UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 274 313 
 
 THE SABBATH 
 
 M.C.BRIGGS.D.D. 
 
i/r 
 
THE SABBATH, 
 
 WHAT-WHY-HOW. 
 
 DAY-REASONS-MODE. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. C. BRIGGS, D.D. 
 
 NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 
 
 CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & STOWE. 
 
 18*8 
 
Copyright, 1888, by 
 
 M. C. BRIGGS, D.D.> 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 ' 
 
KEEP THE SABBATH: WHICH? WHY? How? 
 
 rrjv -fjfjiepav ra)v capfiaTuv ayia&iv CLVTTJV. 
 
 Remember the day of the sabbaths to hallow it Fourth 
 command in the Septuagint. 
 
 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted 
 for you: MI the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall 
 wave it. 
 
 Oijje tie aaflflaTuv, rr) TTi<f>uoK.ovGT) Big fiLav oaflfiarw, rjTiQe 
 Mapia r/ M.aydahr)vrj, nai f] O^TJ Mapia, deupqaai rov ratiov. 
 
 After the end of the sabbaths [of the now superseded dis- 
 pensation] as it began to dawn toward the first of the sabbaths, 
 came Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sep- 
 ulcher. Matt, xxviii, 1. 
 
 in nnDfcoj n^ nlrr nb>y Di s rrnr, 
 
 This is the day Jehovah hath made ; we rejoice and are glad 
 in it. Psa. cxviii, 24. 
 
 But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common 
 assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having 
 wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, 
 and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the 
 dead. Justin Martyr. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 WITHIN the domain of Christian insti- 
 tutes and ethics the Sabbath holds a 
 vital place. All questions relative to the day 
 and the uses of the day command the attention 
 of the thoughtful. Our controversy is not 
 chiefly with the ardent advocates of a Saturday- 
 Sabbath. These zealous people, students of sta- 
 tistics tell us, amount to a fraction less than 
 seven tenths of one per cent, of the population. 
 Their energy, liberality in denominational out- 
 lays, instancy in season and out of season in 
 propagating their doctrines, and fidelity to 
 their Sabbatarian convictions, are to be com- 
 mended. One only regrets that their influence 
 is not brought to bear in support of the true 
 Sabbath. Their genius of interpretation espe- 
 cially that of the Saturday-Sabbath adventists 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 illustrates itself in specific results which must 
 counterwork each other, such as formal feet- 
 washing (now well-nigh abandoned, I believe), 
 the denial of Christ's divinity, the utter and 
 contemptuous rejection of a supersensuous nature, 
 a soul or spirit in man, and the annihilation of the 
 wicked. Small neighborhoods and narrowly 
 individuals will be diggtratod by the busy and 
 well-meant obtrusiveness of these people ; but no 
 imminent peril to Christian truth need be an- 
 ticipated from a sect which begins with Judaism 
 and ends with naked materialism. A sect 
 which has no stated commemoration of the 
 grand certifying fact of the Gospel, the egersis 
 of the crucified Redeemer, will not long and 
 to any great extent rob the world of the " lively 
 hope" to which we have been " begotten by the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
 A far greater peril menaces Christianity from 
 another quarter. The indifference of multi- 
 tudes of the professed friends of the Sabbath ; 
 the ignorance of other multitudes of its grounds 
 and claims; the puerile pretenses for seculariz- 
 
PREFACE. 1 
 
 ing the day ; the facility of guilty compromises ; 
 the pompous formality ; the pride of display ; 
 the sensationalism miscalled "preaching;" the 
 needless and thoughtless Sunday travel ; the self- 
 accommodating ministerial exchanges ; the Sun- 
 day pleasure-seeking ; the feeble excuses offered 
 for voluntary absence from the house of God ; 
 the social visiting^ the open profanation of the 
 Lord's day by excursion-trains to camp-meet- 
 ings, and advertised preaching in places of 
 irreligious resort ; the putting forth of the doc- 
 trine of expediency, or precedent, or temporal 
 benefits, or apostolic example, or patristic usage, 
 as the only " authority" for Sabbath-keeping 
 these are counts in an indictment of many 
 church members, and some ministers, whose ex- 
 ample is a thousand times more damaging to 
 the Church's influence and the Sabbath's proper 
 sanctification than Saturday-Sabbathism and 
 open-mouthed infidelity in all their shapes and 
 names and moods and tenses. Here lies the 
 cause of my alarm and the chief reason for this in- 
 trusion upon the attention of the Christian public. 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 Without pretense of scholarship, or ambition 
 for authorship, or special qualifications of any 
 sort, I have patiently traced the Sabbath through 
 the Hebrew Scriptures, and through the Greek 
 of the Septuagint and the New Testament, and 
 have reached conclusions which, with profound 
 deference, are herein submitted to Christian 
 scholars and to all devout students of the Word 
 of God. 
 
 That there has been a progressive interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture, keeping pace with the de- 
 veloping needs of men and the crises of ex- 
 perience, none will deny. Hence it sometimes 
 comes to pass that an inferior intelligence, under 
 pressure, catches glimpses and gleams of truth 
 which have eluded the scrutiny of abler minds. 
 Many an accepted exposition is but the suitably- 
 worded consensus of the realizations of the 
 struggling, hoping, trusting, praying, poor. 
 Truth, like liberty, is the child of storms. Trial, 
 like darkness, 
 
 " shows us worlds of light 
 We never saw by day." 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 It has long been clear to me that, without a 
 distinct recognition of its divine and law-clothed 
 authority, the Sabbath would not be able to 
 hold its place against the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil. It has been equally clear that, in 
 the language of the Pastoral Report of the 
 great Methodist Centennial Conference, "a 
 spiritual Church without a Sabbath is an impos- 
 sibility." To borrow words from the report 
 concerning moral questions, submitted to that 
 same Conference, I am profoundly convinced 
 that " we cannot expect the world to keep the 
 Sabbath holy if the Church of God fails to do 
 it. If the Church desert her own altars it is in 
 vain that we call wicked men to gather about 
 them." I have beheld with wonder, pity, 
 and alarm the growing looseness of views and 
 practices with respect to the day, and have been 
 impelled to search the Scriptures with all prac- 
 ticable diligence, to find an authoritative ex- 
 pression of the mind of the Lord. 
 
 Most phases of the Sabbath question have 
 been discussed with an ability which cannot be 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 exceeded, and a fullness which leaves nothing to 
 be supplied. But there is an argument which 
 I do not find in any of the twenty odd works, 
 small and large, within my reach, and which (I 
 am almost frightened to say) is to my mind the 
 one conclusive argument that, in the end, must 
 close the debate. It is purely scriptural, and 
 does not need the support of collaterals. 
 
 In the following pages I undertake to do these 
 nine things : 
 
 First. To show a commanding probability 
 that the Sun's-day of the Sabean idolatry which 
 prevailed in all the nations of the East was the 
 perverted primeval Sabbath. 
 
 Second. To prove that the Hebrews, at the 
 time of the Exodus, were worshipers of the 
 Egyptain Sun-god Osiris, symbolized by Apis, 
 the golden bull. 
 
 Third. To prove that the day of the Hebrews' 
 toilsome march from Eameses to Succoth was 
 made the initial of an exceptional weekly Sab- 
 bath, set back one day from the perverted 
 primeval Sabbath, and belonging to this pecul- 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 iar people alone, and during their preparatory 
 history. 
 
