HOW JESUS KEPT SUNDAY by Thoro Harris

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 36.

HOW JESUS KEPT SUNDAY.

By Thoro Harris

BY THORO HARRIS.

IT is a matter of history—and historical facts are not subject to alteration—that God in the beginning did sanctify the seventh day; and this sanctification would necessarily endure so long as the earth, whose creation it commemorates, should exist. How shallow, then, how weak, how delusive, are the sophistries employed to bolster up the Sunday-sabbath!

To offset this inevitable conclusion that the Sabbath of Jehovah is a perpetually-binding institution, it is asserted that Jesus Christ "nailed" the seventh-day Sabbath "to the cross;" and that His resurrection on the first day of the week inaugurated a new sabbath.

If this were the case, would we not expect Him to make this fact manifest? would we not expect to find Him taking the first opportunity to show this change by Himself doing, or giving direct permission to others to do, servile work upon that original Sabbath day?

But what are the facts? After His death upon the cross, our Redeemer was laid in the grave on Friday before sunset. All the next day He spent in absolute rest; while the holy women, we are also assured, "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Just as truly as God did rest in the beginning on the seventh day, just so truly did Christ keep Sabbath in the grave at the close of His earth-work.

The following day, the first day of the week, so far from being a Sabbath of rest, was one of the busiest our Saviour ever spent. He went from place to place, appearing first to Mary Magdalene, then to Peter and John, to the two who journeyed to Emmaus, and at night to the eleven, and there is reason to believe that He even visited His Father in heaven to confirm His work on earth. (Compare John 20:17, Matt. 28:9). It would seem as tho every moment of the day was occupied; what time remained for rest and refreshment, the essence of Sabbath observance?

Christ is our example. To imitate Him is to rest on the seventh day and labor most industriously on the first.