s. "Sabbath" means rest; therefore when the Holy
Spirit, in the Christian age, calls the seventh day the rest day, it
must infallibly be the day of rest for Christians, the Christian
Sabbath.

In the Levitical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary services
there were annual sabbaths and feasts, associated with meats and drinks
and ceremonial observances. But in appointing these the Lord
specifically distinguished between them and the one and only weekly
Sabbath, which was from the beginning. "These are the feasts of the
Lord," He said, "beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Lev. 23:37, 38.

The annual festivals and sabbaths, like all the ordinances of the
Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and found their
fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col. 2:16, 17.

But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy by God at the
creation, before sin had entered the world, before any sacrificial or
shadowy service was instituted to point to a coming Redeemer. It is a
fundamental and primary institution, a part of the moral order of God's
government for man, the same as the obligations set forth in each of the
other commandments.

And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the blessed Sabbath
day in the future home of the saved, when the prophet describes the
felicity of the redeemed, as from month to month, and "from one Sabbath
to another," all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Isa.
66:23.

Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father's
planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in
the world to come.

Is the First-day Rest an Institution of God's Planting?

In the beginning, the first day was employed by God in the work of
creation. Gen. 1:1-5.

Throughout all the Old Testament history it was one of "the six working
days." Eze. 46:1.

It was the day of Christ's resurrection; but Inspiration says
specifically that "the Sabbath was past" when that "first day of the
week" came. Mark 16:1, 2. Inspiration called this first day merely by
the ordinary secular name in common business use, with never a
suggestion of attaching any sacredness to the day. For some of the
disciples it was a day of journeying, in which the risen Christ joined
them. Luke 24:13-29. Later He appeared to the other disciples in
Jerusalem, gathered not in meeting, but at supper in their common
dwelling house. Mark 16:14.

The only religious meeting record