 Fourth. To prove that the Sabbath is a sa- 
 cred proper name by which God designates a day 
 set apart for holy uses, and means more than 
 rest, or seventh, or week, or all of them together ; 
 and any day to which the name is applied by 
 divine authority is a holy day. 
 
 Fifth. To prove that the Hebrews had a 
 Sabbath out of the septenary order, and yet as 
 binding and as much under the force of the 
 Sabbath law as the weekly day. 
 
 Sixth. To prove that the Decalogue is con- 
 stitutional and universal law, while the Hebrew 
 statutes and ceremonials are by their very terms 
 restricted to one peculiar people, and must 
 have surceased with the dispensation of which 
 they formed important features. 
 
 Seventh. To prove that the fourth command- 
 ment is irrepealable on any other supposition 
 than that the entire Decalogue is repealed. 
 
 Eighth. To prove that the fourth command- 
 ment is the law of a movable festival, is obey- 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 able every-where, and demands an ordinal and 
 relative usual and convenient seventh part of time 
 in every longitude and latitude, and not an ab- 
 solute seventh in astronomical and septenary 
 identity from the time and place of the original 
 institution. 
 
 Ninth. To prove that the day of our Lord's 
 resurrection from the dead was made and named 
 the first of the Sabbaths, as being the restora- 
 tion of the relative primeval Sabbath, and first 
 by pre-eminence, as being commemorative of the 
 grand certifying fact on which the scheme of 
 redemption is pivoted. 
 
 If these propositions are adequately sustained, 
 controversy is at an end. The Sabbath will ap- 
 pear as agreeable to the wisdom and beneficence 
 of God, as necessary to the welfare of mankind, 
 and as imperative upon the conscience as when 
 the law was given at Sinai. 
 
 To forestall the frequent use of Hebrew and 
 Greek type I give here the words which will 
 oftenest occur, together with the spelling and 
 sense in English. 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 From the Hebrew are the following : 
 Shabbath Sabbath. 
 Shabbathon Solemn rest. 
 
 Mimmaharath Hashabbath The 
 morrow after the Sabbath. 
 Shabua Week. 
 Shebii Seventh. 
 From the Greek : 
 
 2a/3j3arov aa/30ara Sabbath Sabbaths. 
 2af3(3aT(*)v Sabbaton of Sabbaths genitive 
 plural. 
 
 TTJS enavpiov ro)v oapparuv The morrow of 
 the Sabbaths. 
 
 'Ej3do^o Hebdomos Seventh, week. 
 Mia Mia One First by priority or pre- 
 eminence. 
 'Hiiepa Day. 
 
 Let no one infer from frequent references to 
 the originals that he must understand Hebrew 
 and Greek before he can settle his views on the 
 Sabbath question. Any thoughtful reader who 
 will follow the argument with his English 
 Bible in hand may reach perfectly satisfactory 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 conclusions. To have quoted all the passages 
 referred to would greatly have swollen the vol- 
 ume. I have therefore assumed that all who 
 are interested in this grave discussion have 
 Bibles, and will use them according to citations. 
 It is desirable not only to reach safe conclusions, 
 but also to know the steps by which we reach 
 them. The satisfaction will well repay the toil. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE SABBATH, ITS INSTITUTION, ITS PERVERSION INTO 
 THE DAY OP THE SUN, ITS DEGRADATION TO SUN- 
 WORSHIP 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE MEANING OF THE NAME SABBATH 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXODUS THE REVISED CALENDAR THE NEW 
 
 SABBATH 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE SABBATH LAW 60 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE LAW OF THE SABBATH 70 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 A CHANGE OF SABBATH FORETOLD AND FORESHADOWED. Si 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH MADE THE FORESHADOWED 
 
 CHANGE, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT CERTIFIED IT 101 
 
16 . CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PATRISTIC TESTIMONY AND USAGE 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 OPINIONS OF WISE MEN 145 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE GROUNDS AND CLAIMS OP A CIVIL SABBATH. 152 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 PREVALENT ABUSES OP THE SABBATH 170 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 RIGHT USES OP THE SABBATH 179 
 
THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ITS INSTITUTION ITS PERVERSION INTO SUNDAY 
 AND DEGRADATION TO SUN WORSHIP. 
 
 rpHE SABBATH, like marriage, ,was in- 
 J[ stituted in the time of man's innocency, 
 and is as essential as marriage to the right 
 ordering of human life. Such are the laws and 
 limitations of the human understanding that 
 any species of knowledge lying outside the in- 
 tuitive and sensuous must be preserved and pro- 
 mulgated by means of set times and institutes 
 of instruction. The knowledge of God could 
 not have been perpetuated, even in a sinless 
 race much less in a race blinded and alienated 
 by sin without a perpetually recurring day for 
 bringing to remembrance the work, rest, will, 
 and character of Him who upholdeth all things 
 by the word of his power. 
 
18 THE SABBATH. 
 
 The divine record is brief and explicit. " The 
 heavens and the earth were finished, and all the 
 host of them. And on the seventh [Septuagint, 
 etcrri, kekte, sixth] day God finished the work 
 which he had made. And he rested on the sev- 
 enth day from all his work which he had made. 
 And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed 
 it, because that in it he rested from all his work 
 which God had created and made." Gen. ii, 1-3. 
 Here is the memorial rest-day, synchronizing 
 with the dawn of human history and undergird- 
 ing the life of man. The Sabbath and our race 
 began their career together. 
 
 The next express notice of the day occurs 
 twenty-five hundred years later Exod. xvi, 23 ; 
 where Moses speaks of it in a way to suggest 
 that the idea was familiar to men. The fre- 
 quent references to God's rest at creation as 
 the ground reason on which the Sabbatic insti- 
 tute stands, considered in connection with the 
 word of our Lord that " the Sabbath was made 
 for man," man generic, to meet a fundamental 
 and universal need of his nature and life, renders 
 it every way*- improbable that the race was left 
 
THE SABBATH. 19 
 
 to wander down the centuries, from Eden to 
 the Wilderness of Sin, ignorant of an institution 
 designed by infinite beneficence for the highest 
 good of body, heart, and home. 
 
 The proposition that the Sabbath was known 
 in the infancy of the race receives strong sup- 
 port from the universal prevalence of the sep- 
 tenary division of time. Such a division is 
 arbitrary, as not being suggested by any thing 
 in nature, and not being anticipable on grounds 
 of physical and societary benefits, which, in the 
 nature of the case, must be learned by expe- 
 rience ; yet it appears to have prevailed so gen- 
 erally as to preclude the hypothesis of accident 
 and to demand a rational theory of explanation. 
 
 There are supposed scriptural allusions to 
 the weekly period, at a very early date, such as 
 Gen. viii, 10-12. From his measuring time by 
 sevens it is inferred that the weekly order must 
 have been accepted in JSToah's time. " The end 
 of the days," when Cain and Abel " brought 
 their offerings unto the Lord," Gen. iv, 3, 4, has 
 been supposed to indicate a periodic day for 
 worship. More clearly, " The day [" the day 
 
20 THE SABBATH. 
 
 is" Young's translation] when the sons of God 
 came to present themselves before the Lord" 
 was, and is, the hallowed day. Job i, 6 ; ii, 1. 
 
