Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/166

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162
The Parable of Creation.

ever recurring lessons. They are memorials of something worth remembering. The fourth of July commemorates the birth of liberty. Its observance keeps alive the virtue of patriotism on the altar of the national soul. Christmas recalls the birth of Christ. It directs vivid attention to the grandest event in the cycles of sacred history. The Sabbath, in its real and primal meaning, commemorates the doctrine of the rebirth of the soul its completed regeneration. But while the first mentioned were human institutions, the Sabbath was ordained by the Lord. It is, therefore sacred, and calls for a proper observance in a sense far higher than the others.

Men dispute over the natural day, as to which one should be recognized as the true Sabbath. It is a matter of little or no consequence. Whether it is the first day of the week, or the last or the middle one is of no moment, if for no other reason, because the week as a division of time is a human and not a divine institution. I mean by this, that the Lord, although He commanded us to keep each recurring seventh day, issued no ordinance setting forth the division of days into weeks, and instituting this day as the first and that as the last. There is no commandment which reads, "Remember the last day of the week to keep it holy," nor is there any precept which says, "Remember Saturday,