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THE SEVENTH DAY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 29, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 44.

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THE SEVENTH DAY.

SATURDAY is not the Sabbath. No true Sabbath-keeper holds it to be. In a general way he speaks of it thus sometimes, but always incorrectly.
“The seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” “From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths.” “At even when the sun did set.” The day begins at even, the evening begins with the setting of the sun. The seventh-day begins at sunset of the day commonly called Friday, and closes at set of sun of the day commonly called Saturday. It is identical in time with about one-fourth of Friday and three-fourths of Saturday. Its name is not Saturday, but Sabbath.
Apostasy not only sought to change the worship day in the week, but the time of beginning the day. It has sought to set aside the day around which and in which cluster the great facts of creation, with all their blessed assurances and hallowed associations of a finished work, and to transfer them to a day which calls to mind chaos, and at the most only a first step in light toward a glorious completion. Apostasy has sought to remove the sacredness of the day by placing its beginning and ending in night when the great world is asleep.
How different, how much more blessed is God’s way! The Sabbath, which every day of His week has recalled, comes at the close of a period of labor, pervaded by the spirit of rest which permeates the septenary cycle. We greet that hallowed period at its beginning with songs of praise, with instruction from God, with humble refreshing prayer to the Creator and Recreator, to Redeemer and Friend. We seek our physical rest in its hallowed bosom. We awake to its refreshing fulness in the morning, and enjoy its sacred associations to its close. We bid it adieu with praise and prayer, and enter upon the duties of a new week fortified by the Spirit of the Sabbath.
Who would not prefer God’s way to the way of the apostasy?