WHAT IS THE TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE?
By Pauline Schilberg
IN the beautiful discourse on the "Bread of Life," Jesus said that the bread which He would give for the life of the world was His flesh; but "the Jews strove among themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" The Saviour, however, told them plainly, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." In this He stated a truth which the carnal heart can not grasp, and therefore the Jews did not understand. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished in six days. On the seventh day God ended His work and rested; and He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested. It is Jehovah's rest; the word "sabbath" itself means rest. God put His rest into the seventh day, then He blessed the Sabbath, and sanctified it. But why did God rest? Was it because He had become weary and fatigued in the great work of creation? The Word says that the Lord rested on the seventh day, and was refreshed. Ex. 31:17. God is a Spirit, therefore He must have been refreshed spiritually; for, "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding." Isa 40:28. "Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." Ps. 121:4. The Lord made man in His image, in His own likeness; He made him upright, perfect, and holy; then He made the Sabbath—perfect, holy, sanctified—and gave it to man. Man could thus enjoy the Sabbath. He could enter into his Creator's rest. God made the Sabbath for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27, 28. The Jews' conception of the Sabbath was that it was against man, and not for him. No other commandment was so hedged and so covered with traditions as the fourth. This was because they did not see the spirituality of the law. They had not permitted God to "take away their stony heart, and give them a heart of flesh, and put a new spirit within them"; so they could not enter into God's rest, could not keep the Sabbath; they could not understand spiritual things. "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine." Our Creator is also our Redeemer. God blessed the man before he gave him the Sabbath; being a blessed and holy man, he could keep and enjoy the holy day. But "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. Therefore, before we can enter into God's rest, before we can keep His Sabbath day holy, we must be blessed of God—even with the blessing which is the forgiveness of sins. We must cease from our own works, the works of the flesh, of self, and allow the Lord Jesus to sanctify us wholly. The temple must be cleansed. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10. This is simply recreation by the same power. The Lord has given us His Sabbath as a sign of this blessed experience. Eze. 20:12, 20. Unless this experience is ours we do not keep the Sabbath. We cannot keep the Sabbath unless we are at peace with God, unless He is dwelling in our heart by faith. There is more in the Sabbath than simply the refraining from labor and partaking of physical rest. It soon becomes irksome to those who find in it nothing more than this; their thoughts and conversation run along the same lines as on the other days of the week. Except such become converted, sooner or later they lose ever the form. The Lord calls upon such to take their foot off the Sabbath (Isa. 58:13); to come out of Babylon; to return to our God, and He will have mercy on them, and will abundantly pardon. Then shall we delight ourselves in the Lord, and His Sabbath will be a delight to us. Those who have become "a new creation" will not endeavor to force men to be religious, neither will they attempt to enforce a spurious sabbath by civil law; for Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world, else would My servants fight." The Lord is soon coming. His salvation is near to come, and His righteousness to be revealed. The time for the repairing of the breach is here (Isa. 58:12), and blessed are we if we keep the Sabbath from polluting it. Isa. 56:2. Those who will not make themselves acquainted with God, who do not enter into His rest here, can not enter into the rest that remaineth, unto God's everlasting kingdom; for there God's children come to worship before Him from one Sabbath to another. Isa. 66:23. PAULINE SCHILBERG.
Ware, Mass.