WASH DAY by Mrs. S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 2, 1901

WASH DAY

By Mrs. S. N. Haskell

MRS. S. N. HASKELL

THE very name brings to mind a scene of busy activity, and too often of confusion and impatience.

In the hurry and bustle, morning worship is often neglected, or perhaps the mother is absent, attending to the washing. The peace and quiet of the home seem to be invaded by an enemy. Too often, after the work is finished, the good housewife is so weary that, as she expresses it, she “can not help being fretful and impatient.” All the family draw a sigh of relief when “wash day” is over.

My dear sisters, did you ever, as you stood over your washing, hear the Saviour saying to you, “Lo, I am with you ALWAY, even unto the end of the world”? He meant it when He said that He is always with you. “Always” includes the time spent at the washtub. In His word He has linked precious lessons with the commonplace work of washing clothes, in order that, as you do the work, you may think of the lesson.

God himself at Sinai gave the command, “Let them wash their clothes.” Ex. 19:10. Don’t you think He was interested in that “wash day,” when all Israel were washing their clothes, that they might be prepared to meet Him? Is it not just as pleasing to-day to God for you to wash your clothes that you may be clean before Him?

As you gather your clothes, and prepare for the washing, hear the Lord speaking to you, “Let them wash their clothes.” Do the work in obedience to His command, and you will find that love will lighten the labor.

Anciently, when the Levites were consecrated for service in the priest’s office, among other things the Lord said: “Let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean.” Num. 8:7. Why not look upon your regular washing as a weekly re-consecration to the office of the “royal priesthood,” to which God has called you? 1 Peter 2:9. This work is necessary in order to keep your households in a condition pleasing to God. Consider you are serving and obeying God just as much at your washtub as in going to service on the Sabbath day. The command, “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord,” includes outward cleanliness as well as inward.

There are many verses in the Bible that speak of washing, connecting it with spiritual truth. If these verses were committed to memory and kept for wash-day meditation, you would find that, like Cleopas and his companion, you could say, at the close of the day, “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scripture?” Jesus would manifest Himself to you as you wash your clothes. I remember one sister, a Mary by character, who sat at the Saviour’s feet. She would take a text and keep it in mind while washing, and would often tell of the precious light she received from it.

As we wash the clothes, let us hear the Saviour saying to us, “Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.” Jer. 4:14. If the dirt is obstinate and hard to remove, remember the Lord compares it to vain thoughts, which have lodged long in our hearts, although He longs to wash them away. He says to us, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.” How well the linen of our households represents ourselves! We place it on the shelf, clean and white; but it is soon soiled. So we come to the Lord, and though our “sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Alas! how soon the purity is marred, and we need to return again to the Master to be cleansed!

God has compared the cleansing of sins to the removing of dirt from our garments, so that washing our clothes would keep before our minds our own degraded condition if we were not washed and kept by His cleansing power.

As the work begins each wash-day morning, remember that God gave the command, “Let them wash their clothes.” When you find a garment that washes easy, let a prayer ascend that you may be like it in the Lord’s hands. If a garment is hard to wash, and you spend much work upon it, pray that you may not cling to evil and keep vain thoughts, and thus frustrate the Lord’s work.

Let the constant prayer of your heart be, “Wash ME throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash ME; and I shall be whiter than snow.”

(To be concluded:)