Article August 25, 1917 Issue

"Remember the sabbath day"

ANNE ARCHBOLD MILLER

The First Commandment is said to include the other nine commandments in its eight short, teeming words. The writer experienced no difficulty in placing all except the fourth commandment at unity with the first; but whenever the fourth commandment came up for study and unfoldment, especially in Sunday school work, its highest significance seemed veiled from vision, and an almost discouraged sense of limitation fettered a clearer perception of its teachings. Never for an instant did it appear that this commandment held less significance or spiritual value than the rest, but only that limited vision seemed to fall short of penetrating its treasure.

One of these days when the fourth commandment came up in the Sunday school to be discussed the following Sabbath, an aggravated sense of dissatisfaction in its limited interpretation to the teacher appeared, simultaneously to be overthrown. This sense doubtless sprang from the fact that the class in which the commandment was to be unfolded was exceedingly alert and receptive to clear, demonstrable statements of truth. A great longing for light to make more vital the unfoldment of the commandment, brought the realization that "the preparations of the heart in man ... is from the Lord;" that no strained human effort or anxious desire could dispel the darkness; that only the light of Truth could dispel it, and that without strain or anxiety. A realization of ever present light followed, of that light in which "is no darkness at all." Ah, how many times the willingness to cry, "Let there be light," has burst resisting bands of material limitation and found itself at-one with the response, "And there was light"! The greater light which dawned upon her consciousness at that time has made the fourth commandment vital in the writer's experience ever since.

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Sabbath, the seventh day,—the day of fulness, completion; the day in which God rested from His finished creative work and called it "very good;" the day which blessed and sanctified. Hence the Sabbath is a holiday, a holy day, and Mrs. Eddy defines day as "the irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p.584). Then to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," is an admonition to be ever mindful of God's finished and "very good" creation; to keep unmarred by material beliefs and limitations "the irradiance of Life," the "spiritual idea of Truth and Love." In other words, to make God and His idea our only consciousness; to have no other gods before the one God.

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