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FIVE DISCOURSES 
 
 MORAL OBLIGATION ANDTHE 
 PARTICULAR DUTIES 
 
 THE SABBATH 
 
 / 
 
 BYA.O. HUB BARD, A.M., 
 
 PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN HARUWICK, 
 
 HANOVER: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM A. RUGGLES. 
 
 VV. A. PATTEN, PRINTER. 
 
 18 43. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The folloAving Discourses were originally delivered lo 
 the church and society of which the author is pastor. 
 They are presented to the public with only such alterations 
 as a change of circumstances appeared to require. 
 
 It has occurred to the author that a manual on the 
 subject here treatetl of, — something that should exhibit in 
 a plain dnd perspicuous manner, and in a form neither too 
 condensed on the one hand^ nor too dififuse on the other, 
 the divine authority and the particular duties of the day of 
 weekly rest, is what is greatl}'^ needed, especially in this 
 portion of our country. And he has heard a similar senti- 
 ment repeatedly expressed by those whose judgment he i.s 
 accustomed to respect. Whether these Discourses (com- 
 menced indeed without any view of the kind,) shall be 
 thought lo supply, in any measure, the place of such a 
 work, must be left for others to determine. It is hoped 
 that the discussion has been conducted in a spirit befitt'ng 
 one who attempts to explain the doctrines, and to enforce 
 tiie requirements, of God's word, and that it ma\', especial- 
 ly \\iien viewed in connexion with the points incldentaliy 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 alluded lo, be rendered of some f^eneral service in promot- 
 ing the cause of truth. 
 
 The author has readily availed himself of whatever 
 helps he had at command, — lliough these have certainly 
 been much fewer than he could have desired. He is par- 
 ticularly indebted to the treatise on the sabbath written by 
 Bishop Wilson, and republished in this country in the 
 year 1831. In the first three Discourses he has followed, 
 to a considerable extent, V/ilson's general arrangement ; 
 (although this is indeed the only natural one;) he has 
 also in several instances made use of his ideas, and 
 in a few, ofhis language, fn most cases of the kind, it 
 is believed, a note of reference will be found in the 
 margin. An occasional allusion to scripture facts or lo 
 authorities, may be made, where Wilson's work is not men- 
 tioned. In the preparation of the fourth and fifth Dis- 
 courses the author has received valuable aid from Dwight's 
 Sermons, from Nevins' Tract on the sabbath, and espe 
 cially from the Panophst for the year 1815. 
 
 Hardwick, Vt., Jubj, 1842. 
 
iPEir 
 
 ■RlC, i'^u 
 
 ourseT^ 
 
 THE MORAL AND PERPETUAL OBLIGATION 
 OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 EXODUS 20: 8. 
 
 REMEMBER THE SABBAT Ft DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY. 
 
 The word sabbath is a Hebrew term sig- 
 nifying rest. It is derived from a verb 
 which signifies to rest, and which first 
 occurs in Gen. 2 : 2, 3, in reference to 
 God's resting from the work of creation. 
 'And on the seventh day God . . . rested{\itev- 
 ally, sabbatized) from all his work which he 
 had made.' In these two verses \ve have 
 ihe origin and the proper signification of 
 the term, as well as the establishing of the 
 institution which the term itself designates. 
 It occurs in the scriptures both with and 
 M'ithout the v/ord day. Sometimes it is used 
 
6 THE SABBATH. 
 
 by an obvious figure to denote a iveek; 
 sometimes a period of seven years. Kin- 
 dred to the word sabbath is the term sabba- 
 ton, the Greek form of which, sabbatismos 
 (sabbatism) is used in Heb. 4: 9. 
 
 I propose to consider the subject of the 
 sabbath somewhat in detail, — and the re- 
 marks which I have to offer will be present- 
 ed in five Discourses. In the first two I 
 shall endeavour to establish the moral and 
 perpetual obligation of a day of weekly 
 rest; in the third I shall treat of the trans- 
 fer of the sabbath from the seventh to the 
 first day of the week; and in the fourth and 
 fifth I shall speak of the manner in which 
 the sabbath should be observed. 
 
 I shall first consider the divine authority 
 of a day of weekly rest. 
 
 Most of you, my friends, are doubtless 
 aware that the moral obligation of the chris- 
 tian sabbath has, especially within the past 
 half century, been openly and somewhat 
 extensively called in question. Not only 
 have infidels attacked the institution in com- 
 mon with the other institutions of religion; 
 
THE SABBATH. 7 
 
 many professed christians have advanced 
 views in regard to it, which, however well 
 intended, appear to be subversive of the 
 first principles of faith. It has been as- 
 serted, that there are no traces of a sab- 
 bath in the patriarchal ages; that therefore 
 the account of its institution in the book of 
 Genesis is by way of anticipation ; that it 
 was not established in fact till the time of 
 the ceremonial law, and then merely form- 
 ed a part of that preparatory dispensation; 
 that we have no express command for the 
 observance of it, or any day in the place of 
 it, in the New Testament; that our Lord 
 repealed it by his doctrine and conduct ; 
 and finally, that the example of the apostles 
 and primitive christians gives it only the 
 force of a moral expediency, subject to the 
 regulations of each christian church, in 
 each following age.* That these assertions 
 are either utterly without foundation, or 
 irrelative to the point at issue, will, I trust, 
 
 Wilson. 
 
THE SABBATH. 
 
 be made to appear in the course of the 
 present discussion. 
 
 The argument for the divine authority of 
 a day of weekly rest embraces several par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 I. Such a day was obviously appointed 
 for our first parents in paradise; and the 
 account of the original institution is such 
 as to prove it to be of universal obligation. 
 When thoheavens and the earth were fin- 
 ished, and Adam placed in the garden of 
 Eden, God blessed and set apart one day 
 in seven for his own immediate service , 
 " Thus the heavens and the earth were fin- 
 ished, and all the host of them. And on 
 the seventh God ended his work which he 
 had made; and he rested on the seventh 
 day from all his work. And God blessed 
 the seventh day and sanctified it; because 
 that in it he had rested from all his work 
 which God created and made." To assert 
 that this account is given by way of antici- 
 pation, while the sabbath was not known till 
 twenty five hundred years after the crea- 
 tion, is to assert that which is directly op- 
 
THE SABBATH. 
 
 posed to the face of the narrative. It will 
 be observed that the transactions of the 
 seventh day immediately follow those of the 
 sixth, precisely as those of the sixth follow the 
 fifth; that is, in what is said of the six days 
 and of the seventh we have a regular, un- 
 broken history. As on the first day one 
 thing was done, on the second another, on 
 the third another, &.C.; so on the seventh 
 day God 'ended his work,' 'rested from all 
 his work,' and ' blessed and sanctified the 
 seventh day, because in it he had rested 
 from all his work, ' &c. Does not the writer 
 manifestly say that the sabbath was set 
 apart as soon as the work of creation was 
 completed ? 
 
 When it is said that God rested, the 
 meaning of course simply is, that he ceased 
 to create. Very much of what si said in 
 the scriptures respecting God, is, from 
 the nature of the case, spoken after the 
 manner of men. He "fainteth not, nei- 
 ther is weary." Should it be alleged that 
 the iiuvpose for which God blessed and 
 sanctified the seventh day is not specified, 
 
10 THE SABBATH. 
 
 I would inquire, what could this purpose 
 have been, except the benefit of the reason- 
 able and accountable creature man? Sure- 
 ly it was not necessary for God to sanctify 
 or set apart this day /or his own sake. And 
 if the day was set apart in reference to 
 man, it must have been in reference to man 
 as he existed from the very first; for the 
 obligation in respect to religious worship, 
 and of course the propriety of celebrating 
 the glories of creation, is the same in all 
 ages of the world. 
 
 I have said that the account of the original 
 institution is such as to prove it to be of 
 universal obligation. Let us look again at 
 the circumstances of the case. What reason 
 can be assigned for God's working six days, 
 and resting (or ceasing to create) the 
 seventh, unless it were to determine the 
 proportion of time to be severally devoted 
 to secular and sacred duties, — unless it 
 were to show us that we should, after his 
 example, work six days, and then rest and 
 hallow the day following ^ Why was the 
 work of creation distributed into several 
 
THE SABBATH. li 
 
 parts, and why is the production of each of 
 the six days so particularly specified, un- 
 less it were to teach mankind a great moral 
 and religious lesson ? Surely God could 
 have created the universe as easily in a 
 moment as in six days; and it seems to lie 
 on the very face of the record, that his 
 working in the manner he did, had reference 
 mainly to the appointment of a day of weekly 
 rest for the human family. I say mainly, — 
 for a subordinate reason may possibly be 
 supposed to refer to the fact, that a creation 
 whose several parts should be progressively 
 developed, might be better adapted to call 
 forth the admiration of angels, than one that 
 should be, throughout, instantaneous. On 
 such a day God did one thing, on such 
 a day another, and on the seventh day he 
 rested, or ceased to create. The principle 
 of resting one day in seven, would seem to 
 be inscribed on the work of creation itself. 
 ' God worked six days and then rested the 
 seventh, for the reason that mankind miffht 
 work and rest in the same order.' 
 
 The argument in respect to the moral 
 
12 THE SABBATH. 
 
 obligation of a day of* weekly rest, appear:* 
 to turn essentially on the original appoint- 
 ment as given to our first parents in para- 
 dise. If the sabbath was given to Adam, 
 there can be no doubt in regard to the na- 
 ture of the institution. The law respecting 
 a day of weekly rest must have been a part 
 of the moral law that was revealed to him 
 by his all-wise and beneficent Creator. 
 That the sabbath ivas appointed in paradise, 
 will be further evident from the two follow- 
 ing considerations: — First, There are 
 traces of a weekly division of time in the 
 patriarchal ages. Secondly, The existence 
 of the sabbath is recognised before the 
 Mosaic dispensation commenced. 
 
 1 . There are traces of a weekly division 
 of time in the patriarchal ages. We grant 
 that the sabbath is not expressly mentioned 
 from the time of Adam to that of Moses; 
 but what then? Is it proper to infer from 
 the silence of scripture in respect to any in- 
 stitution, that such institution did not exist? 
 Nothing^is said of sacrifices from the time of 
 Abel down to that of the deluge, a period 
 
THE SAEBATH. 13 
 
 of some fifteen hundred years; but are we 
 therefore to infer that sacrifices were not 
 offered? No mention is made of circumcis- 
 ion from the death of Moses to the time of 
 Jeremiah, an interval of eight centuries; 
 but are we therefore to conclude that cir- 
 cumcision was not performed? We have 
 no account of the sabbath in Joshua, Ruth, 
 first and second Samuel, and first of Kings; 
 and yet these books were written after the 
 giving of the Mosaic law, and at periods, 
 confessedly, when the institution was cele- 
 brated with the greatest care.* So far as 
 (he silence of scripture is concerned, vre 
 might just as well infer that the sabbath 
 was not observed in the time of Joshua and 
 Samuel, as that its observance was not 
 known in the days of Abraham, and Isaac, 
 and Jacob. In different parts of the book 
 of Genesis, however, we find that which is 
 equivalent to the express mention of the 
 sabbath, that is, we find, as I have remarked, 
 traces of a weekly division of time. OijfL? 
 
14 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 can hardly cite, in favour of such a division, 
 the account of the sacrifice of Cain and 
 Abel in chapter 4th. " In process of time 
 it came to pass, that Cain brought of the 
 fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord." 
 Though the expression *'in processof time,'* 
 is literally, 'at the end of days, ' yet no intima- 
 tion is given as to the number of days intend- 
 ed. Some suppose that the allusion is to 
 the end of the year, the time at which the feast 
 of the ingathering was afterwards kept ; but 
 it may be doubted whether any definite time 
 is referred to. In the 7th chapter, however, 
 we find the reckoning by weeks alluded to as 
 the ordinary division of time. "Yet seven days 
 and I will cause it to rain upon the earth ;" 
 and again in verse 10, " And it came to pass, 
 after seven days, that the waters of the flood 
 were upon the earth." It is said in chapter 
 8th, when the flood was decreasing, ^that 
 'Noah sent out a dove, which returned.' 
 He then stayed " yet other seven days," and 
 again sent it forth. In verse 12, "And he 
 stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth 
 the dove, which returned not again," &c. 
 
THE SABBATH. 15 
 
 Should we not infer from this account, that 
 the division of days into portions of seven 
 was perfectly familiar to the antediluvians, 
 and that one day of the seven was marked 
 by some distinction ? 
 
 After the deluge the tradition of a weekly 
 division of time spread, manifestly through 
 the sons of Noah, over all the eastern world. 
 Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians and 
 Arabians unite with the Israelites in retaining 
 traces of it. In the earliest classics there are 
 many indications that the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans observed such a division, and that the 
 seventh day was regarded as especially sa- 
 cred. To what cause except the tradition of 
 the creation, are we to attribute the fact, that 
 seven was employed by all the ancient na- 
 tions as a sacred number r* 
 
 It will be remembered that the rite of cir- 
 cumcision was to be performed after the 
 lapse of seven days from the birth of the 
 child. Gen. 17: 12. 
 
 Even Laban the Syrian seems to have been 
 
 *See Geseiiius on the Heb, word. 
 
16 THE SABBATH. 
 
 acquainted with a weekly division of time. 
 *' Fulfil her week, and we will give thee 
 this also," Gen. 29 : 29. The word here 
 rendered ^ week,' is the appropriate scripture 
 expression for that term. It is said that Jo- 
 seph devoted a week to the mourning for his 
 father, Gen. 50 : 10. 
 
 2. The existence of the sabbath is recognis- 
 ed before theMosaic dispensation commenced. 
 So utterly unfounded is the assertion that the 
 sabbath was not known till the giving of the 
 law on mount Sinai. The dispensation at 
 Sinai commences in the 20th chapter of Ex- 
 odus ; in the 16th chapter, that is, four chap- 
 ters before, the sabbath is not only spoken ol^ 
 but it is spoken of in such a way as to show 
 that it was an institution of Vvhich the Isra- 
 elites were by no means ignorant. When 
 the manna was announced, they were direct- 
 ed to gather twice as much on the sixth day 
 as they did on the other days, Ex. 15: 6. 
 In verse 23 the reason of this direction is 
 given, and some further particulars in respect 
 to the observance of the sabbath specified. 
 '' This is that which the Lord hath said, To- 
 
THE SABBATH. 17 
 
 morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath (liter- 
 ally, the sabbath of the holy sabbath,) unto 
 the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake 
 to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and 
 that which remaineth over lay up for you, 
 to be kept until the morning." It would 
 seem to be sufficiently plain, from the gen- 
 eral scope of the narrative, that Moses is 
 here not establishing a new institution, but 
 simply reviving one with which the Israel- 
 ites were to some extent familiar. The 
 manner in which the subject is introduced, 
 and the conduct of the people show that 
 something, at least, had been previously 
 known in regard to a day of weekly rest. 
 It is utterly incredible that so stiff-necked 
 a people as the Jews, a people that had just 
 been on the very verge of rebellion, should 
 have so readily fallen in with an institution 
 to which they were entire strangers.* 
 
 * For a somewhat particular examination of tlie ac- 
 count respecting the Sabbath, in this chapter, the reader is 
 referred to Dwight's Theology, Sermon one hundred mv\ 
 seventh. Sec also Rosenmucller's Scholia ad loc. 
 
 o 
 
18 THE SABBATH. 
 
 One cannot but observe, in passing, the 
 importance which God attached to the sab- 
 bath, as seen in the falling and preservation 
 of the manna. It will be recollected that 
 the manna fell on six days, but not on the 
 seventh ; that twice as much fell on the 
 sixth day as on any of the preceding five; 
 and that, while that which fell on the first 
 five days invariably putrefied on the day 
 following, that which fell on the sixth day 
 remained sweet and wholesome over the 
 seventh. Here was a three-fold weekly 
 miracle to remind the people of the impor- 
 tance of a day of weekly rest. 
 
 I have said that the account in the chap- 
 ter which has just been referred to, seems 
 to show that the Israelites were not, pre- 
 viously to the events there recorded, whol- 
 ly unacquainted with the sabbath. We 
 should naturally suppose, however, that 
 their knowledge of the institution must 
 have been a good deal confused and indefi- 
 nite. During their bondage in Egypt, a 
 period of some two hundred years, it might 
 have been impossible for them outwardly to 
 
THE SABBATH. 19 
 
 observe the sabbath at all; * and it is not 
 improbable that, at the time they left the 
 country, the exact computation of weeks 
 from the first institution had been lost. 
 Some have thought that the new calculation 
 was dated from the day of deliverance from 
 Egypt, the day on which the sacred year 
 commenced ; see Ex. 12: 2. A reason 
 assigned for keeping the sabbath in Deut. 
 5: 15 is, that the Israelites had been ser- 
 vants in Egypt, and that the Lord had 
 brought them out with a mighty hand. 
 
 I would not, in Ex. 20: 8, lay any great 
 stress on the v/ord translated remember, — 
 for it may well be doubted whether that 
 word means anything more than the word 
 rendered keep, in Deut. 5: 15. Either of 
 the expressions however, ' Remember the 
 sabbath,' or ' Keep the sabbath,' wou\d imply 
 that the institution had been previously 
 known. 
 
 * Cog:itavi in Egypto, ubi srrvicbas, eliam ipso sah- 
 bato per vim ic esse coactum ad labores. — Manasscti Ben 
 Israel. 
 
3@ THE SABBATH. 
 
 Thus the position that the sabbath was 
 set apart in paradise, and that of course, 
 its observance is a matter of moral obliga- 
 tion, has, if I mistake not, been sufficient- 
 ly confirmed. It has, I trust, been seen, 
 that the record in Gen. 2, can fairly be 
 interpreted in no other way; and that the 
 institution both existed in the days of the 
 patriarchs, and was not unknown during 
 the bondage in Egypt. 
 
 II. The command in respect to the ob- 
 servance of a day of weekly rest, forms 
 one of the precepts of the decalogue. "Re- 
 member the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
 Six days shalt thou labour, 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 man-servant, nor thy maid- 
 servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger 
 that is within thy gates: for in six days the 
 Ljord made heaven, and earth, the sea, and 
 all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
 day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sab- 
 bath dav, and hallowed it." Hero then, 
 
THE SABEATH. 21 
 
 v/e have the law in respect to the sabbath 
 incorporated in the table of the ten com- 
 raandments. Are not all these command- 
 ments of moral or perpetual obligation ? 
 Surely, no one is authorised to set aside the 
 fourth, any more than he is any or all of the 
 remaining nine. Whatever obligation the 
 first, or the second, or the sixth, or any 
 one of the remaining number carries along 
 with it, the same obligation is involved in 
 the fourth. *' If men are bound in all ages 
 to acknowledge one only God; to worship 
 him not with graven images, but in spirit 
 and in truth; to reverence the divine name; 
 to obey their parents; to abstain from mur- 
 der, adulter}?, theft, false witness, concu- 
 piscence, — they are equally bound to con- 
 secrate a gabbath to their Maker's ser- 
 vice." * 
 
 I have, for the sake of clearness, refer- 
 red to the insertion of the law of the sab- 
 bath in the decalogue, as a separate argu- 
 ment in favour of the divine authority of 
 
 *• Wilson. 
 
