HAVE WE A SABBATH? by William N. Glenn

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 24.

HAVE WE A SABBATH?

By William N. Glenn

THE director of police in Cleveland, Ohio, recently arrested a number of baseball players for violating his orders against playing ball on Sunday. Certainly the civil power is assuming extraordinary authority when it presumes to dictate what men may not do on Sunday. There is but one step between that assumption and directing what the people shall do on that day. In this connection a certain National Reform organ remarks:—

"The question is fairly on in our country, Shall we have a sabbath or not?"

The inference is that we can not have a sabbath unless it be upheld and enforced by secular authority. But the Lord has not left the world in such a dilemma as that. In the very beginning he established the Sabbath institution (Gen. 2:2, 3), and made it for man (Mark 2:27)—for all men, for all time. So that the question which "is fairly on in our country" is not, "Shall we have a sabbath?" but will we observe the Sabbath that God has given us? The Sabbath is a "perpetual covenant," a sign between God and his people "Israel" forever. Ex. 31:16, 17; Eze. 20:12, 20. Who are Israel? Let Paul answer: "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. 3:3. This Sabbath covenant is "commanded;" it is not a covenant that is vitiated by the failure of one party to keep it. "He declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 4:13.

There is no question as to whether we shall have a sabbath. Every one who chooses to obey God has a sabbath, given by the immutable decree of the Creator, and no power on earth can take it from him. There is another question, however, that "is fairly on in our country," and in all countries of the earth, namely, Shall we observe the Sabbath that God has given us, that the Saviour himself observed? or shall we ignore his covenant commanded, his specially designated sign between him and his people, and declare that "we have no king but Caesar"? The Sabbath of the Lord can not be annulled, nor can there be any doubt as to the people's having a sabbath who are willing to recognize it. But those who trust in civil power for all their blessings, and declare their inability to perform what they deem to be their religious duties unless supported by the arm of flesh, never can be certain of anything but eventual failure.

W. N. G.