Nouns and Adjectives

NOUNS in composition are always the subjects of discourse, or the objects of actions or relations. Adjectives are never the subjects of which something is affirmed; but they are used simply to describe nouns by some distinct specification. Nouns may be used as adjectives, that is, they may be used simply to describe other nouns; but in that case they lose their office in the sentence as nouns, so that what is affirmed affirms nothing concerning them. For example: If one affirms something concerning a horse-whip, that it is good or bad, long or short, heavy or light, he affirms nothing whatever concerning any horse in the universe. A horse is not the subject of discourse. Nothing is said of horses. The word horse has nothing to do in the sentence, but merely to describe the whip as being of the kind that are used about horses.

What does all this mean? I will tell you. Many contend that the fourth commandment teaches that God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath or rest, and not the particular day on which the Lord's rest occurred. The reading is, "The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." In this affirmation Sabbath is merely an adjective describing or specifying the day. It is the day which was blessed and hallowed. To say it is the Sabbath and not the day is absurd. To illustrate, take the assertion, "John made an ox cart and sold it." To claim from this assertion that John made an ox and sold it, is no more absurd than to say that the expression, The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it, means that he blessed and hallowed the Sabbath as an institution and not the particular day. Ox, in the illustration, though primarily a noun, is used in the sentence only as an adjective to describe the cart. So the term Sabbath is here used only to specify the day.

It is the Lord's Sabbath which we are commanded to remember and keep; and the commandment tells us that his Sabbath is the seventh day. But where shall we begin the count? Go back to the creation. There, and nowhere else, can we be set upon the right track. "For," says the commandment, "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." Go back to the account of the creation, to the point to which the commandment refers you, and there you find it stated that God wrought on six days and rested on the seventh; and that he "blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work." This is the only point from which to commence the count.

"But how do you know that mankind have not lost the count?"

How do you know that God has not kept it correctly? He intended that the day should be honored, or he would not have commanded it; and while he requires any one to keep the day, he will see that it is possible for it to be kept according to the commandment. The greatest difficulty is, that men desire more to find an excuse for not keeping it, than they do to find the day. When they really desire to find the truth, they will find that it is not far from them. "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it IS NOT HIDDEN from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou MAYEST do it." Deut. 30:11-14. This soaring and sailing, is only to find excuses. The truth is not hidden, it is here, and we can do it if we will.