22 THE SABBATH. 
 
 the day. Tlie fact alluded to is not, how- 
 ever, properly so much a separate argu- 
 ment, as it is an illustration of the first, viz. 
 that the sabbath was appointed for man in 
 paradise. The moral law was not a new 
 thing. In all its essential elements it ex- 
 isted from the beginning. It was not in- 
 deed engraven on tables of stone, but it 
 was engraven on the hearts of men. The 
 decalogue was only a summary of those 
 principles which were revealed to Adam, 
 and which had regulated the conduct of the 
 people of God from the time of the patri- 
 archs down to that of Moses. Its precepts, 
 as one justly remarks, "are the eternal 
 rules of right and wrong, resting on the 
 authoritative will of God, and arising from 
 the essential relations in which man stands 
 to his Creator and his fellow creatures." 
 This will be admitted in regard to the com- 
 mands generally, and it cannot be denied 
 in respect to the fourth. If one is prepar- 
 ed to grant, that in the earliest times idola- 
 try, murder, theft. Sec. were known to be 
 wrong, with what propriety docs he assume 
 
THE SABBATH. 23 
 
 that the law in respect to the sabbath had 
 no existence previous to the time of Moses? 
 Is not a sabbath as essential to man in one 
 age as it is in another ? It is worthy of 
 notice that the same reason is assigned for 
 keeping the sabbath in the decalogue, that 
 was assigned when the institution was 
 established at the creation. ''For in six 
 days'the Lord made heaven and earth, &c. ; 
 wherefore ^ the Lord blessed the sabbath 
 day, and hallowed it." 
 
 If the foregoing view be correct, the as- 
 sertion that the law respecting the sab- 
 bath merely formed a part of the Mosaic 
 economy, will already have been disprov- 
 ed. As has been remarked, the moral 
 law is, from the nature of the case, of 
 perpetual and universal obligation. The 
 judicial and ceremonial law, or that which 
 related to the Jews as a nation, was, on 
 the other hand, of positive enactment and 
 of temporary duration: it had no exist- 
 ence before its express appointment, and 
 was abrogated at the introduction of the 
 christian dispensation. Not only are the 
 
24 THE SABBATH. 
 
 moral law and the ceremonial totally di- 
 verse in their nature and design; the}Mvere 
 delivered at different times, and under dif- 
 ferent circumstances. No part of the cer- 
 emonial law was given until the decalogue 
 had been completed. In Deut. 5 : 22 it is 
 said, ''These words (that is, the ten com- 
 mandments) the Lord spake, Slc, and he 
 added no more.'" The ceremonial enact- 
 ments v/ere delivered, it would seem, ' by 
 more ordinary and usual means; the pre- 
 cepts of the moral law were proclaimed 
 by the immediate and audible voice of God.' 
 It is no objection to this view that in 
 Deut. 5: 15 the observance of the sabbath 
 is enjoined by a reference to the deliver- 
 ance from Egypt, and that such observance 
 was, in some respects, regulated by the tem- 
 porary or ceremonial economy. The pas- 
 sage in Deuteronomy does not necessarily 
 mean that the sabbath was instituted in 
 commemoration of the deliverance from 
 Egypt; it appears simply to teach, that the 
 Israelites vv^ere to make that a day of pecu- 
 liar recognition of the event referred to. 
 
THE SABBATH. 25 
 
 As God's chosen and redeemed people, a 
 consideration in respect to the sabbath ex- 
 isted in regard to them, which did not exist 
 in regard to others: the reason therefore, 
 which was given for the observance of the 
 day in their case, was merely additional to 
 the reason which had been assigned before; 
 that is, it was a secondary and subordinate 
 reason. The one was of universal applica- 
 tion; the other related to the Israelites as 
 a people. The case might be illustrated in 
 this manner: A king publishes a law, and 
 assigns, at the time, a reason for its observ- 
 ance that applies to all his subjects: after- 
 wards, in re-publishing the law, he assigns 
 a subordinate reason, or one that relates to 
 a certain class of his subjects in particular. 
 The same principle obtains in respect to 
 those passages which speak of the sabbath 
 as a sign between God and his people. The 
 passage in Neh. 9: 14, " And madest known 
 to them thy holy sabbath, &c., by the hand 
 of Moses thy servant," no more implies that 
 the sabbath was unknown previous to the 
 Mosaic dispensation, than it does that the 
 
26 THE SABBATH. 
 
 principles of the moral law generally, were 
 unknown. What the passage manifestly 
 teaches, is, " that God had inihlished the 
 law of the sabbath at Sinai, with renewed, 
 awful, and peculiar sanctions."* The fact 
 that with the law of the sabbath were as- 
 sociated certain ceremonial enactments, 
 affects not the nature of the law itself. A 
 law may be of universal obligation, and yet 
 have certain appendages that relate to a 
 particular period of time, or to a particular 
 class of men. Thus, on the return of the 
 sabbath, two lambs were to be offered be- 
 side the usual sacrifice; the shew-bread 
 was to be renewed; the Levites were to 
 enter upon their courses, &lc. It would 
 seem that individuals were not, on the sab- 
 bath, allowed to travel (for secular pur' 
 poses) beyond a certain distance, — and 
 the presumptuous violator of the day was 
 to be put to death. Now, there were cer- 
 tain judicial and ceremonial enactments ap- 
 pended to the other precepts of the deca- 
 
 •Prof. Stuart in loc. 
 
THE SABBATH. 27 
 
 logue as well as the fourth; but does this 
 circumstance prove them not to have been 
 of a moral nature ? Does it prove them not 
 to have been still the eternal, the immuta- 
 ble rules of right and wrong ? If the vio- 
 lation of the fourth commandment was pun- 
 ished with death, the same was true in re- 
 gard to each of the remaining precepts of 
 the decalogue, with the exception of the 
 eighth and tenth. To the crime of idola- 
 try, sabbath-breaking, disobedience to pa- 
 rents, murder, adultery, bearing false wit- 
 ness, was annexed one and the same pen- 
 alty. The violation of the eighth command- 
 ment was severely punished; and if a thief 
 were detected in attempting to break open 
 a house at night, he might be put to death 
 with impunity. The violation of the tenth 
 commandment could not, from the nature 
 of the case, be punished by man at all, 
 except indeed so far as this commandment 
 was identified with the seventh and the 
 eighth. If any one is prepared to take the 
 ground, that because the fourth command- 
 ment had in it something of a positive or 
 
J50 THE SABEATir. 
 
 judicial character, it was therefore binding 
 only on the Jewish nation, he will be com- 
 pelled to take the same ground in respect 
 to all the other precepts of the decalogue — 
 a fearful alternative indeed ! Because the 
 violation of the first commandment, or the 
 sixth, or the seventh, was punished with 
 temporal death, was the full penalty attach- 
 ed to these transgressions thereby exhaust- 
 ed? Was it supposed to be thereby ex- 
 hausted, by enlightened and pious Jews ? 
 Did they not understand that, to incur the 
 divine displeasure, meant vastly more than 
 simply to suffer punishment in the present 
 world ? Let sound views of scripture truth 
 answer the question. 
 
 Not only was the law of the sabbath un- 
 affected, from the nature of the case, by 
 its connexion with the ceremonial dispensa- 
 tion ; it stood, in form, high above that dis- 
 pensation during the subsequent period of 
 the Jewish history. Afier the giving of the 
 decalogue in Exodus 20, three chapters of 
 judicial enactments follow. In the midst of 
 these the sabbath is introduced, and in such 
 
Tin: SABEATH. 29 
 
 ji manner as to shew that its observance 
 was intimately associated with the worship- 
 ])ing of the true God. Succeeding the 
 chapters just mentioned are six which re- 
 late to the tabernacle, and its various ser- 
 vices and sacrifices. These chapters, or 
 lather the whole communication of the forty 
 days on the mount, is concluded by a re- 
 inculcation of the law of the sabbalh, and 
 that in the most particular and impi'essive 
 manner.* "And the Lord spake unto Mo- 
 ses, saying, Speak thou also unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths 
 ye shall keep; for it is a sign between nm 
 and you throughout your generations: that 
 ye may know thai I am the Lord iluit dolk 
 sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath 
 
 therefore, for it is holy unto you 
 
 Six days may work be done, hut in the 
 seventh is the sabbath of rest. . . Where- 
 fore the children of Israel shall keep the 
 sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout 
 their generations;" see Ex. 31: L3— IT. 
 
30 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Amid the recapitulations which follow in 
 the next three chapters the sahbath is again 
 introduced. 
 
 In Lev. 19: 3, 4, the law of the sabbath 
 is introduced in connexion with the first, 
 second, and fifth precepts ofthe decalogue. 
 ''Ye shall fear every man his mother and 
 father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the 
 Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, 
 nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am 
 the Lord your God." Could any thing 
 show more clearly the high moral character 
 of the sabbath, than the manner in which 
 it is here referred to? 
 
 The account of the sabbath-breaker in 
 Numb. 15, and the manner in which the 
 law of the sabbath is repeated in Deut. 5, 
 (the chapter already alluded to,) appear to 
 illustrate the same sentiment. In the lat- 
 ter chapter the law of the sabbath not only 
 retains its former place among the precepts 
 of the decalogue ; it would seem to have a 
 degree of prominence which it had not in 
 the first instance. If one were to judge 
 from the particularity of expression, he 
 
THE SABBATH. 31 
 
 would be led to think, that the fourth pre- 
 cept, instead of being of less importance 
 than any of the others, was, if possible, 
 of even greater importance. Moses wrote 
 the book of Deuteronomy near the close of 
 life; and how entirely elevated above any 
 ceremonial enactment the law of the sab- 
 bath is here left, no candid reader can fail 
 to perceive. That it continued to be thus 
 elevated, will be evident as we proceed. 
 
DISCOURSE 11, 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 EXODUS 20: 8. 
 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLTi 
 
 L\ the former Discourse I considered the 
 divine authority of a day of weekly rest, 
 as proved from the fact, that such a day 
 w^as set apart at the creation, and that its 
 observance is expressly enjoined in the 
 decalogue. I come now to my third and 
 fourth arguments in relation to the same 
 general subject, — although indeed these 
 arguments will be scarcely more than an 
 illustration of those that precede. 
 
 III. The prophets every where speak of 
 the sabbath in such a manner as to prove 
 
34 THE SABCATH. 
 
 it to be of moral obligation. The ninety- 
 second PsaJm is said to be a hymn or song 
 that was composed expressly for the sab- 
 bath. There is reason to believe indeed, 
 that every sabbath had its appointed psalm 
 or psalms; and a writer has cited a passage 
 from a Jewish tract, in which these psalms 
 are severally numbered.* The subjects 
 that are introduced in Psalm 92nd are the 
 very subjects that would be appropriate to 
 a hymn composed expressly for the sab- 
 bath, viz., the works, the providence, and 
 the grace of God. In Is. 56: 1 — 5, it is 
 said, '' Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judg- 
 ment, and do justice, &c. 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. For thus saith 
 the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my 
 sabbaths, and choose the things that please 
 me, and take hold on my covenant; even 
 unto them will I give in my house and with- 
 
 * See Roseiimucllor's Scholia. 
 
TH5 SABBATH. 35 
 
 in my walis a place better than of sons and 
 daughters: I will give them an everlasting 
 name that shall not be cut off." It will be 
 observed that keeping the sabbath is here 
 put on a level v/ith doing judgment and jus- 
 tice, and taking hold on God's covenant; 
 that isj it is obedience in the highest and 
 most essential sense of the word. It is 
 obedience with which were associated all 
 the blessings that pertain to the keeping 
 of any part of the moral law. In verses 
 6th and 7th the language is, if possible, 
 still stronger. Not only is the keeping of 
 the sabbath here associated with serving 
 the Lord, loving the name of the Lord 
 cLC, Sec; it is expressly predicted that 
 the blessings connected with the obser- 
 vance of this day were to be extended 
 also to the gentiles. Does the prophet any- 
 where speak of mere ceremonial obser- 
 vances in this manner ? Does he not even 
 condemn such observances, when put in 
 the place of the weightier matters that are 
 treated of in this chapter? "Bring no 
 more vain oblations . . . the new rooon&, 
 
'YJ THE SABEATH, 
 
 and sabbaths, (that is, the merely having 
 certain religious days,) the calling of as- 
 semblies, I cannot away with . . . wash 
 you, make you clean . . . c^ase to do 
 evil; learn to do well." So in chapter 58, 
 where loosing the bands of wickedness, 
 &c., and properly keeping the sabbath are 
 put in contrast with the mere external ob- 
 servance of fasting, &c. How expressive 
 is the language with which the latter chap- 
 ter concludes ! 
 
 It will occur in this connexion, that the 
 prophets associate with the sin of violating 
 the sabbath, the severest threatenings. 
 Thus Jeremiah, chap. 17, " Thus saith the 
 Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear 
 no burden on the sabbath day, Si,c. . . . 
 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their 
 ear, Sec. . . . But if ye will not hearken 
 unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not 
 bear a burden, even entering in at the gates 
 of Jerusalem on 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." The prophet 
 
THE SAEBATir. o/ 
 
 Ezekiel, in referring to the sins of the Is- 
 raelites in the wilderness, represents the 
 peculiar aggravation of those sins to be. 
 their profanation of the sabbath ; see chap. 
 20, vs. 12, 13. " The house of Israel re- 
 belled against me in the wilderness: they 
 walked not in my statutes; they despised 
 my judgments, and my sabbaths they great- 
 ly polluted: then I said I v.ould pour out 
 my fury upon them in the wilderness, to 
 consume them." In the course of the 
 chapter the charge is again and again re- 
 peated, and in verse 16 the sin of sabbath 
 breaking is associated with that of idolatry. 
 " Because they despised ray judgments, and 
 walked not in my statutes, but polluted my 
 sabbaths; for their heart went after their 
 idols." In chap 22 the prophet mentions 
 the sin of sabbath breaking in connexion 
 with disobedience to parents, idolatry, mur- 
 der, adultery, extortion, &c., and he tell& 
 the people that it was on account of these 
 sins that they were to be scattered among 
 the heathen. 
 
 Of the reformation effected by Neheniiah 
 
'S8 THE SABBATH. 
 
 one of the most prominent parts consisted in 
 recalling the people to the proper obser- 
 vance of the sabbath. See Neh. chap. 13. 
 Does he speak of the sabbath as a mere 
 ceremonial rite that had been neglected or 
 despised; or does he speak of it as a mat- 
 ter that involved the highest moral obliga- 
 tion .'* Most obviously the latter. " In 
 those days saw I in Judah some treading 
 wine-presses on the sabbath, and bringing 
 in sheaves, &c. Then I contended with 
 the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, 
 What evil thing is this that ye do, and pro- 
 fane the sabbath day? Did not your fath- 
 ers thus, and did not our God bring all this 
 evil upon us, and upon this city .'* yet ye 
 bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning 
 the sabbath." The judgment here spoken 
 of is that of the Babylonish captivity: of 
 this judgment therefore the sin of sabbath 
 breaking was one of the principal causes. 
 IV. Let us now consider the next argu- 
 ment in favour of the divine authority of 
 the sabbath, viz., the argument that is 
 founded on the precepts and example of the 
 
THE SAEBATIl. 39 
 
 Saviour and the apostles. It has been as- 
 serted that our Lord set aside or at least, 
 greatly relaxed, the law in respect to a day 
 of weekly rest. Of those who take this 
 ground some affirm that the sabbath was a 
 part of the ceremonial dispensation, which 
 was to be done away of course ; others, that 
 if the law of the sabbath was a part of the 
 moral law, that was either abolished, or at 
 least, greatly modified. A strange senti- 
 ment, one would think, for any professed 
 christian to advance ! We have, it ap- 
 pears, fallen upon times when no assertion 
 is too startling to be made, no error too 
 great to be believed. That the sabbath 
 was not a part of the ceremonial economy, 
 has already been proved: it has been seen 
 that throughout the whole of the Old Tes- 
 tament dispensation the law respecting its 
 observance was regarded as much a part 
 of the moral law, as any one of the pre- 
 cepts of the decalogue. It was instituted 
 in paradise; it was observed by the patri- 
 archs ; it was embodied by Moses among 
 the eternal rules of right and wrong; it is 
 
40 THE SABBATH. 
 
 o\ery where associated with worshipping 
 the true God, obeying one's parents, ab- 
 staining from murder, adultery, &c. The 
 question then comes to this: Did our Sa- 
 viour either annul or modify the moral law? 
 or, if he did not do away the moral law in 
 general, did he abolish the fourth command- 
 ment in particular ? To an inquiry of such 
 a nature there would hardly seem to be any 
 occasion to attempt a reply. The Saviour 
 abolish the moral law, when this law is, 
 from its very character, immutable; when 
 it embodies those eternal principles of right 
 and wrong that apply to men in every na- 
 tion and every age .'* One would suppose 
 that at least his own declaration, ' I came 
 not to destroy the law, but to fulfil,' ought 
 to be sufficient to preclude any suggestion 
 of this kind. ' But did not the Saviour in- 
 timate that it was the spirit rather than the 
 form of the moral law that was to be ob- 
 served r I answer, Never. He did indeed 
 teach, that the substance of the law is em- 
 braced in the broad principle of loving the 
 Lord with all the heart, and our neighbour 
 
THE SABBATH. 41 
 
 as ourselves; but what then ? Had not 
 Moses taught the same thing before him ? 
 Was the force of particular precepts dimin- 
 ished, because Moses stated what was ob- 
 viously the substance of the whole ? Was 
 not each of the precepts still enjoined upon 
 the people ? And was the force of the ten 
 commandments as such, in any way lessen- 
 ed, because our Lord repeated the sentiment 
 of Moses, that the foundation of all obe- 
 dience is love ? Did the Saviour in fact 
 set aside any one of the precepts of the 
 decalogue, or did he teach men so to do : 
 Far otherwise. It is true that the particu- 
 lar day on which the sabbath was to be 
 celebrated, was, by his authority, changed; 
 but there is no evidence that the law of the 
 sabbath itself was abolished. There is de- 
 cisive evidence to the contrary. 
 
 1. Our Lord everywhere recognises the 
 ten commandments as such, and of course, 
 the fourth among the number, as of moral 
 or perpetual obligation. When the young 
 ruler came to him with the inquiry, ''Good 
 Master, what shall I do that I may inherit 
 
4^ THE SABBATH. 
 
 eternal life ?" he replied, " Thou knowest 
 the commandments — if thou wilt enter into 
 life, keep the commandments;'' and when 
 the ruler inquired which, Jesus repeated 
 five, thus expressly recognising the whole 
 code.* It is mere trifling to say that our 
 Lord does not here repeat the fourth com- 
 mandment, for he omits the first table of the 
 law altogether, and he does not cite all the 
 precepts even of the second. So in the 
 Sermon on the Mount, where at least two 
 of the commandments are referred to, and 
 their real nature explained. 
 
 I have alluded to the fact that the Saviour 
 summed up the precepts of the decalogue in- 
 to love to God and love to our neighbour. It 
 is not enough to say that this circumstance 
 does not diminish the force of any particular 
 commandment : it is, in reality, the strong- 
 est possible recognition of the divine au- 
 thority and perpetual obligation of the whole. 
 It will be remembered, in this connexion, 
 that our Lord reproached the Pharisees with 
 
 * Wilson. 
 
