Read the Commandment by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 40.

Read the Commandment.

By Editor

G. W. D. asks the following question:—

“Should any contract be entered into by a Sabbath-keeper, with parties who are not Sabbath-keepers, without specifying that no work shall be done upon the Sabbath, in case the Sabbath-keeper is owner of the property?”

We know of but one answer to the above question, and that is one found in Ex. 20:8-11: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” We do not know how anything could be more plain than this.

The same commandment also answers in the negative the question whether a Sabbath-keeper should allow work to be done on property which he does not own, but on which he is engaged as contractor. In such a case there are only two ways in which work can be done—by the man himself or by his hired hands. Now anybody can see that it is no more a violation of the fourth commandment for a man to work on the Sabbath, than it is for him to hire men to work on that day. The injunction is equally strong against both. The fact that questions like this are asked, leads us to fear that some of our brethren do not read the commandments, nor the Bible generally, as carefully as they should.