WILL the minds of men ever again be turned back to the true Sabbath of the Lord? As one traces the history of the Sabbath institution from its origin at the close of creation week down through its varied experiences in the Jewish dispensation, the reformation attending it at the first advent of Christ, the decline in its observance in the first few centuries, and its almost utter extinction in the Dark Ages, the question as to whether the minds of men will ever again be turned back to its observance is one which involuntarily forces itself upon every thoughtful student.
In the beginning this institution formed a part of God’s great purpose. Will He permit His purpose to be thwarted? Sin has turned it aside, and the enemy of all righteousness has hindered its execution; but will this be forever?—Nay, verily. No word uttered by the Lord is meaningless. No design will remain unexecuted. No purpose will be thwarted. Sin and the hosts of evil may for a little time turn aside the arrows of God’s truth, but those arrows will eventually reach their destined mark. From its abasement, its servitude, and all the obloquy and opprobrium heaped upon the rest day of the Lord during the recurring centuries of this earth’s history, it will come out triumphant in the end.
The Word of God plainly declares that in the last days there will be a revival of true Sabbath observance. This revival of the Lord’s day rest will be a part of the great work of reform which shall sweep over this earth preparatory to the second coming of Christ. That the coming of Christ is near, even at the door, multiplying evidences on every side clearly indicate. And in the very nature of the case, considering the condition of professed Christianity to-day, a message of reform is a necessity in order that the true may be distinguished from the false, the genuine from the counterfeit, the chaff from the wheat. It is the crisis in religious experience that distinguishes the metal. And so in the last days there is destined to be a great crisis in the religious world.
The church has become corrupt. Every form and species of iniquity abound under the garb of Christianity. The churches have departed from their simplicity, and have become great social organizations. Politics have entered the realm of religion, and the church seeks to make up its lack of spiritual power by employing the strength of civil authority. The Lord might leave the world to its downward course, and permit the impending judgments of the last day to fall upon a careless and indifferent church. But this He can not do in His infinite love and pity. The church of God demands a reformation, even as greatly as in the sixteenth century.
This reformation is due, and is even now going to earth’s remotest bounds, and it embraces in its scope a reform in every line. It proclaims the coming of the Lord and the standard of life necessary to constitute a preparation for that event. And as a component part of that reformation the attention of the minds of men is called to the law of God, and with special directness to the one commandment above all others being violated by the Christian church,—the commandment requiring the observance of the only and true Sabbath of the Lord.
In the seventh chapter of Revelation is brought to view a company who are to be translated, as was Elijah, without seeing death, at the second coming of Christ. The seal of God placed in the foreheads of this company is the true Sabbath of the Lord. This constitutes God’s distinguishing mark. In all ages has it been the sign of sanctification of the true Israel. Ex. 31:17. In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation and first verse, the same company is brought to view, and there the seal of God in their foreheads is said to be the Father’s name. The Father’s name indicates the Father’s character. Thus the seal of God embraces more than mere outward Sabbath observance. It is a sign of the possession of the character of God.
In this same chapter, Revelation 14, is brought to view another company, having not the mark of God but the mark of anti-christ, the “mark of the beast.” These represent those who are to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s power at His second advent. And possessing, as they do, the mark of the beast, it indicates also that they will possess a character of which the mark is only the outward indication. This mark is the false sabbath which has been set up by the influence of the beast in opposition to the true Sabbath of the Lord.
Other scriptures, such as Isaiah, chapters 56 and 58, show further that in the last days true Sabbath reform will constitute a part of the great closing message. And to-day, by land and sea, through the agency of tongue and pen, in the words of living preachers and in the pages of silent printed messengers, is the truth of God being heralded to the world.
On the other hand, in proportion as the Lord reveals His truth, we see a corresponding effort put forth by the powers of evil to enforce the claims of the counterfeit. The advocates of the false sabbath, unable to make any appeal to the Word of God or the moral sense of the people, from the lack of divine precept, appeal to the power of the civil arm to foist upon men this papal institution.
Thus is the conflict deepening. It is not a conflict having its origin in this century nor in the last. It is the culmination of the great conflict of the ages. Since sin entered has the war been on betwixt the true and the false. And now the hosts of evil are marshaling to make a last great assault upon the citadel of divine truth. Finding illogical argument of no avail, recourse will be had to the civil power, and persecution will follow, as in the Dark Ages, to those unwilling to submit their consciences to the dictation of their fellows. See Revelation 13, where it is plainly stated that the mark of the beast, the false sabbath, will be forced upon men, and all who will not admit its claims shall neither buy nor sell, and eventually will the attempt be made to take from them even life itself.
But God will most gloriously vindicate the right. Clouds may lower, darkness enshroud, the hosts of evil may press around on every side, and it may seem to those who have dedicated their all to God that only destruction and oblivion await them and the principles for which they stand. But the power of the oppressor shall be broken, and glorious victory turn on the side of the Lord’s Israel. At the time when all seems lost, the Lord will appear to take His people home. And then in the earth made new and in the righteous nation redeemed from earth’s long history, the purpose of God will be carried out in its original design. From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come up to worship before the Lord of hosts. Isa. 66:22, 23.3
Thus the Sabbath of the Lord, like a grand triumphal arch, spans the abyss of sin, reaching from Paradise lost to Paradise restored; or like a golden thread interwoven with strands of closest fabric, so the Sabbath of the Lord winds its way through the meshes of superstition and sin, sometimes quite if not entirely lost to view, but finally emerges in all its resplendent glory and all its original purity and brightness, reflecting all the more radiance from the contrast with its associations and environments.
Thus in the beginning God designed one universal Sabbath, and while Satan has sought to thwart this holy purpose, it will eventually succeed, and throughout the endless ages of eternity will the Sabbath be observed by the children of men in commemoration of their creation, and as a sign of their sanctification and redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ.