Critique of the "National Sabbath" Concept
How little of the true Sabbath idea is manifest in the appointment of a “mid-week sabbath,” a “national sabbath,” an “American” and a “European” and an “Australian” sabbath! Such expressions originate in superstition and tradition rather than in the Bible idea of the Sabbath. The calling of the Fourth of July “Our National Sabbath,” as does William G. Haeselbarth, in the Christian Work of July 1, is a good example of this. In the first place, the Fourth of July has not one single element of the Bible Sabbath idea in it, and in the second place, the people will never use it as a sabbath, and in the third place, only God can make a Sabbath acceptable to him. Notwithstanding all this, men go on planting their ordinances and observances; but said Jesus, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.”