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Facts and Arguments

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 21, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 38, No. 23.

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Facts and Arguments.

By R. F. Cottrell

THE SABBATH is a day of rest after six days of labor; but the six days of labor are those days of the divinely-appointed weekly cycle on which God labored in the work of creation, and the day of rest is the one of the series on which he rested. That day is the Sabbath day (rest day) of the Lord God. No other can be his rest day, because he rested on no other.
When God gave Israel, in the desert, food from Heaven, he chose to give it in such a way that they should have the labor of gathering it on six days, from which labor they should rest on the Sabbath. This he did to prove them, whether they would walk in his law. The law existed before a test of obedience to it was prepared. Ex. 16: 4: “Behold, I will rain bread from Heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” This was done before the annunciation of the law at Sinai. Hence the Sabbath law existed before Israel came to Sinai; and not only so, it existed before the first fall of manna; for the manna was not given to institute the law, but to test the people, whether they would obey it.
The Sabbath was not consequent to the falling of the manna on six days, but the reason why a double portion was given on the sixth day was because the Sabbath had been given before. It is not, The Lord is about to give you a Sabbath on the seventh day, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. But Moses did say, “The Lord HATH GIVEN you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” Ex. 16: 29. An effect cannot exist before its cause. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath existed before the bread of two days was given. And if it existed a week before, it must have existed from the creation; for Gen. 2 contains the only revelation of it previous to the giving of the manna.
R. F. COTTRELL.