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L T B R ^11 R Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Semi 
 
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 BV 110 
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 1890 
 
 '^'^"'?^ The holy 
 
 NCETON. I 
 ' . R8 ^ 
 William 
 
 Sabbath 
 
 Harris, 1802- 
 
 Bool; 
 
THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
THE HOLY SABBATH 
 
 INSTITUTED IN PARADISE, AND PERFECTED THROUGH 
 CHRIST. 
 
 |in |ist0ncal DeiMnstration. 
 
 BY ^ 
 
 WILLIAM HAEEIS EULE, D.D. 
 
 This is the Love of God, that we keep His Commandments : aud His Command- 
 ments are not grievous." 
 
 L X D X : 
 S. W. PARTRIDGE k CO., 9, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
LONDON: ■0-. J. JOUKSOX, nUNTER, 121, FLEET STREET, E.C. 
 
GONTENT-S, 
 
 TAOE 
 
 A Word to the Reader ... ... ... ^ 
 
 I. The Primeval Sabbath ... ... ... 9 
 
 11. The Sabbath before the Flood... ... 19 
 
 III. From the Deluge to the Exode ... 23 
 
 IV. The Sabbath Law not Levitical ... 27 
 Y. From the Passage of the Jordan to the 
 
 Babylonish Captivity ... ... ... 45 
 
 YI. After the Captivity ... ... ... 54 
 
 Yll. The Jewish Sabbath, or Sabbath spoiled 
 
 with Traditional Observances ... 61 
 YIII. The Jewish Sabbath during our Lord's 
 
 Ministry 74 
 
 IX. Our Lord's Ministrations on the Sabbath- 
 
 DAY' ... ... ... ... ... 86 
 
 X. The Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath 96 
 XI. The Christian Sabbath in the First 
 
 Three Centuries 112 
 
 XII. Early Diversities of Teaching and 
 
 Custom 120 
 
 XIII. Romish Perversion of the Fourth Com- 
 mandment ... ... ... ... 126 
 
 XIY. Old English Law 134 
 
 XY. After the Reformation, on the Continent 
 
 and in England 140 
 
 XYI. On the Right Observance of God's Law 150 
 
THE HOLY SABBxiTH. 
 
 A WORD TO THE READER. 
 
 Courteous Reader, — I will not provoke you to debate. I 
 shall not write a polemical dissertation, nor imagine myself to 
 be engaged in a controversy. I will endeavour to trace faith- 
 fully the lines of history, and ascertain the exact force of 
 Divine law. Customs may become obsolete, but facts cannot. 
 I will, therefore, ask you to accept the record of facts, so far 
 as the record is trustworthy, and will, therefore, avoid refer- 
 ence to any source which is not certainly authentic. "We bow 
 to the supreme authority of God's law, and ignore, in matters 
 of sacred obligation, the claims of human law and the force of 
 human custom, when custom lacks the sanction of that law 
 which it is our common duty to obey. 
 
 One thing I shall not do. I shall not quote modern books, 
 nor trouble myself nor you with detaihng the opinions of 
 recent writers. With all due respect for many who have 
 written on the subject, I shall make no allusion to any, 
 beyond the general allusion to one well-known class of 
 writers which will be imphed all through. None of our 
 opinions, as opinions only, have the least intrinsic value, noi- 
 ls it easy to see where place can be fairly found for the in- 
 trusion of opinions when we are treating on matters of law 
 and facts of history. Besides, the purchaser of a book on 
 the Sabbath should have a practical end in view, which can 
 only be satisfied by reference to the primary authority. If 
 that object be not attained, so far at least as the honest 
 endeavour of the writer may help to its attainment, the 
 
8 A WOKD TO THE READER. 
 
 reader will have wasted his money and misemployed his 
 time. I therefore abstain from useless quotations, and en- 
 deavour to pass over everything which I consider to be un- 
 certain. 
 
 We should agree, I think, not to insist on anything which 
 is doubtful. Things imperfectly known, or not well under- 
 stood, cannot but be mentioned by the way as incidental or 
 perhaps accessory, yet only mentioned as such, to be estimated 
 at last according to their ascertained value. If not morally 
 sound or historically true, they must sooner or later be re- 
 jected. Let us search, then, for historic truth. Let us be 
 on our guard against error in judgment and in practice. 
 There are bigots in the world, we know ; there are also 
 cynics and infidels. I would shun both classes ; and having 
 now endeavoured to set myself right with you, I pray for 
 clearness of perception, with integrity of principle, and go to 
 work. 
 
THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PRIMEVAL SABBATH. 
 
 Tlie world was created '• in the beginning." It floated in 
 space a dark, terrestrial ball indeed. It was desolate and void, 
 iniiT ^nri. In that imperfect state it could not be the habita- 
 tion of man, nor of creatures constituted like its present 
 inhabitants. How long that state of desolation and empti- 
 ness continued it is impossible to calculate, and it would be 
 idle to conjecture. 
 
 Geologists have certainly traced successive changes, but it 
 is not my business to meddle with speculations which have no 
 relation to the present subject, except so far as they justify a 
 limitation of the works described in the Mosaic account of 
 the Creation to six natural days. Earth there was. Air 
 there was, and water. Heat there must have been. There 
 was no radiant light — that is to say, no light proceeding from 
 the luminaries that now shine in the heavens. Darkness was 
 on the face of the deep. If land and sea had ever been dis- 
 tinct, and if there were ever atmospheric phenomena like those 
 with which we are now familiar, that must have all ceased by 
 some act of the Creator before the light we now enjoy was 
 kindled into day, and the world framed and furnished in the 
 order which it now presents. 
 
 R 
 
10 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 The Creation clescribed in the Mosaic history occupied six 
 days, during which time the Almighty established the perfect 
 order which has ever since continued. " Thus the heavens 
 " and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And 
 " on the seventh day God ended his work which He had made ; 
 " and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which 
 " He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanc- 
 " tified it : because that in it He had rested from all his work 
 " which God created and made." (Gen. ii. 1 — 3.) Thus 
 speaks the only history of its birth which the world possesses. 
 The authenticity of this history has often been sharply con- 
 tested, but as often proved. It harmonizes with subsequent 
 histories, with traditions, and with nature. The institution of 
 the Sabbath was the very first event after the Creation, and 
 we shall immediately enter on the track of evidence which 
 connects that first event with the whole course of time. 
 
 On the quotation now made from the second chapter of 
 Genesis it must be noted that the Creator of the ends of the 
 earth, who fainteth not, neither is weary, did not take rest 
 from labour, although He ceased from all his work which He 
 had made. For the word nii'i?:^?! does not signify the taking 
 of rest only, nor even chiefly, but the ceasing from action. 
 It does not imply sinking into a condition of quiescence. 
 Therefore the idea of Sabbatic rest is not that of the inert 
 exhaustion of a weary workman. It denotes no more thau 
 the ceasing from a previous occupation, which is perfectly 
 consistent with entire freedom from fatigue, and unfettered 
 activity in exertion of the mightiest power. 
 
 It is said that God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it. 
 Now this declaration of what God did is, in effect, a record 
 of one of his most admirable works. Each of the preceding 
 six days was distinguished by a special display of creative 
 power and wisdom. The work of each day is said by the 
 
THE PRHIEVAL SABBATH. 11 
 
 inspired historian to have been pronounced very good : 
 " God saw that it was good." To the eye of the Creator 
 all his works were good. Man, dim-sighted and ill-content, 
 amidst much repining, has often set himself to search out 
 these works, and often, through ages of heathen ignorance, 
 he has mistaken the creatures for the Creator, and deified the 
 workmanship of the Unknown God. In the most enlightened 
 age the wisest men examine these works minutely as they 
 were never before examined, and reverently pronounce them 
 beautiful and perfect beyond the best that they could ever 
 have conceived. From the production of these exquisitely 
 perfect works God ceased, but from his government of the 
 glorious universe He did not for a moment ceaso. 
 
 On the first day of man's existence, counted seventh of 
 that wondrous week which, without it, would not have been 
 complete, our Heavenly Father having created woman also, 
 and revealed his pleasure that in that creation of male and 
 female should be laid the foundation of human society, be- 
 stowed his effectual care on its complete establishment. The 
 establishment of society — of which only man is capable — 
 was not effected by any supplementary creation, but by the 
 bestowment of a solemn blessing on the creatures whom He 
 had made in his own image. 
 
 God blessed the seventh day. "We cannot peruse with 
 intelligence that which is related concerning the six days' 
 works without some apprehension of their majesty, but that 
 is much heightened when we peruse the further account of 
 that first day of the completed world. Surely the preceding 
 sentences of the first Book of Moses cannot be so full of 
 meaning, and this one sentence, " God blessed the seventh 
 " day," be meaningless. We read of other blessings, every 
 one of them great. The blessing of Abraham, for example ; 
 valid when given, and valid at the present moment. The 
 
 B 2 
 
12 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 blessing is visible in the perpetuation of his family, and the 
 extension of an incalculably precious blessing from a son of 
 Abraham to all the families of the earth. " God said, Let 
 *' there be light, and there was light" — the searching light 
 of day ; the glorious firmament ; the majesty of mountain 
 and of ocean with far extended shores ; the all-pervading life 
 of nature animating the specks that play upon the field of the 
 miscroscope ; the creatures that people the depths and swarm 
 in the heights above us ; the flocks and herds, with every 
 tribe of subject nature. Here is man himself, with his high 
 faculties and varied powers. All these are witnesses to the 
 omnipotence of each of the six days' words ; and could the 
 seventh word of benediction be powerless? That could not 
 be. His " rest," as we call it, was not a prostration of power. 
 Creation He had finished, but now He blesses it, and He 
 sanctifies besides. He crowns all his creatures with a bless- 
 ing, and God's blessing could not be unavailing. What man 
 of us would have his own poor blessing counted for nothing ? 
 Or who, if he thought the blessing of a father worth men- 
 tioning, would not expect the father's children to cherish the 
 remembrance ? Isaac blessed his children, and foretold what 
 the effects would be. Jacob blessed his sons, heads of the 
 future tribes, and predicted the future fruits and proofs of 
 blessing. The Most High God blessed his first-created 
 children, and for their sakes blessed every returning seventh 
 day. And was that blessing barren ? Did it leave no mark? 
 If so, then why was it not left unrecorded that it might be 
 forgotten? For if it had conferred no benefit, it would 
 have brought back no praise to Him who gave it. 
 
 The thought of an idle blessing from the lips of God is in 
 itself profane, and cannot be entertained without offence. It 
 was not needful for the Father of mankind to couch the 
 benediction in prophetic words, for that would have been to 
 
THE PIIIMEVAL SABBiVTII. 13 
 
 anticipate all prophecies, and recite the yet unspoken tale of 
 his manifold bounty and unfathomable love. But we have 
 learnt enough when we are told that in the hours of the first 
 Sabbath-day in their existence God visited his happy children 
 in Paradise. 
 
 How often Tie repeated the Sabbath visits we have no clue 
 even to conjecture ; but we do know that at some time He 
 taught them wherein should lie the sanctity and well-being 
 of their children's homes. He instructed them, for themselves 
 and us, in the duty of mutual fidelity, and gave them a law of 
 innocence. He imparted to his son, our first father, a spirit 
 of wisdom so perfect, and so exact perception, that he could 
 give a name to every living thing according to its kind and 
 uses. We further know that when our first parents abused 
 his gifts, and violated his most plain and gracious law. He 
 did not at once cast them off with a sudden stroke of wrath, but 
 taught them again a new lesson adapted to their altered state. 
 
 For all this instruction there should be some time allowed, 
 and what time better than the day of rest, when with undis- 
 tracted mind they could receive their teachings and have their 
 understanding disciplined into clear perception of all neces- 
 sary truth? When they were yet without sins, placed at the 
 head of all inferior creatures, and appointed to discharge the 
 duties of their high station, only a little lower than the angels 
 — the blessing of a primeval Sabbath must have been worthy 
 of Him who gave it, and equal to the dignity of them to 
 whom it was given. We may therefore venture to believe 
 that on that first blessed day in the Garden of Eden, with the 
 glory of God in the midst of it, Eden was like Heaven. Al- 
 though, therefore, the words we read are few, the import of 
 those words is greater than we are able to conceive ; and it is 
 beyond all doubt that the revelation of truth from God to 
 man then had its beginning. 
 
14 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 The memory of what Adam learned before his fall could 
 not perish. It must have served for his guidance, to be 
 treasured as a family tradition, and to dwell on the lips of 
 his descendants through many generations. In his own breast 
 there was a recollection of the grandeur, the bliss, the holiness 
 of the first Sabbath-day, which the Creator deigned to hallow 
 with his presence in a degree beyond the power of language 
 to express. While the blessing was actual, the hallowing 
 was declared to be prospective also. To hallow^ tjij?, is to set 
 apart. God set apart the seventh day. He did not intend 
 to set it apart at some future time; He did so then. The 
 Sabbath then became a positive institution. His will, then 
 made known, was law. The law was not repealed, nor did it 
 ever fall into desuetude, so far as we know ; and if there were 
 any records of the earliest ages extant, we might expect to 
 find therein some trace of its observance or its breach. The 
 probability, however, could only be in proportion to the 
 extent and character of the records, and the intention with 
 which they were made. It is therefore our business to ex- 
 amine such fragments as we have, first noting that, in addi- 
 tion to all that was included in the blessing of that first Sab- 
 bath in Paradise, there was a declaration that for the future 
 every seventh day should be set apart, and that all kinds of 
 ordinary work should then be put away. The blessing, it 
 may be fairly inferred, was associated with duty, and we must 
 be careful to observe that in Paradise the duty was esta- 
 blished ; or, in other words, that Sabbath-keeping was a law 
 of Paradise. 
 
 Therefore it is manifest that they are mistaken who say 
 that the commandment to abstain from the forbidden fruit 
 was the only law of Paradise, that the religion of our first 
 parents was but negative, and that to eat or not to eat the 
 apple made up the entire sum of the primeval code of law. 
 
THE TRIMEVAL SABEATII. 15 
 
 Apart from speculation on the nature and intention of that 
 prohibitory statute, we must carefully consider this part of 
 Divine Revelation, and acknowledge the fact of Divine 
 teaching amidst the solemnities and blessings of a Sabbath in 
 Paradise, whenever we date back to the first seventh day of 
 time. Enough has now been said to remind thoughtful 
 readers of what has never yet been quite forgotten — that that 
 day marks exactly the beginning of the world's Sabbath- 
 keeping, and proves that the law was not delivered to any 
 one portion of the human race more than to another, but to 
 the progenitors of all mankind, on all of whom it is therefore 
 equally binding. 
 
 The division of time into weeks, or rather the parcelling of 
 days into weeks, irrespective of the natural divisions of time 
 into lunar months and solar years, has often been marked in 
 relation to the present subject. This hebdomadal division, it 
 is alleged, has prevailed widely among nations that had no 
 knowledge of revealed religion, and it is argued that there 
 must have been a reason for this antecedent to the Hebrew 
 Scriptures — an origin older than the writing of history, even 
 older than Moses, the oldest known writer of the fragments 
 of primeval history preserved in the Book of Genesis, and 
 there only. This would be powerful evidence of the antiquity 
 and universality of the Sabbatic institution, if it could be 
 fairly made out ; but, on examining the passages quoted from 
 Greek classics, I do not find them, when read together with 
 their context, at all relevant to this matter. Hesiod or 
 Homer, speaking of the seventh day of the month, cannot be 
 truthfully quoted as referring to that seventh day which is re- 
 peated four or five times in every month. Whether the week 
 of the Greeks and Romans, borrowed from the Egyptians, 
 was to be attributed to the primeval Sabbath, or to the wor- 
 ship of the heavenly bodies, of which the chief were the sun, 
 
16 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 the moon, and the five planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, 
 Yenus, and Saturn, is an undecided question; and I am, on my 
 own principle, excluded from any advantage which the pre- 
 ponderance of probability might give me. 
 
 The sacred text, understood as it is written, teaches that 
 the Sabbath was coeval with the creation, appointed for all 
 mankind through all time, and intended to be for a memorial 
 of the creation of the world that now is. Indisputable as 
 this appears to be, the Jews in general do not so understand 
 the passage. 
 
 Rabbi Solomon Yarkhi says in his commentary that God 
 sanctified the seventh day, and blessed it with manna, because 
 on all the other days of the week an omer of bread came 
 down to the Israelites for each person, but on the sixth day 
 double; and the seventh He sanctified by manna, inasmuch as 
 on that day it did not come down. This text, therefore, is 
 written with reference to the future. Aben Ezra says nothing 
 of the kind, but understands the blessing to consist in vigour 
 and fecundity imparted to the creatures. Both agree in 
 regarding the Sabbath as a gift to the Israelites only, and 
 they date the gift from Sinai. "We would not charge the 
 Jews with a wilful conspiracy to arrogate to themselves alone 
 the honour and blessings of the day, but would attribute 
 their almost unanimous departure from the obvious meaning 
 of the sacred text to a tacit understanding that the benefits 
 of Divine revelation were bestowed on the Hebrews exclu- 
 sively by inheritance from their fathers. That persuasion led 
 them to imagine that some sentences in the prophetic books 
 expressly marked the Sabbath as the sign of a covenant with 
 the God of Abraham, from which the Gentiles were excluded, 
 and ever would be, excepting those who might be admitted, 
 by circumcision, into the congregation of the Lord's people. 
 Those passages will come under review in due course, and. 
 
THE PRIMEVAL SAUDATII. 17 
 
 the fact that many have been so far misled by Jews as to 
 consider the Sabbath a Mosaic institution is all that needs be 
 noticed now. 
 
 Let ns suppose, for a moment, that the Sabbath had not 
 been appointed when time began, but deferred until the 
 Deluge, or the deliverance out of Egypt, or the Resurrection 
 of Christ. In that case, the whole tenor of sacred history and 
 doctrine must have been different from what it is. 
 
 The faith of the Old Testament is clear beyond the possi- 
 bility of mistake. From the first line to the last the sacred 
 writers teach that there is but one God, and lie not an 
 energy or a myth, but an infinite and eternal Spirit. His 
 attributes are as himself, infinite, eternal, and immutable. 
 They extol his wisdom, his holiness, his love. He is the 
 Creator of all men and of all things — the God and Father 
 of all mankind. There is no evil in his nature to counteract 
 his goodness. He is light, and in him there is no darkness 
 at all. The gods of the heathen are lies, abomination, and 
 vanity, and they who trust in them are like unto them. He 
 is judge of the whole earth, and all nations will have to 
 stand at his bar. Clear and impressive as this truth is, it is 
 not self-conservative. Right faith does not, like fine gold, 
 preserve itself by its own purity, but must be held fast by 
 those who have it. 
 
 The one God, living and true, dweileth in thick darkness. 
 Except that in vision He sometimes appeared to holy men, 
 the world saw him not. Prophetic visions, although made 
 known far and wide, were seen but by few, and that rarely. 
 His works were indeed stupendous, and men shrank with 
 dread from his presence as He passed by in the whirlwind, or 
 as He rended the rocks. Men did indeed fear him, but they 
 soon shook off the fear if they could but forget what caused 
 it. So the tribes of Canaan, and Egypt, and the East fled 
 
18 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 from the armies of liis people, and even his own people were 
 prone to idolatry, and cast his laws behind their back. 
 
 It may be said that the works of God were sufficient to 
 remind and even to instruct them of his goodness and 
 power ; but instead of perceiving God in his creatures, they 
 worshipped the creatures instead of worshipping him, 
 changing the glory of the incorruptible God into images 
 made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four- 
 footed beasts, and creeping things. " They changed the 
 truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the 
 creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." 
 This is no more than was to be expected during the ages 
 that elapsed between the expulsion from Paradise and the 
 call of Abraham, before a people was separated from the 
 Gentiles or a system of worship established and a law given. 
 Men would have become Atheists altogether unless some 
 means had been provided for keeping up the memory of that 
 God whom the progenitors of mankind knew. 
 
 The means provided, if fitly used, would have proved 
 sufficient. The appropriation of one day in seven, when 
 men's ordinary avocations were set aside, that then they 
 might be taught his truth, and enabled to unite in his 
 worship, was amply sufficient, and must have produced 
 some good effect. Some, no doubt, kept the Sabbath, even 
 in the worst times, and around that everlasting ordinance 
 were gathered the sanctities of this life, and preparatives for 
 the life that was to come. 
 
THE SABBATH BEFORE THE FLOOD. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SABCATH BEFORE THE FLOOD. 
 
 Nothing remains of the history of the world from the expul- 
 sion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden to the 
 Deluge, except the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of the 
 Book of Genesis. These chapters are short, and from them 
 the whole of the fifth must be deducted, as it contains no- 
 thing more than a genealogy, which does not serve our 
 present purpose. The residue of historical notices is but 
 forty-six verses. In these few verses there is nothing in re- 
 lation to the religious state of the world to indicate that the 
 Sabbath was set aside any more than that it was faithfully 
 observed. It might have been kept as a secular hohday ; 
 and if there were anything to show that it was so kept, and 
 no more, that would go some way to account for the utter 
 corruption of society. '• God saw that the wickedness of 
 *' man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of 
 " the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And 
 " it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, 
 " and it grieved him at his heart." (Gen. vi. 5 — G.) In such 
 a state of human society there might be days of so-called 
 pleasure, but there could not be days of holy rest. 
 
 One man, however, Noah, was honourably distinguished, and 
 excepted from the general condemnation. It will be remarkable 
 if we find in the history of himself and his family any distinct 
 trace of religious observance of the seventh day. From the 
 expulsion to the Deluge, according to the Ussherian chrono- 
 logy, was 1655 years, a very long period of moral darkness, 
 and, for the most part, shameless impiety. 
 
20 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 In those two chapters of Genesis, not only is the Sabbath 
 not once mentioned, but there is not any reference to sacrifice, 
 nor to any other religious observance. We will therefore in- 
 clude the narrative of the Dehige, and so enlarge the field of 
 research by beginning at Gen. ii. 8, and ending at Gen. ix. 29. 
 We search again, and find some trace of the division of time 
 by weeks. There is no reason in nature for such a division, 
 which never could have been if the primitive way of depending 
 on the lights set in the heavens for signs and for seasons, for 
 days and for years, were alone followed. Sight, not science, 
 was trusted for temporal computation. Day, month, and 
 year were natural divisions, and the counting of weeks was 
 independent, not meant for the measurement of time, but ap- 
 pointed for a strictly moral reason. For a moral reason only 
 would men count weeks ; and if we find that Noah so counted, we 
 ascertain that, notwithstanding the prevalent wickedness, and 
 without any natural reason for marking the seventh day, 
 which there is no evidence to show that heathens in general 
 have done, Noah kept it holy. Now let us examine. 
 
 Gen. vii. 4. " Yet seven days^'^ said the Lord to Noah, 
 " and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and 
 " forty nights." 
 
 vii. 10. " And it came to pass, after seven days," or rather 
 on the seventh daij^ o^n^n roi't'b, " that the waters of the flood 
 " were upon the earth." 
 
 viii. 6, 7. "And it came to pass at the end" (but the 
 Hebrew says, after the end, y;rn) " of forty days, that Noah 
 " opened the window of the ark which he had made : and he 
 " sent forth a raven." Including the seventh day, on which the 
 rain began (vii. 10), the forty days ended on the day before 
 the sixth seventh day, and therefore tlie sixth seventh day was 
 after the end of forty days. " Also he sent forth a dove," at 
 the same time with the raven, but while the raven " went 
 
THE SABDATII liEFOKE THE FLOOD. 21 
 
 " forth to and fro," the dove returned at once to the ark, 
 because she " found no rest for the sole of her foot." 
 
 viii. 10, 11. " And he stayed yet other seven days; and again 
 "he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came 
 " in to him in the evening," with an olive leaf in her mouth. 
 
 viii. 12. "And he stayed yet other seven days ; and sent 
 " forth the dove ; which returned not again unto him any 
 more." 
 
 This exhibits six successive notations of weeks, the second 
 and third of them clearly marking an interval of six weeks. 
 Noah had built the ark under a Divine command, and at 
 length, when the time came for it to be made use of, the 
 warning was given that in seven days thence the deluge would 
 begin. A full week was allowed for preparation, and for the 
 great embarkation of the Patriarch and his family, with the 
 animals to be preserved. Six weeks passed. Seven Sabbaths 
 were counted since the windows of the ark were closed upon 
 him, and then, according to the promise, the rain had ceased. 
 Three times he sought to ascertain the state of the lands 
 around ; fii-st^ on the sixth Sabbath day after the Deluge 
 began, the mountain-tops appeared, the loftiest heights of 
 Ararat rising above the flood. The second time he sent forth 
 the dove again on the Sabbath-day, still seeking for a token 
 of'dehverance. The third time, again on a Sabbath-day, he 
 did the like. This time the dove brought back the olive-leaf, 
 signal of restoration. Then the Patriarch was satisfied, and 
 made no more anxious inquiries, but waited submissively until 
 the Lord bade them all come out upon dry land again. 
 
 What shall we call those steadily-recurring seven days, if 
 they were not Sabbath-days ? So is the history of the father 
 of the second world marked by signal evidences of faith. He 
 had persevered through a hundred and twenty years in build- 
 ing an ark of precious wood for the saving of his house. He 
 
22 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 had held communion with God, who taught him how to build. 
 He had continued in patient obedience, and, no doubt, humble 
 prayer. This perfect man, with scrupulous punctuality, 
 honoured the sacred day, and thus made even the ordinary 
 action of looking out over that destroying ocean, for a 
 mountain peak or for an island hill, a sacred act. Such an 
 act must have been shared with his wife, their sons, and their 
 sons' wives, eight persons looking heavenward for help, and 
 perhaps raising a hymn of adoration, or offering an earnest 
 prayer. Here, then, is evidence of Sabbaths kept during the 
 Deluge, or at least, of Sabbath-days counted. This implies 
 the like in the time of Noah before the Deluge, and the evi- 
 dence is too distinct to be surrendered. 
 
 But we have yet to take another note. 
 
 It was on the first day of the first month of the six hundred 
 and first year of N'oah's life — just his birthday after com- 
 pleting the sixth century — that he removed the covering of 
 the ark, looked out, and from the mountain-side saw that the 
 earth was dry and the mists were clearing away to the vast 
 horizon. But the land was bare as yet. On the twenty- 
 seventh day of the second month, the lower lands being dried 
 and blooming, God called him forth. Allowing twenty-nine 
 days for the lunar month, here are fifty-six days counted — just 
 eight weeks again! This makes us almost sure that the 
 welcome sacrifice and the covenant of ever-during mercy, 
 whereof the rainbow was the beauteous token, were the 
 solemnities of the first Sabbath of the second world. So did 
 that rejoicing family rest, after long trial, from the tossing of 
 the solitary, shoreless ocean, where there was not one friendly 
 ship that they could hail, nor so much as a haven of destina- 
 tion before them, or a port of refuge. 
 
FROM THE DELUGE TO THE EXODE. 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 rrcOM THE DELUGE TO THE EXODE. 
 
 During an interval of nearly one thousand 3^ears, between the 
 entrance of Noah into the ark and the encampment of Moses 
 and his Israelites in the Arabian wilderness, there is no men- 
 tion of the Sabbath. So long silence cannot be noted without 
 awakening surprise. 
 
 When the Creator finished his glorious work, and placed 
 man in an abode of happiness, innocent and rejoicing, a day of 
 holy rest, a day sanctified with God's manifested presence and 
 communion, such blessedness was in perfect agreement with 
 every antecedent, and with the high object of man's existence. 
 But it was far different after the infliction of God's wrath on 
 a wicked world, w^hen eight persons were cast upon the wreck, 
 with no vision of God, most of them with little knowledge, 
 the aged head of the family betrayed into intemperance, the 
 three sons very soon divided, each leading his family apart 
 from the others, the scanty population eventually dispersed 
 wide over the neglected lands, with one language indeed, but 
 without laws, except the mere law of nature, and a conscience 
 deadened by indifference and selfishness. Sparse and barbaric 
 settlements, with no priesthood nor any written code civil or 
 sacred, but a dim and dying tradition of truths but imper- 
 fectly remembered at the first, could not be expected to act 
 with the well concerted regularity necessary for keeping holy 
 in their petty communities one Sabbath-day common to all the 
 race. 
 
 But even if they were not so thinly scattered, nor so rude, 
 nor so forgetful as I have now supposed, they were about two 
 
21: THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 hundred years without a history, and under a veil of impene- 
 trable obscurity, which hid them from the knowledge of their 
 posterity, and makes it impossible for us to conjecture with 
 any shadow of probability what they did, or what they did not 
 do. But we will venture to set them down as irreligious, or 
 as knowing so little of the fundamental truths of revelation as 
 not to show much evidence of such knowledge when they first 
 appear upon the field of history. 
 
 Here we find them, endeavouring to build Babylon, the 
 city where they hope to dwell together, or at least establish a 
 strong metropolis, and raising the tower up which to climb in 
 the event of a second deluge. They were unmindful of the 
 promise that there should not be a second deluge. They 
 were heedless of the sign in the cloud. What wonder, then, 
 if they were equally forgetful and heedless as to the Sabbath 
 appointed to be kept in memory of the Creation. But their 
 heedlessness did not cancel the command nor obliterate the 
 promise. He who has kept the one does not fail to enforce the 
 other. The confusion of tongues and the dispersion of the 
 Babel builders delayed the establishment of human society, 
 which then had to begin again under new conditions, retarded 
 for long time by the isolation of the several famihes of man- 
 kind, differing in language perhaps more than in descent. 
 
 Still, in the good providence of God, there does appear to 
 be some shadow, at least, of an observance ancient as time 
 itself. Perhaps before the call of Abraham, Job offered a 
 seventh sacrifice, but whether it was offered in consideration 
 of the seventh son, or on the seventh day, is a question. That 
 each son had his feast punctually on the next day after one 
 of his brothers, is not certain, and perhaps it was not possible. 
 We cannot, therefore, surely read that Job's feasts were held 
 every day without intermission, or, even if they were, that the 
 arrangement ^was made with adaptation to the Sabbath. 
 
FROM THE DELUGK TO THE EXODE. 25 
 
 The arrangement was liable to disturbance by a thousand 
 accidents, and if once put out of order, the Sabbath-count 
 was lost. (Job i. 1 — 5.) Nothing can be made of this. 
 
 After the call of Abraham, there is at least the appearancel 
 of a Sabbath. Jacob kept his wedding-feast for seven days. \ 
 (Gen. xxix. 27.) Joseph and his brethren made a solemn** 
 mourning for their father Jacob seyen days. (Gen. 1. 10.)| 
 Samson in Philistia feasted at his wedding seven days. 
 (Judges xiv. 12.) Religious observance became all those oc- 
 casions, and we at least find a trace of Sabbatic memory. 
 
 During the wanderings of the Patriarchs it would be 
 too much to expect a revival of the primitive Sabbath 
 without an express Divine command. Such command there 
 was not. But the chosen people were as yet but nomads ; and 
 as the Sabbath had not been made for a single family or tribe, 
 but for all mankind, a solemn reappointment of it would not 
 probably be made in an encampment of Abraham's trained 
 servants, or among the wandering herdsmen of Jacob or of 
 Esau, much less among the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. Such 
 a reappointment was indeed made with the highest solemnity, 
 not in Goshen, but east of the Red Sea, as soon as the liber- 
 ated slaves found themselves with Moses and Aaron at their 
 head, and the Lord God of Hosts in the midst of them. 
 
 I doubt if a slave population ever has duly kept a Sabbath. 
 Even the comparatively mild form of slavery which I knew 
 in an English colony a few years before our national emanci- 
 pation, under the mehorating influence of Christianity and 
 the watchful eye of British philanthropy, did not allow the 
 negro to take Sabbath-rest beyond a very imperfect respite 
 once a fortnight. He was always at his master's mercy. 
 Much less would the Egyptian taskmasters exempt their 
 slaves from labour in order that they might fulfil a reli- 
 gious duty. It was on this very account that Moses and his 
 
 c 
 
26 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 brother were sent to demand liberty for them to go into the 
 wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord their God. Even Moses, 
 with all his zeal for his people — for they could not yet be 
 called a nation — did not know the name of the God of their 
 fathers; yet that primeval name had been pronounced by Eve, 
 was revealed again to Abraham, and perpetuated until Jacob, 
 who used it on his death-bed, at least in prayer. 
 
