^i^.l\' ::^m ,^^^' X^ ^i i\\t ®t?PoIngfffr/ ^ ^^. '« PRINCETON, N. J. •^^ BV 110 .E93 1885 Everts, W. W. 1814-1890. The Sabbath ^y^mw The Sabbath was made for MA^i.—JcsHs. THE SABBATH ITS PERMANENCE, PROMISE, AND DEFENCE. ;* DEC 27 1910 ^ W. W. EVERTS, D.D., AUTHOR or "pastor's hand-book," "the house of god," "through the NARROWS," ETC. The Sabbath was made for man." Jesus. NEW YORK: E. B. TREAT, 771 BROADWAY, Office of The Pulpit Treasury. 1885. i^PBICE, $1.00.] Copyright, 1885, by W. W. Everts. Green & Dbummond, Electrotijpers, Biidgepoi-t, Conn. PROEM. This book considers the new, various, and formid- able attacks upon the Christian Sabbath, and mar- shals science, history, and revelation in its defence. It is not encumbered by citations of authorities, but free use has been made of other works on the subject. In attempting a restatement of the Sabbath argument of the centuries, it has sought not so much to make it original or novel, as comprehensive, incisive, and effective. The great alternative is a Sabbath, a Creator, a spiritual world, a reign of righteousness, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the dead, and life everlasting ; or no Sabbath, no God, no soul, no spiritual kingdom, no redemption, no perfected humanity, and no hope of heaven. To this stupend- ous issue the attention of all thoughtful and serious men is invited. Father Ravignan forcibly says: "I do not see that practical atheism can be more thor- oughly expressed than by the habitual public and universal violation of the Lord's Day. No more wor- ship, no more religion, practically no more God." W. W. Everts. CONTENTS. PART I. LAW OF THE SABBATH. PAGE I. Instituted in Eden 13 Its divine origin explains its existence. The divine blessing consecrates it. The divine example dignifies it. The divine law enforces it. Ji*- Man's constitution demands it. ^^The Sabbatic division of time is accounted for by it. ^^The early nations observed it. II. Enforced by Moses 27 Restoring an old, not introducing a itexv law. Limiting Sabbath travel. Restricting Sabbath labor. Made a covenant between God and Israel. Rigor of enforcement. Condition of national prosperity. III. Reaffirmed BY Christ •• 4° Not abolishing, but fulfilling the Sabbath. Condemning its abuses. Miracles wrought on that day. Pharisees rebuked for fettering its freedom. IV. Perpetuated in the Lord's Day 48 One day in seven the essential Sabbath. The memorial use not depending on the certain day. Disentangled from meshes of Judaism by new day. Apostolic observance of first day. Testimony of Fathers to change of day. 8 CONTENTS. PAGU V. Observed by the Church 60 Dated, like the Church, from the resurrection of Christ. The day of Christian assemblies. Sabbath laws of Constantine attest its general ob- servance. Cawdrey's theory of the Lord's Day. Its general observance by Christian nations. VI. Memorial Day 68 Monumental history. Commemorative days. The Sabbath prototype and antitype of all memorial days. Especially of creation and redemption. Joseph Mede's view. Other testimonies to this use of the Sabbath. Figure of this commemoration. VII. Holy Day 75 Cut off from secular time. Set apart for sacred uses by special blessing. Consecrated by association with divine example. Sanctity enjoined in the Decalogue. Its sacred observance a condition of divine favor to Israel The religious uses of the Sabbath require its inviola- bility. Testimony to the importance of hallowing the Sab- bath. PART IT. PROMISE, OF THE SABBATH. The Body 82 The crown of physical manhood lost by sin. The Sabbath a hygienic law. Testimonies to its physical benefits. CONTENTS. II. The Mind 88 The Sabbath a school period. Both physical and moral rest brighten the mental facul- ties. The Sabbath directly promotes popular education. Testimony to the educational influence of the Sabbath.. III. The Home 94 The Sabbath provides for family reunions. The Sabbath provides for family instruction. The Sabbath provides for family discipline. Testimony to the influence of the Sabbath on domestic happiness. IV. The State loi The Sabbath enforces the reign of law — the foundation of the state. The Sabbath inspires the courage of freedom which de- fends and exalts the state. The Sabbath promotes that sense of religion necessary to conserve the state. Testimonies to the civil benefits of the Sabbath. The glory of the Hebrew commonwealth based upon it. V. Social Progress 107 The Sabbath inspires sentiment of philanthropy. Examples of its humanizing influence. Diffuses Christian charities. Promotes Christian missions. VI. Moral Reform 113 Virtue the product, not of philosophy, but of religion. Men won to moral sensibilities by Sabbath worship. Estranged from the Sabbath, men fall away from virtue Through Sabbath associations churches become reform societies. VII. Religion 118 Religious sentiment is inspired by its august challenge of man's attention. Religious sentiment is confirmed by the established conviction of the divine authority of the Sabbath. 10 CONTENTS. Religious sentiment is exalted by association of the Sabbath with divine example as well as blessing. Religious culture promoted by Sabbath assemblies. As a memorial observance the Sabbath inspires relig- ious gratitude. Especially as commemoration of the resurrection of Christ the Christian Sabbath exalts religion. PART III. DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. I. Objections answered 128 Not formally instituted. A Jewish institution. Did not exist before Moses. Not observed by the patriarchs. Christianity makes every day a Sabbath. Paul makes Sabbath observance optional. A creature of church or state. The reformers relaxed Sabbath observance. Culture obviates the necessity of any Sabbath. Sabbath observance is superstitious. The Sabbath is too rigorous. Sabbath laws obstruct natural liberty The Sabbath is self-enforcing. There should be no Sabbath laws. Penalties for Sabbath-breaking are barbarous. Sabbath laws are discourteous to foreign nationalities. The Sabbath is discredited by the diversity of its ob- servance. . II. Sabbath Laws i47 Protecting sacred interests. Defending sacred traditions. Justified by venerable precedent. Guard the universal school period of man. CONTENTS. ir Support the greatest bulwark against demoralization . . . Charlemagne reduced statutes of Constantine and of Leo to an elaborate Sabbath code. The principles of this code incorporated into the laws of modern Europe. Sabbath laws of the American Colonies. State laws concerning the Sabbath . Enforcement of Sabbath laws in this country.. Protection of the Sabbath abroad. III. Violations of the Sabbath 163 Sunday saloons. Sunday theatres. Sunday games. Sunday spectacles. Sunday industries. Sunday excursions. Sunday railroads. Sunday museums and art-galleries. IV. Theories of the Sabbath ig3 Ecclesiastical theory of the Sabbath. Semi-ecclesiastical theory of the Sabbath. Evangelical theory of the Sabbath. V. The Christian Sabbath 208 Argument for seventh day considered. Reasons for the first day. Its existence a presumption in favor of its perpetuity. As based on moral law, no anterior improbability of change of time. Memorial uses of the Sabbath not interfered with by change of time. The same sanction given to the first as to the seventh. The first makes the same provision for man the seventh did. The first day adds to the appeals and sanctions of the seventh day. The first day a memorial of descent of the Holy Spirit. The first day a symbol of the blessings of redemption. 12 CONTENTS. PAGE First day commended by apostolic example. As Christ supersedes all other religious teachers His day should supersede all other holy days The first day is the only promise of the same Sabbath for all mankind. VI. Testimony to the Sabbath 223 Of antiquity. Of Jews. Of Roman Catholics. Of civilians. Of men of culture. Of physicians. VII. The House of God the Bulwark of the Sabbath 238 Oracle of divine knowledge. Stronghold of virtue. Ensign of peace. Ebenezer of gratitude. Refuge of sorrow. Symbol of divine presence. Gate of heaven . VIII. Appeal on Behalf of the Sabbath 252 Man. Toiler. Railroad men. Citizen. Foreign-born. Hebrew . Seventh-day Baptist. Theist. Philanthropist. Christian. THE SABBATH. PART I. LAW OF THE SABBATH. I. Established in Eden. "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." At the end of a series of days the Sabbath com- mands a halt in the march of life. Leaving six days to man's discretion, the Creator reserved the seventh for His special service and glory, and the exaltation of the human race in character and destiny. He established this division of time as He did the order of the seasons and the alternation of day and night. It demands recognition alike in every organiza- tion of industry, every constitution of government, every charter of liberty, and in every scheme of civil- ization. The universality of the ordinance of the Sabbath may appear from the following considerations : I. The conspicuous place of the Sabbath in human history furnishes a strong presumption that it is old 14 LAW OF THE SABBATH. as the family of man. No change in his nature or social development is traced, demanding its introduc- tion at a later age rather than at the birth of the race. The reasons for hallowing a Sabbath in one land are equally conclusive for hallowing it in all lands. Besides, no rational account of the origin of the Sabbath has been given except that of Moses, which makes it coeval with the human family, and part of that terrestrial economy which determines the freedom, duties, and destinies of men. As we hail sun, moon, and stars as part of the scheme of nature to which we belong, and ministering to our well-being, so we hallow that sacred division of time which limits our pursuits, enforces our duties, promotes our higher culture, and assures our happier destiny. An institu- tion so early and widely observed must have been established in the nature of man, and be binding on him universally to the end of time. 2. The divine blessing which consecrated the seventh part of time for the first generation must have consecrated it equally for all generations. That resplendent benediction — "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it " — lighted up Eden with a heavenly promise which has gilded every later abode of man. The aroma of that blessing has lingered through the ages, and diffused a fragrance of holiness over all lands. As there was no period to the bless- ing, there is no end to the Sabbath it consecrated. So long as God's blessing is sought on earth the Sabbath will be hallowed. 3. Association of the Sabbath with divine example ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. 1 5 in creation must have been intended to hallow the day for all mankind alike, to the end of time. It bases the ordinance upon the likeness of the creature to the Creator in the mode of his activities, as well as in his intelligence, freedom, and moral sense. Regardless of the length of the periods or days of creation, and even independently of the exact num- ber of those days or periods, the analogy would con- stitute a sufficient basis for a symbolic illustration of the obligations of the Sabbath. In the Apocalypse of the New Testament, the Prophets of the Old Testa- ment, and in all oriental systems of morals and re- ligion the prevalence of symbolic teaching may be traced. It seems natural and inevitable that this method of teaching a universal and important law should have been adopted. It seems difficult to con- ceive any other symbol so simple, available, and im- pressive as that which compares man's periodic rest with the repose of the Creator at the close of the epochs of creation. As Jehovah hallowed the close of the periods of creation by pausing in complaisant review of His works, so He required man, at the end of a week of toil, to pause, review his works, trace their conformity to or divergence from the works and will of the great Creator, and thus learn more ade- quately his own duty and destiny, and celebrate more worthily the wisdom and glory of God. Now, this periodical and devout review of life and its relation to the scheme of nature becomes an homage to the Supreme Being, and is as binding upon one age as upon another. The association of the Sabbath with 1 6 LAW OF THE SABBATH. the example of the Creator appeals as impressively to the latest as it did to the first generation of men, and proves the universality and perpetuity of the in- stitution. The order of Nature, in its invariable suc- cession of day and night, is made the majestic moni- tor to the universal observance of this primitive divine ordinance. As the morning star heralds the day, so the seventh revolution of the earth on its axis ushers in for the world a period of rest and worship. 4. The Law proclaimed from Sinai recognized the primitive order and universal obligation of the Sab- bath. " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy " enjoined no new institution, but the restoration and exaltation of one long neglected or imperfectly ob- served. It was no more a divine order to Israel than to the patriarchs before them and to the races who followed them. It will never cease to be binding till revoked by the sovereignty which established it. Wherever God is obeyed, the Sabbath will be ob- served. So long as Jehovah is reverenced, the seventh part of time will be hallowed for His worship. 5. The necessity of periodic and religious rest traced in the constitution of man shows that the Sab- bath was given as a permanent institution, and not as a mere temporary or local ordinance. Civilization can no more dispense with it than with other laws of Nature. The greater intensity of mod- ern life more imperatively demands the quiet and re- pose of the Sabbath. The suppression or partial ob- servance of a sacred day might be less fatal to savage than to civilized races. A chronometer never wound ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. 1 7 up would soon run down. Irregularly wound up, it might soon confuse all regulations of time and all appointments of life. So without periodic rest, and recuperation of the Sabbath, man's activities would become feeble, if not uncertain and destructive. 6. The universality of the Sabbath is confirmed by sabbatic divisions of time prevailing from the earliest ages. The Persians and Indians (says Bohlen) and the ancient Germans (says Grimm) regarded the number seven as sacred. Most conspicuously among the Jews seven was held as a sacred or perfect num- ber. Noah waited seven days before sending out the dove, and again seven days before leaving the Ark. Job's friends watched with him seven days and nights before opening their mouths in words of coun- sel. Jacob served for the daughters of Laban twice seven years. His sons observed this sabbatic period of mourning for theii- father, and again for their brother. The Jews observed a week of days, a week of weeks, a week of months, and a week of years. Seven weeks were reckoned from Passover to Pente- cost, and at the feast seven lambs were offered each day. The Feasts of Tabernacles and Atonement fell on the seventh month. Seven days were devoted to purification, seven for consecrating a priest, seven for lamenting the dead, seven for celebrating marriage. There is no explanation of this reverence for the seventh day except as associated in one of two ways with the origin and observance of the Sabbath. The proportion of seven may have been so wrought into 2 l8 LAW OF THE SABBATH. the constitution of nature and of man, that a process of development established the sabbatic rest, as other institutions have been established, and sabbatic divi- sions of time naturally followed. As supporting this idea of the possible development of tlie Sabbath, P}^- thagoras made the number and proportion seven the principal factor of his scheme of philosoph3^ There are seven mechanical forces. Seven notes compose the musical scale, and seven colors the prismatic scale. A recent experiment of rapidly-turning wheels has been reported, and it was declared that at their greatest velocity the notes of the musical and the colors of the prismatic scale were clearly distin- guished at the same time. The seventh, fourteentli. twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days are said to mark important crises in disease, and in seven years the human body is rebuilt. The seventh wave, washing the shores of continents, is said to move with the greatest volume and force ? If there be any such pro- portion in the order of nature and the constitution of man as the Greek philosopher supposed, and these phenomena imply, it might by the mere force of evo- lution have early established the Sabbath, and all sabbatic divisions of time. Without formal institu- tion man's common wants might have led to common observance; common observance, to the uniformity of custom ; the uniformity of custom, to the sacredness of tradition ; the sacredness of tradition, to the sanc- tions of constitutional law. Thus by the discovery of natural theology the Sabbath might have become the foundation of social order and the universal duty ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. I9 of man, binding the conscience of every age and land, and thus promoting the observance of sabbatic divi- sions of time. But the alternative account of the origin of the Sabbath, and consequently of sabbatic divisions of time, given by Moses is preferred alike by Jews and Christians. Not leaving so important a law as that requiring periodic rest and worship to be formulated by experience, and to impart to it a greater prestige and more impressive sanction, Jehovah anticipated a possible discovery of natural theology by an immedi- ate and peremptory order. An order so command- ing, and so conspicuously attested, naturally im- pressed the race in its infancy, and followed them, with its traditions and sanctions, in their dispersions over the earth, enforcing the observance of the Sab- bath, and with Sabbath observance sabbatic divisions of time. Whether, therefore, established by natural theology or by divine revelation, the Sabbath, by its implication with sabbatic divisions of time, is proved to be a primitive, universal, and divine law. 7. The universality of the Sabbath is further con- firmed by its observance from the birth of the race. Fu-He, a Chinese chronicler, says, " Every seven days comes the revolution." In the annals of Suhusius, the emperor is represented as offering a sacrifice to the supreme being every seven days. Home r sang, "The seventh day — sacred day — has brightened the universe." Purchas declares the Peguans had a weekly religious day. Chaldean records six hundred years before Moses gave the law, two hundred years 20 LAW OF THE SABBATH. before Abraham left his native land, embodying tra- ditions still older, clearly allude to the Sabbath as well as to the Flood. In the fifth tablet of a series of these records is this expression, as translated by Tal- bot, a distinguished Assyriologist : "On the seventh He appointed a holy day, And to cease from all work He commanded." A. H. Sayce, another eminent Assyrian scholar, thus translates the Sabbath ritual, discovered in an Assy- rian calendar : "The seventh day. A feast of Merodach and Zir-Panitu — a festival. A Sabbath. The Prince of many nations The flesh of birds and cooked fruits eats not. The garments of his body he changes not. White robes he puts not on." "The king his offering makes. Sacrifices he offers. Raising his hand, the higli place of God he worships." Lenormant, another high authority, declares that the Assyrians recognized the Sabbath, and that in the fragment of a lexicon v^as found this definition : '' Day of the repose of the heart, day of joy," translated " Sabbatue "—Sabbath. In a vi^ork recently published Lotz shows that not long after the Flood, in the land of Noah, in the valley of the Euphrates, the Sabbath law was scrupulously observed even by the king. In Assyrian tables, en- joining a regime for the court, the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month are ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. 21 distinguished and guarded in their sanctity by the most rigorous prohibitions. To hallow the seventh day by the example of the ruler, it is enjoined in the public law specifically : " The pastor of the great nations must not eat meat cooked over the fire, nor change his raiment, nor dress in white, nor pour out libations, nor ascend his chariot, nor speak as a king. The priest must not open his mouth in secret, the magi must not stretch out his hand to lical the sick, or utter a malediction — in the evening let the king present his gift, and pour out his libation to Mero- dach and Venus. . . . The lifting up of his hands to God will be well-pleasing." There at the court of one of the foremost nations, we have the original Sabbath law enforced with almost the ceremonial strictness of the Sabbath ritual of Moses, of Scotland, or of New England. But the testimony of the Jews to the antiquity of the Sabbath is most explicit and striking. They rise above all nations in the fulness and credibility of their account of the creation, and in their history of the traditions and institutes of the human race. No other nation has shown such care in preserving their annals. They incorporated the Sabbath among the universal duties of mankind, and made it as uni- versally binding as the family, and other precepts of the moral law. Whether receiving the Sabbath from the Assyrians, or from the same original tradi- tions, the Hebrews clothe it with the authority of their sacred writings. No one can receive Moses and the Prophets without acknowledging the divine ordi- 22 LAW OF THE SABBATH. nation and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath. The sacred writings not only place the Sabbath in the cat- egory of universal moral duties, but also contain allu- sions to and examples of its observance from the earliest times. Tlie offerings of Cain and Abel natu- rally connect themselves with the Sabbath. They were brought, as the record declares, at the " cutting off of days." The Sabbath was a day "cut off" from the week by God's blessing and example. It is incon- ceivable that any other day of worship could have been so cut off. The religious awakening in the time of Seth, when men in greater numbers and fervency ''called on the name of the Lord," must have been facilitated and accompanied by a new consecration of the Sabbath, as all modern revivals of religion are. Did not Noah observe the holy day, when, after waiting seven days for divine deliverance, once and again he sent forth a dove to discover signs of answer to his prayers? Did not Israel remember it when, after being deprived of its proper freedom and promise two hundred years, they demanded from Pharaoh the restoration of its privileges ? The first act of rebel- lion against their oppressors seems to have been turn- ing from their imposed tasks to hallow the Sabbath. Pharaoh complained to Moses that the people wanted to "sabbatize." Later, Moses demanded release for the people that they might go out of the cities, and in the retirement of the wilderness enjoy a prolonged freedom in the renewal of their covenant with God, and in their Sabbath worship. After they began their Exodus, how rigorous the observance of the ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. 23 Sabbath ! How plausible the right of a people to gather manna on the seventh as on all other days ! But the prestige of an accepted divine law prevented it. Hundreds of thousands, intoxicated by their new- found liberty, and impatient of all restraint, refrained from gathering manna on the Sabbath, and stoned one who picked up sticks, in violation of the holy day. There is no more intimation of the abrogation of the Sabbath before Moses than after Moses. With these testimonies of the Assyrians and the Hebrews, nothing but the most certain evidence could shake the argument for \.\\&tmiversality of the Sabbath law. Two ancient nations have preserved the record of the holy day, inscribed upon tables of stone. No nation has preserved any record or tradition against it. Variation of days in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as in France, may be easily explained by natural en- croachments of vvorldliness and impiety upon religious ordinances. They as clearly recognized the necessity of periodic rest, and as palpably defended their eighth, tenth, or twelfth day as Hebrews and Christians do the seventh day. All nations, therefore, have agreed in \h.^ principle of periodic rest, to be enforced by both civil and religious sanctions. Objections arising from varying periods of rest avail nothing toward setting aside the great primitive Sabbath institution. Any periodic rest enforced, an agreement upon the seventh proportion of time would soon follow. Only those who deny the natural and revealed law of a Sabbath cavil at that particular proportion of time. However these questions are settled, the principle of the Sab- 24 LAW OF THE SABBATH. bath law remains as indestructible as the family. As established in the beginning and in the constitution of man, and certainly observed by the most ancient nations, its obligatoriness can no more be disproved by its neglect, partial observance, or even by its entire suppression in some lands and ages, than the obliga- toriness of other precepts of the Decalogue by their neglect or open violation by depraved races. As a river lost in some subterranean channel reappears and traces its silvery course to the sea, so the Sabbath, after having long disappeared in the impiety of dif- ferent lands or ages, reappears with more pronounced claims and greater prestige, bearing on its sacred bosom the peace and destinies of the world. If ever the Sabbath was binding upon man, it con- tinued binding through the patriarchal and all suc- ceeding ages. If divine blessing consecrated the Sabbath for the world, its observance must have con- tinued till the blessing was revoked. If established as a universal law, it must have been binding till re- pealed by the same authority which established it. Hence Paley says, '' If the divine command was actu- ally delivered at the creation, it was addressed no doubt to the whole human species alike, unless re- pealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it." Luther, commenting on Gen. ii. 3, says, '' It therefore follows from this place that if Adam had abode in r innocence he should yet have kept the seventh day— that is, he should have instructed his descendants con- cerning His will, worship, thanksgiving, and offerings. ESTABLISHED IN EDEN. 2$ On other days he should have cultivated the soil and tended flocks. Nay, after the Fall he sanctified the seventh day: in other words, he instructed his family on that day, as is testified by the offerings of his sons Cain and Abel. Wherefore the Sabbath was from the beginning of the world set apart to divine wor- ship." Melancthon says, "The seventh, as the word * sanctify' denotes, was appropriated to divine service." Calvin, on Ex. xx. 8, declares, " Unquestionably, when He had finished the creation of the world, God assumed to Himself and consecrated the seventh day, that He might keep His worshippers entirely free from all other cares, when engaged in considering the beauty, excellence, and glory of His works." On Gen. ii. 3 he further says, "God therefore first rested, then blessed this rest, that in all ages it might be sacred among men ; in other words, He consecrated every seventh day to rest, that His own example might be a perpetual rule." Ursinus, summing up the authority of the scholars of the Reformation period, says in his catechism, " As these relate to no definite period, but to all times and ages of the world, it fol- lows that God would have men bound from the begin- ning of the world, even to its end, to keep a certain Sabbath." Epiphaneas of the fourth century says, " The first Sabbath from the beginning, decreed, and declared by the Lord in the creation of the world, has revolved in its cycle of seven days from that day till now." Chrysostom traces the Sabbath from the "Beginning." Augustine dates the "Sabbath of eternity" from the creation of man. Athanasius con- 26 LAW OF THE SABBATH. eludes that "Noah must have understood and Abra- ham observed what Moses restored to its primitive sanctity." The Sabbath, thus attested by the terms of its appointment, by the blessing pronounced upon it, by the permanence of its necessities, by the testimony of prevailing sabbatic divisions of time, by the observ- ance of the earliest historical nations, and especially also by the nation made guardian of primitive divine revelations, should be accepted as a primitive divine ordinance, like the order of the seasons or the suc- cession of day and night, binding on all mankind to the end of time. 11. Enforced by Moses. " Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." From the argument of the preceding chapter we might expect to find Moses explicitly recognizing the Sabbath as a primitive, divine law. And it is in this character that it is incorporated into his incompara- ble summary of the universal duties of men. The very words of the injunction suppose an institution already existing. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy," must refer to the same Sabbath which was appointed at the infancy of the race, observed by the patriarchs, and enjoined upon Israel in the wil- derness. He founds it on the blessing and example of the Creator : " For 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." Moses recalls attention to a duty none questioned, though long neglected and dishonored. In the religious revival inspiring the Exodus the observance of this and other moral duties was restored. As a river lost in a wilderness may reappear, and open a new chan- nel to the sea, so this primitive institution, after having been almost forgotten, is restored, and ex- 28 LAW OF THE SABBATH. alted to become the leading measure of a great refor- mation. Moses did not institute a new law, but bade Israel honor an old one, given to Adam, honored by the patriarchs, and now restored to them in their emancipation from Egyptian bondage. He made this primitive Sabbath the foundation of a new civil polity and a new religious discipline. He exalted it to greater reverence, by association with the order of creation and the example of the Creator. He dated human history by the seventh day, and appointed for man a sacred rest before any servile labor. He allowed man to begin life in sweet repose, and in the jubilance of religious worship. Cessation from toil was one of the primary ends sought by the Sabbath ritual of Moses. It did not remove the necessity for labor, but removed its galling yoke one day in seven. It did not revoke the primitive order, "Six days shalt thou labor ;" " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." If it did not allow idleness, it mitigated the drudgery of toil, and by intermitting its exertions prevented discouragement and despair. More is said about this design of the Sabbath than about any other. /The first order guarding its sanctity forbade going out of camp on the Sabbath.^ There could be no excuse for seeking food on the morning of that day, for a double portion of manna fell on the pre- ceding day. .This prohibition determined the dis- tance a Jew might travel on that day, and it became known as a Sabbath-day's journey. This regulation made the Jews a domestic people, and guarded them from the peril of intimate social intercourse with the ENFORCED BY MOSES. 29 neighboring tribes. ' It further assured rest to the weary, else tempted to continue pursuits of industry or pleasure. While preventing long journeys, this restriction was no prison discipline, but gave ample scope to intercourse with their own people. The next restriction was placed on manual labor of any kind. A holiday was given to hands as well as feet: "In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." This law assured rest to all classes, and for- bade avarice or power or pleasure to encroach upon it. Toil becomes unendurable when unbroken. This law set a limit upon greed, enforced moderation in the pursuits of wealth, and bade the strong protect the weak. It prevented indirect violation by men- tioning all members of the household, of both sexes, not forgetting the stranger, the slave, or even the dumb brute. The father is made responsible for the observance of the Sabbath by "all within his gates." Everybody is made to share in this blessing of repose, The plough is in the shed, the ox in the stall, the pruning-hook leans against the wall by the waterpot and the sickle, the low rumbling of the millstones is not heard, nor the dull thud of the flail on the thresh- ing-floor. No back is bowed to a burden, and no svVeat starts from the face. No threatening storm-cloud in the west, no early frost, was to tempt tliem to de- part from the strict order of the day. "Six days thou shalt work, but the seventh thou shalt rest ; in earing time and harvest thou shalt rest," 30 LAW OF THE SABBATH. No property th^it could be saved by Sunday labor could compensate for the personal moral loss incurred by disobedience. " To obey is better than sacrifice." The order is imperative: "Six days may work be done ; but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord." Merchants were compelled to desist from trade. Amos represents them as saying ''When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit." Jeremiah was commanded to stand in the gate of the city and cry, ''Thus saith the Lord : Take heed to yourselves, and bear no bur- den on the Sabbatli-day ; nor bring in by the gates of Jerusalem, nor carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers." When* Israel was full of iniquity, by force of conscience or custom they still outwardly kept the holy day ; but Isaiah, exposing the hypocrisy, and insisting on the spirituality of the Sabbath ritual, declared their observance in such circumstances was an abomination. "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me ; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." In the reformation under Nehemiah the people took "an oath, among other things, that "if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath-day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the S*ab' ENFORCED BY MOSES. 3 1 bath-day." Afterwards Nehemiah used more ener- getic measures to keep the Sabbath. "In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine- presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses ; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusa- lem on the Sabbath-day : and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I con- tended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbatli-day ? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by pro- faning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath : and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath-day. So tlie merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall ? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath" (Nehemiah xiii. 15-21). The next law guarding the Sabbath was couched in these words : "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath-day." As the 32 LAW OF THj: SABBATH. Jews lived in a southern climate, this prohibition in- volved little if any bodily discomfort. It prohibited the preparation of food ; and thus assured to women and servants (a third or half of the population) the freedom of the Sabbath. /Necessary food was pre- pared on the sixth day ; all culinary work suspended and the fire put out on llie hearth on the seventh day. There were six other days in the year on which no servile work was to be done ; but no restriction was made as to lighting fires, except on the weekly Sab- bath, and the day of Atonement. But though so rigorously guarded, the Sabbath was not a gloomy, but a joyful day. AH appeared in holiday attire, and greeted each other with saluta- tions of peace and good-will. The rich spread tables for the poor, and none lacked bread and good-cheer on the Sabbath-day. This weekly cessation of hibor and mingling of all classes in charity and good-fel- lowship attracted observation and criticism. Seneca and Juvenal called the Jews idlers on account of their universal Sabbath rest. So conspicuous was this suspension of toil after their exodus, that Tacitus says the Jews seemed to think coming out of Egypt was the end of labor. The Romans, not used to see- ing the laboring man and the slave at leisure, were impressed with tlie democratic character of the Jew- ish Sabbath. Isaiah, celebrating the joyful liberty of the Sabbath, calls the day ''a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable." Hosea names the Sabbalh among the good times Israel was to lose on account of her sin. "I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast ENFORCED BY MOSES. 33 days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. What will ye do in the solemn feast, and in the day of the feast of the Lord ?" It was on the first day of the seventh month, the Sabbatic month, that Ezra gathered the people together and read to them out of the Law, till they wept ; but Nehemiah and Ezra said unto all the people, " This day is holy unto the Lord your God ; mourn not, nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared ; for this day is holy unto our Lord ; neither be ye sorry : for the joy of the Lord is your strength, and the people went away and made great mirth." It is evident, therefore, that the Jewish Sab- bath was resplendent with gladness. Joy requires rest ; but rest without joy is worse than labor. It was the recurring peace and jubilance of their Sab- bath which made their neighbors exclaim, in envious praise, " Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." As the sun of the day of preparation set, the blast of a trumpet sounded from hill to hill, as if to announce throughout the land, and to all the inhabi- tants thereof, the return of a king with victorious army. " Lift up your heads, O ye gates : even lift them up, ye everlasting hills: and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ? The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of glory." The Jewish Sabbath was especially devoted to worship. It was the Lord's Day. Its temporal pro- visions were consecrated by religious worship. Rest and religious contemplation were the steps leading to 3 34 LAW OF THE SABBATH. the sanctuary. The body and soul were guarded against hindrances and depressing circumstances, and guaranteed time for worship. It was man's day, because it was God's gift, and consecrated by His special blessing. Man's greatest happiness culmi- nated in celebrating God's glory. After working as God wrought, man is commanded to rest and hal- low the Sabbath, because God rested and hallowed the seventh period of time : " For 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." The divine example and sanction alone were ade- quate to arrest the world's pursuit of gain and pleas- ure, enforce the Sabbath observance, and call the swarthy smith from his forge, the bronzed husband- man from the field, and the naked fisherman from the sea to rest and worship God. Man's work was ennobled by comparison with God's creative acts ; and his rest was hallowed by association with his complaisant review and contemplation of His own works and glory. Only as rounded out, completed, and glorified by liallowed rest could man's toil rise from drudgery to dignity, from servility to sanctity. Life was not to be a perpetual and forced march, but was to celebrate weekly reviews and triumphs. It was not to be a harp of one string, snapping the monotonous twang of labor ; but a harp of a thou- sand strings, thrilling earth with heavenly harmo- nies. The Sabbath was made a seal of God's covenant ENFORCED BY MOSES. 35 with Israel. " Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath through- out their generations, for a perpetual covenant." Ezekiel also distinguishes this use of the day: " More- over also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign be- tween me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." An ordinance so es- sential to the maintenance of religion naturally be- came a proof and measure of it, not only for them, but for all ages. An existing institution, in a re- newed consecration is made the sign of a covenant between God and His people : as the rainbow pro- duced by the order of Nature and destined to con- tinue as long as her laws operate was made a resplen- dent sign of God's providence over the world, and of His promise to avert from it devastating floods age after age ; so the existing Sabbath is exalted as a seal of God's covenant of mercy to all those who show their love to Him by keeping it holy. Among the Jews, therefore, the Sabbath became the measure and- stand- ard of piety and divine promise. Keeping the Sab- bath, they were sure to keep all the divine command- ments. On that day the morning and evening sacrifice was doubled, fresh shewbread was brought before the Lord ; at Jerusalem the Jew resorted to the Tem- ple to worship, and elsewhere a holy assembly was held in the synagogue, the reading of the law and prayer being the only sacrifices. The psalm begin- ning "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord " was composed especially for the Sabbath-day. On that day the devout sought instruction from the 36 LAW OF THE SABBATH. prophets, and the Shunammite was surprised that his wife wanted to visit Elisha any other day of the week. '' Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day ? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." To link still closer the day and the people to Him- self, the Lord chose the Sabbath as a memorial of Jewish independence, the day of deliverance from bondage. " Remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched- out arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded to keep the Sabbath-day." It was the keeping the Sab- bath that distinguished and elevated the Jews above their heathen neighbors. Such stress was laid upon its observance that its violation was regarded as a capital crime. Seven times is the Sabbath command- ment repeated, and thrice is the death-penalty added to it : " Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall surely be cut off from among 'his people." It was some months after giving this law before there was occasion to enforce it. Then a man was caught gathering sticks on that day ; Moses and Aaron put him in ward, hesitating about inflicting so severe a sentence for such an apparently trifling offence. But the Lord said unto them, "The man shall surely be put to death : all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." This rigorous punishment measured the gravity of the offence against the Mosaic code, and the danger of the example to the safety and separation of Israel ENFORCED BY MOSES. 37 from the heathen, and their triumphant entrance into the Promised Land. In all statute-books penalties are supposed to measure the importance of laws. It was because the Sabbath was made the foundation of the Temple, the Throne, and the Home, thatGod guarded it as more sacred than the life of the indi- vidual who violated it. All promises to the Jews were attached to the faithful observance of the Sabbath. All curses hang over its profanation. In Jeremiah's lament over the desolation of Jerusalem nothing pains him more than the loss of the Sabbath : '' He hath destroyed his places of the assembly ; the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion." This ravage is traced directly to the profanation of the Sabbath : " But if ye will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath-day, then will I kindle a fire in the, gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." Ezekiel takes up the same strain : " My Sabbaths they greatly polluted : then I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. "Over and over again the prophet refers to the pollution of the Sabbath as a most flagrant offence in the sight of God, and the cause of the many judgments with which He visited His people. Likewise the richest blessings were assured as long as the day was kept holy. Isaiah says, "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it ; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil, even unto them will 38 LAW OF THE SABBATH. 1 give in my house, and vvitliin my walls a place and a name better tlian of sons and daughters ; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and wilt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and shall honor Him, not speaking thine own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and fill thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Jeremiah is commanded to offer similar promises: "and it shall come to pass, if ye will diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burdens through the gates of the city, on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no work therein : then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots, and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah,and the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and this city shall remain forever." Such is the estimate Moses put upon the social, political, and religious value of the Sabbath to the Jews. If it had such promise for them, it has the same for all mankind. If binding on them it is bind- ing upon us. The Jewish ritual enforcing it may be repealed, but the law itself is unrepealed. Its ab- ENFORCED BY MOSES. 39 rogation would be as disastrous as that of the family or the Decaloo^ue. Sabbath observance was wrought into the whole social, civil, moral, and religious life of the Jews, as a golden thread, binding the harmony of the nation. III. Reaffirmed by Christ. " The Sabbath was made for man." The heir to a crown inherits all the powers swayed by it. So Christ — proclaimed the " Son of God with power," "appointed heir of all things," and hailed by Jehovah, " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy king- dom" — must inherit universal spiritual dominion. Succeeding Moses and the prophets in administration of the kingdom of God, He assumed supreme author- ity over the faith and conscience of mankind, and be- came the accredited expounder of the character and will of God, and of the duties of man. " Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus ; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. . . . And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after ; but Christ as a son over His own house." Moses was a steward of divine revelations, but of lesser rank than the Son of God, who was endowed with supreme wisdom and authority. Christ was n^inister-plenipotentiary of the Court of Heaven to this earthly province of its universal empire. And He REAFFIRMED BY CHRIST. 4I declared that He came not to repeal, but to interpret, and more faithfully apply existing divine law : " Think not I am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." The claims of the moral law, as defined in the Deca- logue, and illustrated by the prophets, He came not to abate one jot or tittle, but rather to magnify them and promote their fulfilment. An apostle of liberty could not ignore the twelve articles on human rights formulated by Hubmeyer, and heralded in the Peas- ants' War, or the various rendering of those principles contended for by the Netherlands, or as more elabo- rately defended in the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies. These great principles of human rights are reappearing in various statement in the struggles for freedom age after age. The aim of a true political reformer can only eliminate from these principles antagonizing laws and vicious admin- istrations. So, assuming the administration of the kingdom of heaven on earth, Christ exposed errone- ous interpretations of these laws, and set forth more clearly the character and will of God and the duties of men, and reinforced original divine ordinances with more spiritual sanctions. He charged the Phar- isees with making void these ordinances by their traditions and false interpretations. He restored then;i to their true basis and sanction. He no more abrogated the Sabbath than the family, or other laws of the Decalogue. If he did not frequently and for- mally reaffirm the Sabbath, no more did He the being of God, the future life, or the family law. These 45 LAW OF THE SABBATH. first principles of religion were alike postulated in all our Lord's teachings. The Sabbath was clearly embraced in the " Law and the prophets" He came expressly to " fulfil." It was incorporated in the Dec- alogue ; accepted as binding not only upon the Jews, but also on all mankind. Besides, in the most emphatic manner He declared " the Sabbath was made for man" — for man universally — for man to the end of time. It was not given as a provincial or temporary law, but as a universal and permanent institution. It was no more intended to be temporary than the family, civil government, the rights of property, or the law of gravitation. It will be binding wherever man is found on earth, to the end of human history. It was in force before Moses, and continued to be after him. It did not first appear in the Jewish ritual, and it did not pass away with it. Christ abolished the accepted ritualism of the Sabbath, but retained the Sabbath itself. If He ignored the Mosaic Sabbath, He restored and hallowed the Sabbath of Eden, and universal humanity. In no word or act did he chal- lenge or discredit that primitive, divine, and perma- nent institution. Let us follow our Lord's interpre- tation and exemplification of the Sabbath law, as He reconsecrates it for His Church, and for all mankind to the end of time. When He came upon earth the Sabbath had become a burden. There were thirty- nine articles in the traditional Sabbath statutes, many of which were puerile or cruel. The prohibition of burden-bearing on the Sabbath was enforced with sophistical discrimination to the obstruction of any REAFFIRMED BY CHRIST. 