p. 6 | THE SABBATH by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 10, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 15.

THE SABBATH.

By T.

What sacred charms and blessed, joyful memories cluster around the Sabbath! The enemy of God has tried in every way he could invent to destroy it. He has led the great multitude wholly to ignore the Sabbath, to treat that sacred day as if it were of no consequence. He has led some to observe it with a strenuous austerity that has taken away all the joy and charm that our heavenly Father placed in the Sabbath when He instituted it. And in the face of these opposing and destructive influences only a comparative few have seen and enjoyed the Sabbath as the Lord intended it to be enjoyed.

The Jewish people in the time of Christ were very strict in what they called Sabbath-keeping. But the Saviour had to show them that they knew nothing of real Sabbath-keeping. They had invented a lot of ceremonies and observances, and were giving the most punctilious attention to these, and calling it Sabbath-keeping. They had so filled their minds with these superstitious rites that they had really lost sight of the Sabbath altogether. That which God gave for a great blessing to mankind, they had turned into a withering curse. How often is it the case that man perverts the blessings of heaven, and makes them a yoke of bondage.

Then we should not be satisfied with any human ideas of the value of the Sabbath or of what really constitutes Sabbath-keeping. We should go to the Author of the Sabbath direct, and from His Word learn just what He Himself would have us do. Any other course is unsafe, and robs us of the great blessing of Sabbath-keeping.

The Promised Blessing.

In this connection it is well to consider one of the promises that is fulfilled alone thru the Sabbath. We should be educated away from the idea that Sabbath-keeping imposes burdens upon us; for the exact opposite is the truth. True, intelligent Sabbath-keeping brings sunshine and the richest and fullest joys into the soul. Read the following promise carefully, and see what the Lord Himself has to say about it:—

“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 58: 13, 14.

“The mouth of the Lord” gave this great promise. It is none other than the Lord of heaven and earth who has called us to take away our feet from trampling upon the Sabbath. He it is who calls us to see and enjoy the “delight” of the Sabbath by not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasures, nor speaking our own words. The Lord has something

better for us than these things of ours. So He asks us to lay aside what we have, that we may be able to enter into the rest and joy that He has provided for us in Sabbath-keeping.

Having laid aside our own ways, and our own pleasures, and our own words, then comes the promise, thou shalt “delight thyself in the Lord.” O, the depths of the “delight” which the Lord gives! how boundless! how full! And how clearly does the text under consideration show that Sabbath-keeping is one of the ten beautiful gates thru which this delight is reached.

Having entered upon the path of Sabbath-keeping, and thus learned of the real “delight” of the Lord, then there comes that stronger part of the promise,—“I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.” Note it carefully. The Lord says, “I will cause thee.” He does not leave the reward to rest upon our finite resources and abilities to grasp and hold it, but the Lord Himself causes it, with all its joys, to take us up, and by the arms of Omnipotence to bear us along.

He causes the Sabbath-keeper “to ride upon the high places of the earth.” Now, do not get your eye fixed upon thrones or other places of worldly honor. To the men of this world they look like the “high places of the earth;” but they are not apt to be so in fact. They are places that are filled with distressing care and anxiety, and as a usual thing are the storm-centers of earth’s selfish ambition and degenerate greed for power.

There are far higher places than these positions that the men of earth are wont to look upon as the crowning realization of the highest hopes. The Lord does not want to stop short of feeding “thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.” The heritage of Jacob embraces every promise of the Lord. It contains all that is of real worth in this life, and every one of the riches and blessings of eternity is in it. It gives the possessor the certified and sealed papers of adoption into the royal family of heaven. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8: 14–17.

The “heritage of Jacob,” then, is to be “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” A “joint-heir!” What glorious realities do these words hold before the mind! The “joint-heir” is to come into the possession of his full share of everything that the Father possesses. Everything that his constantly expanding powers can enjoy in all the universe of God will be eternally his. It is into just such a wonderful blessing as this that our Father in heaven wishes to bring us. All of His great universe belongs to His only-begotten Son, and He has arranged that every loyal member of the human family shall become a “joint-heir” with Him to its joys and occupations.

Such, in brief, is the “heritage” of Jacob, and into such blessed realities will true Sabbath-keeping bring us. In a following paper the purpose of the Sabbath will be considered. T.