 If, then, the Sabbath is almost half forgotten among our- 
 selves, and altogether desecrated in some professedly Pro- 
 testant countries, we could hardly expect to hear that the 
 Egyptians would suffer their poor slaves to honour it, even 
 if it were not then unknown, which is most probable. 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 27 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 
 
 "When it pleased the Lord to send his servants into Egypt 
 to bring their brethren out of bondage, He did not instruct 
 them to require the performance of any act of worship. 
 Moses and Aaron offered no sacrifice. Until the night of the 
 Passover there is no religious solemnity mentioned except 
 the prayers of Moses for Pharaoh, and invocations attending 
 the wonders which God wrought in vengeance upon the 
 oppressor of his people. Not a child was circumcised. The 
 first thing done was to demand their liberty ; the second was 
 to enforce the demand. They were then brought out with a 
 mighty hand and outstretched arm, marching from Goshen 
 to the Red Sea, and across the sea-bed to the Arabian 
 shore. After singing a song of triumph*, they proceeded 
 
 * In that song of triumph there were intimations of an established 
 state of things not yet existing — a state absolutely necessary for the 
 fiiU observance of an essentially social law, as is that of the Sabbath, 
 which must be sustained by a constitution of society with which it can 
 be in practical agreement. In prophetic anticipation of such a condi- 
 tion of society, Moses sang — " The Lord ... is my God, and I will 
 *' prepare him an Italitation ; my father's God, and I wiU exalt him. 
 "... Thou hast guided (thy people) in thy strength unto thy holy 
 " habitation. . . Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the 
 " mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, Lord, which Thou hast 
 " made/o?' thee to dioell in, in the Sanctuary, Lord, which thy hands 
 " have established." (Exod. xv. 2. 13. 17.) In that place they could 
 secure for themselves Sabbatic rest and quiet, which was not possible 
 in Egypt, nor would be possible in any land of their captivity without 
 the favour of strangers. But it would be made possible wherever the 
 people of the country acknowledged the Lord to be their God. 
 
 c 2 
 
28 THE HOLT SABBATH. 
 
 inland, and tlien began a new dispensation of God's gracious 
 government. 
 
 " All the congregation of the children of Israel came unto 
 " the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on 
 " the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing 
 " out of the land of Egypt." (Exod. xvi. 1.) There they 
 began to suffer want of food, and in horror of impending 
 famine murmured against Moses and Aaron. " Then said the 
 " Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven 
 " for you ; and the people shall go out and gather a certain 
 " rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will 
 " walk in my law, or no." For they had not yet been 
 brought under God's law, and the proof of their willingness 
 to walk in it would be that " on the sixth day " they should 
 prepare that which they brought in, and it should be twice 
 as much as they gathered daily (v. 4, 5). During five days 
 of disquiet they ate quails in the evenings, and manna in the 
 mornings, " and on the sixth day they gathered twice as 
 "much" of this heaven-sent bread in the morning. "And 
 " all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 
 " And he said unto them. This is that which the Lord hath 
 " said, to-morrow is the rest 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. And they laid it up till 
 " the morning, as Moses bade : and it did not stink, neither 
 " was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to- 
 " day ; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord : to-day ye 
 " shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it ; 
 " but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there 
 "shall be none" (v. 22. to 26.) Some of the people not- 
 withstanding went out to gather on the Sabbath-day, and 
 were rebuked for disobedience. " So the people rested." 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 29 
 
 From the clay when Moses was commanded so to instruct 
 the people, until the day when he came down from the moun- 
 tain with the tables of the Decalogue, was certainly more 
 than two months, probably not less than three. At its first 
 announcement the Sabbath was not described as of new ap- 
 pointment, but simply named as the Sabbath of the Lord. 
 The allusion is emphatic. The earliest record is preserved 
 by the hand of Moses himself. There cannot be any mis- 
 apprehension. The words of the commandment inscribed 
 on the stone expressly declare the same, and those words 
 we now proceed to examine, endeavouring to ascertain how 
 much they require, and whether they contain or imply any 
 limitation to the Hebrews only. 
 
 The words of the fourth commandment (Exod. xx. 8 — 11) 
 are so familiar in every household, that it cannot be necessary 
 to repeat them here at length. 
 
 They were not commanded to remember the seventh day, 
 for then it w^ould have been needful to specify a day at which 
 the counting should begin — whether from the covenant with 
 Noah, or from the going into the Ark, or from the day when 
 God ceased from the creation, or the day when Moses led 
 them out from Goshen, or some other day that might be 
 chosen. But such calculations are sometimes impossible, 
 'difficult at best, often doubtful, and the more doubtful or dis- 
 putable, the more excusable is failure of conformity to the 
 observance. Remote calculations were avoided. It was said 
 on the eve of the first dny of rest, " To-morrow is the Sab- 
 " bath of the Lord," and after each seventh day had been 
 regularly set apart, the double supply of manna being 
 gathered on the day preceding, and the weekly rest well esta- 
 blished it was written on the table of stone, Bemember the day 
 of the Sabbath, r^r^ Drns! ; that is to say, the day on which 
 the Sabbath is kept. The rest is distinct from the day. The 
 
30 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 day is to be kept holy for the sake of the rest thereon ap- 
 pointed, but the rest is not to be taken for the sake of the 
 day. The first Sabbath-day in the wilderness was in no sense 
 the seventh from the Sabbath-day before it. Ages, not days, 
 had passed away without a Sabbath. That Sabbath-day had 
 relation only to the week of manna, just as the first of all 
 Sabbath-days had relation only to the week of creation, of 
 which it was the day of sanctification and blessing. Rest 
 thus hallowed is truly Sabbatic, which mere cessation from 
 labour would not be. A day of resting for the sake of recrea- 
 tion only, could not, with any shadow of propriety, be called 
 « the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." 
 
 The Hebrews in the wilderness were to remember the day 
 not only on its return, but all the week through. They were 
 to remember it, first, in the diligent discharge of each day's 
 duty, that they might be able to rest without distraction of 
 care, or condemnation because of negligence, which implies 
 dishonesty and sin, when the seventh day came. They were 
 to remember the Sabbath, secondly, by habitual provision 
 during the six days for its due observance on the seventh. 
 The prospect of a rational, man-like, and holy rest would 
 encourage them to daily industry. Sabbath was thus made 
 subservient to the ordinary discipline of life. 
 
 They were to sanctify the day when it came. This could 
 not be done by mere suspension of labour, for that would be 
 nothing more than idleness, which is the surest inlet to vice ; 
 but as the Lord himself had sanctified it so should they. A 
 practical sanctification was to be conducted with reference to 
 God, and this pre-supposes some kind of religious observance. 
 Experience has taught us that this, more than anything else, 
 makes the Sabbath a delight; whereas a constrained cessation, 
 a sudden check interrupting every movement of common life, 
 he dropping anchor for twenty-four hours when just in sight 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 31 
 
 of harbour, and forbidding even a wish to step on shore after 
 having watchfully caught even the Hghtest breeze, and spared 
 no effort to accomphsh the six days' toil, would have been to 
 tantaUze rather than reward. 
 
 God's blessing on the parents of mankind in Paradise on 
 the first day of their life must have impressed the conscience 
 of the first human family ; and the command now so solemnly 
 dehvered to a ransomed nation by the very voice of God their 
 Saviour, must have been unspeakably more significant to all 
 who heard it, than a bald injunction to be silent and still until 
 the next sun rose. Rather were they to look on Heaven, 
 Earth, and Sea, with all that in them is — to observe the 
 grandeur of the desert, the solemnity of the sky-encircled 
 ocean, the glory of Lebanon and the beauty of Carmel, all 
 the abundance of their harvests, everything that could be seen 
 or thought on as dear to man and acceptable to God, a 
 universe of beauty and goodness all combining to give impulse 
 to honest industry ; and God's favour above the whole crown- 
 ing their earthly joys with heavenly delight. 
 
 Even on the day of rest there was much to be done, if 
 men would avoid doing then what God forbids. The words 
 of the commandment are clear enough, if correctly read: 
 " Thoio sltalt not do any of thy husiness." Tinii^b-p-bs n';:^n-«^. 
 Eor HDi-^bp is very different from nibis it is one's own busi- 
 ness, not labour in the service of another, whether servitude 
 to man or worship to God. The word used in the command- 
 ment denotes the business which one can order for himself — 
 daily occupation — the vocation which is pursued under a 
 sense of responsibility, yet with a consciousness of freedom. 
 It may be the business of the lawyer, the merchant, the trades- 
 man, the artificer. It may be the service of the free labourer 
 or freely hired servant. There is a daily business which may 
 be distinguished from what is emergent or necessary without 
 
32 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 regard of days, all that may be done in six days and sus- 
 pended on the seventh. Necessity, if it be not artificial, and 
 charity are liabilities of life that, unlike the fabled Sabbatic- 
 river, flow every day and every night without respect of 
 seasons. They are no man's business, but they are every 
 man's doom or duty. Men and angels are alike bound to- 
 this perpetual ministration of succour to the afflicted, healing 
 to the sick, rescue to the imperilled. These holy services are 
 not rendered so much to man as to God, services from which 
 God has not excused us, but which are ever falling into 
 arrear, and, therefore. He allots a day every week in which 
 we may pay up the arrears in blessings to those around us, 
 and not less to ourselves, if rightly done. They differ much 
 from the common transactions of mankind among themselves, 
 done for themselves, and done in their own way, but limited 
 within six days of the seven, and finished then. 
 
 When speaking of the Christian Sabbath I shall have more 
 to say, but this is here said in order to explain, as clearly as I 
 can, the language of the commandment. While the Hebrews 
 were in Egypt they had no freemen's business-, nixbn; it was all 
 nTus", involuntary, servile drudgery. The slaves are now eman- 
 cipated. They have come over into the wilderness that they may 
 worship the God of their fathers. Now they have to transact 
 the business of men. They are free from Pharaoh, and are 
 set free that they may be as much in happy subjection to 
 God's law as Adam in Eden or Noah in the Ark. To have 
 renewed the Sabbath to them in Egypt would have been to 
 draw down Pharaoh's vengeance on themselves for letting 
 the slaves from their labours. Therefore, the slaves were 
 brought out of Egypt, and, as no master now stands between 
 them and God, they are summoned to perform the duties and 
 enjoy the rights of men. 
 
 Now they will be masters, having servants of their own. 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 33 
 
 They Tvill be a natiou, lords over their own territory, having 
 strangers within their gates ; but even so they must not be 
 tyrants, nor exact from those servants what belongs to the 
 Lord of all. The man-servant and the maid-servant are to 
 rest as well as the master and mistress ; the Gentile as well 
 as the Israelite. The conditions of servitude should here be 
 noted. A Hebrew might sell himself to a Hebrew purchaser 
 for six years, and when the seventh year came, he might either 
 go free or, by voluntary submission, remain servant for life. 
 In that case his ear was bored, and, of his own free will, he 
 chose a life-long servitude with maintenance at his master's 
 cost, and no care for himself. Prisoners of war, too, were 
 slaves, and might be kept in slavery for life, always protected 
 under humane laws which signally elevated the civil law of 
 the Mosaic dispensation above the codes of all contem- 
 poraneous nations. There were, indeed, certain condemned 
 tribes whom the Israehtes were required to extirpate, but even 
 the extirpation of those savages was the most humane mea- 
 sure that could be taken in order to assure the safety of tlie 
 inhabitants in general. The Hebrews might buy heathens 
 for slaves, but the slaves were immediately taken under the 
 protection of special statutes, and exempted from labour on 
 the Sabbath-day. The heathen stranger in a Hebrew town 
 enjoyed his liberty, so long as he obeyed the laws. 
 
 The inclusion, then, of strangers and servants, under one 
 common obligation for the sake of a common benefit, proves 
 that heathens were not overlooked by the Divine Legislator ; 
 but in course of time the doctrine that Sabbath was given 
 for the children of Jacob only, and that the Gentiles were 
 utterly excluded from its benefits, took possession of the 
 Israelitish mind. 
 
 The tender mercy which is over all the works of God, and 
 takes within its view the meanest creatures, provided that 
 
34 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 cattle also should rest. The beast of burden, brought under 
 the yoke for man, is to be compensated by having a share 
 with his master in the Sabbath-rest. 
 
 With regard to the word stranger, -i:j, we must note that 
 it cannot be fairly interpreted to mean a proselyte, much less 
 a proselyte incorporated with the congregation by circum- 
 cision. The Septuagint does indeed apply this meaning to 
 the word, or rather adds it to the proper translation of the 
 word, by the expedient of a paraphrase. That version has 
 it — "thy ox, and thy ass, and all thy cattle, and the 
 "proselyte that is a stranger with thee." But ox, ass, 
 and proselyte, are all interpolated. The Talmudists, it 
 is true, use the word i; for proselyte, but I believe it 
 is not so used anywhere in the Old Testament, and 
 neither the Samaritan Hebrew Text nor the Targum of 
 Onkelos lends the least support to such a provision, nor 
 affords any countenance to those who would wish to make it 
 appear that the Sabbath is a Mosaic, or as they yet more 
 foohshly say, a Jewish institution. 
 
 The commandment closes with an explicit recital of the 
 original appointment. "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." 
 
 It is not enough to say that the Sabbath law was revived 
 in the wilderness, and that the original precept was embodied 
 in the law delivered to Moses in Mount Sinai. Moses was 
 careful to describe the course of events with great distinctness 
 in that part of his history ; and in order to estimate aright the 
 relation of each law to the entire code, and to ascertain the 
 reason of each, the Mosaic narrative must be carefully exa- 
 mined. 
 
 We have already observed that the obligation to cease 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 35 
 
 from labour on the seventh day was inculcated by Divine 
 command when the manna was given, some months before the 
 Israehtes encamped before Mount Sinai, and waited there to 
 receive, for the first time, a code of laws for then- government. 
 
 After the cloud, which indicated the presence of the Lord, 
 had rested on the mountain for some days, and Moses was 
 instructed that the people were not to come up the mountain, 
 nor even approach beyond the bounds that were to be set, He 
 called Moses into his presence, and spake to him the Ten 
 Words, that is to say, the Ten Commandments. The people 
 " saw the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the 
 " trumpet, and the mountain smoking, and when the people 
 *' saw it they removed and stood afar off." Moses then drew 
 near unto the thick darkness where God was, and received 
 some instruction concerning the first principles of Divine 
 worship, and those relative duties which are bounden on all 
 human society. Tlie language in which those instructions 
 were deUvered was indeed suitable to their condition at the 
 time, yet the terms were general, and the duties enjoined 
 proper for men of any nation or country in the world — bating 
 only as much as related to sacrifice, which had indeed been 
 offered almost from the beginning of time, and some provisions 
 against superstitious and idolatrous customs to be from that 
 time abandoned. The Lord also promised to send an angel 
 with Moses to keep hmi and the people by the way, to brmg 
 them to the promised land, and prosper them there. The last 
 promise, however, was limited most expressly by the condition 
 that they should render him faithful service, with undivided 
 worship and unreserved obedience. 
 
 Moses then came down from the mountain, told the people 
 all the words of the Lord, received their promise that they 
 would do all things which the Lord had said, wrote in a book 
 all that had been delivered to him, and by him repeated to the 
 
36 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 people, erected an altar without delay, and therewith twelve 
 pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel, offered burnt 
 offerings, sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord, 
 " and took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience 
 " of the people; and they said. All that the Lord hath said 
 " will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood 
 " and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood 
 " of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you con- 
 " cerning these words." 
 
 This describes, in few words, long and most careful pre- 
 paration ; not one continuous proceeding, but many successive 
 acts, well devised and deliberately executed, in pursuance of 
 explicit instructions from the Lord. The people were fully 
 informed, and that work of preliminary instruction could not 
 have been dispatched in haste. The whole was closed with 
 high solemnity. All the people gave assent, not tacit but 
 express. They professed themselves resolved to abandon 
 idolatry, and no doubt accompanied that profession with 
 marks of earnestness which satisfied their captain that they 
 were sincere. 
 
 Being thus assured, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, 
 with seventy of the elders of Israel, in obedience to a sum- 
 mons from the Lord, went up into the mountain, and " saw 
 " the God of Israel," which gave those elders full certainty 
 that he had indeed received by Divine revelation the com- 
 mands which he delivered to the people. 
 
 Yet again the Lord called Moses up into the mountain, 
 who went, attended by Joshua his servant, leaving the elders 
 in the camp, with Aaron and Hur at their head, to act for 
 him in his absence. 
 
 " A cloud covered the mount. The glory of the Lord 
 " abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days : 
 " and the seventh day He called unto Moses out of the midst 
 
THE SABBATn LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 37 
 
 " of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was 
 " like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of 
 " the children of Israel." (Exod. xxiv. 15 — 17.) Thus did 
 the Lord visibly mark the week — six days vrithin the cloud, 
 the seventh by calling his servant into his immediate presence. 
 Thus being summoned, Moses went alone within the cloud. 
 There he received " tables of stone, and a law, and command- 
 " ments, which the Lord had written." 
 
 It was then that he remained forty days and forty nights, 
 receiving full instruction in the ceremonial law, and the entire 
 system of government that should be from that time adminis- 
 tered. There he kept Sabbath with the Lord at the begin- 
 ning of those days. 
 
 At the end of those forty days he came down from the 
 mountain, carrying with him '-two tables of testimony, tables 
 " of stone, written with the finger of God." The reader will 
 remember how Moses perceived, as he approached the camp, 
 that the people, led by his brother Aaron, were worshipping 
 a golden calf, and how, in an agony of indignant horror, 
 he dashed the tablets to the ground, and broke them to 
 pieces. His anger, the repentance of the people, the plague 
 that followed, and Moses' intercession on their behalf, need 
 not be related here. 
 
 Again, Moses is on the mount in the presence of the Lord, 
 and is assured of pardon and reconciliation for the people. 
 As commanded, he has hewed two tables of stone in place 
 of those which are broken. Having received further com- 
 munications of the Divine will, again he " was there with the 
 " Lord forty days and forty nights, and did neither eat bread 
 *' nor drink water ; and he wrote upon the tables ^the words 
 " of the covenant, the ten commandments." There was much 
 else that Moses wrote, but this additional writing was totally 
 distinct. It was the record of what the Lord had spoken 
 
38 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 first of all, and, as it is said in the Book of Deuteronomy, he 
 added no more. These commandments, and these alone, were 
 the substance of the covenant into which the people had 
 entered with sacrifice long before the Mosaic Law or Levi- 
 tical Ritual was given. Furthermore, we observe that no 
 part of that covenant was made more prominent than the 
 fourth commandment ; for when Moses came down from 
 Mount Sinai, after being with the Lord a second time for 
 forty days and forty nights, he did not, as before, recite the 
 whole Decalogue, although he brought it with him on the 
 marble, but said, " These are the words which the Lord hath 
 " commanded, that ye should do them. Six days shall work 
 " be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an 
 " holy day, a Sabbath of rest unto the Lord : whosoever 
 " doth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle 
 " no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day." 
 (Exod. XXXV. 1 — 3.) Thus was the Sabbath made the sign 
 between God and his people — sign of the covenant. To 
 break the S-abbath was to break the covenant, and this ac- 
 counts for the severity of the law. 
 
 Thus briefly I endeavour to give a summary of the sacred 
 narrative, but recommend a careful perusal of the text itself, 
 from Exod. xx. 1 to xxxv. 3. That will show that although 
 the body of laws by which the Israelites were to be governed 
 under the Mosaic dispensation, as it is fitly called, was fully 
 delivered to Moses, and the fundamental code of moral law 
 known as the Decalogue was also given to Moses ; the two 
 were held totally distinct. Spoken by the Lord at first, with- 
 out the admission of any other precepts on the tables of stone, 
 it alone was made the substance of a solemn covenant before 
 the ceremonial law was given. After it, not before nor with 
 it, the priesthood was appointed, and the Levitical ceremonial 
 •of worship. This ritual, however, was no part of God's covenant. 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 39 
 
 One thing more is remarkable, as regards the Sabbatic 
 statute, and it is this, that on the renewal of the broken 
 covenant that only was recited to the people with the addi- 
 tion of the ultimate penalty for the offence of breaking it. 
 Like the tree of life in Paradise, the Sabbath is made the 
 signal of communion between God and man. Yet, most 
 strangely, some men would have us to beheve that Chris- 
 tianity cancels this one commandment of the ten as being 
 Jewish and obsolete. Moses, while yet the rays of heavenly 
 light were sparkling in his brow, is fancied to have had less 
 of spiritual discernment than distinguishes these latter-day 
 divines. 
 
 Yet there is a word more to be said concerning a point 
 on which I have touched above, but not exhausted. 
 
 Gentile strangers, not proselytes but heathens, when within 
 the gates of the Israelite, were permitted, and even bound, 
 to keep the Sabbath. They were fully exempted from their 
 ordinary occupations, and were not to work for the Hebrew, 
 who could not compel even his own heathen slave to do it 
 for him on that day, any more than his heathen visitor. But 
 it is equally clear that the same heathen, whether servant, 
 guest, or friend, could not be permitted to share with him a 
 Passover supper, nor to participate in the observance of the 
 Feast of Tabernacles, nor any other feast, nor in any sacri- 
 fice. What then does this exception mean, except it be that 
 the sacrifices, the feasts and the fasts are all for the Israelites 
 alone, but that the Sabbath is for all the world? And why 
 were the Mosaic priesthood and ritual kept out of sight in the 
 covenant so solemnly made with the Israelites before the Law, 
 except because the truths and relations set forth in the Deca- 
 logue are those which may be the link of communion between 
 God and man, irrespective of that law ? 
 
 Another fact demands attention here. A mixed multitude 
 
40 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 came out of Egypt with the Israelites, and other Gentiles 
 were continually minghng with them during the forty years' 
 pilgrimage. None of them, so long as he remained uucircum- 
 cised, was admitted into the congregation of the Lord ; yet 
 every one of them was obliged to keep the Sabbath. During 
 the days of wonder that we have now recounted, when the 
 visible glory rested on Mount Sinai, they were not recognized 
 in any of the great solemnities, yet they, their wives, and 
 their children, rested every Sabbath. Sabbath rest was as 
 free to them as daily manna, of which their portion on the 
 sixth day was double as much as any other. There was not 
 yet a person in existence answering to the modern description 
 of " Jew," much less a Jewish Sabbath. No rabbi yet 
 breathed to preach that the Gentile servant might work on 
 the Sabbath to minister to his Hebrew master's luxury. 
 The mixed multitude was not marched out of camp that the 
 Ten Commandments might be recited to the twelve tribes. 
 It would have been contrary to the will of God, to sound 
 reason, and to wise policy. Had the heathen been exempted 
 from obedience to any one of the Ten Commandments there 
 would have been sad work in camp. They were, as they 
 still are, a moral code of universal obligation — a covenant 
 bond for uniting man to God, for the acknowledgment of 
 God's universal authority ; and if even the heathen will but 
 acknowledge this, they are at once brought within the circle 
 of redeeming mercy by penitential faith in Christ. The Sab- 
 bath law and Sabbath blessing are alike for Jew and Gentile, 
 as much as arc the common sunshine and the common shower. 
 Yet again : the Sabbath was above the feasts. The feasts 
 were movable, the Sabbaths fixed. The feasts followed with 
 the changing moons, having relation to mundane seasons. 
 The Sabbath-day is known on its return without any question, 
 but not so the new moon if the sky is overcast, or the hour 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVIIICAL. 41 
 
 unfavourable for observation. An exact calculation of the 
 time necessary to complete the solar year by the addition of 
 another lunar month, and again to make the cycle good by a 
 further addition or delay to restore the order of time and 
 season, was always difficult, if not impossible, until science 
 overcame the difficulty. But nothing is more simple than 
 to count seven suns and so make the Sabbath sure. From 
 the foundation of the world God had appointed this to be 
 done, and, therefore, when Moses was instructed to promul- 
 gate a Law for his chosen people, the Sabbath-day was set 
 before all festivals, and its return made independent of them 
 all. It began before them ; it continued when their due 
 observance became impossible ; it remained when they were 
 set aside. 
 
 So remote from the common course of human experience 
 was the current of affairs during the Arabian pilgrimage that 
 it scarcely enters into our thoughts to attempt any concep- 
 tion of what a Sabbath-keeping might have been when the 
 tribes of Israel lay encamped in the wadys of the desert. 
 Ko fires were to be ht, no food cooked, no common work 
 done. The extent of this last prohibition has been con- 
 sidered above ; and with regard to the preparation of food 
 we may observe that in the climate of Stony Arabia fires 
 may be dispensed with at almost any time without much 
 inconvenience. During their pilgrimage the Israelites were 
 under special guidance and provision, and sheltered from 
 the inclemencies of weather which would have been insup- 
 portable without such protection. 
 
 The penalty of death was pronounced against any wilful 
 breach of this commandment ; first, for the reason already 
 assigned that to keep the Sabbath was a condition of the 
 covenant, of which the Sabbath was the sign; and also for 
 other obvious reasons. On one occasion the penalty was 
 
 D 
 
42 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 actually inflicted, but not on any other, so far as is recorded. 
 In spite of the solemn prohibition a man went out of camp 
 to gather sticks, and having singly and stubbornly committed 
 an outrage against the authority of the God of Israel, he 
 suffered death for the "presumptuous sin." Had that first 
 open and insolent transgressor been allowed impunity, the 
 law would soon have been set at nought by all the people, 
 and the consequences of lawlessness would have been fearful 
 indeed. Those hundreds of thousands of newly- emancipated 
 slaves could only be protected against themselves by the firm 
 administration of a stern and unflinching justice. There was 
 no armed force to keep them in check, no system of human 
 government that could be trusted ; nor can we gather from 
 the history that they had yet the power of discerning steadily 
 between right and wrong, or that any appeal to conscience 
 or to reason would have restrained them in a moment of dis- 
 content or passion. Nothing less than an unequivocal dis- 
 play of avenging power would subdue their stubbornness, and 
 even that did not suffice for long. 
 
 Soon as they saw the only alternative, death or submission, 
 they kept the Sabbath. How they kept it is not known, and 
 perhaps there is not any indication sufficient to sustain a con- 
 jecture. We only know that the din of work was hushed. 
 On entering into the Sabbath-hour at sunset the smoke of 
 the camp-fires passed off, and the glare slowly diminished; but 
 although fires might not now be kindled, there was nothing to 
 hinder the flame of night-fire or of night-lamp, lit before sun- 
 down, from being kept up if needed. The pillar of heavenly 
 fire, ever burning, no doubt shed its mild light over the watch- 
 ing or the slumbering thousands, no less in season than the 
 playful aurora hoi^ealis that in the long arctic nights provides 
 a secondary day. On the dawn of the desert Sabbath no 
 smoke mingled with the pure morning air, neither did the 
 
THE SABBATH LAW NOT LEVITICAL. 43 
 
 unclouded burning sun distress, for the ever-present canopy 
 of sacred cloud screened them from its fierceness. 
 
 Whether with patriarchal prayers, or with exultant hymns 
 like that triumphal song chanted on the sea-shore by Aaron 
 and Miriam and caught up by the ransomed myriads, or with 
 holy teaching and admonition by the elders in the midst of 
 their tribes, we cannot say. We presume to believe that in 
 some way suitable and sufficient the day was hallowed. The 
 heathen camp follower was not suffered to disturb the quiet. 
 Yet who can say that the wild Ishmaelite, or the fierce 
 Amalekite or Moabite, would not sometimes venture to ap- 
 proach — unless the fear and dread of Israel's God kept such 
 away — and would wonder as, from the cleft of some distant 
 rock, he gazed on the grandeur of so great a force in calm 
 repose. Men of war, often seen in battle, fierce as hons in 
 conflict, swift as eagles in pursuit, cutting down their enemies 
 like grass of the field, were, on this day of truce, silent and 
 immovable. As for themselves, the unbroken silence of the 
 desert certified that no hostile enemy was near, or they would 
 have perceived the vibration of even the far approaching 
 march amidst those awful sohtudes. Perhaps, ever and again, 
 a wild song of praise, chastened into sweetness, would float 
 along the valley, or be reverberated among the mountains, 
 and as the chorus from the lips of old and young swelled like 
 thunder, the cheerful, solemn Hallelujah, so grandly contrasted 
 with the defiant war-whoop of other days, would convey 
 to the listening stranger a sense of the goodness of the 
 Hebrews' God. 
 
 Enforced observance could never be sincere, and the review 
 of "the abominations of their fathers," which the prophet 
 Ezekiel set before the elders of Israel, proves that they 
 " polluted the Sabbaths of the Lord." (Ezek. xx.) But I 
 may be permitted to doubt whether '• Sabbaths," in that place, 
 
 D 2 
 
44 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 does not refer to all tlie sacred feasts, and not to the Sab- 
 baths only. Of course, Sabbath-worship was no less polluted 
 than the rest, but the manner of pollution referred to by 
 Ezekiel appears to be the mtroduction of idolatrous rites, 
 such as they had been familiar with in Egypt. 
 
 That pollution of the Sabbath by idolatry, or false worship, 
 differs from Sabbath-breaking by prohibited labour, appears 
 very distinctly, on careful perusal of the twentieth chapter of 
 the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, and other similar passages. 
 And how far the Sabbath may not be polluted by the sub- 
 stitution of false worship for true, of operatic entertainment 
 for genuine devotion, is a question worthy of most grave con- 
 sideration by popular preachers of all religious denominations, 
 mercenary proprietaries, and shaUow ceremonialists. This is 
 a topic for study, and perhaps it would be useful to try how 
 far Sabbath-pollution may not extend into what now passes 
 as decent, or at least allowedly attractive " services." Wor- 
 ship it cannot be truly called, but exhihition. 
 
 The appointment of a Sabbath of years, and a year of 
 release, or jubilee, on every seventh Sabbatic year, was en- 
 tirely Mosaic, and applied only to the Holy Land. It is not 
 implied in any sentence or allusion of Holy Scripture before 
 the giving of the Mosaic Law, nor has it any relation to the 
 world at large. I have therefore avoided all mention of it 
 here, and leave the reader to examine the twenty-fifth chapter 
 of Leviticus and judge for himself. 
 
TO THE BAUYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 45 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 FEOM THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN TO THE 
 BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 
 
 So long as the Hebrews were on their pilgrimage, dependent 
 for daily food or supplies direct from the hand of God, and 
 immediately in subjection to God for both reward and 
 punishment, an external observance of the weekly solemnity 
 could not be avoided. But as it is not consistent with a first 
 principle of Divine government to compel obedience, compul- 
 sion was only employed during the time when 't pleased God 
 to remove the Hebrew nation from utter subjugation to 
 Egyptian tyranny, and gradually prepare it for a state of 
 liberty. To this end the tribes were kept apart from all 
 ordinary communications with their fellow-men in that most 
 dreary wilderness, and placed under an extraordinary disci- 
 pline. There, in a condition of social infancy, they were 
 taught the fii'st elements of revealed religion, and made in 
 some degree familiar with the obligations of a moral law. 
 When due preparation had been made for celebrating 
 \; Divine worship under the direction of Aaron, first High 
 Priest, " the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the 
 " children of Israel, and say unto them; Concerning the feasts 
 " of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, 
 " even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done : but 
 " the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convoca- 
 " tion ; ye shall do no work therein : it is the Sabbath of the 
 " Lord in all your dwellings." (Lev. xxiii. 1 — 3.) After 
 K the Sabbath came the feasts, distinctively so called, holy con- 
 vocations, to be proclaimed in their seasons. 
 
