SABBATH MUSING by E. Goodrich

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1860

SABBATH MUSING.

By E. Goodrich

AGAIN another week of toil, of care and anxiety is past and the Sabbath has begun. Darkness is shrouding the earth; all nature is hushed in silence to rest, and O my soul call in thy wanderings and commune with thy Maker. Pay the vows that thou hast made. Renew thy covenant with God and call upon him that thou mayest find grace to worship him acceptably; not in form only, but with reverence and godly fear. Call to mind his wonderful works of old, which out of chaos brought forth perfect order.

To-day is the Sabbath, the holy rest of God; a memorial of that rest in which God ceased from all his works which he had created and made, and by which he was refreshed. And O, what a beautiful day is this! The darkness is past, and the sun, bright king of day, with his darkness-dispelling, earth-reviving rays, rides forth as gloriously and majestically as when God said "Let there be light," and he was placed in the firmament to rule the day. Nature no longer remembers the cold frosty winter with his icy fetters, his winding sheet of snow, or his requiem of howling winds. But she has clothed herself in her own livery of purest green and looks as beautiful as when first decked by the hand of her Maker. Trees, plants and flowers shoot forth their tender branches, and open their lovely blossoms to the gaze of man, at the same time pointing him forward to a bountiful harvest.

How lovely and soul-enchanting the scene!

And how appropriate the day in which to remember the work of creation; the time when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy at beholding the display of divine power.

Arouse then, thou drowsy soul, and let the Sabbath of the Lord thy God be a delight unto thee. Let it ever bring to mind the creator of the heavens and the earth—thy Maker, and his right to rule the creatures that he hath made. And let the fourth commandment, the commandment that guards this sacred institution, and that contains and makes known the identity and character of the God we worship, the relation we sustain to him, and by which the other commandments are enforced; ever be sacred as the law of thy God.

E. GOODRICH. Edinboro, Pa.