THE SABBATH. 43 
 
 * making void ' one of the commandments, 
 viz., the fifth, ' through their tradition ; ' 
 that he said ' heaven and earth should 
 sooner pass away, than one jot or tittle of 
 the law should fail, till all were fulfilled : ' 
 and that 'whosoever should break one of 
 the least of these commandments, and teach 
 men so, should be called least in the king- 
 dom of heaven.' 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark, that 
 the apostles recognised the decalogue as 
 such, in the same manner that their Master 
 had done. In Romans 13 : 8 Paul enu- 
 merates five of the commandments, and 
 then adds, '*' If there be any other com- 
 mandment, it is briefly comprehended in 
 this saying. Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." In relating his experience in 
 chap. 7th he refers to the tenth command- 
 ment ; and in writing to the Ephesians, a 
 gentile church, he cites the fifth. "Who- 
 soever," says James, " shall keep the whole 
 law, and yet oflend in one point," that is, 
 
 * whosoever shall keep the commandment? 
 generally, and yet transgress any one of 
 
44 THE SABBATH. 
 
 them,' — " he is guilty of all , for he that 
 said, Do not commit adultery, said also, 
 Do not kill," &c. 
 
 2. The Saviour honoured the law of the 
 sabbath by his own example. It is said re- 
 peatedly in the evangelists that ' he taught 
 in the synagogue on the sabbath day ;' see 
 Mark 6: 2; Luke 4 : 31 ; 6: 6; 13 : 10; 
 4: 16. In the passage last cited his teach- 
 ing on the sabbath is spoken of as a custom. 
 '' And he came to Nazareth, where he had 
 been brought up ; and as his custom was, he 
 went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, 
 and stood up for to read." It was on this 
 sabbath that he especially explained the na- 
 ture of his mission, by quoting a passage 
 from the book of Isaiah, and applying it to 
 himself. ' But did not our Lord modify or 
 somewhat relax the law of the sabbath ?' 
 I answer. Not in the smallest particular. 
 He did indeed sweep away the traditions 
 with which the law in general had been en- 
 cumbered ; he restored the law of the sab- 
 bath to its original and proper import, — 
 but he never relaxed, in the least, the fourth 
 
THl SABBATH. 45 
 
 commandment itself. If he taught that ' it 
 is lawful to do good on the sabbath day,' 
 and that 'the sabbath was made for man, 
 and not man for the sabbath,' he taught 
 that which was evident as a first principle 
 If as occasions arose, he did on this day 
 heal the sick , and if in one instance, he per- 
 mitted his disciples to satisfy their hunger 
 by plucking ears of corn, he did that which 
 was not opposed either to the spirit or the 
 letter of the Jewish ritual. Works of ne- 
 cessity and mercy were not forbidden under 
 the ceremonial dispensation, any more than 
 they are under the christian. 
 
 ' But does not the Saviour's remark, 
 ''The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath," 
 taken in connexion with his permitting tlie 
 disciples to pluck the ears of corn, imply 
 that he considered himself as having, on 
 that occasion, somewhat infringed upon the 
 laiv of the sabbath ?' I answer, By no 
 means ; for he vindicated his conduct not 
 only from the necessity of the case, the ex- 
 ample of David, and the custom in the tem- 
 ple service, but also on the principle that 
 
46 THE SABBATH. 
 
 'the sabbath was made for man/ What 
 the passage appears to teach, is, that he 
 considered himself competent to decide 
 what was proper to be done on the sabbath, 
 and what was not proper, — and that he 
 was autliorised to set aside the traditions 
 and matters of v/ill-worship with which the 
 Jewish teachers had associated the observ- 
 ance of the day. That the idea is also im- 
 plied, that he had a right, if he chose so to 
 do, to introduce any change in respect to the 
 circumstaniials of the institution, is proba- 
 bly true. Let it be repeated, that his con- 
 duct on the sabbath never contravened 
 either the spirit or the letter of the Mosaic 
 law. It did not in his healing the sick ; it 
 did not in his permitting the disciples to 
 pluck the ears of corn ; it did not in his 
 directing the invalid at Bethesda to take up 
 his bed and walk. 
 
 That our Lord's conduct on the sabbath 
 was opposed to the traditions of the Phari- 
 sees, has already been intimated. By these 
 traditions they had made void the law of the 
 the sabbath, and in fact almost every pre- 
 
THE SABBATH. 4/ 
 
 ceptof the decalogue. Thirty six different 
 kinds of labour were reckoned up, as 
 interdicted by the fourth commandment.* 
 With the Pharisees however our Lord rea- 
 soned on their own ground. They would 
 admit that it was proper to lead an animal 
 to water, or to rescue it from danger on the 
 sabbath ; why not admit the same principle 
 in regard to a human being } They would 
 admit that the calls of nature were to be 
 satisfied ; why then find fault with him be- 
 cause he allowed the disciples to pluck the 
 ears of corn ^ That was a cutting rebuke, 
 •'If ye had knov/n what this meaneth, I will 
 have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not 
 have condemned the guiltless." 
 
 It is deserving of notice that our Lord's 
 reasonings with the Pharisees respecting the 
 sabbath all take for granted the continu~ 
 ance of the institution. Vv^hy should he 
 lay down rules as to what was proper to be 
 done on the day ot rest, if the sabbath was 
 soon to be set aside altogether ? Let us 
 
 *Jabn. 
 
4b the sabbath. 
 
 look at the high moral ground which he as- 
 sumed. One might dwell upon the force of 
 the expression, " Wherefore it is lawful 
 TO DO GOOD on the sabbath day ;" and on 
 that of the declaration above cited, " The 
 sabbath was made for man." Aside from 
 the point which the latter expression was 
 especially intended to illustrate, it would 
 seem to carry on the face of it the senti- 
 ment, that the sabbath was designed for the 
 race. — for man in every country and age. 
 This argument receives additional weight 
 from the circumstance, that our Lordj 
 when speaking of the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, an event which was then nearly for- 
 ty years distant, directed the disciples to 
 pray that their flight might not be in the 
 winter, nor on the sabbath day ; since their 
 escape would be impeded in the one case, 
 by the inclemency of the season, and in the 
 other by considerations in respect to the 
 fourth commandment. Whatever might be 
 thought to be the ground of ihe scruples 
 which the disciples would feel in regard to 
 journeying on the sabbath for any reason, 
 
THE SABBATH. 49 
 
 the Saviour's direction at least supposes 
 that the institution would, at the time of the 
 event referred to, still be in existence.* 
 
 I need not remark that the apostles imi- 
 tated their Master in observing a day of 
 weekly rest. They were so far from disre- 
 garding the sabbath, that even after the 
 day was changed, they appear to have kept 
 for a time, for the sake of conciliating the 
 Jews, both the Mosaic sabbath and the 
 christian. Mark the following passages in 
 the 13th, 17th, and 18th chapters of the 
 Acts. "And the gentiles besought that 
 these words might be preached unto them 
 the next sabbath." "And the next sab- 
 bath day almost the whole city came to- 
 gether to hear the word of God." "And 
 Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, 
 and three sabbath days reasoned with them 
 out of the scriptures." " And he reasoned 
 in the synagogue every sabbath." 
 
 * See Kuinoel's remarks ou •' the sabbath day's joui 
 ney/ in his notes ou Malt. 24 : 20, and Acts 1 : 12. 
 4 
 
50 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Thus we see that the assertion, that our 
 Lord and the apostles either abrogated or 
 relaxed the law of the sabbath, is opposed 
 to all the declarations and facts of the New 
 Testament. From the nature of the case 
 it was as impossible either to do away, or 
 to lower down the fourth commandment, as 
 it was any other part of the decalogue. 
 The moral law, taken either as a whole, or 
 in relation to each of its parts, always was, 
 and always will be, "holy, and just, and 
 good ;'' it is that immutable rule of recti- 
 tude that is to govern the conduct of men 
 in all ages, and under all circumstances. 
 That the sabbath was, after our Lord's 
 resurrection, divested of its Jewish appen- 
 dages, and that the particular day of its 
 observance was changed, I shall proceed 
 to show in another discourse. 
 
 Such are the arguments in favour of the 
 divine authority of a day of weekly rest. 
 The law of the sabbath was given to 
 man in paradise ; it was incorporated by 
 Moses among the precepts of the dec-* 
 
THE SABBATH. 51 
 
 alogue; it was regarded by the prophets 
 as of moral and perpetual obligation; and 
 finally, it was honoured both by the pre- 
 cepts and the example of our Lord and 
 the apostles. 
 
DISCOURSE III. 
 
 THE SAME GENERAL SUBJECT CONTINUED— 
 THE TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH f ROM 
 THE SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY OF 
 THE WEEK. 
 
 EXODUS 20 : 8. 
 
 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY. 
 
 I HAVE dwelt at some length on the per- 
 petual obligation of a day of weekly rest. 
 It has been seen that the law of the sab- 
 bath was given to man from the beginning; 
 that it was embodied among the precepts 
 of the decalogue; and that it was regarded 
 by the prophets, by our Lord and the apos- 
 tles as of equal authority with any part of 
 the moral code. Some remarks are neces- 
 sary in respect to the change that took 
 place as to the external part of the institu- 
 
54 THE SABBATH. 
 
 tion, at the introduction of the christian 
 economy. 
 
 On the occurrence of the latter event, 
 everything in the Mosaic law that was ju- 
 dicial and ceremonial, every thing that 
 related to the Jews as a people, was abro- 
 gated. The shadow gave place to the sub- 
 stance; the types to the thing typified. 
 The Saviour, at his death, * blotted out the 
 hand-writing of ordinances that was against 
 us, nailing it to his cross.' The judicial 
 and ceremonial dispensation, however, left 
 the moral law precisely as it found it; 
 that is, the immutable rule of right and 
 wrong. The scaffolding was removed, but 
 the building itself remained as it had stood 
 from the beginning. Idolatry, disobedience 
 to parents, sabbath breaking, &c., were no 
 longer to be punished with temporal death, 
 but they were still as displeasing to God, 
 were still as wrong in themselves, as they 
 had been from the first. They were still 
 sin, in the essential sense of the term, and 
 such they will be till the end of time. The 
 apostles, as we have seen, speak of the 
 
THE SABBATH. 55 
 
 moral law as the rule of duty, long after 
 the ceremonial usages had been done away. 
 If it be admitted that the moral law in gen- 
 eral was not affected by its connexion with 
 the ceremonial, (and it has appeared that 
 it was not) the same must be admitted in 
 respect to each of the commandments in 
 particular. 
 
 At the abrogation of the ceremonial 
 economy, the sabbath laid aside every thing 
 that was merely Jewish, and appeared in 
 the simplicity with which it was marked at 
 the creation, and during the patriarchal 
 ages. A change also took place in respect 
 to the particular day on which the sabbath 
 was to be celebrated. We do not now ob- 
 serve, and the church from apostolic times 
 has not observed, the seventh day of the 
 week, but the first, that is, the day on 
 which the Saviour arose from the dead. 
 The sabbath which we keep is, as was just 
 intimated, the primitive or patriarchal sab- 
 bath ; but as the day has been changed, 
 and as an additional consideration has been 
 introduced in respect to its observance, it 
 
56 THE SAEBATII, 
 
 is not improperly called the c/irisfmn sab- 
 bath. As the change of the day of the 
 sabbath has been a source of difficulty to 
 some serious minds, and as it has been 
 urged by the enemies of the truth as an 
 argument against the institution itself, it 
 may be proper to consider the subject some- 
 what in detail. I remark, then, — 
 
 1. 'The particular day of the observance 
 of the sabbath may be regarded as a thing 
 distinct from the sabbath itself. It belongs 
 to the essence of the institution that one sev- 
 enth part of our time, or one day in seven 
 should be devoted to religious duties; which 
 of the seven days shall be thus devoted, can 
 be considered important only so far as the 
 point may be supposed to have been deter- 
 mined by the will of God. It is evident 
 that the original appointment as well as the 
 fourth commandment, had reference main- 
 ly to the proportion of time to be observed 
 between our days of business and the day 
 of rest. It is true that in the order of na- 
 ture, labour precedes rest, and that in the 
 primitive institution the sabbath fell on the 
 
THE SABBATH. 57 
 
 seventh day of the week. Still, would not 
 every thing essential to the institution be 
 preserved, if the sabbath were supposed to 
 fall on the first day of the week instead of 
 the seventh ? Six days of labour would be 
 followed by a day of rest in the one case 
 as well as in the other. The day on which 
 we begin to number, considered in itself, 
 affects not the nature of the sabbath at all. 
 2. Many judicious men have supposed 
 that, when the sabbath was revived in Ex. 
 IG, it was, as was intimated in the first 
 Discourse, dated not from v/hat had once 
 been called the seventh day of the week, 
 but from some other day — the day perhaps 
 on which the Israelites left Egypt. Com- 
 pare F.x. 20: 2 with Dent. 5: 6, 15. One 
 thing is plain ; " the fourth commandment 
 does not determine which day of the week 
 we should keep as a sabbath; but only that 
 we should keep every seventh day, or one 
 day after six. It says, SSix days shalt thou 
 labour, and the seventh thou shalt rest;' 
 which implies no more than that after six 
 days of labour, we should, upon the next 
 
68 THE SAEBATHi 
 
 to the sixth, rest. The words no way de- 
 termine where these six days should begin, 
 nor where the rest of the sabbath should 
 fall : that is supposed to be determined 
 elsewhere."* 
 
 3. If the proportion of time was the thing 
 mainly insisted upon in the original ap- 
 pointment of the sabbath, and in the giving 
 of the fourth commandment, we should ex- 
 pect that the same principle would especial- 
 ly obtain in the christian dispensation, de- 
 signed as it is for men not in one latitude 
 and hemisphere merely, but in different 
 parts of the globe. The supposition that 
 the validity of the sabbath must necessari- 
 ly depend upon just such a calculation in 
 respect to days, would be attended with 
 serious difficulties. " What should we 
 say in regard to those who dwell in high 
 northern latitudes, and who, instead of the 
 diurnal distinctions which exist in lower 
 latitudes, have, in every year, one day and 
 one night, each of several weeks' dura- 
 
 * J. Edwards as quoted by Wilson. 
 
THE SABBATH. 59 
 
 tion ?" What should we say of those who 
 live in opposite hemispheres ? If two nav- 
 igators should sail round the world in oppo- 
 site directions^ one would lose and the other 
 gain a day in his computation. When 
 Pitcairn's Island in the South Seas was vis- 
 ited, a few years since, by an English vessel, 
 the voyagers, on the day of their arrival, 
 which was Saturday, found the islanders 
 observing Sunday ; the English ship and 
 the islanders having sailed from England 
 in opposite directions.* 
 
 The day of keeping the sabbath, then, 
 may be changed without at all affecting the 
 institution itself. It can, however, be 
 changed only by divine appointment. Un- 
 important in itself, it becomes highly impor- 
 tant when God determines what day it shall 
 be. We are bound not only to keep one 
 day in seven, but to keep the precise day 
 which he has appointed. If, at the intro- 
 duction of the christian dispensation, God 
 changed the day, we are bound to observe 
 
 * Wilson. 
 
60 THE SABBATH. 
 
 the day which he instituted, viz , the first 
 day of the week. That the day of keeping 
 the sabbath has been changed, is admitted 
 by all : that it was changed by divine ap- 
 pointment, I shall now proceed to show. 
 
 1. That God should change the day, 
 would be in itself altogether reasonable. 
 The design of the primitive sabbath was, to 
 celebrate the divine perfections as manifest- 
 ed in the work of creation. Now it would 
 be altogether reasonable that God should 
 appoint a day on which men might cele- 
 brate his perfections as exhibited in the 
 work of redemption. Great and glorious 
 as the former work was, the latter might 
 be shown to be even greater and more glo- 
 rious. The apostle teaches, that God cre- 
 ated all things in order that his attributes, 
 as manifested in the work of redemption, 
 might be made known by the church, Eph. 
 3:10. In Is. 65 : 17, it is said, " Behold I 
 create new heavens and a new earth ; and 
 the former shall not be remembered, nei- 
 ther shall- it come into mind ;" that is, the 
 neiv creation or the work of redemption is 
 
THE SABBATH. 61 
 
 worthy to be remembered or commemorat- 
 ed rather than the old creation. 
 
 2. The Saviour, after his resurrection, 
 began to introduce the change by his own 
 conduct. Having risen on the first day of 
 the week, he showed himself that day four 
 times to his disciples. The first manifesta- 
 tion was made to ilary, John 20: 14 ; the 
 second to the three women, Matt. 28 : 9; 
 (comp. Luke 24 : 10;) the third on the 
 journey to Emmaus and in the breaking of 
 the bread, Luke 24 : 15, 31 ; the fourth, 
 when the disciples were assembled at even- 
 ing, John 20 : 19, 20. After the lapse of 
 six days the Saviour again manifested him- 
 self on the first day of the week. *' And 
 after eight days again" (the writer includ- 
 ing the portion of the day from which, and 
 to which he reckons,) "his disciples were 
 within, and Thomas with them : then came 
 Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in 
 the midst," John 20: 26. "This second 
 meeting on the same day of the week has," 
 as one well remarks, " all the appearance 
 of an appointment, a design to meet on that 
 
62 THE SABBATH. 
 
 particular day." The question may be 
 fairly proposed, Why are the Saviour's 
 manifestations so particularly recorded as 
 having been made on the first day of the 
 week, (nothing being said as to the days 
 on which other manifestations were made) 
 and why did a week intervene between his 
 first appearance and the second, unless it 
 were to indicate that the first day of the 
 week was to be marked by some peculiar 
 distinction? 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that between the 
 day on which the Saviour rose, and the 
 following first day of the week there is no 
 allusion to the Jewish sabbath. There is 
 not the slightest intimation as to the disci- 
 ples meeting on that day, or paying the 
 least attention to it. The Saviour lay in 
 the grave on Saturday or the Jewish sab- 
 bath, and it is manifest that they could not 
 have observed that day as a sabbath. They 
 could not have rejoiced while the Messiah 
 was under the dominion of death, and 
 their prospects were shrouded in midnight 
 gloom. When they saw the Lord, then 
 
THE SABBATH. t),3 
 
 ''they were glad;'' then their sabbath began. 
 
 3. That it was our Lord's design to ap- 
 point the first day of the week as the day 
 of the sabbath, would seem to be further 
 confirmed from the fact, that it was on this 
 day that the promised gift of the Spirit was 
 granted ; the gift by which the gospel 
 church was first erected, and its teachers 
 endued with divine power. It has been 
 abundantly shown that the day of pentecost 
 fell on the first day of the week, that is, 
 seven weeks from the day on which the 
 Saviour arose. Was this day accidental? 
 It was no more accidental than the other: 
 both were fixed upon from the ages of eter- 
 nity. The Holy Spirit descended on the 
 first day of the week ; the Saviour had 
 arisen on the same day. 
 
 4. The apostles, by their doctrine and 
 example, have decisively taught, that the 
 day to be observed as the christian sabbath 
 is the Lord's day, or the first day of the 
 week. They kept this day themselves, in- 
 stead of the Jewish sabbath, and they in- 
 «>tructed the churches to do the same. 
 