46 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 This may be considered as the standing regulation, and, 
 being studied carefully, it becomes evident — 
 
 1. That the Sabbath differs from those feasts, in that it is 
 not limited to any season of the year, but must be kept in all 
 seasons. 
 
 2. That while a proclamation is necessary before even the 
 appointed feast is held, every one is bound to keep the Sab- 
 bath without waiting for a proclamation. 
 
 3. But it is not inferior to any feast. No less than the 
 most solemn festival, it is to be honoured with a holy convoca- 
 tion, 'CTp-j^npa, when the people were to be called together for a 
 holy purpose. 
 
 4. It was not to be a mere weekly holiday, but a Sabhath 
 of rest, ]^h\^-m^, a Sabbath of the Lord, consecrated to his 
 service and honour. 
 
 5. Distance from Jerusalem, or even from the Holy Land, 
 would not find any Israelite exempted from the Sabbath-law, 
 nor imply an exclusion from its benefits. It should be kept in 
 all their dwellings or places of abode, nyrmbS^, wherever their 
 abode might be, in their own land, or in dispersion. 
 
 6. As we often have occasion to observe, every festival was 
 distinctly Mosaic, having reference to the system of worship 
 established under Moses, but the Sabbath was from the be- 
 ginnmg of time. 
 
 Shortly before the death of Moses, Joshua was appointed 
 his successor ; and after this appointment, Moses, by Divine 
 command, gave a special direction that, in addition to the 
 daily burnt-offering of two lambs, there should be other two 
 lambs, and two tenth deals of flour, indicating a high Sabbatic 
 solemnity. (Num. xxviii. 9, 10.) On occasion of this proper 
 sacrifice for the Sabbath we may suppose that the holy con- 
 vocation would take place. 
 
 Moses, immediately before his death, made a solemn reca- 
 
TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 47 
 
 pitulation of all the laws previously delivered, iiicladiug the 
 Decalogue, when he told them that God had written those 
 words on two tables of stone, and then again the Fourth 
 Commandment had a note of distinction given it. There was 
 a special motive for including their servants with themselves 
 in the repose and comfort of the day — by servants being 
 meant Gentile servants, of course — wherefore these words 
 were added : ''And remember that thou wast a servant in the 
 " land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee 
 " out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out 
 " arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to 
 " keep the Sabbath-da}^" (Dent. v. 15.) Moses did not 
 say that, therefore, God had appointed the day which was 
 to be so kept, for that would have been to contradict what 
 was already stated ; but that therefore, it being already ap- 
 jpointed, and the reason of its appointment written in marble 
 by the finger of God, he commanded them to Iceep it, and 
 to give to their Gentile servants what Gentile masters had 
 denied to them — Sabbath rest. 
 
 More than four hundred years after shewbread was first 
 placed before the Sanctuary on the Sabbath-day, to be after- 
 wards eaten by the priests, we read of the designation of some 
 of the sons of the Kohathites to be " over the shewbread, to 
 " prepare it every Sabbath." This was in force in the time 
 of Saul, when the Israelites and Philistines were at war 
 (1 Chron. ix. 32) ; and we know that this Sabbath-duty con- 
 tinued to be performed during the reign of David. Numerous 
 parties of Levites, who lodged within the precinct of the 
 Temple when on duty there, entered on their duty after seven 
 days •' from time to time." (1 Chron. ix. 25.) " The King's 
 '• guard," which must have been very strong, was relieved on 
 the Sabbath ; and it was on that sacred day that Jehoiada the 
 priest, having engaged the help of the " rulers over hundreds, 
 
48 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " with the captams and the guard," had orders given to detain 
 them that went forth on the Sabbath to unite with them that 
 came in, and, being fully armed, to surround the young prince 
 Joash, and keep the gates to prevent interruption, while 
 they proclaimed him king, in view of restoring the worship of 
 the Lord, and putting away idolatrous practices. (2 Kings 
 xi. 4—16.) 
 
 It is said that a trumpet was sounded at sunset in Jerusalem 
 to let the inhabitants know that the Sabbath was begun ; and 
 it has been conjectured that the covert for the Sahhath which 
 Ahaz demolished in the Temple was built for the convenience 
 of those who assembled for that purpose, that they might be 
 sheltered from the weather. (2 Kings xvi. 18.) 
 
 Ushered in with solemnity, and guarded with most scrupu- 
 lous care, this was in every respect the queen of days. All 
 things were made ready for a holy convocation, and the sacred 
 services which were to sanctify the toils of the working days 
 began. The Priests, the Levites, and the Nethinims entered 
 on their weekly course. The shewbread was laid upon the 
 golden table, twelve loaves, a loaf for a tribe ; for although 
 several of the tribes worshipped apart at Bethel, none were 
 forgotten at Jerusalem. The lambs and oblation of the day 
 were duly offered. A great assembly crowded the courts. 
 Devout persons came to inquire of the Lord, as appears inci- 
 dentally in the narrative of the Shunammite woman. (2 Kings 
 iv. 23.) All traffic and negotiation was suspended, as well as 
 all manual labour — commerce as well as toil. So signally 
 hallowed was the day, that all the week received from it a 
 name, and men counted not so much by weeks, as the rabbis 
 do now, but by Sabbaths. " Count seven Sabbaths," said 
 Moses. 
 
 Yet all were not content, nor was the ideal of an unreserved 
 sanctification to God grateful to the worldly-minded. 
 
TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 49 
 
 "Whether or not, the poor were pleased to rest along with the 
 unyoked cattle, but the rich betrayed weariness under the 
 restraint and grudged the hours taken away from Mammon. 
 " When will the Sabbath be gone ?" they asked imperiously. 
 " When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn, and 
 " set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel 
 *' great, and falsifying the balances by deceit ? " (Amos viii. 
 5, 6.) The day once consecrated to the worship of God and 
 the refreshment of men was intended to be a delight, that 
 rich and poor together might rejoice in it and be glad ; but a 
 prophet, burdened with a message of reproof, was heard to 
 say of Jerusalem, speaking in the name of the Lord, " I will 
 " cause all her mirth to cease, her feast-days, her new moons, 
 " and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." (^Kosea ii. 11.) 
 
 We glean from the historical Scriptures information con- 
 cerning the external services of the Sabbath. The prophets 
 tell us what was the spirit of the law that thus fell into con- 
 tempt and desuetude. 
 
 Isaiah, who began his mission more than a century and a 
 half before Jerusalem fell by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 most explicitly declares what God requires of his people on 
 the Sabbath-day. His prophecies open with an impassionate 
 cry that God was weary of their new moons and Sabbaths, 
 which had become an abomination to him. (Is. i. 12, 13.) 
 At another time the same prophet acknowledges that there 
 were yet some who kept the Sabbath from polluting it — what 
 is meant by pollution I have already pointed out — and kept 
 their hands from doing evil. Such persons, he says, are 
 blessed. He testifies that the Lord has promised inestimable 
 blessings and perpetual memory to them who so do, and not 
 only to the circumcised descendants of Jacob, but to the sons 
 of the stranger who join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, 
 to love his name, to keep the Sabbath from polluting it, and 
 
50 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 to lay hold on his covenant. For there was a covenant, as 
 this demonstrates, by which the son of the stranger could join 
 himself to the Lord, as well as the covenant of Abraham. 
 The Lord said, by his servant Isaiah, that he would bring the 
 strangers to his holy mountain, and make them joyful in his 
 house of prayer, and that that house should be called a house 
 of prayer for all people. (Is. Ivi. 3 — 7.) To any and every 
 one that would turn away his foot from doing his own plea- 
 sure on God's holy day, who would call the Sabbath a delight, 
 the holy of the Lord, honourable, and would honour him, not 
 doing his own ways, nor finding his own pleasure, nor speak- 
 ing his own words ; to him the prophet was sent to promise 
 that he should delight himself in the Lord, who would cause 
 him to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed him with 
 the heritage of Jacob his father, for the mouth of the Lord 
 had spoken it. (Is. Iviii. 13, 14.) 
 
 Any careful reader of the Bible, but most certainly the 
 exact historical student who marks the course of events, their 
 chronological order, their natural sequence, and the place of 
 each — so far as it can be ascertained — in relation to the entire 
 story, cannot fail to observe that as the Hebrew state decays, 
 and civil polity and religious worship grow more and more 
 corrupt, there is a lesser stress laid on the Mosaic ceremonial; 
 sacrifice gives way to prayer, the pomp of ritual perishes, 
 sincere men are encouraged to seek Divine knowledge and to 
 cultivate brotherly communion outside the Temple. 
 
 They foresaw the great calamity as it was approaching 
 The Temple would soon be laid in ruins ; the sacrificial fire 
 quenched ; the Ark lost ; the glory departed ; Jerusalem a 
 heap ; princes, priests, prophets carried away into captivity. 
 Then there were promises which we must not overlook, if we 
 would fairly appreciate the holy institution which I am now 
 endeavouring to trace amidst the vicissitudes of history. It 
 
TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 51 
 
 was promised that when the Levitical system should be abo- 
 lished tlie Sabbath would remain. In the last chapter of the 
 Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where it is foretold that the 
 Gentiles shall be gathered, and that Israehtes shall go forth 
 into the world to proclaim the glory of the Lord, these 
 notable words are written : " As the new heavens and the 
 " new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith 
 *' the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And 
 " it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, 
 " and from one Sabbath to another, shall all Jlesh come to 
 *' luorship before me, saith the Lord^ (Is. Ixvi. 22, 23.) So 
 does the Gospel prophet sing of the seed and the name of 
 Jacob, without the ceremonial of Levi — the coming of all 
 flesh, without limitation of people or lineage, to worship 
 before the Lord, without Levitical ceremonies, from moon to 
 moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath. 
 
 When Ezekiel was himself a captive, and the " Xew Jeru- 
 " salem " — understood in the Christian Scriptures to be the 
 Church and the kingdom of Christ — when this New Jerusalem 
 was shown to him in vision as a city to be builded on earth 
 according to a plan drawn in heaven, he saw " the gate of 
 " the inner court " of that temple " that looketh toward the 
 " east," and was told that it should be " shut the six working 
 *' days ; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day 
 " of the new moon it shall be opened." (Ezek. xlvi. 1.) 
 
 I do not stay here to investigate the reason of the frequent 
 association of new moon with Sabbath, both in the historic 
 and prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament, but am con- 
 tent to note that neither the waxing and waning moon, nor 
 the ever-returning Sabbath, have any permanent connexion 
 with the Mosaic dispensation. 
 
 There is not any direct mention of Sabbath-keeping during 
 the seventy years' captivity in Babylon ; and, in the silence of 
 
52 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 Holy Scripture, it is not possible to say how the captive 
 Israelites were wont to spend the Sabbath-day. Daniel, we 
 know, offered prayer every day, as did David, and all devoted 
 persons, no doubt ; and his three Hebrew friends, refusing to 
 worship other gods, put it beyond doubt that they worshipped 
 their own God. But what difference they made on the 
 seventh day in their administration of the affairs of the king- 
 dom we cannot tell, nor conjecture how they obtained respite 
 from their labours. With all their honours they were cap- 
 tives, and little, if at all, different from slaves in favour. The 
 mass of their countrymen were permitted to reserve religious 
 worship for the God whom they professed to honour, but 
 how far they were excused from labour on the Sabbath-day 
 is a question hard to answer. 
 
 The hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm may, on first read- 
 ing, seem conclusive against the opinion that the Sabbath was 
 kept in the Babylonish captivity, for it says that they sat 
 down by the rivers of Babylon, hung their harps upon the 
 willows, refused to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, 
 and wept when they remembered Jerusalem. The impreca- 
 tions pronounced against Babylon in the same psalm show 
 that the captives had to complain of many cruelties, and of 
 much despite on account of their religion. Yet the circum- 
 stance of their sitting by the rivers and weeping suggests the 
 idea of collective and solemn prayer on the Sabbath-day, 
 such as it is notorious they made on that day in other coun- 
 tries of their dispersion in later times, and rather points to 
 the conclusion that the Sabbath-day was not neglected but 
 sacredly observed, at least by the more devout. It must also 
 be remembered that their case in Babylonia was exceptional, 
 and that solemn decrees had been repeatedly published by 
 Nebuchadnezzar during his long reign, in honour of the God 
 of Daniel, and of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. 
 
TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. 53 
 
 Their tenacious remembrance of Jerusalem, not only ex- 
 pressed by the writer of the psalm, but manifested by Daniel 
 and his companions, by Ezekiel, Nehemiah, and others, 
 strengthens the persuasion that they obeyed that law which 
 required the Israelites to keep the Sabbath in then* dweUing- 
 places, and that the Hebrews were so prone to forget what it 
 was their duty to remember, as to forbid the belief that if 
 these could have abandoned their Sabbath they would have 
 retained so strong, so sacred, and so endearing a remem- 
 brance of their holy city ; and that when those were dead 
 who had seen it in their youth, they would have cherished, 
 while Sabbathless, so lively a sense of their religious faith. 
 It is true that they had no solemn psalmody, without which 
 a nation can hardly be expected to have much religious life 
 or gladness. They had no ministering priesthood, no sacri- 
 fices, no festivals. Yet something they must have had to 
 sustain their national spirit, save them from the gods of 
 Babylon and Assyria, and preserve them in some degree of 
 outward unity. Probably, most probably, that something 
 was the weekly assemblages in synagogues or oratories by 
 the river-side and other remote situations, away from heathen 
 interruption. If this is not affirmed in the psalm, it cer- 
 tainly is hinted. 
 
 Again, we must bear in mind that the Sabbatic observ- 
 ances before the giving of the law were not, so far as we 
 know, accompanied with ritual observances and holy convo- 
 cations, and might be continued without them by prisoners 
 of war and by wandering strangers. Until late in the age 
 of Moses, there was no renewing of the shewbread, no 
 changing the bands of Levites nor reheving the guards. 
 But they had a great increase of knowledge, aided, no doubt, 
 by the wisdom of Daniel and the counsels of Ezekiel and 
 other holy and inspired men. We cannot beheve that they 
 were Sabbathless. 
 
54: THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AFTEE THE CAPTIVITY. 
 
 For the due observance of a Sabbath there mnst be an 
 adaptation of society. Such an adaptation there was after 
 the exode from Egypt, brought about by an isolation of the 
 Israelites from all other peoples, under a system of miraculous 
 provisions, administered with supreme and absolute authority. 
 But such means were never employed before nor since. 
 There was therefore no Sabbath in Egypt, and how far the 
 sanctification of the day was carried on in Babylonia, we are 
 not able to ascertain. 
 
 Not less than ninety years was spent in the reconstitution 
 of society, from the time when Zerubbabel led up the first 
 company to Jerusalem in the reign of Cyrus, to the day when 
 first Nehemiah solemnly re-established the worship of God in 
 the second Temple. By that time the necessary legal guards 
 were provided, and the public mind was prepared by diligent 
 religious teaching. 
 
 On that day " the children of Israel were assembled with 
 " fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them." The 
 Book of Nehemiah contains an account of their separation 
 from strangers, their confession of sins, the public reading and 
 interpretation of the Book of the Law, and worship offered to 
 the Lord their Cod. (Nehem. viii., ix.) Then followed 
 a solemn benediction and a commemorative prayer. The 
 commemoration began with the commencement of the Mosaic 
 history at the creation of heaven and earth, touched on the 
 call of Abraham, and proceeded with the great covenant, the 
 visitation of Israel in Egypt, allusion to the events related 
 
AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 00 
 
 fully in the Book of Exodus, and the giving of the Law on 
 Sinai. " Thou earnest down," said the preacher, " upon 
 " Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest 
 " them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and 
 " commandments: and maclest known unto them thy holy Sab- 
 " bath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, 
 '* by the hand of Moses thy servant." 
 
 Here there is a careful discrimination of language in the 
 verbs thou gavesf, |nni, and thou maclest known, nriin. Right 
 judgments and true laws not previously in existence were then 
 given, and the Lord's Sabbath, which men had neglected, was 
 made known after it had been hidden, so to speak, for centuries. 
 Kg less distinct in the history of their fathers was another rjift 
 and another discovery — the gift of corn and money in their 
 sacks, and the making known of Joseph to his brethren. 
 (Xehem. ix. 13, 14.) After the memorial-prayer, the as- 
 sembled multitude made a sure covenant and wrote it, and the 
 princes, Levites, and priests set seal to it. After covenanting 
 to separate themselves from heathens by breaking off every 
 unlawful alliance, they first of all engaged that if the people 
 of the land should bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath- 
 day to sell, they would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or 
 on the holy day. This being promised, they further engaged 
 to provide maintenance for the worship of God and for his 
 ministers, but to the Sabbath, above all, they gave pre-emi- 
 nence,, as had before been given. (Xehem. x. 31 — 39.) 
 
 There was not much difficulty made, at first, in carrying 
 on the Temple services, nor was there any complaint that the 
 great festivals were not kept, or that the strictly prescribed 
 oblations and sacrifices were not presented. The recovery of 
 some of the ancient grandeur was pleasant. To have a city, 
 a temple, and a name, was worth some trouble and even some 
 cost. To eclipse the pride of the Samaritans was no small 
 
56 THE HOLY SABBAXn. 
 
 consideration. But it was not agreeable to those new citizens 
 to give up certain petty gains on God's own day, and nothing 
 less than stern authority could bring them to it. The clear 
 account of Nehemiah has been so often quoted, that repeti- 
 tion here might seem superfluous, yet it must be repeated, 
 and that in the very words of the narrator. 
 
 " In those days I saw in Judah some treading wine-presses 
 " on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses ; 
 " as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, 
 " which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day : 
 " and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold 
 " victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein which 
 " brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sab- 
 " bath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then 
 " I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, 
 " What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath- 
 " day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God 
 '' bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye 
 " bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. 
 *• And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem 
 " began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that 
 " the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not 
 " be opened till after the Sabbath : and some of my servants 
 *' set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought 
 " in on the Sabbath-day. So the merchants and sellers of 
 " all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 
 " Then I testified against them, and said unto them. Why 
 " lodge ye about the wall ? If ye do so again, I will lay 
 " hands on you. From that time forth came they no more 
 " on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they 
 " should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and 
 " keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath-day." (Nehem. 
 xiii. 15—22.) 
 
AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 57 
 
 The reflection of a moment must convince any thoughtful 
 person that if the Sabbath had not been kept in Jerusalem 
 little good would have been done. Neither priests nor 
 Levites would have been at their posts. The altars would 
 have been forsaken, the courts of God's house deserted, and 
 confused crowds of Jews and Gentiles would have filled 
 Jerusalem with the uproar of traffic the most unhallowed on 
 the sacred day. But when trade was entirely suspended, 
 and the Tyrian fisherman and merchant, no less than the 
 Judean husbandman and city chapman, were compelled to 
 cease from business — when servant, and slave, and foreigner 
 were all to lay aside their burdens and cease their noise — then 
 the songs of Zion could swell full-voiced with solemn sound, 
 and, in the repose of the earthly city during those consecrated 
 hours, the inhabitants would conceive a longing for the 
 heavenly rest. 
 
 But the godless could not enjoy that which had no charm 
 for the mind not educated to its enjoyment. Heathen visitors, 
 whose very religion consisted in obscene rites and baccha- 
 nalian revelry, would pass the day wearily. Others would be 
 deeply impressed with admiration, contrasting the day of rest 
 and piety in the chief city of Judah, and thenceforth in all the 
 cities of the land, with the days of sacrificial slaughter and 
 profligacy in their own cities, when the Phcenicians, for 
 example, were abandoned to the debauchery of Ashtaroth, or 
 the Canaanites were pouring out the blood of innocents at 
 the altars of Moloch, their insatiate king. If the successors 
 of Nehemiah and his servants had been equally faithful with 
 , himself and them, the Sabbath of restored Jerusalem would 
 
 (have distinguished that land from all the world beside, and 
 would have extorted from the greatest of nations admiration 
 of those very Jews whom they scowled upon as contemptible 
 barbarians. 
 
58 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 The happy state of things established under the government 
 of Nehemiah did not continue long, but for so long as it did 
 last the effects were very salutary. Nevertheless, his nation 
 could not yet be restored. Prophecy was departing. Sacri- 
 fice itself became poor and intermittent. It was reserved for 
 Christianity to do for the world what the Law of Moses was 
 not intended to effect, and what Judaism never could pretend 
 to do. The world was now in one of its crises of transition, and 
 the Jews, brought into intercourse with Persians and then 
 with Greeks, began to interchange ideas. The writings of the 
 great Prophets anterior to the captivity, and those of Ezekiel 
 and Daniel, with two or three of later date, being now read 
 and studied with increasing reverence, cast new light upon the 
 Jewish mind — for this remnant of Israehtes now takes the 
 name of Judah — and this is the " old time " of which the 
 Apostle speaks when he says that Moses and the Prophets 
 were read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day, and the 
 reading brought clearer hght and prepared both Jews and 
 Gentiles for profounder studies. 
 
 Never was the value of the Sabbath made more manifest, 
 for now those persons who feared God met together on that 
 day to make mention of his name, and this they did ha- 
 bitually, as we learn from the Prophet Malachi. Perhaps it 
 was then, when the Sabbath became so solemnly acknow- 
 . ledged, and so manifestly the chief part of the Jews' religion, 
 that Gentiles could only think of it as a Jewish institution ; 
 and so uninstructed persons to this day regard it. But 
 certainly it was far more effectual for the preservation of 
 revealed truth than all the magnificent ceremonial of Solomon 
 and Herod, more even than the departing ritual of Moses. 
 
 Next come the times of Antiochus Epiphanes and the 
 
 \/' Maccabees. Antiochus, having thought himself insulted by 
 
 the people of Jerusalem, who were in too great haste to 
 
AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 59 
 
 betray some satisfaction on hearing news of his death, which 
 happened to be false, vainly determined to crush the Jews 
 and their religion. His persecution was one of the fiercest 
 on record, and may be classed with the Alpine dragonnades 
 and the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, while some of 
 its incidents remind us of the war of the Dake of Alva in the 
 Netherlands. His first great outrage was committed in 
 Jerusalem, where he pillaged the Temple and carried away or 
 destroyed its most precious objects. Having taken most of 
 the gold he waited two years, and then sent one Apollonius, a 
 collector of taxes, to extort as much more as possible. This 
 man found the inhabitants of Jerusalem very much better, 
 as we may believe, for what they had suffered. The syna- 
 gogues were well frequented, as was the Temple, and Apol- 
 lonius spared no pains to intimidate or bribe the people to 
 apostasy. Many gave way, offered sacrifice to idols, and 
 broke the Sabbath. Idolatry and Sabbath-breaking were 
 the two signs of submission given by hundreds of Jews who 
 so purchased favour or avoided death. (1 Mace. i. 45 — 54.) 
 It was during this war that about a thousand Jews, with 
 their wives, children, and cattle, having fled to the mountains, 
 hoping to rally their forces there, and make a stand against 
 the enemy, were on one Sabbath-day attacked in caverns 
 and slaughtered without resistance. They preferred to die 
 rather than break God's law, as they thought they should 
 do if they fought on that day. Thus they fell, and are 
 worthily counted with the martyrs ; but the event led their 
 surviving brethren to consider whether the law really forbade 
 resistance when attacked, and so delivered them helpless to 
 their murderers. Their decision was that such is not the 
 meaning of the commandment. They agreed that war, if it 
 be defensive only, is not work or business in the proper 
 meaning of the word, but a necessary self-defence, and that 
 
 E 2 
 
60 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 a Jew might lawfully fight for his life on any day. This 
 decision has been held valid ever since, and those noble 
 confessors, after such proofs of sincere devotion as they had 
 given, and still gave, preferring any suffering, and even death 
 itself, to the least appearance of apostasy, rallied all their 
 forces, turned bravely upon the ferocious persecutors, and 
 after a succession of victories, saw the last of them. 
 (1 Mace. ii. 29 — 41.) From this time the Jews have 
 excelled all others in their strict observance of the Sabbath, 
 although that strictness has been sometimes perverted by 
 self-righteousness and superstition. 
 
 Pompey, when he attacked Jerusalem, about 63 years 
 before Christ, found the decision of Mattathias still in 
 force. They left their enemy without any apprehension 
 of hostile action on their part, so long as he lay inactive on 
 the sacred day, but watched him narrowly, and if he pro- 
 ceeded to attack they were quite ready to accept battle. 
 
 Thus far we trace this most ancient institution free from 
 rabbinical corruptions. These began after the Maccabean 
 victories, but much earlier than Pompey, and after his day 
 they multiplied with great rapidity. I therefore proceed to 
 notice the Jewish triflings, which have much obscured its 
 real character. 
 
THE JEWISH SABBATH. Gl 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 TPIE JEWISH SABBATH, OR SABBATH SPOILED WITH 
 TRADITIONAL OBSERVANCES. 
 
 I KNOW of no better source of information concerning the 
 Jewish Sabbath properly so called, than the title Shabbat in 
 the Mishnah, which contains the traditions that come to view 
 in the New Testament. It is true that the Mishnah was not 
 brought into its present form until about the year of our 
 Lord 150 ; but we know that the materials are very ancient, 
 some of them being traditions attributed to wise men who 
 lived long before the time of Christ. A knowledge of those 
 traditions, as found in the Mishnah, is necessary to an un- 
 derstanding of much that is written in the Gospels. Our 
 present object is to ascertain the characteristics of the 
 Jewish or Rabbinical Sabbath, just as our Lord found it. 
 
 The compiler of the title " Sabbath " begins by discoursing 
 of two men standing in a doorway, a poor man outside and 
 the master of the house within. The poor man reaches 
 towards the other and gives something into his hand, or he 
 reaches and takes something from him, and brings it away. 
 " The poor man is guilty, and the master of the house is free." 
 Or the master of the house is first to extend his hand, either 
 to give or to receive ; and, if to receive, also to put what he 
 has taken into its place within. In this case he is guilty, and 
 the poor man free. Or if their movements are simultaneous 
 and concurrent, they are both free. 
 
 Xo man is to sit before a barber as the Sabbath-eve ap- 
 proaches, if there be not time for the barber to finish shaving 
 
62 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 him before the time of evening sacrifice begins. Neither 
 must he commence a meal nor proceed to judge. 
 
 When the sun begins to darken, a tailor must not walk out 
 with his needle, lest sunset should overtake him carrying it. 
 Nor may a scribe walk out with his reed, lest he forget, and 
 go on with it in his hand. After the Sabbath lamp is lighted 
 one must not begin to pick the vermin from his garments, 
 nor yet begin to read by its light, for this would be counted 
 servile work. This was determined in a celebrated conference 
 between some Hillelites and Shammaites, in the chamber of 
 Khananiah, son of Goron. where eighteen hard questions 
 were settled under his presidency. 
 
 The schools of Hillel and Shammai both agree that goods 
 ought not to be sold to a Gentile so near the Sabbath hour 
 that he or his beast should have to carry it away when the 
 hour comes ; and cautions of the same kind are multiplied. 
 
 We find some exact injunctions concerning the kind of fuel 
 that may be used for Sabbath fires, and the oil proper to be 
 burnt in Sabbath lamps. The lamp, it is noted, must not be 
 extinguished in the night, if the motive be to save the oil ; 
 but it may be put out if the motive be to avoid keeping a sick 
 person awake by its light. Unlawful management of lamps 
 on the Sabbath is a sin, as they said, for which women are 
 punished with death in childbed. 
 
 A man must say three things in his house on the eve of the 
 Sabbath : Hast thou paid the tithes ? Have you prepared the 
 food? Then light the lamp. If there be doubt whether it be 
 light or dark, then it is too late for any of these things to be 
 done. 
 
 All culinary affairs are to be regulated by scrupulously 
 minute directions, which it must have been extremely difficult 
 to follow without numberless failures and endless disputes. 
 
 " With what," they ask, " may a beast be permitted to 
 
THE JEWISH SABBATH. 63 
 
 " walk out of tlie stable ? " The answer is, that a camel may 
 walk out with his muzzle; a she-camel with her nose-ring ; a 
 Lydian ass with his bit; a horse with his chain; all beasts 
 with what they have to hold them. And if they need washing 
 they may go into the water and wash themselves. The ass 
 may carry his own saddle. Kams may go leashed together. 
 Ewes, having their teats bound up that the milk may dry 
 away, may in like manner walk out as they are. Rabbi Judali 
 makes a very fine distinction as to goats — he permits them to 
 go about with their udders bound up for drying away the 
 milk, but not if it is to preserve milk for the dairy. 
 
 Camels are placed under some special restraints, and so are 
 asses. An ass must not walk forth with its saddle, unless the 
 saddle be made fast on it. The animal must not carry a bell, 
 even though the bell be muffled, nor may it have a yoke on its 
 Deck, nor a thong on its foot. A cock must not go abroad 
 with a thread on its leg, nor a ram drawing the cart under its 
 tail,* nor a sheep having grass in its mouth. The heifer may 
 not carry her yoke, nor the cow her porcupine upon her 
 udder,f nor a cord about her horns. Rabbi Ehezer, son of 
 Azariah, allowed his cow to carry a cord on the Sabbath, to 
 the great scandal of the wise men. 
 
 "But how may a woman go abroad, and how may she 
 " not? " The answer is that she may not go with a dashy 
 head-dress — and some varieties of head-dresses are specified. 
 She must not wear trinkets unless they are so attached as to 
 make part of her garments. Concerning jewels and perfumes, 
 the wise men have never been quite unanimous, but all of 
 them are strict in various degrees. 
 
 * Sheep having large fatty tails, which are often saved from di-agging 
 in the mire by a sort of little cart attached, which the animal draws as 
 it goes, literally carrying its tail behind it. 
 
 + A prickly skin to prevent the calf from sucking. 
 
64 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 A man may not walk out with sword, nor bow, nor shield, 
 nor sling, nor spear. Rabbi Eliezer did indeed allow him to 
 go on the Sabbath so equipped, saying that weapons were but 
 part of a soldier. Other wise men, on the contrary, said that 
 weapons were a soldier's disgrace, forasmuch as it is written 
 that they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks. But they allow a man to wear 
 spurs on the Sabbath. 
 
 And how may a lame man go on the Sabbath ? He may go 
 on his crutch, if it be not padded for the sake of comfort. 
 
 A person might carry a locust's egg or a fox's tooth, if he 
 carried it as a charm, or a clove, if he had it as a medicine, or 
 at least he had permission to carry such trifles to charm away 
 his pains, according to the indulgent sentence of Rabbi Meir ; 
 but other wise men forbade them utterly.* 
 
 From these examples it may be seen how the Pharisees 
 trifled ; not perhaps at first, for in some of these rules it is 
 possible to discern a good reason under the guise of a precept 
 almost if not quite ridiculous ; but the process of trifling 
 went on with inevitable rapidity from lower to lower. Other 
 examples will be derived from the same source when we come 
 to consider certain passages in the Gospels which will be pre- 
 sented for illustration. 
 
 I have not observed any indication of such rabbinic trifling 
 in the times of the Old Testament. Rabbinism, as I have 
 endeavoured to show elsewhere,t was not begun in the days of 
 Nehemiah, when the observance of the Sabbath was revived 
 once more. Nothing of the kind appears in the book of 
 Malachi. The Maccabean history is also clear of every 
 vestige of this kind of superstition, for which the times 
 
 * Mishnah, Order of Feasts, Title Sabbath, chapters i. — vi. 
 + History of the Karaite Jews, chapters ii., iii., iv. 
 
THE JEWISH SABBATH. 65 
 
 were far too grave. People died martyrs for eternal verities, 
 and were of a spirit far too noble and earnest to brook 
 such childish trifling. It is therefore at variance with 
 historic evidence to attribute follies like these of the days 
 following Ilillel to the age of Moses, or to any other age much 
 before the birth of Christ. After that time traditionist prin- 
 ciples were in active operation, but the chapters of the 
 Mishnah, as they come to us, were not yet compiled, as there 
 is abundant evidence to prove. It is, I must repeat, an abuse 
 of language to call that Sabbath Jewish which was ahke 
 acknowledged by Prophets and Apostles. The Jewish 
 Sabbath is what I have now been endeavouring to exemplify, 
 not in my own language, but simply as I find ii set forth by 
 the pen of Rabbi Judah the Holy, about the year of our Lord 
 150, in a collection of sentences all, or nearly all, of date con- 
 siderably older. 
 
