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 Accession N^ . y <Lt ^~E^ ■ Class No. 
 
THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN SABBATH: 
 
 w 
 
 ITS 
 
 HISTORY, AUTHORITY, DUTIES, BENEFITS, 
 AND CIVIL RELATIONS. 
 
 31 Scries 0f Sistoitrsts 
 
 THE REV. N. L. RICE, D. D. 
 
 THE REY. WILLIAM HAGUE, D. D. 
 
 THE REY. IIARYEY D. GANSE. 
 
 THE REY. WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D. 
 
 THE REY. ALEXANDER H. YINTON, D. D. 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM BY THE SECKETAUY 
 OF THE NEW YORK SABBATH COMMITTEE. 
 
 NEW'YORK 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
 
 No. 53 BROADWAY. 
 
 1802. 
 
B V /lO 
 
 7^ (? ^-t 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S62, 
 
 By Robert Carter & Brothers, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 EDWxVKD O. JKNKINS, 
 
 5^rtnter anTj .Stcrtotapcr, 
 No. 20 North William St. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sketch of the Sabbath Reform 5 
 
 The Origin axd History of the Sabbath 31 
 
 The Authority axd Perpetuity of the Christian Sabbath. . ^1 
 
 The Duties of the Sabbath 113 
 
 The Benefits of the Sabbath 195 
 
 Civil Relations of the Sabbath 233 
 
 (3) 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH KEFORM. 
 
 The literature of the Sabbath in this country is singu- 
 larly meagre. No considerable treatise is known to 
 have been issued for a quarter of a century. The pres- 
 ent contribution claims to be little more than a mono- 
 gram : still leaving to be supplied the discussion of a vi- 
 tal question in its manifold relations. 
 
 The Discourses in this volume, form a part of the se- 
 ries delivered before croAvded assemblies in the winter 
 of 1862, on the invitation of the I^ew York Sabbath 
 Committee, by the Rev. Drs. Rice, Hague, Ganse, 
 Adams, Foster, Vinton, and Schaif, in the Fifth- Avenue 
 Presbyterian, CoUegiate Reformed Dutch, Madison- 
 Square Presbyterian, Madison-Avenue Baptist, St. 
 George's Episcopal, and St. Mark's Lutheran churches. 
 The Sermon of the Rev. Dr. Foster, on the Abuses of 
 the Sabbath, was unwritten, and his health did not per- 
 mit him to prepare it for the j^ress. That of the Rev. 
 Dr. Schaff has not yet been furnished for publication. 
 
 The Committee, under whose auspices these admira- 
 ble Sermons were delivered, have conducted their re- 
 forms in a manner to have arrested the attention of re- 
 flecting men. The April number of the American The- 
 ological Review contains an able article on " The Per- 
 jjetual Observance of the Sabbath,^'' by Professor Smyth, 
 
 (5) 
 
6- SKETCH nr the sabbath reform. 
 
 of Bowdoin College, ^Fe., in -which expression is given 
 to the interest awakened by this enterprise. After 
 glancing at the history of the New York Sabbath Com- 
 mittee's labors, Prof. S. adds : 
 
 "Such results are a suflicient proof of the wisdom 
 and energy with which the eiforts of the Committee 
 have been conducted. They shed light also upon the 
 true method of prosecuting reformatory measures under 
 a free government. The success which in so large a 
 measure has attended the enterprise to which we have 
 referred, is manifestly, in great part, due to the concep- 
 tions its authors have entertained of the Christian theory 
 of reform. Frankly avowing their principles, and tena- 
 ciously adhering to them, they have avoided theoretical 
 entanglements, casuistry and logomachy. Aiming at 
 feasible ends, they have made practical issues. No 
 ground has been taken from which they have been 
 forced to retreat. Every advance has been a victory. 
 Relying upon the power of truth, they have wasted no 
 time in crimination and recrimination. Believing in the 
 instrumentalities divinely instituted, they have used them 
 quietly and perseveringly, without adding or working 
 any noisy machinery. The country at large has known 
 little of their labors. Even in the city of New York, 
 few appreciated the importance and power of the move- 
 ment until the end was in many particulars gained. It 
 is refreshing to witness this ^^I'actical faith in truth, and 
 in the efficiency of calm, quiet, manly, Christian action." 
 
 A brief sketch of the methods and results of the first 
 five years of this Sabbath movement may not be with- 
 out interest to the readers of this volume. 
 
 Thoughtful men wxre alarmed at the rapid drift to- 
 ward popular neglect or profanation of the sacred day. 
 The city had assumed the proj^ortions of a great metrop- 
 olis, attracting vast numbers of European immigrants, 
 and outstripping the projDortionate means of moral and 
 religious culture. Demoralizing influences had fearfully 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 7 
 
 multiplied, Avith no adequate counteraction or restraint. 
 Public sentiment had been corrupted or perverted by a 
 vicious press and party intrigue. The machinery of gov- 
 ernment had largely passed into the control of the classes 
 contributing least to its support, and most interested iu 
 staying the administration of justice. Law had lost its 
 wonted supremacy, and our self-governmg institutions 
 were fast losing their prestige and power. Material inter- 
 ests overshadowed and supplanted the moral and spirit- 
 ual. The Sabbath became in many quarters, and among 
 large classes of the city, the gala-day of the godless ; the 
 harvest-day of avarice; the high-day of vice and crime. 
 It seemed a hopeless undertaking to rescue it from even 
 the grossest abuses of its civil rights. 
 
 But there were those who had sufficiently studied the 
 history and relations of the Sabbath to cherish and act 
 on the conviction, that its loss would involve not only 
 irreparable injury to all moral and religious mterests, 
 but the inevitable sacrifice of our civil and social insti- 
 tutions. They had, indeed, to face the discouragements 
 just alluded to, and the further circumstance that the 
 repeated efforts to avert this and kindred e^dls, spas- 
 modic and ill-judged as many of them were, had failed 
 of their object, and only aggravated the disease they 
 were meant to cure. This fact, however, rightly con- 
 sidered, was suited to mspire caution, energy and prayer. 
 After years of reflection and consultation, a meeting of 
 leading Christian citizens was convened, April 1, 1857; 
 the subject was discussed ; and a " Committee to pro- 
 mote the better observance of the Sabbath" was ap- 
 pointed, consisting of about tv/enty members, connected 
 with eight different Christian denominations. 
 
8 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 The form of the organization lias many i)ractical advan- 
 tages. It is simple, com})act, and nnostentatious. With- 
 out the prestige of numbers, and so without its embar- 
 rassments, it has none of the temptations of a "society" 
 to undertake extreme and impracticable measures, re- 
 gardless of that general public sentiment on which, 
 mider Providence, the power and success of all stable 
 reforms must ultimately rest. So long as a "committee" 
 conduct their enterprises in a spirit and on principles 
 suited to enlist the confidence of all right-minded citi- 
 zens, and with the manifest aim to promote the public 
 welfare, the very paucity of numbers becomes an ele- 
 ment of strength ; for every good man may see that 
 while a cause he approves is fitly championed, yet he, 
 and all like him, must j^ersonally enter the ranks as the 
 exigencies of the conflict demand his service. The Press, 
 too, comes to lend a willing support to a just and im- 
 portant interest, when it has no " organ " to advocate 
 questionable or exclusive theories, and no aims beyond 
 the well-being of the great community for whose benefit 
 Ijoth profess to labour. 
 
 The Zay-feature of the Committee was adopted and has 
 been perpetuated for obvious reasons. The primary 
 objects of the movement having respect to the invasions 
 of the civil Sabbath, civilians seemed best suited to pro- 
 mote them. The single fact that active business-men 
 turn aside from their pressing avocations and devote 
 time and influence and wealth to the suppression of 
 offences so glaring as to require the intervention of the 
 magistracy, of itself tends to disentangle the Sabbath 
 question from its chief embarrassment, and to define 
 its civil relations as distinguished from its religious obli- 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 9 
 
 gations so clearly as to baffle the unscrupulous enemies 
 and invaders of both its civil and sacred sanctions. And 
 we have yet to learn that any of our honoured and hard- 
 working pastors undervalue or would discourage the 
 active cooperation of prudent laymen in this and kindred 
 Christian enterprises " too heavy " for their own over- 
 burdened hands. Rather would they adopt the prayer 
 of Moses : " Would God all the Lord's people were 
 prophets ! " It is quite certain that the manifold rela- 
 tions of this enterprise to civil authorities, legislative, 
 judicial and executive, as well as to the general public, 
 have been freed from complication and prejudice by the 
 fact that its interests were directed by Christian citi- 
 zens chosen from secular callings. 
 
 The first step taken by the Committee was a recon- 
 noissance. The mere general fact of neglected or abused 
 Sabbaths seemed an inadequate basis for reformatory 
 action. A census of Sunday traffic, developed the fact 
 that nearly ten thousand (9,692) places of business, in- 
 cluding more than five thousand dram-shops (5,385,) 
 were open to the public. Places of public amusement 
 were personally inspected by members of the Committee 
 — sometimes at the peril of life — at which thousands of 
 men, women and children were gathered on the Lord's 
 day for purposes of diversion, dissipation and sin. Let 
 it suffice, without repeating the revelations in " The Sab- 
 bath as it was and as it is " (No. I.) and in other docu- 
 ments of the Committee, that the more thorough and ex- 
 tended the inquiry, the deeper and more painful became 
 the conviction of the prevalent and formidable character 
 of the evils to be encountered. They had existed so 
 long almost without rebuke ; they were so intrenched in 
 1* 
 
10 SKETCH or THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 tlie avarice of some classes and in the love of sensual 
 pleasure in others ; they were so strengthened by Old 
 World training and prejudices, and were pandered to 
 so industriously by the German and English Sunday 
 Press ; and ignorance or indifference as to their nature 
 and extent were so profound on the part of the Sab- 
 bath-keeping community, that exposure and reformation 
 seemed to border on the chimerical if not the impossible. 
 
 It may be added, as illustrating the position of things 
 five years ago, that laws protecting the Sabbath had 
 been, for a quarter of a century at least, practically ob- 
 solete ; that the police department was in a chaotic state 
 — in the change from the Municipal to the Metropolitan 
 regime ; that the judicial and municipal officers were 
 largely the candidates of the Sunday liquor interest ; and 
 that the commercial crisis of '57 came upon the city 
 like a tempest the very month of the completed organi- 
 zation for this movement. And it will thus be seen 
 that few enterprises could encounter more disheartening 
 circumstances, or more demand faith, prudence and zeal 
 on the jjart of their managers. 
 
 The grand aim of the Reform being to correct and 
 arouse public sentiment as to the claims and perils of 
 the Sabbath, the three principal agencies for this pur- 
 pose — the Pulpit, the Press and Personal influence — 
 have been enlisted in such measure as seemed best cal- 
 culated to secure the desired result. 
 
 The incipient plans of the Committee Avere laid before 
 a meeting of more than one hundred of the Clergy of 
 the city, and received their unanimous sanction in a 
 series of Resolutions that will live in the literature of 
 the Sabbath while Sabbaths last. Not far from one 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 11 
 
 luindred sermons on the subject were simultaneously 
 preached, soon after, on the invitation of the Committee. 
 The recent series of sermons by Pastors of seven denomi- 
 nations, before thronged assemblies, has tended to deepen 
 the conviction of the authority and value of the Sabbath 
 and of the importance of measures for its sanctification. 
 Throughout the reform, the counsel and cooperation 
 of the ministry have been cordially given and highly 
 prized. 
 
 But, valuable as has been the aid of the Pulpit, the 
 cooperation of the Press has been invaluable in eifecting 
 the revolution in general public sentiment which laid the 
 foundation for successful practical reforms. There was 
 a manifest propriety in- the discussion of questions of 
 public order and morality as related to the invasion of 
 the national day of rest and worship by journals whose 
 columns are pledged to truth and virtue. Without fee 
 or reward, the leading daily newspapers of the city have 
 advocated and defended all the prominent measures 
 inaugurated by the Committee with an ability and good 
 temper that carried conviction to the public mind, and 
 with a unity that paralyzed opposition. Every at- 
 tempt of the enemies of the Sabbath to complicate the 
 question with party politics — and many have been made 
 — has been rebuked by the honest press of all parties. 
 Besides the intrinsic value of this cooperation, it more 
 than neutralised the persistent and shameless opposition 
 of the Sunday Press and its allies. More than once it 
 silenced the atheism and licentiousness of the German 
 Press. The Weekly Religious Press, it scarcely need be 
 said, has lent an ohnost unanimous and most cordial sup- 
 port to this movement. In reviewing the whole course 
 
12 SKKTCII OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 of tlie Sabbath IJefonii, it is obvious that its manifold 
 successes and its i)rosent vantage-ground are intimately 
 related to tlie fact tliat nearly one hundred millions of 
 cojties of New York newspapers have borne to their 
 readers articles friendly to the restoration and conserva- 
 tion of our civil Sabbath. 
 
 The othcial communications of the Committee have 
 been confined to their series of '■'• Documents.^'' Facts 
 and arguments have been embodied relating to the par- 
 ticular measure in hand, addressed to the reason and 
 conscience of thoughtful citizens — studiously avoiding 
 appeals to passion or prejudice, and leaving to their 23ro- 
 per realm those disputed questions of ethics and theology 
 about Avhich there may be honest differences of opinion. 
 A monopoly of vituperation and personal abuse has been 
 left to the enemies of the Sabbath, and a tone of moder- 
 ation and forbearance has been aimed at consistent with 
 the humane and sacred objects contemplated. The grati- 
 fying fact that none of the twenty official papers of the 
 Committee have been subjected to unfriendly criticism 
 attests the public appreciation of this policy, and is grate- 
 ful to those who have deliberately chosen it irrespective 
 of the precedents of modern reforms. 
 
 The distribution of the Committee's documents has 
 varied from 2,000 to 10,000 or 20,000 copies severally, as 
 the issues have required. They have been placed gratuit- 
 ously in the hands of influential citizens, public officers, 
 editors, clergymen, etc. Three important documents in 
 the German language have been circulated by thousands 
 through the missionary employed by the Committee 
 among the Germans, and among German pastors and 
 editors ; and several hundred copies have been sent to 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 13 
 
 leading men in Gern-^Jiny. " Railroads and the Sabbath " 
 (No. 2.) was directed to thousands of directors and em- 
 ployes of Railway companies. " The Broderic Sunday 
 pageant" (ISTo. 10.) was sent to 4,000 Firemen. "The 
 Sabbath and the Pulpit" (Xo. 20.) was mailed to nearly 
 5,000 clergymen. " The Plea for the Sabbath in War " 
 (No. 19.) was addressed to all the ofhcers of GoA^ernment, 
 and to as many military officers as could be reached Avith 
 certainty ; and packages were sent for the supply of all the 
 regiments in the army of the Potomac. After the noble 
 Sabbath Order of Gen. McClellan Avas issued, the Com- 
 mittee requested the American Tract Society to publish 
 it in connection AA'ith Washington's Order respecting the 
 Sabbath and Profane SAA^earing ; and 30,000 copies in 
 English and 24,000 in German haAe been distributed in 
 the army, at the joint expense of the tAA^o associations, 
 besides some 50,000 copies through the separate chan- 
 nels of the Tract Society. 
 
 The object of all these movements has been the crea- 
 tion of an intelligent, healthful sentiment friendly to a 
 due obserA'ance of the Sabbath. This done, it was 
 belieA'ed, and has been demonstrated, that specific re- 
 forms AA'ould work themseh^es out AAdth little direct ef- 
 fort. Whoever may attempt the reverse, and seek to 
 carry out reformatory schemes in the face of an indifferent 
 or hostile public sentiment, may expect disaster and defeat. 
 
 It remains to notice the third element of influence — 
 personal exertion. In its A^ery nature secluded from pub- 
 lic observation, little can properly be said of its methods 
 or results. There is reason to belicA^e that it has not been 
 the least effective of the agencies employed. In need- 
 ful investigations and explorations ; in personal confer- 
 
14 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 ences witli tlie conductors of the Press, public authori- 
 ties, and legislative committees ; in procuring signatures 
 to memorials ; in securing the passage of wholesome 
 laws, or defending them when assailed ; in providing ade- 
 quate funds without public appeals of any sort therefor, 
 and in the careful direction of every branch of an ex- 
 panding enterprise, the several members of the Com- 
 mittee have cheerfully devoted no inconsiderable amount 
 of time and effort to an object worthy of the sacrifice: 
 with abundant proofs, that, under the blessing of the 
 Most High, they have not labored in vain nor spent their 
 strencfth for nauo:ht. 
 
 When the Committee began their labours, they anti- 
 cipated years of j^reliminary effort before it would be ex- 
 pedient to attempt specific reforms. The promptness of 
 the recoil from the abuses and dangers brought to light 
 in the early papers of the Committee, induced a speedier 
 attempt than had been purposed to restrain some of 
 the more offensive forms of Sabbath profanation. Begin- 
 ning with those which admitted of no apology or defence 
 at the bar of public opinion, the several issues made 
 by the Committee may be classified as follows : 
 
 1. Offences against the Public Peace and Order. 
 
 2. Invasions of Public Morals. 
 
 3. Protection of the Sabbath in War. 
 
 4. Promotion of the general Sabbath Reform. 
 
 A brief statement of the leading fiicts in the history of 
 these several movements will illustrate the policy of the 
 Committee and the results of their labours. 
 
 1, Offences against the public Peace and Order. 
 
 Of this class the Sunday news-crying nuisance was the 
 most obtrusive and least defensible. It had, indeed, 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 15 
 
 gained a foot-hold, by a quarter of a century of unmanly 
 toleration, strong enough to secure for it the immunity 
 of extra-judicial sanction : for the then Recorder of the 
 city went out of his way to protect the " poor friend- 
 less boys " who were hawking " a public necessity," and 
 to assure the Grand Jury that he " didn't think much of 
 Sunday Laws — which were well enough as abstract mor- 
 ality, but altogether too slow for the age ! " The Sun- 
 day papers defended the nuisance most pertinaciously — 
 some of them having Daily issues — with the evident pur- 
 pose of driving from the field of discussion and reform 
 any body of men bold enough to interfere with their pre- 
 scriptive monopoly of traffic and noise on the Lord's Day. 
 So violent was this onslaught that one of the Editors of 
 
 the Sunday felt constrained to protest against it 
 
 as having "its origin in the unquiet minds of two or 
 three degraded and depraved individuals, who have most 
 unworthily worn the vestments of the priesthood, and 
 who now seek popular preferment by pandering to the 
 passions and the lusts of the very worst classes of socie- 
 ty ; " and he proceeds to declare : " I am totally mis- 
 represented by the Press of which I am Editor, and 
 which through some, to me, unexplained means, has been 
 made the organ of folly ^ falsehood^ and ribaldry ^ 
 
 The only public measure resorted to, after the scorn- 
 ful treatment of a respectful remonstrance addressed to 
 the several Proprietors of the Sunday newspapers, Avas 
 the preparation and presentation of a " Memorial to the 
 Mayor and Police Commissioners, against the crying of 
 newspapers on Sunday," on the grounds that it was 
 a school of vice to the newsboys ; that their evil ex- 
 ample was disastrous to the children of the city ; that 
 
10 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFOR\r. 
 
 it was ail uinvarrantable monoi^oly of traffic; that it in- 
 A'adetl the chiimsof courtesy and good neighbourhood, and 
 that tlms it was a violation of the rights of good citizens. 
 This memorial received the signatures of a hundred or 
 more of our most prominent citizens. The Commission- 
 ers immediately issued an order for the suppression of 
 the evil. The Sunday papers counselled resistance and 
 tlireatened vengeance. But after a few months of per- 
 severing yet forbearing effort, the nuisance was wholly 
 abated, and is now remembered only with a feeling of 
 surprise that a civilized and a Christian community should 
 have so long endured so gross an outrage. 
 
 The Broderic Sunday Pageant furnished another occa- 
 sion for testing the strength of the public sentiment on 
 this question. The programme for this sham-funeral 
 proposed to marshal the whole Fire Department, some 
 4,000 strong, with banners, bands of music, and all the 
 paraphernalia of a popular pageant, on the Sabbath. It 
 was postponed from week to week on account of storms, 
 but notwithstanding the remonstrances of the Press, 
 was always set down for Sunday. This precedent seem- 
 ed needless and impertinent. A Protest against this 
 abuse of the Sabbath, with 550 signatures, was present- 
 ed to the officers of the Department and sent to the Fore- 
 men of 160 Fire Companies ; and when it was determin- 
 ed to disregard it, the Protest was inserted in all our 
 Public Journals. The issue was fairly joined. The result 
 proved that Sunday Pageants are at a discount in our city. 
 The entire procession numbered 541 — not half of whom 
 were firemen ; and their long march through our streets 
 was but a lugubrious advertisement of the failure of their 
 boasted display. There has been no repetition of the wrong. 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 17 
 
 The attempt to pervert the Central Park into a Sun- 
 day holiday arena comj^elled the Committee's attention. 
 The entering wedge was small — only jDleasure-boats 
 on the Lake, licensed carriages for Sunday drives, re- 
 freshment-houses for Sunday visitors, and like provisions 
 for a European rather than an American use of those 
 magnificent grounds. The danger of the formal sanc- 
 tion of this insidious beginning was more imminent 
 than the public were aware. The Committee ad- 
 dressed a respectful Letter to the Commissioners, 
 claiming that the entire Sabbath arrangements of the 
 Park should be such as neither to offend nor corrupt the 
 public conscience. They urged the necessity of adopting 
 such a principle, as a bar to innumerable perversions ; 
 as alone consistent with the spirit of our laws and in- 
 stitutions ; as simply just and equal to all citizens and tax- 
 payers ; as preventing the popular demoralization uniform- 
 ly attending Sunday license, and as due to the rights 
 and feelings of the Christian community. This Letter 
 was given to the newspaper Press, and was generally 
 accepted as a just and temperate exposition of a per- 
 plexing question. It is believed that it expressed the 
 views substantially of a majority of the worthy Com- 
 missioners of the Park, and that there will be no devia- 
 tion from the principles suggested in the regulations for 
 the enjoyment of that costly and invaluable place of 
 public recreation. 
 
 2. Invasions of Public Morals, 
 
 Far more formidable issues presented themselves as 
 the reform advanced. Systems of evil overspread the 
 city vast enough in their proportions to discourage the 
 hope of their overthrow. Some of them remain unre- 
 
18 SKETCH OF THE SARBATH REFORM. 
 
 bilked: others have been subjected to tlie restraints of 
 law and jmblic opinion. The most prominent of the 
 latter has been the Sunday Liquor Traffic. AvaiUng 
 itself of the full j^ockets and idle time of the labouring 
 classes, Sunday was the harvest-day of the Dram-shops — 
 and of the Prisons. 
 
 After months of consultation and investigation, the 
 Committee spread the results of their inquiries before the 
 pubhc in a temperate paper, (No. 5,) showing the extent 
 and accessories of the Sunday Traffic in liquor, and its il- 
 legality; urging its suppression on the ground that it en- 
 genders pauperism, crime, lawlessness and irrehgion ; 
 and suggesting adequate remedies. The subject was 
 earnestly discussed by the secular, religious and Sunday 
 Press for several months. Public sentiment rapidly ripen- 
 ed into determined hostility against a selfish and demor- 
 alizing business, and obviously demanded the intervention 
 of the Magistracy. At length the Committee embodied 
 the views of good citizens in a Memorial to the Board of 
 Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police, askhig for 
 protection and relief, which speedily had some six hun- 
 dred signatures of a character to indicate the readiness 
 of the entire body of our respectable population to ap- 
 pend their names, if requested. A counter-memorial, 
 German and English, received some 1,200 signatures, 
 and w^as jn-esented by a deputation of anti-Sunday 
 " clergymen ; " but, five-sixths of the names could not 
 be found in the Directory, or were set down as Liquor- 
 dealers, segar-sellers and other parties in interest ! The 
 Commissioners unanimously passed a series of pertinent 
 resolutions, the fifth of which took the ground " That 
 present abuses in disregarding the Sunday laws, particu- 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 19 
 
 larly in public exhibitions on Sundays, and trafficking in 
 liquors and other like things, should, so far as the law al- 
 lows, be prevented by the whole power of the police 
 force and the magistracy." This action was followed 
 by a General Order of Suj^erintendent Pilsbury to the 
 Captains of Precincts, " instructing the members of their 
 commands to see that all places where intoxicating li- 
 quors are publicly kept or sold on Sunday shall be 
 closed in future on that day." 
 
 From that time (Aug. 1859) to the present, the con- 
 test has continued between the Police authorities under 
 the successive administrations and the Sunday Liquor 
 Dealers, with multiform attempts at evasion or resistance, 
 but with increasing vigour and success. Finding that 
 the accumulation of complaints to the number of more 
 than 30,000 in the office of the District Attorney failed 
 to deter the violators of law, the Police were instructed 
 to make arrests of offenders. When magistrates inter- 
 posed to discharge their friends from arrest, they w^ere 
 properly restrained from unlawful interference. And 
 when Sunday courts were held open for the exjjress 
 purpose of facilitating the discharge of Sunday law- 
 breakers, arrests were deferred till the evening, so as to 
 secure at least a night of reflection in the station-house 
 on the conduct of the day. Many of the Sunday dealers 
 are known to prosecute their business still through 
 side entrances and back-doors ; but as a pubUc system, 
 the traffic in liquors on the Sabbath is substantially over- 
 thrown. 
 
 The results as affecting public morals are worthy the 
 attention of political economists as well as of the friends 
 of the Sabbath. Contrasted with the period preceding 
 
20 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 tlie effort for the Suppression of Sunday Liquor selling, 
 the following statistics tell the instructive story : 
 
 The arrests for intoxication, disorder and crime, on 
 Sunday, during eighteen months of the period — 1857- 
 58 — preceding the agitation of the Sunday Liquor Ques- 
 tion, exceeded those of Tuesday (taken as the average 
 of the week-days) by twenty-five per cent., as official- 
 ly reported. 
 
 But the statistics of the Police Department show that 
 during the twenty-nine months ending January 1, 1862, 
 the Tuesdaifs arrests exceeded those of the Sunday'' s by 
 forty per CEisTT., or a relative change of sixty-five per 
 cent. The comparison of the actual results with those 
 which would have followed had the Sunday Liquor 
 Traffic continued without restraint, will show a saving 
 
 OF 13,823 CASES OF VICE AND CRIME ON THE SuNDAYS 
 
 OF TWENTY-NINE MONTHS, as the fruits of this beneficent 
 reform. 
 
 In the charge to the Grand Jury of the Court of Gen- 
 eral Sessions for March, 1862, the Judge stated the 
 gratifying fact — illustrative of the remark that "the 
 criminal statistics of New York compared favorably 
 with those of any city in the world," — that there were 
 now but fifty criminal cases on the calender for trial, 
 against two hundred and seventy five at the corresponding 
 term one year ago. 
 
 The Sunday Theatres and Beer Gardens^ by skillfully 
 evading the then existing laws, profited for a time by 
 the closing of the Sunday dram-shops. Intrenching 
 themselves in quarters of the city chiefly inhabited by 
 German immigrants ; advertising in German papers 
 under the title of " Sacred Concerts," and having their 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 21 
 
 performances in a foreign language, they had become 
 a demorahzing agency of fearful proportions, almost 
 without the knowledge of the American population. At 
 least a score of these places were open to the public, 
 and were crowded by men, women, and children every 
 Sunday, with every conceivable appliance of sensual di- 
 version, from comedy, tragedy, songs, dancing, acrobatic 
 sports on the stage, to gambling, drinking, billiard-play- 
 ing, bowling, shooting, and fighting in the auditorium 
 and lobbies. Many of them were known houses of as- 
 signation and prostitution. The repeated attempts to 
 bring this system under the decent restraints of the 
 theatre law were nuo-atorv. It defied the ofiicers of 
 justice, and outraged the rights of society. Dej^ending 
 confessedly on its Sunday profits for support, its man- 
 agers combined to defeat ail attempts to bring the 
 system within the restraints of law and public sentiment. 
 The nature and extent of this evil were exposed in a 
 pamphlet of 24 pages (Document Xo. 11), discussing 
 the claims of foreigners to immunity for their vices, 
 and vindicatino- the constitutional rio-ht of our leg^islature 
 to restrain the abuses of our civil Sabbath, whether by 
 native or foreign-born citizens. The discussion became 
 general and animated between the organs of American 
 sentiment and the German press, with their natural 
 allies, the Sunday papers in English. The latter assum- 
 ed the position that the Sunday Beer-Garden system was 
 supported by the entire German population, and thus 
 sought to impose upon political parties the idea that re- 
 straint of their "national customs" would involve the 
 united hostility of that nationality. The large and re- 
 spectable class of orderly and Christian Germans re- 
 
22 SKETCH OP THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 sented this imputation. An immense gathering in Cooper 
 Institute avowed their attaclnnent to the laws and in- 
 stitutions of their adopted country ; protesting " against 
 the perversion of Smiday" by a portion of their country- 
 men as " bringing dishonour on the German name ;" 
 and approving the Sunday laws " as one of the strongest 
 guarantees of our free institutions, as a wholesome 
 check upon licentiousness and dissipation, and as a pre- 
 ventive of the pauperism and crime which must neces- 
 sarily undermine and ultimately destroy the liberty of 
 any people." 
 
 Our Sunday laws enacted fifty years ago did not con- 
 template such formidable offences as were found to exist 
 among a large emigrant population ; and it became neces- 
 sary to seek the enactment of a statute more adequate 
 to their suppression. The Sunday-Theatre Act of 1860 
 encountered the most virulent opposition. The theatre, 
 brewing, and lager beer interests formed associations 
 to resist the passage or enforcement of the law, raising 
 funds and levying a tariff on the Sunday sales of lager 
 for this purpose. Numerous delegations visited Albany, 
 and paid agents were kept there to prevent the suc- 
 cess of the measure. The proceeds of theatrical " bene- 
 fits " were devoted to the same object. A German peti- 
 tion for the repeal of all Sunday laws, and remonstrance 
 against the theatre law — claiming to have from 10,000 
 to 100,000 signatures — had 4,805 names appended to it ; 
 but of the first 317 names claiming to be "citizens of 
 the city of New York," only 11 were found in the City 
 Directory, and 5 of these were saloon-keepers and gro- 
 cers ! The respectable Germans rallied and sent a coun- 
 ter-petition, numerously signed. The act became a law 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 23 
 
 in April, 1860. The theatre proprietors generally defied 
 the law, and continued to violate it — some of them 
 openly, and one or two under the sham of a " Shaker 
 Congregation.'''^ The police authorities made frequent 
 arrests — mostly on the day succeeding the offence. Tlie 
 counsel of the " House of Refuge," charged with the 
 enforcement of the civil penalty, proceeded by suits and 
 injunction orders to enforce the provisions of the act, 
 and was soon face to face with parties who had long 
 trifled with all the laws regulating theatrical amuse- 
 ments. In every suit he was successful. In every court 
 where the question was raised, the constitutionality of 
 the act, though contested by the ablest legal talent, was 
 affirmed. Meanwhile, the criminal suits matured, and 
 the leading offender was convicted before a jury. The 
 appeal to the General Term of the Supreme Court re- 
 sulted in the memorable decision of Judges Clarke, 
 Sutherland, and Allen, sustaining the constitutionality 
 of laws protecting the civil Sabbath. (See Doc. No. 
 18.) The result of this protracted contest has been 
 the subjection to law of the most persistent and noto- 
 rious offenders ; the settlement of the principle that 
 foreigners coming among us are to respect and obey 
 the laws they find here, until they are regularly changed ; 
 and the vindication of our constitution from the sophisms 
 of sceptical and lawless classes. 
 
 A vigorous onset was made on the legislature of 1861, 
 to effect the repeal of the Sunday theatre act. Large 
 sums of money were raised and expended for this pur- 
 pose. Several meetings were held on Sunday, in Sun- 
 day theatres, to denounce the Sabbath and all laws for 
 its protection, which were addressed by ex-" clergymen," 
 
24 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 actors, and otlier defenders of " liberty," amidst tlie 
 fumes of lager and tobacco, and tlie profane babblings 
 of an infidel throng. Petitions for the abrogation of all 
 Sunday laws, boasting 25,000 signatures, but containing 
 fewer names in fact than the aggregate number of lager 
 and liquor sellers in New York — three-fourths of them 
 all being bogus — were sent to iVlbany. It was not deemed 
 needful to agitate the public or invite signatures to 
 remonstrances. All that was done was to appear before 
 the committee having the matter in charge, furnish in- 
 formation to the legislature as to the working of the 
 law, and invite a meeting of Germans in Cooper Insti- 
 tute. An enthusiastic gathering of some 3,000 of them 
 gave the legislature and the public to understand that 
 Sunday beer-gardens Avere doomed by Germans them- 
 selves. Nevertheless, the committee on cities and vil- 
 lages, with a majority of its members from New York 
 and Brooklyn, reported a bill authorizing the sale of 
 malt liquors on Sunday and on all other days of the week. 
 The minority of the committee, through the Hon. Mr. 
 Ball of Rensselaer, presented an elaborate report against 
 this and all Sunday license. The result was the defeat 
 of the anti-Sunday scheme by a vote of 74 to 23 — no 
 less than 18 of the minority representing New York City 
 and its vicinity. No subsequent effort has been made 
 to disturb our Sunday laws. 
 
 An incidental result of this healthful agitation has 
 been the suppression of the " Concert Saloon^^ system ; 
 first on Sundays, under the operation of the Sunday 
 Theatre Act of April, 1860, and then on all days of the 
 week, by the passage of the stringent law of April, 
 1862. 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 25 
 
 3. Protectox of the Sabbath in Wak. 
 The stirring events of our unhappy civil war involved 
 new and imminent perils to the Sabbath and related 
 interests. What with necessary inrOads on the quiet 
 and order of a time of peace, and the license regarded 
 as almost inseparable from a state of war, the most serious 
 apprehensions were entertained that the barriers of law 
 and public sentiment so happily restored, might give 
 way before the pressure of unexpected emergencies. 
 For a time, the Sabbath seemed to be the chosen 
 day for the movement and display of troops. Reg- 
 iment after regiment, from this and other States, 
 marched the length of the city, and embarked for 
 the seat of war on Sunday, calling our idle popula- 
 tion, young and old, by tens of thousands to witness 
 the pageant. The Committee saw this drift of things 
 with pain, but deemed it prudent to forego remonstrance 
 until the pubhc mind should resume something of calm- 
 ness ; when a brief appeal — '•'• Sabbath in War'''' — was 
 made to the public and to our municipal authorities, 
 which had a ready response from the press and the 
 people. Various incipient abuses were effectually 
 checked by the police. The arrangements for forward- 
 ing troops w^ere modified so as to leave the Sabbath 
 mostly undisturbed — Adjutant-General Hillhouse omit- 
 ting the Sabbath wholly from the programme which 
 started a regiment for the seat of war each day for a 
 period of some three weeks. The metropolis soon re- 
 gained its wonted order and quiet, and has passed thus 
 fi\r through a period of war with steadily diminishing 
 lawlessness and crime. 
 
