I.
IT (the Sabbath) was made expressly for man’s needs. It is a coaling station on the voyage of life. If a man misses it, or misuses it, he is bound to suffer—to suffer physically, to suffer mentally, and to suffer spiritually. Experience testifies to that. It has been demonstrated over and over again. Men think they can make laws. They cannot. Laws are not made by us, they are only discovered. Men can make legislation, but the Creator made the laws—the eternal laws—and man’s business is to find them out and adjust his legislation to them. The French Revolutionists thought they could do away with the seventh day. They said: “We shall set apart every tenth day.” What happened? They ruined the nation nearly. Then they said later on—the French people—that they would make no provision for “Sunday.” Men might do what they liked on it—work as much as they chose. What happened? France is frightened by the decay of manhood in the State, and she has been compelled once more to enact one day in seven as a day of rest. It is a significant fact that countries that pay no regard to the Sabbath—Continental countries—are either dwindling away or re-enacting ordinances forbidding work on one day in seven.
I draw the working-men’s attention to the fact that Sabbath is their day. As sure as it becomes a day of pleasure it will be bound to end in a day of work; and when it becomes a day of work the end of our Empire is not far off. The tendency now is to turn it into a day of pleasure. Cycling, motoring, golfing, football, cricket—these are threatening to invade the day of rest. Governments run trains when they can get the chance. They run them, they say, upon humanitarian grounds. Excuses are made that they are exceptional, occasional. . . . If a train or tram line needs repairing, or a railway station, it must be done on Sabbath. Why? Because it is the cheapest time. Because if it were done on a week-day traffic would be interfered with, and then men’s money-making would be hindered. And for the sake of that we must violate a law of God.
* This extract is taken from an article in Dr. Rutherford Waddell’s The Voyage of Life (New Zealand Book Depot, Wellington New Zealand). The article is entitled “Coaling Stations on the Voyage of Life.” The author says: “I do not like the name (Sunday). It is a heathen name, and obscures the significance of the day.” Yet he uses it but what he has failed to do we have done for him and substituted Sabbath for “Sunday.” While Dr. Waddell does not emphasise the divine authority of the Sabbath as based on the Fourth Commandment yet he has some interesting remarks on the observance of God’s Day.—Editor.