The Real Sabbath by Aaron J. Messing

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 47.

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The Real Sabbath.

By Aaron J. Messing

BY DR. AARON J. MESSING, Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, San Francisco.

INTRODUCTORY.

To the Editor of the Signs of the Times:—

DEAR SIR: I beg the liberty to explain to the honored readers of your paper

First: Why and for what purpose I have written the following article, and

Secondly: What motives have prompted me, an Israelite, and Rabbi of a Jewish congregation to publish this article in a paper which is solely devoted to the interests of the Christian church of the Adventists.

Having had occasion, during my late journeys through this State, undertaken for the purpose of establishing sectarian schools for the benefit of my co-religionists, to visit Woodland, on a Friday, and discovering that the Israelites at that place as yet possessed neither Synagogue nor school, it occurred to me to call them together for a general meeting on the following Sunday, for the purpose of organizing a society uniting them all in one body, whose duty it was to be, to sustain a religious school for the children, which I was about to organize.

In pursuance of this object, I called upon Wm. Saunders Esq., editor of the Woodland Daily Democrat, and was highly elated to find him to be a "gentleman" in the highest and noblest signification of that term. After sufficiently disclosing my mission, I requested him to insert my advertisement in his Saturday's issue of that paper, because it is forbidden to us Jews, to hold such meetings (requiring some manual labor), on our Sabbath; but mark how I must have been astonished, when Mr. Saunders answered me, that his Sabbath was also on Saturday, and that he permitted no matter of work in his establishment on Friday evenings, and that that was the reason why his paper did not appear on the Sabbath. Woodland is without its newspaper on the Sabbath for years, and can only get the news of the day on Sunday morning. I am not able here to describe the feelings which at that moment animated me. Before me stood a man of the Christian church who every week freely offers upon the altar of the true Sabbath, a noble and dignified sacrifice, to keep holy that Sabbath which the only ever living God of all mankind, erst gave my ancestors as a token of the covenant, from Mount Sinai to be kept holy by all peoples.

My ancestors have ratified the truth of this day with their best heart's blood, and surrendered even life itself in adherence to its sanctity—and here "the holiness of this day" is acknowledged by one, who is not a Jew, while many of my own co-religionists desecrate that day. I was strongly drawn toward this man, he having immediately gained my highest esteem and most profound sympathy, and I therefore cheerfully accepted his cordial invitation to attend Friday evening service in his church, in which Bible citations were read, in which I could conscientiously participate as a Jew. At this evening service, as well as the devotions on the Sabbath-day, I observed several of my co-religionists as participants in the small but pretty edifice. Being called upon, I felt it my duty to address the congregation during the morning service, and sought to indue this brave congregation with courage and endurance; and explaining to them the "bottom-truths" of the Jewish religion. Even now, while penning these lines, it is with rapture that I contemplate that universal service to God where a Jewish Rabbi could address a Christian congregation on the real holy Sabbath; and their petitions were addressed to Father of all; to Him were given praise and thanks in the glorious old psalms; and while your paper, "The Signs of the Times" was in this, to me ever memorable, service, distributed among the members, I said to the congregation in my address, "This day, this devotion, whereby Christian and Jew, on one and the same sanctified day, the holy Sabbath, pray to the 'one Father of all mankind,' is verily the best 'Sign of the Time' that the prophecies of the prophets are near the days of their fulfillment. 'On that day the Everlasting, the Eternal one shall alone reign; on that day the Eternal will be only one, and His will be the only name.'"

It was at the time of those devotional exercises that I promised several of the noble members of the "Woodland seventh-day Adventist" congregation that I would write an article for your paper, treating of the real Sabbath from a Jewish point of view. And then brother Saunders, upon my interrogatory, informed me, that your paper is in successful circumstances, and rapidly progressing with several thousand (I believe 10,000) readers, which all the more makes me rejoice that my former promise will afford me the great pleasure to transmit this article to you for publication.

The question of "the Sabbath" is of the same importance for us both, and upon this battlefield we are both equals; we battle for the same sacred truth; we wage war, not with sword and lance, and not as Christian and Jew, but we strike blows with weapons of the brain, with the "word of truth" for "truth," side by side as children of "one Father," as brothers for that truth, that He has first, it is true, imparted to us, the Jewish people; but, however, for the purpose that it should be spread through Israel to the whole human family, and be owned by all who are created in his image. It is true that our opinions do not harmonize in creed, in dogmas, in church and synagogue—we differ in very many things—but we contend for one "bottom fact," "Love thy neighbor as thyself." We have the same "one and only God," the same Father, the self-same old Bible, the same ten words of God, and now the same Sabbath; and I now declare my best wishes for your unlimited success, in your battle for these truths from the innermost recesses of my heart, and beg leave by means of these few lines, to express my kindest regards, especially to that association of brave brethren of the Adventist church in Woodland, and let me cherish the hope, that prejudice against those of another faith may soon totally disappear among mankind; and I remain, with expressions of the utmost esteem, Yours truly, AARON J. MESSING. San Francisco, Nov. 1879.