 But although these are characteristics of the Jewish Sab- 
 bath, properly so called, it would be untrue to say that the 
 Jews had no higher views of that blessed institution than can 
 be gathered from the Mishnah. The Jews were not all 
 Pharisees nor all Traditionists, nor have they ever been. The 
 history of Karaism affords abundant proof that in every age 
 since the close of the Old Testament canon and the officious 
 labours of the Sanhedrim, there has been a strong party of 
 honest believers in Divine revelation, living in avowed opposi- 
 tion to the traditionism of the Pharisees and the scepticism of 
 the Sadducees. It is more than probable that multitudes of 
 thoughtful and conscientious Jews, between the times of the 
 heroically-faithful Maccabees and the ministry of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, had a more distinct perception of the leading 
 truths of inspired Scripture, and a better sense of the obliga- 
 tion of God's holy laws, with little care for the comfortless 
 trifling of their less enlightened brethren. 
 
G6 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 Philo, the eminent Alexandrian Jew, may be accepted as 
 a faithful witness. Philo lived in the time of our Lord and 
 his Apostles. He was a man of high rank, a thorough Jew, 
 extensively acquainted with the affairs of his nation, and its 
 chosen advocate to the Roman Emperor in one critical con- 
 juncture, if not more. In his time the Second Temple was 
 standing, fresh in the architectural grandeur given it by 
 Herod, and the worship was conducted without any restric- 
 tion with all the pomp which the Jews were able and willing 
 to command. Philo, not less than other Egyptian Jews, 
 would go to Jerusalem at the great festivals, and observe the 
 ^religious life of their Palestinian brethren at all times of the 
 year. He also saw them in several other countries, and 
 corresponded with them over yet a wider circle. His account 
 of the Sabbath is therefore of great historic value, and no 
 statement of a later writer, much less of any in these times of 
 our own, could compare with it in authority. 
 
 Unlike some of our contemporaries, he is mindful to call 
 the sacred seventh day the hirthday of the ivorld. He says 
 that Moses assigned to the Hexade (six days) the birth 
 of the several portions of the world; but the Hehdomade 
 (seven days) a period independent and uncompounded with 
 any other in the whole round of seasons, sheds its light upon 
 the lesser term. All that the six days produced, the seventh 
 day showed to be now made complete in full perfection. 
 Therefore we duly hail it as birthday of the world.* 
 
 Speaking of God, Creator of the Universe, not only of a 
 part thereof, he describes him as surveying the whole aggre- 
 gate of creatures, and using each one in its turn for his own 
 glory. Then he relates how, when the heavens gave no rain, 
 as in Egypt, He made the earth yield water to irrigate its own 
 
 * "De Septenario/' sect. C 
 
THE JEWISH SABBATH. 67 
 
 surface, as it does by the overflowing of the Nile ; and so in 
 the Arabian wilds, where the earth yields no food, God the 
 Creator caused the air to send down manna with the dew, 
 and gave honour to the seventh day by raining double on the 
 sixth day for the supply of his people while they rested.* 
 
 He does not trace the institution of the Sabbath to Moses, 
 but to the time of the Creation. He derives his knowledge 
 from the same fountain as we, and describes the manner in 
 which the Jews of his time pass the day. They learn what he 
 calls the philosophy of their fathers, doubtless using the word 
 as equivalent with the Hebrew ivisdom, which, in the common 
 language of the Old Testament and the rabbinical books, 
 means religmi, or religious knowledge. They devote the 
 time, he says, to the understanding and contemplation of the 
 things of nature — whether as the secularist now professes to do, 
 or studying natural objects as did Solomon and David his 
 father, and as Philo himself did, when he spoke of the irriga- 
 tion of Egypt by the Nile, and the descent of manna with the 
 dew in Arabia — in what sense he means I cannot say, but 
 certainly should think the latter. But the remainder of the 
 passage now quoted is more distinct. " For the places for 
 *' prayer, Trpoo-gyxr^pja, which are in the cities, what are they 
 " but places where they learn prudence, and manliness, and 
 " sobriety, and justice, piety towards God, and hoHness, and 
 *' every kind of virtue, what are they else but schools for the 
 " learning and exercise of things heavenly and divine ? "f 
 " In theu' Sabbath assemblies, which are numerously attended, 
 " they appear decently attired, take their seats with decorum, 
 " and Usten attentively. The multitude hear in silence while 
 *' the Law is read, and the silence is only broken by any 
 
 * " De Vita Moysis," lib. i., sect. 36. 
 t "De Vita IMoysis," lib. iii., sect. 27. 
 
68 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " questions which may haplj be suggested. Some one of the 
 " priests presides. One of the ancient men reads the sacred 
 " laws, and either he or some one of his venerable brethren 
 " expounds the meaning." * 
 
 Josephus does not write with the fulness and earnestness 
 of Philo, but is in perfect agreement with him when he says 
 that the Jews " set apart the seventh day for learning their 
 *' customs and laws, which they think it right to understand 
 " and reflect upon, as they reflect on anything else, that they 
 " may avoid sin." | 
 
 So do these witnesses give their evidence, one of them 
 rather in the style of a Karaite than of a common Jew. If 
 we were not aware of the state of religion at that time, when 
 the masters of the text and the teachers of tradition were in 
 sharp conflict, we might fall into the mistake of supposing 
 that while the sages who collected materials for the Mishnah 
 were thus promoting an interior discipline among the Jews 
 themselves, Philo and Josephus were giving themselves to 
 the establishment of an exoteric method, and presenting 
 Judaism to the Gentiles under a reasonable aspect just as 
 they wished them to regard it. The suspicion does some- 
 times return to our mind, but it cannot be confidently enter- 
 tained. The truth seems to be that, if we would see Judaism 
 as it was in the time of our Lord, we must hear it described 
 by the historian, philosopher, and apologist on one side, by 
 the teacher of tradition on the other, and after all have 
 recourse to the New Testament for a complete account of all. 
 
 We know how cordially Roman satirists despised Jewish 
 Sabbatarians, and with what contemptuous ignorance some 
 of them were used to mock their scruples ; but we cannot 
 
 * " Phil. Jud. Fragm. ex Euseb. Prsep. Evang.," viii. 7. 
 f " Joseph. Antiq./' xvi. li. 4. 
 
THE JEWISH SABBATH. 69 
 
 fail to perceive that the Sabbath, however deteriorated, was 
 a sign between God and his people whereby they were effec- 
 tually distinguished from the heathen world. Here again 
 Philo bears witness. Every nation, he says, has its own 
 laws and customs. The Athenians have theirs, the Spartans 
 theu-s, and they will not borrow from another. The Egyp- 
 tians and Syrians hate each others' manners. The inha- 
 bitants of Europe and those of Asia cherish their mutual 
 antipathies. But although the Jews differ from them all, 
 and in no respect more than in their observance of the 
 Sabbath, this peculiarity does not provoke any such repug- 
 nance. 
 
 " Barbarians, Greeks, inhabitants alike of continents and 
 " islands, nations of the East and West, Europe, Asia, all 
 " the world from one extremity to the other, look on it with 
 " admiration. Who does not thoroughly honour that holy 
 " seventh day ? They admire its rest from labour, and the 
 " refreshment it affords to all who live under its influence, to 
 " freemen and to slaves ; and not to men only, but even to 
 " the beasts of burden. The very herds of cattle on this 
 " day range at large, and seem to render free service to the 
 " Lord of nature. The very trees of the forest are exempt 
 " from all demands, for on this day not a leaf is plucked nor 
 " a twig broken. The crops and harvests, although ripe, 
 " stand in the fields untouched, and are free from depreda- 
 "tion."*' 
 
 Such was the case, no doubt, wherever the Jew had lands 
 which he could call his own, and even where he was an alien ; 
 yet, where he could gather a few brethren around him, and 
 form a little settlement, it is notable that such communities 
 have been always respected — at least until a corrupted Chris- 
 
 * " De Vita Moysis," ii. 4. 
 
70 
 
 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 tianity has raised its crusade against them. In Spain, for 
 example, they blessed the fruits of the earth on the lands of 
 Gentiles, even of Christians ; and, in the Council of Elliberis, 
 the Christian bishops forbade their flocks to accept the 
 Jewish blessings, lest the clerical benedictions should be 
 thereby nullified. 
 
 The Tyrian merchants, as we learn from the Carthaginian 
 history, and as we read in the latest Carthaginian inscriptions, 
 carried with them the worship of the old Canaanitish gods ; 
 but the Hebrew emigrants did not so carry into the lands of 
 their captivity the idolatry adopted by their brethren at 
 home. 
 
DURING OUR lord's MINISTRY. 71 
 
 CHAPTER Yin. 
 
 THE JEWISH SABBATH DURING OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. 
 
 The synagogue services were obviously calculated to prepare 
 the public mind for the more perfect services which are found 
 essential to the maintenance of Christianity. A synagogue — 
 where perhaps one or two famihes met together, and became 
 the beginning of a congregation that was never very numerous 
 — was literally a meeting-house^ nD;D rvi. in the very simple style 
 of Hebrew nomenclature. It is said that about this time there 
 were no fewer than four hundred such meeting-houses in 
 Jerusalem. Allowing for some exaggeration, there can be 
 no doubt that there were many, and that they abounded in 
 other towns. In those congregations our Lord Jesus Christ 
 pronounced some discourses and performed some miracles, 
 but he often appeared only as an Israelite worshipper among 
 his fellows, even after he " began to be thirty years of age." 
 Before that time he did not officiate at all. But, during the 
 years of his public ministry, he most fully gave Divine sanc- 
 tion to the sanctification of the Sabbath by the ministration 
 of the Word of God and prayer. In his memorable conver- 
 sation with the Samaritan woman he intimated in the clearest 
 language that spiritual worship would be offered up to God, 
 in like manner, in all parts of the world. Far more emphatic- 
 ally he foretold to his disciples the destruction of the Temple, 
 and on another occasion he spoke to them of the continuance 
 of synagogues, and the power exerted by those congregations 
 as corporate authorities. 
 
 Yery soon after his baptism and temptation, " He came 
 " to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and, as his 
 
72 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, 
 " and stood up for to read." Then was " dehvered unto him 
 " the book," or roll, " of the Prophet Esaias. And when he 
 " had unrolled, umTTTv^ag, the book, he found the place 
 " where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me," 
 «&;c. " And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the 
 " minister, and sat down. And the' eyes of all them that 
 " were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he 
 " began to say unto them," &c. (Luke iv. 16 — 21.) 
 
 This first account of a synagogue visit in the Gospel narra- 
 tive is now quoted for the sake of its circumstantial descrip- 
 tion, which enables us to identify one of the synagogue customs 
 of that time with a form prescribed in the Mishnah as obli- 
 gatory, on a different occasion indeed, but observed when the 
 Law or the Prophets was read, in order to maintain the 
 proper decorum, and to show becoming reverence to the 
 sacred books. If the very words of the following regula- 
 tion had been then incorporated in a written law, universally 
 recognized, the Lord could not have complied more exactly 
 with its requirement. "The Khazzan of the synagogue 
 " takes the book of the Law, and gives it to the Chief of 
 " the synagogue. The Chief of the synagogue gives it to 
 " the Sdgan,* and the Sagan gives it to the Chief Priest, 
 " The Chief Priest stands up, having received it, and reads 
 " it standing." " Then he rolls up the volume of the Law, 
 
 * This is originally a Chaldee word, po, the name given to the Vicar 
 of the Chief Priest. The Chief of the synagogue receives the roU 
 from his Khazzan^ or minister who has charge of it for him, and de- 
 livers it to the Chief Priest for his use as administrator of the Law. 
 The Sagan assists the Priest. In the synagogue at Nazareth there was 
 no administration of discipline, nor was our Lord a priest ; but as an 
 Israelite his relation was with the synagogue only for worship and 
 instruction. 
 
DURING OUR lord's MINISTRY. 73 
 
 " and lays (what he has read) in his bosom, and says, ' More 
 " than what I have read to you is written in this book.' "* 
 
 No man might sit, nor even lean, while reading from the 
 sacred book. It is said that Rabbi Samuel, son of Isaac, 
 once came into a synagogue while some one was interpreting 
 as he read, leaning at ease against a pillar. Offended at the 
 sight, the Rabbi approached the careless reader, and bade 
 him cease. " This cannot be permitted," said he, " for as 
 *' the Law was delivered with solemnity, it must be read by 
 " us with reverence."! The Prophet of Nazareth stood up 
 while He read, and did not sit down until He had closed the 
 book, and delivered it to the minister. He did not read 
 much. It was a general rule that the reader should not 
 deliver less than twenty-one lines from a Prophet, yet on the 
 Sabbath-day, if there was an interpretation or sermon, he 
 might read even so little as three, but not less.f 
 
 The profound silence of the Nazarean congregation dm-ing 
 the interpretation which followed after the brief reading from 
 Isaiah Ixi. exactly corresponds with the silent attention de- 
 scribed by Philo in a passage quoted above, and the outburst 
 of noise which followed does not in the least disagree with the 
 remainder of that description. 
 
 When the Saviour taught thus on the Sabbath, He gave an 
 authoritative example to his servants. (Luke iv. 31.) The 
 Prophet of God led the w^ay for ministers in all ages, teaching 
 them how to teach. Their duty is to teach the people. They 
 are not to entertain them with popular lectures, nor to attract 
 crowds by rhetorical artifice. Instruction, exhortation, and 
 prayer take the place of material sacrifices, which He has set 
 aside by the offering of himself. Observe well that, from the 
 
 * Nashim. Sota, vii. 7. t Megilloth, xxi. 
 
 t Soferun, xii. 
 
 F 
 
74 THE HOLT SABBATH. 
 
 day when his mother brought the humble offering on occasion 
 of her purification after his birth, we read no more of any 
 Levitical offering presented in connexion with himself. He 
 came to set aside that priesthood, and held no such communi- 
 cation with its members as might have been otherwise 
 expected. But no one observed the Sabbath more strictly 
 than He, and had He meant to set that institution aside with 
 the Mosaic dispensation, it is not likely that He would have 
 chosen the Sabbath-day for his public teaching, for there were 
 other days which He might have taken also for those visits tO' 
 the synagogues. There were three synagogue-days in the- 
 week, the second, the fourth, and the seventh. He marked 
 the seventh strictly, and seems to have passed by the other 
 two without any special note. As for the synagogues, if he 
 had not intended to make any further use of those places of 
 sacred assemblage, we cannot conceive it likely that He would 
 have sanctified them by his constant and reverential presence. 
 As He " adorned and beautified the holy estate of matrimony 
 " with his presence and first miracle that He wrought in Cana of 
 " Gahlee," so did he adorn the ministration of saving truth with 
 many miracles in those Sabbath congregations. So, for 
 example, in the synagogue of Capernaum, where the people 
 were astonished at his doctrine, and contrasted the authority 
 manifest in his delivery with the hesitancy and servile indecision 
 of the scribes when He cast the spirit of an unclean devil out 
 of a man. (Luke iv. 33.) So in another synagogue while ho 
 was teaching, he released a woman from an infu*mity which 
 had oppressed and bound her eighteen years. There she was, 
 her body bowed down with weakness, and her soul prostrate 
 with despair ; but Jesus laid his hands on her, saying, 
 " Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity, and imme- 
 " diately she was made straight, and glorifi,ed God." (Luke 
 xiii. 13.) 
 
DURIXG OUR lord's MINISTRY. 75 
 
 Again, in another synagogue, also on the Sabbath-day, did 
 He adorn the day, and show that it should be consecrated with 
 deeds of mercy, saying to a man, even unsolicited, " Stretch 
 " forth thine hand ; and he stretched it forth, and it was re- 
 " stored whole as the other." (Matt. xii. 13.) 
 
 Now, let those who would maintain that this is but a Jewish 
 institution, relaxed or even set aside by the Founder of a 
 superior system, spare themselves time to study his words and 
 actions a little more closely before they arrive at so unreason- 
 able a conclusion. We will examine the one authentic record, 
 and judge for ourselves. How did He teach 1 
 
 " At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath-day through the 
 " corn ; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to 
 " pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees 
 " saw it, they said unto him. Behold, thy disciples do that 
 " which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath-day. But He 
 " said unto them. Have ye not read what David did when he 
 " was an hungred, and they that were with him ; how he 
 " entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, 
 " which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which 
 " were with him, but only for the priests ? Or have ye not 
 " read in the Law, how that on the Sabbath-days the priests 
 " in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But 
 " I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the 
 " temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will 
 " have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned 
 " the guiltless. Eor the Son of Man is Lord even of the 
 " Sabbath-day." (Matt. xii. 1—8.) 
 
 In accusing our Lord of doing what it was not lawful to do, 
 they touched the cardinal point whereon the whole question 
 turns. At the Creation it was ordained that the day should 
 be sanctified. "When the Law was given on Mount Sinai, it 
 was ordained that all ordinary business should cease j and that 
 
 ¥ 2 
 
76 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 there might not be either necessity or excuse for carrying it 
 on, the people were commanded to do all that they had to do 
 within the six working days. In the provisions for Temple- 
 worship every necessary arrangement was made for due ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath, and not only for its due observance 
 in conjunction with the great festivals, but for its independent 
 observance, with such foresight that, in the course of ages, 
 when the Temple-worship should be extinct, and the priest- 
 hood abohshed, the fourth commandment of the Decalogue 
 should remain in full force, and the sanctity of the Sabbatic 
 institution abide intact. In pursuance of this design, the 
 document in which it is described not only remained entire 
 and distinct, but received the most explicit sanction of him 
 who came to fulfil the Law, and also to estabhsh that system 
 of mercy which even the Law was given to prepare the way 
 for. Nothing could be more explicit than his recognition of 
 this very Decalogue when He quoted it literally to one who 
 came to him inquiring what he should do to inherit eternal 
 life. (Mark x. 19.) 
 
 Thus did the foundation of the Sabbath remain unshaken, 
 but the Pharisees, who claimed its privileges for themselves 
 and their nation only, had adopted another and very different 
 foundation. This was the fundamental principle then orally 
 maintained, and soon afterwards incorporated with the Mish- 
 nah. They call it in that compilation the root of the Sabhath, 
 m© ip^r. This root, however, is but negative, and the full 
 notion of sanctifying it does not satisfy. It includes not 
 any sanctification of the day to God, but only treats in 
 minute particulars of actions forbidden or allowed. This is 
 the weak foundation which our Lord rejects, but He care- 
 fully maintains the other, which we see to be alike consistent 
 with every moral principle of the Old Testament and the 
 New. 
 
DURING OUR LORDS MINISTRY. 77 
 
 The rabbis explained their fundamental principle by lay- 
 ing down a scale of primary and secondary works, calling the 
 former mis'^o m2«, fatliers of zvorks., " The primary works 
 " are forty save one. Sowing, Ploughing, Reaping, Gather- 
 " ing in Bundles, Thrashing, Winnowing, Cleansing, Grind- 
 " ing, Sifting, Roasting, Boiling, Shearing the Wool, Wash- 
 " ing the Wool, Carding it, Dyeing it, Spinning, Weaving, 
 " Knotting two threads. Twisting two threads. Breaking two 
 " threads. Binding, Unbinding, Sewing two stitches, Ripping 
 " to Sew up again, Hunting a Kid, Killing it. Skinning it, 
 " Salting it, Dressing the Skin, Scraping it, Cutting it, 
 " Writing two letters, Blotting out in order to write two 
 " letters, Building, Pulling down, Quenching, Kindling, Beat- 
 '' ing with a hammer. Removing from place to place. Be- 
 " hold, these are the primary works, forty save one." * 
 
 Now this is not an enumeration of all varieties of industrial 
 occupation. It falls immeasurably short of the letter of the 
 commandment, and could only serve to minister endless occa- 
 sion of debate by its omissions, if narrowly interpreted, or 
 by its inevitable uncertainty, and by the fi-equent difficulty in 
 ascertaining what is a secondary ivorJc, mbin, and under which 
 of the primary works many insignificant operations might be 
 rightly classed. After all the laborious trifling of casuists 
 men walked in their own ways, spoke their own words, and 
 did their own pleasure, saving the thirty-nine categories of 
 primary works, if they were clever enough to do it, or if 
 their wise men were ingenious enough to invent reasons for 
 dispensation. 
 
 On the other hand, almost any conceivable action might be 
 included under one or other of them, as in the case of our 
 Lord's disciples in the corn-field, when the Pharisees, no 
 
 * MoED, Shabbat, vii. 1, 2. 
 
78 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 doubt, condemned the plucking an ear of corn as a kind of 
 reaping, and the rubbing a grain of corn between the fingers 
 as a kind of thrashing, which would be a double breach of oral 
 law, a twice-doing that which it was not lawful to do. If 
 such interpretations were to be allowed, any law might be 
 made ridiculous, as, indeed, the Pharisees made God's law 
 seem to be. " Hunting," they would say, " is a kind of 
 " primary work. To chase a flea and crack it is as much a 
 " kind of hunting and a kind of slaughtering as if the flea 
 " were a camel. Therefore, on the Sabbath, you must not 
 " catch fleas." 
 
 The word law has different meanings as it is used by dif- 
 ferent persons. With the Pharisee it is the law of Moses 
 not as it is written, but as the wise men of his own school, 
 or a majority of them, agree to understand it, or to have it 
 understood. With our Lord it is the law of Moses plainly 
 written, as any honest and intelligent reader understands it. 
 He, therefore, was not used to make a traditional sentence 
 the subject of debate, for thereby He would allow such a sen- 
 tence a certain character of authority, and, by even seeming 
 to suspend his judgment for an instant on tbe chance of its 
 vahdity, would seem to recognize the right of a traditionist to 
 be heard in competition with the inspired lawgiver. That He 
 never would allow, but entered at once upon the subject of 
 inquiry as it is treated in Holy Scripture, or may be judged 
 of thence. In the present case He refers the Pharisees to a 
 precedent recorded in the First Book of Samuel (xxi. 1 — G), 
 where we read what David did when he was hungry, and they 
 that were with him ; how he entered into the house of God 
 and ate the shewbread, which it was not lawful for him or them 
 to eat, but only the priests. On referring to the passage we 
 find that David did not lay hands on the table of shewbread, 
 regardless of the law, when under the pressure of hunger, but 
 
DURING OUK lord's MINISTRY. 79 
 
 that, hungry as he was, he went into the Tabernacle and 
 asked the priest for such bread as he had, and that Ahime- 
 lech, not having any other than the hallowed bread, offered 
 him that, and he accepted it. The hot bread, we see, was 
 put upon the table — which shows that the emergency oc- 
 curred on the Sabbath-day — and David and his men, instead 
 of the priests, ate the loaves which were then taken off. 
 The humane action of the chief priest was justified by 
 a pressing necessity, and the Talmudists themselves allow 
 that the iirgencij of saving life, mt:22 pre, drives away the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 That instance shut the mouths of the Pharisees ; but it 
 does much more. It teaches us, what it should have taught 
 them, the meaning of a Divine — not a traditional — sentence, 
 that God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. It confirms that 
 for which we contend, that the Sabbath-law, as it is laid 
 down in the Old Testament, and expounded in the Xew, is 
 consistent with the highest humanity and mercy. 
 
 And this is confirmed by the saying of our Lord on this 
 occasion, recorded by St. Mark : " The Sabbath was made 
 "for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark ii. 27.) 
 Not that man may deal with the Sabbath as he pleases, to set 
 it aside at pleasure, or to use it for convenience, as he may 
 • choose; for Christ, not man, is Lord of this graciously-ap- 
 pointed institution. 
 
 The allusion to the priests in the Temple requires explana- 
 tion. The phrase " profane the Sabbath " is not unusual. It 
 occurs, for example, in the Mishnah, where it is said that 
 " on two months theij profane the Sabbath — in Nisan and in 
 " Tishri — for in these months the messengers go forth (on 
 " the Sabbath, if necessary) into Syria, and in them they ap- 
 " point (the time) of the feasts ; and while the Temple was 
 " standing tliei/ jrrofaned the Sabbath in aU the months, for the 
 
80 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " sake of makinp; ready the offering."'^ Maimonides explains 
 tliis to mean the additional offering which the law appointed 
 to be made on each of the New Moons. The first day of the 
 month often falls on the first day of the week with us, whose 
 calendar months are solar, and yet oftener with the Jews, 
 whose months were lunar. Whenever that coincidence 
 took place, it was said that they profaned the Sabbath by 
 those active labours which were necessary for making ready 
 the offering for the feast when they would otherwise be rest- 
 ing for the Sabbath. But that profaning was far indeed from 
 being sinful. It was not a common business, but the Lord's 
 business, which they did, and thereby rendered obedience to 
 his command. Peril of death, then, and the pressure of a 
 separate Divine obligation, justified and even required a tem- 
 porary departure from the letter of one law in particular, and 
 ensured a due regard for the spirit of it. 
 
 The same authority says that " they deliver a woman on, 
 " the Sabbath, and bring the midwife to her from one place- 
 " to another, and iirofane the Sabbath for her that they may 
 " bind the (infant's) navel." t 
 
 To save life or to preserve it, or to fulfil a Divine obliga- 
 tion, warranted what is called conventionally a profaning of 
 the Sabbath; and in our Lord's declaration that He is Lord 
 of the Sabbath-day, Tie unequivocally assumes a Divine right 
 to do whatever seems good to himself on that day. But at the 
 same time he asserts that Sabbath-observance is not a part of 
 the Mosaic dispensation. The Son of Man, as we may all 
 know, was never called Lord of the Passover, or of Purim. 
 He who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is not 
 Lord of things transient, but of things abiding, such as is 
 the day of holy rest, a day that will return faithful as the 
 
 * Eosh Hashannah, i. 4. t Sliabbath, xviii. 3. 
 
DURING OUR lord's MINISTRY. 81 
 
 sun in the firmament, as long as time endures. Therefore, 
 it is not Jewish. 
 
 While, however, wo Christians look up for guidance to our 
 Divine Master, as being Lord of the Sabbath, we remember 
 that He is also our Lord, and seek to ascertain what is his 
 estimate of things called Jewish before we venture to deter- 
 mine what shall be ours. In relation to the Sabbath there are 
 certain additions to the Law of the Old Testament which are 
 noted in the New without a word of either censure or ap- 
 proval. Yet, in the lips of Christ or his inspired servant, 
 mention without censure may almost be taken for approval, 
 and here are two examples. 
 
 First, the Preparatio?i, or TrapacrxEuyj. So they called the 
 day before the Sabbath, because the last three hours of that 
 day were spent in preparing food to be eaten on the Sabbath, 
 and in getting everything ready for Sabbath use. The 
 Rabbis taught that the gathering double measure of manna 
 on the sixth day was the precedent to be followed, but the 
 manna was gathered early in the morning, not between three 
 o'clock and sunset. The Karaites, on the other hand, have 
 declared openly against this " preparation," saying truly 
 enough that there is no command in the Bible for an addition 
 of three hours of common time to the sacred time, which 
 cannot be either prolonged or shortened.* Yet all the four 
 Evangelists mention the Preparation j with allowance, to say 
 the least, perhaps rather with approval. This mention occurs 
 in their narratives of the Crucifixion, and so occurs as to 
 remind us that the institution of those preparation-customs 
 was ancient — so ancient that the sixth day of the week was no 
 
 * Eule's History of the Karaite Jews. Longmans. 1870. 
 
 P. 15, seq. 
 
 + Matt, xxvii. 63, Mark xv. 42, Luke xxiii. 54, John xix. 14, 31, 42. 
 
82 THE HOLT SABBATH. 
 
 longer counted in order with the rest, but called " The Pre- 
 " paration." The custom, we presume, was considerably- 
 more ancient than the name. 
 
 Second, the Sabbath-day's journey is determined by the 
 Bound of the Sabbath. This is the limit found by measur- 
 ing outwards from the wall of a city a distance that is 
 variously estimated, some saying that it is 07ie mile, and 
 others two. The question of measurement is discussed in 
 the Talmud,* but for our present purpose it is not material 
 which way the decision turns. The Sabbath-day's journey- 
 is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, with relation to 
 Bethany, the scene of our Lord's Ascension. Our Lord, 
 himself, it would seem, alluded to it in an exhortation to 
 his disciples that they should pray that their flight might 
 not be in the winter, nor on the Sabbath-day.j" For how 
 could they escape the Roman army outside Jerusalem if 
 they were kept back by the Sabbath-law as then accepted, 
 within a radius of one mile or even two miles from the 
 city? Yet the restraint on Sabbath excursion might be very 
 salutary ; and although it could not be enforced by the letter 
 of the Mosaic law, it was quite consistent with the spirit. 
 As the Evangelists pass these two observances without dis- 
 approval, we may safely do the same. The spirit of such 
 additions is not Rabbinical, for the Rabbis rather sought to 
 evade the strictness of God's law than to increase it. 
 
 Before dismissing this part of our survey we step into the 
 outer world, and glance at the true Jewish Sabbath from a 
 pagan point of view, ascertaining the impression it made on 
 the mind of the Gentiles. From their view the domestic life 
 and the religious observances of the worshippers of the true 
 God were for the most part concealed ; but the absence of 
 
 * Eirubin, v. 8 9. t Acts i. 12. 
 
DURING OUR lord's MINISTRY. 83 
 
 the Jew from his accustomed place of business one day of 
 every seven drew towards him general attention, and some of 
 their saymgs tell their misapprehension and contempt. 
 Martial, more than a century before Christ, in an epigram 
 written to put contempt on one Bassa, who smells ill to the 
 satirist, and whose ill odour he compares to all the fetid ex- 
 halations he can think of, counts a Jew's breath worst. 
 Quod sicciB redolet palus lacunae 
 
 Quodjejuuia Sabbatariorum 
 Msestorum quod anlielitus reorum 
 
 Msillem, quam quod oles, olere Bassa. 
 What stench exhales from an exhausted iniddh . . . ivhat 
 
 evil scent from fasting Sabbatarians ivhat belching 
 
 breath from starving criminals. . , . I icoidd rather smell 
 of them than smell as thou dost, Bassa.^ The point of this 
 unclean jest lies in a vulgar mistake that the Jews fasted on 
 a Sabbath, which they certainly did not if they could help it. 
 The same notion of Sabbath fasting appears here and there 
 in satirists, until it is taken up by the historians. So Justin 
 tells, with the ah- of one who thinks himself well informed, 
 that " Moses, having set out on return to his old country of 
 " Damascus, took his station on Mount Sina, and being, 
 " with his people, wearied after a week's fasting during a 
 " march in the desert of Arabia, consecrated the seventh day 
 " for ever to fasting, which fasting, according to the custom 
 " of his nation, he called sabbatum, because that (seventh) day 
 " had made an end of their hunger and their wandering."! 
 This is contrary to every fact of Hebrew history and custom, 
 and to the unanimous agreement of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the 
 
 * Martialis Epigrammatum, lib. iv. 4. 
 + Justini Historiarum, lib. xxxvi., cap. 2. 
 
84 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 fathers of tradition. They all discountenance dejection and 
 prohibit fasting on the day which was made for us, that we 
 might rejoice in it and be glad. But the Pagans could only 
 look on the Jews and their devotions with contemptuous pity. 
 In their pictures of the Jew you see him pallid with hunger, 
 and he looks as if his lips were moving in silent prayer.* 
 Even the kings go barefoot in the scanty Sabbath feast — for 
 such ;i feast there must be, after all — and their antiquated 
 clemency spares the aged swine.f They would fain make it 
 appear that the Jew, in his generation, is impoverished by 
 the piety of his fathers, who robbed his life of the light, the 
 enjoyment, and the earnings of every seventh day.J His 
 misfortune, it is intimated, was to have a father who feared 
 the Sabbath — metuentem scibbata 'patrem — and bequeathed idle- 
 ness and poverty to his offspring, as a doleful sign of distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Tacitus and Pliny, somewhat less unfair, are scarcely less 
 mistaken. The latter speaks of the vile and vulgar Jews, a 
 people notable for their contumely of the gods. § He 
 barely notices their existence in his voluminous intelligence of 
 persons and things within the compass of the whole known 
 world, except that he speaks of a river of Judaea that is dry 
 on every Sabbath, || thus repeating the fable of the river 
 Samhation. Tacitus does endeavour to be more exact, but 
 
 * Labra moves tacitus, recutitaque sabbata palles. 
 
