Is there a more beautiful command in the Decalogue than that relating to the observance of a Sabbath rest? In fact, the very word "Sabbath" means in the Hebrew tongue "rest." "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy," proclaimed Moses. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work," the commandment continues, "but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Then follows the injunction against all manner of material labor on this day of rest.
The Christian Scientist sees in this commandment the perpetual reminder to rest in the Lord; in other words, to know that man lives and works as the reflection of God, of Mind, Spirit, and not as a material being. But how far from this spiritual concept has the human mind wandered!
Possibly over none of the Ten Commandments have there been greater controversies and more varying interpretations than over the mandate to keep holy the Sabbath day. In Dummelow's excellent Bible Commentary we read (p. 68): "The Jewish legalists developed the negative side of this precept to such an extravagant and absurd extent that the sabbath, instead of being a day of rest, became the most laborious day of the seven. The philanthropic motive for its observance was almost entirely lost sight of till our Lord said, 'The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath' (Mk 2:27)."
