Testimony for the Church — No. 12

Proper Observance of the Sabbath

Dec. 25, 1865, I was shown in regard to the observance of the Sabbath, that there has been too much slackness. There has not been promptness to fulfill the secular duties within the six working days which God has given to man, and a carefulness not to infringe upon one hour of the holy, sacred time, God has reserved to himself. I saw that there was no business of man's that should be considered of sufficient importance to cause him to transgress the fourth precept of Jehovah. There are cases that Christ has given us where we may labor even on the Sabbath in saving the life of man or of animals. But for our own advantage, in a pecuniary point of view, to violate the letter of the fourth commandment, we are Sabbath-breakers, and become guilty of transgressing the whole of the commandments; for if we offend in one point, we are guilty of all. If in order to save property we break over the express command of Jehovah, where is the stopping-place? where set the bounds? Transgress in a small matter, and look upon such things as a matter of no particular sin on our part, and the conscience becomes hardened, the sensibilities blunted, and we can go still further, until labor to quite an extent may be performed, and we still flatter ourselves that we are Sabbath-keepers, when according to Christ's standard we are breaking every one of God's holy precepts. There is a fault with Sabbath-keepers in this respect. But God is very particular, and all who think that they are saving a little time, or advantaging themselves by infringing a little on the Lord's time, will meet with loss sooner or later. God cannot bless them as it would be his pleasure to do, for his name is dishonored by them, his precepts lightly esteemed, and instead of obtaining gain, God's curse will rest upon them, and they will lose ten or twenty fold more than they gain. “Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me, this whole nation.” T12 48.2

God has given man six days in which he may work for himself, and he has reserved to himself one day in which he is to be specially honored. He is to be glorified, his authority respected. And yet man will steal a little of the time God has reserved for himself, and thus rob God. God reserved the seventh-day as a period of rest for man, for the good of man as well as for his own glory. He saw that the wants of man required a day of rest from toil and care, that his health and life would be endangered without a period of relaxation from the care and taxation upon him through the labor and anxiety of the six days. T12 50.1

The Sabbath was made for man, for the benefit of man; and to knowingly transgress the holy commandment forbidding labor upon the seventh-day is a crime in the sight of Heaven which was of such magnitude under the Mosaic law as to require the death of the offender. But this was not all that the offender was to suffer, for God would not take a transgressor of his law to Heaven. He must suffer the second death, which is the full and final penalty for the transgressor of the law of God. T12 50.2

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