THE SABBATH LAW by Andrew J. Bois

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 18, 1861

THE SABBATH LAW

By Andrew J. Bois

[DEAR BRO. WHITE: The author of the following is a young Adventist, who was converted last fall at an Advent camp-meeting in this place. He has been studying the Bible for evidence to prove to me that the Sabbath was merely a Jewish rite, and not binding on Christians at the present time. After searching until he was satisfied which side the evidence was on, he wrote the following which I now copy and send to you the Review. Truth is stronger than error. H. M. W. Westford, Mass.]

THE SABBATH LAW.

Ex. xx, 8, 9, reads thus: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," &c. Here is a law claiming to regulate a seventh portion of our time for religious purposes, the highest end of life. All other time is secular; this is holy. That may be occupied with things which perish in the using; this must be given to things which take hold on eternity. Many questions are raised concerning this law, but one question is paramount over all the rest: Does the law of the Sabbath bind us in this dispensation?

Some laws expire by limitation, and some did expire that were given by Moses; but no limit was fixed to the observance of the fourth commandment when first given, nor afterwards. The great Lawgiver of the world is God. He ordained the law of the Sabbath; and he has never repealed it. Is any evidence of such repeal found in the Scriptures? If so, where is the book, the chapter, the verse containing it? Christ did not repeal it, for he says so in Matt. v, 17, nor do the apostles any where declare that it was repealed. Were the other commandments spoken by God from Sinai? So was this. Were the others written by the finger of God on tables of stone? So was this. Were the others deposited in the ark of the testimony, in the Holy of Holies? So was this. Christ says, I came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill; and he said it as much of this as of any other precept.

Did Christ's most devoted followers keep the other commandments? So did they keep this: Luke xxiii, 56. Mark the wording of it: it is enacted both positively and negatively:

1. Positively. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 2. Negatively. In it thou shalt do no manner of work. Mark the first word of this solemn command: "Remember." This command is not only addressed to the head of the family, but also the son, the daughter, the man-servant, the maid-servant, and in reference to the cattle and the stranger. It is also stated by God, that he set us the example on the completion of the creation, and shall we not follow such an example? We are commanded to be holy, because God is holy; to forgive our enemies, because God forgives his enemies. Then ought we not to keep the seventh day, because God kept it? He says, "It is mine;" it is "the Sabbath of the Lord your God." Surely will you deny to your God, a right so equitable, a demand so fair?

In both the Old and New Testaments God claims the day as his; viz., Ex. xx, 10; Isa. lviii, 13; Rev. i, 10. Pious men acknowledge this claim. Neh. ix, 14; Luke xxiii, 56. In Isa. lvi, 1-7, and lviii, 14, it says that to such God will give in his house and within his walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. He will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. He will make them joyful in his house of prayer; and blessings, like those which came upon Jacob, shall fall upon them.

Jer. xvii, 27, and Eze. xx, 21 denounce a curse against those who profane this holy day. God says he has given us the Sabbath. "I gave them my Sabbaths, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them" [Eze. xx, 12]—that they might have proper time to acquire the knowledge of God and salvation. Christ himself taught the same when he said, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark ii, 27. It was made to do him good and not evil. It was not made for the Jew alone, but for the whole race of man. We see by reading Luke xxiii, 56, that the holy women, who wished to anoint our Lord's body, would not do it until the Sabbath was over.

Prophecy requires a Sabbath in the Christian dispensation. Isa. lxvi, 23; Rev. i, 10. In Matt. xxiv, Christ, referring to the setting up of the abomination of desolation, says, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." This, of course, shows that there was a Sabbath in existence at the time referred to, which was many years after the ascension of Christ.

Having shown that the law of the Sabbath is still binding, let us see what it forbids.

1. It forbids all labor not required by necessity or mercy. Gen. ii, 2, 3. "And God rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." So in the fourth commandment, we are required to do all our work in six days, and are forbidden to do any work on the Sabbath. Ex. xxiii, 12. God says, "Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest." Ex. xxxi, 15. "Six days may work be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy unto the Lord." Lev. xxiii, 3; Jer. xvii, 27, &c.

These commands are clearly expressed, and are given by divine authority, in the most solemn language; and there are no exceptions but those of necessity and mercy, as laid down in Matt. xii, 1-13; Mark iii, 1, 4; Luke vi, 6-9; xiii, 15, 16; xiv, 1-5; John v, 10-17. And yet how many abuse the doctrine of necessity and mercy to defend their violations of the Sabbath day. God has said, Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh thou shalt rest; in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. But how few practice it; and if success has attended any one in profaning the Sabbath in doing evil, let him or her remember that "the prosperity of fools shall destroy them."

In conclusion the fourth commandment is spiritual, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It does not only forbid us to do and to speak what we please on that day, but it binds our thoughts and hearts to delight in its holy service. Isa. lviii, 13.

In keeping God's commandments there is great reward. Some people consider that this is quite unnecessary; that we have no Sabbath now which we are under any obligation to keep; that this is a privilege of the new dispensation over the old. But the Lawgiver has never done away his law. Let us then make all arrangements within six days, and whatever may be the inconvenience, remember the day which God has blessed.

May God impress these truths upon our hearts as they never yet have been, and help us to remember that we must give an account at last.

ANDREW J. BOIS.