Sabbath Quotes

• A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the most joyous day of the week.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Summer, Flower, Men

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal Truths”, p.251

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• On the Sabbath- we are reminded that we are not human doings, but human beings.

  Rob Bell

  Doings, Humans, Human Beings

  Twitter post from Aug 22, 2011

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• The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Space, Trying, Six

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (2005). “The Sabbath”, p.22, Macmillan

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• Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Pauses

  Walter Brueggemann (2014). “Sabbath as Resistance”, p.45, Westminster John Knox Press

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• "Sabbath is not primarily about us or how it benefits us; it is about God, and how God forms us. It is not, in the first place, about what we do or don't do; it is about God - completing and resting and blessing and sanctifying. These are all things that we don't know much about......But it does mean stopping and being quiet long enough to see - open-mouthed - with wonder - resurrection wonder.....we cultivate the "fear of the Lord". Our souls are formed by what we cannot work up or take charge of. We respond and enter into what the resurrection of Jesus continues to do."

  Eugene H. Peterson

  Jesus, Mean, Blessing

  Eugene H. Peterson (2008). “Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology”, p.150, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much, you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.

  Eugene H. Peterson

  One Day, Watches, Too Much

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• Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

  Alice Walker

  Self Esteem, Literature, Week

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Alice Walker Collection: Non-Fiction”, p.161, Hachette UK

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• As we keep or break the Sabbath Day we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Lasts, Break

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• Sabbath is that uncluttered time and space in which we can distance ourselves from our own activities enough to see what God is doing.

  Eugene H. Peterson

  Distance, Space, Enough

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• Our Sabbath practices reveal which Trinity we truly worship: Father, Son, and Spirit... or me, myself, and I.

  Mark Hart

  Father, Son, Practice

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• O what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business like the divine path of the Israelites through the sea! There is nothing in which I would advise you to be more strictly conscientious than in keeping the Sabbath day holy. I can truly declare that to me the Sabbath has been invaluable.

  William Wilberforce

  Sunday, Blessing, Sea

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• Day of the Lord, as all our days should be!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Lord, Should, Sabbath Day

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “My Complete Poetical Works (Annotated Edition)”, p.1260, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sunday, Civilization, Dedicated

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2734, Delphi Classics

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• Sabbath is the celebration of life beyond and outside productivity.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Celebration, Celebration Of Life, Productivity

  Walter Brueggemann (2011). “Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: Deuteronomy”, p.69, Abingdon Press

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• Those who participate in [sabbath] break the anxiety cycle. They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competition.

  Walter Brueggemann

  Anxiety, Competition, Doe

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• It is time for us to breathe and build margin into our lives for God. Sabbath was intended as a gift, and it is still a gift to us today. If you are weary, worn out, and exhausted the concept of Sabbath will change your life.

  Priscilla Shirer

  Today, Exhausted, Changing Your Life

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• There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Space, Giving, Goal

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (2005). “The Sabbath”, p.15, Macmillan

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• the life of Jesus recapitulates key elements in the earlier story of Israel. For a moment, as Jesus stands on the mountain giving the famous sermon, he is Moses. For a moment, answering his critics about his actions on the sabbath, he is David. For a moment, as he calls and names the twelve disciples, he is perhaps Jacob, bringing the twelve patriarchs into the world. For a moment, healing the sick and raising the dead, he is Elijah or Elisha. And so on. In the transfiguration he actually meets Moses and Elijah.

  N. T. Wright

  Jesus, Healing, Names

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• Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Sunday, Together, Golden

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 525), 1895.

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• Hail, Holy Day! the blessing from above
  Brightens thy presence like a smile of love,
  Smoothing, like oil upon a stormy sea,
  The roughest waves of human destiny
  Cheering the good, and to the poor oppress'd
  Bearing the promise of their heavenly rest.

  Sarah Josepha Hale

  Cheer, Blessing, Destiny

  Sarah Josepha Hale (1850). “Dictionary of poetical quotations”, p.461

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• The [Jewish] Sabbath was not intended to be simply a desert of prohibitions, but rather an oasis for moral restoration and seemly pleasure-one was to eat, drink, even be merry.

  Israel Shenker

  Oasis, Desert, Restoration

  Israel Shenker (1985). “Coat of Many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life”, Doubleday Books

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• We don't go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely
  to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual
  responsibility, and regardless of what is said from the pulpit, if one
  wishes to worship the Lord in spirit and truth, he may do so by
  attending his meetings, partaking of the sacrament, and
  contemplating the beauties of the gospel If the service is a
  failure to you, you have failed. No one can worship for you. You
  must do your own waiting upon the Lord.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Responsibility, Waiting, Wish

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• Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.

  Mark Buchanan

  Needs, Alive, Grows

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• E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.

  Alexander Pope

  Sunday, Shining, Sabbath Day

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Dyce (1853). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope”, p.2

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• How still the morning of the hallow'd day! Mute is the voice of rural labour, hush'd The ploughboy's whistle, and the milkmaid's song.

  James Grahame

  Song, Morning, Voice

  Henry Kirke White, James Grahame (1856). “The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame”, p.216

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