The Change of the Sabbath

A Memorial

But would not Christ desire to change the Sabbath to the first day of the week, that he might have a memorial set apart to commemorate his own work? Many claim this. We reply, The seventh day Sabbath answered this very purpose. Who was the active agent in making this world, in calling into existence this creation? The Son of God. He it was who “made the worlds”; “for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth.” Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:16. God “created all things by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 3:9. “All things were made” by Christ, the Word. John 1:3. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath, which is a memorial of the work of creation, Christ himself taking six days in which to perform this grand origination, commemorates the work of the Son as much as that of the Father. We thus see beauty and propriety in the language of Jesus, when he calls himself the “Lord of the Sabbath.” The miserable perversion of the institution by Jewish traditions, from one of gratitude, mercy, and refreshment to a burdensome yoke, demanded such action from one of the founders of the Sabbath. ChSa 49.2