DID ADAM KEEP THE SABBATH?
By S. O. James
From every reasonable standpoint we conclude that he did. Those who deny this seem to demand a direct statement by inspiration that our first parents as individuals did regard God’s holy day, which we claim is no more necessary than such a statement concerning Enoch, Noah, Abraham, or even Moses, Aaron and David, of the latter three of whom it is not denied that they observed it. It is a well attested fact that just such a Sabbath as God has given us in his law is indispensable to man’s moral and physical nature. Repeated experiments as recorded in “Morality of the Sabbath,” by D. M. Canright, from Justin Edwards and others, abundantly prove this; and this, without Christ’s direct statement that “the Sabbath was made for man,” should be sufficient to show that it was not intended for a particular class alone. But when we appeal to the inspired word of God, and read what is stated concerning this blessed institution, its nature, design, etc., we must conclude that nothing except a willful perversion of the language found in Gen. 2:3, and Mark 2:27, founded on a settled determination not to understand, would lead any to take the position that the Lord’s day was confined to the Jews. For instance, in Gen. 2:3, we read, “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; or, to use the definition of the word sanctified in lieu of the word itself, we read, “And God blessed the seventh day, and set it apart to a sacred or holy use.” We have already discovered how admirably it is adapted to man’s need; therefore for whom was it set apart? Not for the angels surely. Or did the beneficent Creator reserve it for the nation of the Jews only, that they might have a day which, while it secured to them physical rest, also furnished a blessed memorial of the great Creator’s work, thus depriving all before them of a blessing so inestimable? Who can so believe? S. O. JAMES.