[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The Fourth Commandment[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant. nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Can you say that you observe the Sabbath properly? You may be a professed Christian: are you obeying this commandment? Or do you neglect the house of God on the Sabbath day, and spend your time drinking and carousing in places of vice and crime, showing contempt for God and His law? Are you ready to step into the scales? Where were you last Sabbath? How did you spend it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was--in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word remember, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] HOW TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Sabbath" means "rest," and the meaning of the word gives a hint as to the true way to observe the day. God mated after creation, and ordained the Sabbath as a rest for man. He blessed it and hallowed it Remember the rest-day to keep it holy. It is the day when the body may be refreshed and strengthened after six days of labor, and the soul drawn into closer fellowship with its Maker. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] True observance of the Sabbath may be considered under two general heads: cessation from ordinary secular work, and religious exercises. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 1. CESSATION FROM SECULAR WORK[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A man ought to turn aside from his ordinary employment one day in seven. There are many whose occupation will not permit them to observe Sunday, but they should observe some other day as a Sabbath. Saturday is my day of rest, because I generally preach on Sunday, and I look forward to it as a boy does to a holiday. God knows what we need. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WORKS OF NECESSITY AND OF EMERGENCY[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In judging whether any work may or may not be lawfully done on the Sabbath, find out the reason and object for doing it. Exceptions are to be made for works of necessity and works of emergency. By "works of necessity" I mean those acts that Christ justified when He approved of leading one's ox or ass to water. Watchmen, police, stokers on board steamers, and many others have engagements that necessitate their working on the Sabbath. By "works of emergency" I mean those referred to by Christ when He approved of pulling an ox or an ass out of a Pt on the Sabbath day. In case of fire or sickness a man is often called on to do things that would not otherwise be justifiable. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH TRAVELING[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Take, for instance, the question of Sabbath traveling. I believe we are breaking God's laws by using the cars on Sunday and depriving conductors and others of their Sabbath. Remember, the fourth commandment expressly refers to the "stranger that is within thy gates." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH TRADING[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]There are many who are inclined to use the Sabbath in order to make money faster. This is no new sin.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Work is good for man and is commanded, "Six days shalt thou labor"; but overwork and work on the Sabbath takes away the best thing he has. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] NECESSARY AND BENEFICIAL[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The good effect on a nation's health and happiness produced by the return of the Sabbath, with its cessation from work, cannot be overestimated. It is needed to repair and restore the body after six days of work. It is proved that a man can do more in six days than in seven. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]All that has been said about rest for man is true for working animals. God didn't forget them in this commandment, and man should not forget them either. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 2. RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hence the Sabbath rest does not mean inactivity. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." The best way to keep off bad thoughts and to avoid temptation is to engage in active religious exercises. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As regards these, we should avoid extremes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PUBLIC WORSHIP[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Make the Sabbath a day of religious activity. First of all, of course, is attendance at public worship.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] A REMINISCENCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Israelites were commanded to keep it in their dwellings as well as in holy convocation. The home, that center of so great influence over the life and character of the people, ought to be made the scene of true Sabbath observance. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] HOME OBSERVANCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jeremiah classified godless families with the heathen: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate" (10:25). [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PRIVATE OBSERVANCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Apart from public and family observance, the individual ought to devote a portion of the time to his own edification. Prayer, meditation, reading, ought not to be forgotten. Think of men devoting six days a week to their body, which will soon pass away, and begrudging one day to the soul, which will live on and on forever! Is it too much for God to ask for one day to be devoted to the growth and training of the spiritual senses, when the other senses are kept busy the other six days? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH DESECRATION[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Men seem to think they have a right to change the holy day into a holiday. The young have more temptations to break the Sabbath than we had forty years ago. There are three great temptations: first the trolley car, that will take you off into the country for a nickel to have a day of recreation; second, the bicycle, which is leading a good many Christian men to give up their Sabbath and spend the day on excursions; and the third, the Sunday newspaper. