In the beginning “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” and thus made it a blessing and a channel of sanctification or holiness to man. He then taught man to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” or to sanctify it. God made the day holy and He instructed man to treat it as holy that he might thus receive the blessing of holiness through it; but when man treats the day as common time he fails to receive the Sabbath blessing through God’s appointed channel.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.1

It is not in the power of man to make a day holy, neither can we receive the blessing of holiness through a day which the Lord has not made holy. So when we turn away from the day which the Lord has made holy and accept any other day in its stead, we are thus turning away from the Lord’s own channel of holiness for us. This is the great loss with which we meet in following the traditions of men instead of obeying the Word of God.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.2

So intimately related is the “holy Sabbath” to “the holy Scriptures” and to the “holy child Jesus,” that it cannot be consistently disregarded by those who profess to receive the other two for what they really are, and it is worth noting that professes to have changed the Sabbath has practically put itself above the Bible and Christ. So long as the Bible is received as the Word of God, and the example and instruction of Jesus is followed, so long the seventh-day Sabbath will be observed, and when the seventh-day Sabbath is knowingly disregarded, the logic of this act really demands that the Bible and the work of Jesus should be set aside.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.3

The Roman Catholic church in its teaching openly states that the Bible commands the observance of the seventh day and no other, and that there is not a word in the Bible authorizing a change of the day, and it just as openly teaches that the church changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, and that there is no other authority for the change. It is only consistent therefore for it to treat the Bible as of secondary importance as compared with its own traditions, and to make the intercession of the Virgin Mary of more value than the intercession of Christ.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.4

In all this the Roman Catholic church puts itself above God, but it is consistent in the way in which it does it. so long as one receives the Bible as the Word of God, and acknowledges its authority as supreme, so long will he see that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that the intercession of Jesus is all that is needed for man or that can avail anything for man, and when one rejects the Lord’s Sabbath, the logical result will be to reject the authority of the Word of God, and to receive the word of man instead, and to accept a supposed human helper as of more value than is the help of Him who alone is able to save.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.5

But this is not a question simply of cold logic. And thus turning from God’s appointed blessings and channels of blessing man meets with an irreparable loss. If we receive the salvation of God at all, we must receive it through the channels which He Himself has established, and the blessing of holiness should be so highly prized that we should be glad to receive it in any way which the Lord may appoint.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.6

The original Sabbath still remains as a sign and a pledge of God’s power to make holy, and the true keeping of the Sabbath, the entering into His rest, is the experience of His presence who only can make and keep its holy. God’s purpose in the gospel has always been the same, that we should be “created in righteousness and holiness of truth,” and His means of accomplishing this result have always been the same in making us “partakers of the divine nature,” and so the Sabbath remains unchanged and unchangeable, a channel for this blessing of holiness to man.AMS July 1, 1897, page 406.7

June 3, 1897

July 7, 1897