FIFTY REASONS FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE.
By D. T. Bourdeau
TWENTY-FOURTH. We observe it, because we are convinced and acknowledge that it is obligatory, and would avoid sinning knowingly and voluntarily, lest the solemn warnings that follow be applicable to us: 'Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' James 4:17. 'Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.' John 9:41. 'For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.' Heb. 10:26. To be forgiven and received as objects of divine grace or unmerited favor at our conversion, we had to turn away from every known sin. To retain our pardon, and remain objects of divine grace or unmerited favor, is it not necessary to do the same thing after conversion by advancing in sanctification? Under the former dispensation, when the people of God discovered that they had sinned unwillingly or through ignorance, by transgressing one or many of the commandments of God, they were to repent. Leviticus 4, etc. And the same duty exists under the present dispensation. Acts 17:30. 'And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.' Twenty-fifth. We observe it, because we acknowledge the difference that God puts between holy things and those that are common or profane, and would avoid falling into the error pointed out by the Lord in these words: 'Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.' Eze. 22:26. In this case God is profaned or abased by those referred to, speaking and acting as tho the sanctification of the seventh day and the act of blessing that day by the Author of the Sabbath, and the commandment and example of this exalted Being, even our Lord Jesus Christ, with regard to the Sabbath, were of no value. Twenty-sixth. We observe it, because the reason for which its sanctification is enjoined by the law that Jesus Christ proclaimed with a voice that shook the earth (Heb. 12:22-26; Acts 7:38; Ex. 23:20-23; 19:4-25; 20:1; 33; 1 Cor. 10:1-4), is as important and applicable to us as it was to the Jewish people: 'For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.' This reason is the foundation of the Sabbath's institution, and shows that the Sabbath is a memorial of the Creation of heaven and earth, and of the rest of the Creator. Because God appeals to the fact that He delivered the Israelites from their servitude in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5), there are some who pretend that the Sabbath was a memorial of the deliverance of that people from the servitude in question. But God appeals to the same fact to lead the Israelites to be just and merciful to servants, orphans, and widows, and to have pity on the poor, and to keep all the commandments. Deut. 24:17, 18; 15:1-6; 11:1-8; Lev. 19:34-37, etc. Were all these duties memorials of the deliverances of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt? They all existed before that deliverance. A memorial answers to the event that it is designed to call to mind. For example, there is an analogy between the burial and the resurrection of our Lord and a burial into and a coming up out of the water in baptism, a fit memorial of the former (Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:3-6); between our rest on the seventh day and the rest of the Creator on that day. Ex. 20:8-11, etc. But what analogy is there between a rest and a flight? The Sabbath can not be a memorial of both the flight and the deliverance in question and the rest of the Creator. It is, and always has been, a memorial of the Creator's rest; consequently it was not a memorial of the flight and deliverance of the Israelites from the land of Egypt. The Passover was perfectly calculated to call to mind this wonderful event. Read Exodus 12, etc.