FIFTY REASONS FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE.
By D. T. Bourdeau
THIRTY-SECOND. We observe it, aiming to keep all of God's commandments, that God may hear our prayers. 1 John 3 : 22: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." If we knowingly and wilfully turned away from a single duty enjoined by the divine law, we could not expect that our prayers would be answered; for it is written: "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination." Prov. 28 : 9. Thirty-third. We observe it because its observance by the people of God is thus sanctioned by the apostle to the Gentiles: "There remaineth therefore the keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God." Heb. 4 : 9, Greek. See also marginal reading of the English Bible with references. The Greek word we here translate the keeping of the Sabbath is sabbatismos, which Alexandre's "Greek-French Dictionary," whose object is to give the correct meaning of Greek terms, defines thus: "Observation on celebration du Sabbat;" a literal translation of which would be, observation or celebration of the Sabbath. This is what the ancient Greeks understood by the term under consideration, and it is what was understood by the term when Paul's epistle to the Hebrews was put into Greek. By the word Sabbath in the definition: "observation or celebration of the Sabbath," the seventh day of the week is intended. No other day of the week was regarded as the Sabbath to be observed by the people of God when Paul wrote to his Hebrew brethren; and what was true then with regard to the Sabbath is true now. Therefore there remaineth to the people of God at the present time the observation or celebration of the seventh-day Sabbath. In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, Paul speaks of a rest that results from personal harmony with God, and whose culminating point and distinctive mark are the proper observance of the Sabbath. In this chapter he says, among other things: "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest; altho the words were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest." Verses 3-5. God rested and found refreshment and satisfaction on the first seventh day (Ex. 31 : 17 compared with Isa. 41 : 23), in seeing His own perfect character in His works, and in seeing that all the creatures and things He had made answered to His object in creating them, fulfilling perfectly the laws that governed in their creation, thus rendering just homage to their Creator. What delight and satisfaction God must have experienced on the first seventh day in seeing man, the crowning work of His creation, man made in his own image, perfectly happy in rendering perfect obedience to the laws of his Creator and of his being, thus showing love and gratitude to his Creator and reflecting His glory as seen in His inimitable perfections! It was the design of the Creator in the beginning, that as He had entered into His rest and found spiritual refreshment and enjoyment in seeing His glorious attributes and perfect character in His perfect works, on the first seventh day, so human beings created in His own image, should each succeeding seventh day enter into rest, or sabbatize, and find refreshment, not only in not indulging in their ordinary occupations, but also in contemplating the glorious attributes and perfect character of their Creator in His works, and in seeing their own perfect traits of character in their own works wrought during the six preceding days. But the entrance and effect of sin in our world have made it impossible for man in his own strength to live aright during the six laboring days of the week, fully discern God's character in His works, and properly keep the Sabbath. But by faith in the great Creator and Restorer this can be done, and thus we may be enabled to say with Paul: "For we which have believed do enter into rest." "There remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God." Heb. 4 : 3, 9, marginal reading. There is but one Sabbath the "observation or celebration" of which remains for the people of God under this dispensation, and that is the seventh-day Sabbath. It would therefore be very inconsistent to call "another day" mentioned by Paul in Hebrews 4, the Sunday-sabbath, as some have done. The day referred to was a period of probation in which it would be possible by faith to enter into the real, spiritual rest and truly keep the Sabbath, which most of the Jews in the wilderness did not do because of their unbelief.