The Honor Due to God

THE SABBATH.

1. It is based on the right of property. Our time, as well as ourselves, belongs to God; but he reserves only one-seventh for himself, leaving the rest to us. We may devote a part of the six days to him, and we ought to, but we are not allowed to appropriate any portion of the seventh to our own use. Of it God says that it “is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;” he calls it “my holy day.” It is obvious, then, that if we should appropriate any of this time to our own use, we would be guilty of theft. When the people violated the Sabbath, God said that he was “profaned among them.” Ezekiel 22:26. That being said he was robbed of his honor, and treated with contempt. HDTG 5.3

2. The Sabbath existed prior to the Jewish dispensation. There is nothing in it of a ceremonial nature. God claimed it as his own in the beginning. See Genesis 2:2, 3. HDTG 6.1

3. Since the Sabbath existed before and during the Jewish dispensation, it cannot have been affected by the close of that dispensation, and hence must exist to-day in as full force as in the beginning. This is what we would naturally expect, and we have direct testimony to that effect. Our Saviour positively affirmed that not one jot or one tittle of the law should pass away. Matthew 5:17-19. He kept the Sabbath himself, Luke 4:16; John 15:10; and showed that his true disciples would be keeping it at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, nearly forty years after the Jewish dispensation closed. Matthew 24:20. We have already referred to Ezekiel 22:26; if it were necessary, we could easily show that this chapter has reference to the last days,—our own time. The Lord says: “Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths,” verse 8; but the Sabbath could not be profane by wicked men, if it were not sacred; therefore it exists as sacred time in the last days. HDTG 6.2