 This theory is strongly supported again by 
 the fact that all the heathen nations held to the 
 same division of time, with a superior or sacred 
 day as a conspicuous feature of the calendar. 
 This fact we learn from Homer, Hesiod, Her- 
 odotus, and other ancient writers. Philo, the 
 Jewish philospher of Alexandria, says without 
 qualification : " The Sabbath is not a festival 
 peculiar to any people or country, but is com- 
 mon to the whole world." Laplace has this 
 strikingly philosophic statement : " The week is, 
 perhaps, the most incontestable monument of 
 human knowledge. It appears to point out a 
 common source whence that knowledge pro- 
 ceeded." It is certain beyond attempt at con- 
 tradiction that the septenary division prevailed 
 among Egyptians, Phenicians, Babylonians, As- 
 syrians, Greeks, Italians, Celts, and Indians. 
 Chaldean cuneiform characters show a weekly 
 rest-day, the name of which bears a striking 
 likeness to the Hebrew Sabbath, and means "a 
 
THE SABBATH. 21 
 
 rest of the heart." That the Hebrews measured 
 time by weeks, before Moses, is proved by Gen. 
 xxix, 27, 28. 
 
 That the Sabean idolatry the adoration of the 
 heavenly bodies was the first formulated idol- 
 atry of the race is strongly supported by the 
 judgment of scholars. That it was very ancient 
 does not admit of doubt. Job acquits himself 
 of any suspicion of thus denying " The God 
 that is above." Job, xxxi, 26-28. It is certain 
 that the worship of the sun, as the creator, pre- 
 server, and fructifyer, pre vailed , among the 
 nations of the East as far back as dim glimpses 
 can be obtained of prehistoric ages. When the 
 worship of the true God faded from men's 
 minds it was a natural transition that the at- 
 tributes and offices of the Creator should be 
 transferred to the most conspicuous and power- 
 ful natural object, and equally natural, if not 
 an inevitable sequence, that the periodic day of 
 special divine worship should become the day 
 of the sun. It is unquestionable that sun- 
 worship was the chief religion of most ancient 
 nations, under many images and names, such as 
 
22 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Bel, Belus, Baal, Rah, Mnevis, Osiris, Helias, 
 and Apollo. So widely prevalent a religious 
 usage presupposes a real or assumed authorita- 
 tive origin of a purer worship perverted into 
 this fascinating idolatry. Thus there is every 
 philosophic probability that when the worship 
 of the living God was degraded into the adora- 
 tion of the sun the day divinely appointed to 
 be hallowed became the sun's day. 
 
 For the purposes of the present argument I 
 am concerned only with sun-worship and Sun- 
 day in Egypt, at and near the time of the 
 Exodus. 
 
 It is needless -to enter upon an extended ac- 
 count of whatever of truth or fable has come 
 down to our time respecting the gods and god- 
 desses who are supposed to have held supreme 
 sway in the land of the Nile long before any 
 recorded dynasty. Long before the Pharaohs, 
 Ptah and Keith Sun-god and consort were su- 
 perseded in Lower Egypt by Ra (Phra) the su- 
 preme God of the sun. Indeed, the Pharaohs 
 took their royal name from Phra, on account 
 of some fancied relation which they bore to 
 
THE SABBATH. 23 
 
 " the King of the gods." The gods of Upper 
 Egypt bore different names, but were Sabean 
 divinities ; and likeness of functions caused a 
 gradual amalgamation of the pantheons of the 
 two great provinces of ancient Mizraim, as shown 
 by such compound titles as Ammon-Ka. This 
 at least is clear: that before the Exodus two 
 great potentates, Osiris, and Isis male and fe- 
 male ruled the worship of Egypt, as Herodotus 
 affirms, " from the mouth^of the Nile to Elephan- 
 tine." For convenient reference to a fuller ac- 
 count see Christ and Other Masters, by Hard- 
 wick, pp. 418-451. 
 
 At the time of Joseph's enslavement the 
 capital of Egypt was Heliopolis, the ancient On 
 or Aon, the City of the Sun, as both names 
 signify. It was situated on the eastern bank of 
 the Nile, north of Memphis, six or eight miles 
 from Cairo. It was " the Eome and Oxford of 
 Egypt," the center of its military pomp and 
 power. The two highest of the privileged 
 classes were the priestly and the military. Every 
 king must belong to one or the other; and to 
 marry into a priestly family was to be admitted 
 
24 TEE SABBATR 
 
 to the highest social elevation. This honor 
 Pharaoh conferred upon Joseph by giving him 
 to wife Asenath > the da&ghter of the priest 
 (probably high or chief priest) of On. Gen, 
 xli,4:5v 
 
 From such facts It wmild appear that the only 
 rational explanation to be given of the universal 
 veneration for Sunday is that that day was the 
 perverted primeval Sabbath. This was the faith 
 of the early Christian Church,, as I shall have 
 occasion to show in place. But evidence strong 
 as proof of Holy Writ is f und in the fact that 
 all the evangelists and the apostles to the 
 Gentiles eaH Sunday, the day of Resurrection, 
 "the first of the Sabbaths." Indeed, resurrec- 
 tion-day is called nothing but Sabbath, save in 
 the one instance in which St. John names it the 
 Lord's day. The truth of these statements I 
 hope to demonstrate in the proper place. 
 
 Here, then, we find Joseph and his family and 
 their descendants in a nation of sun-worshipers, 
 whose great religious day was the day of the 
 sun. The industrial system of that then thrifty 
 and powerful people must have crystallised about 
 
THE SABBATH. 25 
 
 their day of general public worship. Yet in all 
 the history of the Hebrews' day of favor and 
 power, and of their dark years of oppression and 
 enslavement, there occurs not an intimation of a 
 conflict of opinion and usage between them and 
 the Egyptians with respect to the sacred day of 
 the week. It cannot be assumed that the sons of 
 Jacob, in the earlier periods of their sojourn, 
 worshiped the golden bull, Osiris, in the temples 
 of the sun. And it is almost as improbable that 
 they could have deranged the economy of labor, 
 in a land where idleness was a crime punished 
 with expatriation, by worshiping on a different 
 day, without some mention being made of so 
 disturbing a custom. It is far more rational to 
 infer, in keeping with considerations already 
 advanced, that the Israelites worshiped the God 
 of their fathers on the same day that the Egyp- 
 tians adored the chief luminary of our system. 
 
 That in later centuries, as we approach the 
 Exode, the Hebrews, enslaved and debased, wor- 
 shiped the chief divinity of their masters on 
 their masters' day, is commandingly probable in 
 the light of the following considerations : 
 
26 THE SABBATH. 
 
 1. It is in accord with human nature that 
 bondmen, for fear, conviction, and the hope of 
 favor, should accept the religion of their masters. 
 Witness the fact that negro slaves in the South 
 were Catholic or Protestant according to the 
 faith of their owners and overseers. 
 
 2. It is not in accord with human nature to 
 suppose that their task-masters indulged the 
 Israelitish brick-makers with an exceptional day 
 for worship, thus encouraging disrespect toward 
 the religion of the nation and deranging the 
 industrial economy of the country. Pharaoh 
 was angered when Moses and Aaron called the 
 elders from their work for consultation, and 
 fiercely commanded them back to their task. 
 
 3. Among the complaints uttered by the 
 enslaved people not a word is said about the 
 deprivation of Sabbatic privileges. 
 