64 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Now the conduct of these men, bein": as 
 thej were under the infallible guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit, is of divine authority ; 
 that is, what they did in respect to the sab- 
 bath, was virtually done by the Saviour 
 himself. Whatever they delivered to be 
 observed in matters of worship has the same 
 force as if it came from God, — whether it 
 were delivered in the form of regular ex- 
 hortations and epistles, or by intimation and 
 example. "If men will presume," says 
 Baxter/'that apostles, filled with the Spirit, 
 appointed the christian sabbath without the 
 Spirit, they may question any chapter or 
 verse of the New Testament." 
 
 That the primitive churches observed the 
 first day of the week, and not the Jewish 
 sabbath, is evident from three passages in 
 the apostolic v»'ritings. " We came to Tro- 
 as," says Luke, "where we abode seven 
 days. And upon the first day of the week, 
 when the disciples came together to break 
 bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to 
 depart on the morrow," Acts 20: 6, 7. At 
 an inlerval, then, of thirty years after our 
 
THE SABBATH. 65 
 
 Lord's resurrection the first day of the week 
 was observed even in the remotest places. 
 At Troas the disciples assembled on the 
 first day of the week, to break bread and 
 to hear the gospel ; that is, they observed 
 the sabbath much in the same manner in 
 which it is observed at the present day. 
 The apostle seems to have tarried there 
 partly, at least, that he might have an op- 
 portunity of addressing the disciples on the 
 Lord's day, — for it is said that he was 
 " ready to depart on the morrow." In 
 writing to the Corinthians about the same 
 period, the apostle speaks of the first day 
 of the week as a thing with which they 
 v/ere perfectly familiar. *' Now concern- 
 ing the collection for the saints, as I have 
 given order to the churches of Galatia, 
 even so do ye. Upon the first day of the 
 week let every one of you lay by him in 
 store, as God hath prospered him, that there 
 be no gatherings when I come," 1 Cor. 16: 
 1, 2. The reason why collections were to 
 be taken up on the first day of the week, 
 was manifestly this, that the church were 
 
 5 
 
66 THE SABBATH. 
 
 accustomed to assemble on that day for re- 
 ligious purposes. The apostle also had 
 given the same direction to the churches in 
 Galatia, distant from Corinth some hun- 
 dreds of miles. 
 
 In Rev. i: 10 the writer says, "I was 
 in the Spirit on the Lord's day." By the 
 Lord's day is undoubtedly meant the first 
 day ot the v/eek or the christian sabbath- 
 It will be observed that the day is here 
 spoken of incidentally, and not in the way 
 of communicating any new information re- 
 specting it. From this passage it appears 
 that about the year 96, when the apocalypse 
 was written, the first day of the week was 
 universally known and observed as the 
 Lord's day or the christian sabbath.* 
 
 * The writer calls that ' the Lord's day/ which is 
 spoken of by Paul in 1 Cor. IC : 2, (comp. Acts 20 : 7, ) 
 OS 'the first day el' the week.' It appears that, even at 
 this time, christians were accustomed to hold assemblies 
 on this day} . . . from wliicii we infer, that so far as 
 llie precept enjoining the sanctification of every seventh 
 day related to the day and the legai. rites of the sab- 
 bath, it was of a ceremonial character, — but that, so far 
 as it relates to the worship of (lod, it belongs to the moral 
 law, aod ii to be perpetually observed. — Beza. 
 
THE SABEATH. 67 
 
 * But did not the apostles, at least in 
 some cases, observe the Jewish sabbath as 
 well as the first day of the week ?' For a 
 season they undoubtedly did. Before Jeru- 
 salem was destroyed and the Jewish polity 
 swept away, they were obliged to accommo- 
 date themselves in some measure to the 
 prejudices of their countrymen, Paul was 
 in the practice of addressing assemblies on 
 the Jewish sabbath ; though nothing more 
 can necessarily be inferred from this, than 
 that he desired to embrace every conven- 
 ient opportunity of preaching the gospel . 
 At first, the Jewish converts were allowed 
 to observe the Mosaic sabbath; they how- 
 ever willingly united with the gentile disci- 
 ples in celebrating the first day of the week. 
 After the dissolution of the Jewish com- 
 monwealth, the tim.e for concession was 
 over.* It was then that decided ground 
 was taken, (perhaps rather silently and by 
 example,) and the universal observance of 
 
 'Wih 
 
68 THE SABBATH. 
 
 the christian sabbath or the Lord's day en-* 
 joined. 
 
 The argument in respect to the change 
 of the sabbath, as derived from the doc- 
 trine and conduct of the apostles, would 
 seem to be entirely conclusive. As they 
 acted in the name of Christ, and under the 
 guidance of his Spirit, the change was 
 made by divine authority, — it was in fact 
 made by Christ himself As evidence that 
 the primitive churches not only observed the 
 first day of the week, (which indeed, so far 
 as the first century is concerned, has been 
 already proved,) but that they regarded the 
 day as established by divine authority, I 
 present the following testimonies from the 
 Fathers and other early writers: testimonies 
 which I copy from Wilson and Dr. Dwight. 
 
 Ignatius, a companion of the apostles, 
 says, " Let us no more sabbatize," that is, 
 keep the Jewish sabbath ; " but let us keep 
 the Lord's day, on which our Life arose," 
 
 Justin Martyr, who lived at the close of 
 the first and the beginning of the second 
 century, says, " On the day called Sunday 
 
THE SABBAta. 69 
 
 ia an assembly of all who live in the city or 
 country, and the memoirs of the apostles 
 and the writings of the prophets are read." 
 And he adds, that " it was the day on which 
 the creation of the world began, and on 
 which Christ arose from the dead." 
 
 IrensDus, a disciple of Polycarp, who 
 had been the disciple of St. John himself, 
 says, " On the Lord's day every one of us 
 christians keep the sabbath, meditating on 
 the law, and rejoicing in the works of God." 
 
 Tertullian, at the close of the second 
 century, asserts it to be "the holy day of 
 the christian church assemblies, and holy 
 worship," — "that every eighth day is the 
 christian's festival," — "kept as a day of re- 
 joicing." 
 
 Dyonisius, bishop of Corinth, in the time 
 of Irenseus, says, in his second letter to the 
 church of Rome, "To-day we celebrate 
 the Lord's day, when we read your epistle 
 to us." 
 
 St. Ambrose observes, "The Lord's day 
 was sacred or consecrated by the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ." 
 
70 THE SABBATH. 
 
 St. Augustine tells us that "the Lord's 
 day was, by the resurrection of Christ, 
 declared to christians, and from that very 
 time it began to be celebrated as the chris- 
 tian's festival." 
 
 Athanasius says, "The Lord transferred 
 the sabbath to the Lord's day." 
 
 Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, 
 says of the christians in his time, "They 
 are accustomed to meet on a stated day be- 
 fore light, and to sing among themselves 
 hymns to Christ, as to God."* It was a 
 question which the heathen ever proposed 
 to the martyrs, " Dominicum servasti? 'Do 
 you keep Sunday ? ' And their answer was 
 equally well known : "I am a christian ; I 
 cannot omit it." 
 
 To the foregoing testimonies I add the 
 following extract from Mosheim, an histori- 
 an than whom none is of higher authority. 
 "The christians of this century [the first] 
 assembled for the worship of God and for 
 their advancement in piety, on the first day 
 
 * See tlie letter at larg-e in M'Jner, Vol. 1, pp. 134, 135. 
 
THE SABBATH. 71 
 
 of the week, the day on which Christ re-as- 
 sumed his life ; for that, this day was set 
 apart for religious worship by the apostles 
 themselves,, and that, after the example of 
 the church of Jerusalem, it was generally 
 observed, we have unexceptionable testi- 
 mony." (Ecc'l, Hist. vol. 1, p. 85, Murd. 
 ed,) He proceeds to say, that the exercises 
 of the public assemblies consisted in read- 
 ing the scriptures, delivering exhortations, 
 offering up prayer, singing hymns of praise, 
 and celebrating the Lord's Supper. 
 
 5. That the transfer of the sabbath was 
 made by divine authority, is evident also 
 from the fact, that the blessing of God has, 
 in a peculiar manner, been annexed to the 
 Lord's day. Christ has honoured this day 
 with special tokens of his presence, from 
 its first appointment down to the present 
 time. On this day multitudes of souls have 
 been converted; on this day, more than on 
 all others, christians have been enlighten- 
 ed, and edified, and blessed. Would God 
 thus have annexed his blessing to the 
 christian sabbath, if the day had been ap- 
 
72 THE SABBATH. 
 
 pointed not only without his authority, but 
 even to the supplanting of the day, the 
 observance of which he himself had com- 
 manded? If the primitive church were 
 mistaken in respect to the proper day of 
 the sabbath, would he have suffered the 
 mistake to be confirmed, by the continued 
 operations of his Spirit, for a period of 
 eighteen hundred years? The supposition 
 is too absurd, not to say too impious, to be 
 for a moment entertained. 
 
 In view of what has been said, there 
 can, I think, be little force in the remark, 
 that there is not in the New Testament any 
 express precept for the change of the day of 
 the sabbath. No such recorded precept 
 was necessary. It has been proved that 
 the law of the sabbath is of perpetual obli- 
 gation; and it is manifest that the change 
 of the day is only a subordinate point. The 
 sabbath is still a seventh portion of our 
 time. We call our sabbath indeed the^rs^ 
 day of the week, but it is the seventh in 
 reference to the preceding six days of la- 
 
THB SABBATH. 73 
 
 hour.* The example of our Lord, the 
 practice of men, who in matters of religion, 
 never acted without divine direction, and 
 the perpetual blessing which has attended 
 the observance of the first day of the week, 
 are sufficient to show that the christian 
 sabbath was appointed by the same author- 
 ity as the primitive or patriarchal. It will 
 be remembered that the nature of the sab- 
 bath itself IS essentially the same in the one 
 case that it was in the other. The primi- 
 tive sabbath was designed to commemorate 
 the work of creation; the christian sab- 
 bath, while it embraces the same object, 
 commemorates also the work of redemption. 
 The one presents God especially as our 
 Maker; the other exhibits him as our Ma- 
 ker, Redeemer and Sanctifier. 
 
 Two or three passages have sometimes 
 been adduced with the view to prove that 
 the apostles intended to abolish the sabbath 
 altogether. These will demand a moment's 
 attention. In Gal. 4: 10, it is said, "Ye 
 
 * Neviiis. 
 
74 THE SABBATH. 
 
 observed days, and months, and times, and 
 years;" and in Col. 2: 16, "Let no man 
 judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect 
 of a holy-day, or of the new moon, or of 
 the sabbath days." The ' days,' ' months,^ 
 'sabbaths,' Sic. here refer to the Jewish 
 festivals. The judaizing teachers had in- 
 troduced into the churches at Galatia and 
 Colosse the observances of the Mosaic rit- 
 ual ; and it is against these observances, 
 viewed either as a ground of justification, 
 or as matters that should interfere with the 
 rights of conscience, that the apostle speaks. 
 These were merely ' shadows of things to- 
 come.' If in the passage in Colossians we 
 suppose the ' sabbath days ' to refer not to 
 festivals, but to the proper Jewish sabbath, 
 the sentiment would be, 'Let no man trouble 
 you in respect to the Jewish sabbath; it is 
 to be superseded by the christian.' It will 
 bo remembered that the word sabbath in 
 the New Testament never denotes the 
 christian sabbath, or first day of the week. 
 In a similar manner, most obviously, is 
 to be understood the passage in Rom. 14; 
 
THE SABBATH. 75 
 
 " One man estoemeth one day above an- 
 other; another esteemeth every day alike. 
 Let every man be fully persuaded in his 
 own mind." The 'days' here spoken of 
 refer, as before, to the Mosaic festivals. 
 Some of the Homan christians regarded the 
 law in respect to festivals, new moons, &.C., 
 as still in force ; others were of the contra- 
 ry opinion. The apostle's direction was, 
 that both should be tolerated. ' One man 
 observes the Jewish festivals, another does 
 not. Let every one enjoy his own opinion 
 in the matter ; let him do what he thinks to 
 be right.'* The same principle had been 
 laid down in respect to meats, verses 2, 3. 
 In eacli of the three passages above cited 
 the apostle is manifestly speaking of cere- 
 monial or Jewish days, and not of the chris- 
 tian sabbath. While christians differed m 
 opinion in regard to meats, festivals, &c., 
 they agreed in the observance of the first 
 day of the week. 
 
 I have now finished the argument in re- 
 
 * See Prof. Hodge in loc. 
 
76 THE SABBATH. 
 
 spect to the perpetual obligation of a day 
 of weekly rest, and the divine author- 
 ity of the christian sabbath. The whole 
 subject, as discussed in the present and the 
 two preceding Discourses, might suggest 
 several important reflections. Only two or 
 three of these will occupy your attention. 
 
 1. In matters of faith we should guard 
 against a spirit of speculation, and should 
 closely adhere to the word of God. To as- 
 sume that the account of the sabbath in 
 Genesis is merely by way of anticipation ; 
 to take the ground that the sabbath was 
 simply a part of the ceremonial law, or that, 
 if it were a part of the moral law, the lat- 
 ter was abrogated by the Saviour and the 
 apostles, would be to contravene the most 
 obvious rules of interpretation, and to do 
 away every thing like certainty in respect 
 to matters either of belief or practice. We 
 might on the same principle call in question 
 the account of the fall of man, the existence 
 of evil spirits, the truth of the Mosaic or 
 christian miracles, the doctrine of the a- 
 tonement, the resurrection, and a future 
 
THE SABBATH. 77 
 
 State of rewards and punishments. We 
 might reject every doctrine of the bible, 
 and plunge at once, with a leap as daring 
 as that ever made by German neologist, in- 
 to all the depths of infidelity. To this 
 speculating manner of treating the most 
 solemn and important subjects men of the 
 present age and even many professed chris- 
 tians are exceedingly prone. It __^has be- 
 come quite common if not openly to discard^ 
 yet at least to modify, doctrines that have 
 been previously received, and to advance 
 theories that are new, and startling, and 
 bold. We must resist this evil in all its 
 diversified forms. It will not do for men to 
 profess a regard for revelation, and yet 
 deny fundamental truths ; to reason from 
 infidel principles to matters of fact : they 
 must be brought to the alternative either of 
 receiving the scriptures in their plain and 
 obvious import, or of rejecting them alto- 
 gether. When shall we understand the 
 stratagems of the enemy, and cease to be 
 deceived by appearances ? 
 
 It is hardly possible for one error to exist 
 
78 THE SABBATH. 
 
 alone. He who is wrong on one important 
 doctrine of trie bible, will be found to be 
 wrong or at least confused, in respect to 
 others. If a person, for example, should 
 call in question the doctrine of future pun- 
 ishment, it would be useless to reason with 
 him merely or mainly on that point : his 
 apparent error is only one in a series of er- 
 rors ; it is not a cause but an effect, — the 
 real difficulty in his case lying far back of 
 any considerations relating to the scripture 
 account of retribution. So of the individ- 
 ual who is skeptical in regard to the law of 
 the sabbath. Such a one would do well to 
 inquire whether he has not (unconsciously 
 perhaps to himself,) begun to waver on oth- 
 er points; whether the principles according 
 to which he interprets the scriptures would 
 not, if carried to their legitimate results, go 
 to preclude the idea of a revelation alto- 
 gether ; whether the ground on which he 
 stands is such as ought to satisfy a reflect- 
 ing mind ; in a word, whether, if he stop 
 short of something like deism, or even of 
 the error that lies one step in advance of 
 
THE SABBATH. 79 
 
 deism, it must not be done either by sacri- 
 ficing consistency, or by returning to the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 2. It is exceedingly important that we 
 take correct ground in respect to the rea- 
 son for keeping the christian sabbath. To 
 view the observance of the sabbath as a 
 mere matter of expediency, is one thing ; 
 to regard such observance as of moral ob- 
 ligation, is another. If the keeping of the 
 sabbath is made to depend upon expedien- 
 cy, we have no sabbath at all. We might 
 as well abandon the institution at once. 
 ' No considerations of utility, no civil or 
 ecclesiastical decree will bind the conscien- 
 ces or regulate the actions of men.' " God 
 must speak, or man will not hear ; God 
 must command, or man will not obey.'' 
 But the sabbath is not a thing of expedien- 
 cy, — at least, it is not merely or mainly 
 such ; it is a matter of the most sacred 
 moral obligation. It was established in 
 paradise ; it stands out with peculiar prom- 
 inence in the decalogue ; it was hallowed 
 by prophets ; it was honoured by our Lord 
 
80 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and the apostles, — and its observance has, 
 in every period, been signally associated 
 with the divine blessing. The sabbath was 
 made for man ; not for this or that man, 
 but for man in all ages, in all countries, 
 and under all possible circumstances. It 
 was intended for the human family. It 
 was not made any more for the Jew in the 
 time of Moses, than it was for the Europe- 
 an or the American, the Sandwich Islander 
 or the Hottentot in the nineteeth century. 
 It began with the creation of the world, 
 and is to terminate only with its dissolution. 
 Even then it will not absolutely terminate ; 
 it will rather be consummated in that ever- 
 lasting rest, that sabbatismos of which it 
 stands as the perpetual and delightful 
 pledge. Here we rest our argument, and 
 we challenge confutation. We stoop not to 
 expediency ; we hold up exegetical fact. 
 We take our stand on broad bible ground, 
 and proclaim the universal obligation of a 
 day of weekly rest. If in face of the full- 
 est evidence in respect to the divine author- 
 ity of the transfer of the day, any individ- 
 
THE SABBATH. 31 
 
 ■ual should refuse to hallow the christian 
 sabbath, yet let him remember that he is 
 solemnly bound to observe some day, — to 
 devote some day to the special service of 
 God. The command, "Remember the 
 sabbath day, to keep it holy,*' has the same 
 force now that it had when first proclaimed 
 from the sacred hill. There it stands, as a 
 part of the law of God, and there it will 
 stand, to arrest the conscience and influ- 
 ence the conduct of men, while time itself 
 shall last. Let it be known, that the pre- 
 cept in regard to the sabbath comes to us 
 clothed with all the authority which the 
 Sovereign of the universe can give it, and 
 that no one can refuse to obey this precept, 
 except at the hazard of all that is dear to 
 an immortal being. 
 
