Where the Danger Lies by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 8, 1883

Where the Danger Lies.

By Editor

A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian at Work writes concerning a new party based on moral ideas, which he thinks is soon to be constructed. It will advocate prohibition, woman suffrage, compulsory education, etc. Of the Sunday plank in the new platform, the writer says: "A third plank will be a recognition of the legal sanctity of the Sabbath which is now in danger." This sentence as it stands expresses more than the writer intended; but we would not have him correct the punctuation; it conveys the correct idea now. There are two Sabbaths which claim recognition from the people: a true and a false Sabbath. The "sabbath which is now in danger," and which, being merely a human institution, must needs be propped up by civil enactment, is the Sunday, the counterfeit sabbath. It is being used more and more as a secular day, and is in danger of being lost. There is nothing that can save it except the law of the land. A prominent first-day paper truly said, "We cannot sustain it before the people if we claim its sanctity as a religious institution." Its friends, seeing its danger, are loudly calling for help.

But the true Sabbath—"the Sabbath of the Lord"—the seventh day, does not ask for the support of human laws, for the Creator of the universe has set his seal upon it. It was given by the Almighty, one who has power to punish the transgressor, and vindicate his truth. This Sabbath will endure while the world stands. It is not in danger. We cannot say as much, however, for those who are trampling upon it. May they see their danger before it is too late.