Sabbath

“ Such is the estimate which the Scriptures place upon the work of creation as evincing the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator. The Sabbath stands as the memorial of this great work. Its observance is an act of grateful acknowledgment on the part of his intelligent creatures that he is their Creator, and that they owe all to him; and that for his pleasure they are and were created. How appropriate this observance for Adam! And when man had fallen, how important for his well-being that he should “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” ”

“ Religion claims some of our time, and much of our thought. The Sabbath is with me a day of solemn reflection and prayer. I bend over the Bible, with a feeling that I am listening to the voice of God. These things make me serious, but not sad. As the sun seems to shine brighter, when it comes out from a cloud, so my heart is ever more serene [Pg 11] and cheerful, for its communion with holy things. ”

“ The Sabbath returns on which, in the little kirk among the hills, we saw thee baptized. Then comes a wavering glimmer of seven sweet years, that to Thee, in all their varieties, were but as one delightful season, one blessed life—and, finally, that other Sabbath, on which, at thy own dying request—between services thou wert buried!
How mysterious are all thy ways and workings, O gracious Nature! Thou [pg 124] who art but a name given by our souls, seeing and hearing through the senses, to the Being in whom all things are and have life! ”

“ And Jesus said, "A riddle Answer if you can, Was man made for the Sabbath Or Sabbath made for man?" I do not love the Sabbath, The soapsuds and the starch, The troops of solemn people Who to Salvation march. I take my book, I take my stick On the Sabbath day, In woody nooks and valleys I hide myself away. To ponder there in quiet God's Universal Plan, Resolved that church and Sabbath Were never made for man. ”

“ The Sabbath, as a memorial of what the Creator did during the first week of time, is now seen in its dignity and importance. It is the memorial of the living God. Man is to rest on the day of the week on which the Creator ceased to create.
But those who belittle the grand Sabbatic institution to only serve man’s physical wants of a day of rest, and to provide for him a day of public worship, and see no higher design in it, are satisfied with a change of the day of the Sabbath. They think that a day on which the Creator did not rest, will do quite as well as the day on which he did rest. ”

“ What a history, therefore, has the Sabbath of the Lord! It was instituted in Paradise, honored by several miracles each week for the space of forty years, proclaimed by the great Law-giver from Sinai, observed by the Creator, the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and the Son of God! It constitutes the very heart of the law of God, and so long as that law endures, so long shall the authority of this sacred institution stand fast. ”

“ If the Sabbath was not sanctified at creation, but was sanctified in the wilderness of Sin, why does the narrative in each instance [33] record the sanctification of the Sabbath at creation and omit all mention of such fact in the wilderness of Sin? Nay, why does the record of events in the wilderness of Sin show that the holy Sabbath was at that time already in existence? In a word, How can a theory subversive of all the facts in the record, be maintained as the truth of God?
We have seen the Sabbath ordained of God at the close of the creation week. ”

“ Third—The Sabbath law is perpetual, "binding all men in all ages."
Fourth—The seventh day was the only weekly Sabbath for at least four thousand years.
Lord, sanctify us by thy truth. May the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom thou sendest in the name of thy Son our Lord, abide in us and preside in this controversy. May he teach us all things, and bring all things to our remembrance. May all bitterness, and wrath, and malice, and evil-speaking, be far from us; and may we love one another with pure hearts fervently—for Christ's sake. Amen.
CHAPTER I.
First Reason. ”

“ The Sabbath now becomes the cord that binds created man to the infinite Creator. It is the golden chain that links earth to Heaven, and man to God. Had he always observed the Sabbath, there could not have been an idolater nor an atheist. ”

“ The Sabbath was meant to lift to a share in His rest, to bring eternity into time, to renew wasted strength 'by a wise passiveness,' and to draw hearts dissipated by contact with fleeting tasks back into the stillness where they can find themselves in fellowship with God.
We have not the Jewish Sabbath, nor is it binding on us. But as men we ought to rest, and resting, to worship, on one day in the week. ”

“ The scene now before us on Mount Olivet forms a miniature picture of what takes place Sabbath after Sabbath in every meeting of Christian disciples. As we are assembled like the apostles in our Sanctuary—looking upwards to Heaven, there are glorious Spirits, we may well believe, clustering around us—hovering in silence over our assembly—engaged, it may be, in unseen conflict with the emissaries of evil—assisting us in our prayers—joining with us in our praises—waiting to waft these upwards, and get them perfumed with the incense of the Saviour’s merits. ”

“ It is the Sabbath day, with its calm and elevated duties and holy repose, that subdues animosity, lays the restless spirit of vanity, checks habitual vice, and awakens all the charities and sweet courtesies of life. ”

“ The sun of another holy Sabbath has arisen upon us, and though no chime of bells has called us to the house of God, yet we, two in number, have bowed the knee to our Father in heaven, have invoked His holy name, have offered Him our feeble praise, have meditated on His Sacred Word, and commemorated the dying love of a Saviour to a perishing world. ”

“ You apply the law about the Sabbath rest wrongly. It does not apply to God the Father, who is ever active since the days of creation; neither does it apply to me, His Son. The Sabbath is made for man, and applies to human, not divine works; as you can see at the pool of Bethsaida, where my Father works miracles on the Sabbath. ”

“ I should define the Sabbath as a divine and fatherly gift to man,—a day expressly set apart for the cultivation of his moral nature. Its object is not merely physical rest and recreation, but moral improvement. ”