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With regard to the Sunday newspaper, I know all the arguments that are brought in its favor--that the work on it is done during the week, that it is the Monday paper that causes Sunday work, and so on. But there are two hundred thousand newsboys selling the paper on Sunday. Would you like to have your boy one of them? Men are kept running trains in order to distribute the papers. Would you like your Sabbath taken away from you? If not, then practice the Golden Rule, and don't touch the papers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Their contents make them unfit for reading any day, not to say Sunday. Some New York dailies advertise Sunday editions of sixty pages. Many dirty pieces of scandal in this and other countries are raked up and put into them. "Eight pages of fud"- that is splendid reading for Sunday, isn't it? Even when a so-called sermon is printed, it is completely buried by the fiction and news matter. It is time that ministers went into their pulpits and preached against Sunday newspapers if they haven't done it already. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Put the man in the scales that buys and reads Sunday papers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] I don't believe that the publishers would allow their own children to read them. Why then should they give them to my children and to yours? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A merchant who advertises in Sunday papers is not keeping the Sabbath. It is a master-stroke of the devil to induce Christian men to do this in order to make trade for Monday. But if a man makes money, and yet his sons are ruined and his home broken up, what has he gained? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ladies buy the Sunday papers and read the advertisements of Monday bargains to see what they can buy cheap. Just so with their religion. They are willing to have it if it doesn't cost anything. If Christian men and women refused to buy them, if Christian merchants refused to advertise in them, they would soon die out, because that is where they get most of their support. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Their whole influence is against keeping the Sabbath holy. They are an unnecessary evil. Can't a man read enough news on weekdays without desecrating the Sabbath? We had no Sunday papers till the war came, and we got along very well without them. They have been increasing in size and in number ever since then, and I think they have been lowering their tone ever since. If you believe that, help to fight them too. Stamp them out, beginning with yourself. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] PUNISHMENT OR BLESSING? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the other hand, honoring the fourth commandment brings blessing: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words [thine own as contrasted with what God enjoins]: then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (Is 58:13-14). [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A FIRM STAND[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We have a fighting chance to save this nation, and what we want is men and women who have moral courage to stand up and say: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"No, I will not touch the Sunday paper, and all the influence I have I will throw dead against it. I will not go away on Saturday evening if I have to travel on Sunday to get back. I will not do unnecessary walk on the Sabbath. I will do all I can to keep it holy as God commanded." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Sabbath-breaker, are you ready to step into the scales? [/FONT]
Can you say that you observe the Sabbath properly? You may be a professed Christian: are you obeying this commandment? Or do you neglect the house of God on the Sabbath day, and spend your time drinking and carousing in places of vice and crime, showing contempt for God and His law? Are you ready to step into the scales? Where were you last Sabbath? How did you spend it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was--in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word remember, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] HOW TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Sabbath" means "rest," and the meaning of the word gives a hint as to the true way to observe the day. God mated after creation, and ordained the Sabbath as a rest for man. He blessed it and hallowed it Remember the rest-day to keep it holy. It is the day when the body may be refreshed and strengthened after six days of labor, and the soul drawn into closer fellowship with its Maker. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] True observance of the Sabbath may be considered under two general heads: cessation from ordinary secular work, and religious exercises. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 1. CESSATION FROM SECULAR WORK[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A man ought to turn aside from his ordinary employment one day in seven. There are many whose occupation will not permit them to observe Sunday, but they should observe some other day as a Sabbath. Saturday is my day of rest, because I generally preach on Sunday, and I look forward to it as a boy does to a holiday. God knows what we need. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WORKS OF NECESSITY AND OF EMERGENCY[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In judging whether any work may or may not be lawfully done on the Sabbath, find out the reason and object for doing it. Exceptions are to be made for works of necessity and works of emergency. By "works of necessity" I mean those acts that Christ justified when He approved of leading one's ox or ass to water. Watchmen, police, stokers on board steamers, and many others have engagements that necessitate their working on the Sabbath. By "works of emergency" I mean those referred to by Christ when He approved of pulling an ox or an ass out of a Pt on the Sabbath day. In case of fire or sickness a man is often called on to do things that would not otherwise be justifiable. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH TRAVELING[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Take, for instance, the question of Sabbath traveling. I believe we are breaking God's laws by using the cars on Sunday and depriving conductors and others of their Sabbath. Remember, the fourth commandment expressly refers to the "stranger that is within thy gates." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH TRADING[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]There are many who are inclined to use the Sabbath in order to make money faster. This is no new sin.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Work is good for man and is commanded, "Six days shalt thou labor"; but overwork and work on the Sabbath takes away the best thing he has. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] NECESSARY AND BENEFICIAL[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The good effect on a nation's health and happiness produced by the return of the Sabbath, with its cessation from work, cannot be overestimated. It is needed to repair and restore the body after six days of work. It is proved that a man can do more in six days than in seven. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]All that has been said about rest for man is true for working animals. God didn't forget them in this commandment, and man should not forget them either. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 2. RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hence the Sabbath rest does not mean inactivity. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." The best way to keep off bad thoughts and to avoid temptation is to engage in active religious exercises. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As regards these, we should avoid extremes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PUBLIC WORSHIP[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Make the Sabbath a day of religious activity. First of all, of course, is attendance at public worship.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] A REMINISCENCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Israelites were commanded to keep it in their dwellings as well as in holy convocation. The home, that center of so great influence over the life and character of the people, ought to be made the scene of true Sabbath observance. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] HOME OBSERVANCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jeremiah classified godless families with the heathen: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate" (10:25). [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PRIVATE OBSERVANCE[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Apart from public and family observance, the individual ought to devote a portion of the time to his own edification. Prayer, meditation, reading, ought not to be forgotten. Think of men devoting six days a week to their body, which will soon pass away, and begrudging one day to the soul, which will live on and on forever! Is it too much for God to ask for one day to be devoted to the growth and training of the spiritual senses, when the other senses are kept busy the other six days? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]SABBATH DESECRATION[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Men seem to think they have a right to change the holy day into a holiday. The young have more temptations to break the Sabbath than we had forty years ago. There are three great temptations: first the trolley car, that will take you off into the country for a nickel to have a day of recreation; second, the bicycle, which is leading a good many Christian men to give up their Sabbath and spend the day on excursions; and the third, the Sunday newspaper. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With regard to the Sunday newspaper, I know all the arguments that are brought in its favor--that the work on it is done during the week, that it is the Monday paper that causes Sunday work, and so on. But there are two hundred thousand newsboys selling the paper on Sunday. Would you like to have your boy one of them? Men are kept running trains in order to distribute the papers. Would you like your Sabbath taken away from you? If not, then practice the Golden Rule, and don't touch the papers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Their contents make them unfit for reading any day, not to say Sunday. Some New York dailies advertise Sunday editions of sixty pages. Many dirty pieces of scandal in this and other countries are raked up and put into them. "Eight pages of fud"- that is splendid reading for Sunday, isn't it? Even when a so-called sermon is printed, it is completely buried by the fiction and news matter. It is time that ministers went into their pulpits and preached against Sunday newspapers if they haven't done it already. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Put the man in the scales that buys and reads Sunday papers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] I don't believe that the publishers would allow their own children to read them. Why then should they give them to my children and to yours? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A merchant who advertises in Sunday papers is not keeping the Sabbath. It is a master-stroke of the devil to induce Christian men to do this in order to make trade for Monday. But if a man makes money, and yet his sons are ruined and his home broken up, what has he gained? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ladies buy the Sunday papers and read the advertisements of Monday bargains to see what they can buy cheap. Just so with their religion. They are willing to have it if it doesn't cost anything. If Christian men and women refused to buy them, if Christian merchants refused to advertise in them, they would soon die out, because that is where they get most of their support. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Their whole influence is against keeping the Sabbath holy. They are an unnecessary evil. Can't a man read enough news on weekdays without desecrating the Sabbath? We had no Sunday papers till the war came, and we got along very well without them. They have been increasing in size and in number ever since then, and I think they have been lowering their tone ever since. If you believe that, help to fight them too. Stamp them out, beginning with yourself. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] PUNISHMENT OR BLESSING? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the other hand, honoring the fourth commandment brings blessing: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words [thine own as contrasted with what God enjoins]: then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (Is 58:13-14). [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A FIRM STAND[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We have a fighting chance to save this nation, and what we want is men and women who have moral courage to stand up and say: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"No, I will not touch the Sunday paper, and all the influence I have I will throw dead against it. I will not go away on Saturday evening if I have to travel on Sunday to get back. I will not do unnecessary walk on the Sabbath. I will do all I can to keep it holy as God commanded." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Sabbath-breaker, are you ready to step into the scales? [/FONT]