 Peesii, Sat, V. 184. 
 t Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges, 
 Et vetus indulget senibus dementia porcis. 
 
 JiJVENALis, Sat. vi. 159, 160. 
 t Sed pater in causa, cui septima qu£eque fuit lux 
 Ignava, et partem vitae non attigit ullam. 
 
 JuvENALis, Sat. xiv. 105, 106 
 § Plinii Hist. Nat., xiii. 9. H Plinii xxxi. 18. 
 
DURING OUR lord's MINISTRY. 85 
 
 he very imperfectly succeeds. He tells the same sorry tale of 
 poverty and idleness, but their consecration of the seventh 
 day he attributes to a veneration for the god Saturnus, to 
 whom the Romans dedicate the day which bears his name.* 
 But this historian has not the key to the mystery, nor, if he 
 had, would he have been likely to trace weeks back to their 
 source in the Creation, as known to Moses. 
 
 More extended reference to Gentile sources would be 
 tedious. This is enough to show that the Jews' observance 
 of the Sabbath distinguished them from all other nations, but 
 also that it lacked those brighter features which it had some- 
 times presented, by which it is known to us, and in which 
 they and we shall rejoice together when the Lord of the Sab- 
 bath has established his kingdom over all the world. 
 
 * Taciti Historiaruuij lib. v. 
 
86 THE HOLT SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OUR LORD'S MINISTRATIONS ON THE SABBATH-DAY. 
 
 The Lord of the Sabbath-day employed it in miracles of 
 mercy. After the conversation with the Pharisees concerning 
 the ears of corn, He went into a synagogue, " and behold, 
 " there was a man which had his hand withered." (Matt, 
 xii. 10.) We may well conceive that the withered hand 
 attracted his attention, for it was an object far more likely 
 for him to notice than the ostentatious devotions of those 
 mantled hypocrites who, for a pretence, made long prayers. 
 Intent on mischief, the Pharisees asked him, " Is it lawful to 
 " heal on the Sabbath-days ? that they might accuse him.'^ 
 They knew that the Sanhedrim would condemn any one who 
 should say that it was lawful so to do. It is not easy to deter- 
 mine how far the traditionists were agreed on that matter ; 
 but if they admitted the decision that peril of life drives 
 away the Sabbath, but that it was not lawful to heal a disease 
 that did not endanger life, their answer in a case of withered 
 hand would be that the patient should wait for healing until 
 another day. We may suppose that a withered limb, if by 
 loithered is meant palsied, would not be painful, however 
 inconvenient. There was no agony of pain to be assuaged, 
 nor did any eating gangrene threaten an immediate loss of 
 limb, much less loss of hfe. 
 
 Yarious Talmudic sentences are quoted to illustrate the 
 principle implied in that question. It was said that if the 
 patient had ear-ache, and applied for rehef, the wise men 
 would hold a consultation over him, and according to the 
 apparent measure of his suffering, or the degree of their 
 
OUR lord's IIIXISTRATIONS OX THE SABBATII-DAY. 87 
 
 pity or their favour, they would determine on the prol)ability 
 or improbability of danger, and decide accordingly. " Let 
 " not those that are in health," they said, " use medicine on 
 " the Sabbath-day. Let not him that labours under a pain 
 " in his loins anoint the place with oil and vinegar ; but with 
 " oil he may, so it be not oil of roses. He that has tooth- 
 " ache, let him not take vinegar to spit it out again ; but he 
 " may swallow it down. Let no man chew mastich, or rub 
 " his teeth with spice for a cure ; but if he does it to make 
 " his mouth sweet, it is allowed. They do not put wine into 
 " a sore eye. They do not apply a fomentation or oils to 
 " the place affected." These instances may serve to show 
 how far the Pharisaic notions were carried in course of time ; 
 but, although they are quoted by eminent commentators,* I 
 could not affirm that in the time of our Lord they had 
 carried their notions to the full extent of such a trivial 
 excess. 
 
 With all their nicety as to their fellow-men, they were 
 careful to allow themselves licence enough in managing their 
 cattle. Cattle, being the property of Israelites, were of special 
 value, and were therefore specially privileged. If a sheep fell 
 into a ditch on the Sabbath-day, its owner would lift it out. 
 " How much better, then," said He, " is a man than a sheep ? 
 " Wherefore it .is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-days." That 
 was his decision, whatever the house of Hillel might have 
 determined when deciding in another sense. Accordingly He 
 used his sovereign authority, and not leaving them a moment's 
 space for cavilling, he said to the man, " Stretch forth thine 
 " hand. And he stretched it forth ; and it was restored 
 " whole, like as the other." Struck dumb by the instantaneous 
 miracle, they slank out of his presence, but murmured on the 
 
 * Lightfoot and Sclioettsreu. 
 
88 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 way, and forthwith took counsel together how they might take 
 his Hfe. But the Lord of the Sabbath remained untouched in 
 plenitude of power ; multitudes followed him, and He healed 
 them all. (Matt. xii. 9—15.) 
 
 After He had been driven from the synagogue of Nazareth, 
 He came to Capernaum, and taught there on the Sabbath- 
 days. A Galilean Jew, possessed with an unclean spirit, 
 raved madly, bade him let him and the spirit alone, saying 
 " What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth, art thou 
 " come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art, the Holy 
 " One of God." Jesus rebuked the spirit, and cast it out. 
 The congregation were amazed, and his fame spread over all 
 the country. On the same day, not confining his mercy to the 
 synagogue. He went into Simon's house, and finding Simon's 
 wife's mother ill of a fever. He rebuked the fever, as He would 
 rebuke the storm, and it left her, and immediately she arose, 
 and ministered unto him. (Luke iv. 31 — 39.) 
 
 While teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, 
 it pleased him to exemplify his power and goodness by laying 
 his hands on an afflicted women who had had a spirit of in- 
 firmity eighteen years, was bowed together, and could not stand 
 erect. Immediately she was made whole, and glorified God. 
 The ruler of the synagogue, indignant that the good work 
 should have been done on the Sabbath-day, "said unto the 
 " people. There are six days in which men ought to work ; in 
 " them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the 
 " Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou 
 " hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose 
 *' his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to 
 *' watering? " There were special provisions that so it should 
 be done, as I have shown in a former chapter. " And ought 
 " not this woman, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen 
 " years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day? " The 
 
OUR lord's ministrations ox the sabeatii-day. 89 
 
 result of this declaration of Salobath duty was that his adver- 
 saries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for the 
 glorious things that were done by him. (Luke xiii. 10 — 17.) 
 Passing from synagogues, we find our Saviour prosecuting 
 his holy Sabbatic work in the homes of his people. 
 
 There is nothing like penance in the Sabbath-keeping of 
 the Bible, at the same time that there is no approach to 
 thoughtless mirth or self-indulgent epicurism. Xehemiah, 
 with all his magisterial severity, when such severity was need- 
 ful, encouraged his subjects in the enjoyment of innocent 
 domestic comforts. This is manifest on the face of history. 
 Ezra the priest had been reading the Law from the morning 
 until mid-day before a great multitude of men and women in 
 an open place of the city, and the service wus exceeding 
 solemn. It was, with anticipation of five hundred years, 
 almost a picture of the grand assembhes held by apostles and 
 apostolic men, first in that same Jerusalem, and then in other 
 chief cities of the world. The people had stood, hour after 
 hour, in deep attention, drinking in the words with closest self- 
 application. When the priest blessed the Lord, the great mul- 
 titude answered ''Amen, amen,'' with uplifted hands, as taking 
 God to witness. And then they bowed their heads in silence. 
 The Levites were not yet ready to hold a choral service. The 
 citizens had not yet put off the sorrows of a remorseful peni- 
 tence, and when the history of their nation was recited, and 
 God's long-despised Law was once more published, they wept 
 as people sometimes weep when faithful ministers of God's 
 truth cause them to understand the reading : " All the people 
 ■"wept when they heard the words of the law." '-And 
 " Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha [or governor], and 
 " Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught 
 ^' the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto 
 " the Lord your God ; mourn not, nor weep. ... Go your 
 
 a 
 
90 
 
 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions 
 " unto them for whom nothing is prepared : for this day 
 *' is holy unto our Lord : neither be ye sorry ; for the joy 
 " of the Lord is your strength." That day was the new 
 moon, but it was holy, as is the Sabbath, and because the day 
 was holy, the people were to honour it by eating their food 
 with gladness. (Nehem. viii. 1 — 12.) For this reason the 
 more wealthy Jews, in the time of our Lord, made Sabbath- 
 feasts, not only as a matter of indulgence, but of sacred hospi- 
 tality, with a mingling of religious feeling, real or professed. 
 
 On that best of days, soon as the sun had set, and the last 
 moment of common time expired, they made a cheerful meal 
 of choicest meats. The hurry and fag of preparation was not 
 permitted to break in upon the comfort of consecrated hours. 
 There was not a trace of confusion — not a speck of dust. 
 Every garment was clean and every face happy, unless some 
 sharp disease or sudden grief had come to " drive away the 
 " Sabbath." Pleasure, or traffic, or aggressive war, might 
 never drive it away, and therefore man's will might not be 
 gratified to the violation of God's ordinance. The Sabbath- 
 feast was gladsome indeed, yet holy, and a priest or a wise 
 man was usually present to pronounce a blessing, and to lead 
 the conversation of the company. Therefore Jesus of Naza- 
 reth was sometimes — often, perhaps — bidden to the feast that 
 He might honour and bless the house. 
 
 St. Luke narrates one of those visits. He writes that 
 our Lord went to the house of one of the chief Pharisees 
 " to eat bread on the Sabbath-day, and they " — that is, the 
 Pharisees — ^^loere lying icait for him" ^crav 7rixpoiTYipov(isvoi 
 avTov. The occasion of their lying wait was, no doubt, 
 their dislike of his teaching, and his conduct also in respect 
 of the Sabbath. Prom the whole tenor of the narrative it 
 is apparent that the party consisted of persons of rank and 
 
OUR lord's ministrations on tue sabbatii-day. 91 
 
 wealth, and that the number of invited guests was large. 
 Among the guests there was one very unlikely person to bo 
 in such a place, unless he had been carried thither for a 
 special purpose. He could not have come without help, and 
 they who brought him did not seem to have brought him to 
 be healed, for they made no prayer on his behalf. Certainly 
 he was not one of the household, or when healed and enabled 
 to move, it would not be said that Jesus let him go, otTrsXua-e. 
 " Jesus answering" — pursuing in words the thoughts of 
 their hearts, which were to him as intelligible as uttered 
 voice — " spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees " — who are 
 with reason supposed to have brought the man thither with 
 the design of raising the very question, "Is it lawful to 
 " heal on the Sabbath-day ?" They were evidently taken 
 by surprise, as well they might be, if conscious of detection 
 in a plot, and, like men smitten with confusion, held their 
 peace. Answering the question for himself, he took the 
 dropsical man, healed him, and let him go. 
 
 Still they were silent. The rapidity of discourse and the 
 suddenness of miracle had sealed their lips, and left them 
 without power of reply, while He pleaded with them on the 
 ground of mere humanity, and turned against themselves 
 their own interpretation of the Law. " Which of you shall 
 *' have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straight- 
 *' way pull him out on the Sabbath-day ? And they could 
 " not answer him again to these things." If the ultimate 
 decision of the Talmudists is that healing on that day was 
 not lawful — except under strict hmitations — it surely had 
 the majority of casuists in its favour. 
 
 Xo controversy followed, nor any accusation of having 
 t)roken the Law, but He immediately proceeded to instruct 
 them in humihty, and to inculcate charity and condescension, 
 dehvering the parable of the Great Supper, which foreshadows 
 
 G 2 
 
92 ■ THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 the Gospel Feast, and provides the ministers of the Gospel 
 with one of the finest themes of evangelical appeal. (Luke 
 xiv. 1—24.) 
 
 Last of all, I would refer to the fifth chapter of the Gospel 
 according to St. John for an exposition of the Sabbath in its 
 relation to Christ himself, and therefore under its most im- 
 portant aspect to us Christians. 
 
 Jesus went up to Jerusalem at a feast of the Jews. While 
 in the city, He went to Bethesda — House of Mercy. It was 
 a building, or pile of buildings, with five porches opening on a 
 pool, which was stirred at certain seasons by the descent of 
 an angel. " Whosoever then first after the troubling of the 
 " water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he 
 " had." One poor man, utterly helpless, had lain there thirty- 
 eight years, and witnessed the heahng of many ; but long 
 before he could creep to the edge of the pool, another was 
 sure to step down before him. The water was not then 
 moved, and therefore whatever miracle of healing might be 
 wrought in Bethesda that day would not be attributed to the 
 visitation of an angel. " Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up 
 " thy bed, and walk. Immediately the man was made whole, 
 '■' and took up his bed, and walked : and on the same day was 
 " the Sabbath." Now, it would have been difficult for the 
 Pharisees, even on their own principles, to establish against 
 Jesus the charge of breaking any law. He had not anointed 
 the man. He had not so much as stretched out his hand to 
 lift him up. Speaking is not one of the thirty-nine primary 
 works, and He had only spoken. The saying " Take up thy 
 bed and walk" could not have made him guilty according to 
 any canon of Jewish tradition that I have ever heard of. It 
 was the man himself who committed what they would call a 
 breach of law, by carrying his bed ; whereas they would have 
 held any one guilty for carrying a straw or a feather. The 
 
OUR LORDS MINISTRATIONS ON THE SABBATH-DAY. 93 
 
 man, then, broke tlieir law, but threw the blame on him that 
 healed him. " The Jews therefore persecuted Jesus, and 
 " sought to slay him, because He had done these things on 
 " the Sabbath-day. 
 
 "But Jesus answered them. My Father icorl^eth hitherto, 
 '' and I u'orh'' By calling God his Father, He certainly 
 made himself of the same nature, and therefore in so far equal 
 with God ; and this being considered blasphemy, which was a 
 far more heinous offence than even Sabbath-breaking, their 
 dispute was turned into another channel, and we are left to 
 interpret the sentence as he spoke it. 
 
 " Hitherto," or mitil now, ecog cipTi, could not refer to the 
 work of creation, from which God ceased after the six days, 
 but to that work from which He never ceases ; and that never- 
 ceasing work, as a Hebrew commentator truly and beauti- 
 fully says, is goodness. (Ps. xxxi. 19.) This divine and 
 ceaseless work the Father of All began to do in Paradise on 
 the first Sabbath-day. Ever since that beginning there had 
 been one day of every seven wherein sacred works only might 
 be done lawfully. Such a work as circumcision, with the 
 pain attending, and the delicately careful treatment necessary, 
 was not light. The same was to be said of the New Moon 
 sacrifices. Whenever they occurred, it was no trifling work 
 to offer them, but the work was done on the Sabbath-day, 
 being God's work ; it was done for him, and Sabbath could 
 not be broken by the priest in offering them. This, however, 
 was not what our Lord intended to insist upon, for He 
 doubtless meant to affirm that whatever work He did was in 
 the very fact divine ; that his works of mercy were absolutely 
 the same in kind as his Father's works of perpetual goodness. 
 He did no more than He saw his Father do, but his works 
 were done visibly in the sight of men. He preached the glad 
 tidings of release and liberty. He taught sacred truths with 
 
94 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 a laborious activity, exposing himself to perils utterly repel- 
 lent of self-indulgence, and making repose impossible. He 
 actively sought out the afflicted ; He visited and healed the 
 sick. What the Pharisees thanklessly looked upon as a ma- 
 terial action, was with him a moral, nay, a godlike act. Such 
 it would be if, without miracle, and by the use of ordinary 
 means, it were done by any of his servants. Not only so : 
 whatever He did, it became their duty to do also, if by or- 
 dinary means and with God's blessing it could be accom- 
 plished, for He gave them an example that they should walk 
 in his steps. Miracles we cannot do on any day, and at the 
 line which divides the miraculous from the natural our duty 
 stops. 
 
 I cannot refrain from translating a paraphrase of the words 
 of our Lord, written by Nicholas Zeger, a Minorite friar of 
 the sixteenth century ; too good to be rejected because a 
 friar wrote them. Would that friars had written much more 
 so excellent, and then there would have been fewer of their 
 fraternities in the world. 
 
 " My Father tvorJceth hitherto, and I ivorJc. If you ask how 
 " my Father has been working onward to this very time, 
 " although it is written that on the seventh day God rested 
 " from all his works that He had made, you have only to 
 " look around and see in what good order all things consist, 
 " how they are governed, and how they are renewed, and you 
 " will understand what is meant by the perpetual working of 
 " my Father. When I say, then, that my Father has been 
 " working until now, and that I work, it is as if I should say 
 " that as my Father, after those six days of creation wrought 
 " also in that Sabbath of his which even yet continues, and 
 " ceases not from his work of universal government, whereby 
 " He produces a continual succession of things, like from like, 
 " in which he is every day busied, without ceasing from 
 
OUR lord's ministrations on the SABBATH-DAY. 95 
 
 " bestowing benefits on men ; so I, who am his Son, having 
 " received from him both the will and the power to do what 
 '' is necessary for the salvation of mankind, am not hindered 
 '' by the sanctity of the Sabbath from doing whatever my 
 '• Father requires of me." 
 
 Barely to say that God is so essentially active that He can- 
 not cease from working, any more than cold could cease to 
 freeze, or fire to burn, is a gross and insufficient illustration. 
 Philo, the Jew, speaks thus, but we need not recite his saying. 
 The words of our Lord Jesus to the Pharisees cannot signify 
 less than I have endeavoured to point out. He had come to 
 enter on his kingdom ; and, as our King and God, it pleased 
 him to have a Sabbath for himself, a Sabbath adorned and 
 sanctified with goodness, a day when men should leave their 
 own works, and occupy themselves in doing their Master's 
 business, and showing forth their Master's glory. 
 
9G THE HOLY SABBATH, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LOKD'S DAY, OE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 
 
 On the sixth clay of the week our Blessed Lord was cruci- 
 fied. At the third hour he was nailed to the cross. At the 
 sixth hour an awful darkness overspread the heavens, and 
 continued until the ninth, when He yielded|up his life, and the 
 sun shone out again. From the ninth hour to the twelfth 
 was the Preparation for the Sabbath, and in that interval 
 Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to beg the body, .took it 
 down from the cross, and before sunset he had laid it in his 
 own sepulchre. Then the Sabbath-lamps were lit. 
 
 The hours of the Preparation must have been fully occupied 
 by the disciples, not in preparing their dwellings for the Sab- 
 bath meal, but in providing costly spices and ointment for 
 the embalming. To them, therefore, the once consecrated 
 hour came without the needful preparation, and all the 
 hours of that holy day were spent in mourning. They 
 kept an involuntary fast, and the silence of death reigned 
 within the tomb of the Arimathean, wherein no man had 
 hitherto been laid. Again the sun went down, and the eve of 
 the first day of another week began. The [guards were still 
 watching round the sealed sepulchre, and the disciples, sus- 
 pected of an intention to steal the body while men slept, 
 waited for morning before they would venture to approach ; 
 but with the morning star they came. 
 
 Yet earlier than they, a mighty angel flashing with glory 
 came down from heaven, rolled away the stone from the 
 mouth of the sepulchre, and saluted his immortal Master as 
 He rose from the stony bed, and came forth untouched by the 
 
THE lord's day, or CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 97 
 
 taint of death. The stricken guards forsook their post, and 
 the earliest day-dawn lighted the disciples to the place where 
 they thought their Lord was laid. 
 
 The evening was past and the morning come, and again, 
 at the comfnencement of a Xew Creation, as the regeneration 
 of a lost world began, it might, with double truth, be said, 
 that the evening and the morning were the first day. 
 
 With the Saviour's crucifixion ceased his Sabbath visits to 
 the synagogues, and with his resurrection began another cus- 
 tom. On that last of undisputed " days of Sabbath " Jeru- 
 salem shows signs of sad amazement, if not of ceremonial 
 mourning. If men did not wear sackcloth and cast ashes on 
 their heads, they were dumb in wonder and beating their 
 breasts in penitence. Wherever they went, while listening to 
 the choir in the Temple, or to the blessings pronounced over 
 the wine and the bread of the hastily-prepared Sabbath-meal, 
 one sentence, pronounced amidst the departing shadows of a 
 preternatural eclipse, resounded in their ears — Trubj this ims 
 a righteous inan. 
 
 The Christian reader needs not now a recital of the wonders 
 which distinguished that first Lord's-day. No command was 
 given, but, before the second day of the week came, joys 
 greater than the joys of Sabbath were imparted to the 
 disciples. From the moment when the angel said to the 
 disciples that entered the vacated tomb, " He is not here, but 
 He is risen" — from that moment the entire course of Christian 
 history was fashioned. Days began to take new names, and 
 a series of such happy and blessed Sabbaths as the world had 
 never known was now begun. 
 
 Let us carefully mark the first of them, and the few that 
 followed thereupon, and we shall certainly find that the change 
 of Sabbath rest and worship from the seventh day to the first 
 was neither arbitrary nor accidental. We may, however, 
 
98 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 digress for a moment to observe that, after all, it is not pos- 
 sible to prove that the seventh day of the week was indeed the 
 seventh counting from the day of the first Sabbath in Para- 
 dise ; and every one who gives a moment's consideration on 
 this point must see that such a calculation was impossible, and 
 that even if it were possible it is immaterial. It would have 
 been immeasurably more natural for the sons of Noah to have 
 counted from the first day of entering the Ark, or from the 
 day of the covenant by sacrifice after quitting it, than for 
 ohem to have laboured, without record or monument to help 
 them, to cross trackless wastes of time without a single way- 
 mark left upon them — ages of enforced abstinence from the 
 great benefit of seventh-days' rest, when not even household 
 memory remained to guide them. 
 
 A conversation, which took place between two eminent 
 Jews in the tenth century of our era, contains observations 
 made by each of them well worth remembering. Saadiah was 
 an enthusiastic devotee of Talmudical tradition, and main- 
 tained the insufficiency of Holy Scripture to tell us all things 
 needful to be known. Ben Yerukhim was a Karaite, who 
 maintained just the contrary, and professed entire contentment 
 with God's written law. Among other pleas for the necessity 
 of tradition, Saadiah made this, that " no one knows how to 
 " count the seventh day from the Creation, nor can any one 
 " tell when the Sabbath ought to fall, the law being silent on 
 " that matter." Ben Yerukhim allows this fully, but does not 
 acknowledge any difficulty in the matter, and answers the 
 eminent traditionist in few words : " Every person in every 
 " place well knows that already."* Both these men agree that 
 it is not known when the seventh day from the Creation falls, 
 but the Karaite, whose manner of keeping the Sabbath is far 
 
 * Rule's History of the Karaite Jews. Cliap. xii. 
 
THE lord's day, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 99 
 
 the stricter of the two, considers that to follow the present 
 custom in that respect is quite sufficient to satisfy the inten- 
 tion of the law. 
 
 If any verbal command was given to change the Sabbath- 
 day, there is no record of it; yet the change was never 
 disputed, so far as we know, but it was evidently consistent 
 with the will of Christ ; and although there is no contempora- 
 neous Jewish writing bearing reference to the fact, so far as I 
 am myself informed — and I abstain from searching so late 
 writings as the Talmudic tractates — yet I may mention that 
 Lightfoot, quotes from one such writing in the Ahodah Zdrah^ 
 where the Lord's Day is mentioned as the Christian Daij^ 
 ^^'2^^ cv, and the name Xazarene, or Christian, 13 defined as 
 designating one of the followers of the Man who commanded 
 that the first day of the week should be made a holy day for 
 them. * Now, although the Talmud is not admissible as an 
 authority with us, and therefore could not be honestly insisted 
 on by us in an argument with Jews, we may, nevertheless, 
 attach some consideration to the fact that, in a remote century 
 of our era, it was beheved by the chief antagonists of Christian- 
 ity that Christ had commanded the first day of the week to be 
 their holy day. If nothing more, it is the historical note of 
 an opinion. 
 
 In the absence of direct evidence of an express command, 
 we glean from the Xew Testament enough to show what must 
 have been his will in this respect, and will now anticipate the 
 result by calling the first day of the week The LoixTs Bay, by 
 which name the Resurrection-day will be henceforth distin- 
 guished. Our Lord appeared to his disciples no less than four 
 times on the day of his rising from the grave. 
 
 First — to the women whom He met, saying, " All hail \ 
 
 * Lightfoot's Hebrew aud Talmadical Exercitatious ou Matt, xxviii. 1. 
 
100 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped 
 " him." (Matt, xxviii. 9.) 
 Second — to St. Peter. (Luke xxiv. 12 — 34.) 
 Third — to the two disciples whom He met on the way to 
 Emmans, with whom he conversed, expounding to them in all 
 the Scriptures the things concerning himself, and to whom he 
 made himself known in the breaking of bread, while their hearts 
 burned within them. (Luke xxiv. 13 — 32. 
 
 Fourth — in Jerusalem, at a later hour of the same day, if 
 now we may include that later hour in the twenty-four of the 
 first day, seeing that with the dawn began the knowledge of 
 his resurrection, and the notation of the hours. The Hebrew 
 division of days gives place to the Roman, and time is to be 
 counted in keeping with the Gentile usage. At Emmaus, 
 whenhehad vanished out of their sight, the two disciples "rose 
 " up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 
 " eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 
 " saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to 
 " Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, 
 " and how He was known of them in breaking of bread. And 
 " as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, 
 " and saith unto them. Peace be unto you." (Luke xxiv. 
 33 — 36.) Again, for the second time the same day, the Lord 
 gave them a full exposition of what is written concerning him- 
 self in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Again He 
 opened their understanding, that they might understand the 
 Scriptures. Again, by his own act and example, He instructed 
 them how the same holy writings were to be expounded, and 
 how they should minister the Gospel of Salvation — " that 
 " repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his 
 " name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (v. 47.) 
 So special is the character of these discourses, that we 
 must pause to consider why they were not given before this 
 
THE lord's day, Oil CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 101 
 
 day, and why they are now given. On this day ELe that was 
 dead is ahve — has appeared first in his character as the Lamb 
 of God, sacrificed to make atonement for the sins of men. 
 Before this day it coukl not have been said that the prophetic 
 Scriptures relating to the Atonement were fulfilled. But on 
 this day it can be so declared, and the disciples may not close 
 their eyes in sleep until they have been fully instructed in the 
 fact, and so far prepared to bear witness of it to the world. 
 
 Now let us pause and think. 
 
 Is it likely that, after having set aside the observance of the 
 Sabbath on the seventh day, the day on which it always had 
 been kept, and having even changed, if we understand the 
 text of St. Luke aright, the order of the day's beginning, the 
 Lord of the Sabbath would with so great solemnity and care 
 set apart that very day after his resurrection for preparing his 
 disciples for their work, and for the work that should engage 
 the energies of their successors through future ages, and yet 
 throw aside the institution which had been the means of pre- 
 serving some knowledge of God in the world by reading in 
 synagogues the Scriptures which He then expounded, and 
 then commanded his disciples to pubhsh in all nations ? 
 
 After such a consecration of every moment of that first 
 day of Christian history, in so close resemblance to the sanc- 
 tification of the first day in the history of mankind, is it 
 credible that He who thus began to plant the second 
 Paradise should at the same time set aside the Sabbath, and 
 leave to a so-called Christian liberty the fatal freedom to ex- 
 change the holy rest and blessedness of God's own day for 
 a licence to go on erring from his ways and wandering in 
 selfishness unblest ? Kay, rather let us confess that this is 
 the day which He made for himself, that we might rejoice in 
 it and be glad. 
 
 We must not fail to observe that on that same day He 
 
102 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 commissioned Ms disciples to preach the Gospel to the world. 
 It was in the memorable conversation which then took place 
 in Jerusalem that He gave them their commission. " The 
 " same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when 
 " the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for 
 " fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, 
 " and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He 
 " had so said, He showed unto them his hands and his side. 
 " Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 
 " Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : as my 
 " Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He 
 " had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, 
 " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whose soever sins ye remit, 
 " they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye 
 " retain, they are retained." (John xx. 19 — 23.) * The 
 true meaning of these words, as I humbly beheve, the reader 
 will see in the footnote. Thus understood, they show that on 
 the first Lord's-day provision was made for the canon of re- 
 vealed Christian truth, and for the establishment of the 
 Christian ministry, and that power was then conveyed to the 
 real fathers of the Christian Church for the effectual dis- 
 charge of the duties of their most sacred, peculiar, and in- 
 transferable office. 
 
 With all this we have not yet enough to establish our posi- 
 tion, which is, that, after faihng to keep the Sabbath as a Sab- 
 bath ought to be kept on the seventh day, while Jesus lay in 
 
 * I cannot conveniently digress from our present subject to enter 
 into a controversy with those who believe that these words of Christ 
 convey to priests a power to forgive sins. They have nothing to do 
 with any but the Apostles. To them our Lord conveyed power and au- 
 thority, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to lay down the law of 
 Christ's kingdom in the world, and to give infallible direction concern- 
 ing the way of salvation by the remission of sins. 
 
THE LORDS DAY, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 103 
 
 the sepulchre, Sabbath was really kept on the day of Resur- 
 rection, and that the first day of the week, like the first of 
 time, was thenceforth to be the Sabbath-day for the Christian 
 world. If the sacred narrative threw no further light on the 
 subject, it would become us to confess that the seventh day, 
 for aught we knew to the contrary, might still be the Sabbath- 
 day. The question being in that case still doubtful, it would 
 be our duty to leave it so until further information could be 
 found in the writings of those holy men who received the 
 keys of unfailing knowledge from their Master's hand. But 
 if the solemnities of that first Lord's-day are found to be but 
 first in a weekly succession of like events, and if the New 
 Testament contains further intimations entirely consistent with 
 the conviction of Christians of all ages that such a change of 
 day was then confirmed, we shall not have to set about another 
 labour that would be severely diflacult indeed — the labour of 
 quenching an intimate conviction, setting at nought evidences 
 received as clear and indisputable, and disputing a supreme 
 authority. But the solemnities of the first day of the first 
 Christian week were eminently Sabbatic, and the desired con- 
 . firmation was actually given. "We know what took place on 
 that day week. 
 
 "After eight days again his disciples were within, and 
 "Thomas with them: then came Jesus, and stood in the 
 " midst, and said, Peace be unto you." On this followed 
 the assurance of Thomas that the Lord had indeed risen, 
 and the one disciple who had not been present with his 
 brethren the week before, now sees the proofs that this is 
 really the risen Saviour, and acknowledges him to be his 
 " Lord and his God." (John xx. 24—29.) This gives us 
 two successive Lord's-days, which were marked and hallowed 
 by the assemblage of Christ with his disciples after his re- 
 surrection from the dead. For, be it noted, that afte)^ eight 
 
104 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 days, l/.s$' rjjotlpaj oktoo, is equivalent with the English on 
 that day week. Other languages would be idiomatically the 
 same as the Greek ; as in the Spanish, for example, they say,^ 
 al caho de ocho dias. 
 
 There were yet four more first days of the weeks before 
 our Lord's ascension, of which there is no note of any further 
 meeting between him and his disciples. It is not said on 
 what day He appeared to them at the Sea of Tiberias, which 
 appearance is called the third. We may presume, however, 
 that it was not on the seventh day, or they would not have 
 been fishing. The most natural conjecture is that it pleased 
 our Lord to meet them on a working day, and to bestow on 
 them a signal blessing amidst their ordinary labours for a 
 livelihood, at the same time urging them onward, and cheer- 
 ing them with heavenly discourse. Neither is the day of the 
 Ascension numbered, unless its being forty days after the 
 Kesurrection means that there were forty exclusive of the 
 Kesurrection and Ascension days themselves; but that is 
 not likely. Conjectures have not the force of evidence, and 
 as the Gospels have not the form of diaries, their silence on 
 this matter is not of the least importance. 
 
