MRS. J. C. BATEHAM, who has been prominent in connection with the “Sabbath reform” work of the W.C.T.U., makes the statement, in a contribution to a “Sabbath reform” journal, that—
“A Christian Sabbath cannot long be maintained if the protecting fence of civil laws be thrown down.”
If this is true, then of course “civil Sabbath” laws are necessary, and we should have them by all means. But is it a fact that the Almighty is so dependent on human legislation for the perpetuity of one of his institutions? If we believed he was thus dependent, we would at once lose confidence in him as a God.
The very essence of Christianity, as we understand it, is the all-sufficiency of the power of God to uphold that which is his, in the face, if need be, of all the power of man and Satan combined. The church never lost anything by the attack of the world upon her. Christianity never lost anything because earthly governments failed to support her. Christianity and the church have always gained in such conflicts. The church loses only when those within her fold voluntarily relinquish their hold upon spiritual things. But whether Christians loosen, maintain, or regain their hold upon spiritual institutions are matters that human laws cannot affect.
So long as an individual really has hold upon the Lord, there is no danger that he will lose the Sabbath, even though all the laws of earth were against his keeping it instead of giving it their pretended support. When he relinquishes his hold upon God, it is always done voluntarily; other wise he would not be responsible before God for his lapse from righteousness. And when he has lost is hold upon God, he is in a position to be [277] frightened by the opposition of men, or even by their failure to give him their “support.”
At the very beginning of the world, God set apart the seventh day of the week to be the Sabbath—his Sabbath, made for man—and from that day to this the seventh-day Sabbath has continued in the earth, and has a respectable number of adherents to-day, although no human law was ever enacted in its support, and many have been enacted against it.
The God to whom the Sabbath belongs is one in whom we can safely trust, without any anxiety as to the attitude of worldly governments. The Lord let Satan remove all the fence there was around Job, but he preserved Job just the same. There is no need that his Sabbath should be fenced about with the straw of human statutes.