GENEALOGY OF SABBATH OBSERVANCE.
By H. A. St. John
1. LIVING SABBATH KEEPERS.—The present generation of living Sabbath keepers observe the seventh-day Sabbath because the living God created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is in six days, and rested upon the seventh day, then blessed the seventh day and hallowed it; and in his great moral law, commanded that it be ever remembered and kept holy. 2. OLDER SABBATARIANS.—The Sabbath keepers of recent generations kept the seventh-day Sabbath for the reason above stated. They reverenced the example and precept of the great Creator. 3. SIXTEENTH CENTURY SABBATARIANS.—When the Reformation lifted the veil of darkness that covered the nations of Europe, Sabbath keepers were found in Transylvania, Bohemia, Russia, Germany, France, and England. The Reformation did not give existence to these Sabbatarians, as only Carlstadt, of the Reformers, was a Sabbath keeper; they were remnants of ancient Sabbath-keeping churches that had witnessed for the truth during the Dark Ages. They kept the Sabbath because of their love for God, who had commanded them to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 4. EARLY CHRISTIANS.—The early Christians of the first centuries of the Christian era kept the seventh-day Sabbath because they loved God and revered his law, that law concerning which Jesus had taught them that it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle of it to fail. 5. APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES.—The apostles and disciples of Christ "kept the Sabbath day according to the commandment," which was the day before the first day of the week, because it was the only way to do in order to obey God, whom they loved and worshiped. 6. JESUS CHRIST.—The Lord Jesus Christ, "as his custom was," kept the seventh-day Sabbath according to his Father's law, because he had that law written in his heart, and delighted to do his Father's will (Ps. 40: 7,8); and by keeping his Father's commandments he could continually abide in his Father's love (John 15:10), and thus give all his followers a perfect example of how they, too, might abide in the love of God. 7. HOLY PROPHETS.—The holy prophets, inspired men of God, who wrote and spake as they were moved to do by the Holy Ghost, kept God's holy Sabbath because they were loving servants of Jehovah, and they respected his holy law, which commanded them to keep the Sabbath day holy. 8. ANCIENT ISRAEL.—Ancient Israel in the wilderness, all who were loyal to the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, kept the holy Sabbath of God's law even before that law was spoken by the Lord from Sinai, or written on the two tables of stone by the finger of God. They kept it because they would respect and obey their God who had rested from the work of creation upon the seventh day, then blessed and sanctified the day of his rest, and commanded it to be remembered and kept holy. Besides, they felt under renewed obligation to remember all of God's commandments to do them, because of his great mercy and condescension in delivering them with an high hand and outstretched arm from the bondage of slavery. 9. ANCIENT PATRIARCHS.—The ancient patriarchs, even back to Adam and Eve, the father and mother of all mankind, in keeping the seventh-day Sabbath had for their practice both the example and injunction of the great Father of all, the living God, and his Son Jesus Christ, by whom he created all things. Hence the seventh day of the week is as verily the Sabbath of our Lord Jesus Christ as it is the Sabbath of Jehovah. For this reason it is scripturally called the "Lord's day." We have now traced the reasons for true Sabbatic observance, from the present generation backward through all past ages, to its original source, the Eternal Father. It is a plant which our Heavenly Father hath planted and cannot be rooted up. The seventh-day Sabbath is easily traced to the highest authority in the universe of God, even to the example and precept of God himself. Like the river of life, it proceeds from the throne of Him whose kingdom ruleth over all.