The Sabbath by A. Johnson

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 10, 1863

The Sabbath.

By A. Johnson

WHAT a subject of contemplation is the holy Sabbath! Appointed as a day of rest for the millions of earth, it presents its holy presence once in seven days to cheer the careworn and weary, and to give them the privilege of attending the house of God and to enter more fully into his service. Stretching away back to the dawn of creation, it took its appointed place in the first week of time, and was an eyewitness of those grand events which then took place. The first, second and third days, and so on to the sixth, had each their appropriate work, and each saw new creations spring forth and take their destined place among the "wonderful works of God;" but on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Gen. ii, 2. Think of the seventh, the day hallowed and set apart by its Maker to be a day of rest, extending through all the dispensations of time, and even over into that rest that remains for the people of God.

The world has already witnessed more than three hundred thousand of these precious days; and I tremble to think how they have been spent. While a comparatively small class have observed the seventh day as the Sabbath, how many millions have trampled it under their feet, though God has said, and angels dare not disobey his commandments, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But man puts forth his hand and pollutes it. Man, the most dependent yet the most presumptuous of all his creatures!

How careful then ought we to be to keep this great command, with the other nine, lest we come short of his promise of eternal life, which he has promised to those that love and obey him. A. JOHNSON. Southampton, Ills.