 Concerning the day of Pentecost there can be no doubt, 
 for it is the Feast of Weeks. On Thursday, 14th Nisan 
 (Lev. xxiii. 5), Jesus and his disciples ate the paschal supper. 
 (Mark xiv. 12.) On Friday, first day of unleavened bread, 
 when they killed the passover, was the Crucifixion. On 
 Sunday, the Kesurrection. That Sunday — we now use the 
 Roman names of days — was the morrow after the Sabbath, 
 the day appointed by the Mosaic law for the Feast of Pente- 
 cost. " Ye shall count unto jow. from the morrow after the 
 " Sabhath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave 
 " offering ; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto 
 " the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty 
 
THE lord's day, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 105 
 
 " days; and ye sliall offer a new meat-offering unto the 
 " Lord." (Lev. xxiii. 15 — 16.) Without question, therefore, 
 the day of Pentecost fell on a Sunday. 
 
 " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they 
 " were all with one accord in one place." (Acts ii. 1.) 
 They had been assembled in an upper room, and were con- 
 tinuing in one accord with prayer and supplication, wait- 
 ing to receive power by the Holy Ghost which should be 
 poured out upon them ; waiting to receive instruction touch- 
 ing matters of pressing importance for that time. There, 
 also, they had prayed for guidance in the election of a suc- 
 cessor to Judas Tscariot, the traitor ; and there they cast the 
 lots, and found Matthias to be chosen. Not on the Sabbath- 
 day as the Jews held it, and when the sacred assemblies were 
 holden in the synagogues, but on the morrow after the ac- 
 customed Sabbath the Holy Spirit, which Christ had pro- 
 mised, came down on them from heaven. 
 
 Thus again was the Divine presence manifested in an ex- 
 clusively Christian assemblage on the first day of the week, with 
 majesty and power surpassing all that had ever been ex- 
 perienced. It was, in fact, the eighth Sunday whereon the 
 Christians kept Sabbath after a new manner, not only 
 ceasing from their daily work, but consecrating the day to 
 God with solemnities such as the law of Moses did not pro- 
 vide. What their conduct was in regard to the ancient 
 seventh- day Sabbath, we shall consider presently. It 
 suffices to note here that on the morning of the first Lord's 
 day they saw the risen Saviour, and on the morning of the 
 eighth they saw the heavenly flames which attested his 
 mighty presence in their midst again. 
 
 This glorious day was consecrated to the preaching of the 
 Gospel, not in words of man's wisdom, but words which the 
 Holy Ghost teacheth. The Divine Paraclete had come, and 
 
 H 
 
106 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 the preachers spake under his resistless impulse. The pro- 
 clamation of the Gospel was made in Jerusalem, it is true, 
 but not in "the holy language," as the Jews called the 
 Hebrew, hallowed by the lips of prophets — not in that lan- 
 guage in which the restorers of Jerusalem, after the captivity, 
 first read the law, and after the reading interpreted the 
 sentences into the vernacular. Far different was it now. The 
 message of gladness was dehvered in many Gentile dialects. 
 Every man heard it plainly spoken in his own mother-tongue. 
 So was the day consecrated for this blessed ministration in 
 all the languages that men then spake, or ever shall speak. 
 
 The Apostles are now permitted to leave Jerusalem, and 
 proceed on their mission to the world. They are em- 
 powered to preach the Gospel to every creature, that is to 
 say, to all the Gentiles.* Now they can bear witness of the 
 grace of God in Christ, and lay the foundations far and wide 
 of a church large enough to comprehend all nations under 
 heaven. Armed with special authority, accredited with ex- 
 traordinary powers, and guided by the spirit of unerring 
 truth and wisdom, they originated the few institutions neces- 
 sary for the formation and maintenance of Christian con- 
 gregations. 
 
 Tor the express purpose of instructing their Hebrew 
 brethren, they frequented the synagogues on the Sabbath 
 days, honouring the primeval institutions. From week to 
 week they are to be found in the synagogues. So Barnabas 
 and Paul, separated to their work and sent forth by the Holy 
 Ghost, depart from Antioch, set sail from Seleucia, and land 
 in Cyprus. Then they preach the word of God in Salamis in 
 the synagogues of the Jews, go through the isle unto Paphos, 
 and, having preached Christ to Sergius Paulus and con- 
 
 * Uacry ry KTiau — nvilH b^S 
 
THE LORD S DAY, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 107 
 
 founded the sorceror, they loose from Taphos, come to Perga 
 in Pamphylia, and thence to Antioch in Pisidia. Here they 
 go into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and sit down to 
 teach. After a memorable discourse by St. Paul, the Jews, 
 being hardened, leave the synagogue, and the Gentiles who 
 are present beseech that those words may be preached to 
 them the next Sabbath"; '• and the next Sabbath-day came 
 " almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.''* 
 
 The same course of ministration they pursued after their 
 return to Antioch. It was on the Sabbath that they went 
 into the oratory by the river-side at Philippi, and Lydia was 
 converted to Christianity (Acts xvi. 13.) At Thessalonica, 
 St. Paul, " as his manner was," w^eut into the synagogue, 
 *'and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the 
 " Scriptures." (Acts xvii. 1, 2.) At Corinth, again, he 
 reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded 
 both Jews and Greeks. (Acts xviii. 4.) So at Ephesus 
 (xix. 8), speaking boldly for the space of three months. 
 
 Christianity was not yet established in any of these places, 
 and as there was not Christian worship, there could not yet 
 be any Christian Sabbath, but that would surely follow in 
 due time. At their first entrance into Jewish populations 
 they joined their Hebrew brethren on the old Sabbath, not 
 raising any question as to its nature, which was well enough 
 understood ; nor needlessly concerning themselves about the 
 number, first or seventh, of the day for its observance, so it 
 were observed faithfully. But it soon appeared that the first 
 day was in fact marked for consecration to Christian worship 
 and instruction, however much the seventh might supply 
 occasions for preaching the Gospel to the Jews. To Jews 
 and Gentiles ahke they proclaimed '• Jesus and the Eesurrec- 
 
 * Acts xiii,, xiv. 
 
 II 2 
 
108 THE HOLT SABBATH. 
 
 " tion," but it was to the latter that they most diHgently in- 
 sisted on the doctrine of resurrection from the dead in con- 
 gregations assembled on the Resurrection-day. 
 
 So much might be inferred from an incident in the narra- 
 tive of St. Paul's return from Greece to Palestine, where St. 
 Luke, his companion, describes their brief sojourn at Troas. 
 " We sailed away from PhiHppi after the days of unleavened 
 " bread, and came unto them in Troas, where we abode seven 
 " days." Now in those seven days the Apostle could not 
 fail to show his accustomed reverence to the Sabbath as 
 observed by his Jewish brethren, unless some unrecorded cir- 
 cumstance, or some personal reason to the contrary unknown 
 to history, or a contrary custom estabhshed by Christianity, 
 should induce him to act otherwise. Whether or not, it is 
 certain that, in that full week of days, a Saturday and Sun- 
 day, so to speak, could not but occur. The latter of the two 
 is mentioned by the narrator : " 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 ; 
 *' and continued his speech until midnight. And there were 
 " many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered 
 " together." (Acts xx. 6, 8.) 
 
 Now it cannot be understood that the congregation in the 
 upper chamber at Troas, not probably the room used as a 
 synagogue at other times, was convened merely on occasion 
 of St. Paul's departure, which was expected to take place on 
 the morrow, the second day of the week, for it is said that 
 they came together to hreah hread, or as the Peshito Syriac 
 renders it, that we might hreah the Eucharist, «^T2pn5i« «?P5T. 
 A eucharistic service would scarcely be permitted in a syna- 
 gogue, and it is therefore most probable, if not quite evident, 
 that the Troad Christians had a separate place of assemblage, 
 an upper room prepared, and many lights in it, a precaution 
 
THE lord's day, OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 109 
 
 obviously necessary, that there might be full publicity, and 
 no unseemly appearance of obscurity. Thus provided with 
 many lights, all the congregation might be able to read 
 the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, with, perhaps, 
 such treatises or narratives as St. Luke himself refers to in 
 another place. (Luke i. 1, 4.) Or, when thus assembled, they 
 might have occasion to inspect the letters of commendation 
 presented by Christian strangers come to Troas from distant 
 congregations (2 Cor. iii. 1), agreeably to a similar custom 
 observed in synagogues. (Acts xxii. 5.) It can scarcely be 
 2303sible to doubt that this describes an established Christian 
 congregation, habitually assembling on the first day of the 
 week. Such an arrangement would naturally take place as 
 soon as even two or three were separated from the synagogue, 
 " cast out " because of faith in Christ. They would certainly 
 meet together in the name of Christ, and would enjoy his 
 presence in their midst. 
 
 Yery soon we find direct allusions to such regular Sunday 
 services addressed to the ruder congregations of Galatia and 
 the more pretentious society of Corinth. Take the few words 
 following, addressed by St. Paul to the Corinthians. " Xow 
 *' concerning 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 gather- 
 " ings when I come." (1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2.) By these instances 
 we perceive that the Law of Moses could have been i)reserved 
 in Babylonia, as well as in Greece or Lesser Asia, without a 
 confessor, and the knowledge of that Law in Persia or in Italy 
 without synagogues, or as easily could there have been a sign 
 to distinguish between the families of Jews and Gentiles with- 
 out a Sabbath, as could the doctrines of Christianity, and a 
 solemn and united approach to God through the mediation of 
 
110 THE HOLY SABBATFI. 
 
 our Lord Jesns Christ, be maintained in the world without a 
 Sabbath-day and Sabbath worship. 
 
 So, when the beloved disciple, in hoary age, " was in the 
 " isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God. and for 
 *' the testimony of Jesus Christ," he found solace there in the 
 sanctification of a day in the Christian manner. He was " in 
 " the spirit on the Lord's day." (Rev. i. 10.) I think it is 
 universally acknowledged that this was the first day of the 
 week, but " the Lord's day "is so plain and unequivocal a 
 designation that I believe it is literally accepted in all the old 
 versions except one, the Ethiopic, made for the use of a 
 very remote church where the nomenclature of Christendom 
 had scarcely become known, but where the Hebrew style 
 was familiar in its application to all religious subjects. The 
 Greek is made more plain in that version by the substitution 
 of the Hebrew form, on the first day. 
 
 Here closes the ISTew Testament account of the Christian 
 Sabbath, and with this we might well be satisfied if all 
 Christians were content with the evidence of Holy Scripture. 
 That, however, is not the case; and an historical survey 
 would not be complete which did not assist such readers as 
 have not yet disentangled themselves from the perplexity 
 thrown around the subject to ascertain the causes of this 
 perplexity. This can best be done by observing how Chris- 
 tians treated the matter while the Church was in its infancy, 
 how it came to pass that the weekly sanctification of a day 
 to God fell into inobservance, and how conflicting opinions 
 superseded the happy unanimity of the apostolic age. 
 
 Three passages of St. Paul are quoted by those who say 
 that the Sabbath passed away together with the Mosaic 
 ritual. 
 
 The apostle wrote to the Galatians (iv. 10, 11): "Ye 
 " observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am 
 
THE lord's day, or christian sabbath. Ill 
 
 " afraid of you, lest 1 have bestowed among you labour in 
 " vain." They suppose that the Galatians observed Sabbath- 
 days, new moons, Hebrew feasts, and Sabbatic years. This 
 is contrary to probability, as well as to the context, where 
 we read that they were heathens before their conversion, and 
 were turning back to idolatry again. They were relapsing 
 into the old pagan folly of calculating lucky and unlucky days 
 and times. Astrology or divination governed their actions. 
 The stars to them were more than God. 
 
 To the Jewish converts at Rome he wrote (Rom. xiv. 5) : 
 " One man esteemeth one day above another : another 
 " esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully per- 
 " suaded in his own mind." This evidently refers to the 
 question constantly occurring when Jews were converted to 
 Christianity. St. Paul would not precipitate the conclusion. 
 The change would certainly be made from the seventh-day 
 Sabbath to the first, but time should be allowed, and freedom 
 left to individuals meanwhile. 
 
 Exactly in the same spirit he addressed the Colossians 
 (ii. 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 Sabbaths 
 ^' [o-a/S/Sarwv] : which are a shadow of things to come ; but the 
 " body is of Christ." It was not the institution of the Sabbath 
 that was called in question inGalatia, or at Rome, or at Colossa?. 
 The only question anywhere that had relation to the Sabbath- 
 da2/ was, whether it should be the seventh or the first. This 
 was, like other matters that are specified, the shadow only ; the 
 hocly is Christ. But that which is the body must have its own 
 shadow. 
 
112 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CHEISTIAN SABBATH IN THE FIRST THREE 
 CENTURIES. 
 
 NoTHiNa can be more distinct than the demarcation of the 
 apocryphal from the divine. There was not any visible wall 
 of separation raised around the mount " that might be 
 " touched," but a barrier of dread effectually guarded 
 every approach'; and while within that barrier Moses held 
 communion with the God of glory, outside the line Aaron 
 his brother was making the molten calf. So Paul and 
 Barnabas were close companions, and, for a time, faithful 
 fellow-labourers ; yet the writings of these two men — if 
 indeed the epistle attributed to the latter be authentic, and 
 not greatly corrupted — are substantially dissimilar, and fairly 
 represent the difference between Apostles and "Apostolic 
 Pathers." Barnabas is counted first of the fathers, and was 
 once called the fourteenth apostle. Assuredly, he was much 
 unlike the twelve inspired witnesses of Christ then seated on 
 their thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 Barnabas is said to have written a catholic epistle wherein 
 he speaks of the Sabbath, and, after some quotations from 
 the Old Testament, gives his own interpretation thus : 
 " Attend, my children, to what He says, ^finished in six 
 " ' days ' — that is to say, in six thousand years. The Lord 
 " God will consummate all things, for with Him the day is 
 " a thousand years, as He himself testifies, saying : ' Behold, 
 " ' this day shall be as a thousand years.' (Ps. xc. 4 ?) 
 " Therefore, children, in six days — that is, in six thousand 
 " years — all things shall be consummated. And He rested 
 
DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 113 
 
 " the seventh day — that is, wlien his Son shall come and 
 " make an end of the time of the wicked one, and shall 
 ^' judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun, and moon, 
 " and stars ; then shall He rest gloriously in the seventh day. 
 *' And further He saith, ' Thou slialt sanctify it luith clean 
 " * hands.* If, then, God sanctified that day, now none can 
 ^' keep it holy, except it be with a heart altogether clean. 
 " Therefore, consider that He who rested gloriously will 
 " sanctify it when we, having received the righteous promises, 
 *' there being no more iniquity, shall be able to hallow that 
 " day, when all things are made new by the Lord, and we 
 " are ourselves first made holy. And, again, he says to 
 " them, * Yoiir new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot away 
 " ' with.* (Is. i. 13.) Consider how He speaks : the Sabbaths 
 " that now are are not acceptable to me ; but those which I 
 " have made, when having completed all things, I shall make 
 " a beginning of the eighth day — that is to say, the begiu- 
 " ning of another world. Therefore, we, too, pass the eighth 
 " day in rejoicing, wherein Jesus also rose from the dead, 
 " and, having appeared openly, ascended into heaven."* 
 
 Here is a basis of historic truth, an express recognition 
 of the primeval Sabbath, and a literal quotation from the 
 Decalogue, yet it is followed by a milleuarian dream. All the 
 historical and preceptive Scriptures, which have hitherto been 
 treated with sobriety at least, are now explained away, as 
 if the Oriental fables of periods in creation of hundreds or 
 thousands of years were to be adopted in place of the 
 Mosaic account of days. To this end, two or three poetical 
 conceptions of the immutability of God are put in the stead 
 of a practical commandment. Because the Sabbaths pol- 
 luted with idolatry in the times of the kings of Samaria and 
 
 * S. Barnabse Epistolse, cap. xv. 
 
114 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 Jadah were hateful to God, it is all at once inferred that the 
 Sabbath appointed for all the world in every age was abo- 
 lished ; and the scriptural evidences, which are so familiar to 
 every attentive reader of the Bible, were set aside by this 
 Levite from Cyprus, whose zeal and self-denial had bespoken 
 the reverence of ages, but whose incompetence as a teacher 
 is exhibited in the writing that bears his name. Learned 
 men, whose attention has been fixed so closely on the 
 writings of the Apostolic Fathers for purposes of sacred 
 criticism that it would almost seem presumptuous to differ 
 from them, agree to accept the writing attributed to Barnabas 
 as a " monument of the first Christian age."* The pubhca- 
 tion in that age of views so extremely unscriptural and wild 
 portends the very departure from apostolical Christianity 
 which eventually took place, and assists us to account for 
 the prevalence in the Christian Church of such notions in 
 relation to the Sabbath as we had not found anywhere until 
 we closed the Old Testament and the New, and took up the 
 mutilated remains of a companion of the great theologian of 
 the primitive Church, who seems permitted to wander in the 
 trackless wilderness of private interpretation that his name 
 and his associations may not bring him so near the standard 
 of inspired Scripture as to confuse the boundaries of human 
 invention and Divine revelation, but to mark them in their 
 true characters, and to throw around Mount Calvary a 
 boundary of supernatural defence as impassable as that 
 which was drawn around Mount Sinai. 
 
 About the last year of the first century, or first of the 
 second, Ignatius wrote his epistle to the Magnesians, and, 
 like Barnabas, in his endeavours to dissuade the Magnesian 
 Christians from Jewish customs and opinions, he bids them 
 
 * Westcott on tlie Canou of the New Testament, chap, i., sect. 4. 
 
DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 115 
 
 no longer Sabbatize, bat live according to the Lord's-day, 
 that is to say, to live consistently with the faith professed and 
 the worship rendered to God on that day, the day whereon 
 our Saviour rose from the dead, who is our life, in whom our 
 life sprang up again, even by his death, whom some deny.--' 
 
 The teaching of Ignatius, however, is far superior to that 
 of Barnabas, and if by Sabbatizing he means no more than 
 keeping the Sabbath in the Jewish way, as it has been de- 
 scribed in a preceding chapter, his teaching is unexceptionable. 
 So understood, it harmonizes perfectly with the tenor of our 
 Lord's doctrine, which he appears to have studied well. 
 Perhaps the zealous and rude Cypriote had not so studied. 
 Yet these two writers equally attest the observance of the 
 Lord's-day as very distinct from a seventh-day Sabbath, and 
 so far their evidence is of equal value as regards the history 
 of the institution, while the discordance of their doctrinal 
 teaching strengthens the force of their historical agreement. 
 
 The report of Pliny the Younger, written from Bithynia 
 to the Roman Emperor, has been quoted times without num- 
 ber. He relates that the Christians in that country assembled 
 habitually on a stated day before sunrise, sang a hymn to 
 Christ as God, and bound themselves by an oath not to do 
 anything criminal, that they would not commit thefts, nor 
 robberies, nor adulteries, nor be guilty of any breach of faith 
 or failure to restore a pledge.* The oath, or sacramentum, 
 not well understood by the proconsul, was probably the 
 Eucharist, which, although not an oath, had all the force of 
 one on the conscience of the participant.! The sins here 
 enumerated exclude those who commit them from the kingdom 
 
 * — jj.r]K'tTi <ra(3j3ari^ovTeQ, ciWd Kara KvpiaKi]v Iv i] kcu y t^ioi] ijudjv 
 avkreiXev di avTov, Kal tov Oavdrov avrov ov Tiveg ctpvovvrai. — Ignat' 
 ad Magnes., viii. This is according to Curetou's shorter text 
 + C. Plinii. Epist. x,, 97, Trajauo Imperatori. 
 
116 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 of heaven, and would bar tliem out from admission to the Holy 
 Communion, which was celebrated on Sundays, as is well 
 known. Sunday, therefore, would be the stated day. 
 
 Justin Martyr gives a very similar account in his First 
 Apology (A.D., 147 circ), where he very fully describes the 
 order of such an assembly, and so mentions the day on which 
 it is held as to show that the status dies mentioned by Pliny 
 was no other than the Lord's-day mentioned by John the 
 Divine. " And on the day called Sun-day, all the inhabitants 
 ^' {i.e., all they that are Christians) of cities or villages, 
 *' having come together into one place, read the memoirs of 
 " the Apostles, or writings of the Prophets, so far as time 
 allows."* Now these few words are exactly descriptive of a 
 Christianized Synagogue. When they were Jews, and no more, 
 they read the Haphtarah, or so much of it, with an address or 
 a conversation, as time allowed. When they became Christians 
 in faith, but still retaining their habits as Jews, and cherishing 
 the consciousness of being descendants of Abraham, they added 
 to the Prophetic explanation or enforcement of the Law the 
 more complete exposition of it afforded by the memoirs of the 
 Apostles, or in other words the Gospels, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and their other writings. This feature in Justin's 
 description is of the highest importance, for it exhibits a link 
 of continuity in the primitive Christian practice, where the 
 Sabbath habits of elder times were faithfully retained, and 
 the change of day, although the celebration of peculiarly 
 Christian worship on the Sunday, all at once introduced in 
 the exclusively Christian congregations, was in other respects 
 gradual, and effected without any of the inconvenience of 
 a sudden revolution. It gives me no trouble to account 
 for this synagogue-like manner of worship and communion, 
 but enables me to understand the reason why the Jews did 
 
 * Just. Mart. Apol., i. 67. 
 
DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 117 
 
 not denounce the Christians as Sabbath-breakers, which they 
 certainly would have done if Barnabas had not been mis- 
 taken. 
 
 Tertullian, who wrote at least half a century later than 
 Justin, referred to the Sunday services of Christians, and notes 
 that on the Lord's^day they did not kneel in prayer, but stood 
 up, as in the posture of confidence and joy. * 
 
 From these observations, made during a period of at least 
 a hundred and seventy years after the Kesurreetion of Christ, 
 we learn that in spite of many erroneous notions entertained by 
 eminent members of the Church, the Lord's day was hallowed 
 with great solemnity, and on this point there is not, I think, 
 any conflicting evidence. Without multiplying quotations, 
 therefore, I will now content myself with transcribing a com- 
 memorative prayer from the Apostolic Constitutions. Neither 
 the authorship nor the date is certain, but critics agree that 
 those constitutions were written early enough to be classed 
 with Ante-Nicene writings, and may be confidently referred 
 to for evidence of what was the prevailing faith and custom 
 in that early age. Here, then, we have a Sabbath-prayer 
 such as Christians before Constantino would use. 
 
 " Lord Almighty, who didst create the world by Christ, 
 " and didst ordain the Sabbath in remembrance thereof, 
 " because thou wast resting from thy works, in order to our 
 " study of thy laws, and didst appoint the festal days for the 
 " delight of our souls, that we might attain to the wisdom 
 " which is by Thee created ; as He was born for us of a 
 " woman, appeared in this hfe, showing in his baptism that 
 " He was both God and Man, suffered for us with thy per- 
 " mission, and died, and by thy power rose again. Wherefore 
 " also we solemnly assemble to keep the feast of the Resurrec- 
 " tion on the Lord's day. We rejoice for that victory over 
 
 * Tertul. de Orat., xxiii. 
 
118 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " death, bringing life and immortality to light. We rejoice 
 " that by Him thou hast brought the nations together to thy- 
 " self, to be a peculiar people, the true Israel, the beloved of 
 *' God, to behold God. For thou, O Lord, leddest our 
 " fathers out of the land of Egypt, and deliveredst them from 
 " the iron furnace, and from the clay, and from the making of 
 " bricks, and from the hand of Pharaoh, and from the servants 
 " of Pharaoh, and leddest them through the sea as if it were 
 " dry land, and didst nourish them in the wilderness with 
 " all manner of good things, and gavest them for law ten 
 *' commandments, spoken with thine own voice, and written 
 " with thine own hand. 
 
 " Thou didst command them to keep the Sabbath, not 
 " giving a pretence for idleness, but an incitement to godhness, 
 " for the knowledge of thy might, for the avoidance of evil, 
 " even so dost thou now inclose them as within a strong fortress, 
 " that, being taught, they may exult in the sevenfold blessing. 
 " For this (thou givest them) one week and seven weeks, a 
 " seventh month and a seventh year ; and of this year a 
 " seventh revolution, which is the Jubilee, the fiftieth year, the 
 " year of remission, that men may have no pretence for even 
 ^' seeming to be ignorant. Therefore there is every Sabbath free- 
 " dom to take rest, that on the Sabbath-day no one may let an 
 " angry word escape his hps. For the Sabbath is the resting- 
 " time for all creation, the perfecting of the world, for the 
 " searching into laws, for giving praise acceptable to God in 
 " return for the things He hath given unto men. 
 
 "Above all of them is the Lord's day. This day sets 
 " before us him that is our Mediator, our Guardian, our 
 *' Lawgiver ; the Author of our Resurrection ; the First-born 
 " of all Creation ; the Word of God ; the Man that was born 
 " of Mary without human Father ; that lived among us 
 " without blame ; that was crucified under Pontius Pilate ; 
 " that died and rose up again from the dead. Therefore 
 
DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 119 
 
 ^' this day is called the Lord's. To Thee, Lord, Jet 
 *' thanksgiving be rendered for all things ; for by Thee is 
 " this grace given which, by its greatness, covers and sur- 
 " passes all."* 
 
 The worshipping congregations that, in that age of martyr- 
 doms for the truth's sake, could appreciate the excellence of 
 this truly scriptural prayer, could also perceive the force of 
 that memorable sentence, " The Son of Man is Lord also of 
 " the Sabbath-day." The Christians of that age, thus re- 
 counting the chief events of human history, exulted in the 
 joyous memories of the day which then, as of old, was con- 
 secrated to holy gladness, when men put off the sackcloth, 
 and wiped away the tears. They saw humanity advancing 
 in the path of life, led on by Jesus, Prince of Immortality, 
 all that was good cherished and matured, and none of it cast 
 away as out of date. The converted Pharisee, having his 
 eyes opened, falls back from the oral to the written law, and 
 to the imperishable history, there to learn that the Lord of 
 the Sabbath is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 
 With shame and sorrow we confess that throughout the 
 greater part of nominal Christendom the perception of the 
 origin, the nature, and the blessedness of the Sabbath has for 
 ages faded away, except where, in personal experience, it 
 has been revived, or the public conscience has been quickened 
 in a nation or a province. We mourn because of a strange 
 delusion that Christians are too spiritual to suffer what they 
 call Sabbatarian formality, too free to brook Sabbatarian 
 restraint. Yet such a notion is avowed by theologians of 
 high culture, and, we would fain believe, of unquestionable 
 sincerity. I will now endeavour to indicate the chief source, 
 as it seems to me, of the lamentable misconception. 
 
 * Constitut. Apostolic, lib. vii., cap. 3G. 
 
120 THE HOLT SABBATH, 
 
 CHAPTER Xir. 
 
 EAKLY DIVERSITY OF TEACHING AND CUSTOM. 
 
 Concerning the Lord's-day, hallowed by the Resurrection 
 of the Saviour, there was no doubt. That day was observed 
 by all who bore his name. But it was not so with the 
 Sabbath. The Sacred Rest, distinctly and properly called 
 Sabbath, and the seventh day of the week, on which men 
 rested, were unhappily confounded, as if the day and the 
 cessation from labour on the day, had but one and the same 
 name, or as if the holiness of the rest depended on the 
 ordinal number of the day. The simplicity and spirituality 
 of Holy Scripture were faded from the minds of men, and in 
 few of the chief teachers of the early Church was there a 
 correct perception of the fundamental institutions of revealed 
 religion. Dimness of perception was at once the cause and 
 the effect of dulness of conscience. 
 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, for example, who wrote his catecheses 
 some time within the first half of the fourth century, taught 
 that Sabbaths ought to be utterly abandoned. " Flee," said 
 he, " every diabolic action. Neither give heed to the Dragon 
 " nor to the Apostate ... to the predictions of astrologers, 
 *' nor to auguries, nor to omens, nor to the fabulous predic- 
 " tions of heathens. Poisoning, incantation, raising the 
 " spirits of the departed, let such things not be heard of." 
 He exhorted his catechumens to abstain from all intem- 
 perance, gluttony, and voluptuousness ; to be above avarice 
 and usury; to refrain from frequenting heathen spectacles, 
 and from using enchantments to keep away diseases. " Turn 
 " away," said he, " from all the vile company of taverns. 
 
EARLY DIVERSITY OF TEACHING AND CUSTOM. 121 
 
 " Reject all observance of Sabbaths, and say not of any sort 
 " of meats which is indifferent that it is profane or unclean."* 
 So wildly did he confound the sacred duty of Sabbath ob- 
 servance with pagan abominations. Because the Jews were 
 zealous, in their mistaken way, as regarded the Sabbath, he 
 thought that it became him to reject what they perverted, 
 rather than restore it. 
 
 Happily, however, this was not yet a general mistake ; 
 nor could it be so long as good men read the Bible with 
 intelligence, and distinguished what was originally of Divine 
 appointment from the traditions of men. The old Sabbath- 
 day and the Lord's day were for some time both observed by 
 many Christians. On neither of those days would they fast, 
 except on the great Sabbath, as it was called, between Good 
 Friday and Easter day, which was kept as a fast in remem- 
 brance of our Lord's lying in the tomb.f "You must regard 
 " the Sabbath and the Lord's day," say the Apostolic Con- 
 stitutions, "as festal days, because we make remembrance 
 " of the Creation on one, and of the Resurrection on the 
 " other."! This usage was adopted in Abyssinia, and is 
 still retained there. The foreigner may still observe that 
 the Abyssinian will not travel on Saturday. 
 
 The Sabbath-day was chiefly remembered in the Eastern 
 Church, where a broader and more scriptural view of the 
 original institution prevailed, as is expressed in the compre- 
 hensively commemorative prayer quoted above from the 
 Apostolic Constitutions. § Athanasius speaks very clearly on 
 the subject in his treatise on the Sabbath and Circumcision, 
 and his homily o?i the corn-field (Matt, xii.) begins with these 
 
 * Cyril. Hieros, Cat. iv. 23. 
 + Tertiil. de Jejun., xv. Ambros. de Elia et Jejun., x. Con. 
 
 Apost., Ixiv. 
 t Const. Apost., vii., 23. § Chapter xi. supra. 
 
 I 
 
122 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 remarkable words : " We are met together on the Sabbath- 
 " day, not that we are affected with Judaism, for we have 
 " nothing to do with false Sabbaths, but are come together 
 " on this day that we may worship Jesus, the Lord of the 
 '' Sabbath. Once, indeed, the Sabbath was honourable with 
 " these ancients, and the Lord changed the day of the Sab- 
 " bath for the Lord's-day."* This statement is entirely 
 borne out by Socrates, who says that the Egyptians of 
 Alexandria, and they who inhabit the Thebaid, assemble in 
 congregations on the Sabbath, but " they do not then partake 
 ^' of the mysteries as Christians are accustomed to do (on the 
 " Lord's day), but eat all kinds of pleasant food. They 
 *' communicate after the evening has closed." The same 
 historian, speaking of the congregations in Constantinople, 
 says that they assemble in the churches on the Lord's day, 
 and the two festal days of the week, and sing hymns re- 
 sponsive.t 
 
 With all this pious observance there was a certain mingling 
 of will- worship, which gave rise to an injurious diversity, ever 
 growing wider and wider. Constantine the Great again in- 
 troduced a new element of confusion by taking the Lord's 
 day into the list of festivals, so counting it among the Gentile 
 feasts as if it were one of them. He gave it his imperial 
 sanction, and the reader of his law would infer that he was 
 rather influenced by observing how the Christians honoured 
 it, than by a personal persuasion of the Divine appointment. 
 Gradually he learned a little better, and some of his succes- 
 sors learned better still, yet Paganism tainted their legis- 
 lation, and they did but impose such restrictions on certain 
 vocations on the Lord's day as were also obligatory on hea- 
 then festivals. Yalentinian the Elder exempted Christians 
 
 * De Semente. t Socrat. Hist., v. 22, vi. 8. 
 
