Sabbathkeeping
41
God works continually in sustaining every living thing. Was His
work to cease upon the Sabbath day? Should God forbid the sun
to fulfill its office on the Sabbath? Should He cut off its rays from
warming the earth and nourishing vegetation?
Should the brooks stay from watering the fields, and the waves of
the sea still their ebbing and flowing? Must the wheat and maize stop
growing, and the trees and flowers put forth no bud or blossom on the
Sabbath?
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Then man would miss the fruits of the earth, and the blessings that
sustain his life. Nature must continue her work, or man would die.
And man also has a work to do on this day. The necessities of life
must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy
must be supplied. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour’s
pain that may be relieved on the Sabbath or any other day.
Heaven’s work never ceases, and we should never rest from doing
good. Our own work the law forbids us to do on the rest day of
the Lord. The toil for a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly
pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day. But the Sabbath is not to be
spent in useless inactivity. As God ceased from His labor of creating,
and rested upon the Sabbath, so we are to rest. He bids us lay aside
our daily occupations, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest,
to worship, and to holy deeds.
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