 Meanwiiile, tlie movements of our troops at the seat 
 2 
 
26 SKETCH OF THE f?ABBATH REFORM. 
 
 of war became notoriously and needlessly defiant of the 
 claims of the Sabbath. Nearly all the engagements of 
 the three-months' volunteers were on Sunday — and their 
 last liumiliating defeat before Manassas was in a Sunday 
 battle. The Christian sentiment of the country was out- 
 raged, and expressed itself in calm, sorrowful protest. 
 The Committee, though contemplating chiefly local re- 
 forms in its organization, felt constrained to embody what 
 they thought to be just and temperate views on the re- 
 lations of the Sabbath to the war — see " Plea for the 
 Sabbath in War,''^ Doc. No. 19 — which they gave to the 
 press, and sent in Pamphlet form to the oflicers of gov- 
 ernment, civil and military, — thousands of copies ha\ - 
 ing been placed in the hands of line and company officers 
 and soldiers. The copy addressed to the newly-appointeJ 
 Major- General commandmg on the Potomac was accom- 
 2:)anied by a private note, August 30, from one who 
 " claimed more than a mere patriot's interest in his pub- 
 lic career ; " and expressing the conviction that " no 
 single act would be more potent in conciliating and 
 binding to himself the moral and religious element of 
 the North, or more stimulate and reassure the Chris- 
 tian patriotism of the country, than one that should 
 link his name with a restored Sabbath for the army 
 and the nation." On the Cth of Sej^teraber, that mem- 
 orable general order for the protection of the rights of 
 soldiers and citizens to their Sabbath, which may be 
 considered as the most signal moral incident of the war, 
 issued from the cool brain and warm heart of General 
 McClellan: and in a week's time it flew from camp to 
 camp, and from heart to heart, throughout the loyal 
 states ; inspiring hope and faith and zeal for a cause thus 
 
SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 27 
 
 redeemed from association with impiety ; and inangurat- 
 ing the new regime of discipline, sobriety, patience and 
 energy, under which, Avith the blessing of the Most High, 
 our armies are gaining victory and renown. 
 
 4. PHOMOTION OF THE GENERAL SaBBATH KeFOBM. 
 
 The reaction in favour of the Sabbath from the repeated 
 disasters to our arms in needless Sunday battles, and in 
 connection with the noble utterances of the new Gen- 
 eral-m-Chief, providentially gave national proportions 
 to a movement which had been chiefly local. The time 
 had apparently arrived for mviting the cooperation of 
 the friends of the Sabbath throughout the country in 
 the effort to restore its foundations and restrain its in- 
 vaders. Especially did the juncture seem favourable for 
 the discussion of the great j^rinciples of divine and 
 human legislation on which the Sabbath is based, whether 
 in its sacred or civil relations. With this view the 
 Committee issued their Circular Letter to the clergy — 
 *' The Sabbath and the Pulpit,'' Doc. Xo. 20— of which 
 some 5,000 copies were mailed to pastors, besides its 
 newspaper circulation. Numerous responses have been 
 received to this Letter, and a more general discussion 
 has been given to the Sabbath question by the Pulpit 
 than perhaps ever before. 
 
 The Committee have aimed to keep the active friends 
 of the Sabbath in various parts of this country and in 
 Europe apprised of the progress of the Reform with 
 which they were charged. Their Documents have been 
 widely dispersed. Those in German have been sent 
 in large numbers to leading Christians on the Continent. 
 It is with unfeigned gratification that they observe a 
 steady and healthful advance in Sabbath sentiment 
 
28 SKETCH OF THE SABBATH REFORM. 
 
 throughout our country and in the Old World. Among 
 other mdications, we may note the energetic and success- 
 ful movements in California for the enactment and en- 
 forcement of Sunday Laws; similar efforts in Nevada; 
 the organization of Sabbath Defence Committees in 
 various cities, and the Avide discussion of the subject 
 in the Pulpit and by the Press. In Great Britain, un- 
 wonted attention is given to the suppression of Sab- 
 bath profanations ; and on the Continent, the proceed- 
 ings at the Geneva meeting of the "Evangelical Al- 
 liance" have led to the organization of efficient Sabbath 
 Associations in Switzerland and elsewhere, with the 
 promise of fruitful results. It may be that the provi- 
 dential prominence given to the Sabbath in our national 
 humiliations and triumphs, may serve to hold it up to 
 the world with new impressiveness as inseparably asso- 
 ciated with order, law, liberty and religion : so that 
 a restored Union and a recovered Sabbath may together 
 vindicate the principles and illustrate the conditions of 
 self-governing institutions to the nations of the earth. 
 
 Pv. S. C. 
 
THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH, 
 
 REV. N. L. RICE, D. D., 
 
 PA8T0E OP THE PEBSBTTBKIAN CHTTECH COE. 5tH AVENUE AND 19tH STEEET. 
 
THE 
 
 SiT^CE the fall of man, tlie conflict between 
 truth and error, religion and irreligion, sound 
 morals and immorality, has been incessant, and 
 it must continue till the God of truth and 
 righteousness "shall set judgment in the 
 earth." As in all other conflicts, so in this, 
 there are cardinal points around which the 
 contest has been most obstinate — each of the 
 parties convinced that success or failure de- 
 pends upon the gaining and holding of these. 
 One of the most important of these points is 
 the question respecting the divine authority 
 of the Sabbath, both as a religious and civil 
 institution. The estimate put upon the ques- 
 tion by both the friends and the enemies of 
 religion and morals, is indicated by the perse- 
 vering earnestness with Avhich the controversy 
 
 (31) 
 
32 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 luis heen carried on. In tlio iii'st of a series 
 of discourses on this great subject, our atten- 
 tion mayl)e properly occupied witli the Orighi 
 and History of the Sahhaili. 
 
 The subject is far too extensive to be fully 
 treated in a single discourse. I shall be under 
 the necessity, therefore, of contenting myself 
 with a very brief presentation of some of the 
 leading principles and facts. 
 
 I. The origin of the Sabbath is distinctly 
 intimated in the text, " The Sabbath was made 
 for man." From which we learn, 
 
 1. That the Author of tlie Sabbath is the 
 Creator of man. He who made man, and 
 knew perfectly what institutions would meet 
 his necessities, appointed for him the Sabbath. 
 Six parts of his time were allowed for ordinary 
 avocations ; the seventh was set apart for sa- 
 cred duties and enjoyments. On this point 
 there can be no controversy between believers 
 in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They may 
 differ respecting the time when the Sabbath 
 was instituted. They may differ as to the 
 question, whether it is of universal ol)ligation, 
 
ORIGIN AND IIISTOHY OF THE SABBATH. 33 
 
 or whether it is a Jewish institution. They 
 may also differ on the question, whether the 
 Christian Sabbath is identical with the Jewish, 
 with only the change of the day. And they 
 may not entirely agree respecting the degree 
 of strictness with which it ought to be ob- 
 served. But all must acknowledge that the 
 keeping of the Sabbath as a holy day, has been 
 and is binding, only because God has com- 
 manded it. It is the Creator of man who ap- 
 pointed the Sabbath for him, and said, "Re- 
 member the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." 
 
 2. The text also discovers to us the time 
 when the Sabbath was appointed. It was 
 made for man, not for any particular nation, 
 age, or dispensation, but for the whole race. 
 The word man is generic, and can mean noth- 
 ing less than the human race. But if the Sab- 
 bath was made for the race, its appointment 
 must have been coeval with the creation of 
 man. The Scriptures afford ample evidence 
 that this is true. 
 
 First. It is confirmed 1)y the obvious mean- 
 ing of the inspired narrative: "Thus the 
 2- 
 
34 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE SABBATH. 
 
 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 God blessed the seventh day, and sancti- 
 fied it; because that in it he had rested from 
 all his Avorks which God created and made." 
 To bless and sanctify a day, can mean nothing 
 but to set it apart for religious services, and to 
 make it a day of special blessing to those who 
 rightly observe it. Such is the uniform mean- 
 ing of the terms employed; and such is the 
 view given of the Sabbath by the prophet 
 Isaiah : " If thou turn away thy foot from the 
 Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy 
 day, and shalt call the Sabbath a delight, the 
 holy of the Lord, honourable ; and shalt honour 
 him, not doing thine own way, nor finding 
 thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own 
 word ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the 
 Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the 
 high places of the earth, and feed thee with the 
 heritage of Jacob thy father." (Isa. Iviii. 13, 
 14.) The plain meaning of the inspired nar- 
 rative, then, is, that at the time when the work 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 35 
 
 of creation was completed, and Grod rested 
 from Lis work, he apjDointed tlie seventh day to 
 be a religious rest, and a day of religious duty 
 and enjoyments. 
 
 Second. This view is confirmed by the rea- 
 son assigned for the sanctification of the sev- 
 enth day, viz : " Because that in it he had 
 rested from all his work, which God created 
 and made." The same reason is assis^ned in 
 the Decalogue for keeping the Sabbath-day 
 holy : " 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." 
 Now, it is perfectly evident that the reason 
 which God gave for sanctifying the Sabbath, is 
 every whit as strong in favour of its sanctifica- 
 tion at the beginning of time, as two thousand 
 years later; and if the reason existed in all 
 its strength immediately after the work of cre- 
 ation was completed, can we suppose that the 
 sanctification was deferred for centuries after- 
 ward % 
 
 Tliird. That the Sabbath was instituted im- 
 
36 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 mediately after tlie work of creation was com- 
 pleted, is further confirmed by the fact that 
 the division of time into weeks of seven days, 
 is distinctly traceable through the patriarchal 
 aores, and is found amonc^st the traditions of 
 the nations of antiquity. It is quite probable 
 that this division of time is referred to, when 
 it is stated that, " in process of time," Cain and 
 Abel brouofht their offerinsrs to the Lord. 
 The literal traiislation of the language is, at 
 the end of days. We discover this division of 
 time in the days of I^oah. After the return 
 of the dove, sent out from the ark, " he stayed 
 yet other seven days ; and again he sent forth 
 the dove out of the ark." When the dove again 
 returned, bearing in its mouth an olive leaf, 
 " he stayed yet other seven days," and again 
 sent it forth. This division of time is found 
 amongst the traditions of all the eastern na- 
 tions, and indeed amon^i^st those of almost all 
 
 7 O 
 
 nations. Now, this division is not a natural 
 one. There is nothing in the motion of the 
 heavenly bodies to suggest it. It is impossible, 
 consequently, to account for the prevalence 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 37 
 
 of it, except upon the supposition of a divine 
 appointment in the beginning of time. 
 
 Fourth. The first notice of the Sabbath, af- 
 tei' the exocle of the Jews from Egypt, is not 
 that of an institution just then appointed, but 
 of one ah^eady well known. In the 16th chap- 
 ter of Exodus, in connection with the gather- 
 ing of the manna, we read : ^' And it came to 
 pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice 
 as much, two omers for one man ; and all the 
 rulers of the cono:reo:ation came and told Mo- 
 ses. And he said unto them. This is that 
 which the Lord hath said. To-morrow is the 
 rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Loi'd : 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 morn- 
 ing." It is important to observe that on the 
 sixth day of the week, the people gathered 
 double the quantity of manna without any di- 
 rection from Moses ; for if he had so ordered, 
 the rulers must have known it. Why, then, 
 did they do this ? Most manifestly, because 
 they knew that the seventh day was the Sab- 
 
38 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 bath, when tbey were to abstain from secular 
 work. Evidently the reason why the rulers 
 came and told Moses, was because the people 
 had been forbidden to gather moi'e than that 
 which was sufficient for one day ; and they 
 were doubtful whether the day preceding the 
 Sabbath was to be an exception to the general 
 rule. But not a word is said leading to the 
 conclusion that now, for the first time, the Sab- 
 bath was appointed. Wo explanation is given 
 of the reasons for the appointment of such a 
 day, or of the manner of its observance. This 
 occurrence, therefore, affords evidence conclu- 
 sive, that the Sabbath, was already known as a 
 day divinely appointed as a holy rest. 
 
 Fiftlu The perpetuity and the universal ob- 
 ligation of the Sabbath, and consequently its 
 appointment in the beginning of time, are dis- 
 tinctly indicated by the place assigned it in the 
 Decalocfue. It is acknowledp:ed that the othe-r 
 nine precepts are of universal and perpetual 
 obligation ; and for this reason they were writ- 
 ten on tables of stone by the finger of God. 
 But why should a ceremonial institution, de- 
 
OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 39 
 
 signed for only one nation, and destined to 
 pass away, be incorporated in a law wliicli is 
 obligatory on all men, and is to continue in 
 force to the end of time ? True, there is some- 
 thing of the nature of a positive command in 
 it ; but it is also clearly moral. All our time 
 belongs to God. Six parts of it he allows to 
 be devoted to ordinary pursuits and pleasures; 
 but the seventh he retains, and requires it to 
 be specially and exclusively devoted to spirit- 
 ual duties. The obligation to employ our 
 time, or any part of it, according to divine di- 
 rection, is clearly moral. And no reason can 
 be assigned for the placing of the command to 
 hallow the Sabbath in the Decalogue, save 
 that, like the other nine, it is of universal and 
 perpetual obligation. And since the other 
 commandments were in substance given in the 
 beginning of time, so was the fourth. 
 
 Sixth. The reasons for the institution of the 
 Sabbath, and the ends for which it was appoint- 
 ed, prove that it was not designed for one na- 
 tion, for a limited period, but for all men, through 
 all acres. Thus we are brous^ht to consider, 
 
40 ORIGIN AXD HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 3. The reasons and necessities in wliicli the 
 S abl) at h origin at e cl. 
 
 What are the chief ends for which the Sab- 
 bath was instituted ? Or in what necessities 
 of man did it originate ? 
 
 First. To 1>egin with tlie first and lowest of 
 the reasons for its appointment, it originated 
 in the physical necessities of man. Whatever 
 might have been the results, physically consid- 
 ered, if m.an had not fallen into sin, and thus 
 become mortal, two truths are now abundantly 
 established, viz : 
 
 The first is, that besides the ordinary repose 
 in sleep, the human system requires one-seventh 
 part of the time for rest. Six hundred and 
 forty-one physicians signed a petition to the 
 British parliament against opening the Crystal 
 Palace for profit on Sundays, in which they 
 say, " Your petitioners, from their acquaintance 
 with the labouring classes, and with the laws 
 which regulate the human economy, are con- 
 vinced that a seventh day of rest, instituted 
 by God, and coeval with the existence of man, 
 is essential to the bodily health of man in ev- 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 41 
 
 ery station of life." Amongst these physicians 
 were some who stand at the head of tlie pro- 
 fession, such as Farre, Carpenter, and others. 
 A multitude of similar testimonies might easily 
 be adduced ; but for the purpose of the pres- 
 ent discourse, which is only introductory to a 
 more extended and thorouorh discussion of the 
 
 o 
 
 subject, it is deemed unnecessary. 
 
 It has been further proved by experiments 
 and testimonies the most ample and convinc- 
 ing, that, take one month with another, those 
 who rest on the Sabbatli, will perform more la- 
 bour annually than those vvdio devote every 
 day to labour. The well-known philanthropist 
 William Wilberforce, says, '' I remember that, 
 during the war, when it was proj^osed to work 
 all Sunday in one of the royal f^ictories, for a 
 continuance, not for an occasional service, it was 
 found that the workmen, who obtained gov- 
 ernment consent to abstain from working on 
 Sundays, executed, in a few months, even more 
 work than the others." A great number of 
 facts to the same purpose, have been collected 
 and published by the friends of the Sabbath. 
 
42 OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 2. The chief design of the Sabbath is to 
 meet the moral and religious necessities of 
 mankind, that they may "glorify God and en- 
 joy Him forever." Men possess a moral, as 
 well as a physical and an intellectual nature ; 
 and their moral nature controls their destiny 
 for both worlds, is their glory or their shame, 
 and renders them a blessing or a curse to each 
 other. It may be safely stated, as a general 
 rule, that the true prosperity and happiness of 
 men, even in this life, have a very marked pro- 
 portion to the purity of their moral character. 
 This great truth is even more strikingly seen 
 in the history of families, than in that of indi- 
 viduals ; and the history of the world demon- 
 strates nothing more conclusively, than that 
 ^' righteousness exalteth a nation." Universal 
 experience justifies the declaration of David, 
 that in keeping the commandments of the 
 Lord " there is great reward." 
 
 But there can be no greater folly, than to 
 limit one's thoughts and labours to a mere 
 point in his endless being. We are immortal ; 
 and sui'ely no one can doubt that his happi- 
 
OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 43 
 
 ness, a tliousand years hence, will be as im- 
 portant to him, as his happiness at the present 
 hour. It will be far more important, since the 
 mind, in the indefinite expansion of all its 
 powers and ca2:)acities, becomes constantly ca- 
 pable of intenser wretchedness, or of more ex- 
 alted enjoyment. And no truth taught in 
 the sacred ScrijDtures, more commends itself to 
 every man's conscience and judgment, than 
 that without holiness " no man shall see the 
 Lord." Nor is there a sins^le truth which re- 
 ceives stronsrer confirmation from universal ex- 
 perience, than that the conduct of the present 
 forms the character for the future, and becomes 
 a source of pleasure or of pain, of joy or of 
 grief. It is, therefore, clear beyond a question, 
 that all the interests of humanity are not only 
 connected with its moral culture, but abso- 
 lutely dependent upon it. 
 
 It is, then, most manifest that the immortal 
 subjects of a perfect moral government, must 
 have time and opportunity to become ac- 
 quainted with their duties to God and to each 
 other, and with the motives and encourage- 
 
44 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 ments to tlie clischargo of them. The moral 
 affections must be moulded, and the moral con- 
 duct guided by religious and moral truth. If 
 men are not to l)e the shives of sin, they must 
 know the truth ; and the truth must make 
 them free. (John viii. 32.) All religion, all 
 virtue, all holiness, consists of affections mould- 
 ed by God's truth, through the Holy S|)irit's 
 influence, and called into exercise by that 
 truth. As Bacon has happily expressed the idea, 
 " Truth prints virtue." Paul teaches the same 
 doctrine, when he makes true religion to be 
 obedience to the truth. (Rom. ii. 8.) But 
 the power of truth can never be felt, nor its 
 guiding light followed, until it is known ; and it 
 cannot become known, unless time be taken to 
 learn it. 
 
 If it is necessary for holy beings to know the 
 truth, that they may feel its power, and fol- 
 low its light, the necessity is far greater in de- 
 praved beings. For their minds are dark, and 
 they learn divine truth slowly. Their hearts 
 tend powerfully in wrong directions ; and all 
 the mighty force of that gospel which is " tlic 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 45 
 
 power of God unto salvation," is absolutely 
 necessary to restrain them. A radical change 
 must be effected in them, and God's method is 
 to " sanctify them through the truth." The 
 crreat commission under which the world is to 
 be reclaimed to God, reads, " Go teach all na- 
 tions ;" and if men are to be taught, there must 
 be time to teach them, and time for them to 
 learn. 
 
 It is necessary not only that mankind shall 
 have time to learn their duty, but likewise 
 that they have time to cultivate the virtues 
 that should adorn their characters. The mere 
 knowledge of truth is of no avail. The word 
 of God makes its first appeal to the intellect ; 
 but it accomplishes its mission only Vv^hen it 
 reaches the heart. And it becomes the instru- 
 ment of sanctification, only as it is the theme 
 of devout meditation. Of the blessed man it 
 is written : " His delight is in the law of the 
 Lord ; and in his law doth he meditate day 
 and night. And he shall be like a tree plant- 
 ed by the i-ivers of water, that bringeth forth 
 his fi'uit in his season ; his leaf also shall not 
 
46 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 wither ; and whatsoever he doeth shall pros- 
 per." (Ps. i.) It is of the utmost moment, 
 then, that during one day in seven the cares 
 and pleasures of the world be dismissed from 
 the mind, that it may devoutly meditate upon 
 the wonderful truths of God's word. " Those 
 that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall 
 flourish in the courts of our God. They shall 
 still bring forth fruit in old age : they shall be 
 fat and flourishing." (Ps. xcii. 13, 14.) True 
 religion is not the native growth of the human 
 soul. The earth, fruitful of thorns and briers, 
 but too faithfully reflects the state of the hu- 
 man heart. If, then, men are to cultivate 
 piety, there must be time to do it. 
 
 If the Sabbath is necessary, that men may 
 learn their duty, and cultivate piety, it is like- 
 wise most desirable as a time for relisfious en- 
 joyment. Happiness is gratified affection. 
 And since the moral affections are the noblest, 
 and should be the controlling" affections of the 
 soul, the exercise and gratification of these af- 
 fections afford the highest happiness of which 
 we are susceptible. We take time for social 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 47 
 
 intercoui'se with, our friends, that we may en- 
 joy the pleasures flowing from our natural and 
 social affections. We take tune to visit the 
 beautiful and sublime scenery of our world, 
 and to contemplate the beauties of art, that 
 we may enjoy the pleasures of refined taste. 
 Shall we not, then, take time to hold commun- 
 ion with the glorious Creator and Redeemer 
 of the world, and with his children, and to 
 contemplate the beauties and glories of heav- 
 en, that we may experience the highest joys ? 
 " For a day in thy courts is better than a thou° 
 sand." 
 
 The proportion of time, the seventh part, 
 reminds us of the work of creation, and thus 
 leads us to remember our Creator ; whilst 
 the particular day now observed, reminds us 
 of the work of redemption, and leads us to 
 faith in the Redeemer. And then the duties 
 and privileges meet, in the highest degi-ee, the 
 religious and moral necessities of men. 
 
 Whatever special reasons, then, existed, 
 binding the Jews to observe the Sabbath, it is 
 certain that the main reasons for its observance 
 
48 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 apply eqiiiilly to all men, in all ages. If tlie 
 Jews ono'ht to liave observed the Sabbath, be- 
 cause tlie work of creation was completed in 
 six days, and the Creator rested on the sev- 
 enth, ong^lit not the Gentiles to observe it for 
 the saiiie reason ? Have they not the same in- 
 terest in the work of creation ? and are they 
 not under the same obligation gratefully and 
 adoringly to remember their Creator ? " Is he 
 the God of the Jews only ? is he not also of 
 the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also." If 
 the Jews needed physical rest, and required 
 time to learn their duties to God, to cultivate 
 piety, to enjoy exalted pleasures, do not all 
 these reasons apply as fully to the Gentiles ? 
 Have not these existed, in all their force, from 
 the creation of the first man ? and will they 
 not continue in all their force to the end of 
 time ? 
 
 God gave to his people, the Jews, a civil, as 
 well as a moral law ; and he constituted the 
 Sabbath a civil, as well as a religious institu- 
 tion. In one instance, at least, during the so- 
 journ of the children of Israel in the wilder- 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 49 
 
 ness, the presumptuous violation of the la-w 
 of the Sabbath was visited by the penalty of 
 death. The fiict that God made it a civil in- 
 stitution, indicates clearly the duty of all 
 civil legislators, unless it can be sbown that tlie 
 reasons why the Jewish nation should have a 
 Sabbath, do not apply to other nations. But 
 as individuals and families have their respec- 
 tive accountability to God, so do nations. And 
 as the civil ruler is " a minister of God," he 
 must make his legislation conform to God's 
 legislation. Says Blackstone, '' Upon these 
 two foundations, the law of nature and the 
 law of revelation, depend all human laws ; 
 that is to say, no human laws should be suffered 
 to contradict these." Now, God has command- 
 ed all men to remember the Sabbath-day to 
 keep it holy ; no civil ruler, therefore, has the 
 right to require his subjects to labour on that 
 day, save in case of necessity. And since 
 " righteousness exalteth a nation," it is the wis- 
 dom of civil rulers to protect the people, in 
 the enjoyment of the divinely-appointed day 
 for the cultivation of virtue. This is eminent- 
 3 
 
50 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 ly true of a free govern nieDt, since all such 
 governments depend upon the moral forces. 
 The Sabbath, then, originated in the moral ne- 
 cessities of nations, as well as of individuals 
 and families. 
 
 II. The history of the Sabbath divides it- 
 self naturally into three periods. The first, 
 from the beginning of time to the giving of 
 the Law at Sinai ; the second, from the giving 
 of the Law to the introduction of the New 
 Dispensation ; the third, from the beginning 
 of the New Dispensation to tbe present 
 time. 
 
 Tlie only history w^e have of the first period 
 is extremely brief. It cannot be expected, 
 therefore, that there w^ould be anything more 
 than an occasional mention of the Sabbath, 
 together with occasional references to it. It is 
 pleasant to think that the first day Adam and 
 Eve spent on earth was the Sabbatb ; and we 
 may w^ell believe, that the sinless pair kept 
 that day holy. With what pleasing wonder 
 and religious awe they must have contemplated 
 the beauties and sublimities of the new crea- 
 
ORIGIX AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 51 
 
 tion around them, and with what holy joy- 
 must they have held communion with the 
 Creator of all things. This may have been 
 the only Sabbath that dawned on our world 
 before sin defiled it, and brought it under the 
 curse. We may venture to believe, too, that 
 after the fall, our first father and mother, 
 taught of God, and encouraged by the prom- 
 ise that the seed of the woman should bruise 
 the serpent's head, rested from their toils on 
 the holy day, and offered in sacrifice the ani- 
 mals whose skins afforded them clothing:, and 
 that it was in accordance with their example 
 and instruction, that Cain and Abel brousfht 
 their respective offerings " at the end of 
 days." And it is not unduly straining the lan- 
 guage of inspiration to believe that, in the 
 days of Seth, when men " began to call on the 
 name of the Lord," their public worship was 
 on the day which was sanctified and blest from 
 the beginning. Moreover, since it is certain 
 that Noah was acquainted with the divine di- 
 vision of time into weeks of seven days, there 
 is good reason to believe that he, and Enoch 
 
52 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 before liiiii, delighted in tlie observance of the 
 holy day. 
 
 During the latter part of the sojourn of the 
 Jews in Egypt, when they were reduced to 
 bondao^e, the observance of the Sabbath must 
 have fallen greatly into disuse; and this is 
 probably one reason why the piety and mor- 
 als of the people had sunk so low. Yet, as we 
 have seen, the day Avas not forgotten; for 
 when the manna began to fall, the people, 
 though especially forbidden to gather more 
 than enough for a day at a time, did on the 
 sixth day provide themselves with double the 
 ordinary quantity. And it is true, beyond a 
 question, that from the day they left Egypt, 
 guided by the mysterious pillar of cloud and 
 fire, the rest of the Sabbath was observed. 
 
 The history of the Sabbath from the giving 
 of the Law to the New Dispensation, exhibits 
 three general phases : 
 
 1. There were periods, when the day was 
 observed, in some good degree, as God designed 
 it to be observed. And it is worthy of spe- 
 cial remark, that the times of the f^iithful ob- 
 
OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 53 
 
 servanee of the Sabbath, were those in which 
 religion was in a revived and growing state. It 
 is needless to remark that, during the sojourn in 
 the wilderness, the day was observed with strict- 
 ness. In the days of JN^ehemiah, after the re- 
 turn from the Babylonisli captivity, tliere was 
 a revived state of religion, and with this a 
 higher regard for tlie Sabbath, both as a re- 
 ligious and civil institution. At an immense 
 gathering of the people in Jerusalem, when the 
 Scriptures had been read and expounded, for 
 several days, to a crowd so intensely interested 
 as to stand for hours to bear it ; in a public 
 prayer, the Levites, recounting the many and 
 great blessings God had bestowed upon the 
 Jews, made special mention of the holy Sab- 
 bath, as thougb it were one of the most pre- 
 cious of them all. " Thou camest down also 
 upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them 
 from heaven, and gavest them right judg- 
 ments, and true laws, and good statutes and 
 commandments ; and madest known unto them 
 thy holy Sabbatb." And they entered into a 
 solemn covenant, that " if the people of the 
 
54 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath- 
 day to sell, that we would not buy it of them 
 on the Sabbath, or on the holy day." And 
 Nehemiah, discovering violations of the Sab- 
 bath in selling and buying, commanded the 
 gates of the city to be closed on the evening 
 before, " and charsred that thev should not be 
 opened till after the Sabbath." And when 
 those engaged in the different kinds of traffic 
 lodged w^ithout the gate, he let them know 
 that, if the offense were repeated, he would 
 have them arrested. 
 
 Facts, such as these, leave us no room to 
 doubt concerning the estimate placed upon the 
 Sabbath, both as a I'eligious and civil institu- 
 tion, by inspired men ; and they demonstrate 
 that the revival of religion manifests itself by 
 a higher regard of the holy day, and a more 
 conscientious observance of it. How could it 
 be otherwise ? They who take delight in the 
 service of God, and in the ordinances of his 
 house, must " call the Sabbath a delight, the 
 holy of the Lord, honourable." And the true 
 patriot, who believes in the inseparable con- 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 55 
 
 nection between the prevalence of religion and 
 sound morals, and the peace and prosperity of 
 nations, cannot but prize the Sabbath as a civil 
 institution. 
 
 2. TheTe were periods when the Sabbath was 
 greatly profaned, or disregarded ; and these 
 were times when the standard of religion and 
 morals was very low. And not only were 
 those violations of the Sabbath strongly con- 
 demned by inspired men, but the overwhelm- 
 ing judgments of God, which came upon the 
 church and the nation, were declared to be 
 consequent upon the profanation of God's holy 
 day. The prophet Jeremiah was commanded 
 to go and stand in the gates of the city, by 
 which the kings of Judah passed out and in, 
 and to proclaim to them, '' Thus saith the 
 Lord. Take heed to yourselves, and bear no 
 burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by 
 the gates of Jerusalem ; neither carry forth 
 a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath- 
 day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye 
 the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fath- 
 ers." Connected with obedience to this com- 
 
56 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 maud, was tlie promise of great blessings 
 and great prosperity ; and the penalty of 
 disobedience was announced tlius : ''Then will 
 I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall 
 devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall 
 not be quenclied." " But," says the prophet, 
 " they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but 
 made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, 
 nor receive instruction." (Jer. xvii. 19-27.) 
 Therefore divine judgments overwhelmed 
 them. And after their return from the 
 captivity foretold by Jeremiah, when 'Ne- 
 hemiah saw some treading wine-presses on 
 the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and 
 lading asses, and the like, he testified against 
 them. And he says, "Then I contended 
 with the nobles of Judah, and said un- 
 to them, What evil thing is this that ye do, 
 and profane the Sabbath-day ? Did not our 
 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 Sab- 
 bath." It is an important question, why so 
 great prominence is given to the profanation 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE SABBATH. 57 
 
 of the Sabbatli, as causing those judgments 
 whicli the Jewish church and nation suffered ? 
 Manifestly it is because Sabbath-breaking is a 
 great sin, and because it results in the preva- 
 lence of all kinds of wickedness. 
 
 It is, then, most evident that those periods 
 when the Sabbath was held most sacred, were 
 periods when the standard of piety and morals 
 was most elevated. There is, therefore, an in- 
 separable connection between the strict ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath and the growth of 
 piety. 
 
 3. There were periods when there prevailed 
 a superstitious observance of the Sabbath ; 
 and these were periods when zeal for external 
 observances had been substituted for enlis^ht- 
 ened piety. When vital piety declines amongst 
 any people, one of three results unifoi'mly fol- 
 lows, viz : some phase of gross error is em- 
 braced, or divine institutions are neglected, or 
 a fanatical zeal for the forms of religion pre- 
 vails, in the proportion that the power of re- 
 ligion is lost. This last was the phase of relig- 
 ion amongst the Jews at the advent of Christ, 
 3^ 
 
58 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 and daring several preceding ages. So strict 
 were they at tliat period, that tliey would not 
 even defend themselves when attacked on 
 the Sal>l)ath by their enemies. Their suffer- 
 ings soon corrected this error, and then the 
 Sabbath law was interpreted so as to allow 
 them to defend themselves, though not to at- 
 tack their enemies on the holy day. Of this 
 last scruple Pompey, the Roman general, 
 availed himself, whilst besiesrino; Jerusalem. 
 Desiring to fill up a deep ditch on the north 
 side of the city, where his forces were much 
 exposed to the assaults of the Jews, he had the 
 work done on the Sabbath, meanwhile restrain- 
 ing his soldiers from making attack. " Nor 
 had the Komans succeeded in their endeav- 
 ours," says Josephus, " had not Pompey taken 
 notice of the seventh day, on which the Jews 
 abstain from all sorts of work, on a religious 
 account, and raised his bank, but restrained his 
 soldiers from fighting on those days ; for the 
 Jews only acted defensively on Sabbath days." 
 It would be difficult to find a more striking il- 
 lustration of the truth, that " the letter killeth." 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 59 
 
 It was in this blind zeal for the letter, and 
 in utter ignorance of the spirit of the law, 
 that the Pharisees accused the disciples of our 
 Lord of profaning the Sabbath, because, whilst 
 passing through the cornfields, they began to 
 pluck the ears of corn. This accusation led to 
 the declaration in the text, '' The Sabbath was 
 made for man, and not man for the Sabbath ;' 
 and the further declaration, " Therefore, the 
 Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." 
 The same fanatical zeal, in its most intense de- 
 gree, induced a ruler of the synagogue to con- 
 demn him even for healing the sick on the 
 Sabbath. " There are six days," said he, '^ in 
 which men ought to work ; in these, therefore, 
 come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath- 
 day." His cutting reply put his accuser to 
 shame, " Thou hypocrite, doth not each of you 
 on the Sabbath loose his ox, or his ass, from 
 the stall, and lead him away to watering ? 
 And ought not this woman, being a daughter 
 of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, 
 these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond 
 on the Sabbath-day?" (Luke xiii. 11-17.) 
 
60 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Pie explained the law on another occasion 
 thus : " Wherefore it is lawful to do well on 
 the Sabbath-day." (Matt. xii. 12.) The com- 
 mand to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it 
 holy, was never designed to forbid the per- 
 formance of works of necessity and of mercy. 
 There is a wide difference between taking de- 
 light in the duties and privileges of the Sab- 
 bath, and making a merit of the rigid exter- 
 nal observance of it. This last was the error 
 of the Jews at the period of which we are 
 speaking. It was the same error which led 
 them scrupulously to tithe mint, annise, and 
 cummin, whilst regardless of the w^eightier 
 matters of the law ; to wash their hands when 
 they came from the market, whilst indulging 
 in gross immorality. 
 
