NOT THE LORD'S by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Oct 11, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 41.

NOT THE LORD'S.

By Editor

"OUR LOST SABBATH" is the title of an article in the New Voice of September 7. It draws a discouraging picture of church attendance in New York City on a Sunday morning. In some of the largest and oldest churches but a mere handful attend. In Grace Church, Broadway, for instance, there were not present "nearly enough to have placed one person in each pew." University Place Presbyterian Church was closed, its little congregation holding a meeting in a side room. The Church of the Ascension had a congregation of "just twenty-five people." In "the Central Metropolitan Temple on Seventh Avenue," "Methodism's great effort to reach the masses of the metropolis, founded 'for aggressive Christianity,' not more than one-seventh of its space was occupied." The great Baptist Memorial Church on Washington Park had a congregation of about a hundred and twenty. Some churches were closed.

In contrast with this the writer tells us that on that same Sunday thousands were flocking to Coney Island, where saloons, dance-houses, indecent bathing, houses of prostitution, cheap shows, catch-penny machines, and beer, beer, BEER, are everywhere. Most of these are American people, many presumably church and Sunday-school people, sometimes at least. And so the writer tells us, in capital letters, that in "the greatest center of our national life, this great imperial city, whose thinking and doing have in the past molded and fashioned, to a great extent, the customs of the whole land, THE SABBATH IS DEAD—SLAIN AT THE HANDS OF THE AMERICAN SALOON BY VIRTUE OF THE POWER THAT CHRISTIAN VOTES HAVE GIVEN TO THAT MONSTER."

And all this is the most abundant proof that the "lost sabbath" referred to is not of God. The writer well calls it "our sabbath." The Bible Sabbath is "the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God." That rests upon the everlasting Rock of God's Word. It is inherently immortal, because God is. It does not depend on a backslidden Christianity or the Christian vote. It may be trampled underfoot; it may be vilified by false witnesses, like its Master; it may be crucified between thieves and buried, as was its Lord; but, notwithstanding all these and more, it lives, because it is of God, founded in eternal fact, a necessity to the spiritual man, and forever upheld by the Word of God. Such is the Lord's Sabbath, the seventh day.

It has its witnesses; it has ever had its witnesses. Sometimes they have been weak, and fainting, and timorous, because of overwhelming darkness and persecution; sometimes they have been faithful, courageous teachers of God, like Moses, Ezekiel, Elijah, and the Man Christ Jesus. But from Adam to the present God's Sabbath has had its living human witnesses; and these have never asked that that Sabbath be "promoted" or "supported," or in any way aided by human enactment. They have only asked that it be let alone.

All God's institutions are founded in Him, and exist in Him. So far as earth is concerned they exist in His Word and in the lives of His people. And if they truly exist in the lives of His, the gates of the saloon or any other of Satan's agencies can not prevail against them.

For instance, in the city of Oakland there gathers from Sabbath to Sabbath, from Sabbath-school service, at 9:30 A.M., to 12:30, the close of the preaching service, a congregation of from 300 to 500 observers of the seventh day. The mountains lie to the north, south, and east; the great city of San Francisco and its beautiful bay, to the west. Excursion and other trains are running in every direction, inviting to the cool country or the exciting city. The great commercial world rushes on; thousands of temptations lure to the half-holiday, yet the above congregation is not affected. And this is but one case among many.

O friends, let it be God's Sabbath, not ours! Better, make God's Sabbath our Sabbath. Then how much trouble we shall be saved! We may leave lobbying and Legislatures to politicians, and have much more time to tell the glad tidings, "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."