Sanctity of the Sabbath

The sanctity of the Sabbath resides in the command to keep it holy or to sanctify it (Exodus 20:8); the sanctity is that which is involved in sanctifying it. There are two elements in the word “sanctify". It means, first of all, to set apart. If set apart it is distinguished from something else. This belongs to the sanctity of the seventh day. There are people who will say that every day is to them a Sabbath, at least that every day is to them the Lord’s day. This may seem very pious. It seems pious because there is an element of truth in the assertion that every day is the Lord’s day. It is true that we ought to serve the Lord every day and every moment of every day. And our devotion to the Lord should not be one whit less at our weekly labours than in our worship in God’s house on the Sabbath. We should dig or plough with as much devotion to the Lord as we pray or sing in the assembly of the saints. Whatsoever we do we are to do it to the Lord and to His glory. In this connection we should remember that the fourth commandment is the commandment of labour as well as of rest. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work” (Exod. 20:9). But while it is true that we ought to serve the Lord every day and in all things, we must not forget that there are different ways of serving God. We do not serve Him by doing the same thing all the time. If we do that we are either insane or notoriously perverse. There is a great variety in human vocation. If we neglect to observe that variation we shall soon pay the cost. One of the ways by which this variety is expressed and enjoined is to set apart every recurring seventh day. That is the divine institution. The recurring seventh day is different and it is so by divine appointment. To obliterate this difference may appear pious. But it is piosity, not piety. It is not piety to be wiser than God; it is impiety of the darkest hue. The Sabbath day is different from every other day, and to obliterate this distinction either in thought or practice is to destroy what is of the essence of the institution

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