THE SABBATH by Lucretia C. Canriguey

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1867

THE SABBATH.

By Lucretia C. Canriguey

As a blessing to man, God appointed to him a day of rest, a Sabbath. This, hallowed and blessed by his own keeping after the ending of his creative works he set apart to man. This, above all others, was to be devoted to the service of the Lord, commemorative of the work of creation. This to man was to be a day of rest from the labors, which, through sin, were imposed upon him, as, leaving the garden, God said to him, “By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” From the time these words were uttered, man went forth to labor. He must toil, suffer, and die. Thus to him a day was given wherein he might regain his wasted energies,—cease his work; and not only for this purpose alone, but that he might on this day think of God, of Heaven, and an end; think, study, reflect. As Jesus has said, so it will ever be, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

While it is a day to be kept holy unto the Lord, to refrain from seeking our own pleasure and interest, it is one in which we are commanded to do good. With some, the Sabbath, how lightly esteemed! Reversing God's order, they turn it into a day of pleasure, of feasting, and reveling. Upon such the frown of God rests, as living in violation of the command, “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, thy man servant, nor thy maid-servant,” &c., a sacred command, given by the Maker and Ruler of the universe.

LUCRETIA C. CANRIGUEY.

S. Norridgewock, Me.