The Sabbath a Perpetual Monument.
AT the close of creation's week the Lord set up a monument to commemorate what He had done. It was not a monument of marble slabs or granite blocks, but something far more endurable. He established a monumental institution that was to be builded into the memory of each and every loyal subject for all time to come. The inspired utterance that makes known this monument to the sons of men is in the following language: "And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." First there is the statement that "the heavens and the earth were finished." Then the Lord "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." And, having rested on the seventh day, "God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." Then He gives the reason why He blessed the seventh day. He says it was "because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." The facts of creation are things that are forever fixed in the indestructible, indelible, and unchangeable tablets of the past. In the language of His own word let it be said: "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; and God hath done it, that men should fear before Him." Eccl. 3:14. What the Lord has done is done forever. That is the clear statement of fact that is in the above text. And since God knows all the future just as well as he knows all the past, it is plain that it is perfectly easy for Him to do all His work so that it may stand forever. Then since what the Lord does is done forever, and since He created the earth, and gave the Sabbath as a memorial of that creation, it should be plain to any one that the Sabbath institution is to stand forever. And since He gave a definite day (the day on which He Himself rested from His creative work) as this memorial, it should be easy for any one to see that this day can never be changed to any other day of the week, and still remain as the memorial of God's creation. What up-lifting blessing there is in Sabbath-keeping when we keep the day as the memorial of God's power to create. As the Sabbath comes to us, we look out upon the great realm of creation and call to mind that our Father in heaven made it all. The towering mountains, the vast plains, the mighty ocean, the beautiful trees and flowers, all the animal creation, and everything that we see about us, represent the work of Jehovah; and the Sabbath day is the monumental institution of the Lord's own planting that He has given to us as a weekly reminder of His power, and that He is our Creator. The Sabbath commandment, if there was no other evidence, is sufficient in itself to show that the Lord instituted the weekly day of rest. And the Sabbath commandment is explicit in saying that He established this rest-day, "because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." The reason for the "because" of the Sabbath commandment is just the same to-day as it was when the first Sabbath was kept by Jehovah Himself at the close of creation week. The Sabbath is needed even more now than then to call the attention of the people continually to the fact that we have a Creator to preserve us and to receive our worship. The nature of the sabbatical institution is such that any one should see at a glance that it must be perpetual. And if there were left any doubt in regard to this, the commandment itself, as already shown in the foregoing paragraphs, should set the subject at rest clear beyond the possibility of a peradventure. God has placed His Sabbath commandment right in the very bosom of His law, and in the great judgment day every inhabitant of this earth will have to answer to the plain, clear, and reasonable requirement. T.