43 ministry of relief or of mercy. Sandals might be worn unless nailed, when they became burdens. A handkerchief was unobjectionable if tied around the neck, or fastened to the dress, but came under the ban when carried loose. A horse could be led to the trough, but it would be bearing a burden to carry a pail of water to the manger. ' In walking, no one should leave the path to walk on the grass, or pluck and rub off in his hands the kernels of an ear of corn : for that would be threshing with the hands and feet. When the Sabbath approached, the traveller, however near inn or home, must end his journey and suffer the inconvenience and hardship of delay and expense, ac- cording to the rule of the Essenes. Titus took ad- vantage of the religious scruples of the besieged Jews to push forward his works undisturbed on the seventh day, preparatory to attack. Among this people, " wise above what was written" by Moses, and " righteous overmuch," our Lord appeared, and His evident pur- pose was to save the original institution and divest it of false interpretations. He was careful to observe the Sabbath-day. On that day He was found in the synagogue. "And He went out from them : and He Cometh into His own country ; and His disciples fol- low Him. And when the Sabbath was come, he be- gan to teach in the synagogue." "And he entered again into the synagogue ; and there was a man there which had his hand withered. And they watched Him whether He would heal on the Sabbath-day, that they might accuse Him." " And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath-day." Thus 44 LAW OF THE SABBATH. in Jerusalem, Galilee, Perea, wherever he was, he en- tered the synagogues on the Sabbath-day. He hon- ored the Sabbath by performing upon it some of His most wonderful cures. The man with the withered hand stretched it forth, the blind man went to the pool of Siloam, the woman bound with a spirit of in- firmity eighteen years was made straight, the man with the infirmity for thirty-eight years arose and took up his bed and walked, the man with the dropsy was healed, a few sick folk at Nazareth and Peter's wife's mother at Capernaum were cured, and the man with a spirit of an unclean devil was freed — all on the Sabbath-day. He honored the Sabbath even when charged with violating it : " And for this cause did the Jews persecute Jesus, because He did these things on the Sabbath." " And the Pharisees said unto Him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath-day that which is not lawful ?" " Are ye wroth with me because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath ?" " Some therefore of the Pharisees said. This man is not from God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath." " And the ruler of the synagogue, being moved with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered, and said to the multitude : * There are six days in which men ought to work : in them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath.' " Jrt defending Himself from these attacks, our Lord in no ^ase impugns the authority and sanctity of the Sab- bath. He justifies His disciples in plucking the ears of corn when they were hungry on the Sabbath-day, by appealing to the conduct of David, who, when he REAFFIRMED BY CHRIST. 45 was hungry, '* entered into the house of God, when Abiathar was high-priest, and did eat the shewbread, which it was not lawful to eat, save for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him." On the ground that " the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," H^ defended any conduct on that day that was necessary to sustain life. He silenced those who were watching to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, by this single question : " Is it lawful on the Sabbath-day to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill ?" He put to shame his adversaries who were indignant at the cure of a wo- man on that day, by exclaiming, " Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath-day loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abra- ham, whom Satan hath bound, lo! these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the Sabbath ?" He vindicated the cure of the man at the pool of Siloam, by quoting Moses himself : For this cause hath Moses given you circumcision ; and on the Sabbath ye circumcise a man. If a man receiveth circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are ye wroth with me because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath ?" In another place he says, " Have ye not read in the law how that on the Sabbath-day the priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath-day and are guiltless ? What man shall there be of you that shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out ? How much, then, 4.6 LAW OF THE SABBATH. is a man of more value than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day." On one occasion the Pharisees held their peace when he prefaced a cure by putting to them the ques- tion, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day, or not ?" After the miracle he added, " Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a well, and will not straightway draw him up on a Sabbath-day? And they could not answer again unto these things." In none of His replies does the Saviour impinge on the fourth commandment. He leaves it standing, no longer covered with the rubbish of traditions and un- natural restrictions, but in the native grandeur of its primitive enactment. The scribes had made it a heavy burden : Jesus restored it as a heavenly bene- diction. They had inclosed it as a prison : He opened it as a day of spiritual emancipation. They were content to make it a day of selfish ease : He con- secrated it to active ministries of charity. They mis- apprehended and perverted the Law : He explained and fulfilled it. He appealed from their prejudices to their better understanding. He unfolds the un- suspected depth of the commandment of Sabbath rest : " But if ye had known what this meaneth, * I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' ye would not have condemned the guiltless." Though He claimed, as Son of man, to be Lord of the Sabbath, He kept it as a king keeps his own laws. Such was the influence of His own example that His grave remained unvisited all through the hours of the Sabbath. In His fore- thought for His nation, the people that had rejected REAFFIRMED BY CHRIST. 47 Him, He bids His disciples, in view of the calamity impending over Jerusalem, to pray that their flight "be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath." The disciples, apprehending the threatened calam- ity, fled across Jordan to Perea ; but the unbelieving Jews fell like slaughtered sheep. From this review of Christ's Sabbath teaching and observance we infer that, like Moses, He assumed the institution of the Sabbath in Eden, and the perpetuity of its obliga- tions. He did not defend this primitive divine law by argument or illustration, but postulated it in all His teachings — as He did the being of God, the spiri- tual nature of man, and the future life. Declaring it " was made for man" in the beginning, and intimating no right to annul it. He exalts it as the most august institution, and symbol of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It can no more be safely eliminated from the discipline of life than the Decalogue, the nightly rest, the order of the seasons, or the law of gravita- tion. IV. Perpetuated in the Lord's Day. "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath-day." If essential Sabbath observance depended upon exact enumeration of days from the creation, no age or people could be sure of possessing the Sabbath. The Russian and English calendars differing about the firsts could not agree in establishing the seventh day for any part of the world. The validity of an ordi- nance for all mankind could not therefore have been left contingent upon a question of learned research not one in a thousand has the capacity or opportunity to solve. No uncertainty about the enumeration of days from the morning of creation can at all weaken the authority of the Sabbath law. If consecration of the same time was essential to Sabbath observance, it would be equally impossible to fix on a holy day for the world. The Sabbath of one degree of longitude would displace or abridge that of every other. In their dispersion over the earth mankind have necessarily observed different times. In making the circuit of the globe the Sab- bath varies with the longitude, and the traveller west, returning to the place of his departure, however scru- pulous in the enumeration of days, finds he is ob- PERPETUATED IN THE LORD'S DAY. 49 serving the seventh instead of the first day ; while the traveller East, equally scrupulous in observing the succession of days, returning to the same place, is observing the second instead of the first day. English sailors, visiting Pitcairn Island, arrived on Saturday, and found the islanders keeping the Chris- tian Sabbath. Reaching the island from different directions, the Saturday of one was the Sunday of the other. According to the notion of an exact enu- meration of days, or of identical holy time, therefore, a Sabbath for the world is clearly impossible. A holy day for universal humanity was not based upon any such precarious foundation ; but conditioned upon exact siiccessio?i and proportion of time, no differ- ence of calendar or of longitude could wrest from sacred observance. Even Jewish law, with all its scruples about Sabbath and Sabbatic times, recog- nized the essential law of the Sabbath in the exact succession and proportion of time. Wherever the Hebrew travelled or sojourned, the existing holy day was accepted without raising the question of its place in the series of days from the birth of crea- tion. And if he found himself among strange peo- ple, observing their own feast-days in place of the primitive Sabbath, or were himself uncertain of the identit;y of the true Sabbath, according to Jewish law he might inaugurate for himself an enumeration and succession of days. All the law required of him was an invariable sacred rest after each six days of labor Keeping holy every seventh day, he fulfilled the royal law. If Jews now scattered throughout the 4 50 LAW OF THE SABBATH. world should merge their Sabbath observance with the Lord's Day throughout Christian lands, they might be clearly justified by their own law. And if Christians through change of meridian had come to fraternize with Sabbatarians in their holy day, they might none the less have honored the Lord's Day. Therefore the ends of the Sabbath of Eden as well as the supplementary purposes of the Lord's Day might be attained in the same identical time. The same day might commemorate both creation and redemption. Easter is celebrated by devotees as enthusiastically as if no doubt remained of the chro- nology of the closing events of the life of our Lord. Assuming that the observance of the same day in the seven might fulfil the Sabbath law of both dispen- sations alike ; and that the commemoration of the first day is but supplementary of that of the seventh, it should not seem strange that the double Sabbath was united in the first day of the week. The change might have occurred from natural fitness without any apostolic council or decree. And it was grad- ually and with long tolerance of both days that at length the first day triumphed over the seventh, and became the Sabbath of the Christian world. For the following reasons it should now be ac- cepted as the only available universal Sabbath: a. The change of day may claim the divine bless- ing as retaining the essential Sabbath. How could it have occurred without the most certain divine au- thority ? To guard the inviolability of His laws, God had signally punished Saul, Nadab, and Abihu. PERPETUATED IN THE LORD'S DAY. 5 I How then could He have been pleased with the sub- stitution of the first for the seventh day, if not pro- vided for in His new revelation ? How could the Apostle have encouraged by precept and example the observance of the Lord's Day, if set apart with- out divine authority, while warning the churches against the bondage of mere human appointments ? b. If the first day is not to be accepted as the Sab- bath, Christendom has been without the Sabbath rest appointed in Eden for eighteen centuries. We can conceive of godless lands and ages falling into the disuse or perversion of primitive divine laws, but not the most loyal people of God through all the centuries. The martyr-saints of each generation be- lieved they kept the essential Sabbath in hallowing the Lord's Day. They believed they attained in the first day the holy rest and communion with God con- templated in setting apart the seventh day in the Garden of Eden. c. The change of day seemed necessary to wean Jewish believers from their cumbersome ritualism. The seventh day was so interwoven with all their ceremonial observance, and so associated with their multiplied feast-days, that displacing the seventh day from the religious calendar seemed to displace Juda- ism from the public confidence, and prepare the way for the universal introduction of the ceremonial of the Christian Church. d. But clear Apostolic example abundantly justi- fies the universal substitution of the first for the seventh as the Christian Sabbath. This change may 52 LAW OF THE SABBATH. have been one " of the things pertaining to the king- dom of God," concerning which Luke tells us Jesus spoke to His disciples after the resurrection. It can hardly be considered a casual circumstance that the Lord's appearances previous to His ascension into heaven occurred so commonly on the first day of the week. That day seems to have been particularly chosen by the risen Lord as the time for meeting His disciples — as if the seventh day had been in force until the death of our Lord, and His resurrec- tion became the signal for the transfer of its sanctity to the first day. As Lord of the Sabbath, its shadow was buried with Him. The long hallowed holy day had been clouded by the sin of the world, and through its tedious hours the body of the King of glory lay in the dark grave. As Lord of the Sab- bath, He brought to light when He arose a day of greater promise, a day of more glorious rest, and hope for all people. Creation was restored by re- demption. Foreboding fears were dissipated by the celebration of a Saviour's triumph over sin and the grave. The first day was forever transfigured with the splendors of an assured promise of the resurrec- tion of the dead and life everlasting through our Lord Jesus Christ. The^rst day not only celebrates redemption and the resurrection, but the dawn and restoration of creation, when God said " Let there be light^' *' and the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters." ''The light that never shone on land or sea" streamed forth from the open sepulchre ; and when, after seven full weeks were past, on the first day PERPETUATED IN THE LORD's DAY. 53 of the week, on the day of Pentecost, the mighty Spirit of God Ascended, and moved on the face of the hundred and twenty disciples in the upper chamber at Jerusalem. Pentecost was the first-fruits ; and it fell on the first day of the week, as if to consecrate that day forever for the special descent of the Holy Spirit upon the churches of Christ through the ages. Although references to a day of worship are rare in the later inspired annals of the Christian Church, they are all in one direction, and imply a gen- eral observance of the first day of the week. Paul's order relating not only to the church at Corinth, but also to the churches of Galatia, that on the first day of the week every disciple should lay by him in store as God had prospered him, leads us naturally to infer that Christian worship was established in Greece and Galatia at least on the first day of the week. The Apostle's protest against Judaizing teach- ers — " Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days" — proves that the seventh day as well as festivals of the old dispensa- tion were considered obsolete. Only the first day bound the conscience of the early churches. Though the old day has passed away, they might still exclaim withjoy, " There remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of God " — an earthly and symbolical rest as well as a heavenly rest. " For we who have believed do enter into rest" — into the symbolic rest of redemption, as earlier saints into that of creation. Though the religious \ 54 LAW OF THE SABBATH. uses of the Sabbath might still be attained on the seventh day and the promiscuous observance of this with the first day was doubtless tolerated in the Jew- ish disciples ; still so authoritative was Christ's Lord- ship and the inspired discretion of the Apostles over the Sabbath, that after the resurrection there is no notice of Christian assemblies on the seventh day. Ever after they hallow the first day as their holy day. The apostles meet the churches in their first-day as- semblies in different parts of the world, and some- times delay journeys to enjoy this established order of worship. Paul tarried at Troas with the disciples seven days in order *' to break bread " with them on the first day of the week. The sojourn at Tyre the same period (Acts xxi. 4) seems to have been for the same purpose. Paul (i Cor. xi. 17) speaks of the Corinthians as if by custom " coming together in the church." He also speaks of the order of their stated meetings (i Cor. xiv. 22, 23) : "When the whole church is come together." He recognizes times and places of public worship in warning the Hebrews against their neglect (Hebrew x. 25): " Not forsaking the assembling yourselves together, as the manner of some is." Thus by all the assemblies and discipline of the primitive churches the first day of the week was enshrined in the heart of the Chris- tian Church as the seventh was in the heart of Israel. Because the change has been made in the name and for the glory of Christ, and the celebration of His kingdom, th^ first day has been from the beginning called the Lord's Day. And that day has taken the PERPETUATED IN THE LORD'S DAY. 55 place in the Christian calendar which was held by the seventh in the Jewish ritual. It has been incor- porated into the customs and laws of Christian na- tions, as a day set apart for rest and religious wor- ship. As the same portion of time occurs in the same orderly succession, meeting the same necessi- ties for physical, intellectual, and moral repose and recuperation, associated with the same analogy of the Creator's rest after six periods of work, and espe- cially as adding higher memorial use to that of the seventh day, and commended by Apostolic example, and especially as commemorating the august event of the resurrection, the Lord's Day imparts new splendors to the original Sabbath law. It comes to the church as often, in the same orderly succession, insuring the same privileges, summoning to the same duties, commemorating the same, and added prom- ises. The same heavenly Friend appears in more royal robes, and bringing more wisdom, beneficence, and grace. The ritualistic Sabbath of Moses passed away ; but the restored Sabbath of Christ shall abide forever. It is erected as the monumental tem- ple of the ultimate religious faith of all mankind. Crossing the plains of California in a railroad train, a storm darkened upon us from the mountains, gleaming with lightnings, and reverberating with thunder, and erected the arch of a most gorgeous rainbow. Its supporting pillars of gold and sap- phire rose apparently not more than a hundred yards from our moving trains, as the columns of a stupend- ous archway, disclosing the plain beyond covered $6 LAW OF THE SABBATH. with stunted palm and cactus, the sky half veiled with fleecy clouds, the distant mountain towering over the continent and looking toward the western and eastern oceans, and the ever-glorious Orient, the source of the ever-rising day. The Lord's Day, rising from the base of the celebration of the Redemption and Resurrection of Christ, towers over the ceme- teries and graves of buried ages, the resplendent archway to the revelations and glory of immortality. It opens up vistas of coming centuries, and achieve- ments of Christianity through her millennial reign, to the transcendent glories of the eternal world. Each generation in rapid succession gaze through it, and by faith pass to their eternal rewards. Baxter, as cited by Hessey, in brief terms sets forth the grounds of the observance of the first day as the Christian Sabbath . " Christ commissioned His Apos- tles to teach the Church the things He would have them observe. He gave them His Spirit to enable them to do this infallibly, by recalling His words to their minds, and leading them into all necessary truth. " His apostles did de facto separate the Lord's Day for Christian assemblies, and declared the cessation of Jewish Sabbaths. That is, this change had the very same author as the Holy Scriptures (the Holy Ghost in the Apostles), so that fact hath the same kind of proof that we have of the Canon, and of the integrity and uncorruptness of the particular Scripture books and texts ; and that if so much Scripture as mentioneth the keeping of the Lord's PERPETUATED IN THE LORD's DAY. 57 Day, expounded by the consent of the Universal Church from the days of the Apostles (all keeping this day as holy without the dissent of any one sect or single person that I remember to have read of) — I say, if all this history will not fully prove the point of fact, that this day was kept in the apostolic times, and consequently by their appointment, then the same proof will not serve to evince that any text of Scripture is canonical and uncorrupted ; nor can we think that anything in the world, that is past, can have historical proof." The early history of the Church is full of allusion to the first day, as the holy day of the Church. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, only a few years after the death of John speaks of the Lord's Day famil- iarly, as if accepted by all Christians. " Let us no more Sabbatize" — keep the Sabbath as the Jews do. " But let us live in accordance with the life of our Lord ;" that is, observe the day of the Lord in Christian work and worship. Theophilus of Antioch, AD. 162, says, "Both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honor the Lord's Day, seeing in that day it was that our Lord Jesus Christ com- pleted His resurrection from the dead." Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, disciple of Polycarp, who was com- panion of the Apostles, says, " On the Lord's Day every one of us Christians keeps the Sabbath, medi- tating on the law and rejoicing in the works of God." Dionisius, a cotemporary of Irenaeus, says, "We cele- brate the Lord's Day." Clement (192) says, " A Chris- tian, according to the commandment of the Gospel, 58 LAW OF THE SABBATH. observes the Lord's Day, thereby glorifying the res- urrection of the Lord." TertuUian says, "We have nothing to do with the Sabbath" — the Jewish Sab- bath. " The Lord's Day is the Christian Sabbath." Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, says the "Lord's Day is sacred, or consecrated by the resurrection of Christ ;" and Augustine, " The Lord's Day was by the resur- rection declared to Christians ; and from that very time it has grown to be celebrated as the Christian festival." Athanasius says, " The Lord transferred the Sab- bath to the Lord's Day." Beza on Revelations i. lo says, " The seventh day having stood from the crea- tion of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was ex- changed by the Apostles, doubtless at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, for that which was the first day of the New World." The Westminster Shorter Catechism, on the fourth commandment orders this answer : " From the beginning of the world to the resurrec- tion of Christ, God appointed the seventh day to be the weekly Sabbath ; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath." Anselm says the Lord's Day signifies that true rest which He who rose from the dead on the Lord's Day now secures, and prom- ises to the saints, and therefore we do rest on that day from all labor — it is the moral part of the Deca- logue, in the time of grace, as the seventh day was in the time of law." Bishop Pierson in his exposition of the Creed says, " From this resurrection of our Saviour, and the con- PERPETUATED IN THE LORD'S DAY. 59 stant practice of the Apostles, this first day of the week came to have the name of the Lord's Day ; and is so called by St. John, who says of himself, ' I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.' And thus the ob- servation of that day, which the Jews did sanctify, ceased, and was buried with our Saviour ; and in the stead of it, the religious observation of that day in which the Son of God rose from the dead, by the constant practice of the blessed Apostles, was trans- mitted to the Church of God, and so continued in all ages." Says Matthew Hale, "And thus you have the reason of the obligation upon us Christians to ob- serve the first day of the week, being our Christian Sabbath ; and so the fourth commandment is not abrogated, but only the day changed, and the moral- ity of that command only translated, not annulled." Observed by the Church. "See Christians, Jews, one Sabbath keep." The resurrection of Christ created the Christian Sabbath and the Christian Church. This stupendous event so affects the condition and hope of the world as to demand a day to commemorate its transcendent promise. If Christ had not been raised from the dead no ordinance would have enshrined His name, no Lord's Day proclaimed His spiritual sovereignty, and no Church celebrated His doctrines and worship. Christ's Lordship over the Sabbath invested Him with power to vary its succession of time and its ritual. A Sabbath-day must not be confounded with the Sabbatic institution. It has never been pos- sible to identify the exact seventh day in the series of days from the creation. If ever identified, there is no reasonable probability of its hnving been preserved through all the fluctuations of unhistoric lands and ages. The devotion of the seventh part of time in orderly succession to rest and worship — the essential Sabbatic law — has been palpable to all periods and peoples alike. As Moses, enforcing the Sabbath, fixed the beginning of an enumeration of days, added to its memorial uses, nnd guarded it by new sanctions ; so OBSERVED BY THE CHURCH. 6l Christ, reaffirming the same primitive Sabbath, to wean His disciples from effete Judaism, and add to it higher memorial uses, and especially to celebrate the inauguration of His kingdom by His resurrection from the dead, set apart for His Church a new enume- ration of time, and made the first day — the day He arose from the tomb — the Sabbath of His Church to the end of time. The infrequency of allusions to the supremacy of the Lord's Day in the New Testament is no more remarkable than the infrequency of allusions to the Mosaic Sabbath in the prophets, or the infrequency of assertions of the being of God or the immortality of the soul in either the old or new Scriptures. As in the Old Testament there is silence in regard to the great Sabbath law, except when specially menaced, so there is silence in regard to the Lord's Day, except in correcting misapprehensions. In accepting the Decalogue as the summary of universal moral duties, Christ and His Apostles clearly acknowledged the unrepealed obligations of the Sabbath. Yet they nei- ther duly observed it themselves, nor enforced its observance on the Church, unless they observed it on the first day. Accepting the Lord's Day as the Sab- bath, the Church through all the centuries have hon- ored the Sabbath ; but denying the Lord's-day Sab- bath, the Church have almost universally desecrated it. Assuming that the early Church kept the essential Sabbath on the ^r^-/ day of the week, allusions to the Lord's Day through later ages are fully explained. Clement of Rome, dyingat the close of the first cen- 62 LAW OF THE SABBATH. tury, in his epistle to the Corinthians commending the Lordship of Christ, says, " He hath commanded the due observance of offerings and rites to take place neither irregularly nor negligently, but at appointed times and hours." This contemporary of the Apostle John, in an outlook from the capital of the Roman Empire, contemplates the churches observing the same accepted ritual of v^orship and discipline. ''Appointed times" must have embraced the order of first-day assemblies, and first-day contributions for the poor saints, established a little while before by Paul in his missionary journeys through provinces of the Roman Empire. Ignatius, another contemporary of John, writing about the close of the first century, says, " If those who were concerned with old things have come to newness of hope, no longer keeping Sabbaths, but living ac- cord ing to the Lord's Day, on which our life has risen again through Him and His death." He alludes to the Jewish Sabbath as abrogated, or substituted by the first day of the week, and alludes to the new Sabbath, as John did, as the Lord's Day." The epistle of Barnabas, whether genuine or not, dating in the first part of the second century, says, " Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me. ... I shall make the eighth day a beginning, which is the beginning of another world. Therefore we keep the eighth day with joy, on which Jesus also arose from the dead." This language asserts the sub- stitution of the first for the seventh day Sabbath, and gives a reason for the change. OBSERVED BY THE CHURCH. 63 The letter of Pliny the civilian to Trajan the emperor confirms the testimony of the first Christian Fathers as to the general observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath. Answering inquiries of the emperor about the " new supersti- tion," he says of the Christians, " They constantly de- clare the whole of their crime or error to be this, that they are accustomed to meet together on a stated day before it is light, and sing a hymn to Christ as God." This is given as an apology of the Christians at the close of the first and the beginning of the second cen- tury. What an attestation of the creed of the early churches, and of their scrupulous observance of the Lord's-day Sabbath. Justin Martyr (138), as if he were describing the wor- ship of the first apostolic churches, speaks of reading the writings of the prophets, the celebration of the resurrection and of the first day as " the chief and first of all the days." " On the day called Sunday there is a gathering in one place of all who reside either in cities or in country places, and the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophet are read." Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in a letter to the Bishop of Rome in the latter part of the second cen- tury,, says, "To-day we have spent the Lord's holy day, and in it we have read your epistle." In this corre- spondence of the pastors of the churches of the two greatest cities of that age we have recognized the devotion of the Lord's Day to the special duties of the Sabbath. That Church handbook, called *'The 64 LAW OF THE SABBATH. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," recently discovered, whether genuine or not, seems equally conclusive of the observance of the first-day Sabbath. '^ And on the Lord's Day, being gathered together, break bread and give thanks, having confessed also your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (178), in a memorial to the Bishop of Rome in respect to a controversy about Easter, exalting the Lord's Day to supremacy, says, " On the Lord's Day onl}^ should the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord be observed," At the close of this century, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullianof Carthage give a various but conclu- sive testimony to the general substitution of the first for the seventh day Sabbath. In the beginning of the third century Origen of Alexandria distinguishes the ''Jewish" from the " Christian" Sabbath, speaks of the Jewish Sabbath as passed away, and makes keeping the " Lord's Day" " one of the marks of the perfect Christian." Sixty-six bishops, constituting the Third Council of Carthage, in 254, emphasizing the substitution of Christianity for Judaism, made circumcision a type of the Lord's Day, and enjoined its universal obser- vance by Christians, as circumcision was observed by the Jews. At the last of the third century a distinguished martyr, Victorinus, commends the first-day Sabbath. Also Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, says, " We keep with joy the Lord's Day, because of Him who rose thereon." OBSERVED BY THE CHURCH. 65 In the year 32 1 Constantine made the first law enforc- ing the observance of the first day of the week. It is absurd to suppose that a law so interfering with the liberty of citizens would have been decreed if it were not already establislied in the convictions and obser- vance of the great body of Christian citizens. As all wise laws arise from the sacred traditions of a people, the first Sabbath law attests not only the conviction of the emperor, but also of the Christian believers of the empire. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, the first Church historian, in his eulogy of Constantine, praises him for "commanding all dwellers, whether on land or sea, to meet every week, and keep the Lord's Day as a festival for the rest of the body and the nurture of the soul." Cawdrey, one of the Westminster divines, exalts the Christian emperor in his relation to legalizing the Christian Sabbath to the dignity of Moses in estab- lishing the primitive Sabbath : '' As the first Sabbath was kept (it is probable) by God Himself alone, and was propounded as a copy for Adam to imitate ; so likewise the first Lord's day was kept by Christ alone, and commanded to the practice of His Apostles and the Church. "Adam and the patriarchs, whether by command or inspiration, did (we think) imitate God in the ob- servation of a weekly day, but in a different manner, from after-times, viz., in their private families, in which the Church then resided. So the Apostles, upon the same grounds (as we conceive), imitated their Lord and Master, but in private families at first, or pri- vate meetings — not so publicly as afterward. 66 LAW OF THE SABBATH. "The children of Israel (the then only people of God), being in Egypt, under sore pressure, nor did nor could keep the Sabbath in any solemn manner, not being permitted rest or assemblies. So the Church of the New Testament for three hundred years, living in persecution, could not keep the Lord's Day with that solemnity that they should or would ; but as for place, secretly, so for time as they could find opportu- nity, in the day or night. Moses did but revive what was by long tract of time almost obliterated, nor did Constantine constitute but confirm the day which had been from the very Apos- tles' times and by the Apostles themselves instituted, and by the succeeding churches constantly observed, as well as they might. And this is so certainly and confessedly true, that we cannot but wonder that any should ever question it. And herein they are alike : that as Moses did settle the observation of the Sabbath, not institute it, so the most that Constantine did was but to rectify the observation of the Lord's Day, not to appoint the day itself." From the time of Con- stantine ecclesiastical councils and Christian nations have agreed in maintaining the validity of the first- day or Christian Sabbath. But the union of Church and State and the multiplication of feast-days for cen- •turies almost made the Sabbath law nugatory. And the Reformers, in reaction from its superstitious ritualism, to emancipate believers from the domination of Papacy, almost consented to the secularization of the Sabbath. Denying the obligations of the Mosaic Sabbath, they left the Lord's Day to the discretion of OBSERVED BY THE CHURCH. 6/ of Christian liberty. Luther said the believer had a right to " work, ride, or dance upon it, if he would." In their eagerness for Christian liberty the Reformers would have subverted the Decalogue. But while Europe was surrendering her Sabbath law at the dictation of ecclesiastical creeds, England and Scot- land, supported by the great name of John Knox, kept the true Christian Sabbath for the world. It was part of the strong Puritan element of England that first settled in Holland to enjoy more fully the peace and promise of the Lord's Day, and after being baffled in their pursuit by the growing secularization of the day there, sailed in the Mayflower for New Eng- land. So prominent was a holier Sabbath in the aims of the colonists, that they delayed landing, and spent their first Sabbath in the New World on Clark's Island, that their first step on the new-found shore might not desecrate it; and Clark's Island thus became more significant in American history than Plymouth Rock. Thus the Christian Sabbath has followed and auth m- ticated the progress of Christianity over the world, Nations of Europe and of America alike recognize and guard the same sacred time. As certainly as Christianity becomes the accepted faith of the world, the Lord's Day will become the Sabbath of all man- kind.' Born with Christ to universal empire, the Christian Sabbath will receive with Him the " many crowns" of the world. VI. Memorial Day. ** It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever." "Bright shadows of true rest ; some shoots of bliss ; Heaven once a week : The next world's gladness prepossesst in this; A day to seek. Monumental history is old as signal experiences and achievements of men. Abraham called the mount where he offered up Isaac, Jehovah-jireh — making it a perpetual remem- brancer of his triumphant faith. Jacob set up a stone at Bethel to commemorate a divine revelation which guided and cheered his whole life. Israel, taking twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan, reared them on its brink into a conspicuous memorial of the close of their pilgrimage in the wil- derness, and of their victorious entrance upon their promised inheritance. Most conspicuous among the remains of Nineveh and Babylon are memorial temples, columns, and tablets. The pyramids are monuments of kings, dynasties, and civilization of Egypt. MEMORIAL DAV. 69 Columns, arches, and temples celebrate the arts empire, and religion of Greece and Rome. London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna rival ancient cities in the magnificence of their monuments. Already our young Republic boasts her Bunker Hill, Yorktown, and scores of other monuments adorning our National and State capitals and other great cities of the country, celebrating the heroic achievements of our fathers and the glory of our free institutions. But commemorative days are older, more available, and more indestructible memorials than material structures. A day is set apart to commemorate the birth of an individual, the founding of a city or state, a discovery of science, a political revolution, or a triumph of liberty. With what festive days the Hebrews celebrated their exodus from Egypt, and their receiving the law from Sinai ! Other nations observed similar days in commemoration of their achievements in war and in peace. The American Declaration of Independence is cel- ebrated on the Fourth of July by booming cannon, civic processions, patriotic assemblies, and pyro- technic exhibitions. Great events of personal, family, and national life naturally seek celebration in commemorative days. The Sabbath is at once prototype and antitype of all memorial days. It provides for and encourages that grateful review of the experiences, plans, and pursuits of life which will quicken a sense of duties to ourselves, to our fellow-men, and to our Creator. 70 LAW OF THE SABBATM. All commemorations of auspicious events, rising to grateful appreciation, recognition of Divine Provi- dence, and praise to the universal benefactor, are provided for by this primitive memorial day. Ap- preciation of personal, social, or civil blessings may rise in homage to God. The Sabbath is therefore a remembrancer of all religious duties; a summons of earth to offer grateful worship to heaven. It repeats in holy jubilance the song of the morning stars over the completed creation, and the song of the angels ovdr Bethlehem celebrating promised redemption. It rs an ever-recurring call upon man to pause, and devoutly an-d gratefully consider the purpose of his being, his duty, and his destiny. With the emphasis of divine authority and tenderness of divine com- passion, it is ever calling, as if its voice was articu- lated in the music of the spheres, " Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and His wonderful works to the children of men !" Those who never review their mercies are never grateful for them. Those who are not inspired with gratitude offer no acceptable worship to God. Those who heed not the call of the holy day feel no gratitude or accepta- ble reverence for the universal Father. Men who do not remember God, do not worship in spirit and in truth. Those who keep no menx)rial day do not re- member Him in sentiments of gratitude and praise. How august, beneficent, and gracious this appoint- ment of a memorial day for all mankind! In its insti- tution in the Garden it became a perpetual remem- brancer to patriarchal nges of the Creator's power MEMORIAL DAY. 7I wisdom, and goodness, and before lawgivers or prophets appeared was a monitor to worship God. In its restoration by Moses, in addition to the com- memoration of creation and the universal providence of God, it became also a sign of special providence over the Hebrews in delivering them from Egyptian bondage and establishing them in Canaan. In its reaffirmation by Christ as ''Lord of the Sab- bath," it became a memorial of His resurrection from the dead, and the promise of the triumph of His kingdom in the earth. As it_ was a sign of_a_£OvenaDt with Israel, the Sab- bath in its changed ritual is a sign of the covenant of grace with Christian believers. It remains to all man- kind a test of faith in Christ and loyalty to Him. Its original memorial purpose, renewed in the covenant with Israel, is transfigured with more glory in the commemorations of Christianity. The Christian Sab- bath enlarges and glorifies the memorial use of the primitive Sabbath institution. It achieves all the seventh day accomplishes and more. It is a ''better covenant," and assured by " better promises." This commemorative use of the Sabbath is set forth in an interesting, though somewhat fanciful manner by Joseph Mede, as cited by Hessey. He supposes the Sabbath to include " two respects of time : first, the quotum, one day in seven, or the seventh day after six days of labor ; secondly, the designation, or pitching, that seventh day which we call Saturday. In the former aspect the Israelites acknowledged God as Creator, and followed His example in the propor- 72 LAW OF THE SABBATH. tion of work and rest (Ex. xxxi. i6, 17). In the lat- ter they had reference to God's deliverance of them from Egypt, which he conjectures took place on that particular day of the seven (Deut. v. 15). He says it is possible that the Sabbath of the quotum and the Sabbath of the designation may have coincided (that is, the day marked as the Jewish Sabbath in the way he supposes may really have been the seventh in an hebdomadal cycle, dating from the creation). All this he brings forward to show that Jews and Chris- tians may agree as to the quotum, but differ as to the designation; and that as the former designated the Saturday as their Sabbath, because they were in it delivered from temporal bondage, so the latter desig- nated the Sunday as their Sabbath, because they were on it delivered from sin by Christ's resurrection from the dead." Many of the Fathers find allusion to the Lord's Day in the jubilation in the 118th Psalm: "This is the day the Lord hath made: I will rejoice and be glad in it" — the resurrection day of the Lord ; the day which brought salvation to men — a source and inspiration of joy and gladness to the world forever. Peter, an early bishop and martyr of Alexandria, recognizing the commemorative pur- pose of the Christian Sabbath, says, ** We keep the Lord's Day as a day of joy." Athanasius teaches that "the Sabbath, the end of the old creation, has de- ceased, and that the Lord's Day, the covenant of the new creation, has set in." Macarius of Egypt says the "Jewish Sabbath was a type and shadow of the true Sabbath given by the Lord to the soul. The MEMORIAL t)AV. ^3 Lord, when He came, gave man the true and eternal Sabbath, and this is freedom from sin. They who rest from sin keep a true, delightsome, and holy Sab- bath." Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, calls the Lord's Day " the day never to be concluded; to have no evening, no successor; the life which shall never cease, and never grow old." Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia, contrasts the first with the sixth day on this wise : " On the first day the world began ; on the same day on which, because the Lord's Day, Christ renewed man, for whose sake He made the world. The sixth day was that on which man was formed, and on which also Christ suffered for man." As a memorial of both creation and redemption, and hence of all the great thoughts, sentiments, and hopes that can inspire man, the Christian Sabbath is a perpetual remembrancer of man's lordship over nature, and the greatness of his responsibility, and of the grateful homage he owes to the universal Father. It dawns upon him with a sacred brightness, as the splendor of the morning dissipating the gloom of night. In its coming it brings to him statedly a memorial of the covenant with nature and its Author, which he entered into at his birth, and binding him inexorably as the law of gravitation. It recalls to impressive remembrance the duties he owes to God, and the sympathy and service he owes to man. It strikes the key-note to the harmonious pursuit, ex- alted fellowship, and blessed destiny of man. It summons earth to prayer. It is a ritual of worship to the end of time. It awakens man to festal triumph 74 LAW OF THE SABBATIL over the darkness of materialism, the weakness of mortality, and the gloomy fears of infidelity. It is a perpetual celebration of all that is noble and enno- bling in man's being, history, and destiny, and in pos- sibilities of the universe, and the glory of God. In its- weekly recurrence let us dwell in ever-increasing in- terest and delight on the *'old, old story" of creation and redemption. When these themes cease to interest and instruct, man is sinking into atheism and animal- ism. If only to sing hymns of the resurrection, dig- nity, and immortal destiny of man, the Christian Sab- bath compensates a hundred-fold for its observance. On its hallowed return, over graves of ancestors let him repeat in triumphant faith, "I am the resurrec- tion and the life;" "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." As the Arch of Triumph, with its symbolic record of resplendent achievements, rises over Paris, challenging the study and admiration of the teeming capital, the great nation, and the observing world ; so the Chris- tian Sabbath rises in serene majesty over all king- doms and peoples of the earth, covered. with symbolic inscriptions of man's being and his relation to the economy of the universe, and memorials of the power, wisdom, and glory of the Creator. As they follow the teaching and promise of the Christian Sabbath, mankind will become a universal brotherhood, and earth Paradise restored. VII. Holy Day. " So sang they, and the empyrean rung With hallelujahs. Then was Sabbath kept." The divine order, at creation, cutting off the seventh part of time, forbade its being confounded with other days. Until that order is revoked the separated time cannot be reannexed to the domain of common life. The divine blessing on the seventh day imparted to it a sanctity denied to other days, and this proportion of time should be kept inviolate till that holy chrism is obliterated. Association of divine example with Sabbath observ- ance hallowed it for all time. Disregard of this majestic precedent is the presumption of impiety and disobedience. The fourth commandment incorporated in that sum- mary of universal duties recognized by Christ and His Apostles enforces the sanctity of the Sabbath. ** Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." 76 LAW OF THE SABBATFT. The sanctification of the Sabbath was the test and measure of the loyalty of the Hebrews to Moses and the prophets. Isaiah exclaims, " Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it; every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant : even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer." Finally, the devotion of the Sabbath to religious uses seals its sanctity. The paper on which contracts and title-deeds, charters and constitutions, are written are awarded a protection and inviolability denied to whole reams of paper covered only with records of casual correspondence, trifling engagements, or neigh- borhood gossip. So that page of life which is written over with the history of creation and redemption, of religious assemblies and revivals, of confessions of sin, the peace of forgiveness, and the jubilance of Chris- tian hope is fraught with more sacred value than all the other pages in the volume of time. The Sabbath, by reason of its holy uses, outranks all the days de- voted to the husbandry of the earth, the cultivation of science or art, or to the promotion of social and political welfare. By its hallowed associations and resplendent promise it is more worthy of universal and sacred observance than the birthday of patriots and heroes, of kings and empires. The grave of poet, philosopher, or patriot, and the site of ancient temple or city, become shrines to thoughtful travellers. The histories associated with HOLY DAY. 