 4. These are strong grounds of inference. 
 But that, at the time of the Exodus, they were 
 long-accustomed sun-worshipers, and that they 
 adored the deified orb in the golden bull, Apis, 
 the symbol of Osiris, is demonstrated by their 
 conduct at Horeb. Moses was longer out of sight 
 
THE SABBATH. 27 
 
 than suited the habit of this people, who lived 
 chiefly in their eyes and ears and stomachs, and 
 they asked Aaron to make them a god to go be- 
 fore them. He promptly molded and graved a 
 golden calf egel, a young bullock, a small Apis 
 and built an altar before it. Immediately the 
 multitude began to bring their offerings and to 
 dance about the image in a way so accustomed, 
 so familiar and obviously habitual, as to preclude 
 the thought that it was a new service. Reflect 
 that this people had been three months under 
 divine guidance, witnesses of mighty miracles, 
 and that it was Aaron, Moses's brother, their 
 chief elder, who fashioned the " god of Egypt ; " 
 and can any one possessed of the power of 
 thought doubt that when Aaron "turned them 
 loose," in the language of the Revised Version, 
 they eagerly returned to an idolatry to which 
 they had long been habituated ? The transition 
 was too sudden, the descent from a true religion 
 too great, and the manner too expert to admit of 
 any other explanation. (See Exod. xxxii, 1-24.) 
 Deut. ix, 16: "And I looked, and, behold, ye 
 had sinned against the LORD your God, and had 
 
28 THE SABBATH. 
 
 made you a molten calf : ye had turned aside 
 quickly out of the way which the LOKD had 
 commanded you." Neh. ix, 18 : " Yea, when 
 they had made them a molten calf, and said, 
 This is thy God that brought thee up out of 
 Egypt, and had wrought great provocations." 
 
 Lest there should be found a reader endowed 
 with that prodigious incredulity which is " credu- 
 - lity gone to seed," let me add the explicit con- 
 firmation of the sacred word. Josh, xxiv, 14 : 
 " T Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him 
 in sincerity and in truth ; and put away the gods 
 which your fathers served on the other side of 
 the flood, and in Egypt ; and serve ye the LOKD." 
 Ezek. xx, 5-9.: "And say unto them, Thus saith 
 the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, 
 and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the 
 house of Jacob, and made myself known unto 
 them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up 
 mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LOKD 
 your God ; in the day that I lifted up mine hand 
 unto them, to bring them forth of the land of 
 Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, 
 flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory 
 
THE SABBATH. 29 
 
 of all lands : then said I unto them,.Cast ye away 
 every man the abominations of hig eyes, and 
 defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt : I 
 am the LOKD your God. But they rebelled 
 against me, and would not hearken unto me: 
 they did not every man cast away the abomina- 
 tions of their eyes, neither did they forsake the 
 idols of Egypt : then I said, I will pour out my 
 fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against 
 them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I 
 wrought for my name's sake, that it should not 
 be polluted before the heathen, among whom 
 they were, in whose sight I made myself known 
 unto them, in bringing them forth out of the 
 land of Egypt." Ezek. xxiii, 3. Psa. cvi, 19-21 : 
 " They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the 
 molten image. Thus they changed their glory 
 into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 
 They forgat God their Saviour, which had done 
 great things in Egypt." Acts vii, 41, 42 : " And 
 they made a calf in those days, and offered 
 sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works 
 of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave 
 them up to worship the host of heaven." 
 
30 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE MEANING OF THE NAME SABBATH. 
 
 f f r~pHE term Sabbath is transferred from the 
 JL Hebrew, and means rest." So Buck, 
 Calmet, Smith, and others. A few authors 
 attempt to emphasize the assumption by adding, 
 " Nothing more." 
 
 A man of very humble attainments ought to 
 dissent from such higli authorities, if dissent he 
 must, with extreme deference. It has cost me 
 as well it might much study, self -searching, and 
 close thinking, to become bold enough to ques- 
 tion the venerable proposition as untenable ; but 
 necessity is upon me, and I cannot do otherwise. 
 
 If Sabbath is Hebrew must we not trace its 
 use in the Hebrew Scriptures to ascertain its 
 meaning? Turning to this line of inquiry, we 
 are forced to the conclusion that Sabbath does 
 not carry rest as its only, or even its paramount, 
 
T11E SABBATH. 31 
 
 meaning. Eest is a resultant sense, arising from 
 its relation to the more vital uses of the day. It 
 is a condition necessary to the fulfillment of the 
 higher uses of the weekly worship-day. 
 
 If Sabbath means rest only, it must impress 
 us as anomalous that the word is so severely 
 restricted to one use, and has no synonyms or 
 interchangeable terms. The Hebrew has other 
 words to express every shade of rest, such as 
 manoach, Psa. cxvi, 7 ; menuchah, Psa. xcv, 11 ; 
 PugaJi, Lev. ii, 18 ; margoa, Jer. vi, 16 ; but 
 none of these is ever employed as a substitute. 
 Shabbathon is a technic used exclusively to 
 qualify Shabbath, and carrying the sense of 
 solemn rest. (See Exod. xvi, 23.) 
 
 If Sabbath means rest only, then the man who 
 suspends exertion and consults ease keeps it, and 
 he who slumbers most keeps it best. But is it 
 possible seriously to think that such a use fills 
 the scriptural intent? An ox keeps its con- 
 sequent Sabbath by browsing in the meadows 
 and ruminating in the shade. A man profanes 
 the day by resting only. 
 
 If Sabbath means rest only, how are we to 
 
32 THE SABBATH. 
 
 justify the tautology of the Hebrew in employ- 
 ing another word Shdtihathon to express rest 
 as a qualifier of the very name rest? As 
 samples see Exod. xvi, 23 : Shabbathon Shab- 
 bath-godesh, u holy rest of the Sabbath, sacred 
 to Jehovah." Exod. xxxi, 15: "The Sab- 
 bath of solemn rest, sacred to the Lord." Lev. 
 xxiii, 32 : " A Sabbath of rest." Lev. xxv, 4 : 
 "A Sabbath of rest unto the land" (A. V.). 
 Must we accept a rest of rest a rest of the holy 
 rest a holy rest of the rest, as the word of the 
 Lord ? Inevitably so, if Sabbath means rest only, 
 or chiefly. 
 
 The use of the verb Shabath, so far as it sheds 
 light, confirms the assumption that Sabbath 
 means much more than rest. Thus Gen. ii, 2, 
 and in six other places, substantially, " He rested 
 on the seventh day." Conceding that the sev- 
 enth day was the Sabbath, we have here again 
 the awkward tautology of resting on the rest. 
 It is well to notice in this connection that Shab- 
 ath, to rest, like Shabbathon^ is used only in con- 
 nection with the appointed day of worship. 
 Let it also be noted in passing that the Septua- 
 
THE SABBATH. 33 
 
 gint renders Gen. ii, 2, KareTravas rrj rjfjiepa TTJ e/3- 
 6op,i], Katepause te hemera te hebdome ; ef. Exod. 
 xii, 15, 16 ; xiii, 6; xvi, 26, 27, 29, 30 ; xx, 10, 
 and many other places, where it will be observed 
 that both the Hebrew and the Greek keep up 
 a marked distinction between the rest and the 
 day. If Sabbath meant rest simply, it could 
 be adjoined to any other day as well as to the 
 seventh. 
 
 If Sabbath means rest only how are we to ex- 
 plain the preparation of the show-bread, the 
 offering of double sacrifices, the labors of the 
 great choir and orchestra, and the laborious 
 reading and expounding of the prophets and the 
 law on that day ? 
 
 Possibly some one is ready to ask if there 
 could be a Sabbath without rest in the sense of 
 the suspension of secular toil. No ! But there 
 could be a thousand rests in that sense without a 
 Sabbath. Such rests may occur on the seventh . 
 day, and yet amount only to a desecration. If 
 man were animal only that sort of rest would 
 meet his necessities, as it does those of the lower 
 
 orders of life. If man has a supersensuous 
 3 
 
34 THE SABBATH. 
 
 nature, a soul, a spirit, proper Sabbath-keeping 
 for him must involve and engage his higher pow- 
 ers, relations, and duties. He cannot keep the 
 sacred day holy by idling or sleeping. 
 
