Article April 22, 1933 Issue

Sabbath-Day Observance

JANET L. FOTHERINGHAM

IN childhood some of us may have found the enforced strict observance of the Sabbath rather irksome, although it created a wholesome respect for the teachings of the Bible, especially those of our Master, Christ Jesus. In later years, after finding Christian Science with its glad teachings, and while yet but little understanding them, we may have felt that such arduous observance was not required by our Master, and may have gone to the other extreme. Speaking of this tendency of mortal thought, Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.552), "Thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild with freedom and so self-contradictory."

Some years ago in the Sun Dial column of The Christian Science Monitor there appeared a story of an Easterner who trekked to California in 1849. It seems that he started with a group of friends, and that in their eagerness to reach the coveted gold fields before the thousands that followed, they drove as hard and as long each day as possible. It seemed to them unwise to waste any time resting along the way, and when Sunday came the entire company continued on their journey with the exception of this man, who had always observed the Sabbath and could not be persuaded to discontinue its observance.

After resting each Sunday he joined new groups along the way, and it was not long before he began to notice that his team was in better condition than were others. After a number of weeks, to his surprise he overtook the original company and traveled with them for a few days, until he found that the pace of their horses was too slow for his better rested team, and he went on ahead. He was working his claim in California many days before his friends arrived. This experience proved to him that there was much to be gained by observing the fourth commandment.

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