REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY.
By Albert Stone
The law of God is a perfect measuring rod. By it human actions are measured. In this balance character is weighed. Which of the ten commandments has the semblance of laxity in its demands? What is the nature of the fourth commandment in this respect? Can it be bent or twisted to suit the caprice of professed friends? Let it be borne in mind that the law is the product of infinite love and goodness; that in each of its sacred precepts is consulted man's greatest possible benefit; and that the least departure from it is a sin against God, and an injury to the transgressor. Where in the Bible is the permission to do any work for our personal profit or pleasure, on the Sabbath day? Is not such work positively forbidden by the fourth commandment? For one who keeps Sunday to work in the sugar place on the first day of the week, to prevent waste, or in the field, to get hay or grain into the barn, lest it be rained on, or to do any other similar work, is perhaps all well enough; because the authority for first day observance rests solely on tradition. There is therefore a show of consistency in the idea that tradition should, in certain cases, authorize labor on that day. But tradition must not be permitted to authorize labor on the Sabbath of the Lord, because that rests on the authority of God. “In it thou shalt not do any work.” Ex. 20 : 10.