'J'J these localities consecrate them to the reverence of succeeding ages. With what awakened awe the pious pagan visited altars consecrated by the faith and prayers of his ancestors, the believing Hebrew bore offerings to the temple on Mount Moriah, the devout Mussulman performed his pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Papal votary made his confessions, and clianted his prayers in St. Peter's at Rome. All places of worship awaken a corresponding reverence in all ingenuous minds. But consecration of time invests it with as great sacredness as consecration of place. Holy times should awaken as great circumspection as holy places. Re- spect for school hours, and times set apart for the session of courts, is encouraged. Any disturbance of the quiet of such periods is sternly rebuked. Much more should the rising generation be taught to rever- ence the Sabbath-day. The noise of industry or the hilarity of sensual pleasures is as foreign to the lofty purposes of the Sabbath as games in a schoolroom, or athletic sports in the majestic presence of court or senate. Those consecrating no Sabbaths on the ground that all days are alike holy, are like those Jews who might refuse to offer required firstlings of their flocks on the ground that their entire flocks already belonged to God. Those claiming to hallow all days hallow no day. Under the plea of consecrating all time they secularize all. Prayer ceases where days for prayer are not appointed. Religion dies out without Sabbaths ; and Sabbaths profaned by secular callings become holidays. Those surrendering part of the 78 LAW OF THE SABBATH. Sabbath to toil or recreation soon yield it all, aban- don the house of God, and proclaim all religion vain. Partial secularization, like the letting in of waters, sweeps away all the defences of holy time, and ostra- cizes religion. Erasing Heaven's autograph from the Sabbath, effacing from it the divine blessing, and devoting it to secular industries, amusements, and pleasures, is treason against the law of God and the nature of man. It offends the majesty and baffles the beneficence of Heaven, and reduces his noblest creature to a degrading bondage to the world. Had the Sabbath been set apart for bodily rest alone, the release from labor, as the ox from its gall- ing yoke, would have secured the end of the law, and sleeping, feasting, and sporting would be the proper occupations for the Sabbath. The materialistic phi- losophy, valuing man only for the endurance of his muscles, and his capacity for manual labor, and ani- mal pleasures, would give us such a Sabbath. Had the Sabbath been appointed mainly for intellectual and aesthetic culture, the theatre, opera, concert, and lecture might be the suitable programme for Sabbath observance. But along with bodily rest and mental recuperation, the Sabbath attains the climax of its beneficence in composing the appetites and pas- sions, and exalting the character and destiny of man. Disproportioned devotion to mental or aesthetic cul- ture may as signally defeat the ends of the Sabbath as labors in field, shop, or counting-house, or mere animal rest and dissipation. The rest of the heart, in the restoration of tlie affections to truth, duty, and HOLY DAY. 79 God, and thus elevating the aims, hopes, and destiny of man, is the true Sabbath. The separation and blessing set it apart for moral rest, religious repose, and associated higher education. The day was hal- lowed to assure the quiet and repose necessary to ab- straction from the world, and devotion to the com- plaisant study of the works and will of God, and the conformity of the will and character of the creature to those of the Creator. The quiet of the Sabbath is enforced to guard the rights and promote the welfare of all. The liberty of the individual is surrendered to the order and welfare of society. The stillness of the Sabbath furnishes an opportunity for all faiths alike to celebrate their own worship, practise their own discipline, and defend their own doctrine. There is no more interference with natural or personal lib- erty than in the discipline of the school or army, or in the coercion of police or of courts. The consecration of the entire Sabbath is none too great a provision for rest, worship, and the proper elevation of the aims, character, and sentiments of man. There may be differences of opinion about the margin of Sabbath occupations, but there should be none as it regards the inviolability of the entire day. The motive and method of pursuit, with the entire interruption of week-day engagements, may doubtless exalt to Christian virtue and homage what some might regard secular entertainment. Though guard- ing the whole day, Josephus says of the pious Jews, " The seventh day we set apart from labor : it is dedi- cated to the learning of our customs and laws, we So LAW OF THE SABBATH. thinking it proper to reflect on them, as well as any good thing else, in order to our avoiding of sin." The teaching of the Sabbath held somewhat the place of the modern public school ; but morals and religion were the principal scope of their instruction. Emi- nent Christians have been distinguished by their scrupulous observance of the religiousness of the Sab- bath. Wilberforce condemned even benevolent liter- ary work on the Sabbath, as insidiously leading to the secularization of the day, and never truly success- ful. He tells us he remained from church one Sab- bath to write a letter to the Emperor Alexander on the abolition of the slave-trade. But though the ob- ject was noble, and he invoked God's blessing upon it, he felt a constraint which impeded the free and un- fettered use of his imagination or the intellect ; " and I am sure that this last week I might have saved for that work four times as much time as I assigned to it on Sunday." Captain Scoresby, a distinguished whaler, says, after keeping the Sabbath, often his ship gained ad- vantages over those vessels which broke the Sabbath on the same seas and on the ^me cruise. He declares these advantages have been so marked, that all the crew believed divine providence rewarded their hal- lowing the Sabbath. Our esteemed friend Captain Ebenezer Morgan, who followed the sea more than forty years, and gained successes awarded to few sea- faring men, gives the same testimony in regard to the feasibility and advantages of honoring the Sab- bath over all seas and on all shores. 6 HOLY DAY. 8 1 A distinguished lawyer wrote to a friend, " I charge every young lawyer not to do anything in the business of his profession on the Sabbath-day. It will injure him and lessen his prospects for success. I have tried it. I do not know how it is, but there is something about it very striking. My Sabbath efforts have all been failures." No occupation of body or mind or heart, not culminating in sentiments and aspirations of religious worship, is fit employment for the Sab- bath. If the continuity of worldliness is interrupted, the reign of selfishness broken, good-will to men and grateful praise to God imspired, the Sabbath may be worthily observed. Following the example of Christ, we may extend our Sabbath observance beyond private and public prayers, and embrace grateful studies of the works and providence of God, teaching the ignorant the word and will of God, dispensing charity to the poor, relieving the suffering, and visiting the widow and the fatherless. With Christian spirit and Christian use of the Sabbath, the whole of life may become a stewardship and homage to God. The Sabbath has been beautifully described as " the smile ofjcjxation," but its brightness beams only on the upturned coun- tenance of piety, casting not a single holy ray upon the prone face of worldliness. PART II. PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. Body. ** How still the morning of the hallowed day ! Mute is the voice of rural labor, hushed The ploughboy's whistle and the milkmaid's song." Since the Fall a blight has rested upon body as well as mind and heart of man. Through unremitted toil, the eye is dimmed, the ear dulled, the limb stiffened, the brow seamed with care, and the whole body sinks beneath its burdens. Disabilities are entailed upon the next generation, and the race falls into decay. How far below the ideal father of mankind is the prone, frail, and stunted form of the averaged man ! In some parts of the globe he has deteriorated in fig-, ure and features, as in mental and moral habitudes, almost to the condition of lower animals. An orien- tal legend tells that when Solomon. was on his way to visit the Queen of Sheba he came to a valley in which dwelt a peculiar species of monkey. Upon inquir- ing into their history, he found that they were the BODY. 83 posterity of a colony of Jews, who, settling in that region many years before, had by habitually profan- ing the Sabbath degenerated into the brutes he found them. Even in civilized lands, through excess of labor, oppression, and vice, large classes have lost the crown of physical manhood. No more effectual bar- rier to this degeneracy can be raised than the sacred observance of the Sabbath. Release from the strain of toil rests and recuper- ates every muscle and nerve, cures incipient disorder of limb or organ, and makes the whole body lithe and vigorous for service. The mental exhilaration arising from suspension of toil is naturally expressed in brighter features and more erect and manly bearing. Besides, the moral impulse of the Sabbath gives beauty to the countenance; grace, dignity, and force to every motion ; and by harmonizing the passions, perfects and adorns the body. The successful train- ing of the athlete gives promise of the physical per- fection of man. If so great speed or strength is gained by careful discipline, what limit can be as- signed to the amelioration of physical manhood ? The artist, shaping his Apollo Belvidere in marble, utters a prophecy of the physical regeneration of the race, promised in the triumph of Christianity. Man- kind do not live out half their days. Cemeteries are filled with those hastening, unbidden by the voice of Nature, to the grave. Lamentation rises over every land, where only joy and gladness should be heard. The scheme of the French philosopher to secure by 84 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. proper training the immortality upon earth of the generation to come is a pleasing dream, but much remains that can be done to prolong the life and in- crease the happiness of the inhabitants of earth. The following testimony proves that Sabbath rest is the much-sought panacea : Before a committee of the House of Commons, 1832, Dr. Farre said, ^' Although the night apparently equal- izes the circulation, yet it does not sufficiently restore the balance for the attainment of a long life ; hence one day in seven, by the bounty of Providence, to perfect, by its repose, the animal system." Experts testify that a stage horse endures longer driven twelve miles a day for six days, resting the seventh, than driven ten miles a day without the Sabbath rest. Rev. H. L. Hastings says, "I recollect hearing Lord Shaftesbury speak in London of attending a coster- mongers' exhibition of the donkeys with which they drag about their little barrows of provisions and merchandise. He said there were fifty donkeys ex- hibited, looking as. sleek and beautiful as if they had come out of the Queen's stables ; and the men told him, without his asking them, that every one of the donkeys had each week twenty-four hours of rest ; and as a consequence, they could travel thirty miles a, day, with their loads, for six days in a week, while donkeys which were driven seven days in the week could not travel more than fifteen miles. Hence the beneficence of embracing beasts of burden as well as servants and strangers in the benefits of the Sabbath law. BODY. 85 M. Villerne declares that the portion of the French population which enjoys even casual interruptions of labor live an average of twelve years longer than those who know no cessation from toil. Statistics of mortality in England show a corresponding advan- tage to those enjoying various respite from labor. Besides, uninterrupted toil promotes other conditions of physical decay — uncleanliness, bad air, and social vices. By promoting weekly ablutions and change of dress the Sabbath is a sanitary measure of unsus- pected importance. Jorgenson, in his travels through France after the abrogation of the Sabbath, says, " The moroseness occasioned by the want of a Sabbath has an effect on the cleanliness of young men en- gaged in manual labor : they pursue their daily drudgery in their dirty working-dresses, and habit renders them at length averse to a change of linen and clothes." The frequent and regular recurrence of a Sabbath rest makes these needed personal atten- tions easy and habitual, and thus tones up character, reduces life to order, renders it healthful, and adorns it with beauty. More than six hundred medical men of London petitioned Parliament against opening Crystal Palace on Sundays, as menacing the hygienic uses of the Sabbath. Dr. Mussy of Ohio declares, *' Under the due observance of the Sabbath, life would, on an average be prolonged more than one seventh of its whole period ; that is, more than seven years in fifty. A large contractor found by working men and teams Sundays, both sickened, and his work was de- layed. Experience has shown that all branches of 86 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. industry in the long-run fall off in quantity and quality of work by adding the Sabbath to the week of toil. Dispensing with the Sabbath rest, laborers lose bodily vigor and become demoralized. Says an intelligent laboring man, author of a prize essay on the Sabbath, '' On more than one occasion he has found that continued application to labor during six days in the busy season, and consequent long hours, was more than his constitution would bear ; and if he had attempted to dispense with the re- laxation of the Sabbath, he should long since, he firmly believed, have retired to the rest and silence of the grave." Dr. Brooks of California says in ref- erence to his w^orking mines, " We have all of us given up working on Sundays, as we found the toil of six successive days quite hard enough. I believe the Sabbath is an institution physically necessary." Says another profound thinker, "Were man nothing more than an animal, and were his existence to be confined to this world, it would be for his interest to observe the Sabbath." The spring dissipating the dreary aspects of win- ter, or the rising sun dispersing the gloom of night and gilding earth and heaven with glory, are not more real if more palpable benedictions to earth than the smile, peace, and promise of the holy Sabbath to toil- ing and sorrowing humanity. But this primitive hygienic law can be retained only by the authority and sanction of divine appointment. As liberty has been maintained only by the prestige of divine right, original charters, and inviolable constitutions ; so BODY. 87 this inviolate Sabbath rest can be defended only by- pleading inalienable rights of man, and constitu- tional and divine law. Grasping avarice will buy- up this right and rest of the poor, giving no more for seven than for six days' work, unless prohibited by both human and divine law. If the day is merely a civil or ecclesiastical appointment, the masses will surrender it for wages — as they would the family for their passions if the primitive irrepealable law of Na- ture did not guard it. Only a divine Sabbath can be preserved for mental, moral, or bodily rest of man- kind. n. Mind. "Not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom." A SENSE of God and of a spiritual world is an ever-recurring intellectual impulse, revealing, com- pleting, and celebrating man's likeness to bis Crea- tor. A day commemorating and glorifying the being and providence of God must Uherefore quicken, clari- fy, and enlarge spiritual sensibilities, and invigorate all the mental faculties. Its dawn summons the thoughtless and distracted race to the attention and decorum of a school, intent upon the pursuit of knowledge. Its holy assemblies, public instruction, and inspiring examples quicken the dormant faculties of the most stolid, and exalt the range of tliought and imagination of the most gifted. The Sabbath is a compulsory school period for the world. States are deemed wise in enforcing the education of her citi- zens. The Supreme Ruler anticipated such specific and local enactments by a universal law. Without honoring this divine school-period no secular educa- tion has proved a success ; with its scrupulous ob- MIND. 89 servance none will prove a failure. While it is main- tained, education will never become the monopoly of the few, as no class will be deprived of the highest and most beneficent culture. The light of divine knowledge shines on the lowly as the sun upon all habitations of earth alike. **The wish to know — that endless thirst, Which even by quenching is awaked, And which becomes, or blest, or curst. As is the font whereat 'tis slaked." Enforced physical rest not only assures the neces- j sary opportunities for intellectual improvement, but brightens the mental faculties for any investigation or special study. Moral repose also gives vigor and equipoise to reason, and assures the wisdom and prac- tical value of its conclusions. Minds disordered by the lower passions may exhaust themselves by specu- lations brilliant as they are vain, but can never herald or adorn true social progress. The light of genius is often quenched in the dissipations of a thea- tre, pot-house, or lower abode of infamy ; while mod- erate endowment, through Sabbath observance and consequent virtuous pursuit, attains distinction, pub- lic trusts, and the greatest prizes of life. No Sab- bath-observing person or people relapses into the darkness, discontent, and vulgarity of general illiter- acy. The Sabbath is a more effectual provision and guaranty of general intelligence and refinement than public school, scientific institute, or free library. Sabbatarians are always men of more thought, con- go PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. viction, and practical information than desecrators of the Sabbath of the same talents and opportunities. By celebrating the doctrine of creation the Sabbath proclaims idealism against materialism, and magnifies the grandeur of thought and the empire of mind. In keeping it man becomes more intensely con- scious of his spiritual nature and immortality, and rises in his motives, aims, aspirations, and attain- ments to a corresponding dignity and destiny. The knowledge and conscious companionship of heaven must greaten the character and career of man on the earth. Sinking the holy day to mere animal rest animalizes the race. Resting as ox or ass from ma- terial burdens, or sporting merely as bird singing in its bowers, or lamb skipping over lawn, or resting in a grateful shade from sultry noon, may not elevate thought, sentiment, intellectual aspirations, attain- ments, or enjoyments of the race. Only the original, holy Sabbath, rising in all its rest and observance to the homage and jubilance of religious worship, in- sures mental culture as well as moral character. "A good mind is a kingdom in itself, it is true; but there is no mind truly good but that wherein Christ dwells. " Testimonies to the intellectual stimu- lus of weekly rest might be multiplied indefinitely. Dr. Carpenter, at the head of physiologists, says, " My own experience is very strong as to the import- ance of the complete rest and change of thought once a week." Thomas Sewall, Professor of Pathology and the Practice of Medicine in the Columbian College, Wash- MIND. 91 ington, D. C, says, *' While I consider it the more important design of the institution of the Sabbath to assist in religious devotion and advance men's spiri- tual welfare, I have long held the opinion that one of its chief benefits has reference to his physical and intellectual constitution ; affording him as it does one day in seven for the renovation of his exhausted energies of body and of mind — a portion of time small enough, according to the results of my observation, for the accomplishment of this oDject. ... I have no hesitation in declaring it is my opinion, that if the Sabbath were universally observed as a day of devo- tion and of rest from secular occupations, far more work of body and of mind would be accomplished, and be better done ; more health would be enjoyed, with more wealth and independence, and we should have far less of crime and poverty and suffering." Wilkie the painter said, "Those artists who wrought on Sunday were soon disqualified from working at all." A gentleman of large observation gave as the result of his inquiries, "We never knew a man work seven days a week who did not kill himself or kill his mind." , Addison, in his " Spectator" says, " If keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for polishing and civilizing mankind." Burke says, " They who always work can have no true judgment : they exhaust their attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark." 92 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. Coleridge says, '' I feel as if God by giving the Sabbath has given fifty-two springs in the year." Isaac Taylor says, " I am prepared to affirm to the studious especially, and whether younger or older, a Sabbath well spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional and domestic, — Sunday given to the soul, — is the best of all refreshments to the intellect." Gladstone, the greatest and most industrious of Eng- land's statesmen, in accounting for his robust health, said recently, "I never do and never have done a stroke of work on Sunday." Paley, referring to the analogy between the nightly and the Sabbath rest, says, ^' Two points are manifest : first, that the animal frame requires sleep ; secondly, that the night brings with it silence, and cessation of activity, which allows of sleep being taken without interruption and without loss. . . . But what the rest of sleep is to the body the Sabbath is to the soul." Wilberforce observed, " He never could have sus- tained the labor and stretch of mind required in his early political career if it had not been for the Sab- bath." Major-General Anderson, of large military experience, especially in the Crimean War, declared, " But for the Sabbath, he would have sunk under the incessant toil and care of the service." Dr. Farre says, *'I have found it essential to my well-being to abridge my labors on the Sabbath to what is actually necessary." No Sabbath-keeping people have long remained illiterate, or been dominated by foreign rule. In what modern nation have the humbler classes attained greater cleverness and sagacity, or HOME. 93 the higher ranks attained greater intellectual pene- tration and grasp, than the Scotch, from the time of Eustachius and Knox, keeping the Sabbath over heath and highland, rural district and populous city, with more scruple than any other nation of Europe? A people without the Sabbath rest are not only en- slaved by toil, but enfeebled by unrelieved cares and wasting anxieties. They lose the strength of repose, and fall into the rut of feeble or inconclusive thought. The brain is wearied by fruitless toil, and mental ac- tivity is abridged, and life prematurely ended. Fifty- two days in a year devoted to the most profound and practical questions of being must invigorate mind, clarify the understanding, enlarge the scope of imagi- nation, and transfigure life with intellectual splendor. III. Home. "The couch of time, care's balm and bay ; The week were dark but for thy light : Thy torch doth show the way." The family is the most available and beneficent provision for the solidarity of mankind. Its disci- pline is the highest training for obedience and loyalty to the State. Its amenities and fellowship anticipate and prepare for the pure and ennobling pleasures of society. The veneration for parental authority rises through natural gradation to the worship of the Universal Father. The Sabbath promotes the discipline of the family by providing a stated opportunity for its reunion and fellowship. Domestic happiness is the only bliss left by the Fall in undimmed brightness, assured peace, and triumphant joy. But the hurried pursuits, forced separations, and brief reunions of the week allow no adequate opportunity for endearing social inter- course. Often members of the household are absent all the six days of toil. Or they leave the paternal roof so early in the morning and return so late at evening as to be scarcely able to exchange affection- ate salutations. Through all the weary days of the HOME. 95 week they do not sit down together to a family meal, or pour out their hearts in reciprocal love and de- lightful converse. Domestic affections are starved by these unnatural obstructions. They wait with longing expectation for their Sab- bath jubilee. How joyous at the end of the week's separations, toils, and cares the fond embrace of par- ents, the endearing attentions of brothers and sisters, and the blessed freedom and peace of home ! The Sabbath further promotes the discipline of home by assuring opportunity for the primary and most important education of the race. Before the public school, the Sunday-school, or the Church, this provision for education is enjoyed. No class of teach- ers are so much interested in the improvement of their pupils, or so patient and painstaking in impart- ing instruction, as parents. And no waifs of the streets, no habitue's of factories, are so abandoned to ignorance and mental waste but a wary parental use of the Sabbath hours might not redeem them to thought and intelligence. Any teaching which would recover childhood to mental consciousness, and abil- ity to read and reflect, may be in the highest sense a "work of necessity and mercy." How many lessons of life and duty may be learned at the knee of the most illiterate mother on the most remote frontier, where no school is opened and no teacher is abroad ! The race can never be wholly illiterate while parents love their children and have the consecrated leisure of the Sabbath for instructing them. Those who have received the rudiments of education from the 96 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. schools by a faithful use of the Sabbath leisure in elevated reading will widen and perfect their culture, and may even rise to the rank of the learned. Moreover, the Sabbath exalts the home by securing to it the necessary opportunity for spiritual culture. Parents constitute the first and most important priest- hood. For years, and during the most impressible period of life, they are as gods to their children — the supreme oracle of wisdom, and the only source of au- thority. How convincing their teaching ! How per- suasive their example ! How majestic their authority ! The order to the Hebrews to train up their children in the ways of virtue and piety is the unrepealed order of Nature. Parents cannot delegate their duty to priests, Sunday-schools, or churches. And the greatest reli- gious forces still operate through family discipline ; and never till the home is exalted in moral and spiritual character can the world be Christianized. Perhaps nothing in literature is moie suggestive of the philosophy and promise of family religious dis- cipline than Burns' ''Cotter's Saturday Night:" " The evening supper done, wi' serious face They round the ingle form a circle wide ; The sire turns o'er with patriarchal grace The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride ; His bonnet reverently is laid aside, His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare ; Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide He wales a portion with judicious care ; And ' Let us worship God ! ' he says with solemn air. HOME. 97 "Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King, The saint, the father, and the husband prays : Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing, That thus they all shall meet in future days: There ever bask in uncreated rays, No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear ; While circling lime moves round in an eternal sphere." How inspiring the thought that in many a " cottage far apart" — " God may hear, well pleased, the language of the soul, And in His book of life their inmates poor enroll !" But there were no " Cotter's Saturday Night" but for the Sabbath rest. This picture of domestic piety is but a foregleam of the broader, brighter benediction of the Sabbath upon the homes of earth. They are transfigured by the radiance of the holy day. Parents rise to a higher sense of obligations. Children feel a profounder sense of duty and gratitude ; and through this primary social order mankind rise in culture character, and happiness. As reviews of armies foster military enthusiasm and promote military discipline, so the sacred pageant of the assembly in the house of prayer must inflame the ardor of social worship, and promote a higher spiritual discipline in the separate families of the land. As the drill of one division of an army pro- vokes emulation in all other divisions, so the ob- served discipline and order of one family excites a holy emulation in a score of homes. Or as school ex- 98 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. aminations elevate the standard and awaken the en- thusiasm of general culture, so families assembled in the same house of prayer, listening to the same holy commandments and promises, and joining in the same prayers and spiritual songs, promote in each other intenser religious conviction, and a more rigor- ous religious discipline. Families under religious discipline have attained higher social virtues and hap- piness than those hallowing no Sabbath and attend- ing no house of prayer. Compare the homes of the lowest class of Sabbatarians with those of the habit- ues of porter-house or play-house. Compare the homes of fashionable worldlings with those of cul- tured Puritans like Owen, Howe, Charnock, Bates, Baxter, Wilberforce, and Mackintosh. The content- ment, peace, and joy of pious Sabbath-keeping fami- lies are like the flowing of a deep river ; those of god- less neglecters of the day are like the noisy and swol- len torrent, soon running dry. Baron Augustine Cauchy, a member of the French Institute, says, "Whenever a nation fails to keep this commandment Christianity ceases to exist. There would then be an end to domestic life, to faniily ties; and civilization would soon be succeeded by barbar- ism." Edwards says, "A peculiar blessing may be expected upon those families where there is due care taken that the Sabbath be strictly observed." The Puritan Recorder presents an instructive contrast in the history of a Sabbatarian and an anti-Sabbatarian neighborhood in New Hampshire. The latter, located nearer church, wholly neglected it, and gave them- HOME. 99 selves up to festivities and amusements. In the course of years five of the six families were broken up by the separation of husband and wife, and the sixth by the father fleeing from justice. Eight or more of the parents became drunkards. One committed suicide, and nearly all eventually lacked bread. Of more than forty of the descendants, about twenty became jockeys, gamblers, or drunkards. Four or five spent years in prison, and one fell in a duel. Only one in the whole number is known to have made Christian profession ; and he obtained a competency, and en- joyed the confidence of his neighbors. The five fam- ilies of the other neigfiborhood, though living farther from church,' were always seen on Sunday, in wagons or on foot, on their way to the house of God. They all lived in peace and thrift. Their descendants have increased to two or three hundred. Eight tenths of their children joined the church. Only one has be- come intemperate, and only one committed any scan- dalous crime. No one has become a pauper ; and their homesteads are now in the hands of the third generation. They have founded a successful colony in a Western State, distinguished for industry, intelli- gence, and virtue. God " blesses the habitations of the just," while "pouring out His fury upon those that call not upon His name." A friend gives the story of ten families in a small town where he spent his school-days. Some of them were prominent in business, social life, and politics ; others of them were less known. But in none of them was God honored ; and a majority of their sons fill 100 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. untimely graves, and not one of those now living has attained honorable distinction. There were four bro- thers in the town, whose father was a rich merchant, and member of the legislature. The youngest a few years ago was found one morning dead at his mother's gate ; another committed suicide ; another from fast life died before he was forty years old ; and the last, still living, has a bad reputation. In contrast with this record of impiety were fifteen Sabbath-keeping families in the same community. With but few exceptions, their sons are now the mer- chants, manufacturers, lawyers, physicians, and legis- lators of the city ; four of them have become preach- of the Gospel ; and several of them have gained homes and honorable social and religious standing in other communities. IV. The State. ** With silent awe we hail the sacred morn, That scarcely wakes when all the fields are still ; A soothing calm on every breeze is borne, A graver murmur gurgles from the rill, And echo answers from the hill ; And softer sings the linnet from her thorn, The skylark warbles in a tone less shrill. Hail, light serene ! hail, sacred Sabbath morn !" Civil society is based on subjection to law. That sovereignty may be vested in patriarchate, tribal chief, order of nobility, political league, hereditary monarchy, or in elective magistracy. Whatever the form of institution, it is supreme in its sphere. It arrests the attention and compels the obedience of all. The return of the Sabbath with the prestige of a higher authority, overruling the freedom and custo- nrary pursuits of men, awakens the spirit of obedience, inspires reverence for constituted authority, and heralds through the earth a reign of law. A nomad arrested by no metes and bounds to his vagrant life never becomes a citizen. Enforcing a Sabbath re- duces life to system and summons all mankind to the discipline of states, empires, or republics. In the 102 PROMISE OF THE SABBATM. measure of Sabbath observance communities will be- come law-abiding. In proportion to the neglect or laxity of its observance social disorder, crime, and anarchy prevail. Obeying this august and most beneficent divine law, mankind will obey righteous human laws, and usher in a political millennium. But in addition to loyalty to just authority, the Sabbath inspires a sense of personal liberty which spurns unjust laws and projects freer institutions. The most scrupulous service of God emancipates from all bondage to men. Divine law limits human law, and arms man with courage to resist all political des- potism. He feels the state cannot violate his natural and inalienable rights. A Roman citizen feared no arrest of provincial governor or barbarian king. One rising to the dignity of his divinely crowned manhood maintains his freedom against tyrannical governments, frees himself, and champions the free- dom of others. The Sabbath summons a review of states and em- pires in the august presence of the Supreme Ruler. National and international laws are revised amid the moral radiance diffused by the holy day. The Bible, the world's Magna Charta, is expounded in the ears of the people, and its provisions insisted upon with more unanimity and emphasis. Sabbatarians have never been long oppressed. They have always and everywhere achieved liberty. Rights demanded every Sabbath in the name of the Supreme Ruler will at length be yielded. The Sabbath is a covenant of civil as well as of religious liberty. It is a jubilee of THE STATE. IO3 universal political and social emancipation. It is a sacred foundation for every true state. It is a primitive and universal democratic law. Adam Smith declares, "The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value independently of its claims to divine authority." Blackstone says, " The keeping one day in seven holy, as time of relaxation and refreshment, as well as for public worship, is of admirable service to a state, considered merely as a civil institution. It humanizes, by the help of conversation and society the manners of the lower classes, which would other- wise degenerate into a sordid ferocity and savage selfishness of spirit. It enables the industrious workman to pursue his occupation in the ensuing week with health and cheerfulness ; it imprints on the minds of the people that sense of their duty to God, so necessary to make them good citizens, but which yet would be worn out and effaced by an unre- mitted continuance of labor without any stated times of recalling them to the worship of their Maker." As attesting this conservative influence of the Sabbath — while Scotland, the greatest Sabbatarian country in the world, has required 1800 soldiers to keep the peace, Ireland for the same periods, substituting a holiday for the holy day, required 25,000 armed meia to maintain law and order. Montalembert, in a report to the French Parliament on Sabbath observance, reminds them that "while Paris without a Sabbath requires 50,000 men to pre- serve order, London, with its much larger population. 104 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. trusts its peace to three battalions of infantry and some troops of Guards, with the help of a strict Sab- bath observance." All Sabbatarian states have gained larger wealth, liberty, culture, and stability than nations abrogating the Sabbath or turning it into a holiday. New England has produced more wealth, culture, and heroic manhood from her sterile soil than any Sabbath-breaking land of equal extent, Laperle, the richest community in the old Dutch colony north of Cape of Good Hope, was settled by the Sabbath-keeping Huguenots. Our American civilization, with its school system, free press, popular liberty, and exemplary law and order, has risen upon the American Sabbath. Wherever, in the march of Christianity, the Sabbath is established, it becomes a standard of law and order, a charter of liberty, and a help to culture, as well as an impulse to virtue and an inspiration to religion. The Sabbath gave to Holland the Prince of Orange and her triumph of liberty ; to England, Cromwell and her political reforms ; and to America her schools, telegraphs, railroads, and heroic manhood. Spain, substituting a holiday for the holy Sabbath, fell from her rank among nations to a third-rate empire. De- voting her Sabbath to bull-fights and other recrea- tions, her royalty, nobility, and clergy alike have sunk to comparative effeminacy. The glory of her arms, culture, and chivalry has faded out with the light of the holy Sabbath. Her world-wide commerce has been abandoned, her empire dismembered, her colo- nies lost, or degraded to a mean vassalage. Every THE STATE. 10^ gentleman wears a sword to defend his person and the honor of his family ; a journey can hardly be taken through its richest provinces without the attendance of gens d'armes. While Protestant Germany, Scot- land, and America are leading social and civil progress. Papal Italy, Spain, and Portugal, though at the seat of ancient empire, have been obstructed, because with Papal supremacy they have accepted a holiday for God's Sabbath. The promise to the Hebrews continues a promise to all nations. Jeremiah xvii. 24-26, says, " And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no work therein ; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem : and this city shall remain forever." Just now has risen on Plymouth Rock the largest granite monument in the world, as a memorial of the faith and character of the founders of New England. On four minor pedestals on wing of the central structure rest four symbolic statues i on the north pedestal, Morality, holding in her left hand the tables of the ten commandments, and in her right the scroll of divine revelation ; on the south pedestal reposes a female figure in sitting posture, representing educa- tion ; on the east pedestal appears a symbolic statue of Law ; and on the west one of Freedom. But on I06 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. the central pedestal a colossal statue of Faith rises to a height of 8i feet. Citizens of the Gulf and Pacific as well as of the Atlantic States may from time to time visit this historical spot, and study this memorial of the sacred convictions and traditions on which this Republic was founded, and pledge their loyalty to them ; but few of the increasing millions of American citizens will ever visit this shrine of pa- triotic devotion, and be inspired by its commemora- tion of the character and heroic deeds of our fathers. But the Christian Sabbath on which they founded the State rises over the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, fraught with more sacred memorials of the freedom, rights, and dignity of man than all other monuments of liberty, civilization, or religion ever raised upon earth, and challenging the admira- tion and worship of men. The vandalism which would destroy the Sabbath v/ould be more malignant than that which burned the library of Alexandria, or rav- aged cities, temples, and art-galleries of Italy. The overthrow of the American Sabbath, with its sacred associations and traditions, would be more disastrous to the Republic and the cause of human progress than the overthrow of all our State capitols, public libraries, and civic monuments. V. Social Progress- " I love thee, when thy Sabbath dawns O'er woods and mountains, dales and lawns, And streams that sparkle while they run, As if their fountain were the sun ; When hand to hand thy tribes repair. Each to their chosen house of prayer ; And all in peace and freedom call On Him who is Lord of all." While conserving and adorning the family and the State, the Sabbath is no less effective in purifying the manners and elevating the tone of general society. Celebrating the Fatherhood of God and the univer- sal brotherliood of man, it inspires in every human bosom the ennobling sentiment, " Nothing human is foreign to me." As a cosmopolitan institution, it promotes international sympathies, counteracts sec- tional prejudices and social feuds, and conciliates peace and good-will to all mankind. Through the influence of its public worship it softens the heart of the rich toward the poor, wipes out the poor man's envy of the rich, and exalts an ensign of peace in every house of God and over every land. It rebukes violence and rudeness, and breathes a spirit of charity and courtesy over all. Under its tuition every Chris- I08 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. tian becomes a gentleman, and every church a circle of refinement and a school of manners. In 1848 a Christian mission was opened in New Hebrides, and in i860 the Sabbath was as strictly observed as in Scotland. An immediate impulse was given to social culture and higher education. A new civilization sprang up. The family was restored and honored, and infanticide and the horrors of savage warfare ceased. Mousehole, a fishing village in the South of England, is Sabbatarian, and enjoys twice the thrift, culture, and virtue that New Lyne does, with its Sab- baths devoted to amusements. In Polynesia, and in Jamaica, after the introduction of Christianit}^, the Sabbath became palpably the patron of all domestic and social virtues, and hastened general Christian civ- ilization. In Belgium the Sabbath is largely devoted to theatre gardens, and other resorts of the frivolous and vicious ; and the people are correspondingly ignorant and superstitious. After the publication of the Book of Sports in England the people fell into such scandalous dissipation and violence, that amend- ed statutes and more rigorous police were required to abate the growing evil. The magistrate pointed out *' the quarrels, bloodshed, and other great incon- veniences" rapidly spreading over the land, and call- ing for '' the holy keeping of the Sabbath, which is a principal part of the worship of God." Macaulay says, " If Sunday had not been observed as a day of rest, but the spade, the anvil, and the loom had been at work every day during the last three centuries, I have no doubt that we should have been at this moment a SOCIAL PROGllESS. lOQ poorer people than we are." An elaborate Sabbath report says, " Workmen are aware, and masters in many trades admit the fact, that were Sunday labor to cease, it would occasion no diminution of the weekly wages" — thus giving all the means with the leisure to adorn and enjoy their homes. Bagnell, an extensive iron-master in England, says, after stopping work on Sundays, "We have made a larger quantity of iron than ever, and gone on in all our six iron-works much more free from accidents and interruptions than during any preceding seven years of our lives." " It is not to be doubted," says Dean Prideaux, "but that if this method were once dropped among us, the generality of the people, whatever else might be done to obviate it, would in seven years relapse into as bad a state of barbarism as was ever in practice among the worst of our Saxon or Danish ancestors." J. S. Thomas, Superintendent of Police, in a report on the Sabbath, says, " Those who neglect a place of wor- ship generally become idle, neglectful of their person, filthy in their habits, careless as to their children, and equally careless in their pecuniary transactions." As showing it is the religious and not the holiday Sabbath that pledges so much good, the Popish can- tons of Switzerland have poorer, less cultured, and less effective citizens than the Protestant cantons, which more scrupulously keep the Sabbath. In Rome, where the people had lost the true use of the Sabbath, almost every third man, twenty years ago, was a pauper ; in Naples, in the same circumstances, 220,000 out of a population of 380,000 were without no PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. fixed employment, unable to read, and the dupes of superstition. In the degradation of the Sabbath to a holiday, and in subjection to a priestly power that has assumed the right to thus pervert and desecrate the holy day, Ireland has declined in population, vigor of manhood, wealth, and culture ; while her neighbor across the channel, in her doughty championship of the Sabbath, has retained her liberty, wealth, culture, and intellectual precedence. After abrogating the Sabbath, France was emboldened to dishonor the family, and permit irregular alliances of the sexes ; so that 20,000 divorces were decreed in Paris in one year. Count- less homeless infants were abandoned to the care of the state, and scarcely one in five survived the heartless exposure. In horror at the threatened extinction of the race as well as of virtue, the Sabbath and religion were restored. The discredit of the Sabbath in Pro- testant countries has been followed by commensurate demoralization, and increase of pauperism and vice. In great cities where the Sabbath rest is most inter- rupted, its sanctity most conspicuously profaned, and largest classes are denied the associations of public worship, humanity is most degraded, and the stability of society most threatened. Blackstone says, " A cor- ruption of morals, usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath." John Foster declares the Sabbath is " a remarkable appointment for raising the general tone of moral existence." It tones up spiritual health, as mountain air pliysical health. Through its hallowed reunions mankind maybe restored to the brotherhood lost in the Fall. Through its teachingof righteousness. SOCIAL PROGRESS. Ill and charity, they may cease to bear the sword of con- quest, to oppress the weak, to rob the widow and orphan, to despise the lowly, or to withhold sym- pathy from any son or daughter of Adam. Then war and violence shall cease under the whole heaven. One class shall complement another in tastes and pursuits, instead of antagonizing each other. As the habitation of man, the earth will be a heavenly city. There shall be nothing to hurt or harm in all God's holy mountain. The holy day will encourage no asceticism, sourness, gloom, or unhappiness, but meekness with firmness, dignity with labor, plea- sure with beneficence, and triumphant joy with loyalty to truth and duty. Michel Chevalier says, "Let us observe Sunday in the name of hygiene, if not in the name of religion." Dr. Paul Neimeyer declares there are " medical reasons which demonstrate the necessity of the Sunday rest in a manner as certain as other reasons demonstrate the necessity of disinfection in case of an epidemic, or vaccination in case of small-pox." Proudhon, the so- cial philosopher, though discarding religion, declares, *' Shorten the week by a single day, and the labor bears too small a proportion to the rest ; lengthen the week to the same extent, and labor becomes excessive. Establish every three days a half day of rest and you increase by a fraction the loss of time, while in sever- ing the natural unity of the day you break the numeri- cal harmony of things. Accord, on the other hand, forty-eight hours of rest, after twelve successive days of toil, you kill the man with inertia, after having 112 PROMISE OF THE SABLATH. exhausted him with fatigue." Not long before his death Laplace said, " I have lived long enough to know what at one time I did not believe — that no society can be upheld without the sentiment of religion." But religious sentiment never prevails without religious worship ; and religious worship can never be main- tained in any effective manner without an established time and order of worship. Turning a Sabbath into a holiday filled with pageants and dissipation may impoverish a people and vulgarize their spirit and manners ; while its rigorous observance for worship and higher education always increases industry, frugal- ity, thrift, culture, rational pleasures, and piety. All countries have been retarded in social progress by ab- rogation of a Sabbath or by turning it into a holiday. In all Christian countries those most deprived of the Sabbatli, as boatmen, cabmen, porters, newsboys, and other classes, have most conspicuously deteriorated in manners and character. There can be no morals without religion, and no religion without a Sabbath. VI. Moral Reform. \ "Sleep, sleep to day, tormenting cares, Of earth and folly born : Ye shall not dim the light that streams From this celestial morn." Virtue is discovered not by reason, but by intui- tion. It is enforced by religion, not by philosophy. " 'Tis religion that makes vows kept " — vows of per- sonal duty, family honor, political loyalty, or commer- cial integrity. Impiety promotes all vice ; true piety, all virtues. As the presence of parents awakens filial respect and obedience ; and a child returning from truant sports, and sitting at the family board or bow- ing at the family altar, deplores the disobedience, bad temper, or angry dispute of the day, and regains the peace, fellowship, and blessing of home — so, returning from the rivalries and contentions of the week, and appearing before God on the Sabbath, man is won to reverence and penitence toward God, and charity toward men. In the house of God, laying aside hatreds, envies, and jealousies, he learns to for- give, because the Heavenly Father commands it, and he feels need of forgiveness. Thus in ten thousand communities tlie Sabbath opens springs of moral sen- 8 114 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. sibilities and reforms. Those revering and loving the Universal Father will feel sympatliy and good-will for the universal brotherhood. The Empress Catharine bore in her bosom a picture of Peter the Great, and in every hour of per- plexity she would draw it fortli and inquire, "What would Peter say ?" So the child of God is reminded with each recurring Sabbath of his glorious Ancestor, and is lead to utter the cry, "What would the King- say?" He is summoned to review his life, orient his position, deplore his errors, and reform his plans. With the dawn of the holy day he lays aside rude speech, vulgar habits, and vindictive dispositions as soiled garments. On that day the pilgrim examines maps, reviews his journey, and makes sure his course. The voyager takes his reckoning from celestial paral- laxes and more surely turns the ship toward the des- tined port. The Sabbatli becomes a mount of obser- vation and earnest resolve. The thoughtless become thoughtful ; the untruthful, truthful ; the jealous and vindictive, charitable and forgiving ; the selfish learn to care for others. Those who will not serve God will not seek the welfare of fellow-men ; those who are false to God cannot be true to men. Those refusing the minimum of homage to Jehovah in Sab- bath observance do not so serve Him as to be saved by Him. At the date of the French Revolution England was stirred by the spectacle of the punishment of impiety in the Reign of Terror ; and the Mayor of London, writing to Lord Treasurer Burleigh, says, " It gives great occasion to acknowledge the hand of God MORAL REFORM. II5 for such abuse of His Sabbath-day, and moveth me in conscience to give order for redress of such contempt of God's service." At the close of the sixteenth cen- tury, a chronicler says, the masses of England, impa- tient of the rigor of the Puritan Sabbath, letting loose the reins, and giving out the bridle unto all kinds of vanities and licentiousness," turned the holy day into a holiday, Mount Zion into the devil's playground, widened the margin for selfishness and sin, set up the goddess of pleasure in the house of God, and made the Sabbath, instead of a bridge to the tempta- tions of the week, a hebdomadal descent into hell. As illustrating the conservative influence of the Sabbath, by a striking symbol Hogarth " represents the idle apprentice, whose course ends at the gallows, as gambling on a Sunday upon a tombstone, during divine service." An English judge recognizes the use of the Sabbath as determining the destiny of many : " There is no body of men so destitute of all moral culture as boatmen — who have no Sabbath, and are possessed of no means of religious instruc- tion." In his " Divine Origin and Obligation of the Sab- bath" Dr. Croly says, '' The divine origin of the Sabbath might almost be proved from its opposition to the lower propensities of mankind. In no age of the world since labor was known would any master of the serf, the slave, or the cattle have spontaneously given up a seventh part of their toil. No human legislator would have prepared such a law of prop- erty, or if he had, no nation would have indorsed it, Il6 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. The Sabbath in its whole character is so strongly opposed to the avarice, the heartlessness, and the irre- ligion of man, that, except in the days of Moses and Joshua, it has never probably been observed with due reverence by any nation of the world." Sabbath-keeping laborers will gain more conces- sions from capital by firmly demanding them in the name of the Universal Father than by the waste- fulness and violence of strikes. Their sobriety and religious decorum will conciliate the sympathy of church and state. Awaking to a consciousness of the rights and dignity of manhood, the laborer stands more erect, assumes a firmer step and braver aspect, and less constrained manners, and elevates his de- mands to the plane of his character and his rights. A Sabbath-union would be more effective over the country than any trades-union. The prestige of di- vine authority would support it. The Church would champion the claim. The Sabbath is the great re- formation day for the world. It is Heaven's day for the confession of the penitents of earth. It appeals to the bold transgressor and to the secret sinner alike to seek forgiveness and peace of God. The mere holi- day perverts the Sabbath into a curse. It confuses the conscience of the world by confounding amuse- ment with worship, wrests from man the still hour of prayer, and mocks him with provisions suited only to animals, and animalizes him if satisfied with them. The Sabbath is not only an impulse to all personal and class reformations, but also furnishes needed op- portunities and appliances for carrying on all reforms, MORAL REFORM. II7 Churches are the most effective of all reform societies. Their songs and prayers are persuasive appeals to all men to break off their evil habits and cultivate truth, righteousness, and charity. But secular organiza- tions find their only adequate opportunity for charity on the Sabbath, which is thus the field day of moral effort. The Sabbath is the minimum of time indis- pensable for the rest of man and the worship of God. "Moralists," says Bishop Dupanloup, "what will you find more efficacious as a civilizing and moral agen- cy ? I demand, is there not in all the powerful influ- ences penetrated by religion a check, a force, inspi- rations of honesty, of decency, and good morals, which nothing equals and which nothing will supply ? There is something in religious habits incompatible with intemperance and disorder. If you ruin the Sabbath, you will infallibly introduce the saloon. Of all the scourges which can strike the people, there is nothing greater. Three fifths of the diseases of the common people are due to the saloon. The lowering of wages or the pestilence is nothing compared with it." VII. Religion. *• Sabbath holy, To the lowly Still art thou a Avelcome day; When thou comest, Earth and ocean, Shade and brightness, Rest and motion, Help the poor man's heart to pray." a. By demanding supreme attention, the Sabbath inspires religious sentiment. A military order heard along the lines of an army summons every division, corps, regiment, company, and individual to a posture of obedience, and all wait in breathless suspense for the first word of command. So the Sabbath, with the precision and prestige of an order of nature, chal- lenges the attention of man to the voice and will of God. As cathedral bell calls worshippers from ham- let, village, and town; the Sabbath, as from mountain- tops gilded with its first beams, bids all classes and conditions of men pause in the hurried march of life, to study and celebrate the works, will, and glory of the Creator. This fixed attention is the first con- dition of religious as it is of mental or military discipline. With attention may arise a devout senti- RELIGION. 