 The history of the Sabbath, from the resur- 
 rection of Christ to the present time, exhibits 
 the following j)hases : 
 
 1. A change of the day to be observed, from 
 the last day of the week to the first. There 
 is on record no express command authorizing 
 this change ; but the example of the apostles 
 
OKIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 61 
 
 and primitive Christians is conclusive on tlie 
 subject. For it is certain that after the resur- 
 rection of Christ, they observed the first day 
 of the week, instead of the seventh. Paul 
 abode at Troas seven days; "and upon the 
 first day of the week, when the disciples came 
 together to break bread, Paul preached unto 
 them, ready to depart on the morrow." (Acts 
 XX. 7.) The literal rendering would be, "«9;^ 
 one of the Sabbaths ; " and this is the precise 
 phraseology used by Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
 and John, to signify the day on which our 
 Lord rose from the dead. On this passage Dr. 
 J. A. Alexander remarks, " In the case before 
 us, it is not a simple date or chronological spec- 
 ification of the day on which the meeting hap- 
 pened to be held ; for such a circumstance was 
 too minute to be recorded for its own sake, and 
 is never given elsewhere. The only satisfac- 
 tory solution is, that the observance of the first 
 day of the week as that of our Lord's resur- 
 rection, had already become customary, so that 
 the assembling of the church at that time for 
 the purpose here mentioned, was a matter of 
 
G2 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 course, with or without special notice or ar- 
 rangement." The purpose for which they were 
 assembled, viz, to break bread, that is, to ad- 
 minister and receive the Lord's supper, is con- 
 firmatory of the opinion, that the first day of 
 the week had become the Christian Sabbath. 
 
 Paul's directions to the church at Corinth, 
 respecting the collection for the saints, leads to 
 the same conclusion. " Upon the first day of 
 the week let every one of you lay by him in 
 store, as the Lord hath prospered him, that 
 there be no gatherings when I come." (1 Cor. 
 xvi. 1, 2.) It would be difficult to imagine any 
 other reason for specifying the first day of the 
 w^eek for such a purpose, except that it was 
 the day appointed for public worship. 
 
 The chano:e of the Sabbath from the last to 
 the first day of the w^ek, is still further con- 
 firmed by the language of the apostle John, 
 I'especting the time when the wonderful reve- 
 lations of the Apocalypse were made to him. 
 " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and 
 heard behind me a great voice as of a trum- 
 pet." (Eev. i. 10.) By the Lord's day, as the 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 63 
 
 commentator Scott well remarks, "can l)e meant 
 no other than the clay on which the Lord Je- 
 sus I'ose from the dead — even the first day of 
 the week : and it is a conclusive proof, that 
 the first day was set apart and ke|)t holy by 
 the primitive Christians, in commemoration of 
 that great event." No other day has ever Ijeen 
 known to the church as the "Lord's day ; " and 
 the fact that our Lord chose this day to make 
 to his servant John those marvellous revela- 
 tions, shows the honour he put upon it. We 
 have, then, divine authority for the change of 
 the day which shall be observed as the Sab- 
 bath ; but we have no intimation that there 
 was to be any other change in the law of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 This change of the day has the advantage 
 of commemoratinsf the resurrection of Christ, 
 
 O 7 
 
 and the completion of the work of redemp- 
 tion, whilst it answers all the purposes which 
 were accomplished by the keeping of the last 
 day of the week. The Sabbath still occurs on 
 every seventh day, thus reminding men that 
 in six days God created the heavens and the 
 
64 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 earth, and rested on the seventh, and impres- 
 sing upon them their obligations to their Crea- 
 toi'. But it occurs on the first day of the 
 week, thus reminding us that the Son of God 
 died for our sins, and on the morning of the 
 third day rose for our justification. And so, 
 by the observance of every seventh day, and 
 that the first day of the week, as the holy 
 Sabbath, the two great events in the history 
 of our world are constantly brought to view, 
 namely, its creation, and its redemj^tion ; and 
 at the same time the minds of men are turned 
 both to the law of God, and to the Gospel of 
 Christ. For by creation, man was placed un- 
 der the perfect law of God, " holy, just, and 
 good ;" and by redemption he is placed under 
 " the grace of God that bringeth salvation." 
 
 And might it not reasonably have been ex- 
 pected, that the completion of the work of 
 redemption would be celebrated by a Sabbath, 
 since it is a greater work than that of creation, 
 and more exalts the glory of God ? The work 
 of creation was a means ; the work of redemp- 
 tion is the glorious end. This world was ere- 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. G5 
 
 atecl, that it might be the theatre on which 
 God would display the glories of his grace, T)y 
 the redemption of the church of Christ. Dr. 
 Dwight was right, therefore, in supposing tliat 
 in the following sublime prophecy, it was in- 
 tended to be understood that the work of re- 
 demption should,. so to speak, eclipse the work 
 of creation ; and that the Sabbath should 
 commemorate tlie former, rather than the lat- 
 ter : " For behold, 1 create new heavens and a 
 new earth, and the former shall not be remem- 
 bered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad, 
 and rejoice forever in that w^hicli I create : 
 for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and 
 her people a joy." (Isaiah Ixv. 17, 18.) 
 
 2. The history of the Sabbath, from the in- 
 troduction of the New Dispensation to the 
 present time, embraces three periods, each pre- 
 senting its own peculiar phases. 
 
 1. The first period embraces the three first 
 centuries of the Christian era. During this 
 period, the Sabbath was observed with a good 
 degree of strictness, as a day of religious in- 
 struction and worship. One is surprised, in 
 
66 ORIGIN AXD HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 reading our ecclesiastical histories, to observe 
 how little attention this vital sul)ject has re- 
 ceived at the hands of the writers. Rev. 
 James Gilfellan has gathered up abundant tes- 
 timonies from the Christian fathers on this sub- 
 ject. Those who are interested in the history 
 of the Sabbath, would do well to consult his 
 work. The early Christians, he informs us, 
 called the Sabbath " the first of days, the chief 
 of days, a day of gladness. They honoured it 
 by standing in prayer, and by not fasting. 
 They rose early, and sat late, that they might 
 redeem their holy time." 
 
 2. With the growing corruption of religion, 
 between the third and sixteenth centuries, the 
 Sabbath came gradually to be associated with 
 the saints' days, and was degraded, as now in 
 countries where Komanism prevails, to a holiday 
 — a day, after the morning religious service, of 
 frolic and dissipation. No one would expect to 
 lind, during the dark ages, the scriptural observ- 
 ance of the Lord's day. Yet, wherever the 
 gospel was preached in its purity, there the 
 Sabbath was strictly observed. Louis XII, 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 67 
 
 King of France, sent men to inquire respecting 
 the truth of the accusations against the Wal- 
 denses of Provence, who reported, amongst 
 other things, that they carefully observed tlie 
 Sabbath. 
 
 3. Unhappily for the cause of religion, the 
 reformers, Luther and Calvin, seem not to 
 have admitted the identity of the Lord's day 
 with the original Sabbath, and to have ob- 
 served the former ratlier as a matter of neces- 
 sity, or expediency, than as divinely command- 
 ed. Calvin says, " ISFow whereas it was expe- 
 dient for the destruction of superstition, that 
 the day which the Jews kept holy was abol- 
 ished ; and it being necessary for the preserva- 
 tion of decorum, order, and peace, in the Chris- 
 tian church, another day was appointed for the 
 same use ;" and so important did he regard the 
 religious observance of the Lord's day, that he 
 said " if it were abolished, the church would be 
 in imminent danger of immediate convul- 
 sion and ruin. The ancients," he adds, " have 
 not without sufficient reason substituted 
 what we call the Lord's day, in tlie room 
 
68 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 of the Sabbath. For since tlie resiirrec- 
 tion of the Lord is the end and consum- 
 mation of that true rest, which was adum- 
 brated by the ancient Sabbath ; the same 
 day which put an end to the shadoAVS, admon- 
 ishes Christians not to adhere to a shadowy 
 ceremony. Yet I do not lay so much stress on 
 the septenary numbei', that I would oblige the 
 church to an invariable adherence to it." 
 These lax and unscriptural views of tlie Sab- 
 bath, go far toward accounting for the sad de- 
 cay of vital piety on the Continent. For it is 
 vain to hope for any profitable observance of 
 the Lord's day, if it be admitted that its ap- 
 pointment is not of divine authority. 
 
 4. In Great Britain and the United States, 
 more Scriptural views of the Sabbath have 
 prevailed ; and the effects are visible in the 
 higher standard of vital piety in the churches, 
 and of morals amongst the people. The con- 
 troversy on this subject which, from time to 
 time, prevailed in England, is interesting and 
 instructive. Through the entire history of it, 
 there will be found to have been a most inti- 
 
ORIGIX AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 69 
 
 mate connection between the standard piety in 
 tlie churclies, and their appreciation of tlic 
 Sabhath, as a day divinely appointed to be 
 kept holy ; and a connection no less intimate 
 between a public regard for the fourth com- 
 mandment, and for the other nine command- 
 ments of the Decalogue. For example, it was 
 in the reign of Charles I, that, under the influ- 
 ence of Archbishop Laud, the King repub- 
 lished the Declaration of James I, " concern- 
 ing lawful sports to be used on Sundays after 
 divine service." At that time, " the court had 
 their balls, masquerades, and plays, on the Sun- 
 day evenings, while the youth of the country 
 were at their morrice-dances, May-games, 
 church and clerk ales, and all such kinds of 
 revellins:." — Neal. No careful reader of Eni^- 
 lish history needs to be told what was the 
 standard of piety in the established church, 
 when conscientious ministers were suspended 
 from the functions of their office, for refusing 
 to read in their churches the King's proclama- 
 tion in favour of the profanation of the Sab- 
 bath ; nor can we wonder at the civil dis- 
 
70 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 orders which soon followed this state of 
 thin GTS. 
 
 o 
 
 5. From the days of Constantiue to the 
 present time, the civil authorities in Christian 
 nations have regarded the Sabbath as import- 
 ant as a civil institution, and have enacted laws 
 for its protection. The civil legislation has 
 very generally been but the exj^ression of the 
 public sentiment of the churches and the peo- 
 ple. Conseo^uently, in those ages when, and in 
 those countries where the gospel has been 
 preached in greatest purity, and the standard 
 of morals has been highest, the civil legislation 
 has afforded the highest degree of protection 
 to the Sabbath. In no nations on the earth, 
 has the Sabbath been so generally observed 
 and protected, as in Gi'eat Britain and the 
 United States ; and in no others has the stand- 
 ard of morals been so elevated. It is greatly 
 to be lamented, however, that in this import- 
 ant department of morals, our country has of 
 late exhibited a downward tendency ; and how 
 far our present troubles are the consequence of 
 this deterioration, it may be difficult to decide. 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 71 
 
 The history of the Sabbath amply justifies 
 the following conclusions : 
 
 1. In every age, the connection has been 
 most intimate between sound faith and ele- 
 vated piety, and the strict observance of the 
 Sabbath ; and the connection has been as close 
 between public morals, and public respect for 
 that holy day. It would be impossible, I be- 
 lieve, to point to a single period of any consid- 
 erable length, that can be justly regarded as 
 forming an exception to the general statement. 
 And if this be true, then it is a truth which 
 ought to be deeply impressed on the mind of 
 every Christian, and of every patriot ; for it 
 demonstrates the importance of the Sabbath 
 to all the dearest interests of the human race. 
 
 2. Whenever and wherever the Sabbath, 
 instead of being kept holy, has become a holi- 
 day, it has become a source of dissipation and 
 corruption. It is a universal rule, that the 
 more important and valuable any institution is, 
 the greater the evils of its perversion. We 
 have only to go to Spain, Mexico, and South 
 America, to see the effect of such a perver- 
 
72 ORKJIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 siou of the Sabbatli upon public morals. Af- 
 ter morning service, the masses of the people 
 resort to the bull-fight, the cock-pit, the thea- 
 tre, and the like ; and no day in the week is 
 so fi'uitful of vice. If, then, we would not 
 have the Sabbatli become a curse, let us insist 
 upon the strict observance of tlie entire day. 
 Better that it should be a day of secular la- 
 bour, than of frolic and dissipation. 
 
 3. The two classes of men who have op- 
 posed the strict observance of the Sabbath, 
 and have opposed the protection of it by civil 
 legislation, have been errorists who, rejecting 
 the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, 
 have thus undermined its morals, and irrelig- 
 ious men. Some, indeed, there have been, 
 Avhose published creeds were not fundamental- 
 ly unsound, who have trampled ujDon the Sab- 
 bath, but they have been men whose lives 
 demonstrated how little regard they had for 
 the doctrines they had not publicly renounced. 
 As a general rule, it is true, that the worst men 
 have ever been the bitterest enemies of the Sab- 
 bath ; the best men, its most earnest defenders. 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. 73 
 
 4. Neither the church of Christ, nor any 
 nation, can spare the Sabbath. The lan- 
 guage of Calvin is not too strong, when he 
 says, that without it " the church would be in 
 imminent dano^er of immediate convulsion and 
 ruin." And if the Church cannot live without 
 the Sabbath, neither could any free nation sur- 
 vive its overthrow. We must have the Sab- 
 bath, or we must have despotism or anarchy. 
 
THE 
 
 AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BY THE 
 
 KEY. ■\YILLIAM HAGUE, D. D. 
 
 PA8T0E OF BAPTIST CUtmcn, MADISOX-AVENTTE. 
 
M 0f tto 
 
 " THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN." — Mark U. 27. 
 
 This testimony from the lips of Jesus sets 
 the seal of our Messiah's sanction upon the 
 observance of the Sabbath as a divine institu- 
 tion. He declares that it " was made ; " that 
 it was made, not for a particular nation, but 
 " for man ;" appointed by the authority of 
 God to meet the needs of universal humanity. 
 
 What our Lord thus declares to have been 
 made for man, He did not design in any way 
 to unmake or impair. He proclaimed himself 
 the Lord of the Sabbath, and stood forth its ap- 
 pointed guardian and vindicator, rescuing it 
 alike from the desecrations of impiety and 
 the perversions of time-honoured superstition. 
 When He uttered this remarkable saying 
 which I have here repeated. He was addressing 
 an audience who had been taught by rabbin- 
 
78 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 ical traditions to " make void" the original law 
 by useless exactions ; to regard the roerely rit- 
 ual observance of the day, as a " chief end" to 
 which every spiritual interest was to be subor- 
 dinated. Even " works of necessity and mercy" 
 were rigidly avoided, and the miracles of 
 Jesus were placed upon a level with those 
 needless labours that were prompted by law- 
 less greed. 
 
 As on that sacred day, for instance. He al- 
 lowed his disciples to pluck some ears of corn, 
 in order to satisfy the cravings of hunger, 
 they accused Him of profaning the Sabbath ; 
 when He healed a poor cripple by the power 
 of his word, and bade the man to bear away 
 the bed, or mat, on which he lay, they cap- 
 tiously pronounced him a contemner of the 
 law of Moses. 
 
 In answer to accusations like these, Jesus set 
 forth the law of the Sabbath in its enduring 
 relations, and its proper dignity, as a means to 
 a great moral and religious end. He declared 
 that " the Sabbath was made for man ;" it was 
 ordained originally by Him who made man, 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 79 
 
 wlio knew man's nature and wants, who had 
 respect to his physical and spiritual welfare 
 throughout the whole range of his being, 
 whether he be regarded as a creature of time, 
 or as an heir of immortality. 
 
 The phraseology which our Lord has here 
 employed, brings the Sabbath into view, 
 not only as a boon conferred upon man for his 
 OAvn benefit, seeking his acceptance on account 
 of its good effects, but also in the light 
 of a divinely-set observance obligatory on the 
 conscience. It dignifies the Sabbath as an 
 institution, not designed for the Jews alone, 
 but for man universally ; as an institution 
 demanded by the permanent needs of our com- 
 mon nature, and revealed to us in the form of 
 a LAW, emanating from the Supreme Kuler 
 of the universe. 
 
 It is evident, at a glance, that an institution, 
 having so good an aim, whose existence, (as 
 has been shown in a previous lecture,) can 
 be traced back to the early twilight of human 
 history, must be in many ways intimately con- 
 nected with the fortunes of our race 
 
80 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 Aided by the light of these 2:)reliminaiy 
 views, we are the better prepared for the 
 consideration of these two connected propo- 
 sitions. 
 
 I. The Sabbatical law is a divine law, of 
 perpetual and universal obligation. 
 
 II. The foundations upon which this law 
 rests, are deejDly and permanently laid in the 
 constitution and course of Nature. 
 
 In setting forth the grounds of this first 
 statement, we observe, first of all, that the law 
 of the Sabbath is recorded in the Fourth 
 Commandment of the decalogue. Its position 
 there is significant of a great principle. It 
 was not placed by Moses in the ceremonial 
 code of transient rites, but was engi'aven 
 by the power of God upon the tables of stone, 
 as an expression of its perpetuity. Thus it 
 was made, by supreme authority, to take rank 
 at once with those divine enactments, that 
 men were taught to regard as universally ob- 
 ligatory and " enduring forever." 
 
 What, then, we naturally ask, in this con- 
 nection, is the meaning, what the scope, of 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 81 
 
 that chief requirement which, distinguishes the 
 Fourth Commandment ? 
 
 It is this : that a seventh portion of time 
 shall be hallowed; that is, set aj)art, conse- 
 crated to the worship of God. 
 
 The Fourth Commandment, let it be ob- 
 served, is particularly remarkable on account 
 of its generic character, by which it was made 
 susceptible of adjustment to the demands of 
 the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations of re- 
 ligion. It does not ^:^ the Sabbath on a set 
 day of the week, as determined by this or that 
 system of chronology, or mode of reckoning ; 
 it marks out relative^ not absolute time. It 
 says to us, "Six days shalt thou labour — the 
 seventh is the Sabbath." 
 
 After six days of toil comes the day of rest : 
 this is the law. But the Sabbath law itself 
 does not designate the eka from which the 
 reckoning of the week shall commence ; it 
 leaves that to be learned from other sources of 
 information. This structure of its 2:>hraseology 
 was not accidental, but was designed, as the 
 history of the Sabbath indicates, to impart to 
 
82 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 the law a susceptibility of adaptation to tlie 
 new as well as to tlie old economy. 
 
 Let lis look at tliis position a little more 
 closely. 
 
 The commandments given by Moses did not 
 originate a new institution. It pointed to tlie 
 past. Its first announcement is, " Remember 
 the Sabbath day to keep it holy." It received 
 the Sabbath as a legacy of patriarchal times, 
 invested it with new sanctions, established its 
 observance upon new foundations. 
 
 Its relation to the Mosaic code was some- 
 what analogous to that which our Lord pointed 
 out, in reg-ard to the Abrahamic rite of cir- 
 cumcision, when He said to the Jews, (John 
 vii. 22, 23,) ''Moses gave unto you circumcis- 
 ion; not because it is of Moses, but of the 
 Fathers ; and ye, on the Sabbath day, circum- 
 cise a man, that the Law of Moses should not 
 be broken ;" we see, therefore, that the Jewish 
 Lawgiver received this institute from the patri- 
 archal age, and made the command, for its per- 
 petual observance, a part of the religious sys- 
 tem that he established. 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 83 
 
 It was thus in relation to tlie Sabbath which 
 was instituted in paradise ; was coeval with 
 man's creation, was set apart for him and hal- 
 lowed by him while in a state of innocence ; 
 after the fall, became the set token of a cove- 
 nant of mercy between him and his Creator ; 
 and then, in due time, by the divine legation 
 of Moses, was established anew as an ordinance 
 of heaven to be observed on earth throughout 
 all generations. 
 
 And let it not be forgotten that, in accord- 
 ance with this view, the history of the Sabbath 
 furnishes an array of corroborative facts. 
 
 The regular observance of religious worship 
 in the family of Adam, the custom of offering 
 sacrifices at certain periods, designated "the 
 end of the days ;" the reckoning of time by 
 WEEKS throughout the patriarchal age; the 
 idea of sacredness universally associated with 
 the number seven^ the radical sense of the He- 
 brew term indicating that number as expres- 
 sive oi fullness and sufficiency, and the devout 
 regard which was paid to the seventh day by 
 the ancient Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, 
 
84: THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 Chinese, Arabs, by tlie Braliniins of India, 
 and the Druids of Britain, by the majority of 
 Gentile nations, whether civilized or bar- 
 barians, present a combination of facts which 
 we can not adequately explain, except by as- 
 signing to the narrative of Moses that j)lain 
 and simple sense that we have here set forth, 
 and which traces the institution of the Sabbath 
 to the land of Eden, to the era of man's 
 creation. 
 
 In this connection it is worthy of remem- 
 brance, that the celebrated Laj)lace, in his Ex- 
 position of the System of the World, speaking 
 of the week as an admeasurement of time, 
 whose " origin is lost in the most remote antiqui- 
 ty," adds the remark that " it circulates through 
 ages, mixing itself with the kalendars of dif- 
 ferent races. The week is, perhaps, the most 
 ancient and incontestible monument of human 
 knowledge ; it appears to point out a common 
 source whence that knowledge proceeded."* 
 
 Assured that this plain interpretation of the 
 
 ♦CEuvresde Laplace, tome sexieme, Paris 1840, Exposition du Sjs- 
 teme du Monde, page 20, livre premier. Quoted by Bayjee, p. 22. 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 85 
 
 testimony of Moses is sustained by ample 
 proofs, let us pursue our inquiry as to the sense 
 and scope of the Fourth Commandment of the 
 Decalogue. 
 
 We have said that the terms of the law set 
 the day for observing the Sabbath but rel- 
 atively / determining only the proportion of 
 time to be consecrated to the purposes of 
 worship. 
 
 Now, at this point, let it be observed that 
 the Mosaic narrative of the giving of the law, 
 unfolds one great principle which shines forth 
 as a guiding light over the whole course of our 
 investigation : that is, tlie capacity of the orig- 
 inal Sabbatical institution to adjust itself to the 
 changing conditions of our race in successive 
 epochs. 
 
 That principle is disclosed by a comparison 
 of the difterent objects of commemoration, 
 which were announced to the Israelites by the 
 first and second promulgations of the Dec- 
 alogue. The first promulgation of the Fourth 
 Commandment is recorded in the twentieth 
 chapter of the Book of Exodus ; and there the 
 
8() THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 Sabbatli is represented as being commemora- 
 tive simjDly of the work of creation. It expresses 
 tlie one fundamental idea, whicli distinguislies 
 revealed religion from all the Pagan systems of 
 Nature-worsliij) ; that is the idea of God as 
 Creator. The second pomulgation of the law 
 is recorded in the fifth chapter of Deuter- 
 onomy ; and there the work of creation is not 
 mentioned ; but the national emancipation 
 from the bondage of Egypt is put forth as the 
 object of commemoration, and as the immedi- 
 ate reason for hallowing the Sabbath. Who 
 does not see in this change of the form of the 
 law, under the old dispensation, the important 
 principle of which we speak clearly brought to 
 light ? Who does not see here an apt and 
 beautiful illustration of our Saviour's teaching, 
 that " the Sabbath was made for man ;" the 
 unfolding of God's original design to found an 
 institution, that should be susceptible of ad- 
 justment to all the moral exigencies of man- 
 kind throughout the revolutions of the ages ? 
 
 And if, as is thus evident, the redemption of 
 Israel from Egyptian bondage formed an liistor- 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 87 
 
 ical era^ whicli was brought within the scope 
 of the Sabbatical law by an authorized annexa- 
 tion ; if that leading event of the time called 
 forth new associations of religious ideas that 
 were made to cluster around the ancient insti- 
 tute, then, surely, there was furnished a ground 
 of ex])ectation that, when the greater redemp- 
 tion wrought by the predicted Messiah should 
 have been accomplished, tliis^ too, would be 
 taken into the keeping of the Sabbath-law, and 
 would be held forth before the world as an 
 epoch of Sabbatical commemoration by "the 
 generations to come." 
 
 And here let it be observed in passing, that 
 for us to say, as some have said, that the sec- 
 ond enactment here referred to, making the 
 emancipation from Egyptian bondage an object 
 of Sabbatical commemoration, places the Sab- 
 bath itself on a level with institutes that were 
 merely national, local, and temporary, would 
 be adopting a view that overlooks or forgets a 
 grand, leading feature of the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion of religion, namely, its subordination as a 
 chosen means to the uplifting and renovation 
 
88 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 of universal humanity, "in the fullness of 
 time." For the chief promise of the Abra- 
 hamic covenant, was the promise of a Messiah 
 for all the nations and families of the earth ; 
 and nothing in that nation's history had any 
 permanent worth, except in its ministry, to 
 that comprehensive design. 
 
 A recognition of this truth pervades all the 
 psalms and prophecies, imparts to them an un- 
 quenchable vitality, and renders them the 
 treasured heritage of the world forever. This 
 is the living fire that glows in the poetry 
 of the Old Testament, and flames in all those 
 significant quotations which irradiate the pages 
 of the gospel. On this account, every defeat 
 of Israel was bewailed as a calamity to man- 
 kind, and every \dctory was celebrated as a 
 triumph for the cause of the human race for all 
 ages ; like those, for instance, immortalized in 
 the strains of the forty-ninth and sixty-sixth 
 psalms, that send abroad an appeal to the sym- 
 pathies of every human being in the world, 
 " O clap your hands all ye peoples ; make 
 a joyful noise unto God all ye lands ; make his 
 
OP THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 89 
 
 praise glorious ; all the earth shall worship 
 thee and sing unto thy name." Be assured, 
 the exodus of Israel from Egypt is as fitting a 
 theme of praise for us, and will be for all that 
 shall come after us, as it was for those minstrels 
 who joined Miriam to* chant the triumphal an- 
 them over Pharaoh and his hosts, when they 
 sank like lead in the deeps of the Red Sea. 
 
 From these views of the Sabbath law, sug- 
 gested by the Old Testament, we derive an ad- 
 equate reason for that arrangement, which 
 ranks the Fourth Commandment with moral 
 precepts that bear upon them the impress 
 of permanence and universality. 
 
 Surely it is not to be supposed that He, who 
 assigned to it the place which it occupies 
 on the table of stone, failed to recognize the 
 proper distinction between the positive and 
 the moral, between the transient and the per- 
 manent, in the realm of religion. With an 
 emphasis of meaning is this distinction marked 
 in the statement of Moses touching the Deca- 
 logue : (Deut. V. 22.) " These words the Lord 
 spake unto all your assembly in the mount. 
 
90 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud and 
 of the thick darkness, with a great voice : 
 and He added no more : and He wrote them 
 in two tables of stones and delivered them un- 
 to me." Could He have written in the endur- 
 ing Decalogue, by a sort of inadvertence, 
 a precej^t pertaining to the ceremonial code 
 of Jewish worship ? ]^o. Although the obli- 
 gation to observe the Sabbath as a perj)etual 
 law, might not be discerned at once by intui- 
 tion, or unaided reason, like the obligation 
 of veracity, or honesty, yet the all-wise Law- 
 giver founded the Sabbatical institution upon 
 those broad, deej), immutable princij^les which 
 are peculiar to no age or clime, which no jDro- 
 gress of humanity can ever render obsolete, but 
 which lie at the basis of all moral order, 
 and are essential elements in the constitu- 
 tion of the universe. 
 
 But now, in this connection, to the view 
 of many an inquirer, an important question 
 will present itself. If it be true that the Sab- 
 batical law takes rank with moral precepts of 
 perpetual obligation ; if the scope of the law 
 
OP THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 91 
 
 was modified under tlie old disj^ensation, so as 
 to adjust it to tlie progressive needs of the 
 people ; and if tlie Fourtli Commandment de- 
 termine not absolute time, but only the projyor- 
 tion of time to be set apart for the Sabbath 
 observance, by what method shall we, who live 
 under the Christian dispensation, under the 
 reign of the Messiah, ascertain the day of 
 the week whereon the Sabbath should be 
 kept? 
 
 The true answer is devious. The method is 
 the same for us as it was for ancient Israel : 
 namely, to observe the indications which God 
 has given us in his Word, as to his will relating 
 to the era from which our reckoning of Sabbat- 
 ical days should be commenced. 
 
 For us, who live in the nineteenth century 
 of the Christian era, if any such indications are 
 to be sought, they must be sought, of course, 
 in the ministry of the Messiah — in the teach- 
 ings and precedents of the New Testament. 
 
 And before directing our minds to the 
 search after such indications, it may be well to 
 remember that Messianic prophecy, a thousand 
 
92 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 years before our Lord's advent, held fortli this 
 grand idea as a guiding light for us : that the 
 resurrection of Christ should be the distin- 
 guished era of subsequent history. It was an 
 inspii'ed j)roclamation, chanted for centuries in 
 Hebrew worship : " The stone which the build- 
 ers rejected is become the head-stone of the 
 corner. This is the Lord's doing and it is mar- 
 vellous in our eyes. This is the day which the 
 Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad 
 in it." — 'Psalm cxviii. 22-24. These words 
 of the old prophetic chant are quoted by our 
 Lord, in his last discourse delivered in the 
 Jewish temple, as referring directly to himself; 
 (Matt. xxi. 42) and they are declared, by the 
 apostle Peter, (Acts iv. 10, 11) to have been 
 fulfilled by the resurrection of Jesus. These 
 collated testimonies, then, furnish the most di- 
 rect proof that the resurrection-day was to be 
 regarded as an era that God had made for the 
 coming ages, and show us the way whereby 
 the Divine Spirit prepared the first disciples to 
 hail the resurrection of Jesus as the chief era 
 of human history, to hallow and honour it by 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 93 
 
 bringing it, as an object of perpetual remem- 
 brance, witliin tlie scope of Sabbatic, weekly- 
 celebration. Follow out tbis suggestion, I pray 
 you, a step or two, at least, in tbe line of 
 direction wbitber it leads us. 
 
 Mark, first of all, tbis fact : on tbe sixtb day 
 of tbe week our Lord was crucified. On the 
 seventh day he was in tbe sepulchre. " The 
 Shepherd had been smitten — the sheep were 
 scattered." The Christian church had no festi- 
 val on that day. It was a day of grief and 
 gloom, as if the sun had been stricken from 
 the firmament. 
 
 But on the first day of the week the Messiah 
 arose from the dead, the Lord of a new spirit- 
 ual creation. The Sun of Eighteousness broke 
 forth in celestial splendour, and dispelled the 
 clouds that had quenched every ray of hoj)e 
 or joy. I^To day like that had ever dawned 
 upon the world. " If Christ had not risen," 
 his followers would have been "of all men 
 most miserable," and even creation itself would 
 not have called forth from them another song 
 of thanksgiving. That day, of course, was 
 
94 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 worthy to take the precedence of all other 
 days, having been signalized by an event more 
 wonderful, more sublime and momentous, than 
 any other recorded in the annals of the world's 
 history. 
 
 On that day Jesus met his desponding fol- 
 lowers, made himself known to them at differ- 
 ent times while separated from each other, and 
 then, at its close, miraculously entered the 
 place where they were assembled. That was 
 a memorable and joyous meeting of the first 
 Christian church under the reign of the risen 
 Messiah ; and from that day to this, the Resur- 
 rection-day has been hallowed to services 
 of social worship, by the examjDle of Him who 
 taught that " the Sabbath was made for man," 
 and that He was Himself " the Lord of the 
 Sabbath." 
 
 For, observe still further, Jesus was never 
 seen again in the temple, or the synagogue, 
 never met with the Jews again on tlieir Sab- 
 bath, never by any known act distinguished 
 or noticed the seventh day. But on the first 
 day of the following week, the disciples having 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 95 
 
 been gatliered in the appointed place of as- 
 sembling, the doors being shut for fear of the 
 Jews, Jesus reappears, stands forth in the 
 midst of them, and gives them his benediction. 
 
 Then from the last desponding doubter he 
 received the acknowledo-ment of his Messiah- 
 ship, and of his supreme authority, in that de- 
 vout exclamation of Thomas, " My Lord and 
 my God." 
 
 From that day onward, evermore, the resur- 
 rection of Jesus was celebrated weekly by his 
 followers, as the signal event of the Christian 
 era ; and at the close of the first century, the 
 last of the Apostles, in his message from the 
 isle of Patmos, applied to that day a common 
 and popular phrase, "The Lord's day," as 
 a proper designation. Thus he set it forth as 
 the day of which the Prophet had sung, 
 of which the Old Church had chanted, of 
 which Jesus had spoken, " the day that the 
 Lord had made," wherein to " rejoice and be 
 glad," fulfilling all the ends of " the Sabbath 
 made for man," and sanctioned with authority 
 by " the Son of Man, the Lord of the Sabbath." 
 
96 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 And now, having illustrated our proposition, 
 relating to the permanent and universal obliga- 
 tion of the Sabbath law ; having availed our- 
 selves of the light beaming forth from that great 
 principle unfolded in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments, namely, the capacity of the Sabbatical 
 institution to adjust itself to different epochs, 
 the successive dispensations of religion, we are 
 prepared to sustain our second proposition. 
 
 The foundations upon which the Sabbatical 
 law rests, are deeply and permanently laid in 
 the constitution and course of nature. 
 
 A clear view of this is adapted to enlarge 
 our conceptions, and strengthen our convic- 
 tions of the divine authority, that invests and 
 sustains the institution of the Sabbath. 
 
 1. Hence, we observe, that the Sabbatical 
 institution is founded upon permanent princi- 
 ples, pertaining to the physical constitution of 
 man. 
 
 Why so ? Let us see. The alternation of 
 day and night indicates that the principle of 
 BEST, as well as of action, is a part of that 
 divinely-constituted system under which we 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 97 
 
 live. " The sun knoweth his going down," 
 says the Psahnist ; " God maketh darkness, 
 and it is night." 
 
 " Night's silent reign hath robbed the world of light, 
 To lend in lieu a greater benefit, 
 Repose and sleep ; when every mortal breast, 
 Whom care and grief permit, may take their rest." 
 
