A SABBATH BOOMERANG

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 27, 1901

A SABBATH BOOMERANG.

It is a pet position of those who wish to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, to fall back on the assertion that it was given to the Jews alone, and was consequently binding upon them only. But this, like all other objections to the Sabbath, is turned against the objector by the command itself. The Fourth Commandment shows by its own testimony that it is a commandment not binding on the Jews alone, but of universal obligation. This will clearly appear from the language in which it is given.

For instance, those who were to refrain from all labor on the Sabbath are enumerated in Ex. 20:10, as follows: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.”

This expression, “thy stranger,” settles the whole question of the universality of the obligation of the Sabbatic institution; for this includes everybody. That is, persons not only from any part of Judea, but from any part of the earth, who chanced to be in a Hebrew home, would have been the “stranger” within the gates, and would therefore have come under the requirement to rest upon the Sabbath of the Lord. But why should he be required to rest there upon the Sabbath? Was it because he chanced at that time to be in one particular place, and not in another? Can any one suppose that a mere change of location would make any difference in regard to the obligation of such an institution as the Sabbath? that anything would become a religious duty just as soon as one reached Palestine, which would not have been a duty had he remained in Persia, Asia Minor, Greece, or Egypt?

But it may be said that of course while the stranger was with the Israelites, he must conform to Israelitish customs and worship. O, no; that is the very thing he was not allowed to conform to. That is the very thing he was forbidden to do. Take, as an example, the Passover. That was a particularly Jewish institution; but of that the stranger was expressly forbidden to partake. Ex. 12:43. Now, had the Sabbath been a Jewish institution, like the Passover, the stranger would have been forbidden to have a part in that also.

But no; every stranger in the land was obliged to keep the Sabbath, showing that it was an institution which was not peculiar to the Jews, not given for them alone, but was binding upon all men.