Observance of God’s Holy Sabbath
347
use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is
making the Lord’s commandments a matter of convenience. “I the
Lord thy God am a jealous God,” is thundered from Sinai. No partial
obedience, no divided interest, is accepted by Him who declares that
the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited upon the children to the
third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, and that He will
show mercy unto thousands of them that love Him and keep His
commandments. It is not a small matter to rob a neighbor, and great is
the stigma attached to one who is found guilty of such an act; yet he
who would scorn to defraud his fellow man will without shame rob
his heavenly Father of the time that He has blessed and set apart for a
special purpose
The words and thoughts should be guarded. Those who discuss
business matters and lay plans on the Sabbath, are regarded of God
as though they engaged in the actual transaction of business. To keep
the Sabbath holy, we should not even allow our minds to dwell upon
things of a worldly character
God has spoken, and He means that man shall obey. He does not
inquire if it is convenient for him to do so. The Lord of life and glory
did not consult His convenience or pleasure when He left His station
of high command to become a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, accepting ignominy and death in order to deliver man from the
consequence of his disobedience. Jesus died, not to save man in his
sins, but from his sins. Man is to leave the error of his ways, to follow
the example of Christ, to take up his cross and follow Him, denying
self, and obeying God at any cost.
[270]
Circumstances will not justify anyone in working upon the Sabbath
for the sake of worldly profit. If God excuses one man, He may excuse
all. Why may not Brother L, who is a poor man, work upon the
Sabbath to earn means for a livelihood when he might by so doing be
better able to support his family? Why may not other brethren, or all
of us, keep the Sabbath only when it is convenient to do so? The voice
from Sinai makes answer: “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy
work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
Exodus
20:9, 10
.
485
Testimonies for the Church 4:249, 250
486
Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 218