The value of the Sabbath as a
means of education is beyond estimate. Whatever of ours God claims from us, He
returns again, enriched, transfigured, with His own glory. The tithe that He
claimed from Israel was devoted to preserving among men, in its glorious
beauty, the pattern of His temple in the heavens, the token of His presence on
the earth. So the portion of our time which He claims is given again to us,
bearing His name and seal. "It is a sign," He says, "between Me and you; . . .
that ye may know that I am the Lord;" because "in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 31:13;
20:11. The Sabbath is a sign of creative and redeeming power; it points to God
as the source of life and knowledge; it recalls man's primeval glory, and thus
witnesses to God's purpose to re-create us in His own image.
The Sabbath and the
family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God's purpose they are
indissolubly linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is
possible for us to live the life of Eden. It was God's plan for the members of
the family to be associated in work
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and study, in
worship and recreation, the father as priest of his household, and both father
and mother as teachers and companions of their children. But the results of
sin, having changed the conditions of life, to a great degree prevent this
association. Often the father hardly sees the faces of his children throughout
the week. He is almost wholly deprived of opportunity for companionship or
instruction. But God's love has set a limit to the demands of toil. Over the
Sabbath He places His merciful hand. In His own day He preserves for the family
opportunity for communion with Him, with nature, and with one another.
Since the Sabbath
is the memorial of creative power, it is the day above all others when we
should acquaint ourselves with God through His works. In the minds of the
children the very thought of the Sabbath should be bound up with the beauty of
natural things. Happy is the family who can go to the place of worship on the
Sabbath as Jesus and His disciples went to the synagogue--across the fields,
along the shores of the lake, or through the groves. Happy the father and
mother who can teach their children God's written word with illustrations from
the open pages of the book of nature; who can gather under the green trees, in
the fresh, pure air, to study the word and to sing the praise of the Father
above.
By such
associations parents may bind their children to their hearts, and thus to God,
by ties that can never be broken.
As a means of
intellectual training, the opportunities of the Sabbath are invaluable. Let the
Sabbath-school lesson be learned, not by a hasty glance at the lesson scripture
on Sabbath morning, but by careful study for
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the next week on
Sabbath afternoon, with daily review or illustration during the week. Thus the
lesson will become fixed in the memory, a treasure never to be wholly lost.
In listening to the
sermon, let parents and children note the text and the scriptures quoted, and
as much as possible of the line of thought, to repeat to one another at home.
This will go far toward relieving the weariness with which children so often
listen to a sermon, and it will cultivate in all a habit of attention and of
connected thought.
Meditation on the
themes thus suggested will open to the student treasures of which he has never
dreamed. He will prove in his own life the reality of the experience described
in the scripture:
"Thy words were
found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of
mine heart." Jeremiah 15:16.
"I will meditate in
Thy statutes." "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine
gold. . . . Moreover by them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping of them
there is great reward." Psalms 119:48; 19:10, 11.