 3. Let us adore the wisdom and good- 
 ness of God, as seen in the appointment of 
 a day of weekly rest. I have spoken of the 
 keeping of the sabbath rather in the light 
 of a duty: its observance is not, however, 
 to be considered merely as a matter of obli- 
 gation; it is to be regarded mainly as a 
 
 6 
 
82 THE SABBATH. 
 
 privilege. The sabbath was made for the 
 benefit of man, — for the benefit both of his 
 body and his soul. It may be viewed as a 
 part of that best, that greatest gift ever 
 bestowed upon fallen creatures, the gift of 
 Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sin. From 
 the very laws of our physical nature some 
 resting day is absolutely necessary. It is 
 capable of the fullest demonstration that 
 uninterrupted labour tends to exhaust the 
 system, and consequently to shorten life. " I 
 consider," says an English physician of 
 great eminence, "I consider that, in the 
 beautiful provision of providence for the 
 preservation of human life, the sabbatical 
 appointment is to be numbered among the 
 natural duties, if the preservation of life be 
 admitted to be a duty, and the premature 
 destruction of it a suicidal act." That the 
 promotion and even the existence of piety 
 in the world is made to depend essentially 
 on the appointment of the sabbath, I have 
 already intimated. Adam required a sab- 
 bath in paradise, holy and spiritually minded 
 as be was: how greatly do we need it, who 
 
THE SABBATH. 85 
 
 are naturally alienated from our Maker, 
 and indisposed to the duties of devotion! 
 Take away the sabbath, and where would 
 be the christian's advancement in holiness? 
 where would be his seasons of elevated 
 communion with God? where his ardent 
 anticipations of the heavenly rest ? I might 
 even go farther and ask, Take away the 
 sabbath, and where would piety be found at 
 all? Il would absolutely die. The influence 
 of depravity and of earthly pursuits and 
 cares would chill every feeling of devotion; 
 God would be forgotten, and the soul un- 
 done. In the language of another, "how 
 strongly would our world resemble the re- 
 gions of final despair; where no sabbath 
 dawns; where no prayers nor ^jraises as- 
 cend; no sermons proclaim pardon and 
 peace to sinners; the voice of mercy never 
 sounds; and the smiles of forgiving, redeem- 
 ing, and sanctifying love never illume the 
 dreary valley of the shadow of death."* 
 Thanks be to God for the day of weekly 
 
 * D wight 
 
84 THE SABBATH. 
 
 rest! May we learn clearly to read the 
 record of its appointment as inscribed on 
 the works of creation, and especially in the 
 volume of revealed truth. What God has 
 taught, that let us humbly and gratefully 
 receive. Let us regard the perpetual obli- 
 gation of the sabbath as satisfactorily ex- 
 hibited in the scriptures as the doctrine of 
 the atonement, the divinity of the Saviour, 
 or any of those other great truths that are 
 essential to the christian religion. Let us 
 learn to prize more highly, and to improve 
 more faithfully, an institution, which, while 
 it is designed to bring glory to its Author, 
 is fitted at the same time to confer the 
 greatest benefits upon the race of mankind. 
 Whenever the day that commemorates the 
 goodness of God in creating, and his grace 
 in redeeming, the world, returns, let our 
 hearts rejoice and be glad; let us embrace 
 in all their length and breadth the privi- 
 leges connected with its observance, — so 
 praying, praising, reading and hearing, 
 that the Lord of the sabbath may be hon- 
 oured, and our souls edified and refreshed. 
 
THE SABBATH. 85 
 
 Thus shall we fulfil the great end of our 
 being; thus shall we be prepared, when 
 earthly sabbaths shall have terminated, for 
 ' the rest that remaineth to the people of 
 God, ' 
 
DISCOURSE IV, 
 
 THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SABBATH 
 SHOULD BE OBSERVED— THE THINGS 
 TO BE ABSTAINED FROM. 
 
 EXODUS 20 : 8. 
 
 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAT, TO KEEP IT HOLY, 
 
 Having in three previous Discourses 
 considered the perpetual obligation of a day 
 of weekly rest, and also the transfer of the 
 sabbath from the seventh to the first day of 
 the week; I now proceed, according to the 
 original proposal, to speak of the manner 
 in which the sabbath ought to be observed. 
 If the institution existed from the begin- 
 ning; if it was designed for men of every 
 nation and every age; if the law respect- 
 ing it is embodied among the immutable 
 principles of right and wrong; if this law 
 
88 THE SABBATH. 
 
 was honoured by prophets, apostles, and 
 our Lord himself; if there is the most sat- 
 isfactory evidence that the change from the 
 seventh to the first day of the week was 
 made by divine appointment; in a word, if 
 a season of sacred rest is binding upon us 
 as individuals; then surely it is of the ut- 
 most importance that we understand what 
 is implied in the precept, ' Remember the 
 sabbath day, to keep it holy.' 
 
 The discussion of this branch of our sub- 
 ject will suggest the following questions: 
 First, What things are to be abstained 
 from on the Lord's day? and Secondly, 
 What duties are to be performed.'' The 
 consideration of the former particular will 
 occupy our attention in the present Dis- 
 course. 
 
 1. What things are to be abstained 
 from on the christian sabbath? 
 
 First, We are to abstain from such 
 thoughts and conversation as are not in 
 accordance with the spirit and design of the 
 day. As regards merely ourselves, we 
 may violate the sabbath as easily and as 
 
THE SABBATH. B9 
 
 grossly by Indulging thoughts unsuitable to 
 the nature of the day, as by any other 
 means whatever. If our minds are intent 
 upon our ordinary pursuits, and the passing 
 events of the times; if they are unduly oc- 
 cupied with such things as may be proper 
 and necessary in themselves; if they settle 
 down into a state of sluggishness and vacu- 
 ity; if our affections are cold, and our at- 
 tention to spiritual duties merely constrain- 
 ed and external; if this be the case, we 
 fail of sanctifying the day of sacred rest. 
 The most careful outward observance of 
 the sabbath can never atone for secular 
 and wandering thoughts; on the other hand, 
 such a service must ever be a vain oblation, 
 equally unacceptable to our Maker, and 
 unprofitable to ourselves. 
 
 Very many, who so far respect the sab- 
 bath as to attend public worship, habitually 
 violate the day in conversation. Worldly 
 people are indeed often placed under a 
 kind oi^ restraint in this respect; but when- 
 ever the sense of restraint is withdrawn, 
 and they come to mingle in companies by 
 
90 THE SABBATH. 
 
 themselves, they often converse as freely 
 about secular affairs, as they do on any 
 other day of the week. Even professed 
 christians are exceedingly prone to 'find 
 their own pleasure, and speak their own 
 words ' on the Lord's day. It is sometimes 
 the case that they introduce worldly topics 
 directly; as for example, when a stranger 
 happens to be lodging with them, or when 
 some member of the family has been for a 
 season absent, and has just returned. In 
 the latter instance inquiries are made and 
 answered in respect to past occurrences, — 
 and the affairs of the neighbourhood in 
 which the individual has resided, including 
 even the most minute, are more or less ex- 
 tensively discussed. More commonly how- 
 ever, professed christians are led into 
 worldly conversation by degrees. They 
 commence, perhaps, by referring to the state 
 of the weather, and the apparent prospect 
 in regard to the crops. They next, it may 
 be, make remarks upon the public services, 
 as having been well or ill performed, — 
 noticing at the same time the'general merits 
 
THE SABBATH. 91 
 
 or defects of the preacher, as compared 
 with others with whom they have been ac- 
 quainted. They then, perhaps, speak of the 
 casualties that may recently have occurred 
 whether by land or sea; then, of the gen- 
 eral state of our own and other countries, 
 and the prospect in regard to war or peace, 
 &c. They next refer to public measures 
 and men, — gradually advancing, from one 
 step to another, until they enter the region 
 of political discussion. If professed chris- 
 tians were aware of the great sin they com- 
 mit, and of the immense evil they bring 
 upon themselves and upon others by im- 
 proper conversation on the sabbath, they 
 would feel the importance of keeping their 
 hearts and lips in this respect with all dili- 
 gence. To a certain extent, it is indeed 
 necessary to refer to secular affairs on the 
 Lord's day; but anything beyond this; 
 anything that implies an engaging in worldly 
 conversation as such, is as properly a viola- 
 tion of the day as labour or travelling. 
 
 Secondly: We should, on the sabbath, 
 abstain from our ordinary secular pursuits ; 
 
92 THE SABBATH. 
 
 a remark which will of course embrace a 
 variety of particulars. The precept is, 
 "In it thou shalt not do any work." We 
 ' may perform acts of necessity and mercy, 
 for these are recognised in the scriptures. 
 The sabbath was made for man, not man 
 for the sabbath. We may perform some 
 labour in the preparation of our food; we 
 may give food and water to animals, and 
 eave their lives when in danger; we may 
 -go to, and return from, the house of public 
 worship; we may visit the sick and the dy- 
 ing, and relieve the wants of the distressed. 
 We sometimes hear a sentiment like the 
 following: Christians do not observe the 
 sabbath with as great a degree of strictness 
 as the Jews were required to observe it; 
 and the inference is, that according to their 
 own admission and practice, the manner of 
 keeping the sabbath, if not the having of a 
 sabi)ath at all, must be a matter very much 
 of expediency. The alleged fact here allud- 
 ed to, and the inference which is drawn 
 from it, have already been virtually antici- 
 pated, but it may be well to look at the 
 
THE SABBATH, 93 
 
 point a little more in detail. I remark then, 
 or rather repeat, that as the sabbath is of 
 moral or perpetual obligation, (a thing 
 which has been most abundantly proved,) 
 no change in respect to the circumstantials 
 of the institution can affect the existence of 
 the institution itself. The command to ab- 
 stain from our ordinary secular pursuits, on 
 one day in seven, is just as binding now as 
 it was in the time of Moses, or in the time 
 of our first parents. I also remark, that 
 the manner of keeping the sabbath is, and 
 ought to be, essentially the same at the 
 present day as it was under the former dis- 
 pensation. From the nature of the case it 
 must be essentially the same. Our Saviour, 
 as we have seen, made no alteration in the 
 institution during his personal ministry; 
 and all that was done in this respect at his 
 death, was, as was stated in a former Dis- 
 course, merely to separate what was moral 
 from what was simply Jewish or ceremonial. 
 Have we now no first commandment, or 
 second, or third, or fifth, or seventh, be- 
 cause the violation of these commandments 
 
^W THE SABBATH. 
 
 is no longer to be punished with temporal 
 death? Aside from the temple service, 
 (which has merely been exchanged for one 
 less cumbersome,) and aside from the put- 
 ting to death of the presumptuous violator 
 of the sabbath, there was exceedingly little 
 in the institution as it existed in the time of 
 Moses, which is not to be identified with it 
 in every age of the world. It is proper in 
 this place briefly to refer to two particulars. 
 In Exodus ."^5: 3, it is said, "Ye shall 
 kindle no fire throughout your habitations 
 upon the sabbath day." There is no rea- 
 son to suppose that these words are to be 
 understood in an unqualified sense or ac- 
 cording to their literal import. In the win- 
 ter season at least, in Palestine, fires would 
 have been absolutely necessary for the in- 
 firm and for children, and they could have 
 been dispensed with by no class, without a 
 very great sacrifice of personal comfort. 
 There could have been no reason why the 
 Jews should have been required to suffer, 
 on the sabbath, from cold, since they were 
 permitted to give food and water to their 
 
THE SABBATH. 95 
 
 cattle; and the supposition that the kind- 
 ling of fires for warming themselves, was 
 forbidden, would seem to involve the prin- 
 ciple that man was made for the sabbath. 
 Some understand the prohibition as refer- 
 ring to such fires as were used by smiths, 
 plumbers, S;.c., in preparing the different 
 appendages of the sanctuary. The sentiment 
 would then be, ' No work shall be done on 
 the sabbath, not even that which relates to 
 the making of the tabernacle.' To this view 
 the connexion is not altogether unfavoura- 
 ble. Some suppose that allusion is had to 
 such fires as were used in preparing vict- 
 uals. 'Ye shall kindle no fires for the 
 purpose of preparing food.' Whetherthis 
 interpretation is required in view of the 
 directions respecting the manna, in Ex. 16, 
 has been doubted by some very judicious 
 commentators, especially by Dr. Scott, who 
 remarks, ' No intimation is given that the 
 Jews, in the time of Christ and his apostles, 
 had no fires on the sabbath, or even that 
 they prepared no victuals.' It should be 
 noticed in this connexion, that the priests 
 
06 THE SABBATH. 
 
 killed and roasted the animals for sacrifice 
 on the sabbath; that *'the sacred festivals 
 would sometimes happen on this day; and 
 that the paschal lamb was roasted in the 
 house where it was eaten." If however, 
 we suppose that the Jews were forbidden 
 to cook any kind of victuals on the sabbath, 
 no serious difficulty will be presented; for 
 we may either refer the prohibition to the 
 judicial or ceremonial law, or we may take 
 the broad ground, that the prohibition is, in 
 substance, in force at the present day; in 
 force, at least, so far as our circumstances 
 are analogous to those of the Hebrews. It 
 is obvious that, in cases of this kind, al- 
 lowance should always be made for differ- 
 ence of climate, modes of living, &.C., and 
 that what would be perfectly adapted to a 
 people in a partially cultivated state, might 
 be exceedingly inconvenient to one whose 
 state was of another character. However 
 christians may differ in opinion in regard to 
 the precise amount of labour that may prop- 
 erly be performed in preparing our food on 
 the sabbath, they seem very generally to 
 
THE SABBATH. 97 
 
 agree in this, that some curtailment in this 
 respect is fairly implied by the spirit of the 
 fourth commandment. It becomes those 
 professing godliness carefully to examine 
 this point, and to endeavour to act in rela- 
 tion to it in the fear of the Lord. 
 
 The other particular relates to what is 
 called 'the sabbath day's journey.' Some 
 have supposed that the Jews were permit- 
 ted to travel only a certain distance on the 
 sabbath for any reason ; and the inference 
 has been, as in the other case, that the 
 manner of keeping the sabbath has been 
 very greatly changed. To the ' sabbath 
 day 's?journey, 'there is no allusion in the Old 
 Testament : from the manner however, in 
 which the expression occurs in Acts 1: 12, 
 it is manifest that it had a well known 
 meaning, and that a restriction of some 
 kind in respect to travelling on the day of 
 rest, had obtained among the people. Jo- 
 sephus tells us that it was not lawful for the 
 Jews to travel (or more properly to journey) 
 on the sabbath day, or on a festival day." 
 
 * Antiquities. B. 13. ch. 8. 7 
 
98 THE SABBATH. 
 
 He says that Jerusalem was distant from 
 the mount of Olives some six furlongs, 
 — a statement which is confirmed by the 
 accounts of modern travellers ; so that a 
 sabbath day's journey would be something 
 short of a common English mile.* There 
 
 * The expression rendered 'a sabbath day's journey,' in 
 Acts 1 : 12, is in the Talmud, ' the limit (or boundary) of 
 tiie sabbath.' ' The distance of the mount of Olives from 
 Jerusalem, which in the passage above cited is said to be 
 a sabbath day's journe}', is given by Josephus in one 
 passage, at five, and in another at six stadia or furlongs.' 
 — Rosenmueller. Hovv^ the latter writer traces the origin 
 of ' the sabbath' day's journey ' to what is said in Exodus 
 IG: 29, one would be at a loss to determine. He says 
 that 'the Israelites were forbidden to go out of the camp 
 on the seventh day, to gather manna ; and that from this 
 circumstance was derived the law which rendered it im- 
 proper to go out of a city or village on the sabbath any 
 farther than the distance from the most remote part of the 
 camp to the 'tabarnacle,' which was in the middle. — 
 Allerthimiskunde, Vol. 1, p. 1G4. But does not Moses in 
 tSiis passage speak of the tents of the people, and not of the 
 camp as such ? 
 
 With the origin of ' the sabbath day's journey ' we, 
 must be satisfied to remain unacquainted. The statements 
 of the Talmudists (in no case, it is true, of very high au- 
 thorit}') are on this point not a little meager and confused. 
 r?ee the notes appended to tlie article ' Der Sabbathsweg,' 
 in the German work referred to above, and comp. Beza 
 Kuinocl. Hcinrichs, and others. 
 
THE SABBATH. 99 
 
 is no intimation in the scriptures that the 
 Jews could travel only a mile when going to 
 the place of worship ; on the other hand, it 
 is evident from various circumstances, that 
 they must, on the sabbath, sometimes have 
 travelled several miles for this purpose ; 
 comp. 2 Kings 4: 23. The restriction there- 
 fore under which the Jews were placed in 
 respect to travelling on the sabbath, when- 
 ever it may have taken its origin, referred 
 mainly at least to business, and not to at- 
 tendance at places of worship, although in 
 respect to the latter there might have been 
 something like limits established by com- 
 mon consent. If it was unlawful for the 
 Jews to travel upon the sabbath on busi- 
 ness, the same is also unlawful at the pres- 
 ent day. It might have been expedient, 
 especially during some periods of their his- 
 tory, to define the distance which it was 
 proper to go, — and so far there was in the 
 restriction something of the jyositive kind ; 
 but the spirit of the restriction (if the latter 
 were indeed of divine authority) cannot be 
 shown to be inapplicable to men of e\'eYy 
 
100 THE SABBATH. 
 
 country and age.* When therefore it is 
 said that christians do not keep the sabbath 
 as strictly as the Jews were required to ob- 
 serve it, we must distinguish terms, and 
 look carefully at the circumstances of the 
 case. Our situation, whether morally, 
 physically, or socially is, in many respects, 
 exceedingly diverse from theirs. There is 
 however, in fact, very little difference even 
 in regard to externals, between what was 
 forbidden on the sabbath to the ancient Is- 
 raelites, and what is forbidden to christians. 
 The general principle that our ordinary 
 business is to be abstained from, carries 
 along with it almost every supposable, and 
 certainly every important particular. The 
 prohibition in respect to the making of fires 
 cannot, as we have seen, be taken literally, 
 and in view of any interpretation that may 
 be proposed, it could relate only to that 
 
 * Hoc spatium [scil.bis mille cubitoriim] Judoeis non 
 quidem ex Mosis prescripto, sed ex magistorum ipsorum 
 decrelis, die sabbati emetiri liccbat; vide Ligiitfootum in 
 Horis Hebr. et Talmud., eic. — Kuinoel. To the same 
 purpose the Koppian Commontary. 
 
THE SABBATH. 101 
 
 which was ceremonial and temporary. If 
 the Jews were forbidden to travel upon the 
 sabbath on business, so are christians. If 
 christians think themselves authorised to 
 travel a few miles on this day for the pur- 
 pose of attending public worship, the Jews, 
 as we have seen, were permitted to do the 
 same. I must be allowed to remark in this 
 connexion, that before objectors take the 
 liberty of suggesting cavils, they should at 
 least become acquainted with facts, and 
 should learn to distinguish between an in- 
 ference that is drawn from solid premises, 
 and one whose premises exist only in prej- 
 udice or misapprehension. 
 
