Sabbath Observance in Mission Fields
A MISSIONARY from Tarsus, Asia Minor, speaking of Sabbath observance in heathen countries, says that the first efforts in a new field are directed to putting a fence around the Lord's day and separating it from all secular uses. "Within that fenced space," he says, "we can sow all manner of good seeds, and can expect them to spring up and bring forth fragrant blossoms and life-giving fruit. We find on mission ground that when the fourth commandment is kept, all the other nine are kept with it; when the fourth commandment is broken, all the others are broken with it."—Christian Statesman. If missionaries bore to the orient world the Sabbath of the Lord, the true Lord's day, they would not need to put forth their first efforts to put a fence around it; Christ, preached in the fullness of his revelation, would do all of that; in fact, that would "build the old waste places," which God laid down, with material of his own furnishing. See Isa. 58: 1, 12, 13. The fourth commandment is never kept, can never be kept, in any other way except that enjoined by the commandment. The only Bible Lord's day is the seventh day of the week.