February 18, 1897
THE Sabbath is a sign which the Lord has established: and “the seventh day is the Sabbath.”
God has established this sign between Himself and the believer in Him, that the believer may know that He is the Lord the true God.
Therefore it is written: “Hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20.
The first of all things that God is to any other person or thing, is Creator. Unless He creates, there can be no existence of any person or thing but Himself.
As the Sabbath is the sign by which the believer may know that the Lord is God, it must first of all be a sign by which He may be known as the Creator of all things.
Therefore it is written: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” Exodus 31:17.
Thus the “seventh day,” by being made the Sabbath, has been established by the Lord of heaven and earth as the sign by which it may be known that He is the Lord, the true God.
As the seventh day has been established by the Lord, as the sign by which it may be known that He is the Lord; it follows, in the nature of the case, that the Lord has connected with the seventh day that which is suggestive of what He is to the man who believes Him.
Yet all that God is to men, He is in Christ. All that men can know of God is through Christ. For it is written, “No man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.”
Then as the seventh day is the sign by which it may be known that the Lord is God: and as God can be known only through the revelation of Christ, it follows that the seventh day is the sign by which it may be known what Christ is, and what God in Christ is, to men.
And as the seventh day is the sign which God has established by which men may know what Christ is, what God in Christ is, to men, it certainly follows that the Lord has connected with the seventh day, that which is suggestive of what Christ is to all who believe in Him.
We have seen already that it is a sign of the creative power and acts of the Lord—“It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” And now since men have sinned, the believer is “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Thus the seventh day being the sign, the memorial, of the creative power and act of the Lord, is as truly the sign, the memorial, of that creative power and act in making the individual Christian as it is in the making of the worlds. Creative power being the same wherever manifested, the sign of that power is also the same in all places and at all times that that power is manifested. In other words, the sign of the power is, it must be, as continuous as is the manifestation of the power of which it is the sign.
Therefore as creative power is continually manifested in the individual Christian, and as the seventh day is the sign of the manifestation of that power, it is certain that this sign must be worn by every one who would show true respect and allegiance to the power that has created him. This is why it is that the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, is given by Him as the sign to be worn by every one who recognizes and receives in his own life the working of that power which creates him new in Christ Jesus, that power that makes him a new creature, or rather, a new creation.
But the significance and appropriateness of this sign [98] does not stop here. The Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, is a sign, it bears about itself that which is suggestive, of all that Christ is to those who believe in Him.
When He had created the worlds, then “He rested the seventh day seventh day.” “The seventh day is the rest of the Lord thy God.” And to every person in the world He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” “He is thy rest.” Thus the seventh day is the sign of the rest that the believer finds in Christ, as the consequence of the creative act, just as certainly as it is the creative act itself. The two things are inseparable, therefore the sign of the two things is the same thing. “It is a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God,” thy Creator and thy rest.
Yet not only did He rest the seventh day as the consequence of the creative act, but “He blessed the seventh day.” The blessing of the Lord is upon the seventh day. The word says so. In this also it is a sign of what Christ is to the person who believes in Him: For it is written: “God having raised up His Son, Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” And “He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ.”
He hallowed the seventh day also: He made it holy. And so He calls it “my holy day,” and calls upon all people to remember it “to keep it holy.” In this also the seventh day is a sign of what Christ the Lord is to the believer in Him. For He says, “Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.” And it is His presence with the believer that alone can make him holy. It was His presence at the burning bush that made that place holy. So it is alone His presence with the believer that makes him holy. It was His presence that made the seventh day holy; it is His presence that makes the believer holy: and the seventh day is the sign of His presence which makes holy the place where it dwells, whether it be the heart of the believer now, or the Sabbath day at the close of creation week.
And He sanctified the seventh day. In this also the seventh day is a sign of what He is to the believer. For the believer is “sanctified by faith that is in Jesus.” And “I am the Lord that doth santify you.” And these two things He himself puts together in such a way that there is no escaping it. “I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify them.”
Thus the Lord has connected with the seventh day the suggestion of all that He is to those who believe in Him. He has done this, in order that the believer, by the observance of the Sabbath, may ever be growing in the knowledge of the Creator, the Lord and Saviour. To understand these suggestions, to see in the Sabbath the reflection of Jesus Christ, to receive these spiritual impressions—this, and this alone, is Sabbath observance.
The seventh day, then, having been established by the Lord, and plainly declared over and over in His written word, to be the sign of Himself, the sign of what He is in all things to mankind, the sign by which men may know that He is the Lord God—and that He is what He is, bearing always the suggestion of what He is to the one that believeth—what an enormous fraud has been committed in setting it aside and exalting Sunday in its place!
Sunday is not, and cannot be, in any sense a rest of the Lord, nor or anything in connection with Him. He did not rest on the first day; He did not bless the first day; He did not make holy the first day; He did not sanctify the first day.—There is therefore absolutely nothing about the Sunday that is suggestive of what the Lord is to the believer in Him nor to anybody else who lacks everything that could possibly make it such. It is therefore the most gigantic fraud and imposture that has ever appeared in the world.
And when the churches that have committed and fostered this fraud and imposture, dragged the Congress of the United States into the support of it, and of … it, there was committed the greatest piece of governmental sacrilege since the night of Belshazzar’s feast, as far as it would be possible to do such a thing, that which God himself established—the day on which He rested, which He blessed, hallowed, and sanctified, and deliberately set aside, and an absolute fraud and imposture was erected in its place. And now the same gymnastics that dragged Congress into the doing of that sacrilege, are working with might and main to get Congress to enact a law compelling people to wear this fraudulent thing, instead of leaving them free with the Lord to keep His own established sign, upon their own free choice. How could impiety go further?