 I have said that we may, on the sabbath, 
 perform works of necessity and mercy. 
 Some have objected to the word necessity, 
 on the ground that it is indefinite, and liable 
 to serious abuses ; and they have accord- 
 ingly proposed to call all works that may 
 be performed on the sabbath, works of 
 mercy, or rather, necessary works of mercy. 
 It is granted that the word 'necessity,' in 
 connexion with the sabbath, is not a scrip- 
 
102 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ture expression : it is also granted that the 
 word has, in practice, been very greatly per- 
 verted ; still the term has this recommend- 
 ation, that it has passed into general use, 
 and that it appears to express a scripture 
 idea as definitely perhaps as any word that 
 can be found in the language. What term 
 is not liable to be perverted, what term has 
 not been perverted, by those who are wise 
 to do evil ? In applying the word necessity 
 to any given work on the sabbath, we should 
 be guided by the generalspirit of the fourth 
 commandment, and by such particulars in 
 relation to the subject as are recorded in 
 the scriptures ; due allowance being made 
 for the fact already alluded to, that our 
 circumstances are in many respects diverse 
 from those of the Jews. It is necessary, 
 in the proper sense of that word, to re- 
 ceive our food on the sabbath ; it is neces- 
 sary to feed and water cattle, and to save 
 their lives if in danger ; it is necessary to 
 prepare horses and carriages for our con- 
 veyance to the sanctuary : it is not neces- 
 sary to plow land on the Lord's day, nor to 
 
THB SABBATH. 103 
 
 do many things of the kind that are fre- 
 quently performed. It may be necessary, 
 when a vessel is out at sea, to sail on the 
 sabbath, but it is not necessary to leave 
 port on that day. The only works of ne- 
 cessity which the scriptures recognise are 
 those of present necessity.* I think this 
 will hold good as a general rule. It was 
 proper for the disciples to pluck the ears of 
 corn, because they were then suffering from 
 hunger. It is proper to eat on the sabbath, 
 because we do it to satisfy the present crav- 
 ings of nature. It is proper to raise an 
 animal out of a pit, because we thereby 
 relieve present distress, and because assist- 
 ance might come too late if delayed till an- 
 other day. It is proper on the sabbath to 
 extinguish the flames of a burning house, 
 because it must be done at the time, or not 
 at all. Even ^what are called works of 
 mercy are not in all cases allowable on the 
 sabbath. Those and those only may be 
 performed, which we had no opportunity of 
 
 • See Panoplist 1815. 
 
104 THE SABBATH. 
 
 doing before/and which cannot, consistent- 
 ly with benevolence, be postponed to the 
 end of the sacred rest. The man who 
 visits the sick on the sabbath merely be- 
 cause he is too worldly to spend time for 
 this duty on any other day, however he may 
 endeavour to pacify his conscience, should 
 remember that he sins greatly against the 
 Lord. 
 
 The fourth commandment forbids manual 
 labour on the sabbath except in such cases 
 as have been specified. And yet, how often, 
 under one pretext or another, is this com- 
 mandment violated in this particular ! An 
 individual pleads that he may secure his 
 hay or grain on the sabbath, because it 
 may be injured if he does not secure it. 
 " I have," he says, " a crop of grain on 
 the securing of which the subsistence of 
 my family depends. It is now cut and in 
 the shock. It has rained for several days, 
 and it may rain to-morrow. This sabbath 
 is a fair day ; the grain may be sufficiently 
 dried to get into the barn, and I feel myself 
 perfectly justifiable in getting it in." He 
 
THE SABBATH. 105 
 
 is not justifiable. The case is not suck a 
 case of necessity as is recognised in the 
 scriptures. It is not, as he himself will ad- 
 mit, a case of present necessity ; it is not, 
 in fact, a case of necessity at all. It 
 is not like satisfying present hunger ; it is 
 not like taking an animal from a pit ; it is 
 not like extinguishing the flames of a house. 
 An individual has no right in a case like 
 this, to plead what may occur hereafter; he 
 has no right to urge, as an excuse for la- 
 bouring on the sabbath, that the morrow 
 may be a stormy day. Is not the God of 
 the bible the God also of providence .'' Has 
 he commanded anything in his loord, the 
 performance of which is rendered void by 
 what he does in his works ? Shall we, in 
 our haste and unbelief, oppose our wisdom, 
 our plans to his ? Is our eye evil because 
 he is good ? Suppose the ' morrow ' of 
 which the individual speaks, should be a 
 stormy day ; cannot he who sees the end 
 from the beginning, and in whose hand are 
 the winds and the rain, still enable him to 
 secure his crop ? Has he not every reason 
 to expect the blessing that maketh rich^ 
 
i06 THE SABBATH. 
 
 when he is conscientious in the discharge 
 of his duty ? Or if we suppose — what we 
 hardly can suppose, — that by forbearing 
 to labour on the sabbath, his grain is mate- 
 rially injured ; cannot'God provide for his 
 family, and even make up the loss in other 
 things ? '^The Lord God is a sun and a 
 shield ; the Lord will give grace and glory; 
 no good thing will he withhold from them 
 that walk uprightly." "I have been young" 
 says the psalmist, ' 'and now am old ; yet have 
 I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his 
 seed begging bread." What would barns 
 full of grain be worth without the favour of 
 the Almighty ? and can he expect that fa- 
 vour, who disregards his authority and sets 
 his commands at defiance ? 
 
 I have said that the securing of hay or 
 grain on the sabbath is not a work of ne- 
 cessity. It may be further remarked, that 
 harvesting on the Lord's day is in the bi- 
 ble expressly fordidden; at least, it was for- 
 bidden to the Israelites, — and it cannot be 
 shown that the prohibition has ever been 
 repealed. In Exodus 34: 21 it is said^ 
 
THE SAEEATH. 107 
 
 *^Six days thou shalt work, but on the 
 seventh day thou shalt rest; in earing time 
 and in harvest thou shalt rest." The latter 
 part of the precept, it will be seen, meets 
 the case we have been considering, — one 
 of the strongest, I apprehend, that could 
 well be stated, — and all other cases of the 
 kind. 'Ye shall do no work on the sabbath, 
 not even that which relates to the securing 
 of grain.' It was foreseen that the Jews 
 might think it necessary to secure their 
 crops on the sabbath ; it was foreseen that 
 a case of snpposed necessity might be made 
 out, from the shortness of the harvesting 
 season and the state of the weather ; and 
 this point was therefore guarded with par- 
 ticular care. No exception could be made 
 to the fourth commandment in the case of 
 harvesting ; the shortness of the season, 
 the appearance of the atmosphere could not 
 justify the securing of crops on the Lord's 
 day. The precept was explicit, " On the 
 seventh day thou shalt rest ; in earing time 
 and in harvest thou shalt rest." I do not 
 say that cases may not possibly be conceiv- 
 
108 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ed ofj in which it might be proper to secure 
 hay or grain on the sabbath. I only say, 
 that the getting in of crops cannot be justi- 
 fied in view of such reasons as are co.n- 
 monly urged. 
 
 The plea of necessity will apply as fairly 
 to the moiviiig of hay, or the reajnng of grain, 
 on the sabbath, as it will to the getting of 
 these articles into the barn. And such is 
 in fact the view of most of those who pro- 
 fane the day which God has sanctified. 
 They must get in their grain on the sabbath 
 to prevent it from being injured ; for the 
 same reason they must reap it. For the 
 same or a similar reason they must plow 
 their land, and sow their seed. Who does 
 not see, that if this principle were admitted, 
 there would be an end to all observance of 
 the sabbath at once ? Who that violates 
 the day of rest, may not urge, in justifica- 
 tion of his course, the plea of necessity ? 
 One man finds it necessary to reap and 
 mow on the sabbath ; another to travel ; a 
 third to write business letters ; a fourth to 
 sell merchandise and to post books ; a fifth 
 
THE SABBATH. ^ 109 
 
 to compare the prices current, to mark the 
 advance upon stocks, and to send out ves- 
 sels to sea. When will men cease to trifle 
 with conscience and the word of God, — to 
 put darkness for light, and light for darkness ^ 
 
 The fourth commandment forbids secular 
 travelling on the sabbath. I need not say 
 that travelling is aivork, — as really a work 
 as any that can be performed. Not only 
 does this lie upon the face of the thing itself; 
 there was, as we have seen, in the case of 
 the Jews a precept defining the distance 
 which it was proper to go. And yet how 
 many there are, who, while they would be 
 shocked at the idea of plowing, or mowing, 
 or selling merchandise, or posting books on 
 the Lord's day, make no scruple of com- 
 mencing or prosecuting a journey ! 
 
 One sets out from home on the sabbath 
 because the markets are fluctuating, or be- 
 cause a debtor has failed, or because a ves- 
 sel has arrived in port the cargo of which 
 requires immediate inspection.* By defer- 
 
 * See Panoplist for 1815, to which I am indebted, 
 in part, for the statement of some of these supposed rase.-. 
 
110 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ring his journey till Monday, he might as 
 he pleads, sustain a very considerable loss. 
 Is such an ""excuse valid ? Might not the 
 farmer and the mechanic urge the same 
 plea for performing, on the day of rest, any 
 labour connected with their occupations ? 
 If A may set out for New York or Boston 
 on the sabbath, on the plea of saving or 
 acquiring property, may not B and C, may 
 not every person in the community do the 
 same ? If a rich man may travel on the 
 Lord's day for the sake of increasing his 
 estate, may not a poor man labour for the 
 sake of acquiring a subsistence ? 
 
 "But," says one, " I am ready to grant 
 that travelling on the sabbath for gain, is 
 wrong, utterly wrong. My case however 
 is very different from this. My family are 
 removing to new and distant settlements. 
 We expect to be a long time upon the road, 
 and our funds are so scanty that we shall, 
 with the utmost care, hardly have the 
 means, on arriving at the place of our des- 
 tination, for making a beginning. I do no^ 
 like travelling on the sabbatli ; but in the 
 
THE SABBATH. Ill 
 
 present instance it appears indispensable." 
 And do you endeavour to pacify your con- 
 science on such grounds as these ? Why 
 do you remove, except for the prospect of 
 bettering your condition ^ Have you any 
 right, in view of ameliorating your temporal 
 circumstances, to project a course tha^ 
 shall involve a violation of one of God's 
 commands ? Or, supposing you did not 
 intend to travel on the sabbath when you 
 set out; the case is not essentially changed. 
 Can you plead the scantiness of pecuniary 
 means as an excuse for disobedience r 
 Can you expect to prosper in doing wrong? 
 It is not indispensable that you should trav- 
 el ; there is no necessity in the case. 
 
 Another individual leaves home with the 
 intention of returning at the close of the 
 week. In consequence, however, of the 
 badness of the going, or of bodily indispo- 
 sition, he has been detained upon the road. 
 His money is so nearly exhausted, that he 
 has enough to enable him to reach home 
 only by travelling on the Lord's day. He 
 therefore thinks himself justifiable in pursi?^ 
 
112 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ing his journey, without any regard to the 
 season of rest. I would ask this individual, 
 Why did you leave home without preparing 
 for emergencies ? Was there not a fault 
 in this respect ? and can you urge one 
 fault as a ground for committing another ? 
 ('ould you not have taken funds with you 
 sufficient to defray one or two days' extra 
 expense at a public house ? Could you not 
 procure entertainment for a short season, 
 upon credit ? or at the most, could you not 
 make knov/n your case to christian friends 
 in the neighbourhood? It may be convenient 
 for you to travel in the circumstances to 
 which I have alluded ; but there is no such 
 necessity for your travelling as the 7Vord of 
 God will justify. 
 
 Another individual urges as a reason for 
 travelling on the Lord's day, that he has 
 been long from home, and that he is exceed- 
 ingly anxious to see his family, who, he 
 fears, may be sick. This plea is, like the 
 others, utterly insufficient. Must he vio- 
 late a command of God on account of nat- 
 ural affijction "r Can he not trust his family 
 
THE SABBATH. 113 
 
 to the care of providence one day longer? 
 Another individual has commenced a 
 journey, and finds himself, on sabbath 
 morning, at a public house. It occurs to 
 him that he can spend the day more profita- 
 bly upon the road, than amid the noise and 
 bustle of an inn, and he therefore concludes 
 to proceed on his way. But did he not ex- 
 pect to lodge in public houses at the time 
 of his setting out? Besides; is it true, as 
 a general fact, that inns are, on the sab- 
 bath, such places of confusion as is here 
 supposed? Is it not hard to conceive of a 
 case in which a traveller may not, at a pub- 
 lic house, have an apartment to himself that 
 shall be measurably quiet and retired? 
 Can he not also, in almost any possible in- 
 stance, attend at some place of public 
 worship? Would not a truly conscientious 
 person, under these circumstances, choose 
 rather to submit to a little temporary in- 
 convenience on the score of noise, than 
 oppose his feelings to the authority of God? 
 Would he not at least regard the bad exam- 
 ple of sabbath travelling as enough ta 
 
114 THE SABBATH. 
 
 counterbalance almost any other consider- 
 ations in the present case, more than a 
 thousand fold? 
 
 One travels upon the sabbath because he 
 would otherwise miss the present stage- 
 coacli or steam-boat, and thereby be de- 
 tained several days upon the way. Better 
 be detained a whole month, than wound 
 your conscience by the commission of sin. 
 When shall we cease to hear these pleas of 
 interest in a case where didy is concerned? 
 Is not the will of God paramount to your 
 convenience? Another, who would not 
 travel on the Lord's day hahitualhj, thinks 
 he may at least do it occasionally. But 
 where is your permission? Is one sabbath 
 to be remembered, and not every sabbath? 
 
 A member of a family, residing in a neigh- 
 bouring town, desires to visit his friends. 
 He would think it wrong to go home on 
 sabbath morning; he therefore performs 
 the journey on the day previous. After 
 visiting his relatives, and attending public 
 worship, on the sabbath, he returns, at the 
 close of divine service, to his place of res- 
 
THE SABBATH. 115 
 
 idence. He is engaged in pressing business, 
 and must, as he pleads, be back earlier 
 than he could be, by returning on Monday 
 morning. Another individual, who is out 
 upon a journey, attends public worship in 
 the forenoon, and in the afternoon proceeds 
 on his way, especially if he is only a few 
 miles from home. Both of these individu- 
 als think they make expiation for their sin 
 by attending public worship; or rather, 
 they seem hardly to suppose that they com- 
 mit any sin at all. But they do sin, and 
 that very grievously. They rob their Ma- 
 ker of the time which he claims for his 
 special service. They might just as well 
 travel upon sabbath morning as upon sab- 
 bath afternoon. What would these persons 
 think of the farmer who should plow and 
 reap, or of the mechanic v/ho should make 
 tables and chairs, or of the merchant who 
 should post his books on the morning or 
 late in the afternoon, of the Lord's day ? 
 And yet, their own conduct involves essen- 
 tially the same violation of the fourth com- 
 mandment as that of the individuals referred 
 
116 THE SABBATH. 
 
 to. Are men required to observe sabbath 
 morning, or sabbath forenoon, and not the 
 whole of the day? Is not the Lord's day a 
 full day of twenty-four hours, like any oth- 
 er day in the week? 
 
 If the man who journeys on the Lord's 
 day violates the divine command, so far as 
 his own act is concerned, his criminality is 
 greatly enhanced in view of the fact, that 
 he causes animals to labour that ought to 
 be at rest, and (in the case at least of trav- 
 elling by public conveyance) is the occa- 
 sion of sin in respect to multitudes of his 
 fellow men. What right has any person to 
 employ beasts on the sabbath in cases where 
 God requires them not to be employed? 
 Do they not need rest as well as ourselves? 
 Are they not specified in the precept as well 
 as we ? And then, to think of the vast num- 
 bers of men who are, by the sin of the 
 sabbath traveller, not only deprived, on the 
 Lord's day, of all the means of grace, but 
 as it were compelled to engage in as active 
 labour as upon any other day of the week! 
 to think of the drivers and guards connect- 
 
THE SABBATH. 117 
 
 ed with our thousands of stage-coaches, 
 and of the captains, and sailors, and engi- 
 neers, and firemen, and cooks, and servants 
 associated with our hundreds of steam- 
 boats and rail-road cars! Is it nothing to 
 him, that he is the occasion of sin in regard 
 to a very extensive portion of the commu- 
 nity? Do not these persons require a sab- 
 bath? Have they not immortal souls? Are 
 they not subjects of God's moral govern- 
 ment? and have they any right to dishon- 
 our him by breaking his laws? Perhaps 
 he pleads that he travels only occasionally, 
 and that stage-coaches and steam-boats 
 would run on the Lord's day whether he 
 made use of them or not. The plea is 
 mere trifling. One travels on this sabbath, 
 another on the next, another on a thii^d, and 
 so on, and thus thousands are in this man- 
 ner kept labouring on everij sabbath in the 
 year. He has Jiis share in wresting from 
 them all the privileges of which they are 
 deprived, and in causing them to commit 
 all the sins with which they stand charged 
 in the view of heaven. And a most dread- 
 
118 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ful responsibility it is! Let every person 
 in the community travel only one sabbath in 
 the year, and our stage-coaches and steam- 
 boats would be full. It would be all the 
 encouragement the proprietors of these con- 
 veyances would ask; it would be incom- 
 parably more than they now receive.* It 
 is occasional sabbath travelling that keeps 
 our public vehicles in motion; it is individ- 
 ual transgression that goes to form one of 
 our most crying national sins. 
 
 Included under the prohibition we have 
 been considering are, of course, visiting, 
 and those recreations that might not be 
 thought improper on other days of the week. 
 How grossly people in general and even 
 many professed christians violate the sab- 
 bath by visiting, is but too well known to 
 all who have given the least attention to the 
 subject. Those may labour on the farm or 
 in the workshop who are supposed to be 
 somewhat destitute of conscience; but oth- 
 ers transgress in what they seem to regard 
 
 *Nevins. 
 
THE SABBATH. 119 
 
 a less exceptionable way, that is, by trav- 
 elling and visiting. As has already been 
 intimated, it is sometimes the case that they 
 connect their visiting with attending public 
 worship; but it not unfrequently happens, 
 that they spend the whole or a part of the 
 Lord's day in the houses of their friends, 
 without recognising even the forms of reli- 
 gion. Trifling family occurrences, the mar- 
 riages, losses, Slc, in the neighbourhood, 
 and above all, the absorbing subject of pol- 
 itics, are made to fill up the hours that 
 ought to be spent in converse with God, 
 and the realities of iudo-ment and eternitv. 
 
 It may be observed, once more, that we 
 should abstain, on the Lord's day, from 
 idleness and sloth. Multitudes, who would 
 not be seen labouring, or travelling, or per- 
 haps visiting on the sabbath, appear to feel 
 no misgivings at spending the day in utter 
 inactivity, if not, as is often the case, in 
 profound slumber. They lounge about 
 their houses, or gardens, or farms, as 
 though they hardly knew what to do with 
 themselves, and unconcerned, apparently, 
 
120 THE SABBATH. 
 
 about every thing, except how they may 
 banish thought, and kill time. Instead of 
 keeping the sabbath, they merely sleep or 
 perhaps half dream it away. What daring 
 rebellion against the God of heaven! Do 
 these persons ever remember that they have 
 immortal souls, and that for all their indif- 
 ference in respect to their spiritual interests, 
 and all their profaning of their Maker's in- 
 stitutions they will soon be brought into 
 judgment? 
 
 While we are required to abstain from 
 secular employments on the sabbath our- 
 selves, we are also required to use our au- 
 thority and influence in preventing the day 
 from being desecrated by our children, do- 
 mestics, or any who may be lodging in our 
 houses. Children and hired help should be 
 carefully guarded in this particular; and 
 if any who may be residing with us as la- 
 bourers cannot be prevailed upon to honour 
 the season which God has appointed, they 
 should, after kind admonition and entreaty, 
 be dismissed from our employment. Ani- 
 mals too, should rest, so far as is oonsis- 
 
THE SABBATH. 121 
 
 tent with our going- to, and returning from, 
 the house of public worship, and other acts 
 that may be absolutely necessary. Let the 
 precept be, as it were, engraven on the 
 walls of every house, and let its spirit be 
 carried out in the arrangements of every 
 family, "Remember the sabbath day, to 
 keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 
 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 man-servant, nor 
 thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 
 stranger that is within thy gates: 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." 
 
