THE SABBATH by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 4, 1905

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

THE REST THAT REMAINS.

SABBATH means rest. Sabbath-keeping means resting. There is a condition of rest, and there is a day of rest. Too often the condition escapes serious consideration because of controversy over which one of seven is the day of rest for Christians to observe. But without the condition, the observance of a specific day of the week, or the refraining from one's occupation during twenty-four hours out of one hundred sixty-eight amounts to little, save loss of valuable time.

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," is the call of the Rest-giver to a restless world. This is the rest all-essential to true Sabbath-keeping. It is the condition here spoken of as a thing to be obtained. No man has it, or ever had it to give but Jesus, the Christ,—because, first of all, this rest from labor and from heavy burdens is "rest unto your souls." Then if our souls are troubled with sin and are worrying over the perplexing affairs of this life, or are even filled with a controversial spirit over affairs of the Kingdom, how can we keep the Sabbath?—Impossible.

A Helpful Message.

"Come . . . and . . . rest." What a quieting, helpful message to weary souls! This is more than resting from physical or mental labors for one day only in the seven. It is a rest that brings peace to troubled hearts, and assurance of salvation forever to the one who finds and takes it. It is freely offered; the taking is not a hard thing except to the one who makes it difficult; its benefits are experienced seven days in the week, and its possession is the earnest of a more glorious rest promised to God's children. It is the first-fruits of that rest—the keeping of the Sabbath—that "remaineth . . . to the people of God."

All May Enter.

"Let us . . . enter into that rest," is the admonitory invitation extended to the whole world, because the whole world needs to enter in. Here the condition of soul-rest broadens, expands into a spiritual kingdom, whose boundaries are abundantly ample to embrace all who enter in. Who can enter in?—Every one that will. Who may enter in?—All. There is no limitation except as made by the individuals themselves to whom the call comes. Some things are necessary, to be sure, such as the way, the truth, the life, and grace. And these are at hand and provided freely, without money and without price. But there is only one way. "I am the way." "There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Jesus is the entrance, and the broad, heaven-lit, pleasant savannahs of eternal soul-rest are just within. If we have heard the call, and have not entered in, let us enter now.

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest."

Righteousness and Rest.

The land of Canaan, with its well-dressed vineyards, its cultivated and grain-grown valleys, and broad pasture lands, was a land greatly to be desired by the weary multitudes journeying from Egypt. It had been promised to their fathers centuries before. They were now going to possess it. To the majority of them it meant physical comforts and advantages after a condition of servitude. But the great Leader of Israel had a higher mission for His people than the more physical enjoyment of temporal prosperity. He wished them to be a light to the world. The world was in darkness and the confusion of error and sin. He desired to clarify the moral atmosphere and bring in righteousness and peace. And so in His people, first of all, He wished exemplified the principles of righteousness that would distinguish them as His representatives. But they needed a preparation, and to this end were their experiences from Egypt to Canaan. If they had viewed the circumstances and episodes of the journey as developers of character, and had trusted God, their march to the promised land would have been a triumphal procession, and they would have entered gloriously into the rest God had prepared for them.

But they entered not in because of unbelief. They murmured and complained. They were homesick and restless, fearful and trembling, and looking with apprehension into the future. The Father wished them to learn to trust in His word and His power to overcome the difficulties they themselves could not overcome. He wished them individually to rest quietly and wait for His salvation at every step of the way. But rest and trust come only by exercise, as does any growth. And so, in order to teach them valuable lessons of faith, He gave them many opportunities to trust Him under circumstances entirely beyond their own power to deliver themselves. Looking back on their record, it seems to us that they ought to have learned to believe and to trust, and to rest in confidence in God's word. Do you discern anything in their experience in this respect that tallies closely with your experience to-day?

Rest from What Bondage.

To Israel of old Egypt meant physical bondage—and worse. It has ever since been the type of the bondage of sin. God's deliverance of Israel from the physical bondage was His call to them to come out of sin to righteousness. It was the preaching of the Gospel to them, for in the actual thing accomplished was illustrated the power of an Almighty Saviour. The Father wanted them to grasp the significance of this deliverance, and let Him present them to the world as types of delivered ones. The temporal rest—the land of Canaan—to which they were going, typified the eternal rest of God's people. But before that it meant soul-rest after deliverance from the Egypt of sin. He wished them to understand this truth also, and exemplify it in themselves. But they failed to grasp the lessons. They wavered in their allegiance to God. They wandered in spirit and they wandered in the flesh, hither and thither on the borders of Canaan through the lifetime of a generation, and died in the wilderness of unrest. They entered not into the temporal rest because they entered not first into spiritual rest.

How could they enter in as witnesses for God, when their attitude and their experience were in nowise better than could be witnessed in the nations around them? How could they enter in and be different from the heathen before them, if they had not really learned to know and believe in the One who had delivered them from bondage and was endeavoring to lead them into rest? How could they guide others into an experience they had not themselves experienced?—Impossible! Let us therefore fear!

The Rest Yet Remains.

The entrance into Canaan was to have been a perfect type of the final entering in of greater Israel into their eternal inheritance. But the entering in of Israel under Joshua was not all in the type that God held before Israel in the deliverance. The fathers fell in the wilderness because of unbelief. The children entered, but not by virtue of perfect belief nor in the fulness of rest. That day of entering into Canaan might have been a day of rest whose glory would have made a world's history far different than the history of succeeding ages. Everything was prepared for them, but they did not discern the fact. They did not learn the great lesson of perfect peace and rest so essential for the well-being of every man, and the world waited for its perfect example of a righteous and Sabbath-keeping nation. It is waiting still.

And, therefore, because they who should have done so did not exemplify the character of the Great Leader, and because by reason of their failure the perfect rest was not entered into by a chosen nation, there still remains that perfect rest for some to enter into, and exemplify in their experience. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." That rest embraces all true Sabbath-keeping. It means first of all soul-rest, peace from turmoil, confusion, unrest, surmisings, and fears, and doubts, and perplexities of the natural heart. The Gospel preached to Israel was the power of God unto salvation, even as preached unto us. That Gospel was the Messiah; our Gospel is the Christ. It was a simple matter,—by believing in Him they would enter into rest; by believing in Him we enter into rest. It is not merely a matter of acknowledging the fact of Christ's mission on earth. It is the acknowledging of that fact as a mission in our hearts, involving the experience of a transformation of character. It is a belief that leads a man to renounce sin—everything that stands between him and rest, peace.

The record is that "God did rest the seventh day from all His works,"—works "finished from the foundation of the world." Those works included the eternal rest we have been considering; they are summed up in Christ. They are all righteousness. "He that entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His." Our works are the works of the flesh. Let us cease from our works. If we do not, how can we rest? how can we keep the Sabbath? how can we be true Sabbath-keepers? how can we know what the Sabbath really means to us or to any one else? Let us therefore enter in!

[The next article in this series is 'Jesus Christ, the Revelation and the Knowledge of God.']