EARLY DIVERSITY OF TEACHING AXD CUST05I. 123 
 
 from the interference of officers of justice on that day,* and 
 Yalentinian the Younger, when confirming that exemption, 
 made it more ample, and expressly recognized the religious 
 reason, declaring that such interference on that sacred day 
 would not only be punishable, but would be treated as a 
 sacrilege, a violation of the appointed rites of holy religion. + 
 Theodosius confirmed this last law in the same sense,:]: but 
 after all, the appeal to Divine authority was indistinct, until the 
 Sabbath seemed more imperial than divine. 
 
 The beneficent spirit of Christianity found expression in 
 these laws, notwithstanding the defect we now complain of. 
 Honorius, for example, ordained that judges should not only 
 be permitted but commanded to visit the prisons every Sun- 
 day, see the prisoners, and ascertain whether the warders had 
 refused them any of those acts of humanity which the laws 
 allowed. He also commanded food to be distributed among 
 the starving poor on Sundays. Persons condemned to close 
 imprisonment were to be brought out, taken to the baths 
 under careful custody, and brought back to the cells clean. 
 Judges or other officers who neglected these duties on the day 
 sanctified by Christ to deeds of mercy were to be heavily 
 fined.§ Works of real necessity for public safety or preser- 
 vation of life were always to be done on the Christian Sab- 
 bath. This kind of legislation continued for some ages, and 
 in various countries of Christendom, but was not always cha- 
 racterized with equal wisdom, nor enforced with equal 
 honesty. 
 
 While piety retained its vigour good customs lasted, and 
 true followers of Christ hallowed his day with solemn assem- 
 blage in spite of almost every difficulty. When watched 
 
 * Cod. Theodos., lib. viii. Tit. viii., lex 1. 
 
 t Tit. viii., lex 3. X Lib. ii. Tit. viii., lex 2. 
 
 § Cod. Theodos,, lib. ix. Tit. xii., lex 7. 
 
 i2 
 
124 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 by heathen persecutors, who dragged away those whom they 
 detected in acts of Christian worship, and delivered them to 
 magistrates who offered them the choice between apostasy or 
 martyrdom, they prepared themselves for death, assembling 
 at night, and concluding their devotions before the dawn of 
 day. 
 
 Tertulhan advised his brethren to do thus. " Every day," 
 said he, " we are beset, every day we are betrayed, and very 
 " often attacked in the midst of our companies and congrega- 
 " tions." But he would not have them shun the danger by 
 neglecting the duty, nor avert it by bribing the officers of 
 pagan justice. ThQ faith that could remove a mountain could 
 also remove a soldier. Innocence, not concealment, would 
 save them from false accusers. It was best and safest that 
 they should hallow the Lord's-day as the Lord himself had 
 hallowed it, with the word of God, prayer, and communion.* 
 
 Christians refrained from attending pagan spectacles on that 
 day, and after a time the law assisted them in such absten- 
 tion. If the day for public entertainments — the emperor's 
 birthday, for example — fell on a Sunday, the celebra- 
 tion was deferred until Sunday was past, that Christian wor- 
 shippers might not be disturbed in their congregations or 
 their homes. 
 
 Yet there was a darker side. Folly and superstition per- 
 sisted in their course. The meanest forms of Rabbanism 
 crept in, to debase the earnest but untaught zeal of Jewish 
 converts. Origen makes mention of certain heretics who 
 taught that the law of Moses required men to sit still in 
 their houses on the Sabbath, and not move out of their seats. 
 Every person, they insisted, should maintain the same posture 
 the whole day through until sunset. To mitigate this absurd 
 
 * Tertullian, Apologia vii. De Fuga xiv. 
 
EARLY DIVERSITY OF TEACHING AND CUSTOM. 12o 
 
 severity, some undertook to moderate the alleged severity of 
 God's law by help of convenient traditions, and an enlarge- 
 ment of the meaning of sentences which that law, after all, 
 did not contain. The importation of those trifles into the 
 Christian Church provoked idle controversies, and tended to 
 bring Sabbath-keeping into contempt. Fanatic zeal wrestled 
 ■with godless opposition ; but, amidst consequent confusion, 
 traces may be found of the soundest principle, and efforts 
 were made by the Church from time to time to lead her mem- 
 bers into a course of moderate and scriptural observance. So 
 the Council of Laodicea recorded its judgment that '• Chris- 
 " tians ought not to Judaize and be idle on the Sabbath-day, 
 " but should work for themselves on that day, preferring to 
 " rest on the Lord's day, if they can, as Christians. But 
 " if they are found idle, let them be anathema from 
 Chi'ist."* The expression, if they can, el Syvajvro, may hint 
 at works of real necessity or mercy, or it may hint at an 
 expedient compromise. Here we find extreme rigour on one 
 side and indefinite exception on the other, and time has too 
 abundantly shown the evil consequences of such compromise 
 iind contradiction. 
 
 * Cone. Laodic. Can. xxix. 
 
126 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ROMISH PERVEESION OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 
 
 The diversity of teaching and practice which began in the 
 earlier ages of Christianity, and spread rapidly thenceforth, is 
 alone sufficient to account for the depravation of doctrine in 
 regard to the Christian Sabbath which is prevalent at the 
 present time. The causes of diversity have been indicated. 
 We now come to its effects. 
 
 The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century brought to 
 light the deplorable fact that the pretended authority of the 
 so-called Catholic Church had superseded the one authority 
 whereon alone the true Church of Christ depends for its 
 existence. That I may not seem to exaggerate, I will confine 
 myself as closely as possible to what I find written in the 
 Roman Catechism, a summary of doctrine prepared by order 
 of the Pope Saint Pius Y. for the guidance of Parish Priests 
 in their ministrations to the people, and universally used for 
 this purpose, under papal sanction, at the present day.* 
 
 The Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue, counted tliird 
 in the Roman Church, is quoted literally, and so far accepted 
 by the highest authority in that Church. The Catechism 
 teaches to the following effect : — 
 
 1 . That this Commandment of the Law prescribes the ex- 
 ternal worship^ which we owe to God. It follows naturally 
 from the Pirst Commandment, for we cannot but venerate 
 
 * Cateclusmus ad Parochos. Pars, iii., cap. 4. 
 + JExternal loorsMp is not mentioned at all in this commandment. 
 It may be implied, as mncli more also is implied, but certainly it is not, 
 prescribed. 
 
ROMISH PERVERSION OF THE COMMANDMENT. 127 
 
 with external act Him whom we inwardly aclore. And as 
 this cannot easily be done by those who are immersed in 
 worldly business, a certain time was appointed when such 
 acts may be conveniently performed. 
 
 2. That as this Commandment is of the kind to produce 
 wonderfully good effects, it is very important that the Priest 
 should explain it well. The first word. Remember, should 
 move him to the greater diligence. He should remind the 
 faithful that they are to remember it, and to that end fre- 
 quently admonish and instruct them. The faithful observance 
 of this commandment will help them to keep all the others. 
 It will help them, because the more careful they are to go to 
 Church on " Feast-days"* to hear the Word of God, and be 
 instructed in His laws, the more heartily will they keep them 
 all References are made to many passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment, from Genesis to Ezekiel. 
 
 3. Princes and magistrates have to be admonished and 
 exhorted that, in all that concerns the worship of God, they 
 help with their authority the prelates of the Church, and 
 command the people to obey the precepts of the priests. 
 They must teach the people in what respects this command- 
 ment agrees with the others, and how it differs from them. 
 " For by this means they will know why we do not observe 
 " the Sabbath, but the Lord's^day, and keep that holy."f 
 
 * On Feast-days, with wliicli Sundays are studiously and systemati- 
 cally confounded. It is notorious that in many of the common School 
 Catechisms in use on the Continent, the Ten Commandments are not 
 printed in full, but only in summary. The Fourth or Third Command- 
 ment is reduced to a very brief sentence — " Keep the Feasts.'^ 
 
 + This confounds the institution with the day, and the confusion is 
 Avilful. Again let us insist that the Sabbath is not set aside, but retained 
 and that, under the example and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 its observance is transferred from the seventh day of the week to the 
 fii-st. 
 
128 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 4. That the difference of this commandment from the others 
 is clear, for, unlike this, the other precepts of the decalogue 
 are natural, perpetual, and cannot vary. Hence it follows 
 that, although the Law of Moses is abrogated, the Christian 
 people still keep the commandments that are in the two tables. 
 Not because Moses commanded, but because they are in 
 agreement with Nature, by force of which men are impelled to 
 keep them.* But this command to keep the Sabbath, if we 
 consider the time appointed, is not fixed and constant, but 
 may be changed. f It (the commandment) is not moral, but 
 ceremonial, for we are neither taught nor led by Nature to 
 worship God on that day more than on any other, but the 
 people of Israel began to keep the Sabbath-day from the 
 time when they were set free from slavery under Pharaoh.J 
 
 5. On the death of Christ, when the other Hebrew ob- 
 servances and ceremonies became obsolete, the observance of 
 the Sabbath also was to be taken away. It passed away 
 with all the other shadows. With reference to it the Apostle 
 wrote to the Galatians, " Ye observe days and months, and 
 *' times and years. I am afraid of you, that I have bestowed 
 
 * Such a force of Nature, compelling men to keep God's command- 
 ments, is unknown in fact, and the notion of it is contrary to Holy- 
 Scripture, and to the witness of our own conscience. Nature does not 
 impel men to abstain from fornication nor to tell the truth, but Nature 
 when unrestrained, impels them to every variety of sin. " To be 
 " carnally minded is death." 
 
 t " May he changed." It is easy to affirm that the day is optional, but 
 not so to prove that it is. We have not known any more than one such 
 change, and that one was attended by circumstances of inconceivable 
 solemnity, and accomplished under the immediate guidance of our Lord 
 himself, who is Lord of the Sabbath. 
 
 X Whenever the people of Israel began to keep Sabbaths, it is certain 
 that the progenitors of all mankind began on the first clear day of time, 
 in Paradise. We see that the law is not ceremonial but moral. ^ 
 
ROMISH PERVERSION OF THE COMMANDMENT. 129 
 
 " upon you labour in vain." He writes the same to the Colos- 
 sians.* 
 
 6. But this commandment agrees not with the others in any 
 rite or ceremony, except in so far as it has anything in it 
 which pertains to manners and the law of Nature. For the 
 worship of God, and religion which is expressed in this com- 
 mandment, corresponds with that in Nature which prompts 
 us to employ a few hours in matters relating to the worship 
 of God t. The heathens do this, and it is natural in man to 
 devote some time to eating and drinking, to rest, to sleep, 
 and such like. 
 
 7. " For this reason the apostles determined to consecrate 
 " to divine worship that one day of the seven which is first, 
 " and which they called the Lord's day." And then the cate- 
 chism has references to passages which we have quoted from 
 the Apocalypse, and the first epistle to the Corinthians. 
 
 But here is a very bold perversion of the truth. It was 
 not the Apostles who determined to consecrate the first day 
 of the week to divine worship. They did not determine to 
 meet the Lord on their way to Emmaus. They did not deter- 
 mine that He should appear to them suddenly when they were 
 in Jerusalem, any more than they determined that He should 
 rise on that day from the dead. They did not determine that 
 He should meet them and converse with them again on that 
 
 * This cannot be proved to refer to the Sabbath, any more than it 
 could be proved to belong to the modern Eoman kalendar, or to the 
 Papal jubilees. As for the Sabbath being part of the Mosaic cere- 
 monial, that is historically untrue, as I believe I have clearly shown. 
 
 + To worship God, then, is to the Eoman theologians as natural as 
 to eat and drink. To eat and drink as rehgious as to worship God. 
 The Pagan and the Papal Eoman, therefore, may well agree in pro- 
 nouncing the elephant to be animal religiosior, because he lifts up his 
 trimk towards heaven when he drinks. 
 
130 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 day week. They did not determine that the Holy Ghost 
 should descend on them again on the day of Pentecost, nor 
 that the stupendous event that followed should take place on 
 that day. If the Apostles had determined on so grave a 
 measure as that of keeping Sabbath apart from the syna- 
 gogue, and consecrating another day instead of the seventh 
 to the solemn worship of God, they would surely have con- 
 ferred, and prayed, and perhaps also fasted. At mention 
 of so great a charge some sincere zealot for the Law would 
 have raised an objection. On this important point, as on 
 that of circumcision, there would inevitably have been some 
 debate, and probably a difficulty in deciding, to be settled 
 after all by lot. The decision accomplished, a public noti- 
 fication also would have been indispensable. 
 
 If the Apostles had assumed the responsibility of deciding 
 for so formal a secession from the whole body of their 
 nation, they would have held themselves ready to assign a 
 reason, and prepared to rebut the charge of altering the 
 Sabbath — a charge which the Jews make now, but was not 
 heard of then. The Apostles, it is certain, were not charged 
 with Sabbath-breaking, for they greatly reverenced the Sab- 
 bath. They did not absent themselves from the synagogue 
 worship until, in city after city, united worship became im- 
 possible. Then at length, when the assemblage of Christians 
 on the Lord's-day, and their separation or expulsion from 
 the synagogues on the seventh day, became general, there 
 was no need of Apostolic agreement, nor was any such 
 agreement, so far as I can remember to have read, appealed 
 to in justification of the change. Quite sufficient was the 
 unspeakably stronger reason that Christ himself had led the 
 way, and that wondrously mighty workings of the Holy 
 Ghost had confirmed the Christian Sabbath-day so firmly 
 that it could not be set aside. 
 
ROMISH PERVERSION OF THE C0MMAND:MENT. 131 
 
 All that we can say is that, in this figment of an apostolic 
 institution, independent of any directly Divine sanction or com- 
 mand, the thread of history is lost ; that in counting amongst 
 Mosaic ceremonies a Divine appointment made at the Creation, 
 they are guilty of a flagrant contempt of history, and an 
 equally manifest contempt of the supreme authority of the 
 Divine Legislator — an error as palpable as it iv, self-refuting, 
 
 The assertions of the Koman Catechism are in full accord- 
 ance with the notions current in that Church and in some 
 Protestant Churches, but utterly at variance with the authentic 
 records of the New Testament and the venerable muniments 
 of primeval antiquity whicli are treasured in the Old. We 
 must therefore dismiss all such gratuitous invention^ from our 
 thoughts when we seek to arrive at any sure conclusion in 
 regard to God's holy Sabbath. 
 
 The Canonists; however, are perfectly agreed in slighting 
 all scriptural authority. By them the Lord's-day is counted 
 with holidays, and is chiefly treated of in the title Deferiis. A 
 council in France ordains that all Dominical days (which may 
 or may not be Sundays) be observed with perfect veneration, 
 with abstinence from all unlawful work, from marketino*, 
 impleading in courts, passing sentences of imprisonment or 
 death, and administering oaths. A Pope, Alexander III., 
 coolly determines that, " Although the page, both of the Old 
 " and the New Testament, has given the seventh day, espe- 
 " cially, for human rest, and the Church has decreed that as 
 " well that day as the birthdays of holy martyrs are to be ob- 
 '' served, and on them all servile work is to be set aside, we 
 " indulge that it be lawful to your parishioners, both on Sun- 
 " days and on other feasts, except on the greater solemnities 
 ^' of the year, if herrings come near the shore, the necessity 
 " for taking them being urgent, it may be done, provided that 
 " a suitable portion of the catch, when it is made, be given to 
 
132 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " the neighbouring churches, and to Christ's poor " — that is to 
 say, the monks ! PiusY. advances yet beyond his predecessors, 
 by expressly confounding Sundays with common hohdays, 
 when he commands that " all Dominical days " — dies Dominici 
 having been hitherto the name of Sundays only — " and espe- 
 " cially those which are kept as holidays, feriati, in honour of 
 " God, the blessed Virgin Mary, or the Holy Apostles, be 
 " observed with all veneration ; that on such days all persons 
 " frequent the churches, pay devout attention to the Divine 
 " offices, abstain from all unlatvful and servile work, make no 
 " marketings, transact no profane business, and have no noisy 
 " litigations."* Thus does the Pope for the time being pre- 
 tend to be Lord of the Sabbath, and reduce it to a common 
 holiday. 
 
 When the Popes had their acknowledged representatives in 
 this country, and our kings were sometimes trodden under foot 
 by them, they maintained the same pretension to be the foun- 
 tains of all spiritual authority, alike supreme over the laws of 
 England and the Word of God. Traces of this contempt of 
 God's law are to this day too distinct; and although the archi- 
 episcopal constitutions issued before the Reformation have 
 not now any legal force, they are so far acknowledged as to 
 have considerable moral influence. As old documents, at 
 least, they convey much instruction, and a canonical exposition 
 of the Ten Commandments by Archbishop Peckham in the 
 thirteenth century tells us how much the Christian Sabbath 
 had been lowered after the estabhshment of Papal power. 
 The words are these : — 
 
 " When it is said in the Third Commandment, Kemember 
 " that thou keep holy the Sabbath day, that Christian religious 
 " worship is prescribed to which clergymen and laymen are 
 
 * Decret. Greg., lib. i. Tit. xi., cap. 1.; lib. ii. Tit. ix.,cap. 2, 3. 
 Scptini. Decret., lib. iii. Tit. ix., cap. 2. 
 
ROMISn PERVERSION OF THE COMMANDMENT. 133 
 
 " equally bound. There, however, it must be known that the 
 " obligation to keep holiday on the legal Sabbath according 
 " to the form of the Old Testament altogether expired, hke 
 " other ceremonies, with the law. And under the New Testa- 
 " ment, the present manner of setting ourselves at liberty for 
 " Divine service on Sundays and the other solemn days which 
 " are set apart for this by authority of the Church is sufficient. 
 *' On those days the manner of resting from labour is not to 
 " be taken from Jewish superstition, but from canonical 
 " institutes." * "When Peckham wrote this constitution 
 Wycliffe was not born, and the Bible was so nearly unknown 
 in England that he could venture, without fear of scandal, 
 to call that law which the Most High God wrote on the tables 
 of stone by the contemptuous epithet of Jewish superstition. 
 When Lyndewode garnished the text of his provincial with 
 learned notes, the remains of Wychffe had been but lately 
 exhumed and burnt at Lutterworth, and Englishmen in 
 general were not yet sufficiently enlightened to perceive the 
 imposture which would set the damning brand of superstition 
 and hated Judaism upon the pure and holy law of God 
 which our Incarnate Lord magnified and made honourable, 
 and to which He joyfully submitted himself, that He might 
 leave us an example to walk in his steps. Submission to this 
 law as it is written in the Book of Exodus, and in many other 
 parts of the Old Testament, is not a ceremony in any correct 
 sense whatever. Obedience to parents or paying one's debts 
 might with as great propriety be called a ceremony. 
 
 * Lyudewode Provinciale de officio Ai'chiprcsbyteri. 
 
134 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OLD ENGLISH LAW. 
 
 The whole truth as to the original, uni\^ersal, and unchanging 
 Sabbath — the truth which had lingered long among the 
 Fathers of the earlier Church — was now cast aside, yet it is 
 doubtful whether a traditional remembrance of it was quite 
 eradicated from the heart of England. "We look back into 
 our national history, and see most clearly that in the Anglo- 
 Saxon times it was not possible for papal arrogance to frown 
 down the cherished convictions of our forefathers, or to 
 abolish the salutary customs which, long before the Monk 
 Augustine sighted the Kentish cliffs, our fathers had learned 
 from their teachers and from the written Word of God. 
 
 One cannot read many pages of Bede's Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory of England without perceiving that, when the venerable 
 historian wrote, the Holy Bible was read familiarly by both 
 the preachers and their congregations. He relates explicitly 
 that the sacred books were read, in his time, by the 
 Angles, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, by each in his own 
 language.* 
 
 A g-lance at our laws will show that Sabbath-observance 
 prevailed in England, together with a solemn recognition of 
 the authority of Holy Scripture; and, on reflection, the student 
 perceives that in this respect our country had the advantage 
 over every other European State during eight centuries at 
 least before the Reformation. The numerous documents col- 
 lected by Spelman indicate great activity at Rome, and in 
 England also, on the part of Ptoman emissaries. Truly national 
 
 * Hist. Eccles., lib. i. 
 
OLD ENGLISH LAW. 135 
 
 religious life amonpj the Anglo-Saxoas must be traced to a 
 higher source, aud may iu great part be attributed to Chris- 
 tian influence flowing through Roman and British channels in 
 very early times. Canons abound, indeed, of very doubtful 
 authenticity, dated back in the sixth and seventh centuries, 
 conceived in a strongly ecclesiastical spirit, and bearing marks 
 of much later hands, but these I leave with the single observa- 
 tion that they cast no sure light on the subject before us. 
 
 We may begin, however, with Ine, or Ina, King of the 
 West Saxons, perhaps the first Anglo-Saxon king who issued 
 laws framed with a royal care for the advancement of religion 
 among his subjects, to be supported by his own authority. 
 The code of Ina, said to have been promulgated about the 
 year 693, contains a law on Sunday loork, worded thus : 
 " If a bondman works on Sunday by his lord's command, let 
 " him be free, and let the lord pay thirty shillings for a fine. 
 *' But if the servant works without his knowledge, let his hide 
 " pay for it, or the price of his hide. But if the free servant 
 " works on that day without his lord's command^ let him pay 
 *' for it with his freedom, or sixty shillings. And if a priest 
 *' does it, let him be twice guilty. "'^'^ 
 
 Be it observed that in the laws of Ina there is no mention 
 of any other day so guarded against desecration by labour, 
 but only the Sunday. Such mention there certainly would 
 have been if the Bishops and Eldermen had so advised ; but 
 it is evident that Sunday was not yet counted as a mere 
 church-feast in our country. 
 
 At the Council of Berkhamstead, in the fifth year of With- 
 red. King of Kent, held under Bertwald, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, the following canons were recorded under the 
 title of Jiidrjments of Withrcd : " If a servant, by his master's 
 
 * Spelmaui Coucilia., Au. Clir. 693. Moe. 3. 
 
136 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 " orders, does any servile work on Sunday eve, after sim-set, 
 " or before Monday eve, when the sun has gone down, let the 
 " master pay eighty shillings." " If a servant takes to the 
 " road on that day, let him pay six shillings to his master, or 
 " his hide for it."* 
 
 Such were the first rude Saxon laws, severe and summary, 
 quite in character with the people and the age. All those laws 
 were of the same character, and worthy of commendation for 
 their simplicity, at least ; but soon the simplicity diminished, 
 the rude chieftain figured less conspicuously, the priest more, 
 and an ecclesiastical aim became increasingly apparent. But 
 when good King Alfred assumed the sovereignty of united 
 England, he did not leave inferior persons to draft his laws, 
 but gave to the work of legislation the fully concentrated 
 energies of his own heart and mind. Unlike young Kinglna, 
 who sheltered himself behind the injunction of his father and 
 the advice of his bishops, Alfred cast off all such trammels, 
 and in proceeding to reduce the fruit of long study into a 
 written form, he wrote the Ten Commandments first, which, 
 by the way, he would not have done if he had considered them 
 to be part of the law of Moses, made for his people only. 
 Por giving this Divine summary of all primary duties to God 
 and man the chief place in a national code, I am not aware 
 that Alfred had any precedent, but he thereby signified that 
 he laid his crown at the feet of the King of Kings, and led the 
 way in an avowed subjection of the laws of England to the 
 law of God. The first sentence of his code was this : " The 
 " Lord spake to Moses these words." After the first com- 
 mandment followed the third, and one might at first sight 
 imagine that the second was omitted by the scribes in copy- 
 ing; but that conjecture is not confirmed by what follows, for 
 
 * Ibid., An. 697. 
 
OLD ENGLISH LAW. 137 
 
 after the nine have been transcribed in full, the omission of the 
 second is tacitly acknowledged by subjoining in immediate 
 continuation the words: "Make not to thyself golden gods, 
 nor silvern." The fact was that the second Council of Nicea 
 had sanctioned image-worship in open contradiction to the 
 erased commandment ; and it is probable that the practice of 
 omitting it from the Decalogue when taken from the Bible 
 to be read, or given to the people in a separate form, had be- 
 come estabhshed, and that King Alfred, although he followed 
 tha,t example, made the rejected commandment doubly 
 conspicuous, first by the marked omission, and then by setting 
 against the priestly mutilation of God's law his own implied 
 protest by that sentence written at the foot. The English 
 people, therefore, could not make for themselves gods of gold 
 or silver without express contempt of human authority as 
 well as Divine. 
 
 At considerable length the first King of England borrowed 
 sentence from Holy Scripture, or he wrote down their sub- 
 stances in his own language; and if any one wishes to under- 
 stand his reason for this peculiar treatment of the Decalogue, 
 he has only to ponder the few lines following : " I King 
 " Alfred have collected these sanctions into one, and put them 
 " all into writing. Our elders did certainly observe a good 
 " part of them ; much also appeared to me worthy to be 
 " religiously observed by ourselves in the present age ; some, 
 " however, which seemed less proper for us, I have 
 " purposely omitted, partly after taking counsel of wise men, 
 " and some,:partly on reflection of my own, / have restored^ * 
 Many things enacted by lua, Offa, and Ethelbert, he had 
 advisedly omitted. 
 
 Subsequently, in his compact with Guthrun the Dane, 
 
 * Ibid., Au. 887. 
 
138 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 Alfred repeated, in substance, the law of Ina forbidding work, 
 traffic, and legal or judicial proceedings on Sunday. It was in- 
 deed necessary for the common peace that the Danes should 
 adapt themselves to the customs of the English, and respect 
 their conscience, for the Sunday was, in full reahty, a day of 
 rest and piety. Biographers and homilists agree in their 
 descriptions of the habits of good men, and the customs of the 
 English people in general, making it evident that on that holy 
 day earnest preachers were surrounded by congregations of 
 attentive hearers, who crowded the churches, not for mass, but 
 for prayers and sermon. They pressed to hear the Word of 
 God, and in their houses they gave hospitable entertainment 
 to the strangers who came from far to unite in those sacred 
 exercises.* 
 
 Laws to the same effect were in force through all the 
 Saxon period, as may be seen in Spelman, Wheloc's Bede, and 
 other authorities ; but with the Norman Conquest, Sabbath- 
 keeping properly so called ceased to be under legal sanction. 
 This change in the law of England certainly did not arise from 
 any hesitation to enforce religious duties by the secular power, 
 for on that point the rulers of England felt no delicacy. 
 Neither was the care now abandoned by the civil magistrate 
 taken on himself by the priest. Sundays were now to be 
 accounted as holidays appointed by the Church; custom 
 sufficed to keep up those holidays, and they were kept clear of 
 everything like what is called Puritanical restraint. Theolo- 
 gians, such as they were, coldly acknowledged the Divine 
 appointment of a Sabbath before Christ, but they classed it 
 with Levitical ceremonies, and taught that it had been 
 ordained by Moses for temporary reasons, but was, as a 
 Mosaic ceremony, set aside by Christ. So Englishmen were 
 
 * Wheloc's Bede, pp. 240—244. 
 
OLD ENGLISH LAW. 139 
 
 taught before the Reformation, and so, hi spite of the Reform- 
 ation, many continue still to teach. To the present day an 
 erroneous notion that the rehgious observance of Sunday 
 becomes obligatory by the mere force of ecclesiastical or even 
 civil authority vitiates our English law, and the impression 
 that the obligation is laid on us by canon law and Act of 
 Parliament vitiates the public conscience. As for canon law, 
 although every Church must have its own regulations, they are 
 only binding on its members so long as they continue in com- 
 munion, and even on them are only binding so long as it is 
 not found necessary to alter them, but when the law of God 
 is reduced to the same level, it has already suffered a criminal 
 contempt, and He who gave it surely vindicates his own 
 honour, sooner or later. The Divine law may not be treated 
 as if it were an Act of Parliament. 
 
 Now, although King Alfred and his Saxon predecessors may 
 seem to have exposed the Fourth Commandment to this dis- 
 honour, it has to be remembered that they did not pretend to 
 enact the Sabbath law, but to enforce its observ^ance under 
 penalty in case of disobedience ; that the original command- 
 ment, as it was laid down by that illustrious king, had its 
 full weight, and that its due observance became habitual ; and 
 the sanctities of the day so deeply impressed the Enghsh mind 
 as to create a tradition which has outhved every adverse influ- 
 ence. TJie English Sunday still distinguishes our country from 
 most others, while yet the defective teaching of some, and the 
 hostile efforts of others, who seek to set aside Sabbath-keeping 
 altogether, should induce Christian people to study the subject 
 for themselves, and to study it at the fountain-head of all 
 rehable information, namely, the written Word of God. 
 
 K 2 
 
140 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 AFTER THE REFORMATION-, ON THE CONTINENT AND 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Churchmen before the Reformation, in all parts of Europe, 
 were perforce agreed in keeping to the externals of the pre- 
 scribed religion, but the latent persuasion of men's minds was 
 various. In England, where scriptural Christianity had early 
 preoccupied the ground, a respect for the Lord's day lingered 
 in the recesses of society, at least where a wealthy and jDoli- 
 tical clergy had not utterly overpowered the force of public 
 conscience with sacerdotal pride and luxury. From what- 
 ever cause it may have been, the Protestant Reformation 
 found the English and Scottish populations very differently 
 affected from the German and the Swiss. 
 
 The position taken by Luther cannot be sufficiently de- 
 plored. Involved, as he was, in perpetual controversy, and 
 absorbed in such studies and occupations as were forced on 
 him by the exigencies of each passing moment, every topic 
 was in some degree neglected which did not directly concern, 
 or seem to concern, the great quarrel with the Papacy. That 
 great but impetuous Reformer took many things for granted 
 to the last, and, as a court preacher, was no doubt in entire 
 agreement with his audience when, so early as the year 1544, 
 he took upon himself to descant on the present subject. The 
 occasion of his sermon was the consecration of a chapel at 
 Torgau, in Saxony, the first place of worship newly-erected in 
 that electorate after the state became Protestant. Having 
 been requested to preach, and not being willing, like many 
 modern preachers, to give an insignificant string of common- 
 places on a special occasion, he thought it right to deliver his 
 
AFTER THE REFORMATION. 141 
 
 judgment on some matters relating to Divine worship. That 
 occasion, indeed, was extraordinary. Under the sanction of 
 the Elector, all the rites accustomed for the consecration of 
 churches were laid aside, and it was deemed sufficient for 
 consecration of the new building to offer prayer, with reading 
 and exposition of Holy Scripture. 
 
 Luther selected for his portion the passage in the Gospel 
 (Luke xiv. 2) where our Lord discourses on the lawfulness 
 of healing the sick on the Sabbath-day. A conscientious ex- 
 position of the passage would have been abundantly sufficient 
 to provide suitable instruction for his hearers, and reproof 
 also for the sacerdotal Pharisees, whom it was his con- 
 stant duty to unmask ; but he went further. The Sabbath, he 
 said, was the seventh day, anciently appointed for Divine 
 worship to the Jews, palpably forgetting, what he certainly 
 knew, that the Sabbath was not given to the Jews, nor yet to 
 Moses and the Hebrews, nor yet even to Abraham, but to 
 Adam and to the whole world with him. Harping rudely on 
 the slackened chord, he told them that the Church had liberty 
 to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, not doubt- 
 ing that such a change might be made on a grave reason 
 occurring, hij the 2)oioer and consent of Christians, although 
 not at the pleasure of individuals. But the man who was 
 accustomed to bring the most exact reasoning to bear upon 
 the most explicit evidence, content with nothing less, when his 
 object was to establish a cardinal truth or to overthrow some 
 colossal error, brought no evidence at all to show that any 
 such agreement had ever taken place, but treated that matter 
 as if it were not of consequence enough to be debated ; nor 
 did he seem to think that, in the change of day actually made, 
 any Divine authority had intervened. He pronounced, how- 
 ever, that when the Lord's day was so instituted by the 
 change from the seventh day to the first, no change should be 
 
14^ THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 made again without sufficient reason, and advised, therefore, 
 that the Lord's-day should be retained as formerly, saving 
 Christian liberty! A salvo this, which might have left 
 Christendom divided into as many parts as there are days in 
 the week, saving every man's liberty, and overlooking the two 
 decisive facts which must ever forbid a further change by any 
 human authority, namely, the Resurrection of our Lord on 
 the first day of|theVeek, which Christians now commemorate, 
 and the actual consecration of the day by the Saviour himself 
 and all his apostles and disciples, as' recorded in the New 
 Testament. The^first of these facts gives the reason for the 
 change ; the second conveys the warrant for its accomplish- 
 ment. In that unhappy moment Luther forgot them both. 
 
