"Brethren in the Lord, good advise is like springs in the wilderness; you may drink at one and drink at another, and pure water always tastes agreeable. Never plan your business on SATURDAY so that it might interfere with the solemn duties of the Sabbath, for the Lord will not hold you guiltless if you do. His sacred command is: Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Lord is not well pleased with the disciple that does any thing on that holy day that should be done on laboring day. Nor should a disciple go to meeting one Sabbath here, and another there; let all that can, be strict to attend meeting in their own place, (and let those elders who are faithful, visit the several churches from time to time, instructing them in the knowledge of the truth and in the peaceable things of the kingdom), that they may surround the sacrament table of the Lord, with a pure heart, as an earnest, that they are at peace with their brethren, and in favor with him whose still, small voice, whispers: Thy sins are forgiven thee. Neither should the children be allowed to slip off and play, rather than meet where they may be trained up in the way they should go to be saved. We are the children of God, and let us not put off his law. When a saint works on the Sabbath, the world can reply: So do we. When the saints travel to do business on the Sabbath, the world can reply: So do we. When the saints go from one meeting to another to see and be seen, the world can reply: So do we. When the children of the saints play on the Sabbath, the world can reply: So do ours. Brethren, watch, that you may enter into the Lord's sacred rest" (Joseph Smith, Evening and Morning Star, Volume 1, Number 5).
Is it a given that Joseph Smith said this?
I have been of a like mind for a few years now. So I was much pleased to see this quote. Was this an attempt to get Saturday observance to take hold or was this already in place. Any history been done on this LDS Sabbath question? It ought to have been a very big deal to change it. Did this fact contribute to the Missouri Persecution of the Mormons by advocating a Saturday sabbath?
How many other churches in America were Saturday Sabbath keepers? What's the history in wiki? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_seventh-day_churches
In the D&C the Lord make a few references to the Sabbath or his Holy Day. The day that he sanctified from the beginning. (Saturday, the seventh day) The Lord never commands keeping the Christian traditional Lord's Day.(Sunday)
D&C 59 uses both terms, 'my holy day' and 'the Lord's day'.
9 And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
10 For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
11 Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times;
12 But remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
If the Lord hallowed the seventh day BEFORE the time of the Law of Moses, then Christ's fulfillment of the law of Moses could not change the sabbath day that was set apart from the beginning. It would, however, take away the law of killing those who break the sabbath according to the Law of Moses.
Ex. 31: 14-16
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Did or did not the early LDS observe a Saturday Sabbath? Or was this a mere suggestion by Joseph Smith never taken seriously? Which leads to my next thought about why it was Joseph Smith allowed so much to slide by. Was he commanded to allow the wheat and the tares to grow together until the wheat was strong enough?
Strong Wheat! 187 years! How long oh, Lord, how long?