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The Sabbath

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 15, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 7.

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The Sabbath.

"REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor; and do all thy work. Exodus 20:8, 9.
This is the law of God for all ages and all men. It comes to us on the authority of revelation, the constitution of man, and the laws of nature. It is irreversible and irresistible in its sphere and mode, as are all other laws resting on both a moral and natural basis. It may be violated, but if violated the penalty follows. Obedience or penalty is the alternative..
This divine Sabbath law, then—"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work"—rises as a light from God and hangs over all nations. It is the authoritative, immutable code, framed into the being of man and the nature of things. Against this law nations may dash themselves; but they will go down, and not the law. Against this law States may frame their legislation and affect to despise it; but they are the ones to be swept aside by the encounter, like the animal that disputed the track with the railroad train, while the law holds on its course. Against this law political parties, in their blindness, prejudice, bigotry, may set themselves; but they will disappear like morning fogs which darken the sun for a time, but do not put it out; and the law will shine out again in all its divine brightness. Against this law individuals, in their impiety and recklessness, may be in haste to make their mark and put themselves on record; but they are the ones to be thrown back like spray when a storm-wave dashes against the rocks at Light-house Point.
Such is the irreversible, irresistible, divine Sabbath law, shining above us, arching all Christian nations with its clear light, and overhanging our whole civilization. It goes over, without the abatement of a hair's breadth, from Judaism to Christianity, from the old dispensation to the new, from one nation to another, one continent, one hemisphere, to another.—The Pacific.