The Abiding Sabbath by A. T. Jones

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 14.

"The Abiding Sabbath."

By A. T. Jones

"THE CHANGE OF DAY."

UNDER the title of "The Change of Day," the author of the "Abiding Sabbath" devotes a chapter to the denial of the right of the seventh day to be considered the Sabbath; and he starts with the attempt to make a distinction between the Sabbath as an institution, and the Sabbath as the name of a day. He says:—

"Let it be urged that the Sabbath as an institution, and the Sabbath as the name of a day, are entirely distinct."—P. 201.

This is a turn that is quite commonly taken by those who deny that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but we wish that some of those who think they see this distinction, would describe what they call the "institution." We wish they would tell us what it is. We wish they would tell us how the "institution" was made, and how it can be observed distinct from the day. For says Mr. Elliott:—

"The particular day is no essential part of the institution."—P. 203.

If, therefore, the day be no essential part of the institution, it follows that the institution can be observed without reference to the day; and so we say we should like for Mr. Elliott, or some one else who thinks the proposition correct, to tell us how that can be done. But Mr. Elliott does not believe the proposition, nor does any one else whom we have ever known to state it. In his argument under this very proposition that, "The particular day is no essential part of the institution," Mr. Elliott says:—

"Without doubt, the spiritual intent of the Sabbath will fail of full realization except all men unite upon one day."—Id.

Then what his argument amounts to is just this: The particular day is no essential part of the institution, yet the institution will fail of proper realization unless all unite upon a particular day. In other words, The particular day is an essential part of the institution. And that is exactly where every one lands who starts with this proposition. But it is not enough to say that the day is an essential part of the institution. The day is the institution, and the institution is the day. And if the particular day be taken away, the institution is destroyed. The commandment of God is not, Remember the Sabbath institution, to keep it holy. Nor is it merely, Remember the Sabbath, as though it were something indefinite. But it is plainly, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Ex. 20:8. The word of God is not that he blessed the Sabbath institution, and hallowed it. But the word is, "The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:11.

Nor is it left to men to select, and unite upon some "one day" to be the Sabbath. The Lord not only commands men to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, but he also tells them as plainly as language can tell, that "The seventh day is the Sabbath." It is the seventh day that God blessed at creation. It is the seventh day that he then sanctified. It is the seventh day upon which he rested. Gen. 2:2, 3. It was the rest, the blessing and the sanctification, of the seventh day that made the institution of the Sabbath. And it is simply the record of a fact, when the Lord wrote on the table of stone, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." Suppose the question should be asked, What is the Sabbath? As the word of God is true, the only true answer that can be given is, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." Therefore it is as plain as words can make it, that apart from the seventh day there is no Sabbath; and that apart from the seventh day there is no Sabbath institution.

Again, the word Sabbath means rest, and with this Mr. Elliott agrees; he says:—

"The word 'Sabbath' is the one used in the fourth commandment; it means 'rest,' and it is the substantive from the verb employed in Gen. 2:2, 3, also Ex. 31:17, to describe the divine resting after creation."—P. 202.

But God did not bless the rest, he blessed the rest day; he did not hallow the rest, he hallowed the rest day. That rest day was the seventh day, the last day of the week. "And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Did God rest any day of the week but the seventh day? Assuredly not. Then is not the seventh day the rest of God? Most certainly. Then whenever anybody calls any day the Sabbath, but the seventh day—the last day of the week—he not only contradicts the plain word of God, but he also contradicts the very language in which they speak; because he gives the title of "rest" to that which by no possibility can truthfully bear it. The word of God is the truth, and it says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath [rest] of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work."

Yet in the face of his own reference to Gen. 2:2, 3, and Ex. 31:17, the author of the "Abiding Sabbath," has the brass to write the following:—

"As a human monument the particular day has value, but it has no bearing on that divine ordinance of rest and worship which comes to us out of eternity, and blends again with it at the end of time."—P. 203.

"As a human monument!" How did the particular day—the seventh day—in Gen. 2:2, 3 become a human monument? What human being had anything to do with the erection of that monument? It was God who set up that monument, and when an institution established by the Lord himself, can be called a human monument, we should like to know how much further a five-hundred-dollar prize would justify a man in going.

And again, "The particular day has no bearing upon that divine ordinance which comes to us out of eternity." This, too, when the particular day is that divine ordinance. If the particular day has no bearing upon that divine ordinance of rest and worship which comes to us out of eternity, then what is the ordinance, and how can it be observed? This brings him again to the important concession that, "all men must unite upon one day," or else the Sabbath will fail of its proper realization. But we would ask, Did not the Lord know that, when he made the Sabbath? Did he not know that it is necessary that all men should unite upon one day? We are certain that he did, and that he made ample provision for it. He himself selected the day which should be the Sabbath. He rested a certain definite day, he blessed that day, and he set it apart from the other days of the week, and he commanded man—the human race—to remember that day, and to do no work therein. That day is the last day of the week, the seventh day, and not the first day of the week. But the day which the Lord has chosen to be the Sabbath; the day which he has put honor upon; the day which he has, by his own divine words and acts, set apart from all other days; the day which he, by his own voice from Heaven, has commanded to be kept holy; that day which he has called his own, is to be set aside by men as not essential, and a heathen institution, by the authority of a heathen commandment exalted to the place of the Lord's day, and as all-essential. But it is wickedness.

As for us, we choose to obey the word of God, rather than the word of men. We choose to rest the day in which he has commanded us to rest. We choose to hallow the day which he has hallowed. We choose to keep holy the day which he has made holy, and which he has commanded all men to keep holy.

Reader, "God did rest the seventh day from all his works." Heb. 4:4. What are you going to do? God says, Remember the rest day to keep it holy. Ex. 20:8. What are you going to do? God says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath [the rest] of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work." Ex. 20:10. What are you going to do?

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but 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; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58:13, 14. A. T. J.