1 19 ment, without which no instruction or appeal of reli- gion is effectual. God's call to men is articulated and emphasized through every returning holy day. If they hear that voice they may enter into the experiences, dis- cipline, and promise of religion. If they refuse the homage of attention, they foreswear all piety. An act of reverence so important to the very inception of worship could not have been left contingent upon uncertain appointments or variable traditions of men, but must have been made clear, certain, and uniform as an order of nature, the succession of day and night. After six days of toil in field, mine, counting-house, or office, the Sabbath rings the great bell of the uni-' verse, and bids continents and islands, high and low, rich and poor, rest and worship God together. b. The Sabbath, by maintaining its inviolability, con- firms religious sentiment. Its light consecrates every hour and place it shines upon. The whole day be- comes holy time, and may open Bethels anywhere under the canopy of heaven — in busy town, rural set- tlement, lone desert, secluded vale, mountain cave, or remote field. By this universal consecration the Sab- bath provides for and encourages though it cannot compel worship, as the darkness and stillness of night may provide for but cannot assure sleep. One of the best endowed and disciplined female colleges in this country sets apart fifteen minutes before the studies of the day begin, for private meditation and prayer. It does not coerce, but encourages this auspicious beginning of each day's tasks. Sabbath decorum is compulsory only as this school order, and is enjoined 120 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. for the same reason as the decorum of the scliool, the army, the court, and the congress is enforced. As a ship rests only when the waters bearing it on their bosom are still, so man cannot enter into appreciation and praise of Jehovah and His works while the world is bustling around him. As well expect proficiency in military discipline where inattention, conversation, or boisterous mirth are allowed along the ranks; or pro- ficiency in public education while whispering, laugh- ing, whistling, playing cards or marbles, or angry disputes are tolerated in the schoolroom — as the so- lemnity, exaltation, and holy aspiration of religious worship in communities where the noise of business or the hilarity of amusement prevails. In the secu- larized Sabbath the voice of God is not heard above the tumult of angry passions, the shouts of bacchanal songs, or the din of industries. Without the repose\ and stillness of the Sabbath man enters not into peace- ful communion with heaven, or the most charitable fellowship with earth. The sanctity of the Sabbath is the minimum postulate of true religion. It is a i provision for all faiths and higher education alike. This conceded, religious worship and discipline may be universally established. This denied, atheism is proclaimed, and all impiety licensed. It is a catholic provision for a universal necessity. With the Sab- bath man may be won to worship God ; without it he is remitted to impiety and materialism. Religion must be celebrated to be conserved, but without a holy day it is not celebrated, and at length the closet is forsaken, the family altar neglected, and the house RELIGION. 121 of God closed. The sanctity of the day guarded, stimulates thoughtful inquiry, awakens circumspec- tion, and inspires sacred sentiments and blessed hopes. The day is transfigured with the Creator's name and praise. At man's entrance into the temple of the universe tliis day is erected as a monument of the power, beneficence, and glory of its infinite Architect. By its silent majesty it rebukes all who would deny or obscure His glory. The observance of the Sab- bath is an act of homage available to every human being, in any land or age. Men cannot always make pilgrimages, or observe costly ceremonials, but they can all remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy in their homes, and before their neighbors. Sabbath keepers are great champions for religion. They are perpetually bearing testimony to the being, attributes, and glory of God. No other ordinance or ceremonial so effectually conserves or propagates religion as the hallowed Sabbath. Wheedled out of its privileges, the poor are deprived of all means of spiritual culture, and then out of any assured rest from labor, and are worked seven days for the wages of six. c. By associating its observance with the sanction of the Creator's example, the Sabbath transfigures religious sentiment. The order o f holy times is based on the number and proportion seven, mysteriously wroughc into the constitution of man and nature. Making this order, marked by the revolution of heavenly bodies, a monitor to the duties of religion, God establishes the unity of His covenant with the course of nature, and hallows the Sabbath by associat- 122 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. ing it with the order of creation, and His own conse- crating blessing and example. The creative energy of the Almighty is no more majestic than His repose. As artificer or artist invites appreciation of his works, the divine Artificer summons man, made in His like- ness and sharing His capabilities of freedom and thought, to review and rejoice in His works: " For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: where- fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." Entering into fellowship with the Creator is the primary purpose and chief glory of the Sabbath. It is made Jehovah's reception-day — His time of audi- ence with the inhabitants of earth. This direct and recurring summons to communion and companionship with Heaven is the most impressive call to prayer. In the Sabbath stillness, hearing the Father's voice, even the prodigal, with returning filial devotion, exclaims, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?" "As the eyes of a servant to his master, or a maiden to her mistress; so our e)'^es wait upon Thee" in the summons of the holy Sabbath. d. By its assemblies and ceremonial observance the Sabbath promotes religion. Every school of philosophy, party of politics, or system of religion builds itself up by some mode of association or cele- bration. The teacher prescribes some routine of studies, recitations, and examinations to assure im- provement of his pupils ; military discipline is as- sured by drills, reviews, and experience on the battle- field ; so religious culture is attained only by religious RELIGION. 123 training, companionship, and observance. The Sab- bath provides for holy assemblies, celebrations, and thanksgivings. Without these provisions religion would decline as education without the discipline of schools, or military s!dll without military training. With a proper use of the Sabbath, no soul need re- main ignorant of God, of Christ, or the way of sal- vation. With the holy day and the freedom of the Scriptures, believers may institute their own church, ordain their own preachers, and find the way to heaven without the mediation of priest or prelate. Cathedral pomp, sacred tribunals, sink into insignifi- cance as a means of instruction and salvation com- pared with the hallowed ministries of the Sabbath. But while its sacred uses are so effectual in maintain- ing religion, its various desecration closes the house of God, seals up the Bible, and overthrows the altars of religion. Men had better spend their Sabbaths in field, shop, or counting-house, than in theatre, saloon, race-course, or other dissipating amusements. Where sporting supersedes the proper discipline of the Sab- bath, neither body, mind, nor heart seem recuperated. Locke says, " Men therefore cannot be excused from . understanding the words and framing the general notions relating to religion right. The one day in seven, besides other days of rest, allows in the Chris- tian world time enough for this (had they no other idle hours), if they would make use of these vacancies from their daily labor, and apply themselves to an improve- ment of knowledge with as much diligence as they often do to a great many other things that are useless." 124 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. Says Archbishop Leighton, " The very life of reli- gion doth much depend upon the solemn observation of this day. Consider but if we should intermit the keeping of the Sabbath for one year, to what height profaneness would rise in those who fear not God ; who are yet restrained (though not converted) by the preaching of the Word, and the outward partaking of public worship ; yea, those that are most spiritual would find themselves losers by the intermission." Lord Bacon confesses in respect to the value of con- secrated time, " I "have loved the assemblies, I have de- lighted in the brightness of Thy sanctuary. . . . Thy creatures have been my books, but Thy Scriptures much more. I have sought Thee in the courts, fields, and gardens ; but I have found Thee in Thy temple !" e. By awakening the jubilance of gratitude the Sabbath promotes religious worship. The very idea of emancipation in the cessation of labor inspires joy. All thoughts, activities, industries, possessions, and hopes are offered as worship. Mere prolonged sleep- ing, feasting, or amusement would fatigue the body, obscure the mind, and corrupt the heart. In such mere animal indulgences man fraternizes with the brutes. An elevation of the mental faculties to a higher sphere is rest and recuperation. An exhilara- tion of the mental faculties and purification of the afTections of the heart arises from thanksgiving and praise to the Creator. ** The world is full of care ; The haggard brow is wrought In furrows, as of fixed despair ; And checked the heavenward thought. RELIGION. 125 " But with indignant grace The Sabbath's chastening tone Drives money-changers from the place Which God doth call His own. "The world is full of grief ; Sorrows o'er sorrows roll ; And the fair hope that brings relief Doth sometimes pierce the soul. "The Sabbath's peaceful sound Bears mercy's holy seal, A balm of Gilead for the wound That man is weak to heal." "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men !" '' Oh, come, let us bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker !" Bowed beneath the burdens, distracted by the cares, consumed by the envies and jealousies, or clouded by the sorrows of the week, humanity cannot raise a chorus of praise to Jehovah. But the sweet peace of the Sabbath raises a song of thanksgiving from ten thousand homes and thou- sands of houses of prayer, fills the earth with glad- ness, and attunes the heart of mankind to praise. As the Hebrews rose above the adoration of the dis- tant village synagogue, in the union of the tribes, in the great festivals of the Temple at Jerusalem ; so in the universal and grander jubilations of Sabbath worship mankind rise above the lower and more local strains of week-day homage. The Sabbath 126 PROMISE OF THE SABBATH. awakening that gratitude which is the prelude to any harmony of God's praise, attunes a people for wor- ship, as the instruments of an orchestra are attuned for the oratorio of ''Creation" or "Messiah." As the Hebrews in the feast of Tabernacles joyfully re- viewed the blessings of the year, so all the refreshed laborers of earth should contemplate and celebrate the providence and glory of God every Sabbath-day. The prone toiler may rise from his burden in grate- ful worship. If labor may become worship, much more may triumph over its achievements be worship. Removal of the galling yoke of toil may inspire a more triumphant praise. 6. In celebrating the resurrection of the dead, the Christian Sabbath has become a perpetual inspiration to religion. Apart from immortality, religion opens but a narrow scope for ennobling motive or inspiring promise. No prayer has its worthy amen, or song its proper refrain, which does not contemplate the life to come. In the exaltation of religious worship the soul basks in the sunlight of heaven. In celebrating the resurrection of the dead, the Sab- bath rises over buried generations, as Trajan's column over the golden urn which contained his ashes, cele- brating to Rome the perpetuity of the name of their great emperor. It sheds a halo of glory over the graves of all the pious dead. It were enough if the silence of the Sabbath were enforced for the weekly reading over the graves of our ancestors, *' I am the resurrection and tlie life. " Celebrating the resur- rection of Christ, and the promise of the resurrec- RELIGION. 127 tion of the righteous in Him, the Sabbath will re- main a perpetual incentive and inspiration to reli- gion. In its varied influence arresting attention, enforcing consecration, associating divine example, providing for holy assemblies, and the celebration of gratitude and of the resurrection from the dead, the Sabbath is a greater religious force than all the reli- gious priesthoods, temples, and other ordinances of the world combined. In sacred procession from the morning of creation Sabbaths have dawned in moral splendor, singing over earth and above the heavens, in ceaseless refrain, the beauty and beneficence of nature, the greatness and duty of man, and the tran- scendent majesty and glory of Jehovah. They have stimulated thouglit, prompted worship, dispelled the gloom of atheism, and transfigured earth into a tem- ple of God. Blot out the Sabbath, and the great structure of Christian civilization would fall, as the temple of the Philistines before the blind fury of Samson. PART III. DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Objections. ** Thy temple is the arch Of yon unmeasured sky; Thy Sabbath, the stupendous march Of vast eternity," a. It is objected that the, local and temporary cir- cumstances attending the origin of the Sabbath deny- to it the characterand prestige of a statutory law. But did not tlie divine order of the family arise from a local emergency, and a personal history ? Did not the summary of divine revelations, now accepted as a canon of sacred writings, rise from vni-ious local and personal messages to the Jews, generation after gene- ration ? Were not pastorate, diaconate, ordinances, of- fices, and discipline of the Church, now accepted as statutory law, enjoined originally upon single com- munities, and to meet immediate personal and local necessities ? The holy baptism and the blessed com- munion, celebrating personal loyalty and love of the OBJECTIONS. 129 first disciples to Christ, have been transmitted through the Apostles as the fundamental institutions of Chris- tianity. Denying institutional character to the Sab- bath on account of supposed lack of specific formal appointment, we may also for the same reason deny such character to the family and to all divine ordi- nances. But conceding the wisdom and beneficence of the Sabbath, why doubt divine forecast in its appoint- ment ? Do not divine blessing and example impart sufficient sanction to a divine institution? Is not the precise order of nature, in the invariable revolution of the earth on its axis, and the perpetual succession of day and night, a sufficiently autlioritative and majestic monitor to enforce a divine ordinance? b. It is objected that the Sabbatli was a Mosaic law, and expired with Judaism. Those seeking to honor the Lord's Day by annulling the primitive Sabbath deny adequate basis for ajiy holy day. Apostolic exam- ple is sufficient to substitute one day for another only on the condition that the essential Sabbath consists in the observance oione day in seven, instead of the seventh day in orderly succession from the creation, and that the Sabbath of Christendom is another rendering of the law of Eden and Sinai. As the Sabbath existed before Moses, and continued after him, Christ only reaffirmed the Sabbath as made for man universally to the end of time. It is no more a Jewish law than the * right of property, obedience to parents, or homage to God. Reaffirrned~~5y~1Moses, and translated into the '• first day in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, the original Sabbath is perpetuated and glori- 9 fi 130 DEP^ENCE OF THE SABBATH. • fied in the Lord's Day. It is the right of government in- herent in the constitution of man that gives sanction to different forms of civil society: " The powers that be are ordained of God." No Sabbath can be enforced, not basing its claims on the same constitutional necessities of man ; and the same primitive and divine ordinance. In hallowing the first day of the week the Church of Christ are the true Sabbatarians c. It is objected that the Sabbath, was made dis- tinctly a sign of God's covenant with Israel, and there- fore could not have existed before they were a nation Though arising under natural law and variously min- istering to the beauty and beneficence of nature before, the rainbow was made a sign of God's covenant with man. So the existing Sabbath was made the seal of a covenant between Jehovah and his people in all ages, The Sabbath remams a test of piety and the measure of its rewards. A ring made for another purpose, and worn upon another hand, is made a symbol and pledge of a new affection. It is only moved from the finger of one loved one to that of another to invest it with a new significance. So the Sabbath, though existing from the beginning, became a sign of God's covenant with His Church under both dispensations. /d.Jlt is objected that the patriarchs did not keep the Sabbath. If they disregarded it, their precedent would no more set aside its authority than that of tlie family. If violation of a law is sufficient reason for its repeal, the abrogation of all laws civil and divine might be justified. The prosperity of any nation OBJECTIONS. -131 transgressing physical, intellectual, or moral laws would furnish no precedent for the disregard of those laws. But there is no more proof that the patriarchs de-secrated the Sabbath than that they violated other precepts of the Decalogue. It is no more probable that the Sabbath disappeared in patriarchal and other ages where not conspicuously observed, than that the family lapsed in all lands and ages where not clearly traced in historic annals. Silence cannot an- nul divine ordinances. Royal precedents could not overthrow them. The Sabbath will recur in its majestic order so long as^he earth turns on its axis and man inhabits it. /^ It is objected that Christianity makes every day a Sabbath, and therefore he who exalts one day de- grades the rest. But it is found by experience that those claiming to hallow all days soon cease to hallow any. Claiming to worship at all times, they worship at 710 time. They who pray, must have a day for prayer. A region in this world where all days are hallowed, is an Utopia. A region where none is hal- lowed, fast degenerates to a Pandemonium. Washing- ton Irving exposes the dangerous fallacy of those proposing to hallow all days, instead of a Sabbath : " Shrewd men, indeed, these new reformers are ! — Each week-day is a Sabbath, they declare. A Christian theory ! — the unchristian fact is, Each Sabbath is a week-day in the practice." /. It is urged that by apostolic authority Sabbath observance is left discretionary with the disciples. 132 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. But traditional festivals, new moons, and ceremonial Sabbaths, and not the primitive unrepealed and irre- pealable Sabbath law, were under consideration in epistles to the churches: " Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or m respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days." The apostle was seeking to emancipate the churches from the bondage of ritualism. But freedom from Jewish traditions does not relax the rigor of primitive divine law. After the abolition of the ritualistic Sabbath, the Sabbath of Eden remains to the end of time. The seventh-day rest can no more be abrogated than the six days' labor. The primitive churches doubtless were left free to choose between the days or observe both. But there is no intimation of any right to abrogate the law of the Sabbath. There was liberty as to how or when to observe it, but not as to the fact of observing it. g. It is claimed by some that the appointment of church or state is the only authority for the Sabbath. All apologists for loose Sabbaths, to accommodate loose rulers or loose times, have abetted this profane assumption of antichrist Keeping the Sabbath only on the ground of church or state authority surren- ders it to the irreligion or caprice of any age. As well submit the family and all the laws of the Decalogue to the discretion and revision of each succeeding age as the Sabbath. To be retained in its sacred charac- ter and discipline, the Sabbath must be cherished as a primitive divine law. The most sacred charter of human rights is wrested from mankind under pre- OBJECTION?;. T33 tence of defending and guarding its administration. The usurped trust has been duly honored by no pre- late or king, and flagrantly compromised by both ec- clesiastical and civil authorities. The Sabbath must be restored to its original sovereignty above church and above state. As an original ordinance of religion it will become a basis of the reunion and discipline of all believers in God and a future life. h. It is objected that Luther especially surrendered the rigor of the Sabbath. Whatever he yielded he conceded to tradition, law of the state, and customs of society. He wished to make as few issues as pos- sible with Papacy. His warfare against ritualism made him attack it even in the holy Sabbath. In his fiery eloquence he seemed to betray that divine insti- tution. As a law of nature the Sabbath might be observed, but not as a requirement of Papacy. In his "Table-talk" he says, " If at the outset I inveighed against the law both from the pulpit and in my writ- ings, the reason was that the Christian Church at that time was overladen with superstitions, under which Christ was altogether buried and hidden, an 1 that I yearned to save and liberate pious and God-fearing souls from this tyranny over conscience." " But I have never rejected the law." " He who pulls down the law pulls down at the same time the whole framev/ork of human polity and society. If the law be thrust out of the Church there will no longer be anything recog- nized as sin in the world, since the Gospel defines and punishes sin only by receiving the law." Again, "Let us leave Moses to the laws excepting only the moralia, 134 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. which God hath planted in nature, as the Ten Com- mandments." A similar apologetic explanation Lu- ther might have given in respect to his apparent dis- credit of the Sabbath. His commentary on Genesis, written not long before his death, acknowledges the primitive divine appointment of the Sabbath, and his hymns, in their exaltation of the Sabbath, are worthy of a Puritan authorship. In 1524 he wrote : " Hallow the day which God hath blest, That thou and all thy house may rest; Keep hand and heart from labor free, That God may have His work in thee." In 1525, again: " Honor My name in word and deed. And call on Me in time of need; Keep holy too the Sabbath-day, That- work in thee I also may." /. It is urged that though the Sabbath may have been necessary in less cultured lands and ages it is now superseded by the progress of civilization. Bi.t rest of body, mind, and heart were in no age or coun- try more necessary than in this country and in this age. Amid the quiet of shepherd or rural life continuance of moderate activity might not have immediately proved fatal to soundness of body or of mind. But tlie faster life of our modern civilization makes the necessity of Sabbath rest more obvious and impera- tive. The more various and exacting the toil, tlie more certain and inviolable should be the rest. OBJECTIONS. 135 Never has tired humanity more needed to have the galling yoke of the world removed statedly and fre- quently from its chafed neck. But the provision for higher education is as imperatively needed as for rest ; and the repose of night after the labor of the day, or the discipline of the school after hours of play, no more require to be rigorously guarded than these beneficent provisions of the Sabbath. Unap- pointed, unenforced discipline will neither provide for the education of man nor the worship of God. / It is urged that making one day more sacred than another is superstitious. If this be so, cherishing paper or parchment on account of importance of rec- ords preserved upon it is a low sentiment. The autograph of poet, philosopher, or statesman should be cast aside as the written name of any of the mil- lions of earth. Instruments conveying crowns, prov- inces, or royal estates should be no more regarded than a scrap from a merchant's order-book, or any casual mem>orandum. All research into family or national histor}^ all original documents, deeds, or charters cherished as the richest legacies of learning, should be discarded as worthless rubbish, and betray- ing a superficial and superstitious sentimentality. But men do gather and cherish as legacies of learning these pieces of parchment on account of the records, inscriptions, and memorials they bear. They would not be exchanged for countless rolls of untraced parchment or myriad reams of unwritten paper. Soiled and fragmentary as might appear a man- uscript of the Declaration of Independence or of 136 DEFENCE OF THE SABBAtH. Magna Charta, it would be cherished in the archives of states as an invaluable treasure, a sacred legacy. The sacred annals of the race, of Redemption, and of prophecy, all inscribed on the Sabbath-day alone, give it a value above all the records of all the days of the week. Thus consecrated by all the deepest experiences and aspirations of the race, as well as by the appointment of Heaven, is it mere sentiment to hallow the day above all other days ? Then let us erase from our calendars birthdays of illustrious men, the anniversary of great discoveries, the found- ing of cities or of empires. Let the place where a treaty of peace was signed, a decisive battle was fought, the sight of Nineveh or Babylon, the Parthe- non at Athens, or Caesar's palace at Rome, or the Temple at Jerusalem, be no longer objects of interest. The Sabbath localizes the operation of spiritual forces, the contemplation of spiritual problems, the inspiration of spiritual hopes, and the determination of spiritual destinies, grander than the achievements and associations and promise of all other days. The Sabbath confirms greater rights of men, greater interests of states, greater destinies of his- tory, than all the political charters ever framed by man. A sense of what the Sabbath celebrates for man, bequeaths to men, guards for men, should awaken for the day a reverence rising to worship. So long as anything is venerated on earth, those not destitute of sentiment as well as piety will hallow the Sabbath according to divine command. It will never be surrendered till atheism broods over the earth. OBJECTIONS. 137 quenching the liglit of spiritual being as well as im- mort^ity. A man having no reverence for the Sab- bath is as destitute of sentiment as of piety. The august event of the resurrection of Christ alone should invest the day with the symbolism of tlie supreme interests, experiences, and hopes of man- kind. k. It is complained that the Sabbath is too rigorous. It cannot be shown that any rigor of Sabbatarianism could have been superseded by a milder regime with advantage to any people or any age. Its rule was always more beneficent than that of philosophy or aestheticism, materialism, or of any faith at the time possible. There is no evidence it could have been maintained at all in any land or age or among any people by relaxing the rigor of its ceremonial. When peoples are found using the Sabbatli for rest of fac- ulties, worship, and high culture without any Sabbath conventionalism, it may be time to inveigh against Sabbath superstition. There can be no other way of restoring and confirming that institution but increas- ing appreciation and reverence for it. The liberal theologians, under pretence of seeking a philosophical foundation for tiie day, destroy its sanction, and relax 'its hold on the public conscience. What danger that this materialistic age may think too much of the sanc- tity and promise of the Sabbath — that they will give too much time to higher culture and heavenly medi- tations ? The orthodox reverence for the Sabbath, experience has shown, is no greater than is necessary to preserve its holy uses. No moral law has been I3S DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. adequately defended by expediency. Basing tlie Sabbath on expediency instead of divine autliority would be like trusting the purity of the family to the discretion of any sensual age. If, then, the Sabbath is "blessed," let us not be afraid of claiming divine blessing and sanction on its observance. If supreme- ly good, let Divine Providence have the credit of foreseeing and ordaining it. As Israel relapsed into idolatry when Moses with- drew from them into the mount, so men will lose their reverence for the Sabbath when it is no longer a divine ordinance. The Sabbath according to Moses, or according to Christ, may continue to be hallowed ; but a Sabbath according to social science, or the ascertained laws of hygiene, or social progress, will inspire no reverence and assure no general ob- servance. /. It is urged that any Sabbath law interferes with natural liberty. But if that law is imbedded in the physical, mental, and moral constitution of man, he has no natural right to labor all the seven days of the week. In conveying to him a charter of natural rights, the Creator explicitly denies him such liberty. He cannot assert it against the will of the Creator. The State would annul or interpolate divine law by bestowing it. Appropriating seven days each week to labor, therefore, impairs natural liberty, by ob- structing individual and social well-being, and con- travening the beneficent purpose of the Creator. The darkness of night, the severity of winter, the law of gravitation, the order of the family and of civil OBJECTIONS. 139 government, as much interfere with natural liberty as the Sabbath. Indeed, all the conditions of finite being might as well be complained of as obstructing freedom, as the law that assures the rest without which the fullest development and happiest destiny of man cannot be reached. The Sabbath is available to none unless consented to by all. Desecrating it by one tends to rob all of their rights of rest and worship. As all the pupils of a school must observe decorum to secure to any the highest discipline and advantages of the school, so an entire community must hallo^v the Sabbath to assure its richest blessings to any. It is not, as assumed, a question of imposing our religion on others, but of others imposing their irre- ligion upon us. It is odious selfishness to obscure the divine light of the Sabbath, as it would be to veil out the sun's radiance from the walks and homes of earth, or stop the flow of fountains v/hich slake the thirst of a famishing world. Montalembert says, "The liberty of believing what you please, or of not believing at all, calls for a certain abstention toward the liberty of those who so believe ; or else negation would carry the day against affirmation, minorities would destroy majorities and the liberty of denial claimed by the modern spirit under the name of tol- erance would end in the oppression of all consciences and the destruction of all worship." m. It is urged that if the beneficence of the Sab- bath is unquestionable, there need be no coercive laws to secure its observance. Why then, if civil govern- t40 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. mentis beneficent, have police and penalties to enforce its laws ? If school discipline is beneficent, why have compulsory laws of education or compulsory disci- pline of schools ? Ancient Egypt with its decade rest and France with the same rest guarded its inviola- bility. France closed shops and stores, industries, and governmental affairs as strictly under that re- gime as she has under the restoration of the more frequent Sabbath rest. The legal defence of the Sabbath is therefore justified by analogies of legisla- tion, by the precedent of observance of other days, and by sacred traditions of the Jewish and the Chris- tian world. n. It is objected that as Sabbath observance can- not be enforced beyond the culture and choice of the people, therefore no Sabbath laws should be made. That is a dangerous fallacy, that no statute should be framed till demanded by public opinion, however depraved ; and that all laws and constitutions may properly be reopened before mass-meetings of citi- zens, however ignorant or violent, and repealed or reaffirmed by a mere counting of votes. The moral law was binding before its principles were recognized by states, and it cannot be abrogated by them. Moses did not wait till the Hebrews had enjoyed various experience, and opportunity for deliberation of popular conventions, and a formal declaration of the code they were willing to observe before reaffirm- ing the family and Sabbath laws. Nor have democ- racies or republics any discretion in regard to these primitive institutions. As Mohammedanism and Mor- OBJECTIONS. 141 monism enact treason against nature and God in set- ting aside the family order, so do men in the abro- gation or perversion of the Sabbath. Man's right to the Sabbath is as inviolable as the right to his prop- erty, his family, or his own person. Decree of mon- arch or political convention can no more free man from the operation of Sabbath law than from the law of the family, the order of the seasons, the limita- tions of day and night, or the restraints of gravita- tion. o. It is complained that Sabbath penalties are barbarous. The wisest and most beneficent laws sometimes seem oppressive to persons or classes. Unauthorized interpretations of Sabbath laws may in certain cases have added needless severity to its operation. Besides, a plea for those shut up in dingy factories and uncomfortable homes all the week — that they may enjoy on the Sabbath the light and sweetness of nature, the freedom and gladness of field and forest and seashore, seems plausible and charitable. Such recreations for those imprisoned by cares and toils through the six days seem the most needed solace to them, and the most available inspi ration of grateful homage to the Creator. But may we jeopard the higher by our method of pursuing the lower ends of the Sabbath ? Or may we sacrifice the higher culture of the many for the sake of the immediate animal comfort of the few ? Must the spiritual nature of man be sunk to furnish the delec- tation of his animal instincts ? Have we thoroughly tried and exhausted all other means before resorting 142 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. to the profanation of the Sabbath and subsidizing the soul for the relief of the body ? Why should not the body be cared for, without trenching on the rights or dignity of the soul ? Man is entitled to both provisions inviolate. Is not a sop given to his appetites to silence the clamor of his soul or to appease its immortal craving? Is it not a covert attack upon the dignity of spiritual manhood ? Is not the secularization of the Sabbath an embodi- ment of the atheistic inquiry, " Who is the Almighty that I should fear Him ?" " We will not have this man reign over us." This humanitarian plea for the secularization of the Sabbath is but a covert expres- sion of selfish humanity's impatience of divine law, and directly impeaches the philanthropy and practi- cal charity of Moses, and even of Christ. Who then are the men, what their antecedents, what their achievements in philanthropy, that they should pre- sume thus to arraign Moses, who freed a race, found- ed the most democratic code ever before known, and contributed the best elements to the govern- ments and civilization of modern times ; or to chal- lenge Jesus of Nazareth, the greatest friend of the poor who ever appeared on earth ; who left rank and power to consort with them, lighten their burdens, sympathize with their sorrows, brighten their hopes ; who lifted up His voice over earth in the tenderest compassion, " Blessed are ye poor ;" whose faith is the most practical scheme of philanthropy ever pro- posed to men, exalting them to the highest realm of personal, social, and spiritual well-being. Anti-Sab- OBJECTIONS. 143 batarians sink mind and morals in seeking tne rest of ex or ass, or the gladness of singing bird or skip- ping lamb. The Book of Sports, offered as a bene- diction to the laboring classes, taught them to dance around Maypoles on Sunday. But they were easily wheedled out of their liberties by their Sabbath-hat- ing tyrants. Cromwell and his derided Sabbatarian followers lifted up the laboring classes, introduced the principles of liberty into the British constitution, and bequeathed freedom to English-speaking people, and to Europe. Moses, Christ, and the Christian Church, with all their rigor of moral discipline, are better humanitarians and surer defenders of the rights of the poor than atheists, sentimentalists, or any Anti-Sabbatarian Christians. Providing more directly for the higher elements of manhood, the lower are better assured. If the higher regime of the Sabbath were discarded, all the humanities of life would suffer by the change. The excesses and vices inevitably following the close of the house of God would prevent the hygienic and social benefits of the Sabbath, and sink the masses lower and lower in discontent and brutality. Often the Sunday excur- sionist, after ill-timed hilarity, boisterous gayety, in- temperance, and violence, return with jaded looks, bad habits confirmed, money wasted, garments soiled, quarrels, and feuds embittered. Many of them are worse off in purse, body, and mind than if they had been denied any respite from toil. On the other hand, look at those returning home from Sunday- school or church. Their faces are more cheerful, 144 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. their garments clean, their countenances beaming with greater intelligence, and lighted up with a serener peace and a loftier purpose. The Sabbath- keeping and churchgoing poor rise in every form of virtue and well-being, happiness and hope, above the Sabbath-breaking and church-neglecting poor. The change from shop or comfortless home to the cheer- ful Sabbath assembly or Sunday-school is a great and ennobling recreation, without any moral exposure or loss. Other forms of recreation can be obtained by abridging hours of work or gaining Saturday after- noon for amusement. So long as the poor accept the Sabbath as a holiday, they can gain no other. But retaining that for its true uses, they can gain also needed secular rest. Surrendering this, the poor work seven days for the wages of six, and prove themselves unworthy of their higher rights. Uniting with the Church against infidelity and selfish mo- nopoly, they will retain their Sabbath as a day of inviolable and sacred liberty. No man becomes a slave while he enjoys its immunities inviolate ; but surrendering this to the behest of the world, he must f all b efore monopoly. ( p.yit is urged that we owe to our foreign-born citi- *"^ens the courtesy of a free Sabbath. What limits should be assigned to such courtesy ? If limited to unimportant questions of taste or social observance, any concession would be harmless. But if extended to sacred convictions and customs, existing before con- stitutions, and formulating them, it would be suicidal to the state. The Germans filling our country have OBJECTIONS. 145 no more right to demand the substitution of their sec- ularized Sabbath for our holy day than the adoption of their tongue as the state language of the Republic. Germans have no more right to displace our American Sabbath by holiday observance than the Mormons have to substitute the harem for the family. If we would spurn the liberty which by the force of ma- jorities in Utah or other parts of the country would overthrow the original domestic constitution, we should in like manner the liberty which claims the right to annul the Sabbath instituted in Eden, en- forced by Moses, reaffirmed by Christ, and made the foundation of our American civilization. q. It is urged that the observance of different days in different lands and ages discredits special divine authority for the seve7ith day or any other portion of time. If a sixth, tenth, or twelfth day were observed by any people, it may be doubtful how far a scrupu- lous observance of that proportion of time might answer the requirement of the original law. Period- ical interruption of the domination of the world may be the essence of Sabbath law. But the Sabbatic principle seems to be so wrought into the constitution of man and the chronologies of the world, that those accepting the obligation of any periodic rest would naturally agree upon the observance of the seventh day. Those denying the obligation of the fourth commandment and the sanctity of the Christian Sab- bath, deny consecration of any time to inviolable rest and worship. Challenging the authority of the Sab- bath of Christendom, disparages the sanction and 146 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. evades the obligation of any Sabbath observance. It is a cavil against all recognition of higher law and a supreme lawgiver. Those keeping no Sabbath are " without God, and without hope in the world." II. Sabbath Laws. "Our Sundays, at the matin chime, The Alpine peasants, two and three, Climb up here to pray." Various reasons require the legal defence of the Sabbath. a. Conservation of Mans most Sacred Interest. — The state protects agriculture, manufactures, professions, < schools of art, and beneficial societies. Why then | should she not defend religion— more sacred and im- i portant to man, and the stability and welfare of so- \ ciety, than any of these ? The stillness and decorum of the Sabbath are insisted on, not as the privilege of a sect, but as a provision for the discipline of all faiths alike. No religion can summon man to rest,^^ worship, and higher culture without the sanctity of some holy day. Decorum is no more essential to the proceedings of a school, a court, a congress, or an armv than to the culture and discipline of religion. But as in these secular institutions, this decorum of the Sabbath can be assured to none unless observed by all. A secularized Sabbath blurs moral image of society as a disturbed lens the likeness in a photo- graph. An entile community must keep the Sabbath, 148 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. or no class or individual can have it. Enforcing the quiet of the Sabbath for the enjoyment of all citizens alike no more creates a union of church and state than protection of commerce, profession, or school makes the state a partner of a business house, a man- ufacturing establishment, a law-firm, or a member of an art association. Abandoning the highest functions of the state for fear of compromising her dignity or independence, would be like a corporation shirking its organic trusts to avoid violating its by-laws, or like one ending his life to avoid the possible ills of exist- ence. The fanatical cry " church and state !" will be satisfied with nothing less than removing the church out of the state, and God out of the world. d. The Sabbath should be protected as a tradition of Christian civilization. Before states are consti- tuted, the principles, maxims, customs and, sacred convictions exist on which they are founded. The rights of person and property, the sanctity of the family and the Sabbath, exist before and are more sacred and inviolable than any civil constitution. The state defines and defends these social foundations, and cannot subvert or discredit them without trea- son against God and man. The Republic received the Sabbath as a legacy from the Christian centuries ; the surrender of it to tlie challenge of atheism or the greed of materialism would be as cowardly and treacherous as the betrayal of the family, the rights of property, or of personal liberty. Sabbath observ- ance, in addition to its divine sanction, enshrines in- structive histories, impressing and educating sue- SABBATH LAWS. I49 ceeding generations. The Strasburg clock Is so skil- fully constructed that in measuring time it repeats in symbol the events associated with corresponding his- toric periods. The most illiterate are kept familiar with sacred history by marking the passing hours. The Sabbath is so associated with the economj^ of time and the periods of history as to marshal before each generation and every community the most sacred events of human redemption. Boundaries of duty and of holy time are all marked by its stated recur- rence, and no people are left uncultured hallowing the Sabbath. c. The existence of Sabbath laws among the wisest nations and through so long periods justifies their corftinuance. It seems impossible that so many na- tions at the crisis of their birth or political revolution, of their greatest mental activity, moral purity, and most ennobling sense of responsibility, should have erred on a question so palpable and practical. Testimony given under such an ordeal, and given so uniformly must be that voice of the people which is the voice of God. States may prune away excesses, or vary the expression of Sabbath laws ; but they cannot erase them entirely from their statute-books without going back upon the precedents and wisdom of the ages. Following this universal precedent in formulating Sabbath laws, the Republic cannot allow them trodden down by the swinish feet of atheism or of materialism, nor surrender them to follow the pre- cedents of other nations. If we can Americanize the foreign nationalities flocking to our shores by main- 150 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. taining our American institutions the Republic may stand forever. But if we surrender the Sabbath and the family, her foundations may be subverted, and our civilization and our Republic perish to- gether. d. The Sabbath should be protected as an appoint- ment for higher education. It may be doubtful how far the state should attempt to patronize scientific or art schools or colleges. Mere secular education in its higher forms may perhaps be properly remitted, like commerce, industries, and professions, to private enterprise. Only the education necessary to good citizenship can without challenge be undertaken by the state. Industrial, commercial, and moral virtues — truthfulness, justice and charity — are far more im- portant to individual well-being and the stability and welfare of the state than skill in reading, writing, and arithmetic. If compulsory education is justified to secure lower training, much more is it to assure higher and more necessary discipline. It seems ab- surd to fix the period and enforce the decorum of the school to attain lower education, while refusing to guard the Sabbath to assure higher culture. If tlu; state has a right to establish school periods, and schools for the training of her citizens, much more has she a right to protect the Sabbath set apart from the beginning as a school period for the race. This divine ordinance has quickened more mental activity, diffused more general education, and stimulated more ennobling thought and high culture, than all the schools and universities in the world combined. No SABBATH LAWS. 151 Sabbath-keeping people becomes illiterate or immor- al. They win liberty, thrift, and high civilization. e. The Sabbath should be maintained by law as a necessary and effectual barrier against demoraliza- tion. If manhood sinks, the state goes down with it. Bat manhood deteriorates by vice, and vice springs from impiety, as noxious weeds from rich but neg- lected soil. There is no adequate barrier against demoralization but religion, and the Sabbath is the necessary institution of religion. As Holland rears dikes against the devastation of the sea, or the Re- public the common-school against the worse ravages of popular ignorance, much more should the state maintain the Sabbath against the ever-menacing flood of demoralization. Greece decayed at the heart, as the statue of her goddess crowning the temple of Minerva. Rome fell before debasing Epicureanism and vaulting ambition before she was conquered by the sword of Goth and Vandal. Modern empires -are more menaced by the vices honeycombing their institutions than by the belligerence of rival states. If religion makes vows kept, only the Sabbath can keep religion in its moral discipline. If the law becomes a restraint upon the liberty of some, it is for the welfare of all. The state does not punish forger, perjurer, burglar, incendiary, or slanderer, for his own sake, but for the protection of the community. Must she allow Sunday saloons to educate and send forth criminals to ravage society, and then send out her police to arrest and punish them ? 