"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "Six days work may be done,
but the _seventh_ is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt
not do any work." This commandment I conceive to be as binding now as it
ever was, and will be to the entering into the "gates of the city." Rev.
xxii: 14.
I understand that the _seventh_ day Sabbath is not the _least_ one,
among the ALL things that are to be restored before the second advent of
Jesus Christ, seeing that the Imperial and Papal power of Rome, since
the days of the Apostles, have changed the seventh day Sabbath to the
first day of the week!
Twenty days before God re-enacted and wrote the commandments with his
finger on tables of stone, he required his people to keep the Sabbath.
Exo. xvi: 27, 30. Here he calls the Sabbath "_my commandments and my
laws_." Now the SAVIOR has given his comments on the commandments. See
Matt. xxii: 35, 40. "On these two (precepts) hang ALL the law and the
prophets." Then it would be impossible for the Sabbath to be left out. A
question was asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Says Jesus,
"If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments"--xix. Here he
quotes five from the tables of stone. If he did not mean all the rest,
then he deceived the lawyer in the two first precepts, love to God and
love to man. See also Matt. v: 17, 19, 21, 27, 33. PAUL comments thus.
"The law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good."
"Circumcision and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the
commandments of God." "All the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself." JOHN says, "the old commandment is the
WORD from the beginning."--2, 7. Gen. ii: 3. "He carries us from thence
into the gates of the city." Rev. xxii: 14. Here he has particular
reference to the Sabbath. JAMES calls it the _perfect_, royal law of
liberty, which we are to be doers of, and be judged by. Take out the
fourth commandment and the law is imperfect, and we shall fail in one
point.
The uncompromising advocate for present truth, which feeds and nourishes
the little flock in whatever country or place, is the restorer of all
things; one man like John the Baptist, cannot discharge this duty to
every kindred, nation, tongue and people, and still remain in one place.
The truth is what we want.
_Fairhaven_, August 1846. JOSEPH BATES.
[3]THE SABBATH.