Sabbath School Department.
By G. H. Bell
Creation and the Sabbath.
1. What took place in the beginning? Gen. 1:1. 2. What means did God use in creating the earth? Ps. 33:6, 9. 3. What was the first condition of the earth? Gen. 1:2. 4. How many days were employed in the work of creation? Ex. 20:11. 5. What was created on each day? 6. What did God do on the seventh day? Gen. 2:2. 7. What does the expression “ended his work” signify?—That he ceased working,—discontinued it. 8. Which day of the week, then, is the rest-day of the Creator? 9. What word signifies rest-day?—Sabbath. 10. What direct proof have we that the seventh day is the Sabbath? Ex. 20:10. 11. How did God honor the seventh day? Gen. 2:3. 12. What is it to sanctify anything?—See synopsis. 13. Did God set apart this day for his own use?—Syn. 14. For whom must he have set it apart?—Syn. 15. What does our Lord say about it?—Syn. 16. What command have we in regard to this day? Ex. 20:8. 17. Why is this day to be kept holy? Repeat. Ex. 20:11. 18. Why is the Sabbath called God’s memorial?—Rom. 1. 19. What will become of those who forget God? Ps. 9:17. 20. What will help us to love God and obey him?—Rom. 2. 21. Why have we no right to follow our own desires?—Rom. 2. 22. Why have we no right to use our possessions as we please?—Rom. 2. 23. Keeping the Sabbath will lead us to do what?—Rom. 3. 24. Why have we no right to injure or abuse any of our faculties?—Rom. 4. God created the heaven and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh; and since Sabbath means rest-day, the seventh day must be God’s Sabbath. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” Ex. 20:10. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested.” To sanctify is to set apart for a holy use. The seventh day was set apart for the use of Adam and his posterity. “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:24. We are commanded to remember it and keep it holy. Ex. 20:8. The Sabbath should be kept holy that we may ever remember the great work of creation; “For in six days God created the heavens and the earth,” etc. Ex. 20:11. 1. Thinking of God’s wonderful works in the creation will keep him in our memory; and for this reason the Sabbath is often called God’s memorial. All who forget God will be turned into hell. Ps. 9:17. 2. Thinking that God created us and all that we have, will help us to love him and obey him. It will make us feel that we have no right to follow our own desires, for we are not our own; that the things we possess are only lent to us, and we have no right to use them except as God has directed. 3. Keeping the Sabbath, then, leads us to think of the creation, to remember the great Creator, to love and obey him, to remember that we are not our own, and that all we have is God’s. 4. God has not only created us, but he has bought us by the blood of his Son; so we have no right to abuse or injure any of our faculties of body or mind. G. H. Bell.