Seventh Day People By James H. Brooks, D. D.
e GSSGXDT is strange that they bother E'' T v themselves, a n d everybody I. I « they can reach by voice or / P e n . about a question that Q ffiSlj has so little .real importance. Even if it can be shown that almost tfie entire church has for nineteen hun- dred years mad,e a mistake in setting aside., for the public worship of God, for the preaching of His. word and for the sacred, rest day, that is associated with the. resurrection of our Lord, what good could be gained by a change of the day? To this it, will be replied that Gods commands are to,.be,obeyed, with- out regard, to consequences. True, but has J He ever forbidden any other day to be • observed as a Sabbath ? Let us see. " In the Fourth Commandment pro- claimed fròm Sinai, He says, "Remem- ber the Sabbath day," not the seventh but th$ Sabbath day,; "to keep it holy. 1 ' Then the seventh day was the Sabbath, but He, is careful to add, "the Lord blessed the Sabbath day," not the sev- enth day, but the Sabbath day, "and h^il'oivea it."' (Ex. 20:8-11). If it is urged that« in the institution of the Sab- bath, "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God cf^ated' and made" (Gen. 2:3), it must nè't be forgotten that the ordinance was originally linked with the first creation, the rfest of which was soon broken and dèstroyetì by the entrance of sin. ' Nor must it be forgotten that the ordinance took on a new meaning and róasÓn for its observance even under tlje lavi. "In six days the Lord made heaven and éarth, the sea, and all that in thèm is,, and rested the seventh day, and.hallowed it.'-. But forty years later, wfyen the Decalogue was repeated on thè plains ,of the Jordan, not a word was said about creation, but "keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy "Gód hath commanded thee . . . and remember thfit thou wast- a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence . . . . therefore the Lord thy God commanded thée to keep the Sabbath day." (Deut. 5:,12-15)., ... From this it is evident that God did not wish the Sabbath day to be Kigidly confined to the commemoration of His
creative power, but He intended that it should teach other lessons and receive additional sanctions, and become linked with the experience of His gracious and providential dealings. Hence, in the feasts and offerings that were plainly and confessedly typical of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, He speaks of another Sabbath that was to he observed. Thus in the Feast of first fruits, rec- ognized by all as setting forth the resur- rection of our Saviour, it is enjoined upon the priest, "He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sab- bath the priest shall wave it.' The first day of the week then is here set apart for the observance of the most marked and important solemnity connected with the feast. "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even from the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days." Here again in the feast of Pentecost God was teaching His people that a new Sabbath must take the place of the old* and that the day which symbolizes the gath- ering of the Christian Church was not to be the seventh, but the first day of the week, the seven sabbaths being com- pleted and giving way to sacred observ- ance associated with the work of re- demption. So, too, in the feast of tabernacles it was ordered that "in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land,, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath," (Lev. 13.) It is not true, therefore, that even in the Old Testament God con- fined His people to a seventh day sab- bath, but He made provision for a first day, anticipatng the finished work of His Dear Son, the Spirit of prophecy ex- claiming, "The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it," (Psa. 118: 22-24.
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