 That Sabbath means more than rest is strongly 
 supported by the better rendering which the 
 Revised Version of the Old Testament gives to 
 Shabbathon, namely, a solemn rest. This fact I 
 have already anticipated. 
 
 For additional references see Lev. xvi, 31 ; 
 xxiii, 3 ; xxv, 4, 5 ; Exod. xxxv, 2. 
 
 Sabbath carries the sense of seventh which 
 has sometimes been claimed as an inseparable 
 meaning much as it carries rest, as an accidence 
 of signification. Seventh supervenes upon the 
 law of periodicity. A seventh has no more in- 
 herent virtue than a sixth or a fifth. It is an 
 incident of the ordinal succession of days. It is 
 a day which follows the sixth day of labor. It 
 is " every seventh day, not the seventh day in 
 exact astronomical order dies septenus, not dies 
 Septimus" (Dr. Schaff). Hence we could not 
 substitute a tenth, or eighth, or twelfth. It is 
 every recurring seventh convenient and ordinary 
 
THE SABBATH. 35 
 
 division of time, in every part of the globe 
 
 where men live and die. 
 
 v 
 
 The Sabbath was founded on a septenary di- 
 vision of duration. Few will attempt to main- 
 tain that the days of creation were solar days. 
 Yet the law of periodicity, the physical, mental, 
 and spiritual needs of human kind, and the 
 fundamental convenience of society would make 
 it a solar day in those latitudes where most of 
 our race dwell. There -was something natural, 
 therefore, in the erroneous rendering which The- 
 ophilus mentions to Autolycus : " Most know 
 not," says he, " that what among the Hebrews 
 is called the Sabbath is translated into Greek 
 the ' seventh' (ipfafidfy a name which is adopted 
 by every nation, although they know not the 
 reason of the appellation." 
 
 If Sabbath means seventh we have again a 
 
 cumbersome and meaningless reduplication of 
 
 terms in both" the Hebrew and the Greek. 
 
 [any times shebii is connected with Sabbath for 
 
 iesignation. See as samples Exod. xvi, 26 : " Six 
 
 days ye shall gather it ; but on the seventh day, 
 
 which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." 
 
36 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Exod. xx, 10. " But the seventh day is the Sab- 
 bath of the LOKD thy God : in it thou shalt not 
 do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- 
 ter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor 
 thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy 
 gates." 
 
 Lev. xxiii, 3. " Six days shall work be done : 
 but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a 
 holy convocation : ye shall do no work therein: 
 it is the Sabbath of the LOKD in all your dwell- 
 ings." 
 
 In all such constructions the theory that Sab- 
 bath means seventh (hebdomas) encounters the 
 absurdity of the seventh seventh; the seventh 
 day is the seventh day, etc. But I scarcely 
 needed to refute a theory which has no very able 
 supporters. ' Yet a weak theory may harm the 
 weak. 
 
 Nothing favorable to the assumption with 
 which we are just now dealing can be rationally 
 inferred from the fact that Sabbath usually 
 marked the weekly division of time. I say usually, 
 because it sometimes marked divisions of years ; 
 and in one instance, at least, it was an annual 
 
THE SABBATH. . 37 
 
 day, wholly out of the septenary order, as I shall 
 have occasion to show. True, from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath was usually a week. So from Tuesday 
 to Tuesday, or Sunday to Sunday, is a week. 
 The Greek appears to have no specific word for 
 week, and therefore uses hebdomas, from eTrra, 
 hepta, seven. The Hebrew uniformly uses sha- 
 ~bua, not Shabbath, nor Shabbathon, for week. 
 See Gen. xxix, 27. "Fulfil her week and we 
 will give thee this also for the service which thou 
 shalt serve with me yet seven other years." 
 
 Exod. xxxiv, 22. " And thou shalt observe the 
 feast of weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat har- 
 vest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's 
 end." 
 
 Num. xxviii, 26. " Also in the day of the first- 
 fruits, when ye bring a new meat-offering unto 
 the LOED, after your weeks be out, ye shall have 
 a holy convocation ; ye shall do no servile work." 
 
 Deut. xvi, 9. " Seven weeks shalt thou num- 
 ber unto thee : begin to number the seven weeks 
 from such time as thou beginnest to put the 
 sickle to the .corn." 
 
 2 Chron. viii, 13. " Even after a certain rate 
 
38 THE SABBATH. 
 
 every day, offering according to the command- 
 ment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new 
 moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in 
 the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, 
 and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of 
 tabernacles." 
 
 Jer. v, 24. " Neither say they in their heart, 
 
 Let us now fear the LOED our God, that giveth 
 
 rain, both the former and the latter, in his sea- 
 
 * son : he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks 
 
 of the harvest." 
 
 Dan. ix, 27. " And he shall confirm the cove- 
 nant with many for one week : and in the midst 
 of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the 
 oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of 
 abominations he shall make it desolate, even un- 
 til the consummation, and that determined shall 
 be poured upon the desolate." 
 
 The Greek New Testament employs terms 
 with perfect discrimination, using hebdomas only 
 twice Heb. iv, 4 and that by way of quota- 
 tion from Gen. ii, 2, where the Hebrew uses 
 yom hashbii, day seventh. In all other places, 
 sixty-eight in number, it gives the proper name. 
 
THE SABBATH. 39 
 
 Sabbaton, and always as the sacred rest-day (or 
 year) of the Old Dispensation or the New. 
 
 I have already incidentally answered the as- 
 sumption that Sabbath means week. 'A little 
 reflection will convince us that this theory carries 
 its advocates into inextricable absurdities. If 
 the embarrassments of the case have not occurred 
 to the reader let him substitute week for Sab- 
 bath in a few passages and be convinced. 
 
 SABBATH IS THE SACRED PROPER NAME OF A 
 MOVABLE FESTIVAL. 
 
 I am now prepared to support the proposition 
 that Sabbath is a sacred proper name, used ex- 
 clusively, when not applied to the year or the 
 land, to designate a day set apart and consecrated 
 to the suspension of physical labor in order 
 to the edification of the spirit by the devout 
 memorial study of God's works, word, and ways. 
 The verbal noun Sabbatismos, in Heb. iv, 9, is 
 not an exception. It expresses a Sabbatism, a 
 full, active, adoring rest in the world to come, 
 when time-Sabbaths shall have ended with the 
 
40 .THE S ABB ATE. 
 
 human probation in and for which they are vital 
 and most beneficent provisions. 
 
 Sabbath occurs one hundred and three times 
 in the Old Testament, and its equivalent Greek 
 term one hundred times in the Septuagint, and 
 sixty-eight times in the New Testament. And 
 in all cases, save the nine which relate to years 
 and the land (and figuratively thare), it is a sa- 
 cred proper name, of which neither seventh, nor 
 rest, nor week, nor all of them together, can be 
 accepted as an adequate translation. It needs 
 only an intelligent tracing of the term through 
 the Hebrew Scriptures, or, for that matter, 
 through our English Version, to put its proper 
 meaning and office beyond rational doubt. Sab- 
 'baton and its inflections maybe followed through 
 the Septuagint and the New Testament with 
 like results. 
 
