Wise Words on Sabbath Observance

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1879

Wise Words on Sabbath Observance.

WHILE the teaching of God's word is mainly general, yet it is broad enough to cover the whole question of human duty and the obligations of individual conscience in every condition and generation of mankind. The Bible is a book of principles as well as of institutions. The law is clearly stated, but at the same time, in its detailed application to the specific acts and circumstances, much has been left to the individual conscience and judgment of men. It is here that our responsibility begins. Here we must seek to know the will of God and to cherish the spirit of obedience.

A studious collation of Scripture hints will disclose the following particulars of a Christian observance of the Sabbath:

1. The Sabbath must be remembered, Ex. 20:8.

2. It must be hallowed, Ex. 20:8.

3. It must be secure from ordinary secular occupation, being, in this respect, a day of rest, Ex. 20:8.

4. It must be employed in divine worship—private and public—with meditation, prayer, and the preaching of the word, Isa. 65:23.

5. It must be hailed as the honorable of the Lord, and held in delight as a day of gladness. Isa. 58:12, 13; Rev. 1:10; Ps. 112:1; 119:97.

6. It must not be dishonored by frivolous recreation or idle pleasure, Isa. 58:13.

7. It must not be disturbed by unseemly noise and tumult, Hab. 2:20; Matt. 24:20; Heb. 4:9.

8. It must not be outraged by gala spectacles and vain parades, Isa. 58:13; Ps. 75:1, 2, 4, 7.

9. It must not be profaned by traffic for gain or sordid industry, Neh. 13:15-22; Isa. 58:13; John 2:13-17.

10. It must not be polluted by any form of vice or dissipation, Isa. 57:2.

11. It may be used in acts of social intercourse; spent in imperative travel; visiting the prisoner, the sick, or the poor, in religious instruction and deeds of charity, Matt. 12:1, 14; Luke 13:10, 17.

12. It may be employed in any works of necessity or mercy, Mark 2:23, 28, et passim.

These conditions of Sabbath obligation apply generally to human society. They belong alike to the individual, the family, the community, the church, and the State.—Princeton Review.