 Jewish superstition, of which, however, an exceedingly 
 minute proportion yet remained either in Germany or the 
 Papal States,^was to be rejected. Pious Sabbath- worship — 
 the fervent reformer instructed his hearers — consisted in 
 preaching the Word of God and getting it impressed upon 
 the mind, and also offering prayer to God in the congregation 
 with greater fervour and effect.* Now if this were all — if 
 the Christian Sabbath-day were not actually sanctioned by 
 our Lord and his inspired servants for the perpetuation of the 
 holy institution which He had always honoured, and of which 
 He was the Lord, but was only accepted by consent of Chris- 
 tians, with a salvo for their Christian liberty if it befel them 
 to change their mind, then it would have no authoritative 
 sanction. In that case it would be what Luther made it, and 
 what it still is practically made in Germany, nothing more 
 than a well-intended human institution, placed at the mercy 
 of a human weakness, foolishly and falsely called Christian- 
 liberty. 
 
 * Seckendorfii Hist. Lutheraua, lib. iii., sect. 30, cxviii. ■ 
 
AI'TER THE REFORMATION. 143 
 
 The indisputable facts of sacred history which others have 
 collected before me, and whicli I have again sought for my- 
 self in Holy Scripture, and set before the reader, is evidence 
 clear enough to show that the general observance of the 
 Sabbath on the first day of the week was not appointed hj 
 the Church, but was ordered /or the Church and for the world 
 by our Lord himself, and then again and again confirmed by 
 himself with many stupendous signs and most precious bless- 
 ings to his obedient disciples. 
 
 Luther failed more sadly. It has been too truly said that 
 he advised his congregation to dance, and sing, and make 
 themselves merry on Sundays, because the Sunday was given 
 them for their enjoyment. 1 remember to have read a pas- 
 sage to this effect in his German works, and made note of it 
 at the time, but cannot now lay hand on the note, so as to 
 produce the passage literally ; but there it is. The levity of 
 the eminent reformer, following the levity of canonists and 
 monkish preachers, was effectually communicated to the 
 Lutheran Church in Germany, and has now become inveterate. 
 
 Melancthon, worthily distinguished as the theologian of the 
 German Reformation, was equally at fault. He made light 
 of the Dies Dominicus of Romanism; he mysticised the Sab- 
 bath of the Old Testament, chiefly mentioning it as a figure 
 of rest from sin and trouble in this world, or of rest in 
 heaven. The practical benefit of a real Sabbath-day he does 
 not seem to have clearly comprehended.* 
 
 * A Lutheran Sunday is notoriously godless, and of tbe two it is 
 perhaps worse than a Sunday in Rome. Worse, because in Rome there 
 is no pretence of Reformation, nor boast of scriptural religion, but in 
 Berlin there is sometimes a high pretension to personal piety, combined 
 with an utter disregard of the first command of God, and a shameless per- 
 sistence in the sin of open Sabbath-breaking, which has ever been visited 
 with signal marks of God's displeasure. Hence the Lutheran pvdpit is 
 
144 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 Zuinglius was poisoned at the same fountain. In his anno- 
 tations on the Gospel according to St. Matthew, he professes 
 to learn from the narrative of plucking the ears of corn on 
 the Sabbath-daj, that Sabbath-keeping was a part of Jewish 
 bondage from which our Saviour set his disciples free, and he 
 endeavours to comfort his readers with the reflection that 
 " when Christ was made Son of Man for us," He became 
 Lord of the Sabbath, and constituted us also lords of the 
 Sabbath. That when Christ is ours, all that Christ has is 
 ours also. That as He is the Head and we the members of 
 a mystic body, we share with him in all good things. Here, 
 he tells us, Christ does not excuse himself, but his disciples ; 
 by which we may learn that when Christ excuses all his dis- 
 ciples in himself, He makes them all, in himself, lords of the 
 Sabbath. This is the unsearchable treasure of Divine good- 
 ness, that God accepts us all in his Son. For we, too, are 
 sons of God. He is by nature the Son of God, and eternal; 
 we are sons by adoption. Therefore, whatever is lawful for 
 Christ, is lawful for us. 
 
 Sparing all criticism on the theology or the logic of this 
 morsel of Helvetian divinity, I only give it as a specimen of 
 random treatment of a most important passage of sacred 
 history, and observe that, so far as I can find in a somewhat 
 
 so generally fruitless of instruction, and the population abandoned to 
 ignorance and characterized by coarse profanity. A church, called Pro- 
 testant, has been suffered to exist in the north of Europe without a 
 Sabbath for three centuries and a half. In all that time of Sundays 
 without Sabbath, its theologians have lost their creed, and, with a few 
 bright exceptions — and comparatively but few — its people have yet to 
 be awakened to a perception of the very first principles of Gospel truth 
 and sentiment. As in the Papal kingdoms, so in Protestant Germany, 
 the popular catechism has a false Decalogue, with the Second Command- 
 ment blotted out, and instead of the Fourth, there is only " Keep the 
 holidays," which is just as Luther himself wrote it. 
 
AFTER THE REFORMATION. 145 
 
 careful search, his writings do not afford a passage moro dis- 
 tinct as regards the proper subject of the Gospel narrative ; 
 and the inevitable conviction is that to Zuinglius, as well as 
 to Melancthon and Luther, the Sabbath served only as the 
 Tabernacle, or the High Priest's Garments, or the Manna — 
 just a convenient object to enrich the store of metaphor, but 
 not to have any direct application to the life of man. 
 
 With such feeble beginnings, the leaders of the Reforma- 
 tion could not do much to promote obedience to the law of 
 God embodied in the Fourth Commandment, which they were 
 not careful to understand ; and when we pause to consider 
 how far this observance has advanced in some of the im- 
 portant sections of Reformed Christendom, not so much 
 under the patronage of kings, or the inculcation of eminent 
 divines, as from the ever-present instruction of the Bible 
 silently speaking from its own pages, and the favouring in- 
 fluences of the sovereign providence of Almighty God, who 
 still sends his blessing upon all that keep his commandments, 
 we cannot but see that the right use of the day would be 
 alone sufficient to justify its universal sanctification. Every 
 church wherein a truly devout and earnest congregation is 
 assembled brings together many families into the focus of 
 Sabbath blessings. The soul that on this day dwells in 
 peace, drinks in sacred knowledge, and delights in Christian 
 communion, with retreat from the turmoil of the working 
 days, surely shrinks from whatever desecrates the day. Not 
 only persuaded by dint of argument, but drawn by the all- 
 persuasive powers of God's presence and blessing, the Chris- 
 tian people, of whatever name, are constituted a host of defence 
 against those who would intrench upon the barrier of separa- 
 tion which on this day marks off the Church of the Living God 
 from the mere worldly territory. So far is our Sabbath from 
 being Jewish or Patriarchal — so far is it from being legal or 
 
146 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 priestly — that it brings us nearer to heaven without conveying 
 to our perception the sense of anything peculiar or tem- 
 porary. For tranquil joy, for untainted purity, for high and 
 inviolable privilege, it brings thoughts of Paradise, and while 
 carrying us back into a time older than sin in this world, it 
 gives us the taste of joys that cannot be fully realized until 
 we enter into the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of 
 God. 
 
 Whenever rehgion revives, the Sabbath revives with it. 
 That was exemplified in France, when the Reformed Church 
 was purified by long trial, and, being made less worldly, 
 became more jealous for the sanctification of the Lord's-day 
 than she had been before. In her very last general synod'"* 
 she poured forth an impassioned lamentation over those 
 unfaithful members who employed the day in worldly busi- 
 ness, sports, and pastimes, forsaking the house of God, and 
 giving themselves to sports and recreations, estranging their 
 hearts from the affections and worship of God, " and from 
 " that devotion which we are most especially obliged to upon 
 " these holy Sabbaths of Christ's own institution." 
 
 In our own country, when religion revived in the latter 
 part of the sixteenth century, and earnest piety was driven 
 into nonconformity, a diligent pen sketched, in clear and 
 strong lines, a picture of the Christian Sabbath, as it had not 
 hitherto been seen, and infused such a new spirit into the popu- 
 lation of England, that the sanctification of the day began in 
 earnest, and the epithet of Sabbatarian^ uttered by some in 
 scorn, came to be a title of honour in the esteem of many. 
 From that time spiritual religion sprang up again in this 
 land, and we have now experience enough within our own 
 borders to assure us that the morals, the happiness, and the 
 
 * The Synod of Louduu, 1659—60. See Quick's Sydinocon, ii. 551. 
 
AFTER THE REFORMATION. 147 
 
 reputation of England, rise or fall as God's holj day is used 
 for his honour, or as it is desecrated for our own indulgence. 
 
 It was far on in the reign of Queen Elizabeth that Doctor 
 Nicholas Bownd described the wretched state of religion in 
 this country. The ministers of religion were unprofitable. 
 Many of them could not so much as read distinctly so as to 
 be understood. Many could but read ; to preach lay far 
 beyond their power. Many that could preach had better 
 have held their tongue, for they could not divide the Word of 
 God aright. The congregations, too, Tvere so disorderly that 
 the voices of the people were oftentimes louder than the voice 
 of the minister, and the church became the scene of boisterous 
 confusion, even in the time of worship. If so the church on 
 Sundays, what must have been the town ? 
 
 In the year 1595, Dr. Bownd published a book on '• The 
 " True Doctrine of the Sabbath, held and practised of the 
 " Church of God, both before and under the Law, and in the 
 " time of the Gospel." In these days of rigid criticism the 
 book would be censured as verbose and confused, and not 
 without reason. The title, so far as I copy it, is clear 
 enough, but the book is not so clear, because its contents are 
 not well arranged. He does not insist with sufficient distinct- 
 ness on his own proposition that the Sabbath was ordained at 
 the Creation, but attributes its preservation, if indeed it was 
 preserved, rather to tradition than to any known law. He 
 begins his " doctrine " too late — in the wilderness of Arabia 
 rather than in Paradise. Anxious, as he was, to reform the 
 manners of England, he insisted with too great minuteness on 
 certain particulars of duty, and so laid his work open to the 
 criticism of the adverse party like a broad target that every 
 shot might .strike.* 
 
 * Sabbathuin Veteris et Novi Testameuti. London, 1606. Second 
 Edition. 
 
148 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 iSTotrnthstandiug these imperfections, his book wrought 
 wonders. It was new. Readers were not so impatient in 
 those days as in these. The teaching was for the most part 
 sound, and the author insisted on the authority of Holy 
 Scripture. The clergy raised a loud outcry against Dr. 
 Bownd, as if he wanted to make it appear that the Church had 
 put its own festivals in the place of the weekly Sabbath, and 
 was, therefore, an enemy of the Church. But the public voice 
 pronounced in favour of the book, and an amazing change 
 took place all over England, which put the priests to silence. 
 The truth is that the reverential spirit of old England was 
 revived, and the days of Alfred and of Bede seemed for a 
 time to have come back again. But the public mind was not 
 yet clear. Other less enhghtiened writers undertook to make 
 it clearer. 
 
 About the year 1618, in the reign of James I., one John 
 Thraske essayed to advance beyond Bownd by teaching that 
 the Lord's-day was to be observed in a Jewish manner, and 
 that Christians ought to be guided by the law of Moses in 
 regard to clean and unclean meats. Many followed him, but 
 he was censured in the Star Chamber, and recanted his 
 opinions, which, however, gave a tinge of what is called 
 Sabbatarianism to the opinions of many. After Thraske, 
 Theophilus Bradborn, a minister in Suffolk, wrote another 
 book more hurtful still. His doctrine was that the Mosaic 
 Sabbath remained unchanged on the seventh day, and that 
 " the Lord's-day is an ordinary working day, it being will- 
 " worship and superstition to make it a Sabbath by virtue of 
 '' the Fourth Commandment." This was in 1628. In 1633, 
 Francis White, Bishop of Ely, was appointed by Charles T. 
 to confute Bradborn, but this bishop represented the king too 
 well, and ran into the opposite stream of godlessness. 
 
 Puritanism and the Book of Sports now denote the two 
 
AFTER THE REFORMATION. 149 
 
 extremes in a controversy that had better not be revived, and 
 therefore I check my pen. The chief sources of error I have 
 pointed out in the preceding chapters, and here we mark the 
 beginning of an unprofitable strife. We have not now to 
 study the doctrine of the Rabbanites, or the Fathers, or the 
 Popes, or the Sabbatarians, but with a candid and prayerful 
 spirit search the Scriptures, thankfully receive the Holy Sab- 
 bath as an imperishable gift of God, and use it for him. 
 How to use it, the Bible and the spirit of the Bible will 
 surely teach. The Fourth Commandment, which I have en- 
 deavoured to explain, and to show that it is a part of God's 
 covenant with his people quite distinct from the ceremonial 
 and civil code of Moses — this Fourth Commandment, notwith- 
 standing its verbal adaptation, in some part, to the circum- 
 stances of the Hebrews, contains the pure Sabbatic precept, 
 which, substantially unchanged, is the universal and perpetual 
 law. The more of the spirit of truth we have, the more 
 earnestly and the better we shall keep it. 
 
150 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ON THE EIGHT OBSERVANCE OP GOD'S LAW. 
 
 If I have not utterly mistaken the spirit of the original 
 Sabbath-law, or failed to show that it has not suffered any 
 change from the time when it was first given to mankind 
 until the close of the New Testament Scriptures, I have suc- 
 ceeded in proving that, like all other Divine ordinances, it is 
 a law of perfect benevolence. As for human laws on the 
 same subject, by whomsoever enacted, they are as remarkable 
 for defect or error as the law I have been endeavouring to 
 review is admirable for its perfection. A Constantine or a 
 Justinian, an Alfred or a Charles, may have intended well 
 when endeavouring to enforce God's law by statutes of their 
 own ; and I, for one, believe it to be the duty of legislators 
 to provide for the public observance of an institution so emi- 
 nently social as is this. In every state that can reasonably 
 hope for prosperity, or expect permanence, there must be 
 statutes to protect marriage — statutes, I am convinced, very 
 far indeed superior to the present law of England, although 
 the moral obligations which the law of a Christian should 
 recognize and guard rest entirely on the primeval institution 
 of God in Paradise. Even so, the observance of the Sabbath 
 should be guarded by well-considered legislative enactments, 
 but it must never be imagined that the primary obligation to 
 avoid disturbing the public order necessary for the sanctifica- 
 tion of the Sabbath originates in the legislature, or that by 
 Act of Parliament it can be relaxed or straitened. That lies 
 beyond the scope of human authority. 
 
 Let me also repeat that the Divine law is not satisfied by 
 
ON THE RIGHT OBSERVANCE OF GOD's LAW. 151 
 
 a mere cessation from labour. To take the text of Genesis, 
 of the Decalogue, or of the Book of Nehemiah, and to sur- 
 round that text with explanatory glosses is as precarious a 
 service as can be well imagined. Such glosses may appear 
 to be exact and clear enough, but experience tells us that 
 they may at the same time be trifling, and the presumption of 
 the authors is probably punished by the contempt which the 
 minuteness of their exposition of the Heavenly Statute is 
 likely to provoke. This does not, as I venture to believe, so 
 much arise from any great obliquity in the views of wise and 
 holy commentators, as from the incompetence of us all to 
 make the sacred text clearer than it is, if men would but 
 read it with the simplicity of common sense, and with a sin- 
 cere wiUingness to do as God commands. 
 
 While I have pursued the thread of my inquiry in the pre- 
 ceding pages, I have not felt my own incompetence so deeply 
 as I feel it now that I am attempting to close the book with 
 a few practical observations, which I trust will be perused 
 with candid consideration, and pray that the Author of the 
 law itself may graciously assist me to perceive the spirit of it. 
 
 We gather from the original account of the Sabbath, as it 
 was appointed at the beginning of the world, that it was to 
 be a cessation from onlinanj daily business. They, therefore, 
 who would sanctify the day and keep it holy must not only 
 abstain from manual labour — from that one kind of work which 
 is sometimes called servile — but from those occupations which, 
 taken altogether, make up their business. Some men's busi- 
 ness tends to elevate the mind and character, some to depress, 
 and some even to deprave. Apart from the thought of Sab- 
 bath sanctificatiou, and looking only at e very-day business in 
 the light of God's own perfect works, and in the prospect of 
 eternity, it should be such as can be done with a good con- 
 science. If the business of any man, or any woman, has been 
 
152 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 to minister to vice, to pander to the idleness or dishonesty of 
 others, nothing that can be done on Sunday, under the name 
 of religion, will procure a blessing on their craft. Tales are 
 told of Romish devotions paid by thieves to the "Virgin Mary, 
 or to some other saint, in hope of compromising for the sin 
 to be committed, or of the merit of a prayer or the considera- 
 tion of an offering to avert the wrath of God ; it is no less 
 absurd or wicked for any one to suppose that by shutting up 
 a fraudulent or a licentious business on Sunday he could 
 purify it from its filthiness on working days. No day's de- 
 votions can sanctify the thing that is unholy. It must be 
 supposed, while treating the present subject, that the reader's 
 business or profession is as honest and pure a calling as can be. 
 Yet it is only his business. It relates to this world, and may 
 be innocently suspended, whenever necessary, or, always six 
 days out of seven, innocently, honourably, and laudably pur- 
 sued. He may earn a livelihood by it, or he may not. Per- 
 haps he has retired from business, as we say, and therefore 
 could suspend it altogether without any temporal inconveni- 
 ence. He has, however, some pursuit; if it were only to 
 drive away idleness, to preserve health, to comply with the 
 ordinary usages of society, to fulfil the rites of hospitality, tO' 
 render some service to his neighbour, to mingle usefully with 
 his fellow-citizens — he must have some daily engagements. 
 All this, then, is ivliat he has to do, and he must do it in six 
 days, and with that be satisfied. It is his work. The other 
 day — Sunday, we will say, the Lord's-day — belongs to God, 
 and on that day God's work is to be done, and God's only. 
 This is what I have endeavoured to point out in the course of 
 exposition, and on this I must now very earnestly insist. 
 
 Convenience will often be pleaded in excuse of doing things 
 not strictly necessary ; but while convenience may always be 
 taken into account, convenience in matters of conscience must 
 
ox THE KIGIIT OBSERVANCE OF GOd's LAW. 153 
 
 not be tlie first thing considered. Convenience is so entirely- 
 relative, that it must wait until duty and conscience are kept 
 clear of prejudice by unseasonable concessions to what, for 
 the occasion, may take its name. Perhaps this convenience 
 turns out to be in reality an apology for business, or a 
 concession to it, and in that case it must be put off until 
 the days when business undisguised can be attended to. 
 
 Necessitij has higher claims, but that for which necessity is 
 pleaded is not always necessary. Certain petty indulgences, 
 which have been long indulged in, are mistaken for necessities. 
 So are compliances with fashion, custom, taste. The spend- 
 thrift indulges in extravagances until the day of his ruin. 
 With some persons the alleged necessities are crimes. These 
 are always, if we must speak so as to be understood, damn- 
 able, whatever be the day of the week. But on the Lord's-day, 
 nothing is necessary that can not be done without a breach of 
 what is plainly right according to a fair and honest reading 
 of the Sabbath law. 
 
 Pleasure-taldnrj cannot be called business, but it is utterly 
 inconsistent with sanctification of the day, which is what God 
 requires, what He rewards, and what is absolutely essential to 
 our peace of mind, prosperity, and real happiness. Amuse- 
 ments, pleasure-parties, needless visits, worldly conversation, 
 whatever withdraws the mind and steals the time from sancti- 
 fication of the day, will be found contrary to the intent of 
 many passages of Holy Scripture which, on the present subject, 
 have all the force of law. 
 
 Against this it may be urged that many persons, not to 
 say most persons, are so worldly as to be incapable of reli- 
 gious conversation, and insensible to the holy pleasure of de- 
 votion. This is true — too true. They live without God in 
 the world, and if nothing can be expected from them but 
 what is worldly, so much the worse, so much the greater is 
 
 L 
 
154 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 their guilt. For such persons it is right to pray, and hope 
 that they will not long continue to be what they are. Mean- 
 while God's law and their duty remain unchanged. 
 
 Parents and masters, tenderly concerned for those under 
 their care, are often perplexed on these points. To them 
 there is much to be said in regard to the entire circle of their 
 duties, and there is much that they should have learned well 
 before the season for perplexity arrived. They, if any, may 
 be encouraged to allure their children and their servants into 
 a regard for the service of God, until duty comes to be 
 their delight. But, after all, his commandments are impera- 
 tive, and even if it costs much trouble to bend our will into 
 obedience, or to inculcate on those under our care the sub- 
 mission which it is their bounden duty to render to Almighty 
 God, our own duty also must be discharged. Obedience is 
 honourable in all, and must not be withheld. " To obey 
 " is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
 " rams." Unquestioning obedience must be given to God. 
 The breath of our nostrils is not our own. Our life is in his 
 hands. From him only will proceed the final sentence 
 on which will irrevocably depend the settlement of the last 
 awful question whether it shall be life or death eternal ? — 
 Heaven or Hell ? The Sabbath-breaker, no less than other 
 transgressors of his laws, must be reminded of this truth 
 without hesitation or abatement. 
 
 If the Sabbath law were to be sought among the statutes 
 of the realm, it would be entitled to respect. But it is 
 written in the Bible, and therefore it is Divine, and of uni- 
 versal and absolute obligation. If it is not, then the first 
 elements of morality are lost, and to keep or to break those 
 primary laws which throw their sanctions around society, 
 and make life itself sacred, is but optional, and all moral 
 securities have ceased. 
 
ON THE RIGHT OBSERVANCE OF GOD*S LAW. 155 
 
 The exaggerated and unpractical view of Sabbath observ- 
 ance sometimes attributed to those who are called in derision 
 Sabbatarians, is quite inconsistent with the convictions pre- 
 vailing in circles where family religion best flourishes, and 
 where Christian congregations abound in holy activity and 
 influence. 
 
 A very scrupulous but sincere conscience, too scantily in- 
 formed, guided by stern Puritanical examples, superstitiously 
 avoiding the least bodily exertion that might look like work, 
 abstaining from the most ordinary comforts, and punishing all 
 around by enforcing ascetic abstinences and tedious devotions, 
 is the ideal of a wearisome Sabbath devotee which some persons 
 are pleased to hold up to derision. The prototype of such a 
 character cannot be found in Scripture, and it is so absurd 
 that there cannot be many examples of it in reality. 
 
 The fact is that the most faithful observers of the law of 
 Scripture are among the happiest of mankind. They do in- 
 deed abstain from servile work, and they and theu* families 
 rest entirely from worldly labour. But they do God's work, 
 and therein they often labour hard, and yet awake cheerful 
 and refreshed every Monday morning to resume their ordinary 
 duties for the week. They know that there are works of piety 
 which require very great exertion, and must be performed at 
 any cost even on the Sabbath-day. They rightly conclude 
 from their knowledge of the inspired Scriptures, and from 
 the example of Christ, that no effort should be spared to save 
 life, to alleviate pain, to rescue from peril, to defend one's 
 self from the assaults of violence, or his country from the 
 aggression of an enemy. They know that the performance of 
 these duties may involve sleepless care and exhausting labour, 
 and believe that it should not be intermitted even on the 
 Lord's-day. Multitudes of devoted Christians are every Sun- 
 day zealously engaged in ministering succour to the helpless, 
 
156 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 healing to the sick, and comfort to the mourner. Not less 
 promptly on this holy day than on any other, they would hasten 
 to rescue their fellow-men from the conflagration or the 
 wreck, cost them what it might to do so, without the least 
 fear of Sabbath-breaking, but rather choosing this holy, con- 
 secrated day for imitating their blessed Saviour in deeds of 
 self-denying mercy. They do not wantonly or ostentatiously 
 prefer the day for toilsome benevolence, if they have the power 
 to choose, but, whenever necessary, they reverently follow the 
 footsteps of our Heavenly Master. 
 
 Whether it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day or to 
 do evil, to destroy life or to save it, cannot be a doubtful 
 question to any well-instructed person who knows how Christ 
 has answered it. But to needlessly defer the performance of 
 even these duties until the day of rest, and then to sally forth in 
 distracting haste to do what might have been done before, is 
 plainly a transgression of a plain law for the sake of what 
 may thus become no better than a doubtful duty. 
 
 Doubts do indeed arise, and will not be disregarded by con- 
 scientious persons, but rather met and discussed with care, until 
 they can be fairly solved — yet not in too great haste. They 
 must be treated with delicacy, of course, yet handled with 
 the utmost firmness, and solved with the greatest care, for 
 whatsoever is not of faith is sin, if submitted to while it yet is 
 doubtful. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the end for which this weekly 
 remission from toil is afforded. It is not for the sake of re- 
 creation only, for that would imply idleness, with all its con- 
 sequences. On the contrary, a day which has been set apart 
 from the Creation, by the command of God, should be dis- 
 tinguished from other days in a manner worthy of him to 
 whom it is consecrated, and to whom, therefore, it belongs. 
 It is a day for thankful commemoration and for reverential 
 
ON THE EIGHT OBSERVANCE OF GOd's LAW. 157 
 
 service. It is not enough that the service of such a day 
 should be negative — a mere abstinence from business and 
 pleasure ; it must be an active service, a cheerful and holy 
 consecration. The due commemoration of his works who is 
 Creator of the universe, and Father and Redeemer of all man- 
 kind, when made by men who are conscious of their relation 
 to him, and their redemption by him from the curse and 
 penalty of sia, cannot be merely formal. The acts of true 
 worship, which consist of fervent praises, confessions, and 
 supplications, cannot be heartless. The satisfaction enjoyed 
 by sincere worshippers cannot be less than heavenly. An un- 
 real Sabbath, after all that we have read in the Bible, Avould 
 be no better than a stupid mockery ; an unfeeling and 
 reluctant submission to its restraints would be senseless 
 irreligion. 
 
 We know that to remember the day and also to hee}) it holy 
 are the terms of an express command. We know that on 
 this day we are entrusted with the golden opportunity for re- 
 newing our spiritual strength, resting from the drudgery of 
 this world's care, and gaining fresh power for the discharge 
 of every duty. We also know that for the observance or the 
 breach of the command we must answer at the last great day 
 of judgment. Each one of us in his own position as a parent, 
 a master, a minister of Christ, or in whatever other relation 
 to his Church, his country, or the world, is responsible for the 
 example he is giving. He may not have any power to control 
 others, nor any right to dictate precisely what each of them 
 should do or should refrain from doing ; but his example and 
 his influence have weight, whether for good or evil, and, 
 whether he knows it or not, he is building up or he destroys. 
 
 A writer on this vitally important subject should not fail 
 to remind his readers that the law of God is not to be trifled 
 with, but must, once and ever, be taken as the rule of life. 
 
158 THE HOLY SABBATH. 
 
 The Sabbath is now, no less than in the times of the prophets, 
 the sign of a covenant between God and his people, whereby 
 they are known who fear and love him, and honourably dis- 
 tinguished from those who live in open contempt of his 
 authority. 
 
 To maintain this distinction clearly, without falling into 
 the casuistic trifling which characterized the Pharisees — with- 
 out peddling with mint and anise and cummin, while neglect- 
 ing the weightier matters of the law — is just the point of 
 practical Christian perfection to be aimed at. The task is 
 just difficult enough to keep conscience awake and to test 
 principle. There is a little difficulty, and the presence of 
 such a difficulty may perhaps be compared with the sight of 
 one forbidden tree in Paradise, the one tree of which the 
 tillers and keepers of the garden might not eat. But the 
 maintaining a normal principle is easy enough to any willing 
 mind. There is a margin of discretion between things mani- 
 festly forbidden, and things freely allowed. There is such a 
 margin, certainly, but it must not be trodden out into too 
 great a width, and within its limit there will be no transgres- 
 sion of that principle. 
 
 For example : Buying and selling is comprehended under 
 the general designation of Business, and all business is to be 
 suspended on the Sabbath-day. But if a way-worn, hungry 
 stranger craves for food of him who sells, the question may 
 fairly rise in the conscience of the seller whether in such a 
 case he ought not to exercise hospitality, and the stranger, 
 having conscience also, may consider how he can fitly recom- 
 pense. The sick may press for healing, and the seller of 
 medicine must not withhold, and, as diseases do not wait, the 
 druggist and the physician may not refuse to minister the 
 means of healing. On this matter the teaching of Holy 
 Scripture is clear enough. But if the idle clamour for enter- 
 
ON THE RIGHT OBSEKVANCE OF GOD's LAW. lo9 
 
 tainment, the drunkards for drink, the licentious for pander- 
 ino; to their appetites, all this lies so deeply within the region 
 of evil, that it should be no man's trade at any time to help 
 them. On Sunday, it is unquestionable that all ordinary 
 business, having occupied six days of the seven, should in 
 mercy be suspended ; but to suspend that, and at the same 
 time to throw open the gates of hurtful traffic, is not mere 
 insanity, it is worse. It is open sin. It is a curse and 
 scandal in a Christian country. Still, within the margin of 
 things questionable, we find fair scope for Christian discre- 
 tion. For the guidance of the family, or for the good order 
 of the public, it is generally easy to arrive at a right con- 
 clusion ; and if we do but consult God's Holy Word, and 
 have recourse to intelligent reflection and to prayer, we 
 shall not wander far out of the right way. " Consider what 
 " I say," wrote St. Paul to Timothy, " and the Lord give 
 " thee understanding in all things." 
 
 It is very pleasant to testify how much true Christians enjoy 
 the sacred rest and solemn worship of the Lord's-day, and it is 
 congenial with our best feelings to invite others to share with 
 them in these enjoyments. MiUions of witnesses rejoice to 
 attest the blessedness of habitual Sabbath-keeping, and to 
 declare how much its holy occupations contribute to prepare 
 them for the eternal Sabbatism which remains for the people 
 of God. But the present writer finds himself compelled to 
 forego the pleasure of dwelling on this aspect of the subject. 
 He hears it contended by many that the Sabbath is set aside 
 by Christianity ; that, although it is a beneficial institution 
 to those who can make use of it, the observance of one day 
 more than another is no longer obligatory, and that it is 
 part of Christian liberty to do without it. He has, there- 
 fore, endeavoured to demonstrate by purely historical 
 evidence that the law which they suppose to have been 
 
IGO THE HOLY sabbath. 
 
 superseded by the Gospel is of sovereign, imiversal, 
 and perpetual obligation. He believes that in the present 
 state of opinion every one who fears God and believes 
 the Bible to contain the revelation of God's truth and will, 
 should take a firm stand on the only sure ground that is, 
 and, abiding by the declared authority of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ and his inspired servants, should maintain that the 
 Gospel of Salvation does not abrogate the moral law of God. 
 He must insist that Christians are not exempted from obedi- 
 ence to the very first commandment that issued from the 
 Creator of the world, and is demonstrated to be of universal 
 obligation. He believes it to be established beyond success- 
 ful contradiction that it is necessary to the welfare of men in 
 every land, and will continue to be necessary to the latest 
 age. 
 
 The experience of mankind confirms our assurance that in 
 keeping this commandment there is great reward, and it must 
 ever be most emphatically said that it is holy, just, and good. 
 
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