The Sabbath | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 16, 1864

The Sabbath.

[Bro. White : The following I clip from the Christian Times of May 28, 1862, published by the Baptists at Chicago. I send it 1st. Because of the many truths contained in it; and 2nd. To show the position of the Baptists on this subject a few years ago compared with what it is now. Just let the Sabbath question be presented to the Baptists where they have never heard our position, and they will very soon either deny the many truths contained in this piece, or come out and keep the Sabbath of the Lord. A Baptist minister once said in this place, "that nothing but a brazen-faced fiend would say that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise." The Editor of the Times says, "It antedates the introduction of sin into our world." Who knows best? How much this piece sounds like the writings of the Seventh-day Adventists, leaving out the man-made expressions,—Jewish Sabbath and Christian Sabbath. Let the Editor of the Times read over the solemn truths in this article, and then take heed to the last clause in it: "Woe to him who in this respect perverts the right way of the Lord."

M. B. Smith.]

Marion Iowa.

The institution of the Sabbath antedates the introduction of sin into our world. It reaches back to the morning of creation. On the seventh day God ended his work and rested on the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. How instructive is this fragment of Bible history. God rested not as one fatigued with labor, but as one viewing with infinite delight the productions of his hand. May it not have been out of regard to human weakness and want that God rested?—as an example to enforce upon his creatures the duties and obligations of the Sabbath. The Divine precept is equally clear and unmistakable: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor the stranger within thy gates; for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, and God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is a divine command, and the precept is enforced by divine example. No institution in the world can claim a more remote antiquity—nor is there one that rests upon higher authority—nor is there one whose obligations are enforced by holier sanctions.

The law of the Sabbath must not be regarded as arbitrary, or as a fetter upon human freedom. Or as imposing irksome restraints; but its ends are wise and beneficent. The necessity of the Sabbath is found in the constitution and economy of human nature. The rest of the seventh day is needed to repair the waste of the six days' toil. It has been demonstrated that man and beast will perform more work by resting on the seventh day, than by continual drudgery all the year through. Nature thus, when her wants become known, independent of any positive command, enforces the obligations of the Sabbath with arguments that cannot be resisted. The farmer, the merchant, the laborer, the teacher, the student, in short, men in every condition need the rest of the Sabbath as really as they need the repose of the night, after the toils of the day. It is a physical necessity. The Sabbath may be regarded especially as the poor man's inheritance. Without it, life to him would be an unbroken series of wasting toil. The rule is work, work, work—from this there would be no furlough, did not the Sabbath return at regular intervals, as a golden border, defining the period of rest. Every poor man, as he beholds the Sabbath light, ought to sing with devout gratitude

"Welcome delightful morn, Sweet day of sacred rest."

The Sabbath, all along its pathway, dispenses blessings to the poor with a munificence truly divine.

So far we have spoken of the Sabbath as demanded by the physical condition of man, but its chief blessing pertains to his higher nature. It is not rest alone, but religious instruction and devout worship that insures the full blessings of the Sabbath. It is a holy rest, hence the injunction "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The right observance of the Sabbath supposes not merely the laying aside of work, and traffic, and pleasure, but a hearty engaging in religious services—a devout waiting upon God in the use of the appointed means of grace.

The Jewish code enforced the strictest observance of the Sabbath. How scrupulously the Sabbath was kept, at least its outward forms, may be inferred from the fact that in Jerusalem at the time of Christ's advent there were nearly five hundred synagogues. In these Sanctuaries the Scriptures of the Old Testament were read, praises sung, prayers offered, and usually a religious address delivered by some one competent to instruct and edify those who waited upon the service. Our Lord frequented these places of worship, and here the Apostles first preached Christ crucified. All through the Roman Empire where the Jews had obtained a footing, synagogues were open for public worship.

The Christian Sabbath contemplates the same general ends as the Jewish Sabbath. It is a day not for work, or pleasure, or business, or visiting, or gossip, or journeyings, but a day consecrated to the highest and noblest of ends, to the service of the Lord. A right observance of the Christian Sabbath will prove a security against vice, will be a pledge of tranquility in this world and a foretaste of everlasting blessedness in the world to come. There are six days for work and one for worship, and woe to him who in this respect perverts the right way of the Lord.