Hostility to the Sabbath.
By L. A. S.
UNDER the heading “Hostility to the Christian Sabbath,” the Pittsburg Christian Advocate says the following concerning Seventh-day observers:— We may add to the foes of the Christian sabbath the Seventh-day Adventists—especially in this region. Whether it is wrongheadedness on their part, honestly advocating an error, or whether it is that they are the paid agents of the anti-Sabbath forces, we can not say. When we consider the tons of their literature which they circulate, the tents which they plant here and there, the halls they rent, and the considerable expense involved in the propagation of their mischievous notions, we are inclined to think the latter is the case. We can assure the Advocate that Seventh-day Adventists are not the paid agents of the anti-Sabbath forces, or of any other persons. They are not anti-Sabbath advocates at all. Their very title, “Seventh-day Adventists,” indicates that they are believers in and advocates of a Sabbath—the seventh day. They believe in the seventh-day Sabbath because God himself said “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” It is not at all strange that sixty thousand or more such people in this country should circulate tons of literature and conduct tent meetings, at a considerable expense. Any people who were in earnest in their work would do the same. They have a message to give to the world, a message which calls for the greatest earnestness, energy, and self-sacrifice. They believe themselves commissioned to warn the world, as did Noah, of the impending judgments of God. They are giving to the world the message of Rev. 14:6-12: “Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters,” etc. Men do not worship God in spirit and in truth when they teach for doctrines the commandments of men. One of the commandments of men is the command to observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath; there is no command of God for such an observance. But on the contrary, God does command the observance of the seventh day, and the reason he gives for it is that in six days he “made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” Only by keeping his day can we truly worship “him that made “When the Christian sabbath has been broken down,” says the Advocate, “it will not mean the restoration of the seventh day. The breaking down of the Christian sabbath is the end of a seventh day of rest.” This statement is true enough, but it does not apply to the first day of the week. That day is not the Christian sabbath. The first-day sabbath is an institution which depends on human laws and traditions for its support. The seventh-day Sabbath has no human enactments to support it; it is contrary to human traditions and popular custom, in many places it is even directly antagonized by man-made statutes; yet in spite of all this it is not extinguished, but on the contrary is steadily gaining adherents both in this country and throughout the world. This is a demonstration that it does not need human laws or traditions for its support; and if the first day of the week were the true sabbath, the same might be said of it. The seventh day has the support of the word of Jehovah,—“the seventh day is the sabbath,”—and this is all the support that is needed, and the only support that is worth anything to a religious institution. It is only conscientious conviction and obedience, prompted by love, that counts for anything in the worship of God. All other worship is only hypocritical and spurious, an offense to God and to man. No conviction of conscience or true heart worship can be secured by the enforcement of the civil statutes. Why, then, should the Advocate wish such statutes commanding Sunday observance to be enforced? Why should there be laws to force the world into a hypocritical conformity to the worship of the church? Without faith it is impossible to please God, and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Let the Christian Church worship and serve God in faith, and let the world, which knows not God and has not faith, not commit greater sin by a formal worship of God and observance of his memorials, inspired not by faith, but by selfishness only. Let the dividing line between the church and the world be sharp and distinct, as it ought to be. The Christian religion is supported not by law, but by love. The love of God prevails in the heart that is yielded to him over every earthly consideration. And because this is so, Christianity will triumph not only without the aid of worldly governments or worldly power in any form, but in spite of all that these can do against it. This the Advocate should know, and on this basis it can rest5its hopes without fear of the future. The day is at hand when God will vindicate his truth in the world, without man’s help; for the hour of God’s judgment has come. Already the judgments of God are in the land. We have reached the generation when Christianity will win an eternal triumph over the forces of unrighteousness. Soon the world will know that it has a sovereign, whose word is the truth, and whose law is unchangeable to all generations.