Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy

REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY By Wendell S. Stout Of the commandments given on Mount Sinai, none is more beneficial, and yet none more shamelessly ignored by man, than that pertaining to the Sabbath day. Indeed, there are few who even pre- tend to observe the day, and of that few, the greater part seem to have failed to grasp the meaning or to appreciate the value of keeping it holy. The small number of people gathered in our houses of wor- ship on this day bears witness of the lack of faith in the principle. In the cities, instead of the churches being filled, our pleasure resorts are overcrowded, Sunday sports have taken the place of Sabbath worship; while, in the country districts, the Sabbath is fast becoming an ordinary day of the week, a day of toil. Sunday sees no change in the work of many of the country folk; they dress the same, think the same, do the same as on other days of the week. For such people the ox is always in the mire. Their work drives them; it is of such importance that they cannot afford a Sabbath. In other words, the Sabbath, to them, does not mean opportunity for enlarging their souls; it is only a day for getting their daily bread; they have forgotten that there is such a thing as spiritual bread and that they are in sore need of it. These conditions show clearly that the purpose of the Sabbath has been lost sight of, and that being the case they can see no reason why one should not do necessary (?) work on that day; or why one should not go to the pleasure resorts, or go hunting, or fishing, and take one's needed rest, in change from the monotony of the other six days. It seems that we have forgotten the first sentence in the com- mandment: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Most of the commandments of the Decalogue are negative, but this com- mandment has also a positive side. Not only must we refrain from work, but we must keep the day holy. Refraining from work is but the necessary means to this end. The negative part of the commandment has, in times past, re- ceived the greater emphasis, perhaps, because the law could compel its observance more easily. Thus the Bible records that a man was stoned for working on the Sabbath. At the time of Christ the emphasis on refraining from work reached its climax when the Pharisees found fault with the disciples of Jesus for plucking and crushing out the heads of grain as they passed through the corn fields on the Sabbath day. In spite of the valuable lesson couched in Christ's rebuke, we find the Puritans, many centuries later, falling

REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY 861 into a similar error and adding to it one other — that of forcing the people to keep the day holy by assuming an air of piety and attending church. But, with the Puritan strictness, the means being over em- phasized, the end was lost sight of, and Puritan rigidity, as a result, has been replaced by a Sabbath of almost pagan laxity. Sunday has become a capital day for sports and outings of all kinds; the Sabbath has been commercialized and grossly cheapened. The divine purpose of the Sabbath is unseen by many; they have beheld nothing but an un- pleasant restriction placed by God upon man, for no other reason than to try his faith and test his obedience. They have forgotten the words of the Savior, "The Sabbath was made for man." The Sabbath, then, is not for the advantage of God, but for the benefit or man. It remains for us, therefore, to find out what is most profitable for us on that day, and whatever it is, be it working, pleasure- seeking, reading books, or whatnot? — that is the thing that is in order on the Sabbath day. God has given us the day for us to make the best possible use of, and when we fail to do so the Sabbath is wasted and we are the losers. Let us then ask ourselves, "For what purpose was man put upon the earth?" Evidently, it is that he might live. A very simple answer to so important a question, but how few there are who ap- preciate its truth! We are here to live. Then, why not make the Sabbath day one of living? If we could but live one day in seven, our work would be easier, we would live longer, old age would be postponed, the years would be longer when measured in joy and would be shorter when measured in sorrow, we would be rich though we had not a penny; the Sabbath would indeed be a day of rest. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. * * * Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." What a glorious suggestion is this for the keeping of the Sabbath. But it is only incidentally that the Sabbath is a day of rest. Primarily it is a day of worship. It is for the praise and adoration of God, whom we should love, and whom to worship if we do love him, becomes the greatest joy. Worship is consciously striving to serve God. Service and love combined give the greatest of joy. These two elements are essential both to God's joy and to man's joy. "God so loved the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." Is this not an expression of love through service? As God's glory is the immortality and eternal life of man, or is service to man, so man's glory is service to God and man. The Sabbath is an opportunity for us to reach out and grasp

860 IMPROVEMENT ERA eternal life. "He that believeth in me shall never die." It is only the dead that die and it was of such that Christ spoke when he said, "Let the dead bury their dead." Let us, then, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. We should refrain from work, but it is only that we may gain more of the real values of life. We must not be idle on this day, it is a day of worship, of service to God and his children. Let us help them to live. Let us make use of our worshipping assemblies that we may fulfil this purpose. Let us remember that the greatest joys come from mingling with and partaking of the joys and sorrows of others. Let us not desecrate the Sabbath by seeking physical pleasure. Let us not shut ourselves away from the joys of the Sabbath. Let us live on this blessed day. Beaver, Utah. HEROES OF SCIENCE By F. S. Harris and N. I. Butt, of the Brigham Young University 2. Henry Is fame worth more than the love of serving the human race? Joseph Henry, one of America's greatest scientists, apparently thought not. Time after time he might have become world famous because of his discoveries and inventions, but he ignored the opportunities for the sake of devoting his energies fully to the making of new dis- coveries. His whole mature life was spent quietly bringing new ideas to a point where inventors and other practical-minded men might gain fame from them. As well as not could he have reaped the fame that went with such inventions as the telegraph, dynamo, and various other important devices. Henry furnishes us with an excellent example of a boy with ordinary opportunities who climbed to the top of the ladder. He was born in 1797 of ordinary parents who had immigrated to this country at about the beginning of the Revolutionary War.- When he was but a few year old his father died, and at the age of seven he went to live with his grandmother in another section, where he attended school for three years. Then he worked in a store most of the day but went to school some of the time until he reached the age of fifteen. Like almost all boys, he delighted in reading stories of romance, and being a good story teller with a liberal amount of imagination to furnish new thrills, he was always the center of the crowds which gathered around the stove at the store. At the age of fifteen he decided to become an actor and joined