33 — FOOD ON THE SABBATH DAY
By F. C. B.
Is it right to cook on the Sabbath? Is it right to warm food on the Sabbath? It may be, and it may not be. The fullest instruction that God has given us respecting this, is found in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. It pertained to that land through which the children of Israel were then passing, the peninsula of Arabia. The weather there was warm. They were told then to boil that which they would boil, and bake that which they would bake, on the sixth day, so that nothing should be done on the seventh day. That general principle is just as true now as it was then; but sometimes people can not follow it. Sometimes the wife has an unbelieving husband, and he demands his food warm. We believe that it is pleasing to God for her to prepare food for her husband on that day, but to make her work just as light as possible. Some people have feeble stomachs. In a cold country, it is better in such instances to warm the food. God did not make the Sabbath to be a curse, but a blessing. There is danger of our doing as the Jews did, making it a burden. They condemned the disciples because they rubbed out wheat in their hands on the Sabbath day, looking upon it as a species of threshing grain. Our Lord justified the disciples in the work they did. He tells us that the Sabbath was not against man, but it was made for man, to be a blessing to him. The great general rule ought to be this,—that the work on the Sabbath be minimized to the utmost, so that there will be more time and more comfort in the observance of the Sabbath than could otherwise be. The one who has it in his heart or her heart to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, with love to the great God who gave it, will put forth every effort to minimize secular work, and so secure as much of the time as possible for true worship and missionary effort. These questions of conscience must be decided by the individual himself.