Article November 19, 1949 Issue

Our Sunday Schools

Teaching Sabbath Observance

The question frequently arises, What should the Sunday School children be taught about Sabbath observance? The fourth commandment, as well as the other nine commandments of the Decalogue, should be taught both in its spiritual significance and in its literal application. If taught only in its spiritual significance without regard to its literal meaning, the pupil may be led to believe that Sunday is no different from any other day of the week. It is right to teach a child that every day should be a holy day, characterized by a recognition of the realities of being, a recognition of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God. But the child should understand also that the custom of regarding the Sabbath as a day set apart from other days in recognition of the presence and power of God and in an endeavor to gain a clearer vision of His creation and share with others the fruits of one's spiritual understanding, enables one to make every day a holier one than it otherwise would be.

In the Gospel of Luke (4:16) we learn that it was the Master's custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and take part in the religious service. However, his humanitarian attitude toward Sabbath observance was not in accord with the rigid traditions of the Jews of his time. When Jesus and his disciples were hungry, they did not hesitate on Sunday, while passing through the fields, to stop and pluck corn, rub the grains in their hands, and eat them. When criticized by the Jews for providing food on Sunday for their immediate need, Jesus silenced their argument by declaring that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Again, notwithstanding the strict Jewish tradition about carrying things on Sunday, Jesus said to the man who had been healed of palsy on the Sabbath day (Mark 2:11), "Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

So children should be taught that the purpose of Sabbath observance is to serve the well-being of mankind by uplifting the thought of men, women, and children to spiritual standards and higher motives and aims. Children should understand that the Sabbath is different from other days because, in the absence of schoolwork and other regular weekday activities, they are afforded a special opportunity to cultivate those spiritual qualities which bring more of God's goodness into the affairs of men and enrich the entire human experience. Sunday, then, is not a day to be filled with exciting sports, commercial entertainments, and frivolous pastimes, even though the brief period of one hour of the morning has been given to attendance at church or Sunday School. Sunday activities which end with accent on the material rather than the spiritual rob one in large measure of the fruits of that holy day of which it is written (Ex. 20:11), "Wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

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