The Lord’s Day and the Sabbath
The Ministerial Association of Tulare, Cal., backed by a petition for a “rest-day” on behalf of clerks and employees as well as in the interest of good morals, “suggests” to the business men of that city to “give due notice through the town press that on and after February 16 you will cease to do secular business on the ‘Lord’s day,’ save in cases of extreme necessity. We have naught to do with neighboring towns, but we firmly believe that in carrying out this expressed will of so large a number of your patrons, you will in nowise become losers in trade. A few may for a time go to other towns for trade, but a larger number of a better class of dealers will come to you because you keep the Christians’ Sabbath.” Now the “Lord’s day” must be the day the Lord calls His, which He has set apart and honored. According to the Bible (Ex. 20:8–11; Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28; Matt. 28:1), this day is the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. “Christian” comes from Christ. The Christian Sabbath must be the Sabbath made, blessed, honored, observed, by Christ. But as the Creator He rested on, blessed, and sanctified the seventh day; as the one only perfect Example, He kept the day. He finally died to save the sinner from the transgression of that law of which the Sabbath was a part. If the business men will keep this day voluntarily, from the heart, it will indeed be in the interest of good morals. But would a counterfeit be? If any day is kept by constraint, it has neither credit nor blessing in it.