 All men readily apprehend this law of na- 
 ture ; yet all men do not obey it ; for, amid 
 the exciting pursuits of life, it has often been 
 disregarded. This practical mistake has some- 
 times been made by men, of whom, on account 
 of their general knowledge, it would have been 
 least expected. Signally illustrative of this 
 remark, is the case of Sir Hum]3hrey Davy, 
 who was suddenly arrested in his brilliant pro- 
 fessional career by a nervous disease, which 
 caused a long cessation from those labours 
 which were attracting the attention of Eng- 
 land. Paris, in his life of Davy, calls this " an 
 awful pause in his researches." Davy ascribed 
 his illness to contagion caught in experimenting 
 on the fumigation of hospitals. On this his 
 biographer remarks : " upon conversing with 
 
98 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 Dr. Babingtoii, wlio, with Dr. Frank, attended 
 Davy tlirougliont this ilhiess, he assured me 
 that there was not the slightest ground for 
 this opinion, and that the fever was evidently 
 the effect of fatigue and an over-excited brain." 
 The truth was, that this earnest labourer in the 
 cause of science, borne along by a mighty im- 
 petus, had continued his exertions both by day 
 and night, and, having violated the law of 
 dmrnal rest, was incapable of averting the 
 fearful penalty. 
 
 A celebrated physician and writer, Dr. An- 
 drew Combe, of Edinburgh, having cited the 
 case of Davy, thus proceeds to observe, touch- 
 ing this law of diurnal rest ; " Nervous disease 
 from excessive mental labour, and exaltation 
 of feeling, sometimes shows itself in another 
 form. From neglecting proper intervals of 
 rest, the vascular excitement of the brain, 
 which always accompanies activity of mind, 
 has never time to subside, and a restless irrita- 
 bility of temper and disposition comes on, 
 attended with sleeplessness and anxiety, for 
 which no external cause can be assigned. The 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 99 
 
 symptoms gradually become aggravated, the 
 digestive functions give way, nutrition is im- 
 paired, and a sense of wretchedness is constant- 
 ly present, which often leads to attemj^jts at 
 suicide. While all this is going on, however, 
 the patient will talk, or transact business, with 
 perfect propriety and accuracy, and no stranger 
 could tell that anything ails him. But in his 
 intercourse with his intimate friends, or physi- 
 cian, the havoc made upon the mind becomes 
 ajDparent ; and, if not speedily arrested, it soon 
 terminates, according to the constitution or 
 circumstances of the individual case, in de- 
 rangement, palsy, apoplexy, fever, suicide, or 
 jDermanent weakness." 
 
 IN^ow, while it is evident to all that a di- 
 urnal rest is a law of nature, it is equally true, 
 though not so ob^^ious at once to all, that 
 a seventh-day rest is also a law of nature, as 
 well as a command of the Decalogue. 
 
 This conclusion rests ujion a careful induc- 
 tion of facts. A comparison of facts, derived 
 from a wide field of observation, has disclosed 
 to tlie view of scientific inquirers the broad 
 
100 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 principle, that tlie SaLbatli law is founded 
 deeply in the constitution and course of nature. 
 One of the grounds of this doctrine was well 
 indicated by an " acute and experienced phy- 
 sician," Dr. Farre, of London, in his testimony 
 before a Committee of the British House of 
 Commons. That Committee was appointed in 
 the year 1832, in order to investigate the 
 effects of labouring seven days in a week, com- 
 pared with those labouring six, and resting 
 one. Dr. Farre, who had been an active medi- 
 cal practitioner between thirty and forty years, 
 and who had for a long period been connected 
 wnth a public medical institution, thus stated 
 the results of his observations. " As a day of 
 rest, I view it as a day of compensation for the 
 inadequate restorative power of the body un- 
 der continued labour and excitement. A phy- 
 sician always has respect to the preserva- 
 tion of the restorative power ; because if this 
 once be lost, his healing office is at an end. A 
 physician is anxious to preserve the halance of 
 circulation^ as necessary to the restorative pow- 
 er of the body. The ordinary exertions of 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAX SABBATH. 101 
 
 man r^m down tlie circulation every day of Lis 
 life ; and the first general law of nature, by 
 wLicli God prevents man from destroying him- 
 self, is the alternating of day and night, that 
 repose may succeed action. But although 
 the night apparently equalizes the circulation, 
 yet it does not restore the balance sufficiently 
 for the attainment of a long and active life. 
 Hence one day in seven, by the bounty of 
 Providence, is thrown in as a day of compensa- 
 tion, to perfect by its repose the animal system. 
 I consider, therefore, that in the bountiful 
 provision of Providence for the preservation 
 of human life, the Sabbatical appointment 
 is not (as it has sometimes been theologically 
 viewed) simply a precept, partaking of the 
 nature of a political institution ; but that its 
 observance is to be numbered amono:st the 
 natural duties, if the preservation of life 
 be admitted to be a duty, and the premature 
 destruction of it a suicidal act." 
 
 These statements, from a source so highly 
 respectable, made a strong impression on the 
 minds of multitudes at the time they were 
 
102 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 publislied, hotli in Great Britain and in Amer- 
 ica. They awakened in different directions an 
 earnest spirit of inquiry. The New Haven 
 Medical Association made them the subjects of 
 their sj)ecial discussion, and unanimously re- 
 affirmed them. Fresh experiments were insti- 
 tuted, and the conviction gained ground more 
 widely, that a seventh-day rest is demanded by 
 all labouring animals. For example : " A gen- 
 tleman in Vermont, who was in the habit 
 of driving his horses twelve miles a day seven 
 days in a week, afterwards changed his prac- 
 tice, and drove them but six days, allowing 
 them to rest one. He then found that, with 
 the same keeping, he could drive them fifteen 
 miles a day, and preserve them in as good 
 order as before. So that a man may rest on 
 the Sabbath, and let his horses rest, yet pro- 
 mote the benefit of both and be in all respects 
 the gainer." The same conclusion has forced 
 itself upon the attention of different classes of 
 manufacturing companies, as being the true 
 law of labour for men, whether their exertions 
 be chiefly muscular or mental, and as being 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 103 
 
 equally applicable to all regularly working 
 animals. 
 
 From scenes of j)eaceful agriculture, from 
 tlie busy marts of trade, from the forge, tlie 
 shop, the factory, from the laboratories of sci- 
 ence, from the ships that plough the Pacific on 
 voyages that occupy successive years, and even 
 fi'om the plantations of the South, where the 
 capacity of the slave for labour is calculated 
 with mathematical exactness, the voices of 
 earnest men have been heard, attesting the 
 truth that the Sabbatical law pervades the 
 whole realm of active life, that it bears upon it 
 the impress of a universal fitness to the physi- 
 cal constitution of man, and that it will ulti- 
 mately avenge itself on every community, that 
 upholds its violation or trifles with its sanc- 
 tions. 
 
 2. Guided by the light of these truths, 
 we need not much to tax the time or thouo^ht 
 of any one to show, secondly, that the Sabbath 
 law is sustained by the essential principles 
 of man's moral constitution, and is demanded 
 by its necessities. 
 
lOi THE AUTHORITY AND TERPETUITY 
 
 For, altliougli man was made for toil, and 
 must earn liis bread by the sweat of his brow, 
 he ^' can not live by bread alone ;" his spirit 
 transcends the narrow bounds of sensual 
 enjoyments, soars above the sphere of material 
 things, and sighs amid the drudgery of life for 
 converse with a higher realm, for the light, air, 
 and aliment, congenial with its immortal na- 
 ture. Endowed with the power of discerning 
 the distinction between right and wrong, the 
 beauty of truth and goodness, of aspiring after 
 what is noble, lovely, and enduring, of becom- 
 ing, by sympathy, a partaker of God's happi- 
 ness, (or, as the Hebraistic phrase has it, " of 
 entering into his rest,") it often longs to rise, 
 as on eagles' wings, above the din of earthly 
 cares, to cleanse itself from the dust and grime 
 contracted in the routine of secular pursuits, 
 that thus it may obtain broader views of its 
 relations to God's universe at large, and be 
 made ready for the destinations that beckon it 
 onward to a nobler state of being. 
 
 The limits of this service forbid that I 
 should linger here, to delineate the methods by 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 105 
 
 whicli tlie Sabbath meets tlie call of this 
 urgent need. Suffice it to say, that " the Lord 
 of the Sabbath" has given to mankind those 
 ordinances, which were designed to call off 
 our thoughts from the material and transient 
 to the spiritual and permanent, to ^x atten- 
 tion on truths the most momentous, and to 
 keep the mind well balanced and firmly poised 
 amid the excitements and temptations of this 
 fleetino; world. 
 
 It has been well said by an eminent writer, 
 that the soul of man is elevated by whatsoever 
 emancipates him from the despotism of the 
 present, and leads him to open his ear to the 
 lessons of the past ; and it has been well 
 said, also, that man is ennobled by every effort 
 to anticipate " things to come," and, by a wise 
 forecast, to subjugate the present hour to the 
 attainment of future good. In relation to 
 these purposes, literature, science, art, history, 
 philosophy, poetry, all human culture, may do 
 something ; but nothing can accomplish a 
 result so grand, by means so simple, as the 
 teachings of revealed religion. Every suscep- 
 
106 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 tibility of the soul may be toiiclied, every 
 faculty quickened, and the whole man lifted 
 to a higher sj^here of thought and feeling. 
 
 But the best medicines when abused become 
 poison ; and the greatest blessings, when per- 
 verted, become the heaviest curses ; so the 
 Sabbath, when desecrated, may become the 
 means of the rankest demoralization in its 
 effects upon an individual or a community. In 
 order that the Sabbath accomplish its benefi- 
 cent aims, it must be used in accordance with 
 its high moral ends. If it be made a day of 
 idleness and dissipation, it yields effective min- 
 istry to lawless passion, and whets the edge of 
 every debasing apj)etite. Nations that do not 
 recognize the obligations of the Sabbath law, 
 lose all the moral benefits that might otherwise 
 be reaped from intellectual culture, science, 
 and refinement. Behold, for instance, the 
 marked contrast between two peoples, which 
 published statistics have forced upon our atten- 
 tion. In Scotland, the highest tone of moral- 
 ity is found among the educated classes ; in 
 France, the highest tone of morality is to 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 107 
 
 be found among the -aneducated classes. In 
 Scotland, crimes are the most numerous in dis- 
 tricts where there is the most of ignorance; 
 in France, crimes abound in proportion to the 
 spread of scholastic knowledge. This amazing 
 fact has been the subject of remark by both 
 British and French writers, and especially by 
 Bulwer, in his work on France, published in 
 the reign of Louis Phillippe. 
 
 And what is the great lesson which this fact 
 reveals ? Evidently this : that knowledge can 
 not improve the moral condition of a people, 
 unless the conscience and the heart be edu- 
 cated by Christianity. And as we know, too, 
 that where there is no regard to the Sabbath, 
 there is no vital Christianity, we are taught by 
 the progressive history of humanity, that the 
 foundations of the Sabbath law are laid in the 
 Constitution and course of nature. 
 
 If these things be so, if these be true princi- 
 ples capable of enduring the strictest scrutiny, 
 let us resolve that our plans of life and our 
 conduct shall be conformed to them ; and let 
 us favour every effort to commend them to the 
 
108 THE AUTHORITY AND PERPETUITY 
 
 acceptance of tlie community. At tliis time, 
 esj)ecially, does the Sabbatli put forth its claim 
 to our regard, with a more than ordinary em- 
 pha-sis of meaning. For never, more than 
 now, has the attention of the world been oc- 
 cupied with the question, whether it be 
 possible for a free people, without a political 
 alliance of the throne and the altar, to main- 
 tain a form of constitutional self-government. 
 In vain does the inquirer look abToad over the 
 old continents for the realization of such an 
 idea, in the history of a first-class power among 
 the nations. And when he directs his eyes to 
 this New World, and hails the exemplification 
 of it which our fathers transmitted to us, he is 
 forced to the conclusion that this idea never 
 has been realized, and never can be realized, 
 except by a Sabbath-keeping people. He sees 
 the profound significance of a testimony borne 
 hj a distinguished Frenchman, in a Keport on 
 Sabbath observance to the French Parliament 
 of 1850. "Witness that city London, the 
 capital and focus of the commerce of the 
 world, where Sunday is observed with the 
 
OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 109 
 
 most scrupulous care, and wliere two and a 
 half millions of people are kept in order by 
 three battalions of infantry and some troops 
 of guards, while Paris requires the presence of 
 50,000 men." 
 
 But it may be asked, how many battalions 
 does New York require to keep the public 
 peace ? The answer is " our glory and our 
 joy ;" and when we say " not one," " the com- 
 munity is self-governed," we know that the 
 reason of this distinction is the fact, that we 
 have grown up fi'om infancy a comparatively 
 Sabbath-keeping people. Join with me in 
 the prayer, God help us to be true to this 
 trust, and save us from the folly of those who 
 would tempt us by baits of sensual gratifica- 
 tion, to sell, like Esau, a sacred birthright. 
 
THE 
 
 DUTIES OF THE SABBATH, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. HENKY D. GANSE, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE TWENTY-THIKB STREET REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH. 
 
" Remember the Sabbath-day, to k-eep it holt. Six dats "shalt 
 
 THOD labour, AXD DO ALL THl' WORK. BuT THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE 
 
 Sabbath op the Lord tht God : ix it thou shalt not do any work, 
 
 THOU, nor thy son, NOR THY DAUGHTER, NOR THY MAN-SERYANT, NOR THY 
 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor THY STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY 
 GATES : FOR IN SIX DAYS THE LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA, 
 AND ALL THAT IN THEM IS, AND RESTED THE SEVENTH DAY: WHERKFORE 
 
 THE Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." — Exodirs 
 XX. 8-11. 
 
 The first two discourses of tliis series liave 
 established tlie divine origin and permanent an- 
 tliority of the Sabbath. It is important for 
 us to keep these conclusions in mind, as we 
 proceed to-night, to inquire how the Sabl3at]i is 
 to be kept. All obligation is defined by law ; 
 and it will appear, accordingly, that those 
 loose views concerning the observance of the 
 Sabbath, which good men have held in Re- 
 formation times, or in our own, have grown 
 out of the notion that the Fourth Command- 
 ment was a part of that Jewish economy, 
 which tlie coming in of a better covenant has 
 iibrogated. We, upon the other liand, have 
 
114 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 found every reason for leaving that command 
 wliere God lias placed it — among those funda- 
 mental moral precepts which constitute the 
 2:>ermanent and universal law of our race. 
 These reasons have been amply stated, and do 
 not need to be reviewed. Yet let me say, that 
 even a very imperfect exposition of the law of 
 the Sabbath cannot fail to add something 
 to the evidence of its permanent authority. 
 
 At our first view of the Sabbatic law, we 
 are struck with its brevity and lack of detail. 
 It would be natural to reo^ret this feature of it, 
 and to think that fuller legislation upon this sub- 
 ject would have forestalled many mischievous 
 disputes, and have saved tender consciences 
 from distressing doubts. But a moment's re- 
 flection will show us, that any minute scrip- 
 tural statement of Sabbath duties was by 
 no means to be expected. For it is evident 
 that those duties must vary with the varying 
 relations of those who are to perform them. 
 A perfect Sabbath for a Jew would not be a 
 perfect Sabbath for a Christian. The acts 
 that might become a newly converted Caffre oil 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 115 
 
 that clay, would not satisfy the conscience of an 
 intellicrent Christian in Eno;land or America. 
 The chikVs Sabbath duties must differ materi- 
 ally from those of his parent. Even the lapse 
 of time, increasing as it does the scope of Chris- 
 tian knowledge, and sympathy, and action, 
 must greatly modify the employments of the ho- 
 ly day. Thus our own Sabbaths embody special 
 forms of well-doing, of which even our grand- 
 parents could hardly have conceived ; and the 
 Sabbaths of the millennium, again, shall differ 
 widely from our own. So evident is it that a 
 rigid routine of Sabbath acts could not be pre- 
 scribed even in an inspired book. The most 
 that we could fairly look for, would be the 
 announcement of such general princij^les of 
 Sabbath duty, as shall be of easy and univer- 
 sal application. Such princijDles, I think, are 
 embodied in the law which we are to con- 
 sider to-nierht. 
 
 I propose first to explain the general scope 
 of that law ; and then to detail some of the 
 duties which it imposes u]3on us. 
 
 I. The desim of the Fourth Commandment 
 
IIG THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 is evidently twofold. In part it is a prohibi- 
 tion of labour on the seventh day. '' In it 
 thou shalt not do any work." The law is" 
 clear, and has never been revoked. On the 
 other hand, exjDerience has taught us that the 
 need of a weekly rest is lodged in our physical 
 constitution. So far, then, as the law of the 
 Sabbath enjoins such rest, it stands upon the 
 same footing with those other precepts of the 
 decalogue, which forbid theft, or murder, or 
 other acts that offer injury to individuals or so- 
 ciety. Our Saviour, accordingly, did not in- 
 tend to set this necessary law aside, when he 
 relieved it of the rigid and mischievous con- 
 struction which the Jews had put upon it. 
 We know that they refused to defend them- 
 selves against their enemies on the Sabbath, 
 and counted our Kedeemer to have profaned 
 the day by the performance even of his most 
 merciful miracles. But Christ taught them 
 that " it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, 
 day :" and it is easy to see that the s^Dirit of 
 the commandment was kept by him, and not 
 by them. The natural law which devotes the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE BABBATII. 117 
 
 night to repose, is as formal and intelligible as 
 the express law of the Sabbath; and yet 
 no man considers that that law of nature 
 forbids him to rise from his bed to direct a 
 traveller, or to watch the whole night with the 
 sick or dying. Just so the Christian church 
 loses none of its reverence for the Fom^th 
 Commandment, when it learns from the pre- 
 cej)ts and example of our Saviour, that the 
 hours of the Sabbath may be most appropri- 
 ately spent in acts of necessity and mercy. 
 
 But the Sabbath law is more than a mere 
 prohibition of labour. The command is posi- 
 tive : " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep 
 it holy ;" and this command in enforced by 
 the fact that "■ God blessed the Sabbath-day 
 and hallowed it." We claim that these ex- 
 pressions are intended to dedicate the day to 
 the highest religious and spiritual uses. And 
 we argue 
 
 First, from the terms themselves. In the orig- 
 inal, the expressions " keep holy" and " hallow" 
 are the same. The word that is so translated, 
 is constantly employed to indicate those acts, 
 
118 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Avlietlier of God, or of men under his appoint- 
 ment, l)y which priests, or vestments, or altars, 
 or sacrifices, were said to be sanctified. Now it 
 is easy to understand what is involved in sanc- 
 tifying or making holy a priest, or his official 
 clothing, or an altar, or a victim. And the sanc- 
 tifying of a day ; what shall that be but its 
 consecration to the same sacred use, to which all 
 the rest are given ? namely, to God's worship. 
 This conclusion is confirmed by the fact, that 
 keeping the Sabbath is made, both in the law 
 itself and elsewhere, a duty to God. " The 
 seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
 God." " Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, I am the 
 Lord." " Ye shall reverence my Sabbaths." 
 Elsewhere God calls it " my holy day." In- 
 deed, the very j^osition of the command in the 
 first table of the decalogue, proves that God is 
 the chief object of the duties it enjoins. And 
 the fact that all the other commands of that 
 table are negative in form and meaning, fairly 
 concentrates upon this positive law all the sig- 
 nificance which its terms will naturally bear. 
 It is interesting to notice that there are, in- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 119 
 
 deed, but two positive statutes in all the deca- 
 logue, one in each table. Neither of these 
 opposes itself in detailed terms to the sins 
 which the other commandments forbid ; and 
 yet each of them has within itself the spirit 
 and germ of a universal duty. The command- 
 ment, "Honour thy father and thy mother," 
 begins the second table, by establishing in fil- 
 ial reverence and domestic law the corner- 
 stone of all social virtue. The first table 
 closes with the law of the Sabbath, which, by 
 recalling men from worldly engagements to the 
 frequent and thoughtful worship of God, lays 
 the deeper and broader foundations of all duty, 
 both toward God himself and toward society. 
 The two commandments stand in the midst of 
 the decalogue, articulated together, the living 
 rock by which the whole is stable. Elsewhere, 
 in a less formal but more detailed exhibition 
 of duty, these two commands are bound into 
 one, and lead the list ; " Ye shall fear every 
 man his mother and his father, and keep 
 my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God." (Lev. 
 xix. 3.) It is plain that a law which sus- 
 
120 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 tains sucli a relation to God's great moral code, 
 must be something more than a prohibition of 
 labour. 
 
 But the meanins: of that law comes out more 
 clearly in subsequent legislation. On the Sab- 
 bath, the daily offering of a lamb in the morn- 
 ing, and of another in the evening, was re- 
 quired to be doubled ; as were the accompany- 
 ino- meat-offerino:s and drink-offerinsrs. (Num. 
 xxviii. 9, 10.) This increase of service, it will 
 be seen, was by no means great enough to be 
 burdensome ; yet it sufficed to mark the relig- 
 ious character of the day. In addition to this, 
 the people were required to assemble on that 
 day for special worship. "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 convocation. 
 Ye shall do no work therein ; it is the Sabbath 
 of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Lev. xxiii. 
 1-3.) Accordingly, it was natural that respect 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 121 
 
 for the Sabbath, and respect for the holy place 
 where the Sabbath was to be observed, should 
 be inculcated in the same command. " Ye 
 shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my 
 sanctuary. I am the Lord." (Lev. xix. 30.) 
 
 Distinct indications of this Sabbath worship 
 meet us farther down in the Old Testament 
 books. The author of " a Psalm or song for the 
 Sabbath-day," breaks forth in this grand strain : 
 " It is a good thing to give thanks unto the 
 Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most 
 High." The prophet Isaiah, too, amid similar 
 predictions, foretells, as the sign of the church's 
 future growth and glory, that " From one Sab- 
 bath to another, all flesh shall come to worship 
 before the Lord." (Isa. Ixvi. 23.) And Ezek- 
 iel proclaims it as the law of the temple 
 which he sees in vision, that " The people of the 
 land shall worship at the door of its inner 
 court before the Lord, in the Sabbaths and in 
 the new moons." 
 
 The Sabl:)ath worship of synagogues in New 
 
 Testament times is familiarly known to us all, 
 
 as is the respect which our Saviour and his 
 6 
 
122 THE DUTIES OF THE HABBATII. 
 
 Apostles constantly paid to it. And wlien, 
 after the resurrection, the seventh-day Sabbath 
 fell into disuse, its worship was by no 
 means abandoned, but only transferred to 
 the first day of the week. On that day the 
 disciples met to break bread, and listened 
 while Paul preached. (Acts xx. 7.) On that 
 day, each Corinthian Christian was directed 
 " to lay by him in store" for the relief of poor 
 saints. (1 Cor. xvi. 2.) Whether the " store " 
 was to be public or private, the act equally 
 betokened the holy use of the day. On that 
 day, too, the apostle John devoted himself to 
 those high spiritual duties which prepared him 
 to receive the Apocalyptic vision. Add to this 
 the religious respect paid to the Lord's day, 
 both in the writings and the usages of the 
 early church, and it is plain beyond question, 
 that from the first announcement of the Sab- 
 bath law until now, the church of God has 
 counted every seventh day sacred to religious 
 duty. 
 
 The proofs that we have quoted have borne 
 most directly upon the public worship of the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 123 
 
 by its terms and the insj)ired history of its 
 observance, but by the obvious and impera- 
 tive needs of those for whom it has been given. 
 For if the repose of the seventh day is neces- 
 sary for our bodies, the spiritual advantages of 
 a holy Sabbath are at least as necessary for our 
 souls. We are made up of these two parts; 
 and neither is entitled to displace the other. 
 Yet our spiiitual part is entitled to rule. The 
 body, at best, is but 
 
 " The earthly root, 
 That makes its branches lift their golden fruit 
 Into the bloom of heaven," 
 
 A perfect man, if he could be found, would be 
 one in whom soul and body should be in com- 
 plete harmony : the soul in union with God, 
 expanded, stimulated, controlled by all affec- 
 tionate acquaintance and sympathy with him- 
 self and his plans; the body, offering every 
 sense and member and passion to the prompt 
 accomplishment of the soul's behests ; and both 
 together feasting with unabating relish upon 
 every wholesome gratification of thought and 
 sense. Such a man would not need a Sabbath. 
 
124 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Sabbath. But oljligation to liouseliold and 
 personal devotion on that day is not left in 
 question. " It is the Sabbatli of tlie Lord in 
 all your dwellings." (Lev. xxiii. 3.) That most 
 striking j^assage of Isaiah, too (Iviii. 13), not 
 only exacts of men tlieir concurrence in the 
 l)ublic duties of the Sabbath, but their personal 
 and hearty reverence for it all. " If thou turn 
 away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing 
 thy pleasure en my holy day ; and call the Sab- 
 bath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honoura- 
 ble ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own 
 ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
 speaking thine own words: then shalt thou 
 delight thyself in the Lord." Surely no acts 
 of public Avorship, however complete, can meet 
 all the demands of these comprehensive words. 
 Add to this that the last hint which the Scrip- 
 tures afford us concerning Sabbath worship, 
 presents St. John " in the Spirit on the Lord's 
 day," not in the midst of a congregation, but 
 alone. 
 
 But the spiritual scope of the Fourth Com- 
 mandment is fairly to be illustrated, not only 
 
 •^ 
 
 ) ^ - 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 125 
 
 Or if that blessed day were appointed for him 
 even in paradise, it should come, not like music 
 after discord, but like a melody flashing out 
 among stately harmonies, and hushing their 
 mighty march, while it lifts up joy into rap- 
 ture. But we can live no such life as this ; 
 and that, for two reasons. One is, that sin 
 has just reversed the relations of soul and body, 
 and made that master which should be servant. 
 And the other is, that the objects which appeal 
 to our degraded tastes and passions are all near 
 at hand, besieging every sense, while spiritual 
 things are far removed, and are quite invisible. 
 Now, if a sinful man were only to live among 
 these worldly influences, he must be sadly 
 warped by them. But let them furnish the 
 material of his daily thought and labour. Let 
 him look to them for the means of all comfort 
 and aggrandizement, so that his heart shall 
 grow to them by the power of every affection 
 and energy and habit ; then let there be no 
 break in this mischievous training:, but let 
 every day be worldly : and how shall the in- 
 visible things of God and the soul get access 
 
126 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 to him ? Those may answer who even pay 
 the Sabbath an outward homage, but discard 
 its spiritual use. Let them rise up in our 
 churches, where they sit not inattentive to the 
 utterance of God's word, and testify how the 
 love of the world makes them insensible to its 
 power. 
 
 Now, the spiritual Sabbath is God's means 
 of deliverance from this thraldom. It brings 
 up the slave out of his mine to show him the 
 heavens and the light. It is medicinal and 
 restorative. It undertakes to compensate for a 
 mighty evil by an opposite good ; and to this 
 end it must surely be more than a day of 
 recreation or repose. How many hours of 
 sleep, or of social pleasure, will be needed to 
 loosen the grip of a week of worldliness, and 
 to surround a soul with the great things of 
 God ? Nor must it be a day of common inno- 
 cence, or kindness, or even devotion. Its office 
 is to lay up a store of spiritual thought and 
 feeling. A man who lives beside a spring may 
 drink and go his way. But the fainting trav- 
 eller across a desert, feels his heart leap for joy 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE BABBATH. 127 
 
 at the first sight of the palm trees. He 
 hastens to the refreshing waters ; he drinks his 
 fill of them ; he bathes his brow in them. 
 But he does not turn his back on the green 
 leaves, till he has filled every vessel with the 
 precious fluid. If his flask were filled with 
 diamonds, he would pour them out that he 
 might fill it with water. The Sabbath is our 
 spring in the desert, and its supplies are equal 
 to our needs. 
 
 We are now prepared to understand those 
 words of our Kedeemer, which the enemies of 
 a spiritual Sabbath so often quote against it. 
 " The Sabbath was made for man, and not 
 man for the Sabbath." Could any words be 
 truer, or of more transparent meaning ? Christ 
 says the Sabbath is the means ; and man's ad- 
 vantage is the end. But what advantage ? 
 Evidently that which the Sabbath is adapted 
 to secure. Just so, in an important sense, na- 
 ture was made for man, and not man for 
 nature. " God hath made him to have domin- 
 ion over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the 
 air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever 
 
128 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 passeth tlirougli tlie paths of tlie sea." Then 
 how shall nature serve her lord ? In part, with 
 harvests from her fields, and fleeces from her 
 flocks ; with music for his ear, and beauties for 
 his sieht. But is this all ? And have those 
 perverted nature, who stand with tearful ecsta- 
 cy within the sanctuary of towering moun- 
 tains, and make ladders of their glittering 
 steeps, with which their souls mount up to the 
 very throne of God ? Nay, in heaven itself, 
 there are seats prepared for man. Is heaven, 
 therefore, a mere elysium — a paradise of the 
 false prophet, with pleasures for every sense 
 and none for the soul ? The Sabbath voas made 
 for man. Let it do its whole work. Let it re- 
 lieve the weary limbs. Let it smooth the 
 brow of care. And let it lead the penitent to 
 the Cross. Let it " preach good tidings unto 
 tbe meek ; let it bind u]3 the broken-hearted 
 and proclaim liberty to the captives, and the 
 opening of the prisons to them that are bound." 
 And if any would limit its oflice to rest and 
 pleasure, they must seek a better warrant than 
 this ; that he, who counted men's souls worth 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 129 
 
 dying for, declared tliat "the Sabbath was 
 made for man." 
 
 The law of the Sabbath, as we have thus 
 reviewed it, presents itself to us in a twofold 
 aspect. 
 
 It is the announcement of God's claim. By 
 the Sabbath he says : " I have not cast out my 
 creatures into this world of toil and temptation, 
 regardless whether they serve me or forget 
 me. At least on this day, my children, come 
 back to me from all your distractions. Ac- 
 knowledge my goodness and your indebted- 
 ness. Acknowledge my law and your sins. 
 On this day, too, be still and listen to my 
 voice. Then gird yourselves again for duty ; 
 and so carry the thought of my authority 
 through all your days of worldly care and 
 danger." In monarchical countries, the nation- 
 al flag floating over the palace is a sign that 
 the monarch is within. God has set up his 
 Sabbath on earth as the signal of his royal 
 presence. And there is no truer test of loyal- 
 ty than the kind of regard that is paid to the 
 sacred emblem. The law of the Sabbath, more 
 
130 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 than any other, puts men to the proof, " whether 
 they will keep God's commanclments or no." 
 Other commands stand connected with obvious 
 and speedy results, whether of good or evil, 
 which may ensure obedience to them quite in- 
 dependently of any regard of the lawgiver. 
 Thus a man may keep himself from theft, mur- 
 der, or adultery, from a natural fear or disgust 
 of those mischievous sins, and yet never think 
 of God. Now, the keeping or the breaking of 
 the Sabbath entails results, and of the largest 
 proportions ; but they are not so sharply de- 
 fined nor so near at hand, as to control men's 
 natural instincts or fears. In that law, the au- 
 thority of God, who ordained the Sabbath for 
 himself, stands out in the brightest light ; and 
 all remoter motives to obedience lie in the 
 shade. The man who keeps that law, then, 
 keeps it for God's sake, and therefore keeps all 
 laws. The Sabbath is the dyke which God has 
 reared against the sea of human passion. Be- 
 hind it lie the green fields. While it is firm, 
 they are safe. When it is thrown down, nei- 
 ther waving corn, nor sacred homes, can stand 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 131 
 
 up against tlie turbid flood. The Sabbath is 
 the finger-board, set up by God where the two 
 ways meet. Upon it is written, "Those who 
 fear God walk here." No finger-board marks 
 the other path ; but those who find perdition 
 at the end of it, remember that just at this 
 point they turned aside. 
 
 But the Sabbath is not only nor chiefly 
 an exaction. It is a promise. God would 
 never require men to seek him, unless he 
 were willing to come near to them. He 
 hlessed the Sabbath-day as well as hallowed 
 it. And thus, even under the old economy, 
 side by side with the law of that day, stood 
 the promise : " In all places where I record 
 my name, I will come unto you and bless you." 
 The Sabbath convocations and sacrifices were 
 not so much an enforced tribute from men to 
 God, as a trustful aj^peal for the covenanted 
 blessings. Nothing but the most heartless and 
 ignorant formalism, ever perverted even the 
 Jewish Sabbath into a day of austerity. The 
 statutes which guarded the day were rigid, in- 
 deed, as they needed to be. But they were 
 
132 THE DUTIES OF THE SAIJBATH. 
 
 only the wall about it. The Sabbath itself, 
 with its hoi}' ways and worship, was a2:>pointed 
 to be " a delight." So the nation used it in its 
 best days. They " entered into his gates wdth 
 thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." 
 Their exuberant joy could only half express 
 itself w^ith j^salteries and harps, with cymbals 
 and dances ; and so they challenged the " floods 
 to claj) their hands, and all the trees of the 
 w^ood to rejoice" with them " before the Lord." 
 It was not their Sabbath worship, but the loss 
 of it, that made them sad. " My heart pant- 
 eth for the courts of the Lord." " They wept 
 when they remembered Zion." " I will cause," 
 said Hosea, " all her mirth to cease, her feast 
 days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and 
 all her solemn feasts." And Jeremiah com- 
 plains in his Lamentations, "the Lord hath 
 caused the Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion." 
 So little do those men know of the ancient 
 Sabbath, who would make the abrogation of 
 the day one of the favours of the gospel. The 
 gospel was not meant to rob men, but to en- 
 rich them. God's Sabbath always was a 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 133 
 
 blessiuo-; tlie Pharisees' Sabbath was a bur- 
 den. Christ tore off the burden; but the 
 Sabbath he blessed anew, and hallowed it. 
 
 What significance has his grace added to 
 that day of mercy ! Interpret it by his gos- 
 pel, which it now proclaims ; by his cross ; by 
 his resurrection and ascension ; by the promise 
 and gift of the Holy Spirit ; by the history of 
 its own triumphs ; by its pledge of a future 
 rest ; and the day becomes almost a sacrament, 
 a seal upon God's covenant, the " visible sign 
 of invisible grace." As often as it dawns, the 
 promises waken like "the birds that sing 
 among the branches." Nay, the whole day is 
 a promise. It is more than that ; it is a prom- 
 ise fulfilled. It brings what it offers— pardon 
 for the guilty, grace for the fallen, help for the 
 despairing, comfort for the sad. The Sabbath 
 is the point at which the circle of our sins and 
 sorrows and the circle of God's grace touch 
 each other. It is the open portal between this 
 world and heaven. When our Kedeemer as- 
 cended the everlasting doors were lifted, and 
 they have not closed again. On this side there 
 
134 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 presses to tliem tlie multitude of needy men, 
 saddened with sins and fears. On yonder side 
 is the glory of the throne and the Intercessor, 
 the fulness of joy, and the innumerable compa- 
 ny of angels. The sad faces kindle in that 
 holy light. Men sing, and think they hear 
 the voice of seraphs. Abounding grace and 
 abounding sin confront each other ; and grace 
 triumphs. 
 
