Importance of the Sabbath
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While he may endeavor to keep the Sabbath, he does not keep it. The
Lord looks upon him as a transgressor.
Even in business relations we cannot, without involving principle,
connect ourselves with those who are not loyal to God. What the
one party feels that conscience forbids, the other allows. And this
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not merely in regard to religious matters, but in business transactions.
The one acts from selfish motives, regardless of God’s law or the
salvation of the soul; and if the other sincerely loves God and the
truth, there must be either a sacrifice of principle or frequent and
painful differences. It will require a continual struggle to resist the
worldly influence and example of his ungodly associate. He has great
difficulties to meet; for he has placed himself on the enemy’s ground.
The only safe course is to give heed to the inspired injunction: “Be ye
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath
light with darkness?” “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you.”
Some of our people have sent their children to school on the Sab-
bath. They were not compelled to do this, but the school authorities
objected to receiving the children unless they should attend six days.
In some of these schools, pupils are not only instructed in the usual
branches of study, but are taught to do various kinds of work; and here
the children of professed commandment-keepers have been sent upon
the Sabbath. Some parents have tried to justify their course by quoting
the words of Christ, that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. But
the same reasoning would prove that men may labor on the Sabbath
because they must earn bread for their children; and there is no limit,
no boundary line, to show what should and what should not be done.
Had these dear brethren possessed greater spirituality, had they
realized the binding claim of God’s law as every one of us should, they
would have known their duty, and would not have been walking in
darkness. It was very hard for them to see how they could take any
other course. But God does not consult our convenience in regard to
his commandments. He expects us to obey them, and to teach them to
our children. We have before us the example of Abraham, the father
of the faithful. The God of heaven says, “I know him, that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep