Article May 12, 1917 Issue

The Sabbath

LAURA R. JOSLIN

Children in Christian Science Sunday schools are taught to love and obey the commandments, because every one feels that an obedient child will become a worthy man or woman. Hence Christian Scientists, whether children or adults, endeavor to be obedient to God's law in every smallest way, and so to serve Him as to become themselves more godlike. The fourth commandment begins with this simple statement: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," yet even well-meaning people are sometimes puzzled to know just what is intended to be conveyed by this command.

Recently a Christian Scientist was asked: "Why do you consider it wrong to go to places of amusement on Sunday, if you consider these places fit to attend on a week-day? Is not every day a Sabbath in the light of the true law?" The answer was that it may be no more right to attend these places on a week-day than on Sunday, when we consider that only as we rise above all worldliness do we advance toward that perfection which Christ Jesus demanded of his followers; but inasmuch as mankind has not yet reached this point, mortals may be helped to reach it more quickly by keeping one day of the seven free from the business or so-called pleasures of the world.

Our endeavor should be to bring each week-day up to a Sabbath standard, rather than to bring the Sabbath down to a week-day level. In so doing we get closer to God, infinite Mind, as it was intended we should do when the day was called "the sabbath of the Lord thy God." On page 517 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection." This seems to imply that man's true activity is not that of mere physical labor, but is mental and spiritual.

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