 The curious reader may have noticed the re- 
 mark that the Septuagint translation of the He- 
 brew Scriptures is said above to employ the 
 name Sabbath three less times than the original 
 which it translates. It may be well to explain 
 this, slight and only disagreement All of the 
 
THE SABBATH. . 41 
 
 instances occur in Lev. xxiii, 11, 15, and 16. 
 The Passover Sabbath was the 15th of Nisan, 
 Mimmaharoth Hashabbath the morrow after 
 the Sabbath the Jew was to bring the sheaf of 
 first-fruits to the priest, to be waved before the 
 LORD in token of gratitude. The Greek has 
 re erravpiov rr)g TrpuTrfcte epaurion tes protes the 
 morrow after the first that is, the first day of the 
 beginning of the feast, which would be the 16th 
 of Msan, corresponding with our Sunday. 
 Greel^, rrjg enavpiov ruv aa(3l3ara)v the morrow 
 of the Sabbaths. In verse 16 we have r^ enav- 
 piov rrjs eo%ar?7^ tes epaurion tes eschates the 
 morrow after the last that is, the last day of the 
 feast; esehates, last, being relative to protes, first. 
 The third case is verse 15, last clause ; " seven 
 sevens " in the Greek. 
 
 King James's Version gains two Sabbaths by 
 mistranslation of Skabbathon, in Lev. xxiii, 39, 
 which error the Revised Version corrects. 
 
 For the convenience of such readers as may 
 not have access to complete concordances of the 
 Hebrew and Greek, or of the English, which 
 could answer, and yet may wish to make a 
 
42 THE SABBATH. 
 
 thorough personal examination, I give here a list 
 of all the passages which contain the name Sab- 
 bath. 
 
 In the Hebrew, Shabbath may be found one 
 hundred and three times, as follows : 
 
 Exod. xvi, 23, 25, 26, 29 ; xx, 8, 10, 11 ; xxxi, 
 13, 14, 15 2 , 16 ; xxxv, 2, 3. lev. xvi, 31 ; xix, 3, 30 ; 
 xxiii, 3 2 , 11, 15 2 , 16, 32 2 , 88; xxiv, 8; xxv, 2, 4, 
 6, 8 2 ; xxvi, 2, 34 2 , 35, 43. Num. xv, 32 ; xxviii, 
 9, 10. Dent, v, 12, 14, 15. 2 Kings, iv, 23 ; xi, 
 5, 7, 9 2 ; xvi, 18. 1 Chron. ix, 32 ; xxiii, 31. 
 2 Chron. ii, 4 ; viii, 13 ; xxiii, 4, 8 2 ; xxxi, 3 ; 
 xxxvi, 21. Neh. ix, 14; x, 31 2 , 33; xiii, 15 2 , 
 16, 17, 18, 19 3 , 21, 22. Psa. xcii, (title). Isa. i, 
 13; Ivi, 4; Iviii, 13 2 ; Ixvi, 23. Jer. xvii, 21, 
 22 2 , 24, 27 2 . Lam. ii, 6. Ezek. xx, 12, 13, 16, 
 20, 21, 24; xxii, 8, 26; xxiii, 38; xliv, 24; xlv, 
 17; xlvi, 1, 3, 4, 12. Hos. ii, 11. Amos, viii, 5. 
 The Septuagint follows the Hebrew except in 
 the places designate 1. 
 
 To all who have followed the preceding rea- 
 sonings and traced out the citations it must be 
 apparent that there is a distinction between the 
 essential Sabbath and the day of its celebration, 
 
THE SABBATH. . 43 
 
 as there is between American independence and 
 Independence day. If God had consecrated the 
 sixth or eighth day to Sabbath uses, as the initial 
 of a perpetual recurrence, it would have been as 
 sacred as the seventh. It is clear, therefore, that 
 a transfer of Sabbath to the eighth or first day, 
 if done by competent authority, would in no 
 manner or degree abrogate or infract the Sab- 
 bath law, nor necessitate any modification of its 
 terms, " Remember the sabbath day to keep 
 it holy" would be as fitting an enjoinment of the 
 duty as though no change had been made. The 
 Septuagint has, fjivrjo^n TTJV fyepav ruv oapparuv 
 dyia&iv av-sv Remember the day of the Sab- 
 laths to hallow it. The Jews had more Sab- 
 baths than one. The holiest of all their Sabbaths, 
 as I shall show in place, occurred but once a 
 year, and was wholly out of the septenary order. 
 Yet the law applied as forcefully to that as to 
 the other. 
 
44 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXODUS THE REVISED CALENDAR THE 
 NEW SABBATH. 
 
 we now to the Exodus. Here was an 
 \j ignorant, debased people to be led out of 
 bondage and planted in a world-center, to be- 
 come the custodian of the light of lights to the 
 nations. These slaves were the children of 
 promise. To them were to pertain the adoption 
 and the glory and the covenants and the giving 
 of the law and the promises. Theirs were the 
 fathers, and of them, as pertaining to the flesh, 
 CHRIST was to come. To human eyes they were 
 an unpromising race for such a mission ; but 
 God's promise to Abraham could not fail of ful- 
 fillment. These rude and stiff-necked people 
 must be recovered from idolatry, and awed and 
 terrified, surprised and melted into a just appre- 
 hension of the supremacy of the living God. 
 "What a work ! And how was it to be accom- 
 
THE SABBATH. 45 
 
 plislied ? God always deals with men according 
 to the laws of their life. The u fullness of the 
 time " could not come otherwise than by ages of 
 prophecies, providences, proofs, and experiences. 
 How, then, could the prerequisite reformation 
 of this horde of Hebrew helots be effected ? 
 
 First of all, Moses was fitted for leadership. 
 Possibly in the archives of the court he had 
 traced the record of Joseph and had become 
 fired with some as yet vague purpose of deliver- 
 ance for his kindred. Noble and self-forgetting 
 as he was, his strong nature needed forty years 
 amid the mountains of Midian, in sacred inti- 
 macy with the God of his fathers to bring his 
 lofty and imperious spirit into adoring harmony 
 with the supreme will. 
 
 Then the cupidity, tyranny, and pride of 
 power of Pharaoh and his subjects were to be 
 overcome. Judgment followed judgment in 
 awful and resistless procession, till the death of 
 the first-born in palace and hovel extorted a 
 mighty cry of anguish," mingled with which was 
 a prayer to the Hebrews to depart quickly out of 
 the land. 
 
46 THE SABBATH. 
 
 It must be assumed that many items and inci- 
 dents of preparation failed of record. Here were 
 " six hundred thousand that were men, besides 
 children," and here were " very much cattle and 
 a mixed multitude " to accompany and compli- 
 cate the march. Such a multitude could never 
 have moved in spontaneous order without a 
 miracle greater than the dividing of the sea. 
 Doubtless " the rulers and elders of the people " 
 had been assigned their places and well instructed 
 in their several parts. A great amount of quiet 
 preparation must have preceded the actual out- 
 starting. Thus the awful night of the passover 
 found every thing in readiness. With girded 
 loins and staves in hand the people waited for the 
 first streak of dawn and the w r ord of command. 
 