DISCOURSE V. 
 
 THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SABBATH 
 SHOULD BE OBSERVED— THE DUTIES 
 TO BE PERFORMED. 
 
 EXODUS 20: 8. 
 
 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY 
 
 In the last Discourse I dwelt upon the 
 prohibitory part of the fourth commandment, 
 or the things that should be abstained fiom on 
 the Lord's day. I now proceed to consider 
 the positive part of the precept, or the things 
 ivhich are required to be done. 
 
 II. What duties are to be performed on 
 the Lord's day ? or, hoiv is the christian 
 sabbath to be observed? 
 
 In general, the day is to be specially de- 
 voted to the worship of God and the con- 
 
124 THE SABBATH. 
 
 cerns of the soul. ' Remember the sabbath 
 day to sanctify it;' that is, 'to set it apart 
 from secular to spiritual purposes.' Such 
 is the force of the expression ' to keep holy ' 
 (in the original, to sanctify,) in the present 
 instance, and of the similar expressions 
 which so frequently occur in the scriptures. 
 It is unnecessary to inquire whether any 
 day or place is inherently more holy than 
 any other, — for no one supposes that inhe- 
 rent holiness can be predicated of mere 
 things at all. The expressions ' to sanctify,' 
 'to be holy,' &c. when applied to things, 
 are employed in a relative sense, that is, in 
 the sense of consecrating' ; and the same is 
 frequently, perhaps generally the case, 
 even when the expressions refer to individ- 
 uals. The primary meaning of the word 
 rendered to sanctify, is, to consider as holy, 
 to consecrate, to set apart to a sacred jyurpose. 
 The crown worn by the high priest, the ark, 
 t'ne tabernacle, the temple, &c., were holy, 
 because they were set apart to the service 
 of God. When it is said that the " unbe- 
 lieving husband is sanctified by the wife," 
 
THE SABBATH. 125 
 
 &.C. the meaning is, that the unbelieving 
 conr.panion is, on account of the faith of the 
 other, considered as separated from a state 
 of heathenism. And even when the Sa- 
 viour prays that the disciples might be sanc- 
 tified through the truth, the primarj' idea is, 
 perhaps, that of consecration. 
 
 It is evident that, in order properly to 
 sanctify the sabbath, some preparation 
 should be made beforehand. I shall not 
 presume to decide in respect to the precise 
 time when the sabbath may be said to com- 
 mence; on this point persons may, as I 
 conceive, differ in opinion, and yet main- 
 tain every thing that is essential in regard 
 to a season of rest. Whatever view any 
 one may take, he is certainly bound to be 
 consistent with himself, and to devote a full 
 day to the special service of God. It is 
 manifestly suitable that we anticipate holy 
 time in the arrangements of the preceding 
 day and evening. If we duly remember the 
 sabbath, we shall, even during the week, 
 be sometimes carrying our thoughts for- 
 ward to its sacred employments; and in- 
 
126 THE SABBATH. 
 
 stead of laying out more labour for Saturday 
 than usual, we may think it expedient to 
 lay out even less. We shall endeavour to 
 avoid the sin of which many are guilty, — 
 that of labouring so hard on this day as to 
 induce extreme fatigue and drowsiness, and 
 thus unfit ourselves for the duties of the 
 next. If it is wrong, in ordinary cases, to 
 sleep on the Lord's day, it is wrong so to 
 overtax the physical energies on the day 
 preceding, as to cause unusual languor and 
 debility, and thus voluntarily expose our- 
 selves to the temptation. Persons who act 
 in this manner, however they may, as in 
 other cases, urge the plea of necessity, do 
 in fact rob God, and starve their own souls. 
 The conscientious farmer, or mechanic, or 
 tradesman will dismiss his workmen or 
 his customers, and close his business at as 
 early an hour on Saturday evening as may 
 be, in order that others, as well as himself 
 and family, may have time to withdraw 
 their thoughts from secular, and direct them 
 to spiritual concerns. Such is our worldli- 
 ness, so strong are the associations of our 
 
THE SABBATH. 
 
 127 
 
 every day employments, and such at the 
 best, is our comparative dulness ia the du- 
 ties of devotion, that we cannot spend the 
 sabbath at all as we ought, without some 
 previous preparation. We want time, on 
 Saturday evening, for self examination, 
 reading the scriptures, meditation and 
 prayer. We want, as far as may be, to 
 banish our ordinary cares, and to get our 
 hearts in some measure attuned to higher 
 and holier things. If the individual would 
 be thought to act improperly who should 
 enter a religious meeting without some pre- 
 vious consideration, can he be said to con- 
 duct in a becoming manner, who begins the 
 Lord's day with a mind scarcely at all ab- 
 stracted from the business of the preceding 
 six? Will he be able, during the day, to 
 repair the wrong he has committed? Will 
 he be likely to be very spiritual in his du- 
 ties? 
 
 I have said that the sabbath should be 
 specially devoted to the worship of God and 
 the concerns of the soul. It is a season of 
 cessation from temporal, and of holy activ- 
 
128 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ity in spiritual duties. It is the day of days, 
 the jubilee of the week, the striking em- 
 blem of the rest of the heavenly world. I 
 do not mean that we are not to worship our 
 Maker, and to attend to our immortal inter- 
 ests on other days of the week besides the 
 sabbath: the person who is truly pious will 
 set the Lord habitually before him, and will 
 fill up the intervals of everjj day with acts 
 of supplication and praise. Whether in the 
 field, the workshop, or the office; whether 
 at home or abroad, his desire will be unto 
 him in whom he has his being. The piety 
 recognised in the bible is not merely sabbath 
 piety; it is every day piety. While how- 
 ever, spiritual duties are not to be neglect- 
 ed on any day of the week, they are to be 
 specially performed on the day which God 
 has set apart for himself While on other 
 days we should be "fervent in spirit, serv- 
 ing the Lord," on this we should make the 
 worship of the Most High our express em- 
 ployment. Thus the sabbath was spent by 
 prophets, apostles, and other holy men in 
 primitive times. They meditated upon the 
 
THE SABBATH. 129 
 
 perfections, the works, and the word of God; 
 they thought upon their own sinfulness and 
 obligations ; they prayed; they sung hymns 
 of praise ; they worshipped the Lord in the 
 great congregation ; they instructed their 
 children and others in the way of righteous- 
 ness and truth. Let us dwell for a few mo- 
 ments on the particular duties of the Lord's 
 day. 
 
 1. It is obvious that a considerable part 
 of the day should be spent in meditation and 
 prayer. I here, of course, use the word 
 meditation in a somewhat general sense. 
 How various, how interesting are the sub- 
 jects with which, especially on the season 
 of holy rest, our minds and hearts should be 
 occupied ! The attributes of God ; crea- 
 tion ; the fall of man ; the gift of a Saviour 
 and the work of redemption ; death ; the 
 judgment ; heaven and hell, — what themes 
 for contemplation are these ! Prominent 
 among these topics, I had almost said, in- 
 deed, embracing all the rest, is the work of 
 redemption. It was especially to comme- 
 morate this work, that the christian sabbath 
 
 9 
 
130 THE SABBATH. 
 
 was instituted. The Jewish sabbath was 
 designed to remind men of God's greatness, 
 and power, and supremacy ; the christian 
 sabbath, while of course it recognises these, 
 brings also to view his love in offering up 
 his Son as a sacrifice for sin. It is called, 
 with peculiar emphasis, ' the Lord's day ; ' 
 that is, the day on which Christ arose from 
 the dead, and thus gave public proof that 
 the object of his mission to our world had 
 been accomplished. While on this day we 
 should reflect, in a special manner, upon 
 what God is in himself, and what he has 
 done for mankind, we should also call to 
 remembrance our obligations, and our guilt 
 and danger as sinners. We should inquire 
 how we have rendered unto the Lord in 
 view of all the benefits we have received. 
 We shall thus be led to examine our hearts 
 and lives, and if we feel at all as we ought, 
 to cast ourselves on Christ for pardon 
 and acceptance with our Maker, with sin- 
 cere ' endeavours after new obedience.' 
 We shall bo led to exercise repentance and 
 faith, gratitude and love. While we aro 
 
THE SABBATH. 131 
 
 musing, the fire will burn. The more we 
 think of our depravity, and of the particular 
 transgressions of which we have been 
 guilty, the more shall we be disposed to 
 dwell upon the mercy and grace of God, 
 and upon the character and offices of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 We should, on the Lord's day, meditate 
 especially upon the doctrines and duties 
 which have, at the time, whether by read- 
 ing or hearing, been brought particularly 
 before us ; endeavouring to get clear and 
 lively apprehensions of truth, and to stir our- 
 selves up to the exercise of every christian 
 virtue and grace. I need not say, that if 
 we have the spirit of true devotion, we shall 
 be disposed also to dwell much upon the 
 advancement of Christ's kingdom in the 
 world, the glory of the latter day, and the 
 blessedness especially of the saints when 
 they shall come to the heavenly Zion. 
 
 As the meditation of which I have been 
 speaking, involves not only the intellect but 
 also the affections, it virtually includes 
 prayer. It is indeed impossible to have 
 
132 THE SABBATH. 
 
 spiritual apprehensions of God and divine 
 things, without having our hearts drawn 
 out both in supplication and in praise. If 
 however, it be necessary to refier to prayer 
 as a separate duty, it may be said to be a 
 duty that should precede and accompany 
 every other ; a duty with which the sab- 
 bath should be commenced, and continued, 
 and ended. This remark in i^espect to 
 prayer applies, indeed, to a considerable 
 extent, to every day in the week, — and the 
 same is true of what has been said in re- 
 gard to meditation ; and yet, as I have in- 
 timated, the privilege connected with these 
 and kindred exercises is to be specially en- 
 joyed on the season in which business and 
 care are suspended. On the Lord's day, in 
 nii eminent degree, we should hold converse 
 with the Father of spirits, — drawing near 
 the mercy-seat in full assurance of faith, 
 pleading the " exceeding great and pre- 
 cious promises" of the bible, and thus en- 
 deavouring to bring down upon ourselves 
 and upon others, those blessings which have 
 ibeen purchased by the Saviour's death. 
 
THE SABBATH. ' 133 
 
 As on other days, so especially on this, we 
 should remember Zion among ourselves and 
 throughout the world ; we should pray for 
 ministers of the gospel, for success to at- 
 tend the various benevolent associations of 
 the age, and for the Holy Spirit to be pour- 
 ed out upon all flesh. To the duty of 
 praise, which is of course connected with 
 the foregoing, I shall refer more particu- 
 larly hereafter. 
 
 2. A part of the Lord's day should be 
 spent in reading the scriptures. It is by 
 this means, and by hearing the gospel in 
 the sanctuary, that matter is to be furnished 
 for the exercises of which I have been 
 speaking. Religious emotion can be excit- 
 ed only in view of the truth ; and the man 
 who consults the lively oracles the most 
 diligently, wil-l, other things being equal, 
 have the most suitable apprehensions of 
 God and of himself, and will thus be best 
 prepared to engage in those various acts af 
 worship which become him as a creature 
 and a sinner. We see much of God in- 
 deed in his works, but in his word we be- 
 
134 tHE SABEATtt. 
 
 hold him in all his glorious perfections* 
 " The laiv of the Lord is perfect, convert-- 
 ing the soul." The truths of the bible 
 should certainly receive our daily attention; 
 but there is usually more time and better 
 opportunity for examining those truths in 
 detail on the Lord's day, than there is on 
 other days of the week. We can frequently 
 on the sabbath, read large portions in their 
 connexion : some portions, especially those 
 of a doctrinal and devotional character, 
 should always be read. We should connect 
 with the reading of the scriptures the peru- 
 sal of such works as tend to illustrate and 
 enforce their contents, —the commentaries 
 with which we are so richly supplied, and 
 the priceless practical treatises of such as 
 Baxter and Flavel, Edwards and Doddridge. 
 As food nourishes the body, so divine truth 
 nourishes and invigorates the soul. If 
 christians would spend only two hours every 
 sabbath, and a proportional space of time 
 on other days of the week, in carefully ex- 
 amining and inwardly digesting the word 
 of God, how rapidly would they grow in 
 
THE SABBATH. 135 
 
 grace, and in the knowledge of heavenly 
 things ! How soon would they leave the 
 state of immaturity and pupilage in which 
 they frequently remain for so long a time, 
 and advance to the stature of perfect per- 
 sons in Christ Jesus ! Such were many of 
 the christians in England in the seven- 
 teenth century ; such were many of the 
 early believers in our own country, — men 
 who diligently studied, and who cordially 
 embraced, every part of revealed truth, and 
 who exhibited a symmetry of character well 
 fitted to commend the religion they pro- 
 fessed. These are the persons who, both 
 in intellect and in heart, both in theory and 
 in practice, ' have respect unto all God's 
 commandments.' To such may be applied 
 the language of the psalmist, " Mine eyes 
 prevent the night watches, that I might 
 meditate in thy word. I opened my mouth 
 and panted ; for I longed for thy command- 
 ments. I have more understanding than 
 all my teachers , for thy testimonies are 
 my meditation." 
 
 3. We should, on the sabbath, unite with 
 
136 THE SABBATH. 
 
 God's people in hearing the preaching ot' 
 the gospel, and in performing those other 
 acts of worship that are peculiar to the 
 sanctuary. As I have observed, it is by 
 reading and hearing that matter is to be 
 furnished for other duties, — for medita- 
 tion and prayer, thanksgiving and praise. 
 We want to rearf God's word ; we want also 
 to hear it. It pleases him by the foolish- 
 ness o{ preaching to save them that believe. 
 We should meditate, and pray, and praise 
 in our closets ; we should also engage in 
 these exercises in the public assembly. 
 While God is honoured by acts of private 
 devotion ; while he " seeth in secret " the 
 humble and contrite heart, he has still made 
 it our duty to unite in his worship in the 
 place where he has recorded his name. 
 The law was appointed to betread in the 
 synagogues every sabbath day. And man- 
 ifestly, if it was the duty of ministers to 
 read, it was the duty of the people to as- 
 semble and hear. An express command of 
 God to the Israelites, was, "Ye shall keep 
 my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary.'* 
 
THE SABBATH 137 
 
 The Hebrew christians were exhorted/ not 
 to forsake the assembling of themselves to- 
 gether ; ' that is for the worship of God on 
 the sabbath, and at other appointed seasons. 
 It has been shown that the apostles and 
 other pri.nitive christians assembled stated- 
 ly for religious worship on the first day of 
 the week ; the example of our Lord has 
 also been alluded to, of whom it is said, 
 that, ' as his custom was, he went into the 
 synagogue on the sabbath day, and taught,' 
 Not only wero the saints under both dis- 
 pensations accustomed to meet for public 
 worship on the sabbath ; they identified 
 with the house of God their most interest- 
 ing associations, their fondest hopes, their 
 liveliest and most exalted joys. They 
 * were glad when it was said, Let us go in- 
 to the house of the Lord.' The response 
 was a prompt and cheerful one, '' Our feet 
 shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." 
 They esteemed ' a day in the sanctuary as 
 better than a thousand ;' for the courts of 
 the Most High ' their souls longed, yea, 
 even fainted.' They 'feared him in the 
 
138 THE SABBATH, 
 
 assembly of his people ; ' they * praised 
 him for his mighty acts ; ' ' they uttered 
 abundantly the memory of his great good- 
 ness ;' they heard his messages of grace ; 
 * they sung of his righteousness ' and salva- 
 tion. In these exercises their minds were 
 enlightened, and their souls edified and re- 
 freshed. It was "as the dew of Hermon, 
 and as the dew that descended upon the 
 mountains of Zion ; for there the Lord 
 commanded the blessing, even life forever- 
 more." 
 
 It is painful to think how many there are 
 in this favoured land who absent themselves 
 from the sanctuary. Some are seldom or 
 never seen within its walls at all ; others 
 are present only occasionally, perhaps once 
 in six months or a year, and this, as they 
 may happen to be called out by some fu- 
 neral occasion, or by a curiosity to hear 
 some distinguished preacher. What disre- 
 gard of God's authority, what contempt of 
 his holy word and day, what trifling with 
 the concerns of the soul, what indifference 
 to all that is sacred and dear does conduct 
 
THE SABBATH. 139 
 
 like this imply ! It is to be a heathen in a 
 christian land. It is to set an example fit- 
 ted to make heathen families and heathen 
 neighbourhoods. It is to exert an influence 
 that goes to blight all that is fair upon earth, 
 and to spread desolation and death through- 
 out the habitations of men. It is not merely 
 to count onese/f unworthy of the kingdom of 
 heaven, but it is to be accessory to the 
 moral darkness, the spiritual unconcern, 
 the practical infidelity, and the everlasting 
 ruin of multitudes of others. Would that 
 the more decent portion of the community, 
 and that many professed christians even, 
 gave more evidence of reverencing the 
 sanctuary than they frequently do. In view 
 of what trivial causes do members of our 
 churches often stay away from the house of 
 God ! If they are only suffering a little 
 fatigue or bodily indisposition, or if the 
 weather is slightly inclement, or if the dis- 
 tance to the place of worship is such as to 
 require some exertion on their part in order 
 to get there, how readily do they endeav- 
 our to quiet their consciences, in neglect- 
 
T40 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ing one of the most sacred appointments of 
 heaven ! That professed christian is too 
 unwell to worship God with his people ; but 
 he would not be too unwell, if it were any 
 other day of the week, to perform his cus- 
 tomary labour. The sabbath is a stormy 
 one ; but you will see him on other days 
 far more inclement, driving from one part 
 of the town to the other. The distance is 
 considerable ; but propose to him on Sat- 
 urday or Monday some plan that promises 
 to advance his temporal interest, and dis- 
 tance, like the state of the weather, will at 
 once be forgotten. Are these men really 
 serious in their profession ? Do they mani- 
 fest the holy sincerity, the pious zeal that 
 distinguished the saints in primitive times } 
 Can they be said to worship the Lord in 
 truth, who plead such reasons for neglecting 
 his worship as they would not urge in con- 
 nexion even with their secular affairs ? 
 Speak, consistency ; speak, conscience ; 
 speak, oracles of God ! I would be far 
 from intimating that circumstances may not 
 be such as to render a person justifiable in 
 
THE SABBATH. 141 
 
 being absent from public worship on the 
 Lord's day. If an individual is confined to 
 his room by a broken limb, or to his bed 
 by a fever, it is manifestly not his duty to 
 go out ; and the same is of course true if 
 he is so seriously indisposed that he would 
 be in danger of increa&ing or prolonging his 
 distemper. It is evident also that drench- 
 ing rains in summer, and drifting snows in 
 winter may sometimes render it hazardous 
 for persons in health, especially females, to 
 leave their homes on the sabbath.* Wis- 
 dom is profitable to direct ; and it was 
 never intended that one duty should inter- 
 fere with another. The sabbath was made 
 for man ; and the service of God is in all 
 respects a "reasonable service." Still, it 
 is not every slight complaint, it is not every 
 threatening cloud, or fog, nor even every 
 considerable fall of rain or snow, that can 
 excuse us from waiting upon God in his 
 house. If we should, without hesitation, 
 ^expose ourselves as much on a week day., 
 
 * Pauoplislj Jan. 1813. 
 