152 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. May the state close courts of law, counting-house, store and shop, on the Sabbath, and leave saloons, theatres, and other haunts of vice open ? Shall the cockatrice be left to hatch her eggs, and send forth her brood to sting and poison the innocent and un- suspecting, with the uncertain vigilance of the police as their only protection. So long as religion vitally concerns the well-being of man, the Sabbath must be protected as the foundation of its worship, higher education, and discipline. Constantine, recognizing the necessity of a Sab- bath foundation for his new faith and growing em- pire, enacted the first Sabbath laws. In 389 Emperor Leo, adding to the number and rigor of these laws, made the following proclamation : " The Lord's Day we deem to be ever so honored and revered, that it should be exempt from all compulsory process : let no summons urge any man ; let no one be required to give security for the payment of a fund held by him in trust ; let the pleader cease his labors ; let the day be a stranger to trials ; be the crier's voice unheard ; let the litigants have breathing time ; let the rival disputants have an opportunity of meeting without fear ; of comparing the arrangements made in their names and arranging terms of a comprise. If any officer of the courts, under pretence of public or private business, dares to despise these enactments, let his patrimony be forfeited." With the advantage of a more consolidated and commanding empire, a wider prevalence of Christianity, and centuries of ex- periment in Sabbatli legislation, Charlemagne revised SABBATH LAWS. 153 and republished a Sabbath code. In the dismember- ment of his empire and the reconstruction of Govern- ment the traditions and laws of this code were in- corporated into every state of modern Europe. The Sabbath laws of Holland, Scotland, and England were the most pronounced and rigorous. Devotion to the Sabbath characterized alike the Puritan settle- ments of New England, the Dutch of New York, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, and the Huguenots of South Carolina. An ordinance passed in New Amsterdam in 1656 forbids " any or- dinary labor, such as ploughing, sewing, mowing, building, hunting, fishing, or any other work which may be lawful on other days, under penalty of one pound Flemish." In 1663 the Director-General and Council, in view of the fact that previous ordinances had been miscon- strued as applying only to one half of the Sabbath, passed an ordinance, declaring that these laws ap- plied to the entire day from the rising to the going down of the sun, and adding numerous specific pro- hibitions, with severe penalties. In 1695, after New Amsterdam had become New York, the general assembly of the colony passed a law which "prohibited travelling, servile labor and working, shooting, fishing, sporting, playing, horse- racing, hunting, frequenting tippling-houses, and the using of any unlawful exercises and pastimes upon the Lord's Day." This law was in force at the adop- tion of the constitution of the State in 1777. In 1788 the Legislature of the State of New York passed a 154 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. law for the protection of the S^ibbath, based upon the legislation of 1695. And the provisions of the act of 1788 were substantially re-enacted in 1813 and in 1830, and have remained unchanged in subsequent editions of the Revised Statutes. In subsequent amendments provision is made for the more effective prevention of liquor-selling, theatrical and similar en- tertainments, and noisy parades and processions on the streets of cities on Sundays. The existing Sun- day laws were substantiall}^ re-enacted in the penal code passed by the Legislature of New York in 1881. Though perpetually challenged by lawless classes, these statutes have been again and again vindicated by the courts, and maintained by the enlightened public opinion of the commonwealth. Similar Sab- bath legislation has obtained in other States, with similar challenge and similar defence. New Jersey, with the three largest cities of the country on her borders, was gradually losing the sanctity and traditional observance of the Sabbath. But awakened to a higher appreciation of an inviola- ble Sabbath rest through discussions and appeals of the New Jersey Sabbath Union, she has recently suc- ceeded in enforcing, in most parts of the State, the laws against Sunday saloons and theatrical enter- tainments. In Pennsylvania a vigorous alliance has recently resisted a movement to establish a permanent Sab- l^ath exhibition in Philadelphia, with success. Later, mayor and police have suppressed Sunday saloons and Sunday theatres in the same city. SABBATH LAWS. 1 55 Maryland has shared the Sabbath agitation and various Sabbath reforms. The other Southern States have not been indiffer- ent spectators of new and more defiant forms of Sab- bath desecration. Louisiana, colonized by the French, had no consti- tutional Sabbath laws. But in 1877 went into effect in the county of St. Landry an ordinance closing not only saloons, but all places of business on Sunday. A New Orleans journal a few months later gave the most glowing account of the beneficial influence of the change upon the peace, thrift, and morals of the whole count}^ Owing to its large foreign population and their European ideas of the Sabbath, there has been in progress in Cincinnati one of the greatest struggles for the defence of the Sabbath which has occurred in this country. Pastors discussed the issue in their pulpits, and secular journals opened their columns to the presentation of both sides in the controversy ; a petition to the legislature, signed by Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Freethinkers, demanded greater protection of the Sabbath rest. In 1883 a law was passed prohibiting sale of intoxicating liquors on Sunday, and requiring the closing on that day of all places where liquor is sold. Notwithstanding the beneficent operation of this law, the foreign popula- tion and the liquor-dealers are resisting it ; and the question of temperance, forced into politics, waits ad- judication by existing political parties or the organi- zation of a new party. I $6 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. In Chicago there has been a Sabbath agitation scarcely less earnest than that in Cincinnati. While Protestants have preached, published, petitioned, and voted for the enforcement of Sabbath laws. Catholics have vigorously seconded the movement. A petition, signed by the late Bishop Foley, the Roman Catholic clerg3r, and some fifteen thousand members of their parishioners, was presented, March, 1879, to the Com- mon Council, asking that the liquor-saloons be closed on Sunday. Missouri, with her higher license-law, has recently re-enacted the prohibition of all Sunday saloons. After an unprecedented popular discussion, Iowa has pronounced for a prohibitory law, closing saloons week-days as well as Sundays. In Wisconsin a new temperance agitation has toned up public sentiment to a more vigorous protest against the Sunday liquor-traffic. New England is awaking to some of her traditional jealousy for the inviolability of the Sabbath. In a thousand towns she closes saloons on Sunday. Re- cently a Sunday train over the Housatonic Railroad from Bridgeport was projected. But the Board of Railroad Commissioners, after considering the dis- turbance of the Sabbath quiet and the inducement to drinking and dissipation such a train freighted with excursionists would introduce, unanimously prohibited the conspicuous example of Sabbath desecration. With its w^nlth, control of railroad stocks, and railroad managements. New York is likely to be the SABBATH LAWS. I 57 battle-ground of the Sabbath controversy in relation to Sunday railroads. The National Sabbath Com- mittee, located in the metropolis, has been most effi- cient in promoting the Sabbath movement at home and abroad. They helped to defeat the Sunday opening of the World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876. They co-operated with the friends of the Sabbath in Great Britain, in inducing American and British ex- hibitors to respect the Sabbath, Abroad, as well as in this countr}^, a new zeal has been awakened to enforce Sabbatli laws. In Ireland Catholics and Protestants united, and against the formidable opposition of brewers and publicans car- ried through Parliament the Irish Closing Bill. It went into effect in 1878, and has been followed by a marked abatement of Sabbath drunkenness and crimes. Since the success of the Irish Bill a movement has been set on foot in England to close saloons through all the hours of the Sabbath, instead of part of them, as at present, and with promise of success. In Holland a Sabbath movement has been in- augurated, supported by the clergy and the Minister of Justice, to improve and enforce Sabbath laws. ■ The General Synod of Prussia have petitioned the state for fuller protection of the Sabbath. In Berlin petitions have been largely signed asking suppression of work in factories, shops, and freight traffic, and the restriction of post and railway service, and for closing all places for sale of intoxicating liquors on Sunday. The Imperial Parliament lias already passed 158 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. an order forbidding more than one distribution of mails on Sunday. And later the Upper House of the Prussian Diet has passed a resolution forbidding hunting on Sunday, under penalty of heavy fines and imprisonment. Considerable hopeful agitation of the Sabbath question is now going on in France. In the Cham- ber of Deputies it was voted that the labor of minors under eighteen, and of females, should be limited to eleven hours, and to six days in the week. Deputy Louis Blanc, an extreme radical, favored fixing the rest day on Sunday. He said, " The weekly Sabbath has been consecrated by all religions, and nowhere is it more strictly observed than among Protestant peoples, who are pre-eminently laboring peoples. The diminution of the hours of labor does not involve any diminution of production. In Eng- land a workman produces in fifty-six hours as much as a French workman in seventy-two hours, because his forces are better husbanded. No pains should be spared to make man more enlightened, better, and stronger. It is this which constitutes true progress." A new workingmen's party has been formed, and though a materialistic movement, one of its first con- stitutional principles is a legal prohibition of more than six days labor in a week. In Switzerland a central committee, with its auxil- iary associations in most of the cantons, has secured ameliorations of Sunday work among Government employes in the postal, railway, and military ser- vices. A new Sunday law has been adopted in the SABBATH LAWS. 1 59 Canton of Zurich, prohibiting all noisy labor, except in cases of absolute necessity. Employers may not compel subordinates to do work which deprives them of the Sabbath rest. Officials may discontinue all public business except what is manifestly necessary. All shops and stores are promptly closed, and noisy processions and parades strictly forbidden during hours of divine service. Sabbath societies are engaged in Milan, Naples, and elsewhere throughout Italy to restore and con- firm the Sabbath rest to laborers and employes, and with marked success. A Sabbath Union organized in Rome pledges its members to carefully observe the Lord's Day them- selves, and by every possible means promote Sabbath observance in others. Sabbath agitation in Austria has led the Minister of Commerce, Baron de Pino, recently to address a circular to the post-office department, directing the restriction, so far as possible, of postal work on Sun- days. Some postmasters in rural districts have petitioned for diminution of Sunday work in their offices. A mass-meeting in Vienna declared that hitherto the capital importance to working men of a regular day of rest, alike in its sanitary, moral, and in- tellectual influence, has not been generally recognized. Yielding to public opinion, and to avoid Sabbath work and set an example of respect for the Sabbath, journalists of Vienna entered into an agreement to make their Monday's issues late in the day. While Catholic Austria sets this conservative example. l6o DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Protestant America is multiplying her Sunday news- papers, allowing them to be hawked through the streets of all her cities, and boasts of special trains from the great metropolis traversing wide States, and scattering Sunday papers to divert the attention of the people from their accustomed Sabbath observ- ance. If the tone of Sabbath observance is sinking in the United States, it is gratifying to see it rising in Europe. The following address by the New York clergy, in 1858, forcibly sums up the reasons foi" a general and more rigorous enforcement of Sabbath laws through- out Christendom and the world : "The day of holy rest to a land bearing the Chris- tian name, and to a Republic based on equal rights, has the highest civil worth. Man needs it physically, as a season when labor may wipe off its grime, and breathe more freely after a week's exhaustion, and care shall slacken its hold upon the frame and the heart. Man needs it morally to rise by its aid out of engrossing secularities and materialism to the re- membrance of his spiritual interests, his final ac- count, and his eternal destiny. Toil needs it to rescue its share of rest and its season of devotion from the absorbing despotism of capital, and capital needs it to shield its own accumulations from the recklessness and audacity of the imbruted and the desperate, and to keep its own humanity and consci- entiousness alive. The state needs it as a safeguard of the pubHc order, quiet, and virtue ; human laws I ecoming, however wise in form, effete in practice, SABBATH LAWS. l6l except as they are based upon conscience and upon sanctions of eternity as recognized voluntarily by an intelligent people. And God's day cultivates one, and reminds us of the other. And in a Republic especially whose liberties under God inhere in its virtues, the recognition — freely and devoutly by an instructed nation — of God's paramount rights is the moral underpinning requisite to sustain the super- structure of man's rights ; and without such support from religion — not as nationally established, but as personally and freely accepted — all human freedom finally moulders and topples into irretrievable ruin." II in. Violations of the Sabbath. **The Sundays of man's life, Threaded together on Time's string, Make bracelets to adorn the bride Of the eternal, glorious King." a. Sunday Saloons. — The saloon is an unmitigated evil any day of the week, and a treble curse on the Sabbath. It turns the holy day into a holiday, sub- stitutes blaspliemy for prayer, replaces the fellowship of holy worship by drunken orgies, and opens a descent into hell from the very gate of heaven. The patronage of the saloon is more prodigal and enthu- siastic on the Sabbath than on other days, as if in special jubilation over increasing debasement of labor, impoverishment and misery of homes. It were better no Sabbath were given to the poor tiian that tliey should spend it in dissipation. Uninterrupted toil is not so debasing to body, mind, estate, or character. One saloon brightens its lurid glare by quenching the i)enignant light of many homes. It gives louder ex- pression to its boisterous mirth by suppressing notes of joy in many social circles. As well license men to commit perjury, arson, robbery, or murder, as to authorize them to inflame the appetites of a com- VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 163 munity, that they may steal away their reason, con- science, self-respect, and domestic happiness, and doom them to hopeless miser}^ Giving such authority, adds to sacrilege encouragement to flagrant crimes. When the moral sentiment of the land is rising up to pro- claim the outlawry of the week-day saloon it ought not to be difficult to unite all classes in closing at once and forever the Sabbath saloon. It should be branded by both public opinion and by law as the "sum of all villanies." It fetters souls as well as bodies. It uses the day set apart for saving men to destroy them. The freedom of the saloon continuing its ravages through the Sabbath disgusts sober citizens with the weak pretence of law and order, and suggests the painful contingency of vigilance committees to abate the monstrous and defiant evil. b. Sunday Theatres. — The Sunday theatre sinks be- low the moral plane of wxek-day plays, to the taste of the more prayerless and profane. It approximates the character of the saturnalia of Rome in her deca- dence, and becomes a prelude to every carnival of passion. It marshals the passionate and reckless, like the ancient Bacchantae thronging the temple of Bac- chus, and ready for any deed of shame. Its plays are not unlike those of Paris during the Reign of Terror, maddening the passions which craved them, and pre- cipitating social disorders and civil anarchy. Forty years ago the country was shocked at the report of Sunday theatres in New Orleans. But now San Francisco and Chicago advertise their most attractive plays for the Lord's Day ; and they sink in moral 164 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. grade with the baseness of the Sabbath desecration. They often lack the safeguards and decencies of the Parisian playhouse. They press against Sabbath laws and traditions as a menacing flood against a yielding breakwater, threatening to devastate the whole realm, of morals. In the Neiv York Tribune^ 1879, ^^^"^ pub- lished the following criticism, adopting the well-known views of Manager McVicker against Sunday theatres: *' I share with him the hope that as the majority of the people of this country are Christians and respect the Christian Sabbath, the practice of playing on Sunday nights, such as now exists in New Orleans, Chicago, and one or two other cities, will be ended. I can safely say that no actor or actress has ever been com- pelled by me to play on Sunday. ... I desire to put it on record that I am firmly opposed to Sunday per- formances, and none shall ever be given under my management. In the six years I have managed the Union Square Theatre there have been many offers made to open it on Sunday evenings for sacred con- certs, lectures, etc.; but it has never been opened on those evenings, nor shall it be while I manage it." But the protest of Booth, McVicker, and other honor- able managers have availed little in opposing the rage for Sunday theatres. The protesters themselves have been compelled to yield their scruples to the growing recklessness of public opinion, and some cities in the number and character of Sunday plays and playhouses are more infamous than Paris or Vienna. Intimately associated with these, and opening under the same license, are springing up Sabbath club and dance VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 165 houses, to attract the vicious of both sexes for assigna- tions and debaucheries, and turn great cities into a Sodom. The abrogation of the day would be better than a Sabbath inthralled by the temptations of theatres and playhouses. There can be no adequate protection of public morals against the freedom of such assaults. c. Sunday Games. — Every species of games is now claiming the freedom of the Sabbath. Horse-racing, discredited by our fathers at any time, is rising to the dignity of a suitable Sabbath observance; and the right to open a race-course within the limits of Chi- cago has recently been pressed before the courts. Sportsmen will not be slow to follow up the promise in village races throughout the country. Where horses are not found suitable for the amusement, a dog-ring will be opened to furnish Sabbath sports ; or a cockpit will be prepared and thronged on Sun- day by those drawn from the house of God to enjoy more congenial excitements. Especially is ball-play- ing becoming an approved Sabbath amusement. Trained players are now duly announced to cham- pion rival cities in the skilful use of ball and bat. In a recent visit to Chicago, seeking a sick friend in the southern part of the city, Sunday afternoon, we saw six or eight thousand watching. and applauding champion players. In some cities when ball-grounds are closed the open saloon mocks the inconsistency, and predicts the early removal of the restraint. Ball-grounds cannot long be tabooed if saloons and theatres and playhouses are opened. There is node- l66 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. fence against any of these institutions, except enforc- ing :!ic sanctity of the Sabbath. Tops, kites, balls, playhouses, and theatres must be proscribed by the same law and for the same reasons. Voltaire somewhere observes that the utter demor- alization of Roman society under the reign of Cali- gula and Nero can only be accounted for by the entire absence of faith in God and the future life. Governing and pacifying people by recreations merely, as those who turn the Sabbath into a holiday seek to do, must ever prove a disastrous experiment. Juvenal satirized the attempt to conciliate and pledge the loyalty of the Roman people by gifts of bread and circuses, when through popular vices society was has- tening to the reign of anarchy. There is a legend that at a conclave of cardinals in Rome, discussing the pos- sibility of recovering England to the Papacy, a wily member of the fraternity said, " Take away England's Sabbath, and your end is gained." Broken from loy- alty to God, devotion to imposture becomes easy. Close the house of God, and caves of sorcery are soon opened. Inthrall a people in Sabbath recrea- tions, and they may become devotees of any supersti- tion. Lord Kames says, " Power and opulence are the darling objects of every nation; and yet in every nation possessed of power and opulence virtue sub- sides, selfishness prevails, and sensuality becomes the ruling passion. Then it is that the most sacred in- stitutions first lose their hold, next are disengaged, and at last are made subject of ridicule." Sir Walter Scott says, *' Give the vvoi Id one half of a Sunday, and VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 167 you will find that religion has no stronghold of tlie other." Hence the holiday Sabbath nowhere con- serves true religion or true civilization." d. Sunday Spectacles. — Sunday spectacles have in- creased in our large cities. Various orders irriprove the Sabbath for funeral processions, marching through streets and avenues, distracting the attention of all, and disaffecting them toward the proper observance of the holy day. Papal dignitaries returning from Rome have not infrequently been received by a vast concourse of devotees and citizens. The Bishop of Chicago was recently welcomed by thirty or forty thousand citizens, including the mayor and other officials. He was met ten miles south of the city, and conducted to the cathedral and to the episcopal pal- ace, with music, banners, and the insignia of civic orders. The pageant filled the city, obstructing Sabbath observance, and secularizing the holy day. Archbishop Gibbons, more truly appreciating the sanc- tity of the Lord's Day, on a similar occasion refused a similar ovation from the City of Baltimore. But these ecclesiastical, military, and civic pageants are menacing the sanctity and spiritual uses of the holy day. The public sentiment that tolerates them becomes indifferent to religious worship and all spiritual cul- ture. It encourages Sunda}^ bull-lights in Spain ; theatres, military reviews, and the general neglect of tiie house of God in France, Belgium, and Austria ; is weaning American communities from their Sabbath tradi lions and observance, and secularizing the Sab- l68 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. bath throughout Christendom. The continuance of Sabbath spectacles is one of the most serious ob- structions to the restoration and religious uses of the holy day. A recent action of George G. Meade Post No. I, Department of Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic, is a sign of healthful reaction in favor of our American Sabbath. At a stated meeting of this Post the following was unanimously adopted : ^^ Resolved^ That this Post deprecates the violation of the Sabbath by Posts of the Grand Army, in ob- serving that day as one of frolic, by public camp-fires, and other inapppropriate ceremonies, in violation of the laws of God, of the commonw^ealth, and of our rules and regulations ; believing it to be injurious to the morals of society, and greatly detrimental to the interests of our order. ^^ Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be for- warded to Department Headquarters, and we trust that measures may promptly be taken to suppress this growing evil of Sunday camp-fires, and the like." Vigilance of Sabbath committees and of police has been successful in many cases in arresting this ob- trusive evil. A New York regiment returning from Washington on a certain occasion arrived in the city on Sunday noon, and made application to the Super- intendent of Police for permission to parade through the streets to its headquarters. The reply was given that the law explicitly forbade such a parade, and that it was the duty of the police to prevent a viola- tion of the law. The regiment gracefully bowed to VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 169 the authority of the law and the sanctity of the Sab- batli. On another occasion, a visiting regiment from anotlier city intending to land and parade on Sunday were compelled to defer their landing until Monday. Only by arresting public attention, appealing to tlie fidelity of the police, and toning up the Sabbath sentiment of the country to a chivalrous loyalty can the Lord's Day be preserved from the insidious secu- larization and noisy publicity of a holiday. e. Sabbath Industries. — The regular sailing of ocean steamers on Saturdays has doubtless encouraged other steamers to plan trial trips, or various excur- sions to embrace the Sabbath. Also yachts and smaller sailing-boats follow the contagious example, and spend the Sabbath at sea, or on neighboring islands and coasts. Repairs of sailing craft are often attended to on the Sabbath, for no other ap- parent reason than to save time and money. Steam foundries and machine-shops continue the smoke in their chimneys, and the thud of hammer strokes through all the hours of the Sabbath, with no better excuse than agriculturists and mechanics throughout the country could give for continuing their industries Often carpenters, cabinet-makers, blacksmiths, tobac- conists, printers, pleading the exigencies of some contract, and encouraged by the loose Sabbath senti- ment of the communi:y, press their employes into Sabbath service, robbing them of inalienable and sacred rights, and deadening the sensitiveness of their conscience and all sense of religious duties. An increasing number take Sunday newspapers and 170 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. advertise in them, patronize grocers, butchers, bak- ers, barbers, and milkmen on the Sabbath. It is estimated there are not less than six thousand liquor- shops, five thousand dry-goods stores, as man}' gro- ceries, two thousand cigar stores, a thousand restau- rants, a hundred photograpliic galleries, seventy-five exchange offices, and fifty pawnbrokers' establish- ments opened conspicuously or clandestinely every Lord's Day in New York alone. The classes thus forced to labor need Sabbath rest and moral help more than those who exact the unrequited and forbidden toil. How little of this service could be shown to be ''works of necessity and mercy" ! How large a part of it could easily be provided against if men wished to hallow the Sabbath ! Tlie founders of milk factories in this country were Christian men, refused to receive milk from the farmers on the Sab- bath, and thus saved the Sabbath quiet to vast rural districts. Families could easily supply themselves with condensed milk for the Sabbath, and thus stop the noise of milk-carts in the streets of our cities on the Lord's Day. Weekly journals could be issued and circulated on Saturday evenings, and thus cut off another Sabbath industry. As a public example, and as diverting multitudes from public worship, the Sunday press is one of the most potent agencies dese- crating the Sabbath. With a pronounced Sabbath sentiment, works of necessity and mercy — tlie only proper works for the vSabbath — can be reduced to an unimportant minimum. The mere effort to rescue the holy day from these needless industries will tone VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. I^l up the religious sentiment of the country, and impart a higher moral impulse to citizens. f. Sunday Excursions. — The seaside resorts opened to New York and other great seaboard cities are bringing about a great -revolution in the Sabbath ob- servance of these large populations. Hundreds of thousands leave New York alone every Lord's Day of the summer season for Coney Island, Rockaway, Long Branch, and other similar resorts. With many these Sabbath recreations are instead of vacations from business during the summer. A much larger number take their families for a holiday on the beach and in the surf. The Sabbath thus sinks to a day of recreation, and multitudes gain little refreshment from this misuse of holy time, returning at night with heart full of restlessness, envies, jealousies, and hatreds, instead of contentment, charity, and hope. The average Sunday excursionist is less refreshed physically, intellectually, and morally than those of the same class and occupation spending the Sabbath in Christian converse at home, and in the house of God. Sunday excursions are multiplied to lakes and rivers and mountains by carriages, or along principal or branch railroads. Especially railroads having little business have been tempted to encourage neighbor- hood excursions, invading retired and hitherto quiet communities with noisy crowds, disturbing quiet homes, and robbing wide regions of their Sabbath stillness, and disturbing village and country churches. While some boards of management have encouraged Sunday excursions, the New York and Ohio Railroad 172 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Company recently issued this order : " After this date there will be no special excursion trains run over this railroad or its branches on Sunday." Two years ago, J. W. Hobart, Superintendent of the Vermont Central road, sent this reply to an application for a special Sunday train : " It is useless to apply for Sunday trains, because our rules regarding such trains are positive, and we cannot under any circumstances vary them, unless in case of distress — like death or destruction of property. I know you will upon re- flection see the propriety of our taking this stand, as we should otherwise run into an encouragement of all sorts of Sunday gatherings, which inevitably cover a great amount of drunkenness, carousing, and swear- ing. The public so far sustains us in our position, and even those interested in camp-meetings, and other religious gatherings, especially desire that we should not vary the rule. You can readily see that unless we have such a rule we cannot easily discriminate between religious meetings without getting into trouble at once." Clearly all Sunday excursions, whether by sea, lake, or river, by private carriages or public conveyance, are utterly foreign to the purposes of the Sabbath, and destructive of all its sacred uses, and hastening the general demoralization of society. The effect of Sabbath excursions may be illustrated by sketches of some which occurred in the summer of 1884. The following notice appeared in the Neiu York Sun on a Monday morning in July : " It is said to be the largest single excursion party that ever went to Coney Island. A large banner on VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1/3 the outside of the car announced it as ' Lee's One Dollar Excursion.' The excitement which it created on Coney Island was only a continuation of the enthu- siasm which it had aroused along the line of the Erie Railroad during the last two weeks. . . . The county newspapers were filled with flaming advertisements, and the fences were covered with posters announcing the [Sunday] excursion. . . . The result was that Mr. Lee ordered fifty passenger coaches to carry the peo- ple. . . . The first train of sixteen cars left Honesdale at four and a half o'clock yesterday [Sunday] morning. People had sat up all night to be ready for the start. , . . One hundred and fifty people drove to Port Jer- vis from Milford, Pa., in large stages, and four car- loads came in from Monticello." No less than three trains left Port Jervis on this excursion ; and by actual count fifteen hundred peo- ple of a population of ten thousand that day went to Coney Island. People waited at all the stations to join the crowd of Sabbath merry-makers. By actual count the Siin declared there were four thousand three hundred on this excursion, many of them roaming through New York all day, and others disporting themselves in the sea and in the various amusements at this famous seaside resort. Of another excursion on the first Sunday of August the press gave this sketch : " The Iron Steamboats went down from Twenty-third Street with every deck swarming with people, and at Pier i they found crowds waiting to pour on board. There was a steady overflow streaming through the aBttery to the Bay 174 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Ridge boats of the newly organized rapid-transit ser- vice, and the condition of affairs there was only slightly improved. The Middletown made regular hourly trips from this point, and it required trains of ten and twelve cars to carry away the loads she land- ed. All other lines were patronized with proportion- ate liberality. ... It was an affair of elbowing one's way about in every direction. Besides the flow from the city and suburbs there were two large excursions — one from Albany and the other from Providence — dumped upon the Iron Pier. There were no less than a hundred and fifty thousand people on the isl- and between two and five o'clock." The last Sunda}^ in August a picnic sailed from New York to Linden Grove, on the New Jersey coast, with well-stored bar, a band of music, and flying ban- ners. Though embracing both sexes and all £iges, the majority on board were young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. They drank freely, and at length refusing to pay for their drinks, a dispute arose and a bloody fight followed. As the conflict became general, noisy, and fierce, the bar was over- thrown, and bottles and provisions flew in every di- rection. The owner of the goods protesting against the destruction of his property, was felled to the deck, and afterward died, leaving a wife and three children to mourn the ill-fated Sabbath picnic. The boat, turned into a pandemonium, gave up the trip; five of the ringleaders of the riot, to avoid arrest, leaped overboard and swam to Staten Island ; while the spectators were so .terror-stricken they did not dare VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1 75 impede their escape. Nor were any arrests made when the steamer reached her dock. Not to be outdone in secularizing the Sabbath by New York, Boston opened her fair-grounds on Sunday for the exhibition of '' Buffalo Bill." Ten thousand people assembled on a Sabbath of August to witness the feats of buffaloes, Indians, and trained assistants, and the dexterity of this expert of the "Wild West," in lassoing buffaloes, robbing stage-coaches, and per- forming other tricks of the circus. These are not descriptions of scenes occurring at National Fairs or at the meeting of National Sporting Clubs ; but on a day set apart by divine ordinance, and by the usage of our fathers as a holy day — consecrated to religious worship and to higher education. These local annals of a few weeks forecast the demoralization sure to follow the turning the American Sabbath into an American holiday. A new Lakeside resort was opened in South Ciiicago in the summer of 1885. The first Sunday of August it was reported two thousand visited the beach, and five hundred dollars were re- ceived at the bar of tlie pavilion. Sabbath ball-clubs are being formed in different cities. If the present trend of Sabbath-breaking continues, in a few years the decorum of the Sabbath will disappear from all our cities, and at length from all our country. g. Railroads. — At the AVorld's Fair in Philadelphia, in 1876, the most conspicuous object in tlie great Hall was the Corliss engine. Through connecting shafts, bands, and wheels it moved tlie various machinery in different departments of the Exhibition. Keeping I'j6 DEFENCE OF THE SABUATH. the Sabbath during this world's spectacle depended upon arresting the motion of this stupendous engine. Following foreign Sabbath customs, seeking to piease foreign exiiibitors, and looking only to tlie financial success of the enterprise, the board of management were almost decided to open the fair on the Sabbath- day. But opposition of a portion of the board, and aroused public sentiment, enforced by Mr. Corliss's refusal to start the engine, prevented the most ob- trusive and demoralizing spectacle of Sabbath dese- cration ever projected in this country. The sturdy example of the brave New England Sabbatarian toned up the Sabbath observance of the whole country. The railroad system holds a relation to the world's travel and traffic analogous to that of the Corliss engine to the World's Fair. By stopping the trains of business and pleasure it can do much to perpetu- ate the Sabbath traditions and observance bequeathed to us by our fathers ; or by multiplying them it can help replace our holy day by the European holiday. The Sabbath policy of railroads will be determined largely by a few men. In the inauguration of through trains, by management centred at Chicago, two out of three controlling great corporations re- sisted further encroachment upon the Sabbath as unnecessary to the permanent prosperity of the roads, and jeopardizing the moral and religious welfare of the country. But the third superintendent, with a greed for dividends and no reverence for religion, gradually won over all the roads to the policy of inaugurating thraugh Sabbath trains. But by earnest mediation VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. I// those most appreciating the Lord's Day succeeded in committing three roads running west from Chicago to alternate, and run but one instead of three through trains on the Sabbath. That measure has continued to the present time. To m.ake througli trains profit- able, way business and business on branch roads must be encouraged. Merely crossing a State for the mail service, through travel would run roads in debt. Hence railroads looking only for financial advantage must encourage way travel and traffic, and thus pro- mote universal Sabbath desecration. Conservative men have protested against this dangerous trend of railroads. That Christian merchant and princely philanthropist, W. E. Dodge, insisted to the last that there is no adequate reason for running railroads on the Sabbath. He withdrew from all corporations dis- posed to extend their Sabbath business. The most influential manager of the Delaware and Lack- awanna road, it is understood, would stop the wheels on the tracks, and put out the fires in the shops on the Sabbath, and claims that this could be done with- out ultimate disadvantage to the roads, and with great gain to the public. There have recently been re- peated illustrations of growing scruple to reduce Sabbath service on the roads. The New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio in. 1880 changed its gauge 267 miles without employing a laborer on the Sabbath. The Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans recently changed its gauge 549 miles without trespassing upon the Sabbath, and with only a few hours' interruption of their regular trains. The New York and Ohio not 12 i;8 DEFENCE OF TIIK SABBATH. long since issued this order : '• Only such regular passenger trains as are required to comply with the demands of the public mail service and traffic from connecting lines will be permitted to run on Sundays. No freight trains will be run on Sundays except such as have been started from the terminal stations before Sunday morning, except as are required to provide for the forwarding of live-stock and other perishable property, for the detention of which the company might be held liable." Recently the President of the Louisville, New Al- bany and Chicago R. R. Co., Bennet H. Young, issued an order forbidding the running of any trains on Sunday, on his road, except those carrying United States mails. Subsequently, in The Raihvay Age, published at Chicago, he gave the grounds of liis ac- tion: *' There are in the railway service of this coun- try, it is estimated, five hundred thousand persons, and it is probable that more than half of these are required at some time to do Sunday service. The result of thus requiring two hundred and fifty thou- sand persons to violate the day, simply to make money for the corporations, is not only a monstrous wrong against their religious and family rights, but it is an incalculable injury to society at large." The transportation of freight seven days in the week over the great trunk lines is steadily increasing, and pro- portionately increasing the number of Sabbath em- ployes, and the number of those associated in the growing Sabbath desecration. The physical and moral injury caused by this VIOLATIONS OF IHE SABBATH. 1 79 enforced disregard of Sabbath rest is painfully felt by railway employes themselves. Conscientious men have to lose their places, or work with burdened or blunted consciences. Neglecting duty to God, it is not strange many at length disregard duty to men. This insensation of conscience affects the regulation and education of their families and their intercourse with the community, and insidiously abets general demoralization. A pastor of a church at a large rail- road centre writes, " The Spirit of God is moving upon the hearts of many railway employes in this great railroad centre, and the question is constantly arising, * Can I be a Christian, and keep my job on the Railway, that requires me to run on Sundays ?' " A pastor in another railway town says, " We are distress- ed over this question of Sabbath desecration by rail- ways. Conscientious Christian men are practically excluded from employment on the road. Christians who accept employment soon fall from grace. Those employed in the shops may of course keep the Sabbath if the}' will. But the whole influence of the town is demoralizing in the extreme. There is little con- science respecting the Sabbath, even among business men and manufacturers." How from every such busi- ness centre the national character may decay as by a dry-rot ! But the feasibility of reforms in these direc- tions is illustrated by an order by H. B. Ledyard, Gen- eral Manager of the Michigan Central R. R. Septem- ber, 1877: "To Heads of Departments : I desire to call your attention to the necessity of decreasing the amount l8o DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. of work on Sunday which our employes are called upon to perform. Much of this work can be dispensed with. Our employes sliould as far as possible be able to rest on Sunday. Each head of department will be expected to so regulate the work of his department that no work shall be done on that day except such as is absolutely necessary. Division superintendents and train-masters will, when practicable, arrange the run of their men so that they can be home on Sunday." The Welland Canal, a thoroughfare from upper to lower Lakes, twenty-five miles long, is closed every Sabbath-day. One opening a lock or running a boat would be summarily arrested. Stopping travel and freight uniformly on Sabbath would no more choke thoroughfares than they are now choked in a hundred passenger and freight depots. The pressure would still increase with the number of trains, as it has with speed of travel. It is as reasonable to demand fur- ther increase of speed to avoid choke of commerce and travel as to demand another day to relieve it. Whatever can be shown to be a work of necessity or of mercy the roads can provide for. But the best consciences as well as best business capacity in the country should combine to prevent railroads — the sym- bol of our material greatness and glory — from des- troying our American Sabbath, and thus under- mining our Republic. The success of railroads must in the end depend upon the greatness of the country, the greatness of the country upon its manhood, and its manhood upon the moral training of the Sabbath. VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. l8l There may be said to be now a general suspension of business on railroads on the Sabbath. Why should it not be made universal and permanent? There can be no more necessity for railroad transpor- tation on Sunday than for other methods of land transport. Unless railroads conform to the Sabbath law, the entire carrying-trade will cease to do so. Do not railroad employes as much need the liberty, rest, and benediction of the holy day as those en- gaged in other industries ? Should they then be summoned to service on the Lord's Day, unless by some ''work of necessity or mercy"? To the ques- tion whether anything like the present Sunday ser- vice is necessary to the commercial welfare of the country, or even to the financial prosperity of railroad corporations, leaving out of view the mental and moral culture of employes, the answer from all com- petent judges would be. No, The same judges would also agree that measures should be adopted to reduce the Sunday service of employes to the lowest prac- tical limit. Those having assured to themselves personal liberty and rest on the Sabbath should nat- urally seek to assure it to their employes. Our grandchildren will see four hundred millions of Eng- lish-speaking people in the world — two hundred mil- lions on the American continent. The great forces of civilization will run in the grooves of the English language and civilization. No other factor will be- come more powerful in giving moral and religious ascendancy to English-speaking people than the preservation of the Christian Sabbath. That will 1 82 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. unify the ruling peoples of the earth, and make their ascendancy conservative, universal, and glorious. h. Museums and Art Galleries. — For several years there has been an effort to open these institutions in England and in this country, as they are on the Con- tinent. This is even proposed in the interest of cul- ture and morality. But while the more cultured might find opportunity for improvement without trespassing upon sacred time and sacred duties, it is found the uneducated masses are not attracted by this appeal to their aesthetic taste. Religion is the first impulse to refinement in barbarous races or vulgar classes. When sensibilities to truth, justice, charity, goodness, and holiness are quickened by re- ligious conviction and motive, there is a true basis for aesthetic culture. But seeking to elevate the masses by diminishing their respect for religious ordinances and duties must end in conspicuous failure. Free the illiterate from Sabbath law and restraint, and nine will hasten to low theatres, horse-races, dog- rings, gaming, and field sports, and especially to saloons, where one will visit museums and art-galler- ies. Where these institutions have been opened they have failed to attract the people ; while the patron- age of all haunts of vice and dissipation has greatly increased. Tavern and saloon keepers have been zealous advocates for opening museums and galler- ies, because familiarizing the people with secular uses of the Sabbath will indefinitely increase their business. The Committee of the League of Liquor- sellers in 1868 pleaded before the Committee of the VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1 83 House of Commons the necessity of keeping open taverns all hours of the Sabbatli to accommodate the increasing number of those seeking aesthetic culture and recreation on the Sabbath. It is manifest, there- fore, that the illiterate classes generally would not be stimulated to refinement and general education by opening any class of mere secular institutions on the Sabbath , but rather removing the sanctity of the Sabbath and opening wide the door to more vicious pursuits will hasten general demoralization. Such aesthetic reform would bii-ng no culture to the masses, but instead would cut off the divinely ap- pointed means for their spiritual culture, which might also promote their general education. While, therefore, the secular institutions would be no boon to the dependent and illiterate, they are wholly unnec- essary to men of culture and leisure. They can find time for art culture during the week without dese- crating the Sabbath for themselves, and profaning it for others. They have no more excuse for seculariz- ing the Sabbath for art pursuits, than agriculturists for fairs, merchants for meetings of boards of trade, or politicians for conventions and caucuses. The opening of museums and art-galleries might logically be followed by the opening of shops, factories, count- ing-houses, government offices, places of amusement, and saloons. The refinement and culture offered as a compensation for the surrender of our Sabbath tra- ditions is a delusive promise. Paris boasts such means of culture ; but personal immorality, domestic infelicity, and scheming crime are more widely dif- l84 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. fused than art culture. As prostitution of the Sab- batli by the cavaliers to the programme of the Book of Sports was disastrous to public virtue and happi- ness, so the pretence of art culture in France, in place of Sabbath w^orship and spiritual culture, has steeped that metropolis in the vices and miseries of Babylon and of Sodom. Mammon, Venus, and Bac- chus boast more votaries than Mars, Apollo, or Mi- nerva. The character and arguments of those oppos- ing this dangerous desecration of the Sabbath may be instructive. Not long ago a motion in the Com- mon Council of London to open Guild Hall Library and Museum on Sunday was defeated by a vote of 97 to 25. In May, 1882, a motion in the House of Commons to open the National Museum and galler- ies on Sunday vi^as defeated by a vote of 208 to 83, Mr. Gladstone and his two sons voting with the ma- jority against the motion. In May, 1883, a similar motion by Lord Dunraven in the House of Lords was rejected by a vote of 91 to 67, and a substitute offered by Lord Shaftesbury was adopted, favoring the opening of national museums and galleries on three evenings of the week. In the House of Lords the Duke of Argyle said : '' We know there is a large portion of the artisan class who are not attached to any particular church, and who have no strong or definite theological opin- ions. Nevertheless you will find among them the greatest possible jealousy as to all those notions tending to the alteration of the Christian Sunday. What is this instinct founded upon? It is the fee!- VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1S5 ing, perfectly well founded, that when you break down the religious sanction of the day, the legal sanction will be broken down also. Reference has been made to the way in which Sunday is spent in other countries. In South Germany, the other day, I was much struck by the fact that works of construc- tion were carried on as extensively on Sunday as on other days, and the scaffolding outside one of the finest churches was occupied with men who were at work on the building. The working-classes of this country feel that if a regard for Sunday were broken down in one respect it would be broken down in others. I think this is a well-founded jealousy, and on all these grounds I shall vote against, as being in- expedient, an abstract resolution tending in a direc- tion of which the working-classes of this country are justly jealous." Mr. Mundella, a member of the Government, and well known as a friend and advocate of the working classes, in voting against the Sunday opening said : *' It has been said that it was a question for decision by public opinion. What was that public opinion at present? There were a hundred and fifty-four mu- seums in the United Kingdom. The greater part of these belong to municipalities, yet only four were opened on Sunday. It was not accurate that the reason of this was the absence of art culture in the town ; because Nottingham, with two of the finest museums in the country, showed at a recent election, by rejecting the members of the municipality who were in favor of Sunday opening, that they were ap- t86 defence of the sabbath. prehensive if once a step were taken in this direction its consequences could not be foreseen. The Saturday half-holiday gave the working-classes those facilities for visiting museums which was thought by this motion to afford them on Sunday. People did not go to Hampton Court on Sundays to see pictures, but lo enjoy social intercourse and fresh air. . . . But he approved the suggestion of Mr. Broadhurst, that museums and all galleries should be opened between the hours of six and ten p.m., on at least three days in each week. He did not believe that the working- classes were in favor of opening museums on Sunday. Until the national sentiment was completely changed, — until it was in favor of making Sunday a day of amusement and recreation instead of a day of rest, — he held it was the duty of the Government not to open these national institutions on Sunday." Mr. Broadhurst, who represents a large constituency of working-men, said : *' He regretted that he was obliged to oppose the motion, and he took this view entirely and distinctly in the interest of labor, and of that cause with which he has been identified all his life, namely, that the seventh day should be distinctly and fully relieved from all associations of labor. He opposed the motion also upon the ground that the resolution could not have any effect but to loosen the ties that now bound us together in defence of an absolute rest one day in seven from all labor. There was no demand in the country in favor of this motion. In London there was a rich and well-appointed so- ciety formed to forward the object of this resolution ; VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1 8/ and though they advertised for weeks, and sent cir- culars in every direction, yet the result was that the meeting which they called only half filled St. James' Hall. If the museums were opened from six o'clock till ten on at least three evenings in the week he is sure it would meet with general patronage and ap- proval by the people of the metropolis." The argu- ment which had been put forward in favor of obtain- ing the Saturday half-holiday was that the working- men would be able to take a fair share of secular en- joyment on Saturdays at the museums and galleries which were properly closed on Sundays. But if the museums were opened on Sunday what became of the argument for the Saturday half-holiday? If this resolution were passed, some day the people would have cause to regret that they ever listened to a pro- posal innocent enough on the face of it, but fraught with the most certain danger, if not to them, to their children, as the tendency would be to encourage labor on Sunday." Lord Shaftesbury, than whom no one in England is better known as a friend of the working-men, in an address said : "A large number have told me that it was not that they had any particular regard for the sanctity of the day, but that they knew perfectly well that if the great custom and law with regard for the Sabbath were broken down, there would have to be seven days' work for six days' wages. Just in propor- tion as the religious associations of Sunday are les- sened will the exactions of Sunday labor be mul- tiplied." l88 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Charles Hill, at a social science congress in Aber- deen, said : "The real opponents of liberty of con- science are those who would deprive the attendants at places of amusement of that day of rest whicli they are now enjoying, and which they look upon as a sacred day. The principle on which Sunday laws should be based is very much the same as that on which the factory laws are based. Laws which limit labor (with any necessary exceptions) to six days a week, because it is injurious to men physically and morally to toil seven days a week, are quite as neces- sary and justifiable as those acts of Parliament whicli protect the dressmakers and the workers in mines and factories and workshops on week-days. If the laws which prohibit Sunday trading and the Sunday opening of amusements were repealed, the spirit of competition would rapidly bring about the same con- dition of Sunday in England as is to be seen on the Continent, where labor in every department flourishes on the Lord's Day. If the national museums be opened on Sundays, all other museums and places of amusement will claim to open also, and an immense staff of persons who now rest on Sundays would be immediately required to work, or run the risk of being supplanted by others. The law must apply alike. All must be required to close or all must be allowed to open on Sundays. There never was a time in our history when there was less need for disturbing the repose of Sunday. Education on week-days is pro- vided by tlie state. Books are obtainable by the poorest. Amusements, museums, libraries, and art- VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 1 89 galleries are open till ten or twelve o'clock at night. The hours of labor have been sliortened. The Satur- day half-holiday is enjoyed by millions. Bank holi- days and summer holidays are the fashion to-da}'. Facilities for breathing the pure air of the country on week-days are within reach of all. Yet it is said these are not sufficient. The seventh and every day must be devoted to entertainments and amusements ; the museums, galleries, and all similar places must be opened on Sundays. Fortunately, those who ask for such an alteration of the law are but a small minor- ity, and they will not be able successfully to oppose the will of millions of thoughtful, earnest men, who feel with Count Montalembert that ' there can be no religion without public worship, and there can be no public worship without a Sabbath.' " The London Quarterly Review writes upon this sub- ject : " But the labor which necessity drags at the wheels of pleasure is not a tithe of what in fact in- variably follows pleasuring on Sunday. Human na- ture will say work is as good as play. If the day is not too sacred for throwing away money, it is not too sacred for gathering it. If some must work or be cast out of bread, others will work for love of gain. Hence when exhibitions are open on Sunday, so are shops. To the masters it may be choice ; but what is it to the servants ? Those who have seen Europe must know that where Sunday, is turned to pleasure labor comes heavily, not onl}^ on workmen, but shop- keepers ; that the retirement of country parishes is no protection to the farm-servant, nor the heavy toils 190 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. of a city mason any excuse against Sunday drudgery. When men who liave seen this with their own eyes come and talk of breaking down our Sabbath for the benefit of working-classes, we declare it a barefaced imposture." Dr. S. H. Wiley of California expresses the follow- ing sentiments on the dangerous tendencies of this movement: "Remember this is eminently a matter of the prevalence of public opinion. Public opin- ion has been historically and overwhelmingly on the side of Sunday observance, and it has carried other things with it ; but once let it get running the other way, and it will flow with the force of a flood. Peo- ple will lose their scruples or will bury them. They will set to work justifying themselves in secularizing the day. And how easy it will be for them to think what they want to think ; and when influential people and leaders of opinion express and practise such sen- timents, how easy will it be for crowds of other peo- ple to do the same ! " A movement has recently been made to open mu- seums and art-galleries in New York and other large cities of the country. A New York journal repre- senting the better sentiment of the press and the country thus discussed the project: ''The Sunday rest is of inestimable value to the working-classes in every point of view, and never more so than in this age and country. Many influences combine to en- cioach upon it, which it is becoming harder every year to withstand. Large numbers of persons even now are compelled to work on Sundays on our rail- VIOLATIONS OF THE SABBATH. I9I ways, steamboats, in repairs of machinery, and even in manufacturing when any special stress of business gives employers an excuse for insisting on extra work. Now the main defence against such encroachments is tiie popular regard for the Sabbath as a religious in- stitution, and that line of distinction between it and other days which is based on this regard. To over- tlirow any part of this line of defence is to weaken the whole. The laws which protect the Sunday rest will become a dead letter when they no longer repre- sent the customs and conviction of the people. Capi- tal, driven by the eager competitions of business, will have little difficulty in exacting the whole or a part of Sunday when it becomes merely a question of spend- ing it in pleasure or work. The experiment has been tried in Europe. The factory-men of Germany are now asking for laws which shall restore to them their lost Sunday rest ; and the streets of Paris are full of men who have to work seven days in the week, while the last vestige of legal recognition of their right to rest has disappeared from the French code. To the claim that the working-men need healthful recreation one answer is obvious — that the Park, with its varied attractions, is open to all, and there is unrestricted ac- cess to the surrounding country for those who choose to seek recreation in this way. Sufficient opportu- nity to inspect the two museums is furnished by the half-dozen regular holidays of the year, with the oc- casional breaks in business that happen in all trades, together with the shorter hours of work on Saturday, which ev^ery one should help to bring about. To sup- 192 DEFENCE OF THE SABIJATH. pose that any persons who now frequent the liquor- shops will be drawn away from them by adding to the present attractions of the Park the opportunity to stroll through the museums, is, as the London Times puts it, * rather remote from robust common-sense.' "It is fair to add, that with no small part of those who favor the Sunday opening of the museums this is but a step toward the further measures of music in the parks, the opening of theatres and dance-halls, etc. They believe in a Paris or Vienna Sunday, and intend to have it if they can ; unmindful of the fact that in this country such a Sunday, while a day of un- restrained pleasure to the few, would soon involve un- broken toil to the many. The Rev. Edward Everett Hale has well said ' that the institution of Sunday, if it is instituted at all, will be maintained for the nobler purposes of the higher life.' It is the view of the case here presented which has led the intelligent \voiking men of London to resist the repeated efforts which have been made to open the British and other national museums on Sunday. On occasion of the last attempt of this sort, so strong was the feeling that in twelve days the Workingmen's Association of London secured fifty-eight thousand signatures to petitions against the measure. Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Chancellor Sel- borne (Sir Roundell Palmer), Sir Charles Reed, Chair- man of the London School Board, and Lord Ebury, are among those who have spoken and voted against the Sunday opening." IV. Theories of the Sabbath. •' God's Sabbath ! Oh forgive That we use Thy gifts so ill ; Teach us daily how to live, That we ever may fulfil All Thy gracious love designed, Giving Sabbaths to mankind." Three principal theories of the origin and sanctions of the Christian Sabbath have been maintained. The ecclesiastical theor}^, held substantially by the Papacy and ritualists, is this : Individual churches, without any order by Christ or His Apostles or Moses, held their assemblies on the first day of the week, and thus consecrated it to the observance and rever- ance of mankind. This observance has extended with Christianity, and through appeal for uniformity and recommendation of ecclesiastical councils, the first day became the Sabbath of Christendom. 'With only such basis and sanction the first day of the week may perhaps bind the conscience of Church- men, but not of the increasing minority of Dissenters. Feeling a growing distrust of usurpations of divine prerogatives by civil or ecclesiastical rulers, they will hallow no Sabbath merely because enjoined by church or state. Those seeking to magnify the authority of 13 194 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. the church by denying that of divine law, only lowei tlie sanction of the Sabbath, and make it impossible to assure for it the reverence of mankind generally. Secularization of the Sabbath in papal lands and under national establishments shows the impotence of human authority against the appetites and pas- sions of men. Accepting its divine authority would enforce its observance, hasten the unity of Christen- dom, and exalt Christ's Lordship over the earth. Holding that the Scriptures are no sufficient guide in religion without the Cliurch, it is not strange that High-churchism should in like manner attempt to bolster up the authority of the Sabbath. Dean Hook calls it an "ordinance of the Church." Again he Sciys, "We prove the divine authority of confirmation b\' precisely the same argument as that i^y whicli we es- tablish the divine authorit}^ of the Lord's Day."' Tims a tradition is elevated to the rank of a divine ordinance, or a divine ordinance is degraded to tlie level of a tradition. Dr. Arnold, following for the most |)art Heylin, Bishop White, and Sanderson, holds " tliat the establishment of the Lord's Day, whether by the Apostles or their successors, was an afterthought, was a matter of Christian expediency only, was the result of their disappointment at discovering that men could not at once do without something like the pro- visions of the abolished Jewish law. It was therefore only intended to be a temporary enactment of tlie spirit of the fourth commandment, and was to endure no longer than men should require such an aid to their Cin'islianity. The re-enacters of couise hoped THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. I95 and believed that this would soon cease to be the case ; and doubtless St. Paul, were he to revisit earth, would be surprised to find that Christians had not yet learned to dispense with an institution too similar, alas! to that which the Jews required." With this view, ever}^ one for himself ma}^ imagine the time for abrogating the Sabbath has come, and deny its further claims, and at once reduce it to the secularity of week-days. Thus forecast and provi- dence are denied to the Founder and Lawgiver of the Church, and religious discipline is left to the varying judgment or caprice of different lands and ages. Hessey declares, in his learned treatise on the Sab- bath, "I hold that the Lord's Day is as to its origin much on a par with confirmation. And this, while it would at once exclude it from the category of posi- tive institutions ordained b}^ Christ Himself, would also enable me to claim for it (on this ground alone, whatever others may be adducible), an apostolic and, so far as anytliing apostolic can be called divine, a divine origin." Such distinction between apostolic and divine authority is unauthorized and misleading. What Moses enjoined was no more binding upon Israel than what inspired Apostles enjoined upon the Christian Church. Besides, the greater Lawgiver than Moses declared, "The Sabbath was made for man," and therefore could not be annulled so long as man remains on earth. This th'eory of the ecclesiasti- cal basis of the Sabbath, though varying in its state- ment and explanation, is liable to the most serious objections. 196 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. a. It overlooks and discredits the real scriptural basis for the Sabbath. As blessing the lower orders of animals at their creation assured their perpetuity on the earth, blessing the seventh part of time pro- mised to it a permanent distinction, and observance by mankind. There is an ineffable majesty in the solitary grandeur of this benediction. It rises up from the meagre annals of the most stupendous events as a lone mountain peak from a plain. When so few things are told, what are told must be of supreme importance. Whatever that blessing meant for one age it meant for all ages. It fixed an ineffaceable mark on the seventh proportion of time. It hallowed one day in seven for devout observance. It was the natural source of all Sabbatic observance and all Sab- batic division of time. Why then trace the Sabbath to some unexplained custom, instead of tracing all various Sabbath customs to the primitive divine ben- ediction and law ? Why claim that by a spiritual in- stinct man discovered the Sabbath law as a constitu- tional law of his being, instead of claiming that the law was framed to meet these religious instincts and necessities ? This reversion of the proper order of reasoning might be expected pf those denying divine revelation, and insisting on scientific basis for every institution, but not of those who accept the authority of Moses. Admitting the authority of the Sacred Scriptures, they should affect our interpretations of divine ordinances. The Mosaic account of God's blessing the seventh day must have a vital relation to any true interpretation of Sabbath law. The divine THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. I97 blessing and divine repose after periods of creation must furnish a basis and sanction for any obligatory- Sabbath. The day is thus associated with the creation of man and the constitution and order of nature. It roots itself in divine law and human conscience. It demands a reverence civil or ecclesiastical law can- not inspire. The turning from such natural and divine foundation for the Sabbath has risen perhaps unconsciously from the habit of finding sanction for all religious discipline in the state or church. The Bible is of only secondary importance to Papist or High- churchman. He thinks it no teacher without the interpretation of the Church, and hence no Scriptural evidence need bind the conscience without her assent, while the most doubtful Scriptural inference is sacred law if indorsed by the doctors of the Church. But a single word of God on the Sabbath is more authori- tative than whole volumes of the traditions and inter- pretations of men. b. The ecclesiastical theory of the Sabbath makes any sacred basis for a holy day for all mankind im- possible. Papacy might bind the consciences of those trust- ing her infallibility to the Sabbath, but not the vo- taries of any other Christian creed. Those dissenting from her on other points would be predisposed against her Sabbath discipline. The Greek hierarchy might pledge to the Sabbath her own votaries, but not those outside of her communion. So the English or Luth- eran Church might enforce the Sabbath upon their own members, but not upon dissenters. Thus basing 198 DEFKXCE OF THE SABBaTH. the Sabbath on civil or ecclesiastical enactment denies it the sanction of an unchallenged universal divine law. It would be like making the family depend upon the legislation and authority of particular states, or particular ecclesiastical courts instead of primitive divine institution. The Sabbath sinks as would the family with only such uncertain and feeble sanction. As well make the force and sanctions of the laws of nature depend upon the uncertain and sometimes contradictory articulation of them by particular scientists, as make the obligation and observance of the Sabbath depend upon the variable definitions of civil or ecclesiastical law. The Sabbath dawns upon all lands and ages alike; as the light of the morning, and the benediction of the seasons it comes to all, in the same invariable order and divine authority. c. This theory of the Sabbath involves the profane assumption of Antichrist. It steps in between the divine Lawgiver and His subjects; professing to inter- pret and apply the law, it abolishes or rliscredits it. It makes the operation of a law of infinite beneficence contingent upon the will or caprice of men. It is like placing a dispensation over the air, permitting its waves to refresh the breathing world only after they have been measured out to each community or person, or it is like allowing no water supply to thirsty earth not gauged by ecclesiastical commissioners, or filtered through their creeds. Civil or ecclesiastical law assuming to define or give sanction to the Sab- bath, always betrays it. Professing to secure to men the Sabbath, it wrests it from them. ]\Ian cannot THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. I99 afford to accept the Sabbath as a gift from tlie state any more than the family or the Decalogue. It is a symbol and defence of inalienable rights. It is a creed and lit irgy for the world. It postulates and cele- brates the brotherhood of the race, and the universal Fatherhood of God. In preaching the Gospel to the world this may be the first homage or rite to be ob- served by the heathen. With one divine Sabbath tlie race may at lengtli receive one faith. But as an institute of Rome or any oilier ecclesiastical body it will never become the Sabbath of the world. Apologists for loose Sabbaths to accommodate loose rulers or loose times, accept the Sabbath merely as an uncertain human tradition, which may be varied or abolished according to the supposed exigencies of the times. Keeping it only on the ground of church or state authority, surrenders it to the irreligion or caprice of any age. Under pretence of guarding its administration, this most comprehensive and sacretl charter of human rights is wrested from mankind. This administration when usurped has never been duly honored by prelate or king, but is always com- promised, whether by civil or ecclesiastical authority. There is a semi-ecclesiastical theory of the Sabbath set forth especially by Hessey: "Whether some moral consideration which the Mosaic law did not furnish for the first time, and which therefore survived its abolition, did not from the nature of the case consti- tute a reason for the institution of the Lord's Day, which we are justified in finding if we can, and whether again the Mosaic law, as one development of 200 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. the moral consideration, was not as in other matters, so in this suggestive of something connected with it, are points which I reserve for the present. So far as we have gone, the external character of the Lord's Day at the close of the first century appears to be that of a positive institution. It is a day of Christian assembling at short intervals of time, on which cer- tain duties to God, to man's self, and to his neighbors were performed. This positive institution would seem, both in its essence and in the circumstances which we have found attached to it, to possess what- ever of divine sanction origination by inspired Apos- tles can bestow. As a matter of fact, the interval between one Lord's Day and another is of the same length as that between one Sabbath and another. But nothing Sabbatical, either in the sense of com- manded rest, or in the way of implication that the whole of it is to be employed in directly religious observances, or that such religious observances as are employed should be cast in a particular mould, or that such and such acts were prohibited during its continuance — nothing, I say, of this sort is to be found in what we call the charter-deed of the institution of the Lord's Day." '''Whatever of this sort afterwards formally be- longed to it, is of ecclesiastical ruling in the lower sense of the term, — is obligatory in a secondary de- gree only, in deference to the voice of the ancient Church, or that of our own, — or as suggested by the nature of the case or by Christian charity, or by con- siderations of public utility." THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. 201 Dr. Hawkins (" Bampton Lectures for 1840") gives an able and conservative view of the authority of and sanction of the Lord's Day : "We have absolutely no need of such an ample ar- ray of scriptural proof to convince us of the divine original of an ordinance, as we might have desired for our belief in a revealed doctrine. Nay, we may not only acquiesce in a less amount of proof, but even observe ... in such a difference one of numerous instances of a merciful accommodation to our wants, everywhere to be traced throughout the whole econ- omy of divine revelation. The religious observance of the Lord's Day, for instance, is almost universally acknowledged as a Christian duty throughout the Christian world. And a cheering thought it is, amidst our manifold divisions, to observe scarcely a single sect, and not a single church, interrupting on this great article of belief the general concord ; mil- lions of our brethren offering at the same hour their solemn protest against irreligion and idolatry, and suspending their cares and toils to celebrate the re- demption of the world, and adore with one consent the one true God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Is it even necessary that the duty should be explicitly enjoined in the Christian Scriptures, which even with- out a specific command can be distinctly perceived, and this not only by the considerate Christian, but even by the statesman, the moralist, the philanthro- pist, to be at once a duty and a blessing ? To the poor — that is, to the great majority of our race in every land and under every condition of society — this day 202 DEFENCE OF THE SADBATH. of religious rest is simply a boon. If a seventh part were added to the amount of labor, although the num- ber of the poor might be increased, their temporal condition would be exactly what it is. But suppose the weekly rest abandoned, a seventh part would not therefore be added to the produce of labor ; for the physician knows that this merciful provision for a re- mission of human toil is absolutely necessary to the best exertion of strength of man, bodily or intel- lectually. And how much more does every religious man feel it to be essential to the well-being of our higher nature, to the health of the soul, and for our preparation for that future existence, which is our real life ! But then assuredly the statesman and the philanthropist would never of themselves have de- vised or enjoined the ordinance, nor can even its ex- ternal observance, greatly as it may be promoted, be effectually secured by any efforts of theirs. We must look to higher sources for the origin of the duty and its obligations. "We trace back, accordingly, the general observ- ance of the Lord's Day to the very era of the promul- gation of the Gospel. We find the universality of the practice recognized by the earliest extant writings, genuine or apocryphal — by Ignatius, Justin, the epistle attributed to Barnabas, the so-called apostolic con- stitutions, as well as by various other works of the second and third and succeeding centuries. And this universal observance of the Lord's Day is ren- dered specially striking, not only by varieties of practice in other cases, but even in respect of the Jew- THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. 203 ish Sabbath ; the observance of which we find re- tained by many in early times together with the Lord's Day, then discontinued, then revived, and revived amid so much discrepancy of opinion, that the day was regarded a fast in the Western churches, in the East as a festival. Why this difference, but because the universal observation of the Lord's Day was based upon apostolic authority, whilst the same Apostles wheresoever the Jewish Sabbath did not appear to undermine, as in the Galatian Church, the foundation of the Gospel, permitted the practice gradually to dis- appear before the increasing light of Christianity ? Add, then, but a few recognitions in the Christian Scriptures themselves of the actual observance of the Lord's Day even in the age of the Apostles, and with their sanction, nay, apparently, with the implied sanc- of our Lord Himself, and of the Holy Spirit, and we have all the proof which we really require of its di- vine authority. . . . "With respect to the Mosaic Sabbath, the fourth commandment is not, I apprehend, the true founda- tion of Christian duty. . . We say indeed, and we say justly, that not hallowing the seventh da}^, yet hallow- ing one day in seven, we fulfil the spirit of the law. . . . It is to the spirit of the law of the commandment that we appeal, not to the letter. The letter we believe to have been abrogated, but the spirit survives. The spirit of that command was not to be abrogated, which was distinguished in so marked a manner from the positive institutions of the law ; pronounced by the awful voice of God, placed alone among moral precepts, 204 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. the authoritative declarations of our natural duties, itself unconnected with shadowy and typical rites, which were partial enactments temporary in their very nature, whilst this rested upon the ground of universal religion, applicable alike to all the sons of men. The spirit of this great command survives, accordingly, in another ordinance, equally of divine appointment, but more spiritual and more comprehensive : point- ing to the doctrines of redemption, yet still embrac- ing everything which pervaded the Mosaic precept, of glory to the Creator and benefit to His creatures — even the lowest of His creatures, those whom we too frequently oppress, but who are never forgotten by Him." A third the xu:y,,jol the Sabbath holds that the Lord's Day is founded distinctly upon the primitive Sabbath law, established in Eden, enforced by Moses, and reaffirmed by Christ. Without assuming a prim- itive Sabbath to which the Lord's Day has succeeded, casual observance or even unenforced apostolic ex- ample might not seem sufficient foundation for a uni- versal ordinance. But as a law of Nature, coexistent with the family, incorporated with the Decalogue, and exalted by Christ as " Lord of the Sabbath-day," it becomes binding on the Christian Church to the end of time. As the necessities for rest, worship, and high culture remain the same under the Christian as under the Mosaic dispensation, there can appear no more reason for repealing the law than for abrogating any other law of the Decalogue. Strong defenders of the strict interpretation of the THEORIES OF THE SABBATH. 205 Sabbath were found in the sixteenth century, es- pecially in England, Scotland, and in Holland. The first work which attracted special attention was that of Dr. Bound, published in England toward the close of that century, and republished in Holland, followed by numerous publications and sharp con- troversy in all Protestant countries. The divinity professors and clergy of Zealand, to harmonize diverse views of Protestants on this subject, presented the following statement to the synod, which was approved and widely circulated : 1. ''In the fourth commandment of the law of God there is something ceremonial and something moral. 2. " The resting upon the seventh day after the crea- tion, and the strict observation of it, which was par- ticularly imposed upon the Jewish people, was the ceremonial part of that law. 3. "But the moral part is, that a certain day be fixed and appropriated to the service of God, and as much rest as is necessary to that service and the holy meditation upon Him. 4. " The Jewish Sabbath being abolished, Christians are obliged solemnly to keep holy the Lord's Day. 5. "This day has ever been observed by the ancient Catholic Church, from the time of the Apostles. 6. " This day ought to be appropriated to religion in such a manner as that we should abstain from all servile works at that time, excepting those of charity and necessity ; as likewise from all such diversions as are contrary to religion." Later, Dr. Samuel Lee, Regius Professor of Hebrew 206 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. at Cambridge, maintained substantial!}^ the following propositions : i. That the patriarchs had a Sabbath- day, as held by many Biblical scholars, and made prob- able from the Mosaic account of the creation. 2. The heathen inherited the Sabbath from the patriarchs, as made probable from the origin of the Sabbath at the birth of the race, but perverted afterward into sun- woiship and idolatry. 3. That the patriarchs and lieathen together represented the world. 4. That the Jewish Sabbath, that falls on our Saturday, was chosen peculiarly for a temporary covenant and a temporary dispensation ; and that on the annulling of such tem- porary covenant and dispensation the original Sab- bath, i.e. the "dies soils," was restored to its dignity. In other words, that the Cliristian festival of the first day of the week is the primal Sabbath of God ; and that in keeping it holy Cliristians are unconsciously fulfill- ing the fourth commandment. As the ancient Sabbath had been sacred from the beginning, and had lost noth- ing of its primitive sanction b}' having been accommo- dated to the times of the Egress, and as that system had come to an end, "that day would now necessarily recur, by virtue of the precept which first announced and set it apart. There would therefore consequently be no necessity for any new commandment in the New Testament again to sanction it for the future observance of the Church." Dr. Lee cites Capellus, Archbishop Usher, and Gale in support of his ingeni- ous theory. Wliether his interpretation be approved oi- not, the conclusion reached is triumphantly main- tulued by evangelical Christendom. Perhaps no* TIJEORIES OF THE SABBATH. 20/ writer in tliis controvers}' has presented in briefer or clearer statement the prevailing evangelical view of the Christian Sabbath than Dr. Merie in the Witness : "The Sabbath is the wisest and most beneficent, as well as tlie most ancient, institution of heaven ; the first gift which God conferred on our newly created parents, and by which He continues to testify at once His care for our bodies and our spirits, by providing relaxation for the one and refreshment for the other ; the joint memorial of creation and redemption ; the token of God's residence. on earth, and the earnest of man's salvation to heaven ; an institution which blends, like the cc^lors of the rainbow^ — itself a sacred emblem, — recollections of the innocence of our prim- eval state, and the grace of our recovery, with the an- ticipation of the glory to which we are called ; an in- stitution in the observance of which we feel ourselves associated not onl}^ with all who in every region, yea, on every sea, believe on the same Saviour ; but also witli holy men, apostles, prophets, patriarchs, in every age since men began to call on the name of the Lord." V. The Christian Sabbath. " O day most calm, most bright, The fruit of this, the next world's bud ; The endorsement of supreme delight, Writ by a Friend, and with His blood." The observance and legal defence of the Sabbath are greatly obstructed by the controversy about the proper day for its observance. Seventh - day Bap- tists unite with Jews and infidels in a protest against any legal defence of the Christian Sabbath. The following is the substance of the argument for the exclusive seventh-day Sabbath : 1. The law established in Eden, enforced by Moses, and reaffirmed by Christ designated the seventh day, and only the seventh day, as holy time. 2. That primitive law has never been repealed or modified by the Supreme Sovereignty which enacted it. 3. The consecration of the seventh day by divine example and blessing excludes all other days from its sanctity till they have shared the same consecration. 4. Replacing in the religious calendar the seventh day by any other day for sacred memorial and wor- ship, would be like changing a family register, and contrary to law, transferring from one son to another THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 209 the honor of succession, or the inheritance of crown or estate. 5. The substitution of one holy day for another in the ritual of the Church would be like the Jews changing the day of the Passover or American citi- zens changing the day for commemoration of the birth of the Republic, or for decorating the graves of the soldiers who gave their lives to perpetuate it. 6. Believers in the Word of God have no more right to abrogate the seventh-day Sabbath than Israel had to abrogate the ritual of Moses, or the Christian Church the ordinances of Christ. 7. In exalting the claims of the first day against the claims of the divinely appointed Sabbath, Chris- tendom has revolted against Supreme Authority, be- come herself Antichrist, and delayed the triumph of Messiah's Kingdom by "teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." 8. As Israel made void God's laws through their traditions, and Papacy has filled the world with sects by substituting the commandments of men for the ordinances of God ; so those substituting supposed customs of the early Church for primitive unrepealed and irrepealable Sabbath law have divided Christ- endom, prevented the union of the world in the ob- servance of one and the same Sabbath, and post- poned indefinitely the triumph of the kingdom of God over the earth. This argument for the seventh day seems at first view conclusive. But are there not fallacies lurking under all its propositions fatal to its conclusiveness ? 14 2IO defe;nce of the sabbath. In regard to the first thesis : if the seventh part of time reckoned from the beginning was also the sev- enth day from creation, does it certainly follow that the validity of the law was in the succession, and not essentially in the proportion of time — one day in seven ? In regard to the second thesis : can it be made cer- tain that Christ, " the Lord of the Sabbath," has not repealed the Mosaic ritual, and restored the original Sabbath with change of time, memorial, and sanc- tion ? In regard to the third thesis : has not the first day received a greater consecration through association with redemption than the seventh day through asso- ciation with creation ? In regard to the fourth thesis : as Jacob replaced Esau by the covenant of grace, as a memorial of the same covenant may not the first day have succeeded to the provisions and promises of the seventh day ? In regard to the fifth thesis : as Christ did abrogate the Jewish ritual, why should it seem strange that He should also have modified the time of the Sabbath ? In regard to the sixth thesis . it is not claimed that modern sects have a right to change Sabbath observ- ance, but that Christ, " the Lord of the Sabbath," and His inspired apostles had. In regard to the seventh thesis : if Christ Himself exalted the first above the seventh day, and His in- spired Apostles did the same, it cannot be Antichrist for the Church to continue to make the first day her holy day. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 211 In regard to the eighth thesis : those denying Christ's Lordship and ordinances, and not those who honor them, are responsible for divisions of the Chris- tian Church, and the slow progress of the kingdom of God on earth. Having merely glanced at what seem to us the fallacies of the argument for the seventh day, we proceed to set forth what seems to us the more conclusive argument for the observance of the first day as the Christian Sabbath. 1. The existence of the Christian Sabbath affords strong presumption in favor of perpetuating it. More conclusive reasons should be demanded for ab- rogating an ordinance than for forbidding its institu- tion. This day is now established in the reverence and observance of the greatest and most progressive nations of the world. Annulling it would amount to a religious, social, and political revolution. Attempt- ing so great change, without certain divine authority or the greatest practical expediency, would seem like reaching forth a profane hand to steady the Ark of God. 2. Those seeking to replace the observance of the first by that of the seventh day seem to overlook the fact that as a moral law the original Sabbath might vary its form while retaining its substance ; might assume, under a new dispensation, a new ritual relat- ing to time, manner of observance, and penalty, with- out impairing its identity or its divine sanction. There could be no anterior improbability of such a change, nor would very direct or explicit evidences seem necessary to justify it. Moral laws seem to 212 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. formulate themselves as rivers open their own chan- nels to the sea. The universal Sabbath for rest and worship might almost find out its fittest day and its fittest ritual through conspicuous Providence or emi- nent example. 3. Memorial uses of the original Sabbath need not be lost by changing the day of its observance. The validity of Jevvisli festivals did not depend upon veri- fying the dates of their observance. Feast-days of Papacy do not challenge the reverence and observ- ance of her votaries by proving the correctness of her calendar. The birth of the American Republic has sometimes been celebrated on the third and some- times on the fifth of July, without detriment to the honor of the state or the patriotism of her citizens. So whether the seventh day from creation or the seventh day in any conventional chronology were ob- served, the commemoration of the stupendous order of the universe and the exodus of Israel from Egypt might with equal propriety and impressiveness be as- sociated with its worship. As the chronology from the resurrection of Christ is made more certain by history and tradition than that from the creation, there might seem reason for preferring the first day for memorial celebration, especially as creation as well as redemption was accomplished on that day. " In the beginning" — the first day — '' God created the heavens and the earth." Surely it would seem as appropriate to merge the celebration of creation in the commemoration of Redemption, as the celebration of Redemption in the commemoration of creation. THE CHRISIIAN SABBATH. 213 The Lord's D^iy should seem to the world a more im- pressive memorial than the Jewish Sabbath. 4. The autliority for the observance of the first da)^ is the same as that which gave sanction to the seventh day. The authority for each was divine ex- ample. Jehovah having finished His work in six periods, rested on the seventh ; and thus pledged the grateful rest and worship of man on the seventh day of his week of toil. So Christ having finished His vicarious sufferings on the cross on the sixth day, and His humiliation in the tomb on the seventh, rose from the dead on the first day, leading captivity cap- tive, and opened up a new promise of resurrection from the dead and everlasting life through Him, and consecrated the first day — the day of His triumphant rest — for the sacred observance of His followers to the end of time. As the Gospel is based on the atone- ment of Christ ratified in His triumphant resurrec- tion, the Lord's Day becomes binding wherever the Gospel is accepted. Its observance acknowledges Christ's Lordship, and the only way of salvation through Him. The Lord's Day has consequently followed the acceptance of the Gospel as baptism. Refusing that observance denied that Christ had come in the flesh, and had done away with Judaism, and introduced a better covenant and better promises, and a new ritual of worsliip. In a more comprehen- sive and practical way than baptism and the supper, the Lord's Day has become the memorial of the resurrection, and redemption of the world through Christ. 214 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. 5. The first day makes the same provision for bodily rest and recuperation as the seventh. With the same regularity it lifts the galling yoke of labor from the tired and chafed neck of man, and recalls him from the taxing toils or cares of field, shop, counting-house, or office, to rest in the bosom of home or in the hallowed precincts of the house of God. In this weekly repose the jaded body rises from prostrating fatigues, resists incipient disorders, and regains its accustomed vigor for the duties of life. No change of the Sabbath that would reduce its beneficent ministry could have been sought by man or enjoined by God. 6. The first day makes also the same stated provi- sion for mental refreshment and culture as the seventh. It is a school period, as long as carefully guarded, and furnished with ^s good appointments and teachers as the seventh day. If the new Sabbath provided less hours, less helps, or less sanctions in its scheme for the general and higher education of men than the old Sabbath secures, a change of days might reasonably be objected to. Dare we imperil this comprehensive and beneficent educational foun- dation by a technical dispute about a succession of days or the reckoning of holy time ? 7. The first day provides more impressive appeals and sanctions for religious worship than the seventh day. Summoning all the inhabitants of the earth simultaneously to bend the knee before the Supreme Majesty, and simultaneously blend their voices in prayer and praise to the great Creator, is an order THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 21$ ineffably sublime. When Jehovah brought His only begotten Son into the world He said, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." If the august spectacle of earth and heaven uniting in the worship of Jeho- vah were better provided for on the seventh than on the first day, a change of Sabbatic time might seem sacrilegious, abhorrent to men and to God. But as the pre-eminence of Christ's name is proclaimed, the brotherhood of the race is to be restored in Him, and the homage of heaven as well as of earth is chal- lenged by Him, there seems a special fitness in calling religious assemblies on the day which celebrates His resurrection, and the promised triumph of His king- dom. 8. The first day is specially suitable for celebration of the believer's rest of faith in this world, and a sym- bol of His everlasting rest in heaven. "There re- maineth therefore a rest for the people of God" seems to mean not only that the Christian believer has a rest of faith, as the pious Jew had, and like him an external Sabbath, a symbol of the nature and grounds of that faith ; but also the promise of an everlasting rest assured by better promises through Christ. 