 Association is strong. Habit is a chain of 
 steel. This people must be effectually separated 
 from the old life ; from temple, altar, set days, 
 and all the concomitants of sun-worship. Sab- 
 eanism prevailed not only in Egypt, but, as 
 Maimonides affirms, " had filled the whole world." 
 They would encounter it among the tribes 
 through which they passed and in the land to 
 
THE SABBATH. " 47 
 
 which they were going. Dr. Watson and many 
 others of the learned think that the Zabii (Sabe- 
 ans) " were probably the first corrupters of the 
 patriarchal religion." The taint of this seductive 
 idolatry was in the air. Every tie which bound 
 the Israelites to this infatuating worship must be 
 severed, and the chosen keepers-in-trust of the 
 divine oracles must be set apart like an island in 
 the sea. For this purpose they needed a new 
 order of months and a new beginning of their 
 year. Such a counteractive and educating re-ad- 
 justment of the calendar was one of the methods 
 resorted to by divine wisdom. The seventh 
 month of the Egyptian year was made the first 
 of the Hebrew. Exod. xii, 1, 2 : " And the LORD 
 spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of 
 Egypt, saying, This month shall le unto you the 
 beginning of months : it shall be the first month 
 of the year to you." Exod. xiii, 4 : " This day 
 came ye out in the month Abib." Deut. xvi, 1 : 
 " Observe the month of Abib, and keep the 
 passover unto the LOKD thy God : for in the 
 month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee 
 forth out of Egypt by night." 
 
48 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Abib exchanged places with Tisri and thence- 
 forth became the first month of the Hebrew 
 sacred year. Reverently speaking, what a stroke 
 of divine policy was that ! This strange people, 
 destined to stand alone in all the earth, had not 
 so much as a yearly calendar in common with 
 surrounding nations. They were, indeed, to be 
 a " peculiar people." But that feature of hea- 
 thenism which was most ensnaring, because fullest 
 of suggestions of the all-prevalent sun-worship, 
 was the corrupted primeval Sabbath, the Sunday 
 of idolatrous devotion. If the order of months 
 needed to be changed, how immeasurably more 
 this day, so pregnant with evil ! Should 
 Israel, already tainted with idolatry, march 
 through and past tribes and nations on a new 
 mission, toward a new land, with a new first 
 month and a new year, and carry the old Sab- 
 bath, now Sunday, rife with vile solicitations 
 and furnishing a wide door of contact with all 
 that was most prevalent and pernicious ? To an 
 unbiased inquirer the supposition is an impeach- 
 ment of the wisdom of their divine Deliverer. 
 There was the strongest anterior probability that 
 
THE SABBATH. 49 
 
 he who was about to lead them out of bondage 
 and pollution would give them a new Sabbath 
 to complete their new environment, thus closing 
 the doors of heathen temples against their re- 
 entry. Under the laws of human thought this 
 last expedient would appear most essential of all. 
 
 THE DAY OF THE EXODE WAS MADE THE SAB- 
 BATH OF THE HEBREWS. 
 
 On the night of the 14th of Abib the anxious, 
 hopeful supper of the passover was eaten. Exod, 
 xii, 6, 8 : " And ye shall keep it up until the 
 fourteenth day of the same month: and the 
 whole assembly of the congregation of Israel 
 shall kill it in the evening. And they shall eat 
 the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and un- 
 leavened bread ; and with bitter herbs they shall 
 eat it." And the ready host stood waiting for 
 the dawn. " This is that night of the LOED to 
 be observed of all the children of Israel in their 
 generations." Exod. xii, 42. And because of 
 its solemn interest and memorial significance 
 they were to commemorate it by beginning their 
 Sabbath, unlike Sundays and civil days, in the 
 
50 THE SABBATH. 
 
 evening instead of midnight or morning. This 
 was another mark of their complete setting apart 
 among the nations, as was their worshiping 
 with faces toward the west, in tabernacle and 
 temple, instead of toward the east as sun- worship- 
 ers did. 
 
 The command to go forward on the morning 
 of the 15th of Abib was God's proclamation of 
 emancipation, and the day of their deliverance 
 was the day of days. Nations monument their 
 great days. It is wise in them. The commem- 
 orative celebration of epochal days is a valuable 
 method of instruction. Surely such an event as 
 the deliverance ' of a whole people from intol- 
 erable bondage could not fail to be memorialized 
 by the people of whose history it formed so 
 signal a part. 
 
 The time and fact of the exode were cele- 
 brated by the great annual feast of the passover, 
 as also by the perpetual memorial observance of 
 the day of their departure from Rameses as the 
 Israelitish Sabbath. Exod. xiii, 3, 4, 8 : " And 
 Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, 
 in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the 
 
THE SABBATH. 51 
 
 house of bondage ; for by strength of hand the 
 LORD brought you out from this place: there 
 shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day 
 came ye out in the month Abib. And thou shalt 
 show thy son in that day, saying, This is done 
 because of that which the LOKD did unto 
 me when I came forth out of Egypt." (Exod. 
 xxiii, 15) : " Thou shalt keep the feast of 
 unleavened bread : thou shalt eat unleavened 
 bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the 
 time appointed of the month Abib ; for in it 
 thou earnest out from Egypt : and none shall 
 appear before me empty." Exod. xxxiv, 18 : 
 " The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. 
 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as 
 I commanded thee, in the time of the month 
 Abib : for in the month Abib thou earnest out 
 from Egypt." Num. xxxiii, 3 : " And they de- 
 parted from Kameses in the first month, on the 
 fifteenth day of the first month ; on the morrow 
 after the passover the children of Israel went out 
 with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyp- 
 tians." At midnight of Abib 14 the first-born 
 were smitten. All day of the fifteenth the great 
 
52 THE SABBATH. 
 
 host, burdened with baggage, cumbered with 
 flocks and herds, even " very much cattle," toiled 
 on toward Succoth, without taking time to rest 
 or cook food. Yet this same fifteenth of Abib 
 w^as evei^ after a Sabbath of holy rest, the initial 
 of a perpetually recurring weekly commemora- 
 tion of their deliverance. The Sabbath was to 
 be an ever-recurring reminder that it was God 
 who sanctified them set them apart from the 
 nations. See also Deut. v, 15 : " And remember 
 that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, 
 and that the LOKD thy God brought thee out 
 hence through a mighty hand and by a stretched- 
 out arm : therefore the * LORD thy God com- 
 manded thee to keep the sabbath day." This 
 reason could apply to no other people. 
 
 - Was this the Sabbath which they had been 
 used to observe ? Or did God give them a dis- 
 tinctive Sabbath ? Happily there are two points 
 of a^g^ment between our Saturday-Sabbath 
 brethren and ourselves. First, we agree that the 
 children of Israel made their first day's march 
 on the 15th day of Abib. Second, we agree 
 that this was Saturn's day, which ever after was 
 
THE SABBATH. . 53 
 
 the Hebrew Sabbath. The only question in de- 
 bate is, Was this a Sabbath which they had pre- 
 viously kept, or was it made a Sabbath to them 
 as an exceptional and peculiar people ? Satur- 
 day-Sabbath writers strenuously maintain that it 
 was the patriarchal Sabbath, the pristine seventh 
 day, the only Sabbath ever given to mankind. 
 