 II. 'Now, how shall this Sabbath be kept ? 
 The most obvious and the safest answer is: 
 According to its design. 
 
 We tend naturally to formalism. It is 
 so much easier to control the lips and the 
 hands than to control the heart, that we 
 are always tempted to construct a routine 
 of outward duties, and to call that piety. 
 The next step is for bigotry to make its 
 forms a law for others. And thus God's 
 grace, that is ordained to be inward joy and 
 strength, is turned into chains and fetters. 
 This tendency has never developed itself more 
 fully or more mischievously than in exchanging 
 the spirit of the Sabbath for rules and restric- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 135 
 
 tions. As well might you banisli from a house- 
 hold all family affection, and attempt to sujoply 
 its place with rules of politeness. You have 
 set uj) a dry skeleton where there should be a 
 beating heart and the glow of life and love. 
 Let us be sure that the law of the Sabbath is 
 a law for the soul ; and the soul must keep it 
 or it is not kept. In other words, the first 
 requisite to a well-kept Sabbath is a hearty 
 consent to the spiritual design of the day. 
 
 Does it follow, then, that Sabbath-keeping 
 is a matter independent of all rule, and that 
 each man is to regulate it for himself by his 
 own taste or caj^rice ? Far from this. The 
 Sabbath is appointed for ends, and these ends 
 are to be attained by adequate means. A 
 lover of the Sabbath has a double work before 
 him. He is to rescue the day from common, 
 uses. He is to consecrate it to spiritual use and 
 profit. And in both attempts he is to employ, 
 first of all, the means which God has formally 
 prescribed. 
 
 The day is to be rescued^ then, 1. From 
 worldly work. The body must have rest and 
 
136 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 refresliment, that tlie soul may have leisure 
 and spirit for grasping the things that are not 
 seen. 
 
 2. For the same reason a man must rest from 
 the thoughts of work ; for these are work itself, 
 and of the most absorbing character. A 
 Christian, in his weekly labor at his loom or 
 work-bench, can come far nearer to a Sabbath 
 temper than does that man who, on the Sab- 
 bath day, carries his half-formed plans to his 
 fireside or to the church. 
 
 3. So, too, the Sabbath must be secured from 
 worldly pleasures. Surely, those that are for- 
 bidden on other days are doubly mischievous 
 on this. And those mere pleasures which on 
 other days are innocent have no right to 
 cumber this ground. The tastes which con- 
 tent themselves with literature or art, or 
 even with mere nature, the social delights 
 of friendly or learned conversation, hospitality 
 itself as a means of worldly pleasure, the very 
 affections of home if kept down to the level of 
 common worldly kindness, all withhold the day 
 from its use. These things are beautiful in 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 137 
 
 their place. Bring them np to the level of 
 Sabbath feeling, and they may adorn the Sab- 
 bath too. But while they remain worldly, they 
 pervert the day. 
 
 4. Nor is a curious concern for any worldly 
 interest entitled to absorb this holy time. 
 Events that ai-e lodged in the memory or that 
 announce themselves on the Sabbath unsou^rht, 
 or calls of duty that may need a prompt re- 
 sponse, may fairly shape the current of Sab- 
 bath feeling and action. But no grandest event 
 quite beyond us in the world ; not even the 
 tramp of armies and the convulsions of a nation, 
 have a right to disturb the silence of that sanc- 
 tuary. The Sabbath frame is concerned not so 
 much with the passing acts of a providence that 
 cannot be scanned, as with the grace of a cove- 
 nant ordered in all things and sure. Christian 
 men among us have mistaken the use of the day, 
 when they have suffered it to be distracted by 
 curiosity concerning human achievements even 
 in a holy cause. Better for that day at least 
 to " dwell in the secret place of the most High, 
 and abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
 
138 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 In a word, the instincts of a heart in love 
 with the Sabbath will teach it what engage- 
 ments the Sabbath precludes. As a father in 
 foreign lands is jealous of his very pleasures 
 lest they may obscure his vision of the far off 
 group that watches for his return, so he who 
 wishes to keep that holy day, needs no man to 
 teach him what hinders him in the work. One 
 who watches the sun will know when it is 
 clouded. 
 
 • The reasonableness and necessity of these 
 restrictions will not be questioned by those 
 who revere the Sabbath. But a multitude of 
 men who would not call themselves its enemies, 
 will by no means submit to them, and thus 
 there has sprung up a form of proverbial phi- 
 losophy which assumes at once to honor the 
 day and to overleap all its restraints. " The 
 better the day, the better the deed." A man 
 is bent upon his work or pleasure, and consci- 
 ence checks him with God's command. Remem- 
 ber the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. He only 
 needs to utter his talismanic proverb and the 
 command is dumb and his conscience free. 
 
THE DtTTIES OF THE SABBATH. 139 
 
 But whence does this spell derive its power ? 
 Not from its evident reasonableness ; it means 
 nothing. Can a good day sanctify a bad deed, 
 like profanity or murder ? Can a good day sanc- 
 tify an indifferent deed that has no sympathy 
 with its design, but is driven into the midst of 
 its holy affections and engagements like wood 
 into the living flesh ? Days do not make deeds 
 good. Deeds help to make days good. Man 
 is more than the Sabbath. Is there anything in 
 Sunday light and Sunday air to disinfect and 
 spiritualize a human soul or a human act ? The 
 good deed is the deed that fits the good day, 
 and then indeed, the day with the grace that is 
 in it makes it better, — fuller of spirituality — 
 fuller of promise — fuller of joy and strength. 
 If the saying assumes to mean more than this it is 
 a mere lure, a trick of Satan, a sententious false- 
 hood, with which to silence a conscience that 
 knows not how to silence itself. Men may 
 take the bait if they will ; but they shall find 
 at last that a jingle of human words does not 
 drown the voice of God. 
 
 But the Sabbath is not only to be rescued 
 
1-10 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 from worldly uses ; it is to be devoted to its oion 
 spiritual ends. And here again, the methods 
 fii*st to be used are those which God has ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 1. The "holy convocation" of the Sabbath 
 was expressly appointed under the Old Testa- 
 ment, and the New not only presents the exam- 
 ple of its continuance, but the formal command, 
 " Forsake not the assembling of yourselves to- 
 gether." That public Sabbath worship and 
 instruction are adapted to further the ends of 
 that holy day, is too evident to demand illustra- 
 tion. If any proof on this subject could be 
 needed, the visible connexion between such wor- 
 ship and a high toned piety, whether in commu- 
 nities or in individuals, would abundantly sup- 
 ply it. No man can depreciate the public devo- 
 tions of the Sabbath without casting contem23t 
 at once upon God's appointments and human 
 experience. 
 
 2. But there are more private means of 
 nourishing piety which befit all days, and es- 
 pecially those which are devoted to spiritual 
 profit. Among these are the reading of the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 141 
 
 Scriptures, secret meditation and prayer, and 
 the various acts of family devotion. And these 
 home duties of the Sabbath, like those that 
 are more public, not only have the warrant of 
 divine law, but are identified with the whole 
 history of spiritual religion. 
 
 But these two forms of Sabbath piety are 
 so well known and practicable, that no sincere 
 soul is in danger of mistaking them. A more 
 interesting question remains : Are there any 
 other legitimate means of hallowing the day, 
 that lie outside of these more formal religious 
 acts ? Is the whole Sabbath to be absorbed 
 in offices of devotion ? Is it to begin and pro- 
 ceed and end under the awe of a conscious and 
 direct approach to God ? Surely not. A good 
 man indeed, spends all his days and especially 
 his Sabbaths, as in God's sight. Love, and 
 ftiith, and reverence take perpetual note of his 
 presence. But formal devotion is more than 
 the indulgence of these emotions. It is the 
 most serious and responsible appeal of a soul to 
 its maker. It is the highest act both of intellect 
 and feeling. Our minds were not meant to 
 
142 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 bold themselves perpetually to that highest 
 exercise. It belongs to other beings, "con- 
 tinually to cry holy, holy, holy. Lord God of 
 Sabaoth." Accordingly, through the week 
 at least, we have to do with worldly things 
 which, while they do not need to withdraw us 
 from the presence or thought of God, do of 
 necessity interrupt our direct devotions. And 
 even upon the Sabbath, both our mental con- 
 stitution and our relations to outward things 
 demand frequent intermission in the exercise 
 of worshijD. Nor is this necessity to be re- 
 gretted. It is a part of God's plan, which is 
 the wisest one. We are to be religious as 
 men — not as angels. Our humility, our peni- 
 tence, our gratitude, our faith, our joy, our 
 very hope of heaven, all take color from the 
 actual condition in which we are. God touches 
 us with providence and grace, at every point 
 of our contact with surrounding things. And 
 thus every object of wholesome interest has to 
 a pious soul, a voice for God. These men 
 have made the saddest of blunders who have 
 withdrawn themselves from the world, in order 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 143 
 
 to get nearer to heaven. The ladder that scales 
 heaven has its foot on earth. The pilgrim 
 weary with a common journey, and anxious 
 with common cares, gets from his pillow of 
 stone, the vision of ascending and descending 
 angels. The Sabbath itself, with what taste 
 of heaven there is in it, does not transport us 
 thither ; but brings heaven down to us. " The 
 Sabbath was made for man ; " and there is no 
 delicate taste, no generous affection, no warm 
 desire of his regenerated nature, to which that 
 holy day with its great thought of God recon- 
 ciled in Jesus Christ, does not appeal. Grace 
 strings the harp again ; and the Sabbath comes 
 OT^r it like a breath from heaven, and every 
 string gives music. 
 
 How well the holiness of the day of rest 
 blends with thoughts and deeds of kindness, 
 our Saviour has been careful to teach us. And 
 no one can think of the countless activities of 
 Christian charity which that day quickens in 
 the home and the Sunday school, in the cham- 
 ber of sickness, and among the abodes of igno- 
 rance and vice, without blessing God for Sab- 
 
144 THE DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. 
 
 bath mercy, l)otli in tlie naaie of " bim that 
 gives and him that takes." 
 
 That the reverent contemplation of God's 
 works may kindle Sabbath joy and praise, is 
 proclaimed by the whole church, as often as 
 she sings " The heavens declare the glory of 
 God and the firmament showeth his handy- 
 work." The whole creation has no wall so 
 blank, that a spirit of love and faith cannot 
 open through it a way into the chambers of 
 imagery. In the very repose and silence of 
 the Sabbath, men sooner detect the footsteps 
 and the voice of God. The light of his coun- 
 tenance falls upon the landscape like a second 
 sun. The outlines are clearer, the colors are 
 fairer, the reaches are longer; and when at 
 length the still horizon stretches away toward 
 the evening sky, far, far beyond it, beneath the 
 flaming lines of sunset clouds we look into the 
 calm clear depth of heaven. Destroy the 
 spiritual Sabbath, and even nature mourns 
 over her glory departed. You have left us 
 the earth, but no memory of Eden. You have 
 left us the staring foreground ; but where is the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 145 
 
 dear distant background witli its visions of 
 rest? We hear the animated din of fields 
 and woods ; but where is the harmonious under- 
 tone that shall weave it into praise? Men 
 boast of their Sunday liberty, and pity the 
 Christian who has lost it ; and while they range 
 the world like a prison yard, he finds it a court 
 of heaven. 
 
 And so of every object of human interest 
 that can nourish true piety. Let a man really 
 love a spiritual Sabbath, and it becomes to 
 him on every hand, a day, not of constraint, 
 but of freedom. He enters it not as one enters 
 a hospital where every touch is contagion ; 
 but as he enters a garden, to get the most from 
 it. Home, children, friends, books, nature, hope, 
 memory, 
 
 " All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 
 Whatever stirs this mortal frame," 
 
 SO that they have a true voice for God and 
 Christ, are free to utter it. The world, in spite 
 of sin, is God's and not Satan's. " More are 
 they that ai-e for us, than all they that can be 
 
 against us." '' Heaven and earth are full of 
 
 7 
 
146 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 tlie majesty of his glory." The Sabbath like 
 a shekina lights up this temple ; and while 
 " all his works praise him, his saints bless him." 
 But the unconstrained and cheerful Sabbath 
 for which we plead, must not be perverted to 
 license or indulgence. To prevent this, there 
 are three obvious restrictions on which we need 
 to insist. 
 
 1. The first of these has been more than 
 implied already. No man is entitled to pass 
 by God's means of Sabbatli improvement, for 
 the sake of others which he may think better. 
 The sjDirit which neglects public worship for 
 private, or the instruction of revelation to find 
 " sermons in stones, and books in the running 
 brooks," sets out with contempt of God's ex- 
 press will, and only pretends to honour his day. 
 
 2. The spiritual designs of the Sabbath are 
 to be conscientiously pursued. Its employments 
 must be chosen, not because they are pleasant, 
 but because they are believed to tend to the 
 highest religious duty and advantage. And, 
 
 3. No man is entitled to make his Sabbath- 
 keeping a stumbling block in the way of sin- 
 
THE DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. 14:7 
 
 cere souls. Mere cavils and fault-findinors a 
 conscientious man can afford to despise ; but 
 he has no right to use his liberty in misleading 
 or bewildering the tender consciences of God's 
 true children. Even the prejudices and er- 
 rors of earnest piety are to be opposed, not 
 by mere assault, but by the careful explanation 
 as well as adoption of the "more excellent 
 way." 
 
 Within these limits the Sabbath is a day of 
 freedom and delight. The mistakes of its 
 friends, as well as the hatred of its enemies, 
 have represented it as a day of gloom and 
 austerity. A true Sabbath is just as gloomy 
 as is true piety ; just as gloomy as a heart can 
 be, that is at peace with God and assured of 
 heaven, that hears the voice of a loving Father 
 in every mercy, and sees his hand in all his works. 
 It is true, that with all this experience of faith 
 and joy, the Sabbath will mingle confessions of 
 sin and tears of repentance,wailings of grief and 
 prayers for deliverance. But the Sabbath does 
 not make the sins or the sorrows ; it only takes 
 them to a compassionate Saviour for relief: and 
 
148 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 the highest pitch of all its ecstacy is just at that 
 point Avhere "the sorrow is turned into joy." 
 Would that all those who hate or dread the 
 day, could have a fair experience of its spiri- 
 tual delights. What unknown refreshment, what 
 expansion, what satisfaction it should bring 
 them ! It should lie across their rough and 
 shaded pathway like a gleam of sunshine upon 
 green pastures and still waters. Men would 
 find themselves in a new world, if every week 
 should roll it into this belt of heavenly light. 
 
 But most men have no proper enjoyment or 
 regard of the Sabbath, and this fact devolves 
 a new obligation upon thos^ who sanctify 
 the day ; namely, that of teaching others to 
 sanctify it. This duty will assume different 
 forms according to our relations to those whom 
 we seek to benefit. I speak. 
 
 First, of Sabbath, duties toward children ; a 
 topic, the mere mention of whicli will not fail 
 to excite the interest of every Christian parent. 
 As we attempt to discuss it, let us keep in 
 mind tke cardinal principle already asserted, 
 that the end to be gained is not the establish- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 119 
 
 inent of a routine of Sabbatli acts, but tlie en- 
 kindling of a hearty love for the spiritual uses 
 of the day. 
 
 The fii^t step toward such a result, is to 
 inculcate reverence for the day as an insti- 
 tution of God ; and the chief means to that 
 end, must be the practical reverence which 
 is shown it by the parent himself Example 
 speaks not only louder than words, but sooner 
 than words. Our young children with their 
 first intelligence are to observe that there is 
 one day that differs broadly from all other 
 days, in its employments, and jDleasures, and 
 words ; a cheerful day, yet a day of order and 
 quiet. Then when, at length, they ask us, 
 " What mean ye by this service V let us tell 
 them lio^v^ God rested on the seventh day and 
 hallowed it ; how our Kedeemer, by his resur- 
 rection, has given double sacredness to the 
 Christian Sabbath ; let us show them what 
 uses it serves, and thus how God's command and 
 our advantage conspire to make the whole of 
 it sacred. But the instruction will avail noth- 
 ing without the example ; and just here begins 
 
150 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 the history of many a misguided household. 
 If Christian parents degrade the day by un- 
 becoming acts or pleasures, no orthodox in- 
 structions will bring their children to keep it 
 holy. If the secular ]3aper be admitted to 
 the dwelling ; if the Sunday dinner become a 
 feast ; if common worldly topics come freely 
 into the conversation, and words of piety 
 scarcely at all ; if common books be read, and 
 common visits made or welcomed, the case is 
 decided. You may train your children to a 
 formal, decent keeping of the day, but if 
 they shall either know or love a spiritual 
 Sabbath, it shall be by other means than 
 yours. 
 
 But though reverence may be the foundation 
 of love, it is not the superstructure. How 
 shall children be brought to love the Sabbath ? 
 Evidently by learning that it is worth loving. 
 And here, again, the lesson is to be taught first 
 by parental exam23le. No emotion is more 
 contagious than joy, and Christian joy within 
 the narrow confines of a home is sure to diftuse 
 itself Let those who sing with us, '' Welcome, 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 151 
 
 sweet day of rest," see tlie welcome on our 
 fkces, and it will he reflected from theirs. Let 
 the Sabbath prayer be fragrant with gi'atitude 
 and praise. Let us be " glad when they say 
 unto us, let us go unto the house of the Lord." 
 When we come from our closets, let our faces 
 shine with the light we have borrowed from 
 God, and those who watch us will not need to 
 be told that the Sabbath is to be loved. Our 
 Sabbath joy will go down to our children, as 
 we find in our gardens, that where pansies 
 grew, pansies grow again. 
 
 But can we do more than this ? Children's 
 joys and men's joys are not quite the same. 
 Can a holy Sabbath be made a children's day ? 
 It can, if piety be intended for children. In- 
 deed, their sensitive natures respond most easi- 
 ly to every religious influence. Who, that is 
 blessed with recollections of a childhood 
 passed in a Christian home, will set any of 
 those dear memories above such as cluster 
 around the Bible stories learned by heart from 
 mothers' lips ; the sweet hymns which those 
 same lips sang to tunes, that have ever since 
 
152 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 seemed to liave tlie melody of heaven in tliem ; 
 tlie wonderful pictures of the Wicket Gate, and 
 the Delectable Mountains. But every Christian 
 parent knows how raj)idly his material of relig- 
 ious instruction and entertainment has increased 
 in these late years. Every form of human enter- 
 prise, and knowledge, and skill, has employed 
 itself in illustrating to the ear, and eye, and 
 mind of childhood, the truth and excellence of 
 our religion. Were learning and art ever so 
 worthily employed, as in pouring into the minds 
 and hearts of little children the light and mel- 
 ody of the gospel ? 
 
 I need not say how largely the Sunday-school, 
 when wisely conducted, aids in making the Sab- 
 bath interesting to the young. Let the host of 
 earnest men and women, whom this good work 
 employs, be careful to subordinate all entertain- 
 ment to the holy uses of the day, and not the 
 day to mere entertainment ; and they shall not 
 only be valuable helpers to those who hallow it 
 in their homes, but they shall make the Sabbath 
 venerable and lovely to multitudes, who but for 
 them would have been trained to dishonour it. 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 153 
 
 But tliere is one chief means of winning; tlie 
 hearts of children to the Sabbath, that needs 
 to be nsed more commonly and heartily. I 
 speak of cheerful, simple, religious conversa- 
 tion. What a wonderful 2)ower is that of 
 speech, by whicli one soul pours out all its 
 wealth upon another, making the very air to 
 throb with truth, and feeling, and holy imj^ul- 
 ses ! Was ever so vast a power so lavishly con- 
 ferred ? If only one man in a generation pos- 
 sessed it, the rest would count him almost di- 
 vine. But all men are furnished for it ; near- 
 ly all times and places give scope for it ; all 
 motives stimulate it, and all hearts are ojDcn 
 to it. Yet what preeminent j)ower belongs to 
 holy speech, when uttered and enforced by un- 
 questioned piety and love in the Sabbath quiet 
 of a Christian home ? Besides, what inex- 
 haustible material of entertaining religious 
 conversation is within the reach of every 
 Christian parent. Think of the Bible alone, 
 with its touching, simple narratives, oj)en to the 
 comments of a child, and its deeper truths and 
 allusions, out of which the plainest adult Intel- 
 
154 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 lect can, Avitli the commonest helps, draw end- 
 less interest. Think of the stores of j^jrofita- 
 ble knowledge embraced in religious biogra- 
 phy ; in the eai'ly history of the chmxh and her 
 martyrs, and especially in her present glorions 
 enterprises. If themes like these could ever be- 
 come ])arren, what affecting topics remain in 
 the history and condition of every household. 
 There are the afflictions that God sent, and the 
 ends that they served ; the brother, or sister, 
 or grandparent, that God took to heaven ; the 
 last sickness that still needs healing, or the 
 mercy that has healed it already ; the absent 
 father, or brother, brought home in safety ; the 
 blessings that are new every morning ; sweet 
 sleep and healthful waking ; food and shelter, 
 and the countless comforts of a Christian 
 home, which all come from God. Then add 
 to these things the grace of the Redeemer, as 
 a delighted experience can describe it ; his 
 willingness to save, and the abounding proof 
 of it ; the need of Christ, which a child can 
 feel, and that precious promise of the Holy 
 Ghost to those that ask him, which our Sa- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 155 
 
 viour, by his touching comparison, has made 
 the very theme for a parent's lips. Then think 
 of heaven, and all the eager questions which a 
 child's mind starts concerning it, and of all the 
 hopes that cluster around the place, where 
 some of the family, either young or old, have 
 gone already, and where all may meet at 
 last : and shall a Christian parent, that has a 
 tongue, be in doubt how he may make the 
 Sabbath a delight in his dwelling ? The foun- 
 tain that should water your garden bubbles 
 high up upon the hill-side. Lead the stream 
 and let it flow. Open your own lips. Christian 
 parent, among your children. And if your 
 heart is empty, let Christ supply it. If the 
 inconsistent week makes you dumb upon the 
 Sabbath, cure the inconsistency. You are ap- 
 pointed to be the light of the dwelling, and if 
 the light that is in it be darkness, how great is 
 that darkness ! 
 
 In our attempts to bring our children to a 
 true enjoyment of the Sabbath, there are two 
 cautions which, I think, we should steadily keep 
 in mind. 
 
156 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 One is this : that until they heartily love 
 the Sabbath, tliey will be sure to love some- 
 thing; and exuberant, childish feeling will 
 seek expression on that day as well as upon 
 any other. We cannot leave it unrestricted ; 
 and to restrain it needlessly, will make our 
 children either rel)els or hypocrites. Let us 
 suppose, then, that the most careful and S23irit- 
 ual attempts to win a child to the love of the 
 day have failed; then w^hat shall authority 
 do ? It is very plain that it may exact of him 
 conformity to so much of the Sabbath laAv of 
 the household, as is clearly enjoined by God 
 himself. This definition will include attend- 
 ance upon public worship ; for that service is 
 formally demanded, not only of parents, but 
 of " their little ones." It will also include par- 
 ticipation in the Sabbath worship of the fami- 
 ly ; " it shall be the Sabbath of the Lord in 
 all your dwellings." This same command, as 
 well as the organic law of the day, will require 
 a Christian parent to withhold his child from 
 work, and by an implication too plain to be 
 mistaken, it will require him to forbid such 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 157 
 
 employments, or sports, as must manifestly 
 frustrate the designs of the day, either for the 
 child himself, or for the household which he 
 would disturb. But no law of God, and no 
 principle of Christian prudence, warrants the 
 perversion of the Sabbath into a day of tasks. 
 The compulsory conning of hymns, or cate- 
 chisms, or of Scripture itself, is no proper 
 means of honouring the Sabbath, or of learn- 
 ing to honour it. A man, when most in love 
 with that holy day, would never think of 
 gratifying his love by the mechanical memoriz- 
 ing of a chapter. And such study is a child's 
 work. It belongs to the w^eek. To exact it 
 of him on the Sabbath, is at once to profane the 
 day and to make him hate it. Well-meaning 
 parents have made great mistakes in this direc- 
 tion, and loaded the Sabbath with such griev- 
 ous burdens, that children have learned to 
 dread the thought even of heaven, when they 
 have been told that heaven should be like a Sab- 
 bath. The true office of parental piety is to make 
 the day a delight ; and where it cannot succeed 
 in that effort, it at least will not make it a terror. 
 
158 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 We need to remember still fortlier, that even 
 after our young children shall have come to 
 love the spiritual Sabbath, they will love it as 
 children, and not as men. The same sedate- 
 ness of feeling and demeanour, that years and 
 experience may have produced in us, would 
 not become them even on the Sabbath. Let 
 us be glad and thankful, if they give to God 
 and to his day the cheerful, effervescing love 
 of childhood. 
 
 But no discussion of the household duties 
 of the Sabbath ought to end, without at least 
 an allusion to the special encouragements 
 which both God's covenant and all experi- 
 ence give to those parents who heartily dis- 
 charge them. I have supposed, just now, that 
 that such duties might fail of their end. But 
 in truth it is the misdirected or inconsistent ef- 
 fort that does not succeed. God's plans are 
 wise and complete ; and there is no sweet in- 
 fluence of grace that does not touch the suscep- 
 tible feelings of a little child, in the midst of a 
 holy, cheerful. Christian Sabbath. I know 
 what depravity is even in a child's heart ; but 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 159 
 
 grace and God's covenant are stronger. And 
 I cannot doubt that the godless children of 
 Christian parents, are the children of parents 
 who, in the one direction or the other, have 
 perverted the Sabbath from its design. They 
 have hedged it about with restrictions and 
 terrors, and so have taken the love of God 
 out of it ; or, what is even worse, they have 
 broken down its defenses, and trampled it with 
 worldliness, and so have robbed it of all au- 
 thority. Is it not possible that the frequent 
 criticisms uj^on the children of ministers, so far 
 as they are just at all, have found their occa- 
 sion in the fact, that the minister's Sabbath is 
 too commonly suffered to withdraw his mind 
 from the sacred needs of his own household ? 
 It is a fearful sacrifice, and no j^ublic duties are 
 entitled to exact it. You who have not even a 
 temj)tation to make it, take heed that the home 
 of your children be brightened with the light 
 of a happy, holy Sabbath-day. God's blessing 
 is in no other home ; and from such a home it 
 never dej^arts. 
 
 It remains that we consider, in the last 
 
llJO THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 place, Sabbatli duty toward the enemies of a 
 spiritual Sabbatli. 
 
 There is no land in which common hu- 
 man depravity does not find motive enough, 
 to set itself against a holy day. But well- 
 known causes have congregated in our coun- 
 try a host of men, whose enmity to the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath, has been developed in every 
 possible school, and into every shaj)e. How 
 wicked and greedy men contrive to stimulate 
 their hatred ; how an infidel Sunday press 
 arms and leads it, and how demagogues em- 
 ploy it, does not need to be told. Nor can we 
 be blind to the evils with, w^hicli an influence 
 so mighty and malignant invades or threatens 
 religion, and social order, and liberty itself. 
 We may well doubt, moreover, whether those 
 who are now w^aging our most koly war, when 
 they shall at lengtb be disbanded, will give 
 evidence that tlie habits of the camp have 
 strengthened in them the power of those aifec- 
 tions, which, welcome with the greatest relisli 
 God's day of rest. And tlius the question, 
 which we now approach, assumes the grandest 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. IGl 
 
 importance in the estimate both of piety and 
 of patriotism : What duties does the Sabbath 
 law enjoin toward the multitude who hate a 
 holy day ? 
 
 A minute answer of such a question could 
 only be shaped by special circumstances. But 
 the general principles that define those duties, 
 I think, are plain. 
 
 Let us remember here, again, that the end 
 to be gained, is not the constraint of men to a 
 set of formal Sabbath acts ; but th^ education 
 of the whole community to a hearty love and 
 use of the spiritual Sabbath. Now, the admis- 
 sion of such a principle may seem, at first 
 view, to limit the efforts of the friends of 
 the day to mere argument and jDcrsuasion. 
 And the limitation would be real, if its en- 
 emies were contented with refusing: to love it. 
 With such an evil, mere authority has no war- 
 rant to meddle. But if men not only dislike 
 the Sabbath, but assault it, then the ofhce 
 of its friends is first of all to defend it ; and 
 they are held to this duty by a regard not 
 only of their own interests, but equally of the 
 
102 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 interests of tlie mistaken men whom they seek 
 to restrain. Thus, when the law of God, both 
 in his Book and in our nature, requii'es that the 
 seventh day be given to rest, it is as fairly the 
 province of human law to defend that day from 
 the exactions of work, as it is to prevent any 
 other fundamental wrong to individuals or so- 
 ciety. And since the mere cessation of ordinary 
 labour would leave the Sabbath an open field 
 to men's passions and vices, it becomes the of- 
 fice of the same legislation that secures the day 
 to rest, to prevent its perversion to a class of 
 pleasures more wasting and dangerous than 
 Sabbath labour itself This double restraint 
 would be severe if men had no other resource 
 than labour or vice ; but so long as a Sab- 
 bath withheld both from toil. and indulgence, 
 leaves them still within easy reach of the high- 
 est and most satisfying pleasures of intellect 
 and feeling, the human law infringes no human 
 right while it stands the guardian of Sabbath 
 rest and Sabbath morality. But when human 
 law changes this attitude of defense into one 
 of assault, and undertakes, not to guard the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 163 
 
 civil Sabbatli from the attacks of human pas- 
 sion, Lilt to fasten the spiritual Sabbath u2:)on 
 men's consciences, it undertakes a work at once 
 tyrannical and hopeless. The duty of the 
 friends of the Sabbath, then, is simply this : 
 to stand a2:ainst the violence of those who at- 
 tack it, as they stand against the violence 
 of theft, or murder, or any other crime ; name- 
 ly, by law : but to approach the hearts of those 
 who hate it, with the only power that can win 
 a heart ; namely, with kind persuasion. Men 
 will love the Sabbath, not at the bidding 
 of authority, but under the mightier influence 
 of Christian charity and the grace of God. 
 
 The question then is. How shall the preju- 
 diced multitudes about us be brous^ht within 
 the scope of this mighty influence ? 
 
 The first thing, evidently, is to make 
 them know what the SaT)bath is. The friends 
 and the enemies of that day are like two par- 
 ties of Alpine travellers walking upon different 
 levels. These are in the clear air, with all the 
 glories of the everlasting hills around them; 
 and those are beneath the mist, without a sight 
 
104 TTIE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 of tlie eartli or of tlie sky. Some faintest ca- 
 dence of our far-off song falls on their ears; 
 but they neither know who are the singers, nor 
 what makes them sing. The first thing is to 
 bring the Sabbath and its enemies together. 
 If you ask me how this shall be done, I will 
 ]iot reply with over-confidence ; but some 
 thoughts like these are in my mind to-night. 
 I remember how God has compacted in his 
 gospel all the influences of truth, and law, and 
 love, and motive that are best adapted to 
 reach and sway the souls of men ; how he has 
 adapted that truth to vivid utterance and en- 
 forcement by the lips and sympathies of living 
 preachers ; how the Kedeemer, who is the cen- 
 tre and substance of it all, has left with those 
 preachers the pledge of his perpetual presence 
 and grace ; and I ask myself. Can the Sabbath, 
 the day of the gospel, be brought close to the 
 hearts of its enemies in any other Avay so natu- 
 ral, so practicable, so full of promise, as by 
 sending among them the fervid utterances of 
 the gospel itself? I know how much has been 
 done in this direction ; but I reflect upon none 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 165 
 
 of the excellent men wlio have sustained or 
 conducted those efforts, when I say that they 
 have not been made upon a scale worthy of the 
 religion that has promj)ted them, or of the mo- 
 mentous ends at which they have aimed. Ava- 
 rice and vice sjDare no cost nor pains in making 
 their Sabbath haunts allurino; to their victims. 
 We, too, when we rear our Sabbath temples 
 for ourselves, are careful to make them pleasing 
 to every taste. Shall those who love neither 
 the day nor its worship be allured from their 
 sins, just by the open door of a preaching- 
 room ? If men's souls and God's honour are 
 worth the sacrifice, why should not many a 
 building as inviting as this — planted in the 
 darkest parts of our city, where Satan's seat is 
 — tempt into its ample aisles the multitudes 
 whose steps take hold on death ? Would it 
 be too grand a vestibule of heaven ? Or have 
 they who already understand the spiritual 
 glories of our gospel more need of this appeal 
 to sense than those who neither love it nor 
 know it ? Let that noble army of Christian 
 men in this city, who hold their wealth for 
 
106 THE DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. 
 
 Christ, enquire whether they cannot serve his 
 cause and the Sabbath's by offering to the poor 
 and to the prejudiced such places of Sabbath 
 worship as shall win them to honour the day. 
 
 But the place is not all, nor half. Every man 
 knows that the same great facts and principles 
 may be set forth with varying interest. The 
 gospel is a system of truth to be presented by 
 men to men. Its success, indeed, it must al- 
 ways owe to the grace of God ; but God still 
 makes the human qualities of the preacher the 
 very channels of his grace. When one would 
 sway a jury in behalf of his important cause, 
 he counts the learning and the logic and the 
 eloquence of his counsel so many means to the 
 desired end; and all experience shows that 
 men's hearts are not so accessible to the truths 
 of religion that all lips can announce them 
 with equal success. I disparage none of those 
 who, in this city or elsewhere, have imitated 
 their great Master and preached the gosj)el to 
 the poor. In most respects they are the equals 
 of their brethren ; and in some, their suj)eriors. 
 But this task of winning reluctant men to the 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 167 
 
 regard of tlie Sabbath requires qualifications 
 not like tbose of other men, but far in ad- 
 vance of them. The man that leads the for- 
 lorn hoj)e must be every inch a soldier. And 
 here the conflict is to be with ignorance, with 
 vice, with life-long habit, with national jijreju- 
 dice, with infidelity, with perverted learning, 
 with eagle-eyed sagacity, with busy " tongues 
 set on fire of hell." Blessed be God for the 
 help of his Spirit ; but still send your best man. 
 We do this with the far-off heathen ; why not 
 do it with the heathen at home ? I think of 
 such a man as Henry Marty n Scudder, lifting 
 up his clarion voice, every Sabbath day, within 
 some graceful building as large as those clear 
 tones could fill. In what godless corner of 
 this city would you plant him, where the popu- 
 lation would not crowd to hear the gospel from 
 his lips ? 
 
 But you will confound my argument by the 
 illustration I have chosen, and tell me that such 
 rare talents are not to be commanded for the 
 work. Then tell me the grander work that 
 may command them ; where shall the sword be 
 
168 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 sharpest, at the hilt or at the point ? Shall 
 your Pauls, if you have them, be most needed 
 amono; the converts or amono; the heathen ? 
 And if in the ministry, as everywhere, talent 
 and energy can win their reward, shall the 
 man who has them, send himself ujDon his mis- 
 sion at the sacrifice of his common comforts ? 
 Or shall those into whose laps God pours 
 yearly treasure see to it that the Sabbath's 
 most sacred cause is served, even though the 
 labourer receive his hire ? 
 