“ The Sabbath on earth is a type of the Sabbath above. If we find no delight in the holy duties of the day, as now enjoyed, and feel the sacrifice of sanctifying it to be too great, how can we hope to enjoy it in the purity and holiness of heaven? ”

“ On the Sabbath, it is truly a joyful sound to hear hymns of praise offered up to Him who doth promise, ‘where two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is in the midst of them;’ and a pleasure to observe how very general the attendance upon divine worship is among these people. ”

“ Are his, and all things that the earth contains,
And all above, through the Redeemer's pains,
And groans, and victory o'er death!
Glory to Him who willed
That man should live, not die! to Him who made
The Sabbath for our comfort, and who said
The soul on Christ its hopes should build!
[134]
SABBATH EVE.
On Sabbath eve, how sad,
Yet sweet, the thoughts that come into the mind,
Unbid, but not unwelcome, and which find
Communion there, and to its solace add.
The world seems bright no more;
Its witching charms are gone, its voice is dumb:
Vainly its pleasures to the soul say "Come!" ”

“ On the Sabbath day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works, and execute nothing worldly, but give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction, thinking of celestial things, solicitous for the future, placing the Judgment to come before your eyes, not looking to things present and visible, but to those which are future and invisible, this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath. ”

“ No good reason, except that of setting an example, can be assigned for God's resting for a literal day. But if God's Sabbath of rest from natural creation is still in progress, and if our short Sabbaths are symbolical of the work of that great Sabbath in its present gray morning and in its coming glorious noon, then may the Christian thank this question, incidentally raised by geology and its long periods, for a ray of light which shines along the whole course of Scripture history, from the first Sabbath up to that final "rest which remaineth for the people of God." ”

“ I am prepared to affirm that to the studious especially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well spent—spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic—a Sabbath given to the soul, is the best of all means of refreshment to the mere intellect. ”

“ The Sabbath has been advocated on the ground that it secures to men a day for divine worship in which by common consent they may appear before God. This is a very important consideration, and yet the Bible says little concerning it. [510] It is one of the incidental blessings of the Sabbath, and not the chief reason for its observance. The Sabbath was ordained to commemorate the creation of the heavens and the earth. ”

“ We next read of the Sabbath as follows:—
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.... Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.” [138]
These constant references to the Sabbath contrast strikingly with the general disobedience of the people. ”

“ And why should it be thought unreasonable that persons in our employment, and our children, who early notice the character of our religion, might receive some good impression, as to the nature of the Sabbath, by seeing us deny ourselves what on other days is innocent and right? I am not pleading that the Sabbath be made a day for afflicting our souls, but that we should not permit our sensual desires to interfere with our spiritual delight. ”

“ For taking the night after the Sabbath, which was the forerunner of our Lord’s resurrection, we begin from it to sing in the spirit hymns to God, leading our feast out of darkness into light, and thus during an entire day and night, we celebrate the Resurrection. ”

“ The gathering of the nations that are saved to the presence of the Creator, from the whole face of the new earth on each successive Sabbath, attests the sacredness of the Sabbath even in that holy state, and sets the seal of the Most High to the perpetuity of this ancient institution. ”

“ Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it: that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.—Isaiah, lvi. 1, 2.
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.—Mark, ii. 27, 28.
Great Lord of time! Great King of Heav’n,
Since weekly Thou renew’st my days,
To Thee shall daily thanks be giv’n,
And weekly sacrifice of praise. ”

“ Those that are of God will keep the commandments of God; and this is his commandment, that we sanctify the sabbath. Those that are of God keep up communion with God, and delight to hear from him, and speak to him, and therefore will observe the sabbath, which is a day appointed for intercourse with heaven. The sabbath is called a sign, for the sanctifying of it is a sign of a sanctified heart, and the profaning of it a sign of a profane heart. ”

“ God says 'every thing on its day,' 'from even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath;' 'the evening and the morning was the first day.' He is an exact time keeper! I say then, in the name of all that is holy, heavenly and true, and as immortality is above all price, let us see to it that we are found fearing God and keeping his Commandments, for this, we are taught, 'is the whole duty of man.' The proof is positive that the seventh day Sabbath is included in the commandments. ”

“ If we had no other passage than this of Gen. 2:3, there would be no difficulty in deducing from it a precept for the universal observance of a Sabbath, or seventh day, to be devoted to God, as holy time, by all of that race for whom the earth and its nature were specially prepared. The first men must have known it. ”

“ With this view of the Sabbath before us,—with this picture of its purpose and its end,—while we thus gaze on the glorious destiny unfolded to man in the institutions of the Sabbath, and see the steps by which he is prepared to inherit it in its sanctifying influences,—we must feel that all the temporal advantages offered to him here—the refinement of tastes, the enlargement of knowledge, are but a mockery of his woe, if they are proposed as the blessings connected with the ordinance ”

“ And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the blessed Sabbath day in the future home of the saved, when the prophet describes the felicity of the redeemed, as from month to month, and "from one Sabbath to another," all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Isa. 66:23.
Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father's planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in the world to come. ”

“ Christians, let heaven have more share in your Sabbaths, where you must shortly keep your everlasting Sabbath. Use your Sabbaths as steps to glory, till you have passed them all, and are there arrived. Especially you that are poor, and cannot take time in the week as you desire, see that you well improve this day; as your bodies rest from their labors, let your spirits seek after rest from God. ”