February 25, 1897
THE Sabbath is God’s, not man’s.
The Lord says that it is “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:” “My holy day.”
It was made for man, that is true: but it itself is the Lord’s, designed for the good of man.
It is the Lord’s institution, established for the good of man: and it is the man’s, and is only for the good of men, when it is held ever to be the Lord’s and is devoted sacredly to the object for which the Lord established it.
What is that object?—That man may know only the Lord. Therefore it is written: “Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” “It is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.”
THERE are many people who do not know that Jehovah is God. There are many who say that they do not know whether there is any God at all. Yet all can know that Jehovah is God.
All that any one needs to do to know that Jehovah is God, is merely to employ the means which He has established that He may be known. “Hallow my Sabbaths and the shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”
Surely that is simply enough. Surely that proposition if fair enough. Wherever there is one who does not know God, let him hallow the Sabbath of the Lord and he will know that Jehovah is God. And if any one will not take enough interest in the matter to do so simple a thing as that, he is certainly without excuse.
And think of it: It is eternal life to know God; for it is written, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”
Eternal life is in knowing God; and by hallowing His Sabbaths God may be known; and yet men will despise His Sabbath, will trample it under foot, will ostracise, cast-out and persecute those who hold it, will set up a fraud in its place, and will make laws to compel the acceptance of the fraud instead of the genuine!
God established the Sabbath: man established the Sunday. The word of God says that “the seventh day is the Sabbath:” the word of man says that Sunday is the Sabbath. The word of God is the truth; therefore the seventh day is the Sabbath, by which is the knowledge of God, by which is eternal life; and Sunday is the fraud.
Is it wise then, is it safe, for Congress, State legislatures, or judges, to allow themselves to be made instruments in a grand scheme to shut away from men the God-given means of attaining to the knowledge of God and eternal life?
Who is the one most interested in keeping from men the knowledge of God? Who is the one most determined to keep men from the way of eternal life? Who? Every one can tell. Then into whose hands are they playing who by legislation, by law, or by any other means, keep men from the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord? In whose interests is it that Sunday—the false Sabbath, the false sign—is exalted, and supported, and forced upon men by all the power of earth?
We know that this is not the way that the Sabbath question is usually looked at; but this is the way it should be looked at, for this is the way the Bible puts it—and the Bible is right.