CHRIST AND THE SABBATH.
By I. E. Kimball
A VERY common argument urged against the keeping of the Sabbath according to the commandment is that we must build no fires, nor pick up sticks, etc., etc., according to the requirement of God upon ancient Israel. So they say, "We cannot do this," and consequently release themselves from keeping the Sabbath. But are not such hasty in so summarily setting aside the commandment? Let us see. The commandments and every word of Scripture were in force when Christ, the Great Teacher, came among men. He lived the Scriptures, and taught the Scriptures, as he desired every man who ever lived to do and teach them. He was "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John baptized unto repentance, and Christ came to him for baptism. But John forbade him, knowing his holy life and that he had nothing to repent of. Christ rejoined, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He desired in this, as in everything else, to take every step his disciples were required to take. But did he keep the first day of the week?—No. Now as he fulfilled all righteousness, and requires us only to follow in his steps, are we required to keep it? Did he keep the Sabbath, which came, as we read, on the day before the first day of the week? Matt. 28:1. We answer, with all assurance and positiveness. He did. But here some equivocate, and decide, with the hypocrites of old, that Christ broke the Sabbath. And this same class declare, as stated above, that if we keep the law we must not have fires, etc. In the twelfth chapter of Matthew we find the Jews accusing Christ of Sabbath breaking. According to their conception of Sabbath keeping he was a Sabbath breaker; but was his their conception of it true?—No; for Christ said they had "condemned the guiltless," and declared his work on that day to be lawful. Now whatever is lawful is fully accordant with law. He illustrates the nature of his work by asking his accusers, "If a sheep should fall into a pit, would you not pull him out?" "Oh, yes!" "And will you not loose your ox and lead him away to watering?" "Oh, yes!" "Why?" "Oh, the sheep was suffering, dying in the pit, and the ox was suffering for want of water!" "Well, here is a woman whom Satan has bound in infirmity and suffering, lo, these eighteen years; shall I not loose her?" He addressed these accusers as hypocrites, and evidently they were. But what shall we say of those to-day who ply the same argument? The suffering sheep may be saved, the suffering ox may be released from his suffering, and it is all lawful, according to the strictest terms of God's law; but the poor souls of to-day, suffering, yea, even freezing to death, must not build a fire. No one may build one for him; he must suffer on. The law says you must not cook, but here comes in a starved wretch, weak and hungry; no, you must not prepare anything for him. But if Christ interpreted the law correctly, all this quibbling is unlawful. To build a fire or do what is necessary to alleviate suffering is lawful, for the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. But if fire is unnecessary, as was in the case of Israel in the wilderness, then it would be just as sinful to build it now as then.