The Sabbath as a Memorial.
The reason usually given for the observance of the first day of the week as the Sabbath is, that it is a memorial of the resurrection of Christ. This reason necessarily implies that this memorial is a Christian institution, and, like those institutions ordained by Christ, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, is designed exclusively for Christians. Hence, in this country, the day is often called the Christian Sabbath. None but those who profess faith through Christ are permitted the rite of baptism. None are asked to partake of the Lord’s Supper but those who profess to be Christians. Unbelievers, and those who have no interest in the death of Christ, are not invited. So those who have no interest in the death of Christ can have no interest in his resurrection. There can be no justifiable reason, therefore, why one who does not profess salvation through the death of Christ should be asked to celebrate his resurrection by the observance of Sunday any more than he should be asked to celebrate the death of Christ by the observance of the Lord’s Supper. If the “Christian Sabbath”—as Sunday is called—be a Christian institution, as that name implies, it is wrong that others should be asked to join with Christians in its observance. There are those, however, who would have laws and penalties to compel those who are not Christians to observe a Christian institution! Could they not, with as much propriety, compel such to partake of the Lord’s Supper or be baptized? The application of the word Christian to the Sabbath, is of itself sufficient to lead those who do not profess to be Christians, to have little interest in its observance. As God rested from his labors, in the creation of the world, on the seventh day, so he blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the week, commanding men to observe it as a memorial of his creative works and rest. Gen. 2: 2, 3; Ex. 20: 8–11. It is not a Christian institution; it is not a Jewish institution; but an institution to be observed by the whole human race. To take this memorial which God has set up for a specified purpose, and make of it a memorial for another purpose, is very much like robbing God. But the observance of the first day of the week as a memorial of the resurrection of Christ does not, and cannot, in any way lessen our obligation to observe the memorial of God as creator, and his rest from his creative works. It is not a matter of surprise that people should cease to observe Sunday, a man-made memorial of the resurrection, as a holy day, and make it a mere holiday. The greater surprise is that so many people in this country continue to consider Sunday a holy day when there is no biblical reason for it.—Light of Home.