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Set Example of Sabbath Sacredness, and Teach It, May 19
These words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you
rise up.
Deuteronomy 6:6, 7
, NKJV.
You have failed in your family to appreciate the sacredness of the Sabbath and
to teach it to your children and enjoin upon them the importance of keeping it
according to the commandment. Your sensibilities are not clear and ready to discern
the high standard that we must reach in order to be commandment keepers. But
God will assist you in your efforts when you take hold of the work earnestly. You
should possess perfect control over yourself; then you can have better success in
controlling your children when they are unruly.
There is a great work before you to repair past neglects; but you are not required
to perform it in your own strength. Ministering angels will aid you in the work. Do
not give up the work nor lay aside the burden, but take hold of it with a will and
repair your long neglect. You must have higher views of God’s claims upon you in
regard to His holy day. Everything that can possibly be done on the six days which
God has given to you should be done. You should not rob God of one hour of holy
time.
Great blessings are promised to those who place a high estimate upon the
Sabbath and realize the obligations resting upon them in regard to its observance:
“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath [from trampling upon it, setting it at
naught], from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight,
the holy of the Lord, honourable; ... I will cause thee to ride upon the high places
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it.”
When the Sabbath commences, we should place a guard upon ourselves, upon
our acts and our words, lest we rob God by appropriating to our own use that time
which is strictly the Lord’s....
Nothing which will in the sight of Heaven be regarded as a violation of the holy
Sabbath should be left unsaid or undone, to be said or done upon the Sabbath. God
requires not only that we refrain from physical labor upon the Sabbath, but that
the mind be disciplined to dwell upon sacred themes.—
Testimonies for the Church
2:701-703
.
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