral part, of the constitution, and that these principles shall form the basis upon which our government shall rest; and then it is proposed that the national policy be shaped according to them, so that no person can hold an office of trust or profit whose life has not been conformable thereto. Who can fail to see that such a condition of things would be a virtual union of church and State—a going back to the religious despotisms of the dark ages? No one but Christians to hold any office. But who shall determine who are Christians? Why, the ruling churches of course. All others will be branded as heretics, and all rights denied them. So far has the agitation already progressed that public documents are everywhere circulated, a national association has been formed to carry forward the movement, and national conventions are being called in all parts of the country, and all American citizens are called upon to unite heartily in the work proposed. The success of the “proposed amendment” virtually destroys one of the first principles upon which our government was founded; viz., “All men shall have the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience.” When the time shall come that the constitution of our country enforces the observance of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, what will be the fate of those who conscientiously believe and lay hold of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and dare to keep it? They will be considered outlaws, and branded as heretics. This is where we are surely drifting. The time is evidently near when an image to the beast will be formed. A time of trouble and persecution is before us, but the saints of God will be delivered out of it. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
CHARLES P. WHITFORD.
Berkshire Center, Vt.