THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
This commandment enjoins the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord. As it is well to have the law plainly before us when we inquire concerning our duty, we will copy this commandment.TFNOS 5.3
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.TFNOS 5.4
That we may understand what is meant by blessing the Sabbath day, we must bear in mind that Sabbath signifies rest; therefore, to bless the Sabbath day, means to bless the rest-day, and to remember the Sabbath day, is to remember the rest-day. The day of the Lord’s Sabbath is the day of the Lord’s rest. This, the commandment says, was the seventh day; also in Genesis 2:3: “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”TFNOS 6.1
To this plain fact we would call your especial attention; because we know that the day on which God rested, the day which he blessed and hallowed, the day which he commanded should be kept holy, is not generally kept by those who profess to take God’s word for their guide; but they keep a day on which he did not rest, which he did not hallow, and which he never commanded them to keep. If the sanctified rest-day of Jehovah is the proper day to be observed, and that is the very day specified in his law, then the observance of another day in its stead is an offense against the great God, who gave the law. The law does not say that you shall remember to keep the first day of the week (which is now called Sunday), but the seventh day. It is not indefinite, leaving you to observe any day as a Sabbath that you may see fit; but it is a certain definite day, namely, the Sabbath day; that is, the day of the Sabbath, or rest of the Lord, which is no other than the seventh day of the week.TFNOS 6.2