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Preparation Day

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 44, No. 6.

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Preparation Day.

By JOS. CLARKE.

AND that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. Luke 23:54. No important work, or duty, or ordinance, involving uniform action or practice, can be well performed without thorough preparation.
The national festival of the Fourth of July is preceded by expensive and laborious works of arrangement and preparation; and we judge of the success very much by the skill and thoroughness of the preparations, and no one would think of enjoying the Fourth if all the arrangements and labors of the occasion were deferred till the day arrived.
A great national festival is contemplated, to be realized in 1876; and already the extensive plans and arrangements are being made, so that the day or year may be one of joy, not wearisome labor and perplexity.
To come at once to the subject: we will say that, to properly observe the Sabbath, the previous day must be one of preparation. It is more necessary than in the above-mentioned cases, as labor is forbidden; and in this consists very much the virtue of the day, freedom from perplexity, labor, and care.
In the race of life, the Sabbath is a stopping place, to interrupt the tide of worldliness, which, without the Sabbath, would soon destroy what little remains to man of goodness, and virtue, and benevolence; and without this day of rest, our wearied bodies and minds would sink in weariness, or be devoured by selfishness and greed, or sink in sloth and inaction, or run into weakness and shame, as we see the heathens of Asia and Africa.
“What is worth doing, is worth doing well,” applies with great force to all religious duties, and especially to the Sabbath; and he who waits till the Sabbath to prepare for its celebration will find it a burden, for angels will not attend in such a house nor in such a heart.
Once a week is none too often to right up one's affairs; and then is the time to post your books, clean up your surroundings, put things in order and readiness for the next week, as well as for the Sabbath; and when the sun sets, it finds you calm and collected, and then angels will delight to attend you; and you will, if faithful in your Christian life, enjoy the day; and you will find the ensuing week a prosperous one for your work.
Do nothing carelessly; God despises the slack, loose work of the idler.
JOS. CLARKE.