No nation has ever prospered that has trampled the sabbath in the
dust. Show me a nation that has done this, and I will show you a
nation that has got in it the seeds of ruin and decay. I believe that
sabbath desecration will carry a nation down quicker than anything
else. Adam brought marriage and the sabbath with him out of Eden, and
neither can be disregarded without suffering. When the children of
Israel went into the Promised Land God told them to let their land
rest every seven years, and He would give them as much in six years as
in seven. For four hundred and ninety years they disregarded that law.
But mark you, Nebuchadnezzar came and took them off into Babylon, and
kept them seventy years in captivity, and the land had its seventy
sabbaths of rest. Seven times seventy is four hundred and ninety. So
they did not gain much by breaking this law. You can give God His day,
or He will take it.
On the other hand, honoring the fourth commandment brings blessing.
"If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure
on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,
honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding
thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words ('thine own' as
contrasted with what God enjoins), then shalt thou delight thyself in
the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the
earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
I do not know what will become of this republic if we give up our
Christian sabbath. If Satan can break the conscience down on one
point, he can break it down on all. When I was in France in 1867, I
could not tell one day from the other. On Sunday stores were open and
buildings were erected, the same as on other days. See how quickly
that country went down. One hundred years ago France and England stood
abreast in the march of nations. Where do they stand to-day? France
undertook to wipe out the sabbath, and has pretty nearly wiped itself
out, while England belts the globe.