 But I am granting too much. The neces- 
 sary talents are not so rare. An emergency 
 in 23olitics will call forth an army of speakers 
 who can hold applauding crowds for hours. 
 And is there so little material of human in- 
 terest in the gospel of Christ, or is piety so 
 barren of the elements of eloquence, that an 
 earnest church can open more pulpits than it 
 can worthily fill? It cannot be. Make the 
 place, and it will make the man. There are 
 preaching in our land to-day scores of men un- 
 known to fame, whom the mere consciousness 
 of standing at such a point of contact between 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 1G9 
 
 the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of 
 Satan would kindle into a power of manly elo- 
 quence of which neither their hearers nor 
 themselves have ever dreamed. The experi- 
 ment, I know, would be costly ; and theoretic 
 objections to it are not wanting. But it has 
 never been tried ; and in such a cause one 
 chance of success out of twenty would more 
 than warrant the trial. Could there be a 
 fairer field for it than is offered by our Ger- 
 man pojDulation of more than a hundred thou- 
 sand souls ? 
 
 But it is fair to doubt whether our Sabbath 
 worship in our own sanctuaries commends the 
 day as it might. Two hundred congregations 
 of Christians meet weekly in public places to 
 utter in the hearing of Grod and men their joy 
 over his salvation. Never was there such room 
 for human gratitude and exultation ; and the 
 very office of the day is to give them utter- 
 ance. With the sounds of labour hushed, the 
 Sabbath stands forth in the view and hearing 
 of men, God's witness and ours to the excel- 
 lence of true religion. Our public worship 
 
170 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 especially, brings together the separate rills of 
 gratitude and joy, and pours them along in 
 one tide of praise. Men ought to hear it flow. 
 I think it was an error that has taken from so 
 many of our congregations the privilege of ut- 
 tering even the hearty Amen. I am sure that 
 it is by something worse than an erl'or that 
 the significant duty of holy song is deputed 
 by silent multitudes to the artistic execution 
 of a few trained voices. Joy does not speak 
 by proxy. It has its own voice, and it is our 
 shame that while the Sabbath worship of the 
 Jews, uttered amidst sacrifices, withheld no 
 token of ecstacy, our Sabbath worship, 
 prompted by the grace of Christ, restrains 
 even the voice of singing. It stamps religion 
 as tame, if not as gloomy. It contrasts the 
 Sabbath in the saloon with the Sabbath in the 
 church — ^not, as it should, by the difference be- 
 tween the pleasures of sense and the joy full 
 of glory — but, so far as a worldly man can see, 
 by the difference between pleasure and no 
 pleasure, between an exhilaration that gives a 
 glow to the cheek and fire to the eye and fer- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 171 
 
 vour to utterance, and a cold propriety that 
 hears — and feels nothinor. " Oh bless our God, 
 ye people, and make the voice of his j^jraise to 
 be heard." " Let us come before his presence 
 with thanksgiving, and show ourselves glad 
 in him with psalms." Our cheerful worship 
 should *give the Sabbath a voice, and drown 
 that falsehood that calls it a gloomy day. 
 
 But the friends of our holy day have other 
 means of commending it to its enemies. 
 
 And chief among these is their own practical 
 veneration of it. In every community that can 
 be called Christian, the Sabbath-keepers hold 
 the first place ; they take precedence of all other 
 classes in intelligence, in morals, in thrift, in so- 
 cial position. Thus, what they do stands out in 
 public regard, while infidelity and vice either 
 skulk in corners, or else pretend to a currency 
 which even the multitudes of their adherents 
 cannot command for them. God has set his 
 city on the hill ; the rest must build below it. 
 It also follows that Christian men fix the 
 standard of morals for men who are not Chris- 
 tians. To raise them to that standard is indeed 
 
172 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 slow work, and only tlie Spirit of God can 
 make it effectual. But it is a great thing to 
 show what virtue is, and to make it respectable. 
 Where religious men concur both in definition 
 and in practice, the law is pronounced, and, 
 in the abstract, at least, all men accept it. In 
 reference to what point of morals does the 
 Christian church stand a unit upon one side, 
 and the moral sense of the rest of the commu- 
 nity, or of any considerable part of it, stand up- 
 on the other ? — The Christian estimate of the 
 spiritual Sabbath will shape other men's esteem 
 of that day, just as soon as Christians agree in 
 it, and live up to it. But theory and practice 
 must go together. 
 
 When it is known, for example, that the in- 
 dustry and thrift of the religious class are 
 largely represented in our great moneyed cor- 
 porations, the community may fairly demand 
 that their religion shall control the capital, and 
 not the capital their religion. And if, for the 
 sake of larger dividends, they wink at a sys- 
 tem of unremitting labour, which leaves their 
 servants no Sabbath rest nor Sabbath wor- 
 
THE DUTIES OF TlfE SABBATH. 173 
 
 sliip, liow shall their own well-filled j^ews 
 compensate for that inconsistency before God 
 or man? "The cries of the labourers, whose 
 liire is ke23t back, enter into the ears of the 
 Lord of Sabaoth." Does God care more for 
 money than he does for souls ? Or will those 
 over-tasked labourers sooner believe the lips 
 that reckon the Sabbath above all price, or 
 the hands that seize their Sabbath to turn it 
 into gain \ 
 
 Just so if the Christian family that rests upon 
 the Sabbath according to the commandment, 
 accords no Sabbath rest to those domestics who 
 may serve the purposes of luxury or show, 
 shall its estimate of the day's sacredness be 
 most impressively announced in the rest which 
 it takes, or in the labours which it exacts ? Let 
 us remember that the influence of these practi- 
 cal lessons is not limited to the narrow circle 
 within which they are given. Those who load 
 your Sunday tables with needless viands, or 
 l^repare the Sunday equipage for needless jour- 
 neys, will make no secret of their Sunday 
 work ; and their testimony reaches that very 
 
17-i THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 class who most need to be won to reverence 
 the day. Who can tell wliat contempt and 
 hatred of God's holy Sabbath filter down 
 among the ignorant and prejudiced, from 
 homes that echo with Sabbath songs ? And 
 on the other hand, who shall measure the per- 
 suasive influence of that considerate and con- 
 scientious piety, which in so many households 
 keeps the Sabbath law for " man-servant 
 and maid-servant," as well as for "son and 
 dauofhter ?" 
 
 In truth, it is quite impossible for any 
 good man to make his Sabbath thoughts 
 or acts so private, that they shall not exert a 
 direct and powerful influence upon the public 
 feeling. His sentiments will come out in a 
 hundred incidental ways. In conversation, in 
 Sabbath intercourse with visitors, in his con- 
 duct on journeys, but chiefly in the impression 
 he makes upon his own children. In these days 
 of enterprise and change, no man can foretell 
 the future home or position of the boy at his 
 fireside. When a chemist would produce crys- 
 tals, he prepares his solution, introduces his 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 175 
 
 nucleus^ and soon a fine needle shoots out from 
 the centre to the circumference ; others articu- 
 hite themselves to this, and so the jar is filled. 
 The child who is learning from you to rever- 
 ence and love the Sabbath, may thirty years 
 hence be moulding men's opinions and 23ractice 
 a thousand miles away, in the centre of the 
 broad continent, or on the shore of the Pacific. 
 What is told him in darkness, he shall speak 
 in the light ; what he hears in the ear, he shall 
 proclaim upon the housetops. Those earnest 
 men, whose wise and most successful efforts for 
 the Sabbath have attracted your attention to 
 my words to-night, if they should describe the 
 influences that have enlisted them in this 
 cause, would point you to some red-gabled 
 faiin-house amono; the hills of New Enofland, 
 or to the homestead on the Hudson, or possibly, 
 to the far-off cottage among the blue bells and 
 the heather, where their childhood drank in 
 the love of God's Sabbath at the knees of 
 Christian mothers. We see the cluster in the 
 tree-top, but the root is far away in the cleft 
 of the rock. Nomish hopefully these plants 
 
176 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 of rigliteousness, for God sliall make them " fill 
 tlie land. The hills shall be covered with the 
 shadow of them, and their boughs shall be like 
 the goodly cedars." 
 
 The Sabbath, however, has another sm'e and 
 most direct approach to the hearts of its ene- 
 mies. Our office, as Christians, is to do good in 
 the world; and our Saviour has marked the Sab- 
 bath as our most precious opportunity. It is 
 the intermission of labour, but not of pain. It 
 withdraws the poor and wretched from the 
 employments which help to dissipate their 
 grief, and leaves them face to face with their 
 troubles, an easy prey to every temptation. 
 That is the day for walking among the 
 maltitude of impotent folk and saying, " Wilt 
 thou be made whole V This duty of the 
 Sabbath is beginning to be done, and in 
 ways that cannot be ineffective. The recent 
 enterprise of mission school instruction, se- 
 lecting its objects from the very classes that 
 most need to learn what the Sabbath is, 
 is scattering in every direction such rays of its 
 holy light, as cannot be overlooked or extin- 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 177 
 
 guislied. However low may be the motives 
 that resort to this charity, the charity itself is 
 like Christ's ; and " wisdom is justified of her 
 children." Divine kindness is strons^er than 
 even human selfishness, and it is a gain to the 
 former whenever they meet. But let the chil- 
 dren who take our benefactions, also take 
 home with them our Sabbath truths and 
 songs ; or, best of all, let grace do its frequent 
 work of kindling piety within those young bo- 
 soms, and then our holy day has gained a life- 
 long witness just where the testimony was most 
 needed. This Christ-like work is only begun, 
 and its fruits are not yet ripe. But it is 
 to spread over the land like light, and the 
 children of infidels and Sabbath-haters, a 
 whole generation, are to bury the prejudices 
 of their fathers at the threshold of the mission 
 school. 
 
 But Christian love is not restricted to any 
 organized method of Sabbath kindness. The 
 doors are open on every side, and where Christ 
 would go, if he were with us, there his servants 
 are bound to go in his name. What if the 
 
178 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 wealthy Christian merchant should be found on 
 the Sabbath at the bed-side of his sick porter, 
 and should leave with him some tokens of sym- 
 pathy both for body and soul; whenshould that 
 visit be forgotten ? Would the open-mouthed 
 children, that should see the great man's gift, 
 and hear his prayer, be quicker or slower to 
 accept, in after life, the slander that the spirit- 
 ual Sabbath is a curse, and that those who 
 keep it are hypocrites ? An earnest heart can 
 easily find room, in such directions, for a most 
 beneficent and persuasive Sabbath work. 
 
 There is, indeed, a counterfeit and mischiev- 
 ous Sunday kindness that is far too common. 
 It is the mere friendliness which makes a neigh- 
 bour's sickness the occasion of a kind of visit- 
 ing, demanded neither by necessity nor mercy, 
 which, with its din of worldly conversations, 
 often makes the exhausted sufferer pray that 
 the misnamed day of rest might end. What 
 an outrage it is upon all propriety, when 
 possibly the last Sabbath of a dying man, 
 that ought to catch even the whispers of heav- 
 en, is overrun by a trampling multitude, and 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 179 
 
 that, too, in the holy name of Christian kind- 
 ness ! It is hiwful to do good upon the Sab- 
 hath day; but see that the good be done. 
 Visit the sick who need your visits ; and go, 
 not in the name of Sunday leisure, but in the 
 name of Sabbath love. Gro at a cost of 
 trouble and of goods ; and let men know what 
 sends you. As they are cheered by your 
 words, and refreshed by your dainties, draw 
 aside the veil from the angel that leads you, 
 and let them see that it is Christ's Sabbath. 
 We should thus find in our day of joy and hope 
 a power of blessing which even the church 
 has not yet appreciated. We have used it for 
 standing about our Redeemer, and taking the 
 bread that multiplies in his hands. It was 
 meant to multiply again in ours. We have re- 
 garded the day as the monument of Christ's 
 resurrection, and so the pledge of our own. 
 It is the pledge of more than that. There is 
 a dead world to be quickened, and the church 
 is to speak the word ; not as Christ spoke it, 
 standing in majesty beside the uncovered 
 grave, but as Elijah and Paul spoke it, stretched 
 
180 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 out upon the dead — hearts, and hands, and lips 
 together, and quickening the lifeless nostrils 
 with their breath of prayer. 
 
 I cannot leave this topic without touching a 
 question which is very commonly agitated, and 
 which even the friends of the Sabbath some- 
 times answer doubtfully. Should not the rest- 
 day of labouring men embody elements of 
 mere recreation, for which the more favoured 
 classes have no excuse ? Should those who are 
 held all the week, and from morning to night, 
 to different forms of exhausting toil, be ex- 
 pected to divide their one day of repose 
 between their confined and squalid apartments 
 and the church ? Since nature in her most 
 lovely forms is brought to their very doors, 
 may not they and their children find even 
 their Sabbath worship in the midst of the 
 graceful landscape ? The question seems to 
 admit but one reply, until you add another 
 question to it. Does the Sabbath, when de- 
 voted chiefly to physical recreation, tend to 
 elevate the labourer above the necessity of his 
 unremitting toil, or to hold hini to it ? How 
 
TEE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 181 
 
 many of the cliilclren of Puritan fathers, who 
 have lived worthy of their training, need to 
 make the Sabbath their only escape from 
 exhausting toil and squalid homes ? Or if 
 they find themselves snnk to such a necessity, 
 shall their escape lie through the buzz and 
 flutter of a Sunday holiday, or along the for- 
 saken paths to the sanctuary of God ? Will 
 you apply your remedy to the symptom, or to 
 the disease ; to the soul, which shall not fail to 
 find in the gospel the motive and the method 
 of thrift and independence, or to sense, which 
 gathers up its pleasures, and is as needy as 
 ever ? — Whether those who are most interest- 
 ed in this question will promptly accept this 
 solution of it, is more than doubtful ; but inas- 
 much as God has lodged in a spiritual Sabbath 
 the promise '' of the life that now is, and of 
 that which is to come," no refusal of men to 
 embrace these substantial gains will warrant 
 us in taking the very life out of the day, and 
 exchanscincr the wine and the milk for water 
 spilled upon the ground, that cannot be gath- 
 ered. 
 
182 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 I know very well what can be said of tlie 
 elevating and purifying effects of a day cheer- 
 fully spent under the open sky ; how all na- 
 ture is made a temple and man the priest, and 
 his innocent joy itself the most eloquent wor- 
 ship. But our religion has taught us a differ- 
 ent language. Worship begins at the Cross, 
 and the Cross is set forth in the gospel. The 
 very office of the Sabbath is to lead men to 
 Christ. 
 
 If it be said, then, that a man may meet 
 Christ in the park as well as in the church, I 
 answer, that cannot be. There is a promise for 
 those who assemble in his name, and no prom- 
 ise for those who forsake that assembling. Let 
 men meet God in God's own way ; for those 
 who dishonour that way shall not meet him at 
 all. If Sabbath recreation, then, ever be 
 right, the prescribed Sabbath worship must 
 at least come first ; and they who shall have 
 tasted that spiritual worship, will not think of 
 prolonging it among a laughing crowd. 
 
 This whole work of Sabbath reform among 
 the masses may seem, from its magnitude and 
 
THE DUTIES OP THE SABBATH. 183 
 
 difficulty, to be quite discouraging. Yet God's 
 Spirit and promise are on tlie side of its ac- 
 complishment. Our only real discouragement 
 lies in our own unfaitlifulness. The friends of 
 the Sabbath are but half awake, w^hile its ene- 
 mies never sleep ; and the most dangerous of 
 those enemies does his work in the community 
 almost without opposition. I speak of that ir- 
 religious newspaj)er press which both dese- 
 crates the Sabbath itself, and assaults it on all 
 other days. The mere existence of such an 
 agency, dangerous as it is, would not need to 
 alarm us ; for God's promise assures his faith- 
 ful church against this danger as w^ell as all 
 others. But w^hat if good men look on in si- 
 lence while the mischief is done ? What if 
 they even make terms with the enemy so that 
 they shall helj) him into ten thousand homes, 
 their own among them, if he will help them to 
 news or to trade ? In such an alliance only 
 one j)arty can be the gainer. When good 
 men and Satan meet on the same side, he sac- 
 rifices none of his interests for their friendship. 
 He is the leader, and they are the underhngs. 
 
184 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Tliey win his battles and lie pays tliem their 
 wages — a poor recompense for the injury they 
 offer their own Master. It cannot be one of 
 the necessities of Christian politics or com- 
 merce, even in a sinful world, that it should at 
 once use and help that class of journals which, 
 by set purpose, oppose the vital interests of 
 God's cause and day. The logic that excuses 
 the unholy compact may pass current in the 
 market place ; but it cannot bear the search- 
 ing eye of Christ. 
 
 I would have every good man resolve that 
 no paper that is fairly known as the en- 
 emy of religion and of the Sabbath shall 
 have from his hand the help of a farthing. 
 His daily or weekly pittance may seem to be 
 nothing to so gigantic a system. But it lives 
 by pittances, and asks for nothing more. The 
 traffic of the press is like no other. It sells 
 the same facts and thoughts over and over 
 again to an innumerable multitude ; the price 
 it demands is a mere mite from each, but each 
 mite is a new one ; and the result is a mighty 
 revenue. With a wicked press the bargain is, 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 185 
 
 a very little money for a very potent curse. 
 Let no man that fears God be a party to that 
 traffic. I would not help the enemy of my 
 country either to a ton of powder or to an 
 ounce ; and I would do no more for the enemy 
 of God. Even if what I shoukl withhold could 
 prove no loss to him, it should be great gain 
 to me ; at least in conscious loyalty and in my 
 power to pray. But, in truth, the Christian 
 community has control of this whole evil. As 
 soon as we are thoroughly in earnest we can 
 bring it to an end. 
 
 Meanwhile, the most fearful mischief done 
 to true religion in all our land is done by 
 Christians who, by their money and their 
 countenance, give currency to sheets whose 
 direct aim is to train the multitude to the 
 hatred of godliness. Is it not worse than 
 trifling for us to feed the very fountain of 
 popular prejudice against our cause, and still 
 to complain that the prejudice is so great ? 
 
 In all this discussion of Sabbath duty, I have 
 set the standard high, where I think God has 
 
186 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 placed it. In so doing, I in no way disparage 
 that sort of Sabbatli observance which pays 
 the day a decent outward respect. I bless God 
 for the multitude of men who, although they 
 lack all spiritual enjoyment of his holy day, 
 yet throw the weight of their social influence 
 upon its side ; for those families in which, if 
 there be not heard the hearty utterances of 
 devotion, the course of common worldliness is 
 checked, and at least formal efforts are made 
 to instruct the young in religion ; and for all 
 that social order which distinguishes the Sun- 
 day of our great cities from the Sunday of 
 Paris or Vienna. These things are valuable 
 and full of promise ; but the day that God 
 blessed and hallowed was appointed for greater 
 uses than these. 
 
 God holds our fickle hearts to steadfastness 
 and hope by mighty verities grounded in him- 
 self What we can reverence is precious and 
 mighty, and what we cannot reverence is com- 
 mon. And thus God's law and grace for sinful 
 men, are made to meet in a Divine Redeemer, 
 a Divine Gospel, and a Divine Day. Take 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 187 
 
 away their divinity, and tliey are nothing. 
 Your Redeemer becomes a man, your Gospel 
 a human book, and your Sabbath a holiday. 
 The true Sabbath stands forth as the herald of 
 the other two — of the word which men can 
 see, and the Redeemer whom they cannot. 
 Without tliem a pretended holy day would be 
 a cheat ; and without the Sabbath their voice 
 would be dumb. They belong together. The 
 Sabbath is God's day, announcing God's Son. 
 Be thankful for it, then, and keep it holy. 
 
 What a wealth of blessing and power is 
 bound up within it ! Our Sabbath is a day^ 
 and not a place. Not a far-off Jerusalem or 
 Mecca which a few pains-taking pilgrims may 
 visit once in a life-time ; but a day, pouring its 
 frequent flood of light over the whole earth ; 
 shining into all eyes, and offering to shine into 
 all hearts. It is a whole day. Two nights 
 keep guard beside it, and divide the sacred 
 hours from all others. It dawns out of dark- 
 ness and fades into darkness again, a sejDarate 
 burst of the excellent glory. — It comes like 
 other days. Nature has received command- 
 
188 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 ment to bring it back ; and no will of men 
 can stay its coming. They may hate it or mis- 
 use it, but tliey cannot blot out the sun. " The 
 seventh day is the Sabbatli of the Lord thy 
 God." And yet in itself it is only a day. It 
 is the same light, the same sky, the same world. 
 It brings neither nature nor man under the 
 power of any new physical law. Life, and 
 death, and thought, and action, all move on ac- 
 cording to their settled order. Then what 
 makes your Sabbath ? The almighty grace of 
 God, freely given and reverently received. 
 The wind that breathes over "the mountains 
 of spices," is like any other wind ; but it goes 
 away laden with "sweet-smelling myrrh and 
 frankincense." The lio^ht that falls on the 
 cathedral window is common lischt ; but it 
 wraps in untold glory the bended worshiper 
 upon the marble floor. The Sabbath is a com- 
 mon day, until it is loaded with the new light 
 of God's presence. Christ and his Spirit make 
 it. The bare day is pure nature, and they are 
 pure grace ; but they come together, another 
 incarnation. The visible Sabbath is a visible 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 189 
 
 Gospel. No wonder that the Fathers called it 
 the " Queen of days." Common days pour 
 their light over the earth and the sky. But this 
 day is grander. Within its broad horizon 
 fiill all objects that can awe or charm us. From 
 its Delectable Mountains you may catch on this 
 side, the distant verdure of the first paradise ; 
 and on that, the dim outline of the celestial 
 gates. Far-off mountains define themselves in 
 that clear air. The ftiint blue pyramid of Ar- 
 rarat, where the ark rested ; the top of Pis- 
 gah ; Tabor, with its crown of light ; and Zion, 
 still glittering with courts and pinnacles. In 
 fuller view stands Calvary with its cross ; and 
 Sinai beyond it, no longer clouded. The nearer 
 landscape quivers with moving men ; and sep- 
 arate multitudes pour forth, from the shade of 
 palm trees or of pines their strife of harmony. 
 And, dim as a cloud, on the far-distant highway, 
 all nations and kindreds — an army with ban- 
 ners — are walking in the light. In this seven- 
 fold brightness the visible sky itself dissolves, 
 and a higher firmament embraces the great 
 
 white throne, the coming King, and the chari- 
 ots of God. 
 
190 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 " This is tlie day that the Lord hath made ; 
 we will rejoice and be glad in it." 
 
 See how its marvellous light has been spread- 
 incr over the earth. Loncf as^o it lifted its morn- 
 ing beams upon the tents of the Patriarchs. 
 Then it blended witb the sound of c^^mbals 
 and cornets, and the sono^s of multitudes in the 
 lioly city. Then tlie grace of Pentecost gave 
 it wings, and a score of provinces began to feel 
 its cheerful warmth. It visited the lands 
 of our fathers across the ocean. At lengtli 
 this distant shore caught the rays, wMle it 
 heard the first Sabbath song from the lips of 
 the pilgrims. And now, in spite of all the 
 powers of darkness, the vertical beams flood 
 the wide land. They sleep upon the silent 
 plow and hammer. They steal through fra- 
 grant blossoms and the hum of bees to lay 
 quivering shadows on the wide pages of open 
 Bibles, and on cottage groups in neat attire. 
 In crowded cities they fall on many a silent 
 pavement ; or on the long train of those who 
 go to the house of God in company. And 
 even in the camp their steady gleam shines 
 
THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 191 
 
 back from the stacked weapons of a worship- 
 ing army. 
 
 Is it a curse or a blessing? Let your hearts 
 tell, and your Christian homes ; and the graves 
 of your dead. Nay, what commonest blessing 
 have we which the Sabbath has not either 
 given or enhanced ? Men cry out against it, 
 in the name of liberty. Do they know that 
 the spiritual Sabbath, bringing men near to 
 God through Jesus Christ, was the first influ- 
 ence that ever made them at once too great 
 to be slaves, and too just to be tyrants ? Do 
 they know that this grandness of Sabbath 
 piety alone laid the first foundations of free- 
 dom in this land ; and that our Sabbath 
 hymns, fragrant with the memory of martyrs, 
 will float around our battlements a better safe- 
 guard than thousands of oi'd nance ? The day 
 has made us, and made us for a witness. Let 
 the testimony be given, and what power shall 
 be in it ! The busiest nation on the earth 
 resting on God's Sabbath ! The freest nation 
 binding itself on that day by the restraints of 
 God's safe law ! A nation made of all the na- 
 
192 THE DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 tions testing the truth and proclaiming it, that 
 tlie way to knowledge, and wealth, and power, 
 and liberty, and virtue, and domestic blessing, 
 as well as to true religion and the hope of 
 glory, is led by God in the light of his Sab- 
 bath ! It is true ; let the world hear it, and 
 from us. But if w^e shall be silent or unfaith- 
 ful, this advancing light shall not be checked. 
 Barriers may rear themselves ; it shall scale 
 them without ladders. The floods may lift up 
 their waves; yet the Lord shall lay among 
 them the beams of his chamber. The dark 
 world has the promise of the long noonday, 
 and waits for it as the frozen l^orth waits for 
 the summer. Already the brightening hemis- 
 phere turns farther and farther toward the 
 mounting sun. The warm effulgence steals 
 down into deep valleys that never were so 
 blessed before. At length the evening and 
 the morning twilight meet ; they mingle ; 
 they are gone ; " and the glory of the Lord 
 covereth the earth as the waters cover the 
 sea." 
 
THE 
 
 BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH, 
 
 n^V. W. ADAMS, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE MADISON-SQUAKE PRESBYTERIAN CHrRCH. 
 
lU BtmiiU $t tlu 
 
 "And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for max, and 
 
 NOT MAN FOR THE SaBBATH." — Lukc U. 27. 
 
 It is one of the many advantages attendant 
 upon the serial discussion of a subject, such as 
 that now in progress in regard to the Sabbath, 
 that there is not only a division of argument, 
 but an accumulation of argument, at each suc- 
 cessive stage of the process. The divine origin 
 and authority of the Sabbath once established, 
 a prodigious advantage is secured for us as we 
 undertake to treat of the benefits of the Sab- 
 bath. We have, for the premises of our argu- 
 ment, this rudimental fact, that the goodness 
 of God must underlie and pervade all his enact- 
 ments; that his entire legislation for the welfare 
 of the world has actually been ej)itomized in this 
 one word love / and consequently we reach the 
 certain deduction, that " in keeping God's com- 
 mandments, there is great reward." Whether 
 
 (195) 
 
196 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 we are successful or not in collating, out of our 
 own observation and experience, all tlie ad- 
 vantao:es wLicli accrue to individuals and com- 
 muuities from obedience to the Sabbatical law, 
 here is a standing-place, high, and broad, and 
 firm, from which we take our start, that the 
 commandments of God are of no doubtful ten- 
 dency, but invariably conduce to the good of 
 our species. The more copious our induction 
 of facts, the wider the sphere of our observa- 
 tion, the more evidences do we gather, that all 
 the parts of this universal system, the hum- 
 blest and the grandest, have some relation, 
 more or less important, to the interests of the 
 human race. Science has detected certain oc- 
 cultations and immersions of the satellites of 
 Jupiter ; but even those phenomena, occurring 
 at a point so remote in the heavens, have been 
 proved to be of the greatest practical use, in 
 giving accuracy to the computation of longi- 
 tudes, and so perfecting the safety of naviga- 
 tion. If it be so, that the whole mechanism of 
 nature is full of these adaptations subservient 
 to human advantage, how certain is it, beyond 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 197 
 
 the possibility of a doubt, that the positive 
 enactments of the Almighty, emanating imme- 
 diately from His beneficence, are laden with 
 blessings for all who treat them with obedient 
 regard. 
 
 We claim for the topic assigned for this oc- 
 casion, — which is, the henefits of the Sahhatli — 
 another advantage, of which it is right to avail 
 ourselves, growing out of the form in which 
 the topic is presented. 
 
 Early in the present century, the National 
 Institute of France proposed a prize for the 
 best treatise on this subject : " What has been 
 the influence of the Protestant Reformation on 
 the progress of knowledge and liberty in the 
 several nations of Europe?" Villers, the au- 
 thor of the successful essay, very adroitly 
 begins his argument with this idea. The 
 time was when those intending to discuss 
 the influence of the Lutheran Reformation, 
 would have proposed the subject somewhat 
 after this manner : " What are the evils 
 which it has inflicted upon European Society V 
 But now the question is. What has been the ef- 
 
198 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 feet of that great movement on the progress of 
 light and liberty ? and this change in the form 
 of stating the question, cames with it the proof 
 of a change in human convictions.* After the 
 same manner may we take advantage, in our 
 present discussion, of the form in which the 
 topic is presented. That topi^ is, What are 
 the benefits which follow the observance of 
 the Sabbath ? Psoradic objections have been 
 made by irreligious or sceptical men to the 
 keeping of the Christian Sabbath ; but no one 
 ever dreamed of presenting the subject on this 
 wise : " What are the evils brought upon indi- 
 viduals and nations by a careful observance of 
 the Sabbath V That form of statement would 
 shock the general judgment of all Christian 
 civilization. Individuals may be found to de- 
 preciate the Sabbath, or to take the negative 
 view of its benefits ; but what man, of respect- 
 able parts, addicted to honest thought, ever 
 conceived the project of dissuading an intelli- 
 gent community from observing the Sabbath- 
 
 *Essai sur L' Esprit et L' Influence de la Reformation de Luther. Par 
 Charles Villers, 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 199 
 
 day, by proving tlie evils consequent upon its 
 recurrence ! The very service which we are in- 
 vited to undertake this evening — to enumer- 
 ate some of the benefits of the Sabbath — of 
 itself, demonstrates how deep-seated and gener- 
 al is the conviction, that the proper observance 
 of this holy day is immediately related to hu- 
 man well-being. 
 
 These preliminary remarks will the better pre- 
 pare us to receive the saying of the Lord Jesus, 
 chosen for our text : " The Sabbath was made 
 for man." This was aimed at the micrology of 
 the Pharisees, who cavilled at our Lord for an 
 act of charity performed on the Sabbath, 
 showing that their notions concerning that holy 
 day were based on superstition, rather than on 
 a just concejDtion of it as appointed by Him, 
 who would have mercy rather than sacrifice. 
 Since the Sabbath was intended to promote 
 the benefit of man, whatever is necessary to 
 that benefit, is obviously to be allowed upon 
 that day. 
 
 It is of great service to us that the topic 
 next preceding this, the duties of the Sabbath, 
 
200 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 and the mode of observing it, was discussed 
 witli so much discrimination. There are modes 
 of observing the Sabbath which are of ques- 
 tionable utility. Mistakes and improprieties 
 may obtain in connection with the day which 
 entail mischiefs, that would have been avoided 
 by a wiser method of its observance. If that 
 is made a task-service, which was intended as a 
 j)rivilege and delight, all the benefits designed 
 to be conveyed by it are lost. A fatal injury 
 was done to Lord Bolingbroke, by the well- 
 intended but mistaken act of his grandparent, 
 in compelling him, in his early boyhood, to 
 pass his Sabbaths in reading Dr. Manton's one 
 hundred and nineteen sermons on the 119th 
 Psalm. 
 
 If some are left to regret the mistakes which 
 were made in regard to the mode of observing 
 the Christian Sabbath, others will confess that 
 their associations with the day, under a more 
 judicious training, are of the opjDosite character. 
 I speak to many who cherish the memories of 
 the Sabbath as among the fondest of their 
 lives. Never do they associate with it any- 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 201 
 
 thing repulsive ; but everything which is at- 
 tractive and delightful. The poetic image 
 which is retained, when much else is forgotten, 
 is the picture of the summer Sabbath in a ru- 
 ral home ; when all within was so full of com- 
 fort, peace, and love, and all without so bright, 
 so fair, so ti'anquil ; the air laden with the 
 perfume of the clover and the rose ; and all so 
 sweetly still, that the crowing of a cock, or the 
 lowing of a cow, could be heard from one end 
 of the village to the other, and a contented, 
 honest, frugal people, left their houses open 
 and unfastened, as they went up to the house 
 of God to worship. 
 
 The duties pertaining to the Christian Sab- 
 bath have been summarily described as cessa- 
 tion from secular labour : together with such em- 
 ployments as pertain to divine worship, religious 
 instruction, and acts of Christian usefulness. 
 
 Let us now proceed to specify some of the 
 benefits which are found to result from sucli 
 duties. These naturally arrange themselves in 
 order, as physical, intellectual, social, and 
 reli2:ious. 
 
202 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 It would be cynical to object to tlie men- 
 tion of physical advantages, as beneath the 
 solemn dignity of the Christian pulpit. God 
 cares for cattle ; much more for the bodies 
 of men. Tlie specific mention of thyself, thy 
 son, thy daughter, thy man-servant, thy maid- 
 servant, thy cattle, thy stranger that is within 
 thy gates, as included in the common prohibi- 
 tion from work, instructs us that sucli rest is not 
 the privilege of classes and orders, but a light 
 and a necessity which pertains to man as man, 
 — to the human organization, and by a wider 
 generalization to the whole animal economy. 
 " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy 
 work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of 
 the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any 
 work." Observe how the double construction 
 of the law is made to face the two extremes, 
 which are practiced by men in regard to the 
 Sabbath. Some are disposed to disregard the 
 Sabbath entirely, prosecuting secular work on 
 that day as on other days, to whom the law 
 addresses its positive interdict, " Thou shalt not 
 work." Others, practicing what has been so 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 203 
 
 forcibly called, by an apostle, " will-worship," 
 have appended to the Sabbatical law so many 
 voluntary appointments of their own, occupy- 
 ing the whole of the calendar with their saints' 
 days, and feast days, for which they claim 
 an authority equal to that of the Sabbath, 
 that the consequence has been, in many coun- 
 tries, indolence and waste, to whom the fourth 
 commandment presents another aspect — " Six 
 days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work" 
 — so that out of the two teachings concerning 
 the duty of work and the duty of rest, we 
 have that compound law which we are now to 
 illustrate. 
 