9. The celebration of the first 4ay as a memorial of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pente- cost seems sacredly binding. On that day a new and more spiritual evangelism for the world was in- augurated. The spirituality and freedom of the Christian Church were promised. The efficient agen- cy in the regeneration of man was proclaimed. If a 2l6 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. day fraught with such spiritual gifts and promises is not observed, let all memorials cease. So long as the dispensation of the Spirit continues to assure the perseverance of saints, the ministration of spiritual gifts, and the success of Christian evangelisms and missions, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost should be celebrated. lo. The first day should be celebrated as the birth- day of the believer's Christian faith, experience, and hopes. As the pious Hebrew celebrated on the seventh day his rest from a week of toil, and also his release from the hard bondage in Egypt, and his tri- umphant entrance into the Promised Land ; so on the first day the Christian believer celebrates rest with God through faith in a Divine Mediator, deliv- erance from bondage to sin, the burdens of ceremo- nial law and the menace of the moral law, through the atonement and redemption of Christ, the Saviour of the world. The first day should be kept as a sym- bol of the grounds of present peace, and as prophetic of the heavenly rest after final triumph over sin and the grave. II. Though with such various and conclusive rea- sons for hallowing the first day as the Christian Sab- bath, we need hardly expect or look for specific order for the change of days, the example of Christ and His inspired Apostles should satisfy all demanding specific divine order for the change of Sabbatic time. It is directly declared that after His resurrection Christ " talked with His Apostles about things con- cerning His kingdom." It is not improbable that the THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 2l^ designation of the new Sabbath was then made. At all events, after His resurrection we do not read that He met with His disciples on any other day. But as if summoning His followers ever after to meet Him for the service, and fellowship of His name and kingdom to the end of time, He met His disciples repeatedly after His resurrection on the first day of the week — first Mar}', then the other women ; then Peter, and afterward other Apostles ; the two on the way to Em- maus, and then all the Apostles ; then the one hun- dred and twenty on the day of Pentecost — the most memorable first-day meeting of the primitive Church. Inspired Apostles, following the sacred example and promise of the Master, called Christian assemblies in different parts of the country on the first and not on the seventh day. Paul passing by the opportunity of the seventh day, took pains to meet and break bread with the church of Troas on the first day — the day of the resurrection of the Lord. Regulations about charitable collections as a part of Christian worship, and warning against neglect of the stated worship of the churches, were based on the observance of the Lord's Day. As these disciples could not have ac- knowledged the obligations of two Sabbaths, it is • manifest they believed that in observing the first day they honored the primitive Sabbath law. Only through this conviction can we account for the gene- ral replacing of the old by the new Sabbath in the early Church. If the seventh day were still binding, it would have been retained as the basis of their worship, discipline, and evangelism. It could have 2l8 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. been only because the early churches had come gene- rally to keep the first day, and deem it more sacred than the seventh, and practically taking its place, that Constantine, Leo, and other emperors made laws to protect the first and not the seventh day. If the large and growing class of Christian citizens had held the seventh as the holy day instead of the first, it seems certain that day would have been guarded by law rather than the first day. This preference and superior sanctity of the first day become clearer and clearer from the beginning of Christian history. It is needless to cite fathers through the earlier centu- ries to prove this distinction of the first day. Justin of the second century may represent the strength of the testimony of the fathers as to Sabbatic time and observance : "But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assemblies, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For Jesus was crucified on that day before that of Saturn ; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His Apostles and disciples. He taught them these things which we have submitted to you also, for your con- sideration." 12. TJie Lord's Day crowned as the Sabbath of the World. — Older faiths of the world are falling into de- cay. The paganism of India is following that of Greece and of Rome into the shadows of oblivion. Buddhism, losing its aggressive character, is losing THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 219 the confidence of its votaries ; and the Bramo Somaj is discrediting its temples, ritual, and priesthood. Mohammedanism, limited in its career of conquest by the rise of stronger powers, is losing her religious with her military prestige. The Koran and mosque have a less imperious control over her votaries ; and with quickened thought, instinct of liberty, and freer intercourse with western nations a disruption of her empire and the dispersion of her followers may oc- cur. As the Hebrews are rising to citizenship, wealth, culture, and social standing in many lands, their exclusive faith and ritual are more frequently challenged by their children, who become impatient of isolation and estrangement from the religious ob- servance of the communities where they dwell. Their sacrifices have long since ceased. Their feast- days are less scrupulously observed. Their Sabbath is no longer reverenced as it was by their fathers, and little by little it is being added to the domain of secular industries. Apart from Christianity, there is no other religious name or system likely to become universal, or even permanent. Castes and shasters are passing away. Temples and altars are being abandoned to the moles and the bats. Priests are losing the veneration of the people, and seeking secular employments. If in- quiry, education, and civilization continue to spread, in a hundred years scarcely a vestige of the domi- nant faiths of the world may remain. They are fall- ing before the name and symbols of Christianity as Dagon fell before the Ark of God. But while other 220 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. religions are becoming effete and falling into decay, Christianity is advancing in every part of the v^'orld. She is the faith of all the mightiest nations. She leads the van of human progress. Of all the religi- ous faiths, she alone through Messianic prophecy puts forth claims to universal and permanent dominion. It w^as said of his great antitype, as of Abraham, *' In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed " (Gen. xxii. i8). Of this same cliosen seed it is said, " His name shall endure forever : His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him : all nations shall call Him blessed ; ... let the whole earth be filled with His glory" (Ps. Ixxii. 17, 19). ''Lift up an ensign for the nations" (Isa. v. 26). "And He shall set up an ensign for the nations" (Isa. xi. 12). "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God " (Isa. Hi. 10). " God be merci- ful unto us, and bless us ; and cause His face to shine upon us. That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations. Let the peo- ple praise Thee, O God ; let all the people praise thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy : for Thou shalt judge the people righteousl}^ and govern the nations upon earth. . . . God shall bless us ; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him" (Ps. Ixvii.). These and similar scriptures forecast the disappear- ance of Judaism and all rival faiths, and the trium- phant establishment of Christ's kingdom over all nations. Providence and history are confirming prophecy, and Christ's name is fast rising in the faith and reverence of mankind "above every name that THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 221 is named on earth or in heaven." "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and to His dominion there shall be no end." But in becoming the universal faith she will maintain her own ritual observance — her own Sabbath. As Christ's kingdom becomes es- tablished, the memorial of its birth at the morn of His resurrection will everywhere be observed. As the Passover, celebrating the exodus of the Jews from bondage, followed their dispersion over the world and through the centuries, and as the festival com- memorating the birth of the Republic is honored on her remotest frontier, and by tlie most obscure com- munity confessing allegiance to her banner ; so the day commemorating the resurrection of Christ and the birth of His kingdom will follow its conquest to every land, every tribe, and every people under the sun, and become the Sabbath of the world. No festal day of Paganism, or Buddhism, or Moliammedanism, or of Judaism can be conceived of as gaining this dis- tinction. But the day of the Lord clearly may gain this renown, and stand alone on the religious calen- dar as the day for rest and worship for universal humanity. How inspiring to see citizens of the Re- public coming up from rural district, village, town, and city, marching under the same banner, and keep- ing time to the same music, celebrating the same an- cestral virtues and traditions, and pledging patriotic loyalty to the same constitution and laws ! But far more impressive will it be to see all the tribes and kindreds of the earth, abandoning all other names and symbols of religion, and acknowledging one God 222 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. and one Mediator between God and man, on the day of Christ's resurrection and the inauguration of His kingdom on earth resting from secular labors and pleasures, and in their chosen houses of prayer praising tlieir Creator and their Redeemer, and. rising in ennobling aspiration to an immortality of being and blessing, and singing as they pray, "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run ; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more." Then, realizing the double promise, " There remains therefore a rest for the people of God " while looking to the heavenly rest, they shall also exclaim of the Christian's Sabbath as distinguished from that of the Jews, ''This is the day the Lord hath made : we will rejoice and be glad in it." VI. Testimony. Profound interpreters of history, apart from di- vine revelation, have found in the Sabbath a law of Nature — an ordinance of God. Plato says, " Out of pity for the wretched life of mortals, the Deity arranged days of festal refresh- ment." Laplace, in his " Exposition of the System of Na- ture," says, '' The week from the highest antiquity cir- culates across the centuries ; and it is very remarkable that it is likewise found everywhere in the world." Hegel declares, " Antiquity has bequeathed the Sab- bath to modern nations ; and the fact that this insti- tution has subsisted in despite of the changes which have taken place in the domain of politics and re- ligion, testifies to its intrinsic value and its absolute necessity." . Professor Ernst Curtius, the eminent German Hel- lenist, says, " The attention to working and resting days appeared even to the ancients as something so primitive in its origin, so indispensable, and so closely connected with religion, that they found in it not a mere value of human cleverness, but a divine ordinance." 224 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. The Jews from the time of Moses have given uni- form and emphatic testimony to the duty of con- secrating a seventh part of time to rest and worship. By the scrupulous observance 'of this divine ordi- nance they have preserved their identity through the ages, continued their protest against id'olatry, and en- forced tlieir testimony to the existence of one living and true God. Mohammedans, though changing the day to sepa- rate themselves from Jewish'and Christian ritual, give equally emphatic testimony to the perpetuity and sacredness of the Sabbath law. Roman Catholics join Protestants in maintaining the universality and divine authority of the Sabbath. Pius IX. says in a pontifical message to France in i873j ''Go and tell France, which is so dear to me, that if she would be saved, she must return to the sanctification of the Lord's Day." The present Pope, in an address to all Roman Catholic people, declares : " The observance of the sacred day, which was willed expressly by God from the first origin of man, is imperatively demanded by the absolute and essential dependence of the creature upon the Creator. And the law^ — mark it well, my be- loved — which at one and the same time so admirably provides for tlie honor of God, the spiritual needs and dignity of man, and the temporal well-being of hu- man life — this law, we say, touches not only individ- uals, but also peoples and nations, which owe to Di- vine Providence the enjoyment of every advantage which is derived from civil society. And it is precisely TESTIMONY. 225 to this fatal tendency, which to-day prevails, to desire to lead mankind far away from God, and to order the affairs of kingdoms and nations as if God did not ex- ist, that to-day is attributed this contempt and ne- glect of the day of the Lord." The Bishop of Buffalo, in calling renewed atten- tion to the Sabbath, after forbidding picnics, excur- sions, and fairs on Sunday and holy days, said : '' ' Re- member thou keep holy the Sabbath-day,' is God's command. . . , We must not only rest from ail un- necessary and servile work, but we must hear mass, and spend tlie day — or at least a good part of it — in the service of God and religious duties. . . . Ours is not, as we have said, a Jewish or a Puritanical Sab- bath, nor do we measure its obligatory observance by a sectarian standard, or any American or national ideal ; yet we would be sorry to see the respect in which our separated brethren hold the Lord's Day weakened or discredited. God grant that we may never see Sunday profaned here in our country as we have seen it in other lands." The Metropolitan Catholic Union, at a State Con- vention in Troy in 1882, resolved, "That the sale of intoxicating drinks upon the Lord's Day is not only a violation of the laws of the state and the precepts of the Church, but also a fruitful source of intemperance, and we are bound in the very nature of this Union to oppose it, and seek by every means to uproot it." Cardinal McCloskey, and the bishops associated with him in Provincial Synod in the city of New York, issued a pastoral letter, in which it is said, 15 226 DEFENXE OF THE SABBATH. "We wholly denounce and positively forbid picnics on Sundays, or moonlight excursions ; and we exhort our good people, who love their Church and have the interests of religion and morality at heart, to ab- stain from any participation in such scandalous, un- hallowed, and disgraceful practices, and to use all their influence to suppress them. The Loid's Day, the blessed day of rest, must not be desecicited by such shameful scenes." Father Ravignan, an eminent Catholic divine, says, " I do not see that practical Atheism can be more thoroughly expressed than by the habitual public and universal violation of the Lord's Day. No more worship, no more religion, practically no more God." Statesmen a?id Civilians. During the discussion of the question of opening museums and art- galleries on Sundays Gladstone thus announced himself: "If the state once entered upon a course of the kind, the only point at which it would stop short was the point which had been reached in foreign capitals, where there was abso- lutely no protection to the workingman in the ob- servance of the Sabbath. I resist the motion, too, on higher grounds. Nothing could be more injuri- ous to the intellectual, the moral, and the physical welfare of the country, than that anything should be done by the State which would lend countenance to the idea that they were anxious to get rid of the ob- servance of the Sabbath as now enjoyed; and speak- ing on behalf of the Government, I cannot therefore TESTIMONY. 227 hold out any hope that the decisions of successive ministers on the subject will be reversed." John Bright said before the House of Commons, ^' The stability and character of our country and the advancement of our race depend, I believe, very largely upon the mode in which the Day of Rest, which seems to have been specially adapted to the needs of mankind, shall be used and observed." S. D. Waddy, member of Parliament, expressed this sentiment : "Let Sunday once come to be used by the nation generally for amusements, and the collar of work will be fastened as tightly around the necks of the working-men on Sunday as on any other day." T. F. Bayard, U. S. Senator, says : " I most sin- cerely approve of the civil institution of the Sabbath, as a 'dies non juridicus,' in which the usual labors and occupations of society are to be suspended. I do not discuss it as a day of religious observance, which naturally and properly it becomes, but as a civil period of intermission, a pause in ordinary pursuits, and an opportunity for rest and restoration. I heartily desire to see its observance under statute law, and the stronger law of habitual and universal custom and popular acquiescence." 'J. Randolph Tucker, M.C., gives similar testimony : "I wish to testify my belief that the institutional custom of our fathers in remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy, as the conservator of our Christian religion, is the foundation-stone of our political sys- tem, and the only hope of American freedom, prog- ress, and glory." 228 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. General Garfield left an impressive testimony to the sanctity of the Sabbath at the Chicago Convention, at which he was subsequently nominated for the Presi- dency. On Saturday night many wanted to go on with the balloting after midnight, and many pressed Judge Hoar, the chairman, to ignore the Sabbath and let the convention proceed. Sustained by his own convictions and such men as Garfield, Judge Hoar replied, "Never. This is a Sabbath-keeping nation, and I cannot preside over this convention one minute after twelve o'clock." On that Sunday Garfield at- tended church, and heard a sermon. At dinner the conversation turned upon the suspense of the coun- try. One spoke of the dead-lock in business created by it ; another of the suspense at Washington, where all were waiting for further developments of the con- vention. All except Garfield had said something ; and when all were done, he remarked, quietly but with earnestness, to one sitting beside him, "Yes, this is a day of suspense, but it is also a day of prayer ; and I have more faith in the prayers that will go up from Christian hearts to-day than I have in all the political tactics which will prevail at this convention." During his sickness he remembered the Lord's Day when it came. On one Sunday morning, as he opened his eyes to its holy light, he said, "This is the Lord's Day. I have great rever- ence for it." Justice Strong, of the United States Supreme Court, says : "There is abundant justification for our I'vinday laws, regarding them as a mere civil institu- TESTIMONY. 229 tion, which they are ; and he is no friend to the good order and welfare of society who would break them down, or who himself sets an example of disobedience to them. They appeal to each citizen as a patriot, as an orderly member of the community, and as a well- wisher to his fellow-men, to uphold them with all his influence, and to show respect for them by his con- duct and example." Washington's order to the army at the beginning of the Revolution expresses his sentiments and those of the founders of the Republic in respect to the Sab- bath : " That the troops may have an opportunity of attending public worship, as well as to take some rest after the great fatigue they have gone through, the general, in future, excuses them from fatigue duty on Sundays, except at the sliipyards or on special occasions, until further orders. We can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly." The order to the army by President Lincoln, in 1862, breathes a similar appreciation of the holy Sabbath. Men of Culture. Addison in his '' Spectator" says : ''If keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution it would be the best method that could have been thought of for polishing and civilizing mankind." Michel Chevalier says : ''Since one day in seven is indispensable to the man who works, let us keep the Sabbath in the name of Hygiene, if not in the name of religion." 230 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATM. Chateaubriand says : "We know now by experience that the fifth day is one too soon, and the tenth is one too far for repose. The Reign of Terror, which could do anything in France, was not able to force the peasant to keep the decade, because there is not power sufficient in human or animal forces. The ox cannot labor nine days in succession. At the end of six his groaning seems to demand the hours marked by the Creator for the general repose of the creatures, and the week, dethroned for a moment, regained its eternal empire. No one can prevail against the work of God." W. F. Hook says, *' A large portion of every popu- lation, under the existing circumstances of society, must always be supported upon the minimum of pay. They will be remunerated for their labor by receiving barely what will supply them with food and raiment. This they now receive for six days' work : they would receive no more for seven." William Arthur declares, "No charter which men ever won by their life-blood carries such an amount of civil rights as that which measures out to all sub- ordinates, whether son or daughter, man-servant (^r maid-servant, one seventh of their entire lifetime, wherein their superiors may not exact from them any work of mere business or pleasure ; wherein, except from acts of duty, they are free — free to devote them- selves to healthful rest and holy enjoyment. Erase from the public mind this idea of the Lord's Day, and replace it by the French idea of Sunday, and all those civil rights disappear. No poor man can be wronged TESTIMONY. 23 1 out of his Sabbath without exposing* other working- men to the danger of similar wrong, the actual labor of the one being pleaded in palliation of burdens meant to be laid on the other ; and no public institu- tion can be made an instrument of Sunday amuse- ments without increasing the danger that all other public institutions shall be perverted to the same end." Thomas Hughes says : " I was trained as a child to look upon Sunday as a day which should be devoted to rest and w^orship. Every year that has passed over my head since childhood has strengthened those early impressions. I look upon Sunday as a quite unspeakable blessing to all Christian nations, and above all to our race, upon whom so large a share of the world's hard work has been laid in this marvel- lous country, and who are addressing themselves to it with an energy full of hope and promise for the future, while controlled by high purpose and high principle, but constantly in danger of running into feverish haste and reckless and unrighteous greed of possession — an unmanly hankering after material prosperity and wealth. Against this false tendency — this subtle temptation of us English folks on both sides of the Atlantic — Sunday, God's appointed day of rest and worship, stands out as the great bulwark and safeguard. No man who has faith in God and a true love for his country would do any act or say any word which could endanger in the remotest de- gree the reverence for the observance of that day." F. D. Maurice says : " My own reverence for the 232 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Sabbath would seem to many extreme. I believe England and Scotland will perish if they lose it, or begin to regard it as Protestants and Romanists abroad do. I could not understand the Christian Sabbath if I did not find the first form of it and the statement of its permanent significance in the fourth commandment. I look upon it as still expressing in that union of rest and work, which is implied in the constitution of the universe and of man ; as still affirming that man's rest has its foundation in God's rest, man's work in God's work ; as still proclaiming common blessings to the master and the servant, and the cattle. I regard the Lord's Day as the great message to human beings, the great silent message which is mightier than words, but which words ought to interpret concerning the reconciliation of God to man." Ralph Waldo Emerson says : " Christianity has given us the Sabbath, the jubilee of the whole world ; whose light dawns welcome alike into the closet of the philosopher, into the garret of toil, and into prison-cells, and everywhere suggests, even to the vile, the dignity of spiritual being." A leading New York journal makes this utterance : '* We are opposed to anything which tends to increase the already too great tendency to break down the observance of the Sabbath. Irrespective of any re- ligious question, which we do not now here discuss, the difficulty is that its secularization will tend to diminish its prestige as a season of rest from physical labor ; and this would be a consummation to be de- TESTIMONY. 233 precated, for the reason that in this over-active and, as we sometimes think, fatally busy country a very little opportunity will set a considerable portion of producers to work on Sunday, thus complicating the labor question, which is complicated enough already." Medical Men. Professor Mussey, of the Ohio Medical College, says : " The Sabbath should be regarded as a most benevolent institution, adapted alike to the physical, mental, and moral wants of man. In addition to con- stant bodily labor, the corroding influence of inces- sant mental exertion and solicitude cannot fail to in- duce premature decay and to shorten life. And there cannot be a reasonable doubt that, under the due observance of the Sabbath, life would on an average be prolonged more than one seventh of its whole period — that is, more than seven years in fifty." Dr. Harrison, of the same medical school, adds : " The Sabbath was made for man. . . . Incessant, un- interrupted toil wears out the energies of man's limited strength. The elasticity of the spring is destroyed by unabated pressure. The nervous system is espe- cially relieved by alternations of activity and repose, and by diversifications of impressions. The sacred quietness of the Sabbath takes off from the brain that excessive fulness of blood which the mental and bodily exercise of six days is calculated to produce. All experience is expressive of this universal proposi- tion, that a longer life and a greater degree of health are the sure results of a careful regard of the com- 234 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. mandment, ' Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.' " Ebenezer Alden of Massachusetts says : '' I view it as a day of compensation for the inadequate restorative power of the body under continued labor and excitement. The Sabbath holds the same relation to the week that night does to day. . . . Unneces- sary labor on the Sabbath is a physical sin, a trans- gression of a physical law, a law to which a penalty is attached — a penalty which cannot be obviated. Whoever tramples upon the Sabbath making it a day of toil, instead of a day of rest, is living too fast, and will in consequence the sooner reach that bourn from which no traveller returns." The New Haven Medical Association, consisting of twenty-five physicians, was asked its opinion of the testimony of the eminent Dr. Farre of England given to a committee of the House of Commons. They unanimously replied in the affirmative to the following questions : 1. Is the position taken by Dr. Farre, in his testi- mony before the committee of the British House of Commons, in your view correct ? 2. Will men who labor but six days in a week be more healthy and live longer, other things being equal, than those who labor seven ? 3. Will they do more work, and do it in a better manner ? Dr. John C. Warren of Harvard Medical College, Boston, observes : " I concur entirely in the opinion expressed by Dr. Farre, whom I personally know as a physician of the highest respectability. The breath- TESTIMONY. 535 ing the pure and sublime atmosphere of a religious Sabbath refreshes and invigorates the spirit. It forms an epoch in our existence from which we re- ceive a new impulse, and thus constitutes the best preparation for the labors of the following week." We cite as our closing witness, Dupanloup, late Archbishop, and Senator of France, as summing up the testimony of all ages and races of men, and of greater force, because arising from careful observa- tion and study of the Sabbath history of his country : " I will speak of the admirable qualities of the law of the Sabbath, its character eminently civilizing, as well as religious ; its astonishing harmonies with the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of man ; its absolute necessity at so many points of view ; its striking correspondence with all the needs of the in- dividual, the family, and society, and we may say with the entire life of man ; all the Sabbath faithfully observed will bring of advantage and joy, of every kind of liberty, of dignity, of health itself for body and soul, of virtues both private and public ; all that in fact has disappeared from our midst along with respect for that ancient and venerable law ; all the vices and all other miseries, and all the degradations which have come and are still coming to chastise us for our counterfeit for that grand institution — such things strike with all the clearness of evidence any one who will reflect with ever so little seriousness and profundity upon the Sabbath-day." In another place he says of the deterioration of society without the Sabbath : " One would think that modern industry 236 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. had filled the world with machines which almost have souls, and souls which are nothing more than machines. With the Sabbath they are men, and not merely machines." In still another place he exclaims with impassioned eloquence of the Sabbath : " It is the* day of man, the day of the people. O law admira- bly providential and divine, profoundly calculated by Him who knows man well because He created him, astonishingly adapted to all his exigencies and smallest interests of life ! God desired labor. It is the law, it is the dignity of man as well as his test. But He also desired repose, which is a necessity of man's nature and of his limited powers. Hence man has the right to repose, just as he has the duty of labor. Therefore, that there might be no place for irregular and capricious fancy in a matter of so lofty and so universal necessity, repose was divinely regu- lated by a law contemporary with the creation of man and of the world. And when we contemplate more closely and deeply all the benefits hidden by God in that august law, we are ravished by admira- tion. 'The world is yours,' said God to men ; 'con- quer it, transform it by labor. But do not transform labor into a murderous and brutalizing yoke for the laboring man, who is my creature, and my child : I want him to belong to himself on certain days fixed by myself. I prohibit any one from chaining him on those days to incessant labor. I ordain that on those days he shall breathe and repose.' Human nature is repugnant to uninterrupted work : in that way man would quickly e.xhaust himself and perish. His frame, TESTIMONY. 237 as Job once said, is not like that of the stones, and his flesh is not of brass. Hence repose is necessary to renew him, and enable him to return with success to his task. This being rigorously necessary to man, by that necessity repose is a law natural and divine. That necessity is so capital in human economy, that God in His wisdom and goodness could not leave these things to arbitrary human caprice. He regu- lated repose in such exact proportion with the law of labor and of production, that the measure has been found to agree with all peoples in all ages, and has proved the most universal law of human society, to the astonishment of the modern economists who have studied the subject." VII. The House of God Its Bulwark. " Sundays observe. Think when the bells do chime 'Tis angels' music ; therefore come not late : God then deals blessings. ..." I. It is an oracle of the divine knowledge the Sabbath reveals and celebrates. — No solution of problems of being or destiny is possible by the senses, experience, testimony, or by the discoveries of reason. Exact science is a mere fragment of knowledge — a segment of a circle reason cannot trace, a column or arch of a temple she cannot rear, a feature of a landscape she cannot survey. Her research pressed to its far- thest possible limits ends on a doubtful frontier, like a road jutting on a sea, whose waves wash an unknown shore. What we call positive knowledge is but an islet off the coast of an unexplored continent. Com- pared with the world-wide domain of ignorance, it is insular, narrow, insignificant. Only faith rises to any apprehension of a first cause, the origin of the uni- verse, moral government, immortality, or happy des- tiny. Paul challenging rational "agnosticism" de- clares,*' by faith we understand the worlds were made," and attain the only possible solution of the problem of the universe. Divine revelations are the THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 239 text-books of this intuitive knowledge, the Sabbath is its school period, and the house of God is opened to impart it to succeeding generations. It is opened in every land before the public school, and imparts know- ledge more vitally important to private and public virtue than any mere secular education. The common- school does not more promote secular or the college professional training, than the house of God spiritual culture. The observatory, with its maps, meri- dian circle, and telescope, is not more essential to tlie propagation of astronomical science than the house of God with its Sabbath and ministry to the dissemi- nation of spiritual knowledge. Awaking to a sense of the mystery of his being, man goes up to the house of God, as the ancient Greek to the Delphian oracle to study questions above the range of his reason or experience, or the testimony of his fellow men. Clos- ing houses of God, silencing their pulpits and choirs, would quench the light of the Sabbath, and spread the gloom of a moral night over the earth. The house of God is the lens which converges the light of the Sab- bath on the paths, homes, and hearts of mankind. By devoting the Sabbath to this high educational pur- pose, the house of God helps to consecrate and per- petuate the Sabbath to mankind. 2. // is a stronghold of virtues the Sabhath enforces. — Virtue is the discovery of intuition, not of reason. A child deferring obedience till it apprehends the reasonableness of a law, never attains filial virtue. And man spurning all obligations till he has grounded their authority and sanctions in reason, never becomes 240 DEFENCE OF THE SABEATHo virtuous. " 'Tis religion that makes vows kept" — vows of personal duty, family purity, business integrity, political honor, and of fraternity to all mankind. The sense of religion, which is indestructible in the heart of man, is the spring and impulse of all virtues alike. Hence the devotees of the lowest faiths are superior in character to those of the same mental capacities, traditions, and secular training who desecrate temples and altars, and contemn all religious observance. Ris- ing through all grades of endowment and culture, the religious man will be found more conscientious, up- right, charitable, and disinterested than the irreligious. Every summons to the contemplation of the charac- ter, will, and glory of the Supreme Being is a trumpet- call to a righteous life, and the purest worship is an aspiration and impulse toward the most exalted vir- tue. Every place of worship becomes a place of spiri- tual culture. Places of pagan. Buddhistic, Jewish, Mohammedan, as well as Christian worship have nour- ished the highest personal, domestic, social, and polit- ical virtues of their times. The charities, reforms, and missions which adorn Christendom have gone forth as a resplendent pro- cession from the house of God. The most extensive moral reforms have followed increased attendance upon the house of God. The patrons of the saloon, race-course, cockpit, dog-ring, and other more shame- less resorts, have generally been estranged from the house of God, and never exhibited the character of true worshippers. Weaned from churches, men are always exposed, if not disposed, to a course of vice. THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 24 1 Prisoners before court in prison and on the gallows have often confessed their prodigal career began in abandoning the house of God. Thousands adorning society by their virtues have declared their encourage- ment to an upright life was derived chiefly from the companionship and culture of the Sabbath and the house of God. Early in this century a friend of the author came to this country as an orphan. Guided by a wary instinct of prudence, he left Sabbath-break- ing companions and became a member of a Sabbath- school, and afterward of a church. He became a successful merchant, and a distinguished Christian layman and philanthropist. He recalled the names of fellow-apprentices and fellow-journeymen who re- proached him for his devotion to the Sabbath and the church. Few of them acquired worldly compe- tence. Many remained poor. Several died with de- lirium tremens. Others suffered as felons in prison or on the gallows. " The sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God." The timid and wary bird finds the seclusion and sanctity of the house of God the best shelter for her young. The house of God is a more sacred retreat from the enthralling temptations of enfeebled and exposed humanity. On the frontier of the Republic forts are established to protect pioneers from the treachery of savage outlaws. If surprised by any beleaguering foe, they hasten with their families and movable effects to the nearest fort- ress, and feel safe beneath the national banner and 16 242 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. the guns of the garrison. On a doubtful frontier man is ever liable to hostile attack, capture, and en- slavement. Jehovah is his refuge ; and the house of God symbolizes His presence and protection. All thorough moral culture requires the opportunities the Sabbath brings ; all those seeking moral reforms and the highest spiritual culture of the race will conserve and hallow the Sabbath. Men will plant themselves in the house of God that they may retain the Sabbath for the spiritual culture of humanity. 3. // is an ensign of the peace the Sabbath proclaims. — Difference of culture and rank, jealousy of classes, ri- valries of parties, and bigotry of sects are ever cul- minating in domestic disputes, social antagonisms, and civil wars. Earth becomes a great battle-field, the scene of varying conflicts and thrilling tragedies. Sometimes an armistice is proclaimed, and races, na- tions, and classes maintain a posture of armed neutral- ity, ever ready to renew wasting conflicts. True reli- gion is the great pacificator. Christianity was intro- duced into the world by an embassage of angels her- alding " peace on earth, and good-will to men." As foot-hills grouped at the base of a mountain seem to sink almost to the level of the plain, so before the ex- alted majesty of Jehovah the invidious distinctions of earth almost disappear, and men seem equal in their common insignificance, and are conciliated to a feeling of common brotherhood. As the Hebrews trembling before Sinai forgot all differences of culture, rank, or fortune in a sense of common character, responsibil- ity, and promise ; so in the house of God true wor- THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 243 shippers lose envies, jealousies, and hatreds in an awakened consciousness of the common Father, com- mon duty, and common destiny. " Sleep, sleep forever, guilty thoughts; Let fires of vengeance die; And purged from sin may I behold A God of purity!" As waters exhaled from stagnant pools or bitter fountains purified in the upper air descend in pearly dews and fertilizing showers, so a soul aspiring to heaven loses all uncharitable thoughts and feelings, and cherishes only sentiments of good-will, and pro- nounces benedictions and peace upon all. The house of God becomes a temple of concord, and on its al- tars peace-offerings are grateful to earth and fragrant to heaven. " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! It is like the precious ointment that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard : that went down to the skirts of his garments ; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion : for there the Lord commanded His blessing, even life for ever- more." As children return from the truancy and strifes of the day to find pardon, peace, and benedic- tion of the universal Father ; those turning away from the house of God reopen, intensify, and perpet- uate the envies, jealousies, and strifes of mankind. As mankind with earnest yearning will continue to desire peace and good-will among men, they will con- 244 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. tinue to cherish the sanctity and uphold the r ithor- ity of the Sabbath. 4. It is an Ebenezer of the gratitude the Sabbath celebrates. — The grateful pagan reared a temple at the fountain which refreshed a city, at the mouth of a river which fertilized the plains, on the brow of a volcano where a devastating, fiery stream was turned aside from fruitful field and peaceful hamlet. He built one to celebrate tlie subsidence of a flood, the end of a plague, or a war. The mariner escaping from wreck, has- tened to the temple of Neptune ; the soldier returning safely from foreign war, to the temple of Mars ; the husbandman, after gathering tlie last sheaf of a boun- tiful harvest, to the temple of Ceres, to place on its altar votive offerings. Throughout Southern Europe, churches and charitable institution have been built to commemorate local or national deliverances. Over Christendom is ever rising from Christian assemblies, ^'Oh that men would praise the Lord for His good- ness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." " Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise : be thankful to Him, and bless His name." Neglecting the house of God represses this ennobling homage to the Supreme Benefactor, and reduces man in sentiments and aspirations to the level of the animal races. So long as men cherish gratitude to the Creator, they will bear offerings to the house of God, and so long as they hallow the house of God they will uphold the Sabbath. 5. // is a refuge from the sorrows the Sabbath assuages. — Touched with grief, man becomes conscious of a THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 245 higher power dominating his life. "There is a Divin- ity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will ;" and from Him we seek succor from the sorrow the world is impotent to relieve. The Shunammitish woman sent to the man of God at Carmel in her sore bereavement. David, after bewailing the loss of an idolized child in fasting and sackcloth, went up to the house of God for consolation. The Hebrew in his afflictions, however remote from Jerusalem, — even from the land of the Hermonites, and the hill Mizar, — looked toward the temple on Mount Zion for comfort. Louis Philippe built the chapel of St. Ferdinand in Paris on the spot where his son and heir to his crown was killed, and the royal family returned annually to this memorial altar to weep and worship together. Mau- soleums, catacombs, and cemeteries have in all ages been grouped near the temples of God. Christian believers in all lands and ages, overwhelmed with griefs, have exclaimed, ''When I am overwhelmed, from the end of the earth I will cry unto Thee ; lead me to the rock that is higher than I." " The world is full of care; The haggard brow is wrought In furrows as of fixed despair, And checked the heavenward thought. " The world is full of grief ; Sorrows o'er sorrows roll ; And the fair hope that brings relief Doth sometimes pierce the soul." 246 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. These sorrows quicken the sense of religion, some- times dormant in the heart. ** There is no God, the foolish saith ; But none, there is no sorrow : And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need doth borrow. ** Eyes the preacher could not school By wayside graves are raised ; And lips say 'God, be pitiful,' That ne'er said ' God be praised.' " So long as man mourns, and seeks solace in the house of God, he will uphold the Sabbath, as inviting him by its holy rest to the bosom of infinite mercy. 6. // localizes the sanctity the Sabbath breathes over the world. — Pope, potentate, or president has an appointed, place of meeting devotee, subject, or citizen. So the house of God is man's audience-chamber with the Deity. It localizes sanctit}^ Those seeking God everywhere with the same devotion find Him no- where. "God's way is in the sanctuary." The cus- tomary resorts of sovereigns are known, and citizens or travellers curious to see them hasten to the ap- pointed place at the appointed time to behold the royal pageant. God's way through the ages and over all lands must be traced in "His sanctuary." Only the religious spirit furnishes any key to a philosophy of history or opens up any revelations of God to men. Men rearing no temples and consecrating no altars to God become practically atheists. Men neglecting to celebrate the divine attributes and providence THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 247 cease to believe in them. Not cherishing the knowl- edge and love of God in their hearts, they soon pro- claim atheism or follow superstition. Civil empire is localized in its capitol. Judaism was localized in the temple at Jerusalem. The house of God is the external symbol and foundation of the kingdom of God on earth. Standing by Caesar's palace in Rome, one is overawed by reflecting that there was the throne of the most renowned empire of the world. Thence were sent forth armies of conquest to the four quarters of the globe. Thence were commis- sioned the governors of a hundred provinces. But a grander sovereignty is wielded in the house of God than in the capitols of the mightiest empires. The public conscience is organized. And a sense of the greatness and glory of the kingdom of God is kindled where the word of God is preached and sin is confessed. The conscience, energized, be- comes both judge and police to enforce the will of God. Penal statutes and judicial awards are a less educational force than the tuition of conscience. Public worship is a training of individual consciences. Closing the house of God would be like disbanding armies, dismantling forts, abolishing police, and abandoning the state to foreign invasion or domestic anarchy. It would shut religion out of the hearts, homes, and affairs of men, and deny it any standing place on earth. But any memorial of Deity requires time set apart for His worship. Denying the Sabbath precludes any worthy commemoration. So long therefore as man believes in Divine Provi- 248 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. lience he will guard the Sabbath as a necessary pro- vision for its worthy celebration. The continuance of religious w^orship will perpetuate the religious day. 7. // symbolizes the gate of heaven which the Sabbath opens to a mortal race. As a monument towering over a cemetery is in- scribed with the emblems of a future life, so the house of God rising amid the buried generations of earth proclaims a resurrection from the dead and everlasting life. As the astronomer ascends an ob- servatory for a wider outlook into the starry heavens, so humanity seeks from the moral elevation of the house of God revelations of an immortal destiny. While fires go out on the watch-towers of time, through the house of prayer the broad daylight of eternity breaks upon the waiting vision of faith. The spiritual experiences which fit one for a holier state are all associated with the fellowship of the Church. There returning prodigals, in the anguish of self- reproach, breathe forth confessions of sin. There par- doned penitents joyfully exclaim, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after : that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, to see the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple." As Pilgrim in the Interpreter's house longed to ascend to the battlements of a temple where appeared men in golden armor, though the way was guarded by envi- ous archers, and in heroic consecration said to one waiting to enroll heroes of faith, "Write down my name ;" so in the experiences and revelations of public THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 249 worship believers often find the house of God the " gate of heaven." There can be no assurance of hap- py destiny without faith in a Supreme Intelligence and Heavenly Father. There can be no faith in such a Supreme Benefactor w^here there is no provision for His worship nor obedience to His will. The house of God provides for such filial homage and obedience. It is a public protest against atheism, a perpetual prayer for immortality of being and blessing, and an open gate of heaven. Abandoning the house of God, man turns from the promise of immortality to the gloomy expectation of perishing with birds and flow- ers ; and sinks from the portal of heaven to the gate of hell. So long as man feels an irrepressible longing for immortality, and consorts with those who share the ennobling aspiration, he will hallow the Sabbath as the great memorial of these blessed hopes. Through this provision for the most ennobling necessities and celebration of the most resplendent hopes of mankind, the perpetuity of the Sabbath is assured as of religion itself. But its chief external bulwark is the house of God. No argument has furnished the best defence of the holy day which has hot most effectually commended a more general attendance upon the house of God. Eloquent ser- mons and books fall short of their aim unless they persuade mankind, in personal example and family discipline, to " Go up to Bethel." Unless consecrat- ed there, the Sabbath will be desecrated everywhere. The house of God is the ark of the Sabbath covenant. Unless guarded by religious sanction, the right to 250 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. physical and mental rest and recuperation even would be denied. Much more without the external defence of public worship all spiritual worship and discipline would cease on earth. While religion is placed so largi^ly under the guardianship of the Sabbath, the Sabbath is as largely placed under the guardianshio t of the house of God. Without the sacred Ark the records of divine revelations would have been exposed, and liable to have been destroyed or lost. So with- out the guardianship of the house of God and public worship the Sabbath would surely degenerate to a holiday. If the Sabbath leaves the house of God it loses its religious character and sinks to the uncer- tain and demoralizing uses of a holiday. Mount Zion is turned into the devil's playground. A jubilee of sensualism, lawlessness, and crime is pro- claimed, and the Sabbath instead of bridging the temptations of the week becomes an hebdomadal de- scent into hell. The people who will not serve God shall be destroyed ; the people who will not keep the Sabbath cannot serve God ; and the people who will not build the house of God, and observe public worship cannot keep and hallow the Sabbath. The destinies of the Sabbath religion, and the virtue and hapiness of mankind are intrusted to the defence and celebration of the house of God. Invested with such significance, trusts, and sanctions, the house of God is the most impressive object that challenges the awe and study of mankind. The humblest spire rising from the remotest frontier speaks more eloquently of the spiritual nature, greatness, and destiny of man THE HOUSE OF GOD ITS BULWARK. 