We are not to quarrel with our brother over observance of the
Sabbath. If he insists that the
Lord should be worshiped on the seventh
day, let us joyfully join him on that
day; and if he holds that the first
day is the
holy day, let us again acquiesce.
Metaphysical meaning of
Sabbath (mbd)
Sabbath (Heb.)--
the seventh, seventh (day); seventh (month); seventh (year); restoration; restitution; return to a former state; at-one-ment; atonement; completion; perfection; wholeness; repose; rest.
The seventh
day of the week. Under the
old Jewish law, no one was allowed to do any
work on that
day (
Exod. 20:811).
Meta. The
Sabbath is the
consciousness that we have fulfilled the
divine law in both
thought and act.
The
Sabbath of the
Lord has nothing to do with any
day of the week.
God did not make days and weeks, nor has He darkened His clear concepts of
Truth by the
time element.
Time is an invention of the human.
The
Sabbath is a very certain, definite thing. It is a state of
mind that
man enters or acquires when he goes into the
silence of his own
soul, into the
realm of
Spirit. There he finds true rest and
peace. The seventh
day means the seventh or perfect stage of one's
spiritual unfoldment.
Man had become so lost in the
darkness of sense
consciousness that he could not save himself, so a Savior came. When
man lays
hold of the indwelling
Christ, the Savior, he is raised out of the
Adam consciousness into the
Christ consciousness. He then enters the seventh stage of his
unfoldment, where he finds rest and
peace. The
Sabbath can be enjoyed at any hour.
Man shows his
ignorance and limits his happiness by confining the
Sabbath to any one of the days of the week. He should learn to read the
Bible in the
spirit, and pay less
attention to the letter of it.
The
Sabbath as an institution was established by
man.
God does not rest from His works every seventh
day, and there is no evidence that there ever has been a moment's cessation in the
activity of the
universe. Those who stickle most for
Sabbath day observance are met on every
hand by the evidence of perpetual
activity on the part of Him whom they claim to champion.
We are cited to the trees, flowers, suns, and
stars, as the
work of
God; we are told that it is
God who sustains and governs, controls and directs, them in every minutia. Yet trees, flowers, suns, and
stars are active the first
day and the seventh
day of the week just the same as on other days. Sacerdotalism has never yet found that the operations of
nature on Sunday are in any
way different from its operations on any other
day of the week
It would seem that if
God ordained a certain
day for rest, and rested on that
day Himself, He ought certainly to have left some evidence of it in His creations; but He has not, that anybody knows of. The fact is that
Divine Mind rests in a perpetual
Sabbath and that which seems
work is not
work at all. When
man becomes so at one with the Father-Mind as to feel it consciously he also recognizes this
eternal peace in which all
things are accomplished. He then knows that he is not subject to any condition whatsoever, but is "
lord of the
sabbath."
It is your privilege to be as free as the birds, the trees, the flowers. "They toil not, neither do they spin," but are always obedient to the
divine instinct, and their every
day is a
Sabbath. They
stand in no
fear of an angry
God, though they build a nest, spread a leaf, or open a petal on the first or on the seventh
day. All days are
holy days to them. They live in the
holy Omnipresence and do the will always of Him who sent them. It is our duty to do likewise. That which is
instinct in them is in us
conscious, loving
obedience. When we have resolved to be attentive to the
voice of the
Father and to do His will at any cost, we are freed from the
bondage of all man-made laws. What was a chain about our wrists, or a yoke about our
neck, in the
form of some
fear of transgressing the
divine law, slips away into the fathomless
sea of nothingness and we sit on the shore and
praise the loving
Goodness that we are nevermore to be frightened by an accusing
conscience or by the possibility of misunderstanding His
law.
Not only do we do God's service in
praise,
song, and
thanksgiving on the seventh
day and the first
day, but every
day. In the true
Sabbath our souls are turned upward to
God every moment, and we are ever ready to acknowledge His
holy presence in our
heart and
life; we are ever praising the
holy Omnipresence that burns its lamp of
love perpetually in our
heart and keeps the
light of
life before us on our
way. This is the observance of God's
holy day that the divinely wise
soul a}ways recognizes. The true
church is the
heaven within one, where one meets the
Father face to face, where one goes to Him at will, in closest fellowship.
On the other
hand, the observance of every seventh
day as a
day of rest, or
Sabbath, has its
source deep in the constitution of
things. Among nearly all peoples similar rest days have been instituted, and history proves that
Moses was not the originator of the system. The observance of a weekly rest
day is now very widely held to prove a natural basis in the needs of
man. The consistency with which such an institution has been maintained for many centuries among
Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, and some of the so-called
pagan nations amply supports this view. It bas been found by experience that one
day of rest in
seven is the
right proportion. During the French Revolution, when a ten-day period was substituted for the week, one day's rest in ten was found insufficient.
"And on the seventh
day God finished his
work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh
day from all his
work which he had made. And
God blessed the seventh
day, and hallowed it." This quotation from
Genesis presents in concise words a
law that pervades the
universe. According to some geologists the rock-ribbed
earth beneath our
feet bears record of six great
creative periods, with a seventh in process of completion.
Seven movements of the
creative law are found at the foundation of the
world about us. The
seven colors of the spectrum, the
seven principal tones of music, the
seven senses of
man (two not yet universally used)--all point to these degrees or days of action and rest.
When
man in his
wisdom unites his
thought with
Divine Mind, as did
Jesus, he has
power to use the same
creative law that
God uses in bringing forth the
universe. The
seven elements of the
body are found everywhere, and through
understanding that they are not fixed, material
things, but forms of
thought,
man gains entrance to a
realm where he can speak words that will give him the
obedience of those elements, according to his
power.
When you have gained
power to still the stormy, undisciplined thoughts in your own
mind you can speak to the winds and they will obey you. When you have arrested the scorching currents of anger that burn up your
body cells you can quench the
fire in a burning building. When you have ceased to drop into the weak, watery
mental states called discouragement, despondency, and
fear, you can command the waves and
walk upon the waters, as did
Jesus.
Before
man can rise into his natural
dominion, however, he must understand and realize that God's whole plan of
creation is to bring forth the perfect
man. This means that
man is the
supreme thing in
creation and that all laws are for his convenience. The
universal tendency of great
men to manifest this inherent excellency proves that it is natural. Most of them miss the
mark by seeking to dominate other
men and nations before they have mastered themselves.
When
men set up a
law and make its observance burdensome they are slaves of their own
creation. The
Jews had become burdened with the observance of the letter of the
Sabbath commandment, and had a
multitude of ridiculous prohibitions and formalities, from which
Jesus sought to rescue them by His example of bold
freedom and disregard of certain man-made laws.
The
Sabbath was instituted for
man, not
man for the
Sabbath. It is lawful to do
good on the
Sabbath, whether it be preaching in a pulpit,
healing the sick, or in any other
way saving
men from
ignorance and its results. Luther said of the
Sabbath: "Keep it
holy for its use's sake both to
body and
soul. But if anywhere the
day is made
holy for the mere day's sake, if anywhere any one sets up its observance upon a
Jewish foundation, then I
order you to
work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to
feast on it, to do anything that shall reprove this encroachment on the
Christian spirit and liberty."
To repeat, the true
Sabbath is not the observance of an
outer day; the
outer is but the
symbol. The true Sabbath is that state of
mind in which we rest from
outer thought and doings, and give ourselves up to
meditation or to the study of
things spiritual; it is when we enter into the
stillness of our inner
consciousness, think about
God and His
law, and commune with Him
