“Oh, you know, Les, it’s something you have to do just like because you always have done it that way,” said Allison, waving her aside. “But, Cloudy, what I can’t get at at all is why He wanted it in the first place if He didn’t want it just entirely for His own glorification.”
“Why, dear, I am not sure; but I think it was just so that He and we might have a sort of a trysting-time when we could be sure of having nothing to interfere between us. And He meant it, too, to be the sign 144 between Himself and those who really loved Him and were His children, a sign that should show to the world who were His. He said so in several places. Listen to this.” She turned the leaves quickly. “‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’”
“There! Now!” said Leslie, sitting up. “That’s just what I thought! That was only for the children of Israel. It hasn’t the leastest bit to do with us. Those were Jews, and they keep it yet, on Saturday.”
“Wait, dear!” Julia Cloud turned the leaves of her Bible rapidly to Corinthians.
“Listen! ‘Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did 145 all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither, be ye idolators, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.... Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ Doesn’t that look as though God meant the Sabbath for us, too, Leslie?”
Leslie dropped back on her pillow of moss with a sigh. “I s’pose it does,” she answered somewhat disconsolately. “But I never did like Sundays anyhow!” and she drew a deep breath of unrest.
“But, dear,”––Julia Cloud’s hand rested on the bright head lovingly,––“there’s a closer sense than that in which this belongs to us if we belong to Christ; we are Israel ourselves. I was reading about it just this morning, how all those who want to be Christ’s chosen people, and are willing to accept Him as their Saviour, are Israel just as much as a born Jew. I think I can find it again. Yes, here it is in Romans: ‘For they are not all Israel which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which 146 are children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.’ That means the promise that was given to Abraham that there should be a Messiah sometime in his family who would be the Saviour of the world, and the idea is that all who believe in that Messiah are the real chosen people. It was to the chosen people God gave these careful directions––commands, if you like to call them––to help them be what a chosen people ought to be. And the Sabbath rest and communion seems to be the basis of the whole idea of a people who were guided by God. It is the coming home to God after the toil of the week. They had to have a time when other things did not call them away from spending a whole day with Him and getting acquainted, from getting to know what He wanted and how to shape their lives, or they would just as surely get interested in the world and forget God.”
“Well, I don’t see why we have to go to church, anyway,” declared Leslie discontentedly. “This is a great deal better out here under the trees, reading the Bible.”
“Yes,” said Allison. “Cloudy, that minister’s dull. I know I wouldn’t get anything out of hearing him chew the rag.”
“O Allison, dear! Don’t speak of God’s minister that way!”