25 1 *' than pyramids of Egypt, mausoleums of Asia, or columns and arches of Greece and Rome ;" than glor- ies of modern architecture, the proudest capitols o empire, national libraries, or the most renowned gal- leries of art. Marking the boundaries of worlds, and the point of earth's contact with heaven, and enforc- ing man's subjection to his Maker, and pointing out to him the hope of a blessed immortality, the house of God touches profounder sensibilities, stirs a more ennobling reverence, and inspires more resplendent hopes than lofty mountain-range, far-sounding ocean, or starry heavens. As Abraham consecrated every place of his sojourn by an altar ; pious Hebrews built a synagogue wherever they built a hamlet ; our Pil- grim fathers, making the Mayflower a Bethel on the first Sabbath of their arrival on the rocky New- England coast, consecrated the New World to freedom and to God : so patriotism, philanthropy, and piety should unite in rearing the house of God in every town, village, rural district, and on every frontier of our extending Republic. As the shrine of hallowed associations of Sabbath, divine revelations, religious worship, and of sacred experiences of sorrow, grati- tude, and hope let it attract the reverence, worship, charity, and feeling of brotherhood, and piety of all mankind, and transfigure the Sabbath rest into a foretaste and prophecy of heaven. VIII. Appeal. Man, "Welcome, happy morning ! age to age shall say ; Hell to-day is vanquished ; heaven is won to day ! Lo ! the dead is living — God for evermore ! Him, their true Creator, all His works adore." From the morning of creation, through the re- curring order of the Sabbath, Jehovah lias lifted up his voice to every age, every land, and to every class and condition of men, "Unto you, O man, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." No man has sunk so low in ignorance, wandered so far in apostasy, or become so blackened with crimes or so overwhelmed by misfortunes as to be beyond the reach of the sym- pathy and compassion of this divine appeal. In an- nouncing Messiah, the prophet did not promise be- atitudes merely to the worthy or to the averaged char- acter of men, but especially to the fallen, the lowly, the helpless, and hopeless. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of APPEAL. 253 llie Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the gar- ments of praise for the spirit of heaviness." As fore- casting the scope of His divine mission, Christ read in tlie synagogue of Nazareth this Messianic Prophecy. His whole ministry was inspired by the tenderest sym- pathy for the outcast and the suffering. His parables encouraged exceptional care for the afiflicted and the prodigal. The great commission discriminated against no class, except those rejecting offers of mercy. While one land, class, or individual remains uncheered by the glad tidings of salvation, the mission of Christ is not accomplished. The Sabbath is catholic as the mission of Christ, and symbolizes and commends the universality of the divine beneficence and compassion. It summons the lowly, the sinful, and the wretched into the sym- pathizing presence of the same loving Father. It ap- points for them as well as for more fortunate classes a day of audience with God, consecrates earth cano- pied with the blue sky as a temple for them to wor- ship in, and transfigures life as their stewardship. It is a symbolic rest and jubilation over creation and redemption accomplished. In the Sabbath ritual the human race unite in commemorating the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and in celebrat- ing common faith, common duty, common hope, and common worship. The Sabbath is a permanent pro- vision for rest, worship, good works, charitable minis- tries, higher education, and exaltation of the chai'acter 254 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. and destiny of all mankind. As a primitive divine ordinance it is above the state and above the churcl:, and will remain the basis of union, fellowship, and discipline of all believers in God, a Saviour, and a future life. There is no interest of man the Sabbath will not subserve. It assures health to the body, vigor to the mind, and purity to the heart. In its true observance the lost brotherhood of hu- manity is restored, a new patent of nobility is found, and man rises above any order made by the decree of kings. Diploma of university, nor membership of royal academy of science and art, attests so exalted attainments or so high character as the true disci- pline of the Sabbaths of life assures. O blessed Sabbath ! Before priest or prophet thou wert God's ordinance, providing freedom for rest, worship, elevated thought and ennobling aspiration, and the promise of blessed destiny. Without thy re- turn, light of divine knowledge would fade from the earth, man would sink to the violence of animalism, the darkness of despair, and the gloom of an eternal sleep would brood over every grave. Celebrate thy coming with new jubilance on every sliore. Gild the mountain-tops of every land with the beams of thy early dawn. Breathe the peace thou dost symbolize over every land till wars shall cease over all the earth. Celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the promise of immortality through Him, till all nations shall be cheered by the blessed hope of immortality. Multi- ply and marshal the charities of Christendom and APPEAL. 255 extend them by Christian missions till the miseries of life shall be assuaged — "sorrow and sighing" no more be heard over the earth. Elevate the tone of thought and education till each generation shall rise up in ex- alted virtues and perfected character, filling earth with happiness and heaven with praise ; till the low- est tribe of earth shall rise in culture and character above the most cultured and moral races of the earth. Moral teachers, evangelists, reformers, and all min- isters of charity must make the Sabbath the field day of their operations. What other sign of God can so readily challenge the gaze and confidence of the up- lifted eye and trusting heart of all mankind ? What sa- cred conventionalism can gain so surely the reverence and obedience of man universally? What religious institution is sufficiently catholic to unite believers of all faiths and ceremonials alike? What other divine ordinance is enforced by such venerable antiquity, such simple and available ritual, such practical beneficence, and such resplendent promise ? Paganism, in its local character and ceremonial, outgrown by the culture and speculation of ages, is being abandoned, with its I^igodas, priesthood, and ritual. It has no promise of mastery over the faith and conscience of the world. Buddhism, a type of gloomy asceticism, a reaction from the empty form of an external religion, exhaust- ing its duties and promises in the external regime of a Pharisaical life, is clearly being worn out, and aban- doned by its most zealous votaries who long for the freedom and promise of grace. There is no rational 256 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. promise of its uniting the world in its ceremonial of despair. Judaism, notwithstanding its exalted morality and pure theism, has failed to commend itself to the ob- servance and discipline of mankind, or to satisfy the spiritual craving of the most pious Hebrews them- selves, as their looking and longing for a Messiah testify. Historical Judaism has no promise of gov- erning the religious faitli and discipline of the world. Christianity is the only rising faith. Through her Sabbath she will challenge the attention of the think- ing world to trace in Nature's volume and in sacred Scripture the meaning, duty, and destiny of life, till the darkness of ignorance and superstition disappears, and the light of divine knowledge and true civiliza- tion beams over every land. In thy coming, holy day, proclaim as from thunder- ing Sinai the righteous laws of God in the instruc- tion of pious homes and of worshipping assemblies, till all shall "know the Lord, from the least to the greatest," domestic, social, moral, and political reforms shall be perfected in every nation, in ever}^ part of the world. In thy celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, whisper in the ear of the dying, speak in circles of bitter mourning, declare in funeral assemblies, proclaim over buried generations, that triumphant and blessed assurance of thy Lord and the world's Saviour, " I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;" summoning the world, in "bond- age through fear of death," k) the empty grave APPEAL. 257 of Christ, until they shall exclaim with the Apostle, *' O death ! where is thy sting? O grave ! where is thy victory ? Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' Toiler. " Rest is not quitting This busy career : Rest is the fitting Of self to one's sphere. **'Tis loving and serving, The highest and best ; 'Tis onward, unswerving, And this is true rest." Is not the Sabbath a firmer defence of the liberty, rights, and dignity of your manhood than Magna Charta or the American Declaration of Independence ? Does it not, by the prestige of divine authority, wrest you from the clutch of the world's greed and power, and one day in seven exalt you, in inviolability of person, property, family, and worship, as a peer of kings? Is it not a bulwark of free institutions, a provision for popular education and for the ameliora- tion, of the condition of all classes of men? Have atheists, materialists, and Sabbath-contemning com- munities ever raised up Howards, Raikes, MuUers, Clarksons, to champion reforms, and awaken sym- pathy and make provision for the suffering classes? Are not the Church of Christ, following the example of their Divine Lord, the true benefactors of the poor ? 17 258 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Is not the Sabbath an ever-recurring opportunity for teaching the ignorant, succoring the distressed, relieving the oppressed, and elevating the iowlv ? When rich and poor meet together on the Sabbath, do not the covetousness of the one and the envy of the other melt into the sympathies of a common brotherhood ? Does not the greed of men draw away the poor from the sanction of God's presence on the Sabbath that it may enslave them ? Does it not beguile them from attending to God's voice on the holy day so that it may dominate them all the week ? Does it not pamper their lower nature on the holy day to paralyze their conscience, and repress higher aspi- rations and nobler self-assertion ? Does it not sink the higher purposes of the Sabbath in the lower uses of a holiday ? Are those your true friends who would wheedle you out of a heavenly birthright by offering you a holiday instead of a holy day ? Heed Douglas Jerrold, as little to be suspected of Puritan severity or disloyalty to the lowly as the idolized Burns : "'There is something beautiful in the church-bells, don't you think so, Jem ? ' asked Capstick in a sudden tone. 'Beautiful and hopeful they talk to high and low, rich and poor in the same voice : there's a sound in 'em that should scare pride and envy and mean- ness of all sorts from the heart of man ; that should make him look upon the world with kind, forgiving eyes ; that should make the earth appear to him at least for a time a holy place. Yes, Jem, there's a whole sermon in every sound of the church-bell (here's the note) if we only have the ears to rightly APPEAL. 259 understand it. There's a preacher in every belfry, Jem, that cries, " Poor, weary, struggling, fighting creatures — poor human things ! take rest, be quiet. Forget your vanities, your week-day craft, your heart- burnings ! And you, ye humble vessels, gilt and painted, believe the iron tongue that tells ye that all your gilding, all your colors, ye are the same Adam's earth with the beggars at your gates. Come away, come," cries the church-bell, '' and learn to be humble; learning that, however daubed and stained and stuck about with jewels, you are but grave clay. Come, Dives — come and be taught all your glory, as you wear it, is not half so beautiful in the eyes of heaven as the sores of uncomplaining Lazarus. And ye poor creatures, livid and faint and crushed with the pride and hardness of the world — come, come, and learn what is laid up for you, and learning take heart, and walk among the wickedness and cruelties of the world calmly as Daniel walked among lions." Jem, is there a finer sight than a stream of human creatures pass- ing from a Christian church ? ' " Every true Christian church is a league for the de- fence of your manhood, a ministry to adorn your life with beauty and gild it with hope. From the walls of every church consecrated by the spirit and doc- trines of Christ are echoing in tones of divine com- passion that immortal benediction, " Blessed are ye poor ;" and that sweetest invitation that ever fell on the ear of distressed and sorrowing humanity, " Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." 26o DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Railroad Men. "Eternity in time; the steps by which We climb above all ages; lamps that light Man through his heap of dark days; and the rich And full redemption of the whole week's flight." Do not Sunday railroads rob millions of their right to Sabbath rest and worship, and of their only oppor- tunity for sharing the peace and fellowship of their homes, and the refining influence of the house of God ? Will not extending Sunday traffic and travel to remote frontiers, and disturbing the quiet of the most secluded communities, contribute to deaden the public conscience, embolden every form of Sabbath profanation, and everywhere raise barriers against the decorum and discipline of public worship, Chris- tian evangelism, charities, reforms, and missions ? If railroads continue their business in all its ramifica- tions, will it not be impossible long to keep closed factories, shops, offices, and other places of public and private industries ? Is not the railroad the great shaft which turns all tlie wheels of our industrial life ? Running Sunday trains, and promoting labor in related branches of industry, does it not lift over the land a defiant voice against the primitive divine law which forbids labor on the Sabbath and assures a weekly rest to the toiling world ? Do not many of the best railroad experts in this country and in Europe declare that a large part of the Sabbath work now required of employes could be given up without dam- aging commerce, and with the greatest physical, APPEAL. 261 mental, and moral advantage to themselves and to society at large. Will you not unite v^^ith other rail- road men — a growing and powerful class — in reforms to restore and maintain as far as possible the inviola- bility of the charter of youf liberty and the patent of your nobility ? Citizens. " Six days' stern labor shuts the poor From Nature's careless banquet-hall ; The seventh, an angel opes the door, And smiling welcomes all." This book is an attempt to show that the Sabbath is a natural law, authenticated and guarded by religious sanction; that, as universally necessary and beneficent, it must have been intended by the Creator, not for one generation, race, or age merely, but for all gene- rations, races, and ages alike. A law so wise and beneficent was not left to the uncertain apprehension or varying interpretations of men ; but enjoined by positive appointment at the birth of the race, and en- forced by the ever-recurring order of day and night. The discovery of natural theology and the sanction of human expediency were anticipated by a mandate of divine revelation. "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy" is but an articulation of a primitive divine law. As thus established, should not the Sabbath, like the family and the other precepts of the Decalogue, be postulated as the necessary foundation of civil, society? Have not all historical races observed some memo- rial or religious festivals ? Have not all Christian 262 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. nations recognized and guarded the Sabballi by civil enactment and religious ceremonial? Have any Christian philosophers, statesmen, or other trusted leaders of social progress advised the remission of Sabbath laws, or a more general secularization of the Sabbath ? Have not the most profound students of the problem of human destiny united with ecclesias- tics in commending the special beneficence, obvious expediency, and imperative obligations of the Sab- bath ? As a traditional and legal foundation of the Republic, should not the Sabbath be guarded with increasing vigilance by national. State, and munici- pal laws? Affecting indifference to the sacredness of the day, would not courts and magistracy dishonor their official trusts, and publicly abet atheism ? The sacred convictions and traditions of a people formu- late their political constitutions. There was no more etfective factor in shaping our American manhood, civilization, and institutions than the Christian Sab- bath. As well expect a temple to stand securely after its foundation has been removed as for our free institu- tions to stand afterour Christian school, Christian civ- ilization, and Chiistian Sabbath have been subverted. Losingthe repose , deliberation, and self-discipline the Sabbath promotes, any people will at length require enlarged police and militar}' force to maintain law and order. Can any people rapidly acquiring wealth, power, and empire, but never pausing in the rush of its pursuits to think, deliberate, contemplate sacred principles, resolve and enter upon nobler plans of life, ever rise to the highest political brotherhood, or APPEAL. 263 create a great and permanent nation ? Are not the observance and defence of the Sabbath the imperative and sacred duty of every good citizen? Foreigji-born. "Yes, child of suffering, thou may'st well be sure He who ordained the Sabbath, loves the poor." Gentiles became naturalized Hebrews, and inher- ited the promises of Israel. The identity and per- petuity of the Hebrew commonwealth were assured by enforcing exclusive terms of citizenship. In the extension of Roman empire, Roman citizen- ship was warily awarded to individuals, and cities. Those receiving the honor exclaimed in proud con- sciousness of security, ''I am a Roman citizen;" and to the farthest boundary of the empire they were protected by Roman magistrate or Roman soldier from personal violence or the oppression of hostile states. In the increasing travel and colonization of modern times, great states protect their citizens in foreign lands only as they conform to the customs and laws of tlie countries where they seek the instruction of travel, the profit of commerce, or the shelter of home. No land welcomes travel or sojourn in its borders without formal or tacit oath to upliold and honor its customs, laws, and institutions. No nation, ancient or modern, has welcomed to their shores with broader hospitality the people of all lands, languages, and conditions than the American Republic. She has asked no passport for travellers ; 264 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. she invites the oppressed of all nations to find an asylum, citizenship, and fortune on her broad prairies, along her magnificent lakes and rivers, among her boundless forests and her unexplored mines. But though liberal in her terms of citizenship she has expected those seeking her protection and im- munities to conform to her sacred traditions and laws. As other nations have based public education and moral discipline upon accepted standards of religion, the founders of our Republic accepted Christianity, with its sacred writings and holy Sabbath, as the common-law of the land. As there has been no empire or civilization without a religious basis, and Christianity is manifestly the most beneficent system of religion ever propagated, and the Sabbath is at once the memorial and foundation of all Christian organi- zation and discipline, they incorporated the Sabbath into the structure of the government. The}?- did not expect those seeking to share this grandest experiment of civilization and empire would challenge the sagacity and wisdom of those who projected it, or discredit its traditions and laws. If they preferred other social and civil institutions, the whole world was open for their choice. If they chose America, it was natural to suppose they came to build up the temple of liberty on foundations already providentially laid. With so many political wrecks strown along the shores of his- tory, good men should be slow to challenge the most auspicious experiment of popular government ever attempted. Has greater success attended anv politi- cal experiment than has crowned this rising Republic APPEAL. 265 based upon the Christian Scriptures, the Christian Sabbath, and tlie free Christian Church. There would be little danger from increase of Mongolian or other foreign emigration if they were thoroughly natural- ized by the due observance of our American Sabbath. As wayw.^rd children are restrained to assure higher culture and character, or disorderly citizens to enforce sobriety and the general welfare of society ; so foreign as well as native-born citizens, for the sake of perfecting American manhood and civilization, should be restrained from all desecration or seculari- zation of the Sabbath. American citizens travelling, sojourning, or seeking homes in foreign lands are expected to conform to the usages and laws of the countries giving them welcome. Should we expect less of the various nationalities now coming to our shores ? We award to them immunities of citizenship, and the promise of labor, arts, and professions, but we entreat them to spare our school system, our free Christianity, and our holy Sabbath. Hebrew. "The milky way, chalked out with suns; a clew That guides through erring hours ; and in full story A taste of heaven on earth ; the pledge and cue Of a full feast ; and the out-courts of glory." Have not learned Rabbis encouraged theirjewish brethren, when through circumstances of removal from one part of the country to another their Sab- bath reckoning was lost, to adopt that of the commu- nity where they sought home and commerce? 266 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Should not such a precedent lead the Hebrews, now- scattered among Christian nations, and denied any protection of their holy day, and any facilities for its proper observance, to adopt the Sabbath reckoning of Christendom, and tlius assure the beneficent uses and promise of a day for rest, worship, and spiritual discipline ? Are not the trials arising from the attempt to main- tain a Sabbath different from that protected by law, and observed by the consent of the people, so great as to be now weaning the Hebrews in great commer- cial centres more and more from their traditional Sabbath observance, their synagogue, and from the faith of their fathers ? Covetousness and materialism sufficiently test loyalty to the Sabbath without being supplemented by difference of calendars as an excuse for its neglect. Should not the prophetic order, "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be can i( d away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it ; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace," persuade you not only to pray for your fellow-citizens, but to observe the same day for prayer to the universal Father, and the cultivation of the sentiments of a common brotherhood ? Needless differences in religion widen estrange- ments of different classes. A common holy day would promote a common faith, and the unity and sympathies of a common brotherhood. Would not your acceptance of the holy day of the greatest nations and the ruling races of the world APPEAL. 267 greatly facilitate your carrying- forward the imme- morial and unparalleled testimony of your fatliers to the importance of inviolable Sabbath time as a foun- dation of religion, morality, and true civilization ? By adopting the sacred time of Christendom, even v\^ithout changing your interpretations of the Old Testament and your religious observance, would you not assure greater precedence to the Hebrews in the religious history of the race, exalt the Hebrew name by an international homage to Joseph's son, the most illustrious descendant of your great progenitor, and hasten the adoption of a common faith and a common ritual by all mankind. A common Sabbath would become the avenue of the approach of all the tribes and kindreds of the earth to union in the same divine Lord and Saviour, the one God and Father, and the one universal brotherhood. Seventh-day Baptist. ** O day of rest ! How beautiful, how fair, How welcome to the weary and the old ! Day of the Lord, and truce to earthly care ! — Day of the Lord, as all our days should be ! " Do you not agree with other Christians, that the devotion of a seventh part of time to rest and worship is the universal duty of man, and necessary to the high- est political and social welfare of mankind ? Will you not also agree with them that the first day may assure to any community all the privileges of rest, worship, and spiritual culture that the seventh day can ? Did not the Apostles and early Church fulfil the obliga- 268 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. tions of the primitive Sabbath in the observance of tl^e first day of the week ? Is there not greater prom- ise of uniting the world in tlie observance of the first than of the seventh day? Would they not more readily join in the commemoration of the mission of Christ than that of Moses? Would it not be far easier to maintain the worthy celebration of the teachings and memorials of the new dispensation on the day of the Lord's resurrection than to rehabilitate the seventh day? Would not any attempt to trans- fer the reverence Christendom now cherishes for the Lord's Day greatly imperil the sanctity of any Sabbath ? Have not your appeals and examples done far more to discredit the Lord's Day than to increase reverence for the seventh day ? If Christian denom- inations were willing to surrender the first day for the sake of a common Sabbath, would Christian states turn back the wheels of history, discredit the most impor- tant events and periods in social progress, discard their sacred traditions, and change their statutes to favor any new ecclesiastical decree ? Does it seem to you too great an homage to Him who is " Lord of the Sabbath" to change its ritual, in order to exalt His Lordship, more fully separate the new from the old dispensation, add new memorial uses to the holy day, and more surely establish a common Sabbath for the world. As you rest your Christian hope on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, will you not unite with all His disciples in a weekly celebration of this august event, and the promise of immortality through it? Is it agreeable to you to be classed with Jews and APPEAL. 269 infidels in the opposition to the Sabbath laws and ob- servances of Christian nations ? Can you not unite with other Christian denominations in one strenuous effort to rescue the Christian Sabbath from desecra- tion, and unify the ritual and worship of the world in its observance ? Theist. "The Sabbath bell, That over wood and wild and mountain-dell Wanders so far, chasing all thoughts unholy With sounds most musical, most melancholy." Is your theism an effective principle ? Should not a fact so stupendous as the existence of an all-wise Creator and Ruler of the universe transfigure with a heavenly brightness our deepest thoughts, purest feelings, loftiest aims, and our holiest aspirations ? Is it not more reasonable to deny a God than profess to believe in His existence and majestic sovereignty while allowing Him no recognized place in the uni- verse, no freedom in the scheme of Providence, no homage in the temple of His own works, and no place in the heart of man? If there be a God, should not every man study, admire, and celebrate His works, will, and character, and find in them the ideals of his own pursuits and the prophecies of his own destiny? Are you not interested in opposing the flood of ma- terialism and atheism now ravaging the realm of thought and conscience ? You cannot become a votary of any existing form of paganism. You turn away from Judaism, as superseded by a more rational and spiritual dispensation of religion. You discard the 2/0 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Koran and the mosque as symbols of a fanaticism the intelligence and culture of this age repudiate. You deny that historical Christianity presents any credentials to exclusive jurisdiction over the con- science and destiny of mankind. But can you not recognize in the person and character of Christ cre- dentials of a divine revelation ? Can you not credit the declaration that "when He brought His only-be- gotten Son into the world He said, 'Let all the angels of God worship Him,' " — thus enjoining the homage of heavenly hierarchies, as well as kings and all peo- ples of the earth ? If you deny any authoritative sign or voice in the advent and mission of Christ to in- spire your faith and worship, is any divine revelation to man possible ? If the teachings of Christ are not worthy of confidence all religion is imposture, and impiety is the necessity of all men. But if you with- hold homage from all other symbols of religion, should you not keep the holy day, in a posture of ex- pectancy of some revelation of the character and will of God and of the ultimate destiny of man ? Should not the venerable antiquity of the Sabbath, the catho- licity of its provisions, and the splendor of its prom- ises attract all mankind, of whatever creed, unless they are confirmed atheists, to its sacred observance ? Would not the recognition of this minimum symbol of the fatherhood of God and "the brotherhood and spiritual destiny of man conciliate the unity, peace, and common faith of the world ? Is not the Sabbath the provision all faiths alike require for the defence of their doctrines, the enforcement of their discipline, APPEAL. 271 and the celebration of their worship ? Is it not the minimum of observance necessary to vitalize and ren- der effective any doctrine of God or any theory of the duties and destiny of men ? Should not every deist therefore become a rigid Sabbatarian, and found Sabbath-schools and Sabbath assemblies for the propagation of his sublime faith and the encour- agement of corresponding duties and hopes of men? A common day of religion is manifestly the first possible step toward a common faith and ritual of religion. True worshippers of all creeds could there- fore, without sacrificing anything but their bigotry, unite in the same day for the study and observance of their faith, and the cultivation of the fellowship, sentiments, and duties of human brotherhood. The same day for rest, worship, and moral culture would gradually assimilate the interpretations, observances, and promises of religion. Philanthropist. " Six days of toil, poor child of Cain, Thy strength thy master's slave must be ; The seventh thy limbs escape the chain : A God hath made thee free." Has secularization of the Sabbath anywhere ameli- orated the condition of the poor ? Has it not every- where confirmed the tendencies and circumstances which degrade them ? Does it not tacitly surrender their right to needed recreation on week-days, and thus make surer their subjection to capital ? Is it not, in respect to their highest improvement, like surren- 272 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. dering some of the hours dedicated to the discipline of the school-room to the diversions of the play- ground, thus abridging their lessons, and devoting their lives more surely to the frivolity of ignorance and vice ? Retaining the Sabbath exclusively for rest worship, and high culture, could they not all the more surely gain suitable opportunity for lower recreation out of the working time of the week ? Against closing stores and offices Saturday afternoons is plausibly plead the growing freedom of the Sabbath. Those who use the Sabbath for recreation and amusement surely have no need of a Saturday holiday. When the band of music began to attract crowds of pleas- ure-seekers to Central Park, New York, on the Sab- bath its strains were no longer heard on Saturday, and the movement to secure a half-holiday for the employes of stores and shops was discouraged. The promise of Saturday's freedoma was lost by the secularization of the Sabbath. And when the Sab- bath has lost its sanctity it is reannexed to the do- main of toil, and the laborer is enslaved by monop- oly. Are not toilers in Europe, where the Sabbath is not held as a divine right, and held exclusively for rest, worship, and spiritual culture, now working seven days for the wages of six, and uncheered by any full Sabbath benediction upon their homes ? Is not a secularized Sabbath the card monopoly is playing- most effectually against the wages, freedom, and man- hood of the poor? Does it not profanely assume fo free them from God's law, — the charter of their no- bility, — to reconcile them to a more abject bondage ? APPEAL. 273 Is it true philanthropy to allow such imposture to be practised on the poor without protest, while pro- viding for their recreation only as one would for a tired ox? Can any mere animal recuperation or in- tellectual stimulus, without the moral discipline pro- vided for by the Sabbath, contribute much to the elevation of mankind ? Do not the thoughtfulness, high resolves, charitable feelings, devout sentiments, holy joys, and ennobling aspirations inspired by the sacred uses of the Sabbath assure to the poor at once physical recuperation, intellectual culture, and moral regeneration ? Do not laborers hallowing the Sab- bath always rise in physical health, mental discipline, and moral character above toilers who desecrate the Sabbath ? Did not the Book of Sports, though affect- ing special sympathy for the poor, by apportioning the Sabbath between worship and secular amuse- ment, degrade the English peasantry, and make them the ready instruments of despotism ? Christian . "Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere, Thou shedd'st thy light on all the year ; Sundays by thee more glorious break — An Easter-day in every week." Though made guardian of the Sabbath by cove- nant with its Lord, are you not, through lack of vigi- lance, betraying your sacred trust ? Because Christ graciously revoked Sabbath penalties, varied Sabbath ritual, and confided Sabbath keeping to your con- science and honor, have you not abused your Chris- 18 274 DKFKNCE OK THE SAHHATH. tian liberty, and fallen into an irregular and mere par- tial observance of the holy day ? Pious Hebrews, to assure its sanctity, interrupted their usual industries and amusements the evening before the dawn of the sacred morning ; but Christian communities often pro- long the labors and pleasures of the week far into Saturday night, thereby abridging the services and discipline of the Sabbath. More and more they are lengthening their " Sabbath-day's journey," widening the margin of Sabbath reading, recreation, and travel, and multiplying works of supposed ^' necessity and mercy." Continuing in this trend, how long will it be before the American Church will exchange its holy day for the European holiday ? Unless she hold the Lord's Day more scrupulously, the world will not keep it at all. When magistrates despise laws, the people will not obey them. When priests desecrate the temple, worshippers will abandon it. American communities are falling into Sabbath desecration as the American Church becomes slack in Sabbath observance. Baker, barber, milkman, confectioner, railroad conductor, and steamboat cap- tain all bear witness that the church-membership of the country contribute largely to the enforcement of their Sabbath industries. Christian disciple, will you not carefully revise your list of works of " necessity and mercy," and on each Sabbath, turning away from labor and travel, devote the hours to rest, religious reading and discourse, to works and visitations of charity, and to the homage and jubilance of public worship? APPEAL. 275 Is not the Christian Church strangely overlooking the prominence of the Sabbath in its great scheme of evangelization and salvation ? Must not the millen- nium dawn through the moral brightness of an im- proved Sabbath observance ? Before that golden age is ushered in, divine knowl- edge will increase till " all shall know the Lord, from the least even unto the greatest." But only as Sab- baths are devoted to the study and dissemination of that higher knowledge can its radiance dissipate the gloom of spiritual ignorance. Before the reign of the kingdom of heaven on earth greater civil liberty must be enjoyed. But Sabbath jubilance in the personal liberty and spiritual en- franchisement assured by Christ to His Church is the pledge and heraldry of free institutions. As a forerunner to the peaceful reign of Messiah, moral reforms must be consummated. But the teach- ing of righteousness in Sabbath homes and in Sab- bath congregations is the effective rebuke of bad cus- toms, laws, and institutions, and the bugle-note of all social, political, and moral progress. A reign of resplendent charities must usher in the triumph of grace and good-will to all mankind. But nothing is so mitigating the discontents, envies, and hatreds of society, and blending the hearts of all classes in fraternal sympathies, as the memorial teach- ing and worship of the holy Sabbath. The restoration of the race through the mediation and mercy of Christ is announced as the sublime pur- pose in the creation of man free, and amenable to his 276 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. Creator. The Sabbath is a perpetual memorial and celebration of the infinite love of God toward a lost race, and the "glad tidings" of forgiveness of sin, and complete restoration to the divine favor. With- out assurance of happy immortality, life sinks to in- significance. Man cowers before death as his mortal enemy, before the Christian Sabbath celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the promise of the joyful resurrection of all who believe in Him. It commemorates the triumph of Apostles and martyrs over the last enemy, and cheers the most timid believer with the promise of a similar triumph. O Sabbath of God, fraught with such beneficent ministries, and such blessed promises ! Before the rule of patriarch or king thou wast the symbol of divine sovereignty. Rise over the earth in thy impe- rial majesty, till all nations shall reverence thee, and in reverencing thee celebrate the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Through the door of thy sacred observance, tribe after tribe, and race after race, abjuring false faith, shall enter the fraternity of Chris- tian nations. They will avow the Christian faith by adopting the Christian Sabbath. Keeping the " Lord's Day," they worship its Founder. The Sabbath should be restored as the basis of all schemes of philan- thropy, all heraldry of liberty, all diffusion of knowl- edge, all ministries of mercy, all hopes of salvation and everlasting life. The Sabbath provides for the emancipation of true freedom, the pursuit of true education, carrying for- ward true reforms, the administration of true charities, APPEAL. 277 and the propagation of true faith. In exaltation to its ideal rest with God, peace with men, and holy aspiration and pursuit, the Sabbath assures the moral restoration, perfected character, and happiness of all mankind. The restored Sabbath should become the upUfted banner of all Christian reforms, evangelisms, and missions. The poet has made the tones of a bell the ringing appeal for social progress. We would make Sabbath- bells the most effective and assuring voice of Heaven to the ignorant, sinning, sorrowing, and perishing sons of earth. If the great bell of Moscow, rung out from the north, and all cathedral-bells of Europe, joined in sacred chime, and the myriads of church-bells of Christendom united in the sacred concert, it would be but a feeble symbol of the silent, persuasive, harmonizing, and elevating voices going forth from the Sabbath over the awakened, needy, and expectant world. In concert of all nations and myriads of Sabbath assemblies, let the Sabbath-bell sounding over Scot- tish heath, through New England valleys, over west- tern prairies, amid jungles of India, over steppes of Asia, deserts of Africa, and along savannahs of South America sound forth its peal of gladness and its jubilance of divine promise. In this apprehension of the symbolism and promise of the Sabbath let patriotism, philanthropy, and piety unite in an appeal to the Sabbath, in the ringing words of the poet : 278 DEFENCE OF THE SABBATH. " Ring out the old, ring in the new ; Ring out the false, ring in the true ; Ring out the grief that saps the mind. Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause. And ancient forms of party strife ; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out old shapes of foul disease ; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; Ring out the thousand wars of old Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring out the want, the woe, the crime, The wrong and falsehood of the time, The chains that hang on limb and mind ; Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out the waning power of night, Ring in the coming reign of light ; Ring in the world's long jubilee ; Ring in the Christ that is to be." E. B. TREAT'S Publications, 771 Broadway, New York. m|_ The New Evangelical Monthly, devoted to ■J^ Sermons. Lectures, Questions of the Day, Prayer- Meeting Talks .Sunday school cause. Mission work, etc. An aid to p.istors, helpful to Christian work- ^^ |lWli9l1i&ll SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS IttRHII W II ers and families. <^ r"^ John Hall. D.D., William M. Taylor, D.D., C. C* McCabe. D.D, O. H. Tiffany. D.D.. J. L. Withrow, D.D., H. C. Potter. D.D., T. De- Witt ialm.-ige, D D., J. H Vincent. D D., Bishop S. Fallows, R. D. Hitchcock, D.D., J M. Buckley, D.D., C. S. Robinson, D.D., Wm. Ormiston, D.D., C. F. Deems, D.D., and many others. Each number sixty four pages. Illustrated. Priceper copy, 25 cts. Yearly, $2.50. Clergymen. S2.00 Bound volume, first and .second year, each $3.00. Subscribers to present volume, $2 each. Memorial Tributes, a Compend of Funeral Addresses. An aid for Pastors. A Book of Comfort for the Bereaved. Compiled from the ad- dresses of the most eminent divines of the past and present age, both in Europe and America. Edited by J. Sanderson, D.D., editor of " The Pulpit Treasury." In- troduction by John Hall, D.D. One volume, crown 8vo, 500 pages, $1.75. Revivals. How to Secure Them. As Taught and Exemplified by our Most Successful Clergymen. Bishops M'Ilvaine and Simpson, Drs. L. Beecher, Barnes, Broadus, Cuyler, Dale, Dowling, Finney, Hall, Hatfield, Hepworth, Hoppin, Knapp, M'Cosh. Park, Phelps, Pond, Sprague, Shepard, Spurgeon and others. Edited by Rev. Walter 1*. Dor. One volume, crown 8vo, 443 pages, $1.50. The Theology of Christ. From Ilis Own Words. By Rev. J. P. Thompson, D.D., late Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York. Introduction by William M. Taylor, D.D. , LL D. This emment author and divine has treated his subjects with great vigor and eloquence, crystallized the teachings of Christ upon the various topics that enter in- to the live theological questions of the day, and produced^ volume that will be an in- valuable aid to every pastor and Christian student in the investigation of truth. One volume, crown 8vo, 310 pages, $1.50* Mother, Home and Heaven— Golden Thoughts On. An elegant Gift Book. By over 400 authors. The gems of the language in Prose and Poetry upon the three dearest names to mortals given. Introduction by Theo. L. Cuyler, D.D. " It cannot be valued with pure gold."— Thos. Armitage, D.D. Get it. Elegant steel and wood engravings. 454 Quarto pages 170th Thousand. Cloth, $'-4.75. Full Gilt, $3.50. Full Morocco, $5. The Sabbath ; its Permanence, Promise and Defence. By W. W. EvRRTS, D D. This is a verj' exhaustive treatise on the Sabbath, around which its friends and foes are gathering for an irrepressible conflict. Intellectual weapons, each one as keen and well-tried as an old Damascus blade, are here furnished for its defence ; and the weakness of its adversaries is clearly demonstrated. It is an armory and a panoply for every defender of God's Holy Day. One volume, crown Svo, 282 pages, cloth, $1. Christian Thought. Issued under the auspices of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy. Ed- ited by Charles F. Deems, D.D., LL.D., containing Papers on Philosophy, Chris- tian Evidence, Biblical Elucidation, etc. 420 pages. First year, bound volume, price, $2. The Pastor's Perpetual Diary and Pulpit Memoranda. Undenominational. Perpetual in character. A Clergyman's invaluable pocket companion. Price, 50 cents. The Pittsburgh Methodist Recorder says: " We have seen nothing of the kind more convenient than this." Moody's Sermons, Bible Readings, Prayer-Meet- I'ng Talks, and l^mperance Addresses are published in full from Verbatim Reports, and issued only in the fo'lowing authorized volumes : GJad Tidings comprises his New York Sermons, with Portrait, Life, and LiborsofD. L. MuouY 504 pages. Extra Cloth, $2» Oreat Joy comprises his Chicago Sermons, with Life and Portrait of P. P. BLibb. 52.S pages. Kxtra Cloth, $2. To All People comprises his Boston Sermons, with Life and Portrait of Ira D. Sankey. J ntroduction by Rev. Joseph Cook. 528 pages. Extra Cloth, $'i. Each volume is complete in itself, and entirely different in matter. Uniform in style. Tlie I?Ioody liibrary — the above three volumes— in a box, for Sunday- Schools, Pastors, and tioine Libraries. Upwards of Two Hundred Sekmo.ns, &c.» and over sixteen hundred Anecdotes and lihistrations. Nine Portraits and Illustra- tions. Sold in sets. Price, $4.50. The Devil in History ; or, the Footprints of Satan. A ?:ew Book. By Rev. Holi.is Read, A.M., late Missionary of the American Board to India; author of "God in History," &c. Comprising the Otigin, Character, Influence, and Power of Satan, with historical outlines of his work in the abuse and perversion of every good, as shown in the ruinous effects of the apostasy in the affairs of the world, from Adam"s fall, through Bible times, the early Church, the Middle Ages, to the present day. The work, in scope and character, is original ; and, in mat- ter of fact, has the freshness of a novel—" tiot fictitious, yet straHger than fiction " Rev. Theo. L. Cuvlek, D.D., says: "It is a unique and valuable book." — Kev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D., says : " May all the world .'-ee Mr. Read's book, and profit by its exposures." One volume, crown 8vo, 510 pages, $2. The Boys in Blue ; or, Heroes of the Rank and File. Comprising Incidents and Reminiscences from Camp, Battle-field, and Hospit.il, V. ith Narratives of the Sacrifice, Sufferings, and Triumphs of the "Soldiers of the Republic." By Mrs. H. A. Hoge, of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, Chicago. With an I.itroduction by T. M. Eddy, D.D The story Mrs. Hoge narrates is one of most thrilling interest. She confines herself to incidents which passed under her own observation, and these she weaves together with wonderful skill and effect. The private soldier who survived the war will find his own experiejices reproduced in this deeply interesting volume; and the thousands who mourn a son, brother, or father will equally welcome the work as a souvenir of the struggle so full of tender memories for them. One volume, crown Svo, 510 pages. Handsome cloth binding, $iJ. Curiosities of the B'ble.— Pei Gaining to Scnpture Persons, Places and i'hings, including Prize Questions and Answers, Enigmas, Acrostics, Facts and Statistics, with many valuable Ready Reference Tables, founded upon and answered in the Bible. With Blackboard or Slate Illustrations, I'ible Studies, Concert Exercises and Prayer-Meeting Outlines, by a New York Sunday-school Superintendent, with an Introduction by J. H. Vince.nt, D.D. One volume, 466 pages, $1 .73. Centenary Orations. comprising upward of one hundred se'ect Orations and Poems, delivered in every State of the Union on the One Hundredth Anniversary of American Independence, by Hon. W. M. Evarts, Rev. Dr. Storrs, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Francis Adams, Horatio Seymour, J. G. Whittier, Bay- ard Tavlor and others. Issued under the auspices of the respective authors, forming an authorized and enduring monument of that memorable epoch. Edited by F. Saundehs, A.jNI., Librarian of Astor Library. Nearly 900 octavo pages. Price, $;i.50. PO^'traitS Artotypes by Bierstadt, of GEN. GRANT, to which he af- ^' fixed his autograph to three different lots during his sickness, from a negative by Fredricks, of New York; from it the portrait in the Wl>ite House was painted by '1 nos. Lk Ci.eau. Also the Bierstadt Portrait of Garfla.d and Lincoln. Each on Extra quality steel plate paper, size 10x24 inches, - - $1.00. Artist Proofs in India Tint (Limited Number) by mail, - 3.00. E. B. TREAT, Publislier, 771 Broadway, New York, \ y mM0m 'Mm t i^- w