GOD'S ESTIMATE OF SABBATH-BREAKING.
By Robert Hare
THE psalmist seems never to have tired of setting forth the exalted position of those who make Jehovah their refuge, while he pictured in awful colors the doom of all unrepentant transgressors. Some of his loftiest flights of eloquence are descriptive of God's wonderful works, which he declares were made "to be remembered." Ps. 111:4. This being true, God must have ordained some memorial whereby his wonderful works would be kept in mind. And he has given such a memorial to the generations of men; one that at once points out the only and true God, and also the origin of our universe. This great register mark, whereby Deity stamps the universe as his own, is found in the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. As it comes around in the weekly cycle it points back with unerring accuracy to the time when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy over the birth of a world, as it came forth clad in the verdure of a fadeless spring-time. We are not left to conjecture on the important question as to why the Sabbath was given. Jehovah has made a direct statement on this point that admits of no controversy. "Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." We find, that in many instances when God wishes to present himself as pre-eminently superior to all other gods, he does so by alluding to the fact that he is creator. "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" Isa. 40:28. Then it is reasonable to suppose that whatever brings the facts of creation most prominently before our minds, must unquestionably tend to determine the true God, and the character of that honor due to his name. We cannot conceive of there being a more appropriate or lasting memorial of God's great work than the Sabbath which he has ordained for that purpose. Monuments of stone would long ago have crumbled to dust; marble slab and granite pier would have perished before the surging tempests of six thousand years; but week after week the Sabbath comes from the far-away chambers of the east, gilding the hill-tops and chasing the shadows, fresh as when it first dawned on the world to tell the great story of creation. Week after week it comes to confute atheistic theorists, and to disprove the great fallacy of first-day observance. Dare we disregard its claims, or with unhallowed fingers try to disarrange the Creator's plan? Had men always recognized the Sabbath, it would be impossible that atheism could exist. True, the many of our day despise its obligations and scoff at the memories it would recall; but the great truth that God's wonderful works were made to be remembered, stands immutable. The Sabbath is the sign whereby God would have us recognize him in creation, and when men disregard this, they also disregard the awful warning of inspiration, "because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them." Ps. 28:5. If we wish to stand outside the gates of Zion when the angelic choirs take up the coronation anthem, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; . . . and the King of glory shall come in," it will not be necessary for us to commit some outbreaking crime; to disregard the works of Jehovah, by neglecting his Sabbath, will be sufficient to register our doom on the records of eternity. ROBERT HARE.