 It was a profound remark of Aristotle, that 
 the " end of labour is to gain leisure." The 
 contrary opinion is the more common. Intensi- 
 ty of work, with little regard to ends aud uses, 
 is itself exalted into a virtue. Compared Avith 
 doing nothing, with laziness, work may claim a 
 high nobility. The exercise of our faculties 
 seems to be essential to our highest enjoyment ; 
 accordingly, man, in his state of innocence, pos- 
 sessed of a most munificent patrimony, was di- 
 
204 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 rectecl to keep and till the exuberant garden in 
 which he waked to consciousness. But when 
 sin invaded the earth, iDorl:^ was changed to la- 
 hou7\ which implies hardness and the sweat of 
 the brow. A necessity is laid upon man to 
 work, somewhat like that to which criminals 
 have been subjected in a cell, into which water 
 is introduced so rapidly, that they must pump 
 or drown. Since the curse has fallen upon 
 man, and upon the earth for man's sake, labour 
 is necessary as the means of human subsist- 
 ence ; and after the necessities of mere bread- 
 getting for the sustenance of life, there comes 
 a troop of passions, cupidity, ambition, pride, 
 prompting man to ceaseless and excessive toil. 
 The moment you touch the point of a liberal 
 provision for animal necessities, — the surplus 
 of time, and strength, and acquisition, — you 
 have a reserved power which is to be applied to 
 higher and nobler ends — to the enjoyment of 
 life and to the decoration and improvement of 
 society. The whole of life looks to an eternal 
 Sabbatism as an end. But that end has its re- 
 flections and anticipations in this present life. 
 
THE BENEFITS OP THE SABBATH. 205 
 
 The very same word is employed in Holy 
 Scripture to denote Christian rest on earth and 
 ultimate rest in heaven. Unrelieved, constant, 
 wearisome work, dwindles body and soul alike 
 and bears man down into that depression, 
 from which it is the aim of the gospel to bring 
 him up. That man might know that work by 
 itself, however intense, cannot sufficiently dig- 
 nify and ennoble him, that he does not live, in 
 the true sense, by bread alone — a limit is fixed 
 in this direction — so that the jaded body may 
 have its repose, and the jaded man may wash 
 the sweat and dust from his brow, and lift it 
 up in the brightness of a higher life. The tes- 
 timony of physiologists, as to the necessity of 
 rest and recreation to the most successful work- 
 ing of the human constitution, is so ample and 
 so uniform, and this in coincidence with the 
 measurement of time, as incorporated in the 
 fourth commandment, that the thing to be 
 wondered at is, that those of all classes, profes- 
 sions, and pursuits, who are doomed to inces- 
 sant work, have not long since demanded the 
 Sabbath-day as a great right of humanity, nev- 
 
206 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 er to be extorted from any without a violence 
 done to nature. It is a grand mistake of certain 
 sceptics, to attempt to account for sin on the 
 ground of physical causes, as some have done, 
 who, like Shelley, have prescribed as a cure for 
 the depravity of the soul, a more careful reg- 
 imen as to diet and ablutions ; but it is wor- 
 thy of our profound and earnest thought, how 
 much less of evil there would be in the world, 
 if there were a more careful attention to those 
 physical laws which have been ordained by 
 the same Being who appointed the Sabbath. 
 If God has desio-ned that this natural mechan- 
 ism cannot run incessantly without friction, and 
 wear, and waste ; if he has required this clang 
 and clatter to stop awhile for rest and lubrica- 
 tion, then is it certain that the attempt to 
 work it beyond the prescribed limits will 
 be followed by irritability, and petulance, 
 and evil passions, and insanity. When Sir 
 Mathew Hale made the remark, which has now 
 become classical, that he invariably observed 
 that he prospered during the week accord- 
 ing to the degree of fidelity with which he 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 207 
 
 observed the Sabbath, it was not the irration- 
 al suggestion of suj^erstition, but a fact found- 
 ed on natural laws. Who can doubt that the 
 judgment of that distinguished jurist was the 
 more sound ; his discernment of affairs more 
 clear ; his whole personality more vigourous 
 and available, after the repose of the Sabbath, 
 than it could have been had his brain been 
 kept under full tension and excitement through 
 seven days of unintermitted labour ? Lord Cas- 
 tlereagh adopted another practice, which re- 
 sulted in another way. His overwrought na- 
 ture, hampered and annoyed by the meshes of 
 political casuistry, day after day, and week af- 
 ter week, without a Sabbath, broke down un- 
 der the strain, and he died in the delirium of 
 insanity by his own hand. I draw my illustra- 
 tions, of purpose, from this class of working 
 men, rather than from those who work only by 
 strength of muscle or nicety of mere manual 
 skill, because it is more suited to an audience 
 like this, composed of men who work with the 
 brain, in the counting-room, at the bar, on the 
 ])ench, than to one made up of those who 
 
208 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 drudge witli sledge and spade. If tlie induc- 
 tion of facts should confirm what has been re- 
 ported, that accidents have been most frequent 
 and ruinous upon those railroads, on which 
 work is compelled for the seven days alike, in- 
 stead of disposing of it, as some pretend, as a 
 mere whim, we should be promjDt to assert, that 
 an engineer, whose hand is on the lever of a 
 locomotive every day, without that intermission 
 which God has ordained, would be likely to 
 impair that coolness of judgment, quickness of 
 apprehension, and steadiness of nerve, which 
 are necessary to the safety of the property and 
 lives under his care, so that disaster would be 
 the likeliest of all occurrences. The point 
 which we make is, that He who ordained the 
 law of the Sabbath is the Maker of the human 
 frame ; that this law is not an arbitrary ap- 
 pointment, but essentia] to human welfare ; that 
 it cannot be violated without inflictino: harm 
 on the constitution which it was designed to 
 bless ; that expediency and prudence, though 
 they do not proceed from the same point with 
 duty, invariably tend to the same result ; in 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 209 
 
 short, that our Christian Sabbatism is a hiw of 
 relief and of compensation, and any arrest put 
 upon it is adding force and volume to that in- 
 tensity of lal)our, which stunts the unthinking 
 down into coarsest animalism, and precij)itates 
 those who think incessantly in one strain into 
 exhaustion, madness,* and death. 
 
 Leaving this position to be fortified by facts 
 and experience, we pi-oceed to remind you that 
 our theory of the Sabbath, and of the mode of 
 observing it, does not make it a season of sleep 
 and vacancy, but a day consecrated to the ho- 
 liest and hajDpiest of all employments. So that 
 the chief benefits of the Sabbath are vet to be 
 mentioned. Whatever gives protection to the 
 animal economy, whatever tends to give fresh- 
 ness and vigour to the powers of nature, is, in- 
 deed, of high importance ; but it is so chiefly 
 because of the intimate relation which subsists 
 between a healthful body and a well-balanced 
 mind, with other and higher ends of human 
 existence. 
 
 So it occurs that the first and most grateful 
 memories associated, in many minds, with the 
 
210 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 Sabbath, relates to its social advantages ; and 
 tliese as distributed througli families and com- 
 munities. 
 
 Whatever tends to give life and power to 
 domestic affections, is the grand ally of general 
 virtue. The argument employed with so much 
 power and success, by those who advocated the 
 system of cheap postage in Great Britain, was 
 based on the well-known effect of freq^uent 
 communication with home, as the best safe- 
 guard, especially of the young. The Sabbath 
 wisely and religiously observed in a family, not 
 only infuses new life into the domestic affec- 
 tions, but provides the best occasion for their 
 expression. A careful study of the Mosaic 
 law on this subject, convinces us that the social 
 worship of families and tribes, keeping fresh 
 and vigourous at once the sentiment of home, 
 and the sentiment of nationality, was one of 
 the prime objects of the Jewish Sabbath, and 
 of the various Jewish festivals. Much more is 
 this true of the Christian Sabbath, which, as the 
 great time-keeper of the week, the balance- 
 wheel of order, secures the time and the place, 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 211 
 
 whicli otherwise would be lost for the culture 
 and the expression of true love. Nothing bet- 
 ter illustrates this fact, than the scene immor- 
 talized in the " Cotter's Saturday Night," by 
 Burns ; the gathering of all the household, scat- 
 tered, at different tasks and in different direc- 
 tions during the week, one by one coming to 
 their home, bringing their earnings, and their 
 symj)athy, and their love, to one common fo- 
 cus, at the homely hearth, where all is confi- 
 dence, and cheerfulness, and affection, and their 
 hearts are cemented by song and prayer. The 
 general tendency of forces, in this world of 
 selfishness, is repellant from all good centres 
 towards individualism. Christianity counter- 
 acts this tendency by the introduction of a new 
 force, drawing men to a new centre, which is 
 superior to all selfish rej)ellances. True re- 
 ligion is the strongest surety for domestic love. 
 As in a family, whose several members reach 
 adult life with their distinct residences and in- 
 terests, affection is kept alive by a common re- 
 lation to the parent stock, so religion comes in 
 with its community of relations, hopes, and 
 
212 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 blessings, to foster the sentiment of family af- 
 fection tlirougliout whole communities. Theo- 
 ries of socialism have been elaborated by men ; 
 but the most potent law for social good is that 
 ordained of God in religious faith and worshij). 
 By this, men of all conditions, the most dissim- 
 ilar as to rank, occupation, wealth, and intel- 
 lect, are brought together in unity at a point 
 so high, that it is above all ordinary human re- 
 pulsions. Wonder not that the sentiment of 
 nationality was so intense among the Jews, 
 while flowing together from all the glens of the 
 vine and the olive they chaunted the same psalms 
 in their convergent paths, to the same worship 
 in their metroj^olitan temple. The apct of re- 
 ligious worship exalts us above all subordinate 
 distinctions. It is frightful to think what vio- 
 lent collisions might, at any time, occur be- 
 tween the different classes of society, if natural 
 jealousies, envyings, and hatreds were not mod- 
 ified or displaced by the bringing in of a bet- 
 ter life. The rich and the poor meet together 
 at the same altars of worship. The ordinary 
 distinctions of race, language, com]3lexion, and 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 213 
 
 condition, are obliterated by tbis magnificent 
 idea of a common fatber, a common Redeemer, 
 and a common beaven. Social worsbij) in fam- 
 ilies, and in cburcbes, is a power for tbe preser- 
 vation and blessing of society, wbicb, tbougb 
 we can only glance at it now, deserves tbe 
 gratitude of our race for its most potent cen- 
 tripetal attraction. Wbile some of tbe Psalms 
 are specially suited for secret devotion, tbe 
 great body of tbis inspired liturgy is designed 
 for social worsbip ; and so great is tbe deligbt 
 of Sabbatb songs ; so great tbeir power over 
 all our faculties, our natural affections, our 
 religious fellowsbips, suffusing eye and beart 
 witb joy wbile actually engaged in tbeir use ; 
 and so great tbeir influence over us, as tbey linger 
 in our memories, that we are disposed to say, 
 to all wbo tbus keep tbe Cbristian Sabbatb, 
 tbat if tbis be not tbe way to beaven, we know 
 not wbere or bow to find it. 
 
 Attem2:)ts bave frequently been made to car- 
 icature wbat bas been called tbe Puritan Sab- 
 hatli^ as tbougb it were a gloomy and austere 
 institution, from wbicb nature revolts. Time 
 
214 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 works out the sure vindication of sucli as are 
 maligned by prejudice. To comprehend just 
 what the English puritan was, and what he in- 
 tended, you must go back to his times and cir- 
 cumstances, and understand the antagonistic 
 forces against which he testified. When the 
 monarchy and churchmen of England under- 
 took to compel Christian freemen to acts which 
 conscience forbad, it was the most natural of all 
 things, that opjDosing testimony should put on 
 its most vigorous expression for the sake of 
 contrast. When King James issued his " Book 
 of Sports," and commanded the people to visit 
 bear-gardens on the Sabbath-day, it was a mat- 
 ter of course that the brave men, who were 
 called to ojDj^ose that desecration, should on 
 their way to conventicle give an unusual length 
 and gravity to their countenances, and occasion- 
 ally an intentional twang to their songs, for 
 the very purpose of making a defiant protest. 
 Some time was necessary for the pendulum 
 swung violently to an extreme to return to 
 a just medium, and for the strained features 
 to relax into a more natural expression. Nei- 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 215 
 
 tlier laughter nor seriousness are matters of 
 legislation or compulsion. Caricature, false- 
 hood, and badinage set aside, we should honest- 
 ly say, that few men, and few homes, on the 
 earth, knew so much of cheerfulness, and peace- 
 ful enjoyment, and true contentment, and relig- 
 ious delight, as our Puritan ancestry in their 
 Christian Sabbaths. 
 
 The religious employments of the Sabbath 
 are divided between worship and instruction. 
 Conceive the effect produced upon the intellect' 
 ual character of those who, obedient to the 
 law of heaven, give a seventh part of their 
 time to such high occupations. In countries 
 where worship is resolved into " bodily exer- 
 cise," or the use of dead languages, or sacerdotal 
 vicarship, and religious instruction is scanty 
 and meagre, we could not assert much in re- 
 gard to the intellectual benefits of the Sabbath. 
 Let us come where a free Christianity has built 
 its nest ; where the Word of God is in the hands 
 of all the people ; and the Christian pulpit un- 
 dertakes nothino^ less than to induce men to 
 think, to comj)are, to judge, to reason, with 
 
216 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 reference to those liigli concerns wliicli God has 
 communicated for our instruction. The influ- 
 ence of the Sabbath, simply as an educational 
 institution, is beyond all measurement. '^ The 
 entrance of tliy woiid givetli liglit ; it givetli 
 understanding to the simple." This " pearl of 
 days" is enclosed and protected from all other 
 jDursuits, that it may be given to those truths 
 which are of transcend ant moment. There is 
 no knowledge like that which pertains to God, 
 and redemption, and immortality. Other 
 kinds of knowledge have their limitations ; 
 but this is related to infinitude, and so gives 
 elevation to every mind that receives it. Even 
 suppose that the Sabbath is passed, as of ne- 
 cessity it is by many, in the absence of profes- 
 sional preaching, but in the use of the fewest 
 and simplest treatises of religion, the church 
 catechism, the hymn book, and the Word of 
 God. Let these be read in cottage homes, and 
 what a dignity and greatness do they give to 
 personal character. Under such an influence, 
 you will see those in humblest life gradually 
 lifted up to a grandeur of soul which has no 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 217 
 
 pride in it. They are made familiar with 
 great thoughts ; they are raised out of drudg- 
 ery, misery and contempt, by the conviction 
 which revelation inspires, that their true inter- 
 ests pertain to another life. Add to this gen- 
 eral influence of religion, the effect produced 
 by constant attendance upon Christian preach- 
 ing- 
 It would not be fair to draw our illustra- 
 tions, in this regard, from those who enjoy the 
 ministrations of the great lights of the pulpit. 
 Men might confess the influence exerted upon 
 the intellect of a community, by the preaching 
 of Owen, and Howe, and Krummacher, and 
 Chalmers, and Edwards, who have not reflect- 
 ed much upon the prodigious effects which fol- 
 low the ordinary fidelity of the parish pulj^it. 
 By what an insensible; process is a whole gen- 
 eration taught to think and reason, in regard 
 to things divine, by an habitual attendance on 
 public worship ! Most of what are called " Sys- 
 tems of Theology" — I refer now to those which 
 have been published in our own country, and 
 no country has been more prolific of them — 
 10 
 
218 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 those of Edwards, and Dwiglit, and Emmons, 
 and Hopkins, were originally preaclied as ser- 
 mons on the Sabbath-day. No one wonld ask 
 to be informed concerning the effect produced 
 by such preaching on the intellect of a town, or 
 county ; but set aside the intellectual influence 
 of men, whom to have heard would be res^arded 
 as a privilege by any, and think a moment of 
 the results likely to follow the preaching of 
 any educated minister, who, week after week, 
 month after month, year after year, addresses 
 the reason, the conscience, the affections, of any 
 people. We can only compare it, as it has 
 been compared in Scripture, to the dews and 
 the gentle rains which distil on the plants. 
 The words were adroitly chosen by Lord Stan- 
 ley, when intending to give edge to certain an- 
 ti23athies against the Christian Sabbath he 
 said, " I believe that the exclusive aj)propriation 
 of the day of rest, in popular opinion, to sub- 
 jects exclusively theological lies infinitely more 
 than want of education at the bottom of that 
 ignorance which we all deplore.^' Excliisivelij 
 tlieological ! What a well-chosen shaft of preju- 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 219 
 
 dice ! Wlio ever advocated sucli a use of tlie 
 entire Christian Sabbatli ? How small a por- 
 tion of time, indeed, is given simply to the ser- 
 mon, and this associated, as we have before 
 observed, with songs, and charities, and acts of 
 usefulness, and domestic delights, which give 
 to the day its peculiar joy. But aside from 
 reasoning, what is the testimony of facts ? Igno- 
 rance broods in your Sabbathless districts ; 
 and the more the Sabbath is honoured, the high- 
 er is the intellectual standard of the people. 
 Kigidly observed, the Sabbath invaiiably pro- 
 motes intelligence and manliness. And here 
 let me adduce another fact bearing on the 
 same point. The expression which I have 
 just quoted from a member of the British Par- 
 liament occurred during a debate in that body, 
 in reference to the expediency of opening 
 places of amusement in the city, on the Sab- 
 bath-day ; and the speaker who most zealously 
 advocated what he himself called the " French 
 Sunday," used, for an argument, this fiict or 
 assertion : that all recreations and amusements 
 allowed and fostered on the Continent, by vari- 
 
220 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 ous monarchies tended most liajipily to keep 
 the people in a state of quietude and content- 
 ment. This was at a time of j)oliticaI agita- 
 tion and apjDrehension, and diversion of mind 
 on the Sabbath-day is urged as a plea for what 
 we would call its desecration. How much, 
 whether intentionally or unintentionally, is 
 covered uj) beneath this argument. To keep 
 men quiet, give them a Sabbath which will 
 amuse them ; which implies that the other 
 kind of Sabbath-keeping makes men think 
 too much ; and thinking makes men restless 
 under oppression, and such men are dangerous ! 
 A most extraordinary corollary we admit ; to 
 which we reply, that the contentment which 
 proceeds from unthinking ignorance is the 
 least desirable of all conditions ; and restless- 
 ness, which comes from intelligence, is dan- 
 gerous to nothing but despotism. 
 
 All this is testimony in support of the posi- 
 tion we have taken : that the Sabbath, rightly 
 observed, invariably promotes intelligence, by 
 affoi^ding time for man's spiritual nature to 
 emerge from the flood of worldly avocations, 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 221 
 
 and feeding it with its proper pabulum ; that 
 thinking and reading and hearing on one sub- 
 ject, and that the grandest of all, accustoms 
 man to thinking on all other subjects ; that 
 familiarity with our relations to God educates 
 us to true greatness, making a "man more 
 precious than gold, a man than the golden 
 wedge of Ophir;" so that those countries where 
 the Sabbath is most carefully kept and hon- 
 oured are the most intelligent, the most free, the 
 most advanced in civilization, while ignorance 
 and depression keep pace with the desecration 
 of holy time. 
 
 It remains that we should speak of another 
 benefit of the Sabbath, and that the chief of 
 all: its effect upon personal morality and 
 religion. And here we are thrown back 
 immediately upon the divine origin and au- 
 thority of the Sabbath. The substance of the 
 first table of the law, comprising within four 
 specific commandments all the obligations of 
 piety, are condensed into this compendium — 
 supreme love to God in the heart — and this 
 expressed, in worship, in reverent speech, and in 
 
222 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 use of holy time. This sejDaration, by statute, 
 of one day in seven, to bear the name of God, 
 in a special sense, is the stejDping forth of God 
 out of remoteness and mystery into time, and 
 confrontinsr his creatures with a demand which 
 tests, instantly, their pious regard for his 
 authority. The whole of time is to be passed 
 in a manner becoming those who regard them- 
 selves as the stewards of God — the whole is 
 God's; but the Sabbath-day is distinguished 
 from all other days, in this respect, that the 
 mode of its observance is specified by divine 
 requirements; consequently, the question of 
 deferring to the authority of the Supreme, or 
 asserting our personal will, must, inevitably, 
 be decided by our regard or disregard for the 
 Sabbatical statute. Obey it, honour it, and 
 piety finds its expression : disobey it, dishonour 
 it, and impious self-assertion makes its first open 
 demonstration. In this view the Sabbath is a 
 special ordinance for bringing man into the 
 presence of his Maker, by applying a test 
 which developes the principle of religious 
 obedience. If it were so that we could not 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 223 
 
 perceive tlie effect of Sabbatli occupations iu 
 giving life and vigor to religious affections ; 
 yet the fact that God himself, by an arbitrary 
 decree, if you will, has commanded the conse- 
 cration of the day, makes it certain that the 
 mode of its observance will prove the presence 
 or the absence of true piety. 
 
 The same in regard to the bearing of the 
 Sabbath on morality as well as piety. It was the 
 remark, not of a churchman but of a jurist, and 
 he, the first of his class, Blackstone, " that a cor- 
 rugation of morals usually follows a profanation 
 of the Sabbath." Why it is so is very obvious. 
 The connecction is not accidental but certain. 
 True morality is based on true religion. The best 
 surety that a man will do right in all his rela- 
 tions to his fellow-men is in a purjDose to do light 
 in his relations to God. There is a distinction 
 recognized in the decalogue between the two 
 tables of the law — the one containing our di- 
 rect duty to God, the other our duties to men. 
 Now it is true that the requisitions of morality 
 have been proved, and found to be coincident 
 with all the suggestions of personal wisdom 
 
224 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 and prudence. Moreover, the combined in- 
 fluences of the law and gospel have, by this 
 time, produced a form of civilization in which 
 inducements to immorality become fewer and 
 weaker, while morality is discovered to be the 
 method of all expediency. But an ultimate 
 analysis proves that the foundation of morality 
 is not in exjDediency or a prudent calculation 
 of success, but in the eternal commandment of 
 God. Now suppose that the authority of the 
 Supreme is disregarded as to a particular pre- 
 cept : that when God comes forth to meet his 
 creatures in actual time, confronting them with 
 a statute which demands a peculiar observance 
 of one day in seven, there is evinced a disposi- 
 tion to dispute and disobey that authority, and 
 impiety makes its first protest and resistance ; so 
 far as divine obligation is concerned, you have 
 sapped the foundations of morality also, and the 
 only thing which remains claiming the name, 
 is a thin superficial enamel which flakes off at 
 the first touch of passionate will. Popular 
 virtue must have for its root faith in God, and 
 not a selfish regard for worldly advantage; 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 225 
 
 and faitli in God there cannot be in disregard 
 of his positive statute. 
 
 But this is not all that can be said 
 concernino; the relations of the Sabbath to 
 pei^onal and national morality. We are 
 instructed as to the mode in which the Sab- 
 bath should be observed. Its occupations are 
 peculiar; worship, instruction, and the direct 
 and exclusive action of our minds in regard to 
 matters of Christian privilege and spiritual 
 intellection. There is a sense in which our 
 daily work is religious. It should be con- 
 ducted on religious principles, and in a spirit 
 of obedience to Him who gives us all things. 
 But there cannot be religion without v,^oi^hip, 
 and worship cannot be without time. So need- 
 ful is special time for purposes of devotion 
 — for coming to the surface and inhaling the 
 vital air — that we are required, day by day to 
 enter into our closet and pray to our Father 
 who is in secret. These intervals of secret or 
 family worship during the week are like the 
 prayers of labourers with implements in their 
 hands, of soldiers with armour on, just lifting 
 10* 
 
226 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 tlie helmet for an occasional ejaculation. Then 
 comes the Christian Sabbath, the whole of 
 which is to be given immediately, directly and 
 exclusively to truth, and worship, and religi- 
 ous communion. What is duty for the six 
 days is not duty on the seventh. What is the 
 high privilege of the Sabbath — a whole day of 
 sacred leisure, imbibing instructions out of 
 the Scriptures, or giving instruction to others, 
 is not the common privilege of our race on 
 other days of the week. The grand reason 
 w^hy men are so little affected by the obliga- 
 tions of religion is, that they are so com- 
 pletely immersed in the cares of this life, that 
 they have no space for thinking of the life to 
 come. And if the method which heaven has 
 ordained for the soul's edification in things 
 spiritual and divine, were to be dropped out 
 of observance, it would be, for the generality 
 of the people, as the breaking down of the dam 
 which now dykes out the sea — the mad waves 
 would roll over them and drown them in per- 
 dition. 
 
 If we are not able to discern all the blessed 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 227 
 
 effects which we might expect to result from 
 the Sabbath, it must be owing to mistakes or 
 defects in the mode of its observance. Con- 
 sider what a power it is in the world — God's 
 special appointment for the world's improve- 
 ment. So silently and gently do these Sabbatlis 
 pass, that we are unmindful of the tremendous 
 accumulation of power which they represent in 
 the aggregate. The seventh part of human 
 life to be rescued from secular concerns, and 
 given to God and heaven ! A young man of 
 twenty-one, your Sabbaths are already to be 
 computed in years — three whole years of 
 holy time. A man of fifty, you have had your 
 seven years of Christian Sabbaths. A man 
 of three score years and ten, your Sabbaths 
 amount to ten whole years of time ! We can 
 not say how wisely, how faithfully, how reli- 
 giously you have kept them, but this is certain, 
 together they constitute a prodigious power for 
 the shaping of character; and if you have 
 valued and improved each as it came and 
 passed, you are in no need of testimony from 
 without as to their influence on intellectual 
 
228 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 culture, on personal prosperity, on social im- 
 provement, on spiritual hopes. 
 
 GocVs method of dealing with error when 
 He has described it, and forbidden it, and de- 
 nounced it, if men are bent on practising it, is 
 to allow them to work out their convictions by 
 an actual experiment. A glance at geography 
 would be the best testimony as to the benefits 
 of the Sabbath ; for where it is honoured and 
 loved the most there is the greatest amount 
 of intelligence and freedom, and happiness, 
 and morality, and religion. 
 
 We have predictions of many kinds as to 
 the future of the human race. It would seem 
 that as Columbus saw, from the mast-head of 
 the Pinta, certain red berries and green stalks 
 floating on the sea, the signs of approach to land, 
 men were detecting here and there some indica- 
 tions of a future civilization which is sure to be 
 realized. But the word of God is our certain 
 pledge of that ultimate blessedness. Just how 
 much is intended in the literal construction of 
 prophecy — -just what we are to believe as to 
 the effect of true religion on health and length 
 
THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 229 
 
 of days and secular prosperity, as the last iii- 
 lieritance of society, we cannot say. But tlie 
 promise of the Scriptures is exquisitely beautiful. 
 " There shall be no more thence an infant of 
 days, nor an old man that hath not filled his 
 days : for the child shall die an hundred years 
 old. . . . And they shall build houses and in- 
 habit them, and they shall plant vineyards and 
 eat the fruit of them. . . . For as the days of a 
 tree are the days of my people, and mine elect 
 shall long enjoy the work of their hands." And 
 the coronation of this magnificent promise is 
 " it shall come to pass that from one Sabbath 
 to another shall all flesh come to worship be- 
 fore me, saith the Lord." Eecall the happiest 
 Sabbath which ever you have enjoyed. I will 
 not ask you to picture such an one as has been 
 portrayed by the sweet genius of Geo. Herbert, 
 but such as you remember yourself — calm, 
 tranquil, happy, with domestic love, and pub- 
 lic worship, and the clear shining of the truth ; 
 and suppose that to become universal upon the 
 earth ! What more is necessary to realize all 
 the hopes and destinies of the world; vigorous 
 
230 THE BENEFITS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 liealtli, long life, sacred leisure, clear minds 
 purged from ignorance and prejudice, hap- 
 py hearts overfloTvdng with love to God and 
 man, and holy lives consecrated to truth, and 
 duty, and well-doing. Let it be the encourage- 
 ment of all who now testify in behalf of the 
 Sabbath, and who devise and labour and j)ray 
 for its better observance, to know that this 
 universal Sabbath will certainly come. 
 
 Six thousand, years of sorrow have well-nigh 
 Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course 
 Over a sinful world : and what remains 
 Of this tempestuous state of human things 
 Is merely as the working of the sea 
 Before a calm that rocks itself to rest. 
 
 When that day shall come, as through the re- 
 covering 23ower of God's Word, and Spirit, and 
 Son it surely will, heaven and earth will be 
 blended together; and all who have honour- 
 ed the Sabbath on earth, shall enjoy a Sabbath 
 without end in heaven. 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH, 
 
 REV. A. H. VINTON, D. T>. 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. MARk'S CHTTRCH, NEW YORK. 
 
litottti^ ai ilu Mixbkxik 
 
 " If thou turn away tuy foot fuom the Sabbath, from doing thy 
 
 PLEASURE ox MY HOLY DAY, AND CALL THE SaBBATH A DELIGHT, THE HOLT 
 
 OP THE Lord, honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine 
 
 OWN WAYS, NOR FINDING THINE OWN PLEASURE, NOR SPEAKING THINE OWN 
 words: THEN SHALT THOU DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD ; AND I WILL EX- 
 ALT THEE TO RIDE UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH, AND FEED THEE 
 WITH THE HERITAGE OP JaCOB THY FATHER, FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LoRD 
 
 HATH SPOKEN IT." — Isuiah Iviii. 13, 14. 
 
 It sometimes happens in our dealings witli 
 nature, or art, or institutions, that some emer- 
 gency obliges us to go back to the beginning 
 to explore the roots, readjust the foundations, 
 and rescue and restore first principles. 
 
 So it has happened in reference to the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. 
 
 Adopted by this nation with the common 
 Law of England, with w^hich the Sabbath was 
 inwrought, warp and woof; recognized again 
 and again by our legislation throughout the 
 land as peculiar and sacred time ; a day shut 
 out from the rano^e of secular business, a non- 
 legal day ; cherished, too, by the people as the 
 mother of many rich and rare social T)lessings, 
 
23-i CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 the Sabbatli has at length begun in some quar- 
 ters to suffer a j^er version ^^hich, hj changing 
 holyday privileges into holiday amusements, 
 and construing the exemption from legal obliga- 
 tions as a freedom from legal restraints, has 
 amounted to desecration. Then, as a natural 
 consequence, the whole theory of the Sabbath 
 has been contested. 
 
 Its authority, its perjoetuity, its sacredness 
 and its design have been contradicted by argu- 
 ment, as they had already been resisted by 
 practice. 
 
 Hence the origin of this series of sermons, as 
 well as of other means to vindicate and set on 
 their true position the claims of the Sabbath in 
 its various uses to man. 
 
 In lending such help as I may to this en- 
 deavour, my special theme is the Sabl:)ath in its 
 relations to the State, with the consideration 
 of some of its safeo-uards. 
 
 Our text brings very distinctly to view the 
 civil advantages of a right observance of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 '• If thou call the Sabbath the holy of the 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 285 
 
 Lord, honourable, and slialt honour Ilim, not 
 doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own 
 pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, I will 
 exalt thee to ride upon the high places of the 
 earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob 
 thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath 
 spoken it." 
 
 Here w^e have a religious act followed by na- 
 tional and civil benefits. They are linked to- 
 gether as cause and effect, at least so far as the 
 Jewish nation Avas concerned. It was, indeed, 
 an abiding characteristic of that Divine polity 
 under which the descendants of Abraham were 
 bred, that religious obedience began temporal 
 blessings. And since the j)rinciples of the Di- 
 vine government are unchangeable, and since 
 the Sabbath is as much ours as theirs, why 
 should not the same links of connexion remain 
 unbroken ? 
 
 The origin of the Sabbath back in the crea- 
 tive epoch, when God rested from his works, 
 and when there was only one human family 
 on the earth, proves that the Sabbath was 
 meant to be not Jewish, but Adamic. More- 
 
236 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 over, the Saviour's declaration, " the Sabbatli 
 was made for man," although spoken for another 
 and a specific purpose, seems to carry with it the 
 idea of universality. If the Sabbath was made 
 for man, why not for all men — for the whole race ? 
 And thus again the Sabbath is not national 
 and local, but generic and general. So that in 
 either of the fixed relations of human life, the 
 Sabbath is capable of being a boon and a bless- 
 ing to man. Among those fixed relations stands 
 the national life of man. His social nature works 
 out spontaneously into this form as one of its 
 necessary and vital developments. While the 
 domestic relation into which every man is born 
 creates the sphere of those familiar affections, 
 which we call home feelings, makes home the 
 dearest word in human speech, makes the family 
 circle the very realm of the heart's regency, 
 and makes the family institution a per]3etual 
 necessity of human nature ; and while, again, 
 the religious instinct of man embodies and 
 represents itself in that standing organization 
 which we call the visible church, so likewise 
 does the same law of social necessity urge 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 237 
 
 and drive out his nature into that other form 
 of development, which groups the whole race 
 into nations and states. 
 
 The world has never been without the sev- 
 eral forms of national life, as a part of the 
 fixed constitution of human society ; and what- 
 ever, therefore, can do good or harm to man's 
 essential nature ; whatever was meant for the 
 generic man, must take in his national as much 
 as his domestic or ecclesiastical connexion. 
 
 The Sabbath was designed, no doubt, as the 
 type of a public religious life, and it pre-sup- 
 poses, therefore, the importance of religion to 
 every community for whom the Sabbath was 
 appointed. How important, then, is religion 
 to the life of the State, becomes in this con- 
 nexion an interesting preliminary question. 
 And this question will be found to be ans- 
 wered only in one way, whether we consult 
 philosophy or fact, — the nature of things, or 
 plain human history. The nature of things 
 teaches us, that no civil government can sub- 
 sist long and effectually, that does not invoke 
 support from the powers of another world. Its 
 
238 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 oatlis and affirmations must reacli out into 
 eternity. Its sovereignty must represent in 
 tlie nation the dominion of God in the world. 
 The throne must be higher than the earth 
 that men tread upon. The magistracy must 
 be girded with a power that was not born of 
 a creature. Its King must be hedged with di- 
 vinity. And loyalty, submission and obedi- 
 ence must have an object higher than the com- 
 mon human preeminence of luck, or strength, 
 or blood. The sentiment of reverence, which 
 is the prime element of all religion, is the 
 mother of civil order and the grand conserva- 
 tor of law^ It nurses the common conscience, 
 and holds the people by the bonds of a filial 
 alleo-iance. No matter what the form of the 
 government, all civil authority must gather to 
 itself somewhat of a religious sanction, to be 
 cordially and truly obeyed. And history bears 
 out this antecedent evidence of reason. For 
 w^here was there ever a nation worthy to be 
 called historical, one which had ever emerged 
 from mere animal barbarism, with whom relig- 
 ion was not a prime power and chief care ? 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 239 
 
 However false tlie religious system, however 
 absurd its doctrines, or superstitious its rites, 
 tliey one and all apj)ealed to tliat universal 
 instinct which distinguishes man from the 
 brutes, and suggests the powerful motives that 
 belong to eternity; hopes and fears which, 
 though often eiToneous or extreme, betoken 
 the superiority of his nature, and by their very 
 existence prove him to be a subject of the 
 highest, moral government. 
 
