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Good Authority

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 16, 1872

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 39, No. 18.

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Good Authority.

By H. S. Guilford

The American Tract Society’s publications I think are generally considered good authority, at least, on most points. And as I do not remember of having seen their testimony published in the Review in regard to the date of the institution of the Sabbath, I send you extracts from their Dictionary of the Bible for general use. Page 272, under heading of manna, after having noticed the different kinds of manna, they say, “It is in vain, however, to seek to identify with any of these the manna of the Israelites, which was evidently a special provision for them, beginning and terminating with their need of it. It was found, not on trees and shrubs, but on ‘the face of the wilderness,’ wherever they went; and was different in its qualities from any now known by that name, being dry enough to grind and bake like grain, but breeding worms on the second day. It was miraculous in the amount that fell, for the supply of millions; in not falling on the Sabbath; in falling in double quantities the previous day; and in remaining fresh during the Sabbath.”
“By these last three peculiarities God miraculously attested the sanctity of the Sabbath, as dating from the creation, and not from Mt. Sinai.”
Again, in same book, under the heading of Sabbath, page 378, after quoting Gen. 2: 2, 3, the following statement is made: “We here have an account of the ORIGINAL INSTITUTION of the day of rest. Like the institution of marriage, it was given to man for the whole race. Those who worshiped God seem to have kept the Sabbath from the first, and there are tokens of this in the brief sketch the Bible contains of the ages before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai.”
The RE-ENACTMENT of the Sabbath on Mt. Sinai among the commandments of the moral law, was also designed, not for the Jews alone, but for all who should receive the word of God, and ultimately for all mankind. Christ and his apostles never speak of the decalogue but as of permanent and universal obligation. “The Sabbath was made for man.” The fourth commandment is as binding as the third and fifth. Certain additions to it, with specifications and penalties, were a part of the Mosaic civil law, and are not now in force. Ex. 31: 14; Num. 15; 32–36.
H. S. GUILFORD.
St. Charles, Mich.