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We Shall Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, February 22
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:8
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God said, “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” He
placed His sanctity upon this day and blessed it and hallowed it as a day of
rest.... It is the only commandment in the whole Decalogue that tells who
God is. It places God in distinction with every other god. It says the God
that made the heaven and the earth, the God that made the trees and the
flowers and that created man; this is the God that you are to keep before
your children, and you have only to point to the flowers and tell them that
He made these and that He rested on the seventh day from all His labors....
The seventh day is a God-given memorial
Pointing to God as the maker of the heavens and the earth, it distin-
guishes the true God from all false gods. All who keep the seventh day,
signify by this act that they are worshippers of Jehovah. Thus the Sabbath
is the sign of man’s allegiance to God as long as there are any upon the
earth to serve Him....
God has given men six days wherein to labor, and He requires that
their own work be done in the six working days. Acts of necessity and
mercy are permitted on the Sabbath, the sick and suffering are at all times
to be cared for; but unnecessary labor is to be strictly avoided.... And the
commandment includes all within our gates. The inmates of the house
are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours. All should
unite to honor God by willing service upon His holy day
So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue
as a sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth
again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. “From
one sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go
up “to worship before me, saith the Lord.
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Ellen G. White
Manuscript 20, 1894
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Patriarchs and Prophets, 307, 308
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The Desire of Ages, 283
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