A Word for The Sabbath

THE SABBATH EXAMINED

The Sabbath of Jehovah, is your claim,
And that alone your high and holy name.
“Christian” and “Jewish” you alike disown,
Accepting “Sabbath of the Lord” alone.
Among the primal laws you claim a place,
Ordained of God to guide a sinless race. Not among those the need of which came in
With man’s need of a remedy for sin.
These change, as time unfolds the saving plan;
Those e’er remain as when they first began.
While ages, dispensations, roll along,
They changeless stand, the bounds of right and wrong. WFS 44.3

When time’s first week had run its course complete,
To mark the cycle with its boundaries meet,
The Sabbath on its royal throne was set,
Creation’s fair and lovely coronet.
Thus soon as Sabbath possibly could be,
There in its place the Sabbath, lo, we see.
Designed as much for all upon the earth,
As any blessing of primeval birth.
As much a gift of God’s foreseeing care,
As tree or fruit or flower, earth, sea, or air.
Such institution surely ne’er can change
How wide so’er the dispensations range;
And surely it can never cease to be
Till time is lost in vast eternity.
There was a Sabbath law to Adam given;
For that day then was sanctified of Heaven;
And full a month before the Hebrews came
To Sinai, with its trumpet, smoke, and flame,
We find the Sabbath plainly brought to view,
As an old institution, not a new. ¹ Not there the Sabbath into being came.
No such transaction does the record name.
It gives no other date for Sabbath birth,
But that grand time when God made heaven and earth.
So here’s a fact, plain as you ever saw,
The Sabbath day was kept, before the law. WFS 45.1

Come down the stream to Bethlehem’s wondrous birth,
When Christ, as Abraham’s seed, appeared on earth,
When he as prophet, teacher, friend, and guide,
Walked among men and taught them, side by side,
Leading their minds to truths and duties clear,
To guide his church through all its sojourn here,
The Sabbath does full oft his teaching share,
To this he gives his earnest, tenderest care,
Strips from the day tradition’s sad abuse,
And fearlessly defends its lawful use. WFS 46.1

That law of which the Sabbath was a part,
To be henceforth engraven on the heart,
He came not to destroy, he said, but would
Its every part fulfill, and show it good.
Lo, he exclaimed, the heavens may pass away,
The earth may crumble into full decay,
But of the law, a tittle or a jot,
God has decreed that it shall perish not.
Not this of ritual law did Jesus say,
Which at the cross was soon to pass away,
But of that law designed the world to bless, Which shows the measure of our righteousness.
And he declared that whosoe’er should do
And teach these precepts unto others too,
Should when God’s kingdom should appear in state,
Be held therein in rank and honor great.
But he that broke them, and should teach men so,
A place in that blest kingdom ne’er should know. ¹ WFS 46.2

And soon we reach earth’s darkest, gloomiest day,
When for a time the powers of death bore sway;
We see the cross upreared ‘neath darkened skies,
On which the Heavenly Victim bleeds and dies.
Here was the world’s great sacrifice made plain,
A sinless Christ, for sinful beings slain. WFS 47.1

Here types expired, and shadowy systems ceased.
From them henceforth the world was all released.
For here the antitype, the substance, stood,
And shadows come no further, if we would.
Whate’er of previous law we claim has died,
It ceased with Christ on Calvary crucified.
Did there the Sabbath perish? List and see:
They took the Saviour from the accursed tree,
Prepared the spice his body to embalm,
As on the Sabbath drew, so fair and calm.
Then those disciples whom the Lord had taught,
And both by precept and example brought
Clear to their minds the truths he came to teach, Which they henceforth in all the world should preach,
Had never learned, from all they’d heard him say,
That then the Sabbath was to pass away.
So ceasing from their work of tender love,
Even for their Lord, they turned their thoughts above.
They rested, says the word, that Sabbath day,
And the commandment thus did well obey. WFS 47.2

As we have found, clear as one ever saw,
The Sabbath day observed before the law,
So here we find, above all fear of loss,
The Sabbath day observed this side the cross.
And if this side it does one moment stand,
Upheld by virtue of the fourth command,
It stands till all these gospel days are o’er,
And time and all its scenes shall be no more. WFS 48.1

So held the ministers of gospel grace;
And so they ever taught from place to place.
Paul said the law by faith was not made void.
Yea; ‘t is by faith established, not destroyed.
Fifty and nine times, as their record stands,
They name the Sabbath, kept in different lands.
Their “manner” and their “custom” was, they say,
To teach the people every Sabbath day;
Not solely for the ceremonial Jew;
For on that day they taught the Gentile too.
Once Paul at Antioch made known salvation,
Through Christ, the seed of his own Jewish nation, And through his name the banner wide unfurled
Of free salvation unto all the world.
The Gentiles listened, glad of heart, and sought,
That they next Sabbath might the same be taught. ¹
How fine a chance the apostle had to say,
To-morrow, Gentiles, is your Sabbath day.
We Christian preachers Sunday bring along,
Not the old Jewish Sabbath, dead and gone:
On Sunday come and hear the words we say,
Not wait until another seventh day. WFS 48.2

Thus he to them would surely have explained,
If Christ a first-day Sabbath had ordained.
As no such thing the record brings to view,
‘Tis certain no such day the apostle knew.
And so they waited all the coming week
Till the next seventh day for Paul to speak;
Then the whole city, ‘most, with one accord,
Came out to hear the doctrine of the Lord.
No other Sabbath day the apostles knew,
Except the seventh, for Greek as well as Jew. WFS 49.1

And when on Patmos’ lone and rocky dome
The holy seer had views of scenes to come,
It was the Lord’s day ² when the Spirit’s power
Made doubly dear that consecrated hour.
Therefore, in this dispensation there remains,
One day the Lord as his distinctly claims. WFS 49.2

And what day, pray you, may the Lord’s day be?
Not that day, sure, of which, we clearly see,
While here on earth he never deigned to speak,
As he did not the first day of the week.
Somewhere, his day the Lord must surely own,
Somewhere, declare that it is his alone.
And of the Sabbath thus he e’er hath spoken,
Of his regard for that, given every token.
Called it his day, ¹ the Sabbath of the Lord, ²
And promised those who keep it great reward. ⁴
The Saviour spoke, and thus his teaching ran:
The Sabbath day was made, and made for man.
Therefore, he adds, in terms of clear accord,
The Son of man, of Sabbath, is the Lord. WFS 50.1

Thus manifold the proofs the Sabbath gives,
That in this dispensation still it lives.
It lacks no feature, wants no law, to show
Itself a sacred rest for all below.
The Lord upon it rested, and thus laid
A Sabbath basis, no man can evade.
Then, on the day his sacred blessing placed,
And sanctified it for the human race.
‘Twas made in Eden, ere the blight of sin,
To this fair world of ours had entered in.
And long before the Hebrews Sinai saw, They all were tested on the Sabbath law. ¹
When dispensations changed, it met no loss,
But lawfully was kept this side the cross. ²
‘Tis part of that great law, the Christian’s joy, ⁴
Which Christ declared he came not to destroy.
The Lord’s apostles kept it everywhere,
As they by act and precept both declare. WFS 50.2

Oh! then, your feet from off the Sabbath turn,
No longer God’s requirements careless spurn,
But learn, by keeping his own sacred day,
That better than sacrifice is to obey. ⁵ WFS 51.1