Basic HTML Version
A Holy Memorial, January 26
He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is
gracious and full of compassion.
Psalm 111:4
.
In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing
His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to
Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its
observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of
all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their creator and their
rightful sovereign; that they were the work of His hands, and the subjects
of His authority. Thus the institution was wholly commemorative, and
given to all mankind. There was nothing in it shadowy, or of restricted
application to any people.
All things were created by the Son of God. “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God.... All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
John 1:1-3
.
And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a
token of the love and power of Christ.
The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into commu-
nion with the Creator. In the song of the bird, the sighing of the trees,
and the music of the sea, we still may hear His voice who talked with
Adam in Eden in the cool of the day. And as we behold His power in
nature we find comfort, for the word that created all things is that which
speaks life to the soul.
God ... has given man six days in which to labor. But He sanctified
the day of His rest, and gave it to man to be kept, free from all secular
labor. By thus setting apart the Sabbath, God gave the world a memorial.
He did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular
day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we
recognize God as the living God, the Creator of the heaven and the
earth.
Had the Sabbath always been sacredly observed, there could never
have been an atheist or an idolater.
[33]
31