142 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and for a worldly purpose, the excuse is 
 vain.* O that men would be honest on 
 points in regard to which, although they 
 may indeed deceive themselves, they never 
 can deceive their Maker. If they had that 
 longing for the courts of the Lord of 
 which we read in the scriptures, and which 
 marked the character of many of the pil- 
 grim fathers, they would not be detained at 
 home by trifles ; they would lose sight of 
 not a few supposed difficulties, and over- 
 come even many real ones, in order to be 
 present in the sanctuary. The first settlers 
 of this country exhibited an example in re- 
 spect to attendance on public worship, 
 which their descendants have been more 
 disposed to admire, than fully to imitate. 
 They were not afraid of the rain, or the 
 snow, or the cold ; they said little about 
 trifling bodily complaints, or the length and 
 badness of roads : whether the distance 
 were longer or shorter, whether the sky 
 were fair or inclement, you would have seen 
 
 * Panoplist Jan. 181-5. 
 
THE SABBATH. 143 
 
 them, like the Israelites of old, going up 
 with one consent to the house of prayer and 
 of praise. With souls thirsting for the 
 blessings of salvation, the storm and the 
 north wind were almost unheeded ; barren 
 rocks scarcely appeared lonely ; steep and 
 difficult hills seemed well nigh levelled to 
 plains. ' Passing through the valley of 
 Baca, they made it a well : the rain also 
 filled the pools.' 'They went on from 
 strength to strength, every one of them in 
 Zion appearing before God.' 
 
 4, A part of the sabbath may be profita- 
 bly spent in religious conversation. Thero 
 is no reason why people should employ the 
 hours of holy time in discoursing about 
 merely secular affairs : of other subjects, 
 as we saw under the head of meditation, the 
 number is not only sufficient, but even in- 
 exhaustible. How much more would God 
 be honoured, and the interests of the soul ad- 
 vanced, if in the intervals of worship, such 
 topics as but too frequently engage the atten- 
 tion, would give place to those that are appro- 
 priate to the day, to discussion for example, 
 
144 THE SABBATH. 
 
 in respect to particular points of doctrine and 
 duty, and to the giving and receiving of in- 
 formation concerning the various depart- 
 ments of christian benevolence. A timely 
 observation, when going to, or returning from 
 the house of worship, may convey light to 
 the understanding, and kindle up or increase 
 the flame of devotion in the heart. '' Iron 
 sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the 
 countenance of his friend. " The sentiment 
 of David lies at the foundation of the most 
 endearing recollections of good men on 
 earth, I had almost said, of the saints in 
 glory, ' We went to the house of God in 
 company ; we took sweet counsel to- 
 gether. ' 
 
 It is manifestly a duty, on the Lord's day, 
 to converse with and instruct children and 
 domestics. Our sabbath schools have in- 
 deed, within these few years, accomplished 
 much in regard to the religious instruction 
 of the rising generation, and even of the 
 adult members of our congregations, — and 
 the system ought to be carried into more 
 effective and general operation than it is at 
 
THE SAEBATH. 145 
 
 present. In societies where it is practica- 
 ble, why should not all who attend public 
 worship — I mean ail whose health will 
 permit — associate for the study of the 
 scriptures ? Is it not one object of their 
 coming to the house of God, to receive in- 
 struction ? and shall they be unwilling to 
 avail themselves of all the means for secur- 
 ing this important end, which providence 
 appears to place within their reach ? Are 
 any too well informed, are any too far ad- 
 vanced in years, to join in the exercise of 
 which I have been speaking ? Cut the 
 point to which I wish especially to allude, 
 under the present head, is the duly of sab- 
 bath instruction in the family. Parents 
 should not think it sufficient that their chil- 
 dren are taught on the Lord's day by others ; 
 they should remember that a most solemn 
 responsibility in regard to this matter de- 
 volves upon themselves. They should have 
 something like sabbath schools and bible 
 classes in their own houses ; at least, they 
 should see to it, that they impress, on the 
 day set apart for religious duties, divine 
 
 10 
 
146 THE SABBATH. 
 
 truth upon the hearts and consciences of 
 their offspring. If they feel as they ought, 
 they will not indeed neglect the spiritual 
 interests of their children on other days of 
 the week ) to these interests they will call 
 their attention ' when they sit in the house, 
 and when they walk by the way, when they 
 lie down, and when they rise up.' Still, it 
 is peculiarly proper that parents should per- 
 form the duty to which I have referred, on 
 the Lord's day ; and perhaps the most suit- 
 able part of the day may generally be the 
 afternoon or evening, not long after the 
 close of the exercises of the sanctuary. 
 Those are favourable moments, when the ar- 
 gument of the preacher is fresh in the mind, 
 and the impression of the truth strong and 
 vivid ; when the judgment is convinced and 
 the conscience av/ake ; when the things of 
 time have in some measure lost their hold 
 upon the attention, and the soul is prepared 
 to contemplate, v/ith an unusual degree of 
 steadiness, its spiritual and everlasting re- 
 lations ; those are favourable moments not 
 only for explaining to one's household the 
 
THE SABBATH, 147 
 
 doctrines, but also for pressing home upon 
 them the requirements of the bible, and 
 leading them, by the aid cf the Spirit, to 
 Christ and to heaven. By all that is bind- 
 ing in parental responsibility, and all that 
 is valuable in the welfare of an immortal 
 being, let the opportunity be faithfully im- 
 proved. Instead of making a fev/ formal 
 remarks, or confining themselves to mere 
 generalities, let lieads of families, at the 
 season to which I refer, as well as at all 
 other proper seasons, enter into the subject 
 ofreligion v/ith holy earnestness and zeal, — 
 endeavouring to speak in such a manner, 
 that they may realize the character, the 
 hopes, and the rev/ard of him of whom it is 
 said, " I know him that he will command 
 his children and his household after him, 
 that they shall keep the way of the Lord." 
 
 I have now finished the remarks which it 
 seemed proper to make on the manner of 
 observing- the christian sabbath. Allow me 
 to suggest a fev/ thoughts by way of reflec- 
 tion. 
 
 It must be manifest that there is need of 
 
148 THE SABBATir. 
 
 a general reformation in respect to the duty 
 which I have endeavoured to inculcate in 
 these Discourses. Who of us, my friends, 
 has remembered the sabbath as he ought ? 
 What professed christian has not often vio- 
 lated the sanctity of the day, by indulging 
 in vain and worldly thoughts and conversa- 
 tion ? Where is the member of our 
 churches who has not, on the season of 
 sacred rest, laboured more, or journeyed 
 more, or visited more than conscience and 
 the word of God would justify ? Where is 
 the individual who has not greatly failed in 
 regard to the positive part of the precept, — 
 I mean, religious meditation and prayer,' 
 reading the scriptures, worshipping the 
 Lord in the congi-egation, and instructing 
 children and domestics ? What abundant 
 occasion have ministers and churches to 
 humble themselves bcloro God, in view not 
 merely of their violation of a precept which 
 is equally binding with the other precepts 
 of the moral law, but in view also of lliC 
 fact, that in not properly sanctifying the 
 sabbath, they have (ailed to appreciate 
 
THE SABBATH. 149 
 
 some of their most interesting and precious 
 privileges ! May we be led to see our 
 wronff in this thing, and so far as we have 
 indeed come short, to commence heartily 
 and without delay, the work of repentance 
 and reformation. Need I repeat w'hat has 
 already been intimated respecting the prev- 
 alence of sabbath breaking in the commu- 
 nity and nation at large ? Need I refer to 
 the multitudes who spend holy time in pur- 
 suing the ordinary business of the farm, 
 the workshop, the office, or the counting 
 house ? Need I speak of the tens of thou- 
 sands who desecrate the Lord's day by 
 wasting it in idleness and sloth, by travel- 
 ling in stage-coaches and steam-boats, and 
 by rushing with eagerness into every spe- 
 cies of amusement and dissipation ? Even 
 in our more quiet and orderly country set- 
 tlements, how often is one pained at hear- 
 ing, on the sabbath, the sound of the axe 
 or the hammer, or at seeing men and teams 
 employed in transporting merchandise, or 
 securing the products of the field. And to 
 pass from these to some of our larger cities 
 
150 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and towns, — how notorious is it, that in 
 the latter we frequently see more pleasure 
 carriages in motion, more wharves and pub- 
 lic squares crowded, more gaming houses 
 and places of intemperance and sensualitj 
 visited, on the Lord's day, than upon any 
 other day of the week. Is not the fact a 
 moving one, that so large a proportion of 
 our population — in some districts of our 
 country fully one half, and in others nearly 
 two-thirds, — are almost as utter strangers 
 to the public worship of God, as those who 
 live in countries where the gospel has 
 never been preached ?* Is there nothing 
 appalling in the profanation of the Lord's 
 day by men high in office, and especially 
 by those public bodies that frame the laws 
 of the land ? Whether, as a nation, we 
 
 * It has been supposed lliat of llie iiiliabilanls of Lon- 
 don, [estimated at a million and a halfj from 500,000 to 
 800,000 live in utter disregard of all religious ceremonies 
 or duties. See a Missionary Sermon, by Rev. John Har- 
 ris. The proportion of those who do not attend public 
 worship to those who do, can hardly be less in many of 
 the principal cities in ihe United Stales. In some it isun 
 doubted ly g^rcater. 
 
THE SABBATH. 151 
 
 tire more or less moral than some other na- 
 tions, there is perhaps no occasion in this 
 place to inquire : it may with truth be said, 
 that while we are chargeable with many 
 national sins, the sin of sabbath-breaking 
 stands out among the number with a most 
 fearful prominence. 
 
 There is, I repeat, need of a general re- 
 formation in respect to the observance of 
 the Lord's day. How shall this reforma- 
 tion be effected ? It must commence, as 
 has been intimated, with the church. 
 * Judgment must begin at the house of God.' 
 It is common to speak of the infidelity of 
 our country ; but is there not something 
 like infidelity, — is there not at least much 
 unbelief, especially in regard to the law of 
 the sabbath, on the part of many who claim 
 to be christians .'' Ho;v desirable that the 
 church should be brought more cordially 
 to receive all that her Lord has revealed, — 
 and in particular, that she should begin 
 more deeply to feel the moral obligation, 
 and more carefully and consistenly to prac- 
 tice the duties of the fourth commandment ! 
 
152 THE SABBATH. 
 
 She must be aware, that the question is 
 not merely or mainly whether the sabbath 
 is a useful institution, but whether we have 
 any sabbath at all ; she must be aware, that 
 in so far as she compromises the nature, or 
 acts remissly and unfaithfully in promoting 
 the observance, of the day of weekly rest, 
 in so far she practically denies the truth of 
 revelation, and relinquishes the hopes and 
 privileges of her birth-right. Would that 
 she might, in all her branches, return to 
 that simple reliance on scripture testimony 
 for which she was distinguished in primitive 
 times. She must come up to the standard 
 of the bible. She must show by her exam- 
 ple that she regards the law of the sabbath 
 as sacred as any other law which her Head 
 has appointed. Until she is prepared to 
 act in this spirit and to pursue this course, 
 she cannot surely, with consistency, com- 
 plain of neglected ordinances, or of the in- 
 creasing profligacy of the times. 
 
 Christians in this country were surprised 
 when first made acquainted with the views 
 that prevail in regard to the sabbath, in 
 
THE SABBATH. 153 
 
 such portions of Europe as Germany. 
 There, unless I have been misinformed, 
 some even of those religious teachers who 
 are professedly far removed from neolo- 
 gy, — men who call themselves and are 
 called by others evangelical, are accus- 
 tomed to speak of the institution very much 
 as a thing of expediency. It would be well 
 to inquire how many denominations there 
 are in Great Britain and in the United 
 States, that regard sabbath-breaking as an 
 offence, and treat it accordingly. Is not the 
 number exceedingly small ? And yet, 
 should not the violation of the fourth com- 
 mandment be made as much a matter of 
 church discipline, as the violation of the 
 seventh or the eighth ? 
 
 Let the church reform in her views and 
 practice in regard to the keeping of holy 
 time ; let her learn to have respect unto 
 all God's commandments ; let her really 
 believe what she almost prof esses to believe; 
 let her example and her influence be what 
 they ought to be, and we may then expect 
 to see an amendment in the community at 
 
154 THE SABBATH. 
 
 large. The power that is to reclaim evil 
 doers, must come out of Zion. Little reli- 
 ance can be placed upon civil enactments 
 for promoting the observance of the Lord's 
 day : such enactments, even if they were 
 made, could relate only to men's outward 
 conduct, and thoy could never be put in 
 force so long as public sentiment was wrong. 
 It does no good to make laws, when men 
 can break them with impunity ; and the 
 history of sabbath legislation (to say noth- 
 ing of legislation on kindred subjects) has 
 sufficiently illustrated the sentiment, that 
 Christ's kingdom has little to expect from 
 this world, and that moral means are, of all 
 others, the most appropriate for the acc9m- 
 plishment of moral ends. 
 
 Let these means be faithfully and perse- 
 veringly employed. Let the church take 
 the ground not only that there is a sabbath, 
 but that there is a sabbath because god 
 HAS APPOINTED ONE. Whatever arguments 
 she may draw from other considerations, 
 let her first and mainly press the observ- 
 ance of the institution on the broad nrinci- 
 
THE SABBATH. 155 
 
 pie of DIVINE AUTHORITY. And let her 
 practice, as has been remarked, correspond 
 with her precepts. Let professed chris- 
 tians, individually, correct whatever has 
 been faulty in themselves in regard to this 
 whole subject, and let them learn to honour 
 the sabbath not only by conscientiously per- 
 forming its duties, but also by realizing, in 
 their full extent, its high and delightful 
 privileges. Let those church members who 
 violate the day, be made the subjects of 
 prompt and faithful discipline. Let parents 
 instruct their children in the duty of re- 
 membering the season of rest, with becom- 
 ing fidelity and zeal ; teaching them to 
 view its desecration with the same abhor- 
 rence with which they v^'ould regard idola- 
 try or theft, or any other crime referred to 
 in the decalogue. Let ministers of the gos- 
 pel bring the subject often and particularly 
 before their congregations. Let men be 
 addressed in relation to it from the pulpit 
 and the press; "let them be addressed 
 with sound argument, and with earnest and 
 affectionate exhortation and entreaty ; let 
 
156 THE SABBATH. 
 
 them be addressed as rational, and moral, 
 and accountable beings, whose everlasting 
 destiny v/ill be fixed according as they pro- 
 fane the sabbath, or keep it holy. And let 
 all who reverence the sabbath, lift up their 
 fervent supplications to him who is the 
 Lord of the sabbath, that he would gra- 
 ciously interpose, and bring men every- 
 where to remember and love the day of 
 spiritual rest.'^* 
 
 Friends and brethren, you will suffer me 
 to "use great plainness of speech." I 
 would not, I am conscious, employ the lan- 
 guage either of dictation or of invective. I 
 plead not for the lestoration of the Jeivish 
 sabbath ; that has gone by with the dispen- 
 sation with which it was connected. 1 plead 
 not for Pharisaical au>^terities and mere ex- 
 ternal forms ; the worship of the bible is a 
 spiritual worship. I plead for an unquali- 
 fied obedience to all God's commands. I 
 plead for a becoming observance of the day 
 of weekly rest. I plead for a reviving, in 
 
 * Dr. Wcuds, in American Ed. of Wilson. 
 
THE SABBATH. 157 
 
 its vitality and glory, of an institution that 
 was designed to commemorate the creation 
 and the redemption of the world ; an in- 
 stitution with whicli are identified the rich- 
 est blessings of believers in the present life, 
 and their fondest hopes in respect to the 
 life to come. 
 
 The sentiment has been alluded to, that 
 the efficiency of the church must depend, 
 essentially, upon a reformation in regard to 
 the observance of the sabbath. How could 
 she take firm and independent ground, so 
 long as she should in any way hesitate as 
 to the validity if not of her charter, yet at 
 least of its seal ? What proper influence 
 could she expect to exert upon unbelievers, 
 while she sometimes appeared well nigh to 
 doubt whether a part of the revealed rule 
 of duty riUains its original force .'' What 
 suitable progress could she hope to make 
 in reclaiming men from sin, so long as an 
 institution, os-dained of her Head especially 
 for this very purpose, was not appreciated 
 as it ought to be ? What would a sabbath 
 be worth, that should be secured merely 
 
158 THE SABBATH. 
 
 by the arm of secular power ? It would be 
 like a body without a soul ; its energies 
 would have been paralysed, its glory would 
 have gone. Need it be romarked, that a 
 reformation in respect to the sabbath is 
 essential to the prosperity and even to the 
 existence, of the nation .'' Such a view, I 
 am aware, may appear to some to savour 
 of bigotry, — but its correctness is con- 
 firmed both by the testimony of the bible, 
 and by the history of nations in all ages of 
 the world. If we continue a sabbath-break- 
 ing people, it will be at the peril of all wo 
 hold dear in our institutions, It will be at 
 the expense of our liberties and our hopes. 
 We shall weave our oivn shroud. We 
 shall dig our own grave. The curse of the 
 Most High v/ill rest upon the nation that 
 despises his day, and tramples upon his 
 laws. Other nations have fallen, — and 
 why ? It v/as because they had no sab- 
 bath ; it was because they knew not God. 
 We may think to r-ccnre our perpetuity by 
 calling in the aid of literature and science; 
 but it will be like leaning upon a brokeu 
 
THE SABEATH. 159 
 
 reed, or like trusting in horses and chariots: 
 either the Ahuighty must be acknowledged, 
 or we must feel his withering trown. Our 
 history will remove the last remaining 
 doubt as to the connexion between infidelity 
 and anarchy, betweea atheism and ruin. 
 We shall stand forth before the world as 
 another illustration of the sentiment, ' The 
 
 NATION AND KINGDOM THAT WILL NOT 
 SERVE THE LORD, SHALL PERISH ; YEA, 
 THOSE NATIONS SHALL EE UTTERLY WASTED .' 
 
 But we hope better things. A redeeming 
 spirit is already abroad in the community, 
 and there seem=; to be, on the part of many, 
 a disposition to seek after God, and to rev- 
 erence his laws. The church may yet be 
 blessed, and the nation spared. To both 
 may be addressed, in the way of encourage- 
 ment, those v;ords of the prophet, — "If 
 
 THOU TURN AVVAY THY FOOT FROM THE SAB- 
 KATII, FROM DOII\G THY PLEASURE ON MY 
 HOLY DAY ; AND CALL THE SABBATH A DE- 
 LIGHT, THE HOLY OF THE LORD, HONOURA- 
 BLE ; AND SHALT HONOUR HIM, NOT DOING 
 THINE OWN WAYS, NOR FINDING THINE OWN 
 
160 THE SABBATH. 
 
 PLEASURE, NOR SPEAKING THINE OWN 
 WORDS ; THEN SHALT THOU DELIGHT THY- 
 SELF IN THE Lord ; and I will cause 
 
 THEE TO RIDE UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF 
 THE EARTH, AND FEED THEE WITH THE 
 HERITAGE OF JaCOB THY FATHER I FOR THE 
 MOUTH OF THE LoRD HATH SPOKEN IT." 
 
 'A