Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

Closing Our Restaurants on the Sabbath

Before leaving Los Angeles, I had an opportunity to talk with Mrs. Moran in regard to some of these matters. She asked me about the advisability of keeping the restaurant open on the Sabbath for a limited number. I told her that there was danger of breaking the law of God by serving a few on the Sabbath as well as by serving many. To serve either a few or many on this day will give the impression that we are lax in principle, and thus a wrong influence will be exerted on both patrons and helpers. 4MR 288.1

Since the last General Conference, this matter has been clearly presented to me. Our restaurants should not be opened on the Sabbath. Unless they are closed, and the Lord's day is honored, the blessing of God can not be expected to rest upon this branch of His work. Those who are engaged in our restaurants must have opportunity to rest on the Sabbath, else they will backslide. The Lord does not require them to furnish meals for the public on the Sabbath. If those who come to our restaurants choose to take away with them on Friday, health foods sufficient to last over the Sabbath, let them do this. But our restaurant workers should not be asked to work on the Sabbath. 4MR 288.2

The closed doors on the Sabbath stamp the restaurant as a memorial for God, a memorial that declares that the Seventh-day is the Sabbath, and that on it no unnecessary work is to be done. When thinking men find that our restaurants are closed on the Sabbath, they will begin to make inquiries in regard to the principles that lead us to close our doors on Saturday. In answering their questions we shall have opportunity to make them acquainted with the truth for this time. 4MR 288.3

There is danger that our restaurants will be conducted in such a way that our helpers will work very hard day after day and week after week, and yet not be able to point to any good accomplished. This matter needs careful consideration. We have no right to bind our young people up in a work that yields no fruit to the glory of God. 4MR 289.1

There is danger that the restaurant work, though regarded as a wonderfully successful way of doing good, will be so conducted that it will promote merely the physical good of men and women. Those chosen to manage this work must be careful, consecrated men, lest investigation prove that the cause of God is not advanced by the efforts put forth. A work may apparently bear the features of supreme excEllence, but it is not good in God's sight unless it is performed with an earnest desire to do His will and fulfill His purpose. If God is not recognized as the author and end of our actions, they are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting. 4MR 289.2

Religious life must characterize our business transactions if we keep the breath of life in our souls. We have been instructed that pure, strong faith in a “thus saith the Lord” must bear a signal part in all our business enterprises, else all who are connected with these enterprises, whatever they may be, will stand on losing ground. When God can accept us as laborers together with Him in seeking to save the souls ready to perish He can cooperate with us in carrying forward the enterprises with which we are connected. And His cooperation places us where our efforts work out His plans. It unites us with Christ, and from Him we derive the nourishment that enables us to bear “much fruit.” 4MR 289.3

“In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.” Let us walk humbly with God, seeking Him diligently and serving Him earnestly, lest we be found unprofitable servants. Our Lord loves to have us trust Him implicitly, recognizing the sacredness of His work and His power to carry it forward. We need not be in darkness and doubt. Christ is constantly inviting us, “Look unto Me. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” No man can look to Christ without being strengthened and uplifted. By beholding Him, he is changed into the same image, and cherishes the same spirit. All sullenness and gloom are gone. His experience is as clear as the sunlight. The consciousness that Jesus loves him fills him with joy and gladness, and he reflects the divine image. His constant question is, “What shall I render unto Thee for Thine infinite love and mercy to me? I am Thy servant; for Thou hast loosed my bonds.”—Letter 157, 1902, pp. 1-14. (To the directors of the Los Angeles County Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, October 13, 1902.) 4MR 290.1

Released January 27, 1970.