 In Egypt, and among the Orientals, religion 
 was th^ chief object of the State. This was 
 the only tie that held the Grecian tribes 
 together as a commonwealth. The Amphyc- 
 tionic Council, the great reserved fountain of 
 authority to the Greek States, was instituted 
 for no other purpose than the regulation of 
 religion. The ancient Koman constitution was 
 characterized by the same feature; to which 
 their great statesman and orator attributes all 
 their national preeminence; for says Cicero, 
 " Though we have been surpassed in population 
 by the Spaniards — in physical force by the 
 Gauls, in shrewdness and cunning by Carthage, 
 
240 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 ill tlie fine arts by Greece, and in mere native 
 talent by some of our Italian fellow-country- 
 men ; yet, in tlie single point of attention to 
 religion, we have excelled all other nations ; 
 and it is to the favourable influence of this fact 
 uj^on the character of the peo23le, that I ascribe 
 our success in acquiring the jDolitical and mili- 
 tary ascendancy that we enjoy throughout the 
 world." 
 
 If we follow down the times, we find the 
 religious feature prominent, if not j)redominant, 
 in the various forms of civil society, and 
 through the progressive phases of national life ; 
 and so nearly universal, that when we meet the 
 one solitary exception, now become proverbial, 
 in which a nation deliberately rejected all 
 religious faith, and strangled on system the 
 religious instinct of human nature, we halt to 
 mark the issue of such a monstrous exj^eriment 
 with man's moral vitality ; and as we see it 
 culminatino; in the reio^n of terror, wrenchino: 
 asunder the limbs and ligaments of the body 
 politic, and blotting one whole generation-page 
 of history with human blood, we turn away 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 241 
 
 witt the shuddering conviction that he who 
 denies religion to the nation is guilty of a cruel 
 falsehood, against which nature protests, and 
 which time will refute in a nation's wailing and 
 tears. 
 
 If thus much may be claimed in general for 
 the value of religion to the well-being of the 
 state, let us see how much more forcible these 
 considerations become when applied to our 
 national life and our peculiar institutions. For 
 we have inaugurated a system of government 
 which has no strict precedent or parallel in 
 history. It has difficulties all its own, over- 
 balanced, however, by capabilities which ren- 
 der it potentially the highest style of civil 
 society. 
 
 Its difficulties are compressed and denoted 
 by its very title — a free government. The 
 seeming contradiction of these words is only an 
 exponent of the antagonisms which must be 
 practically harmonized to bring the govern- 
 ment into working order and insure its success. 
 " To make a government," says Mr. Burke, " is 
 
 one of the easiest things. It is only for one to 
 11 
 
242 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 command and for the others to obey. To give 
 freedom is likewise easy. It is only to relax 
 all control, and let men do as they will. 
 But to make a fi-ee government is the most 
 difficult achievement of man's reason." 
 
 The ground of the remark is obvious enough ; 
 for government, of whatever sort, implies con- 
 trol of some sort, and a free government is 
 essentially a self-government. 
 
 The plain peculiarity of such a government is 
 that the authority springs up from within itself. 
 
 Other governments are imposed upon the 
 people — this grows up among the people. In 
 other governments the people are compacted 
 and hooped around by pressure. In a free 
 government they are fused and mingled by an 
 internal process into a solid mass. 
 
 The one is a diluvium, and the other a 
 conglomerate. 
 
 The phrase self-government implies a duality 
 of nature with oneself to govern and another 
 self to be governed. Every human ^personality 
 is a twofold self ; the one comprising man's ap- 
 petites, his passions, his will — in a word, his 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 2-i3 
 
 selfishness ; and the other comprehencling his 
 reason, his conscience, and whatever gives 
 human nature its true and immortal dignity. 
 
 This is the higher and the true self of man, 
 to which the attribute of sovereignty belongs. 
 
 He is not truly self-governed who surrenders 
 himself to the dominion of his propensities, and 
 lets the nobler self be conquered and ruled by 
 the less noble. He is the victim rather of 
 bondage so base that none can be more 
 debasing. And this, which is true of the 
 individual man, is equally true when you 
 multiply the individual into a community, and 
 enlarge the phase of character into a grand 
 corporate national man. 
 
 The nation being but the aggregate of 
 individuals, the national life and character is 
 the grand resultant product of the affinities, 
 combinations, actions and counter-actions which 
 are constantly at work among the people 
 themselves. 
 
 A nation given up to the dominion of selfish- 
 ness and passion, would soon cease to be a 
 nation, because it is the property of selfishness 
 
244 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 to separate men and individualize them. In 
 tlie heat of personal passion the cement of 
 society is dissolved and leaks out — the com- 
 munity is disintegrated, the corporate nation 
 loses its organic life and becomes resolved into 
 the ashes to ashes and dust to dust of political 
 chaos, which is anarchy. 
 
 A popular government needs, then, above 
 all others, the controlling jDower of reason and 
 conscience, the first to point out the right ends 
 and means of government, and the other to 
 determine the right motives ; a power to ena- 
 ble the nation to stand sentinel over itself, not 
 only to defend its rights against an invader, 
 but to hold its own members in check ; not 
 only to fire upon a foe, but to point the bayo- 
 net at the breast of every truant, or insurgent, 
 who would break the bounds of discipline and 
 trouble the peace of its own camp. Now, 
 when we speak of reason and conscience, we 
 employ only another name for an enlightened 
 religious sense. The nation, therefore, must be 
 religious.^ and as the national life is but the ag- 
 gregate of individual lives, every citizen must 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 245 
 
 furnisli his quota of tlie aggregate religion of 
 the nation. Nay, every citizen must be as 
 scrupulously conscientious as if lie bore the 
 whole responsibility of the national character, 
 must be inspired by the worthiest motives to 
 elect the worthiest means, to secure the worthi- 
 est aims ; or in other words, to carry out the 
 great rule of social peace and prosperity, which 
 is expressed in the second table of God's great 
 law, to " love our neighbour as ourselves." And 
 since the law of God is essentially a unit and 
 an integer, and cannot be split into fragments 
 to be used in part, and in part rejected ; since 
 there is no true morality which is not based on 
 conscience ; and since conscience has its life 
 breathed into it only by piety, it follows that 
 this national reliofion must take in the first and 
 great commandment of the moral code, and 
 hold itself as profoundly reverent towards the 
 claims of God, as it is affectionatelv considerate 
 of the mutual lights and interests of the peo- 
 ple. This is the religion necessary to a popu- 
 lar government, not only in its true theory, 
 but in its practical success likewise. For we 
 
246 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 can easily see that wherever there is freedom, 
 the chiefest danger of the Kepublic springs 
 from within rather than presses from abroad ; 
 comes from corruption more than from in- 
 vasion ; and for a like reason the strength 
 and glory of a free government are only 
 the blossoms of its own virtues beo^otten 
 of itself, and nourished by its own sap and 
 power of right life. We can see, there- 
 fore, how the Divine promise to a religious 
 nation is illustrated by the law of cause and 
 effect, and most eminently in a popular govern- 
 ment such as ours. Both the promise and the 
 law warrant the conclusion, that the national 
 virtue is the guarantee of national prosperity. 
 But this conclusion starts a fresh inquiry, Why 
 is the Divine promise attached to a particular 
 form of religious expression, a mere ritual ser- 
 vice ? Is the observance of the Sabbath, as 
 an outward institute, so necessary a proof of the 
 people's religion, that its non-observance will 
 entail the forfeiture of the Divine favour and 
 the failure of the nation ? If it can be shown 
 that the Sabbath is a condition without which 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 2-17 
 
 religion can not tlirive, then it becomes at once 
 invested with all tlie solemnity of import- 
 ance wliich belongs to I'eligion itself. As an 
 assigned and natural expression of tlie public 
 religion, it may be regarded as inseparable 
 from tlie existence of religion. The necessity 
 of some such expression grows out of a certain 
 principle that lies back in the nature of things, 
 which may be explained thus. The world is 
 only a compound of two simple elements, 
 force and form^ of which each is the comple- 
 ment of the other. Take either away, and 
 there is no world. Take away force, and the 
 form is a dead organism. Take away form, 
 and force is such a tricksey and intangible 
 thing, with no outline or complexion, that we 
 have no language to describe it. Thought it- 
 self cannot arrest it. Its name is only like the 
 X in Algebra, an unknown quantity. Out of 
 this necessary constitution of force and form 
 springs the great law of expression, which 
 pervades and penetrates the world. It begins 
 with the widest generality, and ends in the 
 minutest particularity. The abstract must 
 
2^8 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 have a concrete, the conception must body it- 
 self forth in a phenomenon ; the spiritual must 
 mate itself with the material ; soul with sense, 
 and Deity with incarnation. Truth must cre- 
 ate a book ; mind must have a brain to think 
 with ; affection a heart to love with, and a 
 tongue to tell its love, or at least a grave-stone. 
 Take away from any of these vital forces their 
 appropriate forms and expressions, and you 
 reduce the forces themselves to such a shrunk 
 and shrivelled condition, that you can have no 
 proof of their existence. Their life has fallen 
 into a catalepsy. Now we are not to suppose 
 that the great vital force of man's moral being, 
 his religion, is exempt from this law of expres- 
 sion. Faith, too, must have its confession. 
 While with the heart man believeth unto jus- 
 tification, with the mouth confession is made 
 unto salvation. And when you extend that 
 faith, so that it becomes the faith of a commu- 
 nity, then the confession must take a definite 
 and fixed form. It must become an institute^ 
 palpable, plain, and public. Hence the system 
 of Christian faith takes of a necessity a cor- 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 249 
 
 porate form. Hence the necessity of a visible 
 cliiircli, and hence, too, the host of God's elect 
 are made a " sacramental host." Not that a 
 j)rivate person can not have a religious heart 
 without the tanmble sacraments, or that he 
 can not pray but in the worship of the visible 
 church. Not that he may not express his re- 
 ligion, faith and love in other ways, but that 
 he may and must express them thus: That 
 since his faith is a common faith, its expression 
 shall be common, and therefore its form must in 
 the nature of things be determined and fixed. 
 Under the same category as the visible 
 church and its sacramental and public ordi- 
 nances, we may place the Sabbath as one of 
 those definite institutes which express in the 
 most emphatic form the religion of the commu- 
 nity, and which as a form of expression 
 becomes indispensable to the conservation of 
 the power, if not of the very life itself, of 
 religion. Abolish the Sabbath as the time for 
 fixed and periodic religious service — leave it to 
 the arbitrary choice of individuals to determine 
 their own times of special worshijD and religious 
 
250 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 duties, and you exjiose the religion of the 
 jDeojDle to a fearful trial. You leave each man 
 to his unassisted piety — you trust his personal 
 courao^e and conscience to tear him loose from 
 the clino-iiiQ: cares and associations of the world 
 to break through the forces that press around 
 to hold him where he is; companions, busi- 
 nesses, hospitalities, recreations; and, with a 
 heroism most rare, to refuse every temptation, 
 and to go away by himself and spend his own 
 self-chosen Sabbath in lonely worship of prayer 
 and thanks. And he must endure this small 
 martyrdom with every return of his holy day. 
 Is any ordinary piety of a fibre strong enough 
 to stand this tug and strain, week by week ? 
 Would it not succumb at last, weary and worn 
 out with the long struggle against its circum- 
 stances until the religion of individuals, one by 
 one, having given way, the religion of the com- 
 munity would die out ? Or if, after all, con- 
 science should be too strong for this, would not 
 this striving and tempted man, who would 
 keep his holiness alive, seek sympathy from 
 others labouring and worried like himself? 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 251 
 
 Would they not band themselves into a fellow- 
 ship in imitation of the visible church, and 
 S]3read their common rites and ordinances 
 throughout the land, and invent a Sabbath as 
 a day of periodical religion — a monument and 
 memorial of the faith to keep it perpetual and 
 make it universal? They would be driven 
 to it by the necessities of piety to save their 
 religion from being exhausted by too much 
 conflict and too little support. Just as our 
 fasts and thanksgivings are more solemn and 
 edifying, because they are public or national ; 
 just as our individual patriotism derives a fresh 
 glow and new stir from the fourth of July or 
 the birthday of Washington, when the nation's 
 heart beats aloud with the same pulse as ours ; 
 so do the convictions, purposes, beliefs, hopes 
 and impulses of our personal religious life get 
 periodical force and vigour from the sanctions, 
 sympathies, supports and stimulants of a 
 Sabbath sacredly and universally kept, re-at- 
 testing to men's eyes and ears what their 
 hearts had already accepted, yet tremulously 
 held, the momentous worth and grandeur to 
 
252 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 eacli soul of tliat reliofion wliicli was thus 
 grandly and publicly symbolized. Some sacred 
 day, to be constantly distinguished from week- 
 day and working-day, is therefore a constant 
 necessity of the religious life of any community 
 of men. 
 
 How much greater its worth and power, 
 then, when the day is not invented, but 
 assigned and sanctioned from Heaven, bearing 
 on its front not only the stamp of human 
 expediency, but the august signature of the 
 Father of our lives. 
 
 But in order to illustrate the influences of the 
 Sabbath well kept, upon the character of a peo- 
 ple, let us dwell upon those influences severally. 
 Consider, then, the educational power of the 
 Sabbath ; and, first, its power of educating the 
 mind. Since we have adopted it as an axiom 
 in our politics, that the prosperity of a free peo- 
 ple dej)ends upon their intelligence as well as 
 their virtue, the question is invested with first- 
 rate importance, how far the Sabbath is an edu- 
 cator of the intellect. I think the question may 
 be answered by challenging the competition of 
 
CIVIL EELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 253 
 
 any and every other sort of instruction. If we 
 except some particular departments of learn- 
 ing, sucli as the exact and tlie progressive 
 sciences, the sources of mental culture belonmns; 
 to the Sabbath are rich and rare beyond 
 parallel. 
 
 Take, for example, that part of education 
 which consists in supplying the mind with the 
 facts and suggestions which may be called the 
 mind's furniture, the material of thought, such 
 as comes from reading, and makes what Sir 
 Francis Bacon calls " a full man." The Sab- 
 bath supplies this to the mind, because it is all 
 found in the Bible, and the Sabbath is the 
 Bible's peculiar day. Its readings and preach- 
 ings are derived from that book of books, and 
 so identified are they in purpose and in prac- 
 tice, that we never conceive of a religious 
 Sabbath but as the background of a picture on 
 which the high lights and the richest tints 
 are formed of the instructions, suggestions and 
 promises of the word of God. Whatever of in- 
 struction, therefore, the Bible can furnish to the 
 intellect of man, is part and parcel of the worth 
 
254 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 of the Sabbatli. How various tliat instruction 
 is ! Tliere is history which, so far as it goes, is 
 more authentic than any other ancient records 
 of the jace. There are facts and phenomena of 
 nature which are just as truly matters for sci- 
 entific inquiry as any more recent. There is 
 poetry, descriptive, suggestive, and lyrical, 
 grander than Homer, more spiritual than 
 Wordsworth, more tenderly touching than 
 Tennyson ; eloquence of every sort, from the 
 grandly vehement to the meltingly pathetic ; 
 rhetoric that presents the most apt and strik- 
 ing combinations of human language, and in 
 every form of composition, narrative, didactic, 
 and dramatic. There are maxims of life and 
 manners, pithy and sententious, that cling like 
 burs to the memory, and are full of " the seeds 
 of things ;" prudential rules of a wise life, 
 furnishing every man with a truth just suited 
 to every chance need of his business or beha- 
 viour. Such is this many-sided book as a mere 
 vehicle for instruction to the mind. No man 
 can study its language fresh from the wells of 
 English undeiiled, without finding his faculties 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 255 
 
 stirred and refreshed, liis understandinir in- 
 formed, his taste refined, liis judgment im- 
 proved, and his whole mental stature grown 
 taller and fuller. Besides this education which 
 furnishes the mind, there is a still better sort 
 which disciplines and strengthens it ; and this, 
 too, comes from the same source, the Sab- 
 bath and its Bible. This special benefit to 
 the intellect proceeds from the character 
 of the themes presented by the Sabbath and 
 the Bible, — the grandest and profoundest that 
 can be proposed to an intelligent being. They 
 are God, his being, his attributes, his law, his 
 providence, his counsels of judgment and 
 of grace, the wonderful jDlan of redemption, 
 involving the humiliation, the mediation, and 
 the royal triumph of the Redeemer ; Eternity 
 with its deep, abysmal truths, involving the 
 destinies of all immortal creatures ; and Man, 
 his nature and character ; man spiritual and 
 sensual too ; his weakness, and his capacity for 
 great strength ; his sin, and his potential holi- 
 ness ; his danger, and his hopes ; his guilt, and 
 its cleansing ; his soul-sickness, and its divine 
 
256 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 cure ; Ms death, and his resurrection of im- 
 mortality, all crowned by the sublime inquest 
 of a universal judgment. Here are themes 
 which never could occur sj)ontaneously to the 
 minds of ordinary men ; and if to extraordi- 
 nary men, they could come only as dreams or 
 snatches of thought ; self speculations and 
 gymnastics of the mind, with no solemn sanc- 
 tion, no reality, and so no profit. But the 
 Sabbath forces them forward as great live 
 truths u]3on the thoughts of men. They must 
 face them, grasp them, and grapple with them 
 seriously. And this puts the mind to its 
 stoutest mettle. It has to stretch itself to the 
 grandest issues of thought ; has to go down 
 into the depths and up to the heights of con- 
 templation ; down into the principles of things, 
 and up to their consummation ; to contemplate 
 God, and to anatomize itself; to survey the 
 outside universe, and to explore the micro- 
 cosm of man's inner nature ; to become familiar 
 with the great principles of law ; to trace the 
 harmony of Providence as it is explained by 
 faith, and to thread the labyrinths of human 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 257 
 
 history by the clue of Christ's mediatorial 
 reign. I do not say that any of these huge 
 themes, jutting out from the dark infinitude, 
 can be thoroughly explored and comprehended 
 by the best intellect of man. But no intellect 
 can come in front of them without a stransfe 
 consciousness of development. The very con- 
 tact of the mind with thous^hts and themes 
 like these energises it, puts life into it. 
 And when these themes are pronounced as 
 revelations, as facts and realities made known 
 to man Ijy God himself; the mind, pressed 
 from within by the strongest incentive it is 
 capable of, endeavours to hold and master them 
 and make them a part of itself The very ef- 
 fort inspires strength, makes the mind stalwart 
 and robust, and secures the best result of the 
 highest disciplinary education. Suppose a man, 
 who is destitute of the ordinary facilities of 
 education, to devote the fifty-two Sabbaths of 
 the year to the studious contemj^lation of these 
 Sabbath themes, and so for twenty years. Does 
 any one doubt that the education of these ' 
 more than thousand days, almost as much as 
 
258 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 the four years of a collegiate life, would find 
 liiiii far in advance of his associates in all the 
 proofs and fruits of mental culture ? Would 
 he not be a fii^st-rate subject of a free govern- 
 ment, with a ri^^er intelligence than most men, 
 fitter than most men to cast a ballot, if he 
 were not indeed fit to govern a commonwealth ? 
 A great advantage of this education of the 
 Sabbath is, that it is periodical ; not so fre- 
 quent as to make it a drudgery, and not so 
 rare as to endanger the permanence of its im- 
 pression. It is to every class of men, specially 
 and peculiarly, a rest and refreshing. To the 
 industrial classes, whose vocations lie among 
 solid and material things, and to the commer- 
 cial class, whose life is the arithmetic of earthly 
 values and products, the Sabbath gives oppor- 
 tunity and incitement to a fresh set of faculties, 
 and opens the windows of the mind, to let in 
 the fresh air of thouo^hts from God and a bet- 
 ter life. And even to the classes whose busi- 
 ness is thought, the Sabbath is still a rest, 
 while it is still an education. The law- 
 yer escapes from the perplexities of con- 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 259 
 
 flicting precedents, contradictory judgments, 
 and equivocal projmeties, into the pure 
 light of truth and the glorious certain- 
 ties of righteousness. And the physician can 
 separate himself awhile from the painful study 
 of second causes to familiarize his mind with 
 the workings of the first cause. And the men 
 of science and philosophy would lose nothing, 
 but gain much, by taking God's existence as a 
 standpoint of thought for a while ; and God's 
 government and providence as a controlling 
 fact in nature, and the foundation of a system 
 of final causes. Such Sabbath thoughts would 
 be no less a rest to them than to the laborious 
 classes. For to those whose habit of life is 
 thinking, the maxim of Sir William Jones is 
 always true, that "the change of study is 
 recreation enouo'h." Such a mental education 
 is peculiarly adapted to form the citizenship of 
 a free government. For it begets that peculiar 
 mental characteristic which we call intellio:ence ; 
 that is, not a mere technical skill in certain 
 branches of learning which sharpen the mind 
 but do not broaden it — which make the mind 
 
2G0 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 expert witlioiit making it wise ; a sort of 
 Austrian education, fitting a man to be a clever 
 subject of a clesj^otism, but not a free citizen of 
 a popular government — not that — but, instead 
 of that, an education which makes the whole 
 mind of larger growth ; broader, deeper and 
 solider at the same time, with more of muscle 
 of manhood, of general effectiveness and power 
 of thinking. This is plainly the education we 
 need. Can there be a doubt whether this is 
 the very education conferred by the Sabbath, 
 and not reached — not even imitated in any 
 other school ? 
 
 The other indispensable qualification for 
 the citizen of a Republic, besides intelli- 
 gence, is what is called virtue — a cultivated 
 moral sense ; an enlightened conscience. This 
 and the due culture of the intellect are 
 the Jachin and Boaz of that grand political 
 structure which we hold almost as sacred as a 
 temple — a free Republic. Consider, then, the 
 Sabbath as an educator of the conscience. It 
 is too late in the world's history to vindicate 
 the claims of the Bible in this respect. The 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 261 
 
 acknowledgment lias long ago been extracted 
 or extorted from all sorts of men, that its code 
 of morals is not only matcliless, but amazing. 
 And every week tlijs body of moral jirecept 
 and principle is presented and pressed home 
 upon a Sabbatli-keeping community. The 
 grand peculiarity of this morality is, that it 
 recognizes the word ought as an imj^erative 
 word in every question of ethical conduct. It 
 roots and grounds itself on the conscience. It 
 does not palter with great principles, like Paley, 
 and give up man's noble moral sense to be 
 hoodwinked, and led hither and yon by a 
 dwarfed, limping, near-sighted expediency. It 
 does not, like Jeremy Bentham, propose the 
 greatest happiness of the greatest number, as 
 the rule of conduct, requiring omniscience to 
 determine the smallest proprieties of life, and 
 leaving the conscience more dismally befogged 
 than nature made it. So singular, in fact, is the 
 Bible on its recognition of right and wrong, as 
 absolute facts or principles, that in all the 
 progress of the ages no system of ethics was 
 ever enunciated which was based on this 
 
262 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH 
 
 distinction alone until the Christian, Butler, 
 rescued this divine principle from the mob of 
 human speculations, where it was in danger of 
 being strangled or torn to pieces, and clothed 
 it afresh in the graceful robe of a Christian 
 philosophy. But it was always in the Bible 
 whole, simjDle and grand ; the principle that 
 men must do right, because they ought ; the 
 fact that they have a conscience to enforce that 
 ought; that conscience is an imperial faculty 
 transferred from Heaven, armed with Divine 
 prerogatives to approve with sweet peace when 
 man obeyed God, and to punish with stings of 
 scorpions when he refused and rebelled. And 
 it is in the Bible still — this standard of moral 
 conduct — in all its simplicity, integrity and 
 grandeur. It is the moral teaching of the 
 Sabbath. It is j)ronounced to the ears of every 
 keeper of the Sabbath. And not to his ear 
 only, but to his soul. For it is God's voice that 
 speaks, and speaks with the authority of a 
 creator and the tenderness of a father — speaks 
 alike from Sinai and from Calvary — speaks 
 with the sanctions of eternity and the persua- 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 263 
 
 sions of love ; and while it rouses the conscience 
 to the ennobling sense of duty, changes the old 
 heart to a new, and inspires it with such love 
 for the right, that the law of God may be said 
 to be written within it. This is the finished 
 product of moral character, begotten legiti- 
 mately of the Sabbath. It is, indeed, a con- 
 verted and Christian character. But even 
 where it fails of this completeness of result, it 
 is still the most perfect plan of moral instruc- 
 tion and training. No person can come into 
 habitual contact and contemplation of such 
 instruction without deriving a certain clearness 
 and stren2:th to his moral convictions which 
 will elevate his whole manhood. Taught of 
 God, he will be both independent of men and 
 reverent to authority. But his independence, 
 being conscientious, will be without arrogance, 
 and his reverence, being insj^ired, will be with- 
 out servility. Is not this the beau ideal of moral 
 manhood, animated and actuated with the 
 conscious dignity of duty ? Out of this grow 
 loyalty, patriotism, the love of order, and of 
 law ; and, indeed, every civic virtue. And when 
 
26-4 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 diffused a])road, out of it comes a controlling, 
 national conscience wbicli unites the whole 
 j^eople in the repressing of public wrong, and 
 the maintenance and defence of universal right. 
 
 Is not the moral demand of the Republic 
 met, then ? Is not such morality a fit qualifi- 
 cation for its citizenship ? Is such morality 
 taught and enforced in any other school, as it is 
 by the schooling of the Sabbath ? 
 
 We may rest here from the discussion of the 
 direct influence of the Sabbath as an educa- 
 tional power. But we can hardly help remem- 
 bering another sort of influence which, though 
 indirect, is still powerful and very wholesome. 
 It arises out of the very subsistence of the 
 Sabbath as a sacred and public day, with all 
 its associations and incidents. The very paus- 
 ing from work, the release from the heat, the 
 hurry, the noise, the dust of the week day, to 
 the cleanliness, the order and sobriety of a 
 holy day, is of itself a social influence that is 
 very salutary. The mingling of all classes up- 
 on the one platform of the church on terms 
 that presuppose the equalit}^ of all, praying 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OP THE SABBATH. 265 
 
 the same prayers, listening to the same divine 
 truths that were meant for all alike, all stirred 
 alike by the same power or pathos of its ap- 
 peals and persuasions, the felt force of that 
 sympathy which makes the whole world kin, 
 combining the self-resjDect of the individual 
 manhood with the gentle feelings of a common 
 brotherhood; here is the much needed anti- 
 dote to that envy of rivalry, which is the pe- 
 culiar danger of a popular community, where 
 the separation of classes is not determined by 
 law or caste, and where all are competitors for 
 equal honours or success. These, and like these, 
 are the indirect influences of the Sabbath, sur- 
 rounding the character and pressing like the 
 atmosphere ujDon every inch of it. It throws 
 over the robust form of the political character 
 the grace of a social charm, and smooths the 
 ruggedness of personal independence with that 
 best of good l^reeding, viz, the inl^red kind- 
 ness of brotherhood and charity. Of all these 
 benefits, then, the mental, the moral and the 
 social, may not the Christian Sabbath claim 
 
 the maternity ''i I do not disparage other 
 12 
 
266 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 su23posable means and agencies for effecting 
 tliese results, nor do I draw any comparison of 
 advantage witli tliem. It is enougli to know 
 that the positive, if not the singular power, 
 of the Sabbath, has been fairly stated. If so, 
 it is but an equivalent statement to say, that 
 to the purity and stability of a popular gov- 
 ernment the Sabbath is absolutely indispensa- 
 ble. And from this statement there is but a 
 single step to the practical conclusion, that 
 among us the Sabbath ought to be maintained 
 as a national institute, a power of the state 
 expressing the civic form of religion ; the fixed 
 confession of the nation's allegiance to Him 
 who is King of other kings, and Lord of all 
 other lords. 
 
 Pardon me, then, for a few remaining words 
 touching the methods for its maintenance. The 
 first and most obvious of these is the requisi- 
 tion to be made by the public upon the public, 
 that the Sabbath, when kept, shall be kept 
 holy. It were a fallacy in logic, and a perver- 
 sion in morals, to claim that the Sabbath shall 
 be a festival, and not a sacred festival. The 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 267 
 
 same authority that prescribes the appoint- 
 ment, covers likewise its conditions. Nay, the 
 very pith and emphasis of the appointment is 
 concentrated in the one word '' holy." If man 
 were only an animal, with no moral activities 
 and capacities for evil, it might be enough to 
 prescribe a stated rest of one day in seven, as 
 a mere sanatory provision for the recruiting of 
 his physical j)owers ; and the result, as shown 
 by experience, would be a large economy of 
 life and of labour. But when with all his sus- 
 ceptibilities, mental, moral and social, you tura 
 him loose from labour at stated intervals upon 
 a world of unregulated excitements, with no 
 object suited to the day but the negative one 
 of doing no work : then you turn the day of 
 grace and moral health into a season of temp- 
 tation. You throw down the moral barriers 
 with w^hich even the work of the week day 
 screens his nature against wickedness, and you 
 make him accessible at every point of his char- 
 acter to all the surrounding influences of evil. 
 The inevitable result will be, that all the mor- 
 al power of the Sabbath will be transmuted to 
 
268 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 evil, on the principle tliat whatever is most ef- 
 fective for good becomes by perversion propor- 
 tionately bad ; on the principle that an arch- 
 ano-el mined becomes the chief of the fiends. 
 The Sabbath thus becomes a Saturnalia ; the 
 day of rest, a day of idleness ; the Devil's holi- 
 day with the idle man for his playfellow. 
 
 The Sabbath, therefore, must be maintained 
 as a public institute in the integrity of its sa- 
 credness, and its first safeguard is the protec- 
 tion of the laws. Although the constitutionality 
 of the Sabbath is no longer an open question, 
 yet the extent to which fresh legislation may 
 be carried is, and has been, a matter of con- 
 test. No doubt the genius of our system 
 would dictate extreme caution in the way of 
 the positive enforcement of Sabbath duties. 
 Yet, since the whole presumption of law and 
 precedent is in favour of the Sabbath as an ex- 
 isting religious institute, there would seem to 
 be no reason why a negative and defensive 
 legislation may not be most stringent and per- 
 emptory, saving the liberty of the individual 
 conscience by not exacting a personal worship ; 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 269 
 
 but saving, too, the purity of the public con- 
 science by forbidding the open desecration of 
 the public worshipping day. There may be at 
 least a legislative prohibition of such amuse- 
 ments and revelries as amount to a moral nui- 
 sance. There may be at least a bar placed ujv 
 on that moral dishonesty which robs God of 
 the seventh, when he has already given us the 
 six days of life. The community owes to itself, 
 as an act of self-preservation, such conservative 
 legislation as this. The people owe it to their 
 fathers, in maintaining their legacy of a free 
 government, to cling likewise to those vital 
 conditions of the bequest, which were the first 
 cost of the possession, and are now its main 
 security. 
 
 If opposition should arise from a part of the 
 population born and bred under another polit- 
 ical sky, who would plant in our soil their 
 exotic ideas of national morality and popular 
 rights, let our legislation be as an appeal to 
 their modesty to enjoy our jmvileges without 
 invading our proprieties. Let them not wrong 
 the warm-hearted welcome to our political 
 
270 CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 houseliold, by disturbing tlie order and peace 
 of the family. 
 
 Another safeguard of the Sabbath may be 
 found in the diligent use of the system of Sun- 
 day Schools. Let the children of recusant 
 foreigners be gathered from all quarters to be 
 taught and trained for a Christian life, and with 
 the next generation the anti-Sabbath virus will 
 be purged from the body politic, and we shall 
 all be religiously as well as nationally American. 
 
 And not to multiply expedients, let all those 
 who cherish the Sabbath as a national institute 
 to be kept holy to the Lord, extend their per- 
 sonal i'uiluence, negative and positive, to its 
 thorough and due observance. Kemember the 
 holiness of its afternoon as well as of its morn- 
 ing. Do not attempt, by the worship of the 
 church, to buy an indulgence for the revelries 
 of the dining-room. Do not select God's 
 festival time for man's feasting time. Do not 
 make the social duty of hospitality override 
 the divine duty of communion with God. Let 
 every family that believes in the Sabbath live 
 as becomes their faith. 
 
CIVIL RELATIONS OF THE SABBATH. 271 
 
 Let the domestic Sabbatli T)e kept, and the 
 national Sabbath will not be destroyed. Holy 
 homes will make a holy nation, chosen of the 
 Lord, and honourable. In virtue of that fixed 
 law of the universe by which the meek inherit 
 the earth ; the law which draws temporal 
 blessings in the train of moral well-doing as 
 the waters close in and follow the wake of the 
 ship — by that law, guaranteed by God's prom- 
 ise, it will happen that the nation " will be 
 exalted to ride u23on the high places of the 
 earth," receiving the tribute of acknowledg- 
 ment from all the earth, that a fi^ee government 
 is the crown and perfection of man's civil exist- 
 ence. And it shall " be fed with the heritage 
 of Jacob ;" an influence and power of blessing 
 whose dominion shall be universal, " from sea 
 to sea and from the river to the ends of the 
 earth," and lasting as the covenant of God. 
 " For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
 
ROBERT CARTER & BRO'S 
 
 fJEALTH; Five Lay Sermons to Work- 
 ing People. By John Brown, M. D., Author of " Rab 
 and his Friends." Limped Cloth, i6mo, . . ^30 
 
 "In his cordial, outspoken, and often rolicking manner, the author of 'Eab 
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 T'HE SUPERNATURAL IN RELA- 
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 D. D. izmo, ...... $1.25 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
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Carters' Catalogne. 
 
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Carters' Catalog xae. 
 
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Carters' Catalogne. 
 
 XHE POSTMAN'S BAG, and other 
 
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 ROUGHING IT WITH ALECK 
 
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 i8mo. 12 cuts, ....... 50 
 
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Carters' Catulosrvie 
 
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 " Be persuaded, reader, to get this beautiful volume. It is just the book for 
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 LIFE WORK ; OR, THE LINK AND 
 
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Carters' Catalogoie. 
 
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 "Few of those who have contributed to the religions litcriitnre of onr day- 
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 like the sunsets on the mountains of Israel." 
 
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 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
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 vol., 32mo, pocket edition. 
 
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 LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN 
 
 ANGELL JAMES, including an unfinished Autobiog- 
 raphy. Edited by Rev. R. W. Dale. 8vo, . . 2. 
 
 "This work is one of the most interesting of its kind that we have ever met 
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 impulses. Next to communing with such a man as Mr. James, the study of his 
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 CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON 
 
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 THE EPHESIANS, By John Eadie, LL.D. 8to, 3.00 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
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