 We think we have already shown cogent and 
 conclusive reasons for rejecting the Saturday- 
 Sabbath theory. The thoughtful reader needs 
 only to remind himself that the Egyptians were 
 sun-worshipers centuries before the time of 
 Joseph ; they were sun- worshipers when Jacob 
 and his other sons settled in the land ; there is 
 nowhere an intimation of contrariety of views as 
 to the day specially set apart for public worship ; 
 it is a fair inference that the Hebrews worshiped 
 God and the Egyptians Osiris on the same day ; 
 this agreement became a necessity when the 
 Hebrews multiplied, even under Egyptian task- 
 masters, and fell into the order of Egyptian in- 
 dustrial life ; at the time of the exode the Israel- 
 ites had been long enslaved and were deeply 
 debased ; it took forty years of miracles, chas- 
 
54 THE SABBATH. 
 
 tisements, and elaborate instruction, and finally 
 the extinction of all but two of the entire adult 
 population which came out of Egypt, to prepare 
 them to be trusted in Canaan; Aaron, their 
 chief elder, made the golden calf, and the people 
 hastened to worship it. Add to these reasons, 
 stated in a former chapter, the fact that, if the 
 idolatrous Hebrews distinguished Saturn's day 
 at all it was, in every probability, to observe the 
 feast of Saturn, the most loathsome of all the 
 heathen feasts. Also the fact that the confusion 
 of the rulers and people with respect to the first 
 Sabbath-keeping in the Wilderness of Sin indi- 
 cates that the day was new to them. Exod. xvi, 
 22-29 : " See, for that the LORD hath given you 
 the [a] sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the 
 sixth day the bread of two days : " v. 29. It 
 is obvious from the history that there was a re- 
 centness about it. Had that Sabbath been a long 
 and sacredly familiar day such differences would 
 have been impossible. Also add that three of 
 the reasons assigned for keeping the Sabbath, 
 namely, 1. To commemorate the new covenant 
 made with them in Horeb. Deut. v, 2, 3 : " The 
 
THE SABBATH. 55 
 
 LORD our God made a covenant with us in Ho- 
 reb. The LORD made not this covenant with 
 our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of 
 us here alive this day." 2. To remind them 
 perpetually that God had sanctified or set them 
 apart from other peoples. Exod. xxxi, 13: 
 " Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, 
 saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep : for it 
 is a sign between me and you throughout your 
 generations ; that ye may know that I am the 
 LOKD that doth sanctify you." 3. To celebrate 
 their deliverance from slavery. Deut. v, 15 : 
 " And remember that thou wast a servant in the 
 land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God 
 brought thee out thence through a mighty hand 
 and by a stretched-out arm : therefore the LORD 
 thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath 
 day." These reasons could apply to no other 
 people. Finally, for the present, reflect that if 
 the 15th of Abib was their holy day, their Shdb- 
 bath Shabbathon, before the Exodus, as it was 
 ever after, not only were new reasons assigned 
 for recognizing its obligation, but God com- 
 manded the most conspicuous desecration of his 
 
56 THE SABBATH. 
 
 own appointed: Sabbath that human history re- 
 cords. See that immense concourse, sweating 
 under their heavy burdens, driving their flocks 
 and herds,, surging like a sea, with much more 
 than the noise of a marching army of a million 
 men, and say if you ean persuade yourself to be- 
 lieve that God ordered all this to take place on 
 the day in which men were not to do their own 
 work, nor seek their own pleasure,, nor speak 
 their own words, nor think their own thoughts ! 
 Men, women, children, servants, cattle were to 
 rest on GkxTs, Sabbath,, in order that, his worship 
 might engage the undistracted mind of alL Put 
 this law and use of the day side by side with a 
 divine command to march r carry kneading- 
 trough^ and driv/ji'te- stock through all the weary 
 day ! 
 
 Let me r at this point, direct attention more 
 specifically to a Sabbath out of the septenary 
 order, alluded to on preceding pages. "We have 
 already seen that the word Sabbath carries 
 seventh only as an ordinal incident of meaning. 
 Those who choose to turn to Lev. xxiii, 27-32> 
 will see that the tenth day of the seventh month 
 
THE SABBATH. 57 
 
 (Tisri), the great day of atonement, was to be 
 Shabbath Shabbathon, a Sabbath of solemn rest, 
 throughout their generations. The Septuagint 
 renders the name Sabbata Sdbbaton the Sab- 
 bath of Sabbaths. In the Hebrew calendar, as 
 revised at the Exodus, the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22d, 
 and 29th of the seventh month, as of the first, 
 were always Sabbaths. Here, then, is a specially 
 enjoined Sabbath occurring between the 8th 
 and the 15th, which were septenary Sabbaths, five 
 days before the Migra-godesh, the holy con- 
 vocation which introduced the feast of taber- 
 nacles. This great fact, while it refutes the 
 notion that seventh is an inseparable sense of 
 Sabbath, shows with the utmost clearness that 
 any day to which God applies the name has all 
 possible sacredness and lawfulness. 
 
 A little above it is stated that Abib (Nisan 
 after the great captivity) and Tisri have the 
 same number of days and Sabbaths in the same 
 order. For the reader's convenience I will 
 transcribe the Mosaic calendar, giving the Sab- 
 baths in every month. 
 
58 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 THE MOSAIC CALENDAR. 
 
 1. Abib-Nisan (Nissan) has Sabbaths. . . 
 2 Zif-Ijar (lyar) 
 
 1 
 
 ft 
 
 8 
 IS 
 
 15 
 90 
 
 12 
 
 27 
 
 29 
 
 3 Sivan 
 
 
 11 
 
 18 
 
 95 
 
 
 4 Thammuz (Tarnuz) 
 
 9 
 
 q 
 
 16 
 
 93 
 
 SO 
 
 5 Ab (Av) 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 2H 
 
 
 6. EM (Elool) 
 
 5 
 
 1? 
 
 19 
 
 96 
 
 
 7 Tisri-Ethanim (Tishru) 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 29 
 
 9 9 
 
 8. Bul-Marchesvan (Chesvan) 
 
 6 
 
 IS 
 
 ?0 
 
 97 
 
 
 9 Caslen (Kislev) 
 
 /I 
 
 11 
 
 18 
 
 ?5 
 
 
 10. Thebet (Tevise) , 
 
 ?, 
 
 q 
 
 16 
 
 9'-} 
 
 80 
 
 11. Sliebet (Shevat) 
 
 7 
 
 "M 
 
 ?! 
 
 98 
 
 
 12. Adar 
 
 5 
 
 1? 
 
 19 
 
 96 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elul, the sixth, of the Mosaic calendar, has 
 thirty-two days; Adar, the last month of the 
 sacred year, has thirty-two or thirty-nine days. 
 In the latter case, it has five Sabbaths, the fifth 
 of which occurs on the thirty-third. 
 
 The foregoing table I transcribe from a 
 valuable work entitled The Christian Sabbath, 
 Viewed in the Light of Scripture, Chronology, 
 and History, and the Claims of Sabbatarians 
 Shown to be Untenable. By Eev. D. B. Byers, 
 with an introduction by Bishop Dubs, D.D. ; 
 published by W. F. Schneider, 214-220 Wood- 
 land Avenue, Cleveland, O. I give in parentheses 
 the more modern Jewish spelling of the names. 
 
THE SABBATH. 59 
 
 It will be seen that the first and seventh 
 months begin with the Sabbaths, have the same 
 number of Sabbaths and Sabbaths falling nec- 
 essarily on the same days. The first day of the 
 passover was always a Sabbath, and always fell 
 on the fifteenth of Abib. The first day of the 
 feast of tabernacles was also Sabbath, and 
 always fell on the fifteenth of Tizri. These 
 feasts and the distinctive Sabbaths associated 
 with them were confined to one people in their 
 preparatory history, and passed away, as to any 
 obligation which they conveyed, with the dis- 
 pensation of which they were parts. 
 
60 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 THE SABBATH LAW. 
 
 I HE AETILY indorse the strongest sentences, 
 on both sides of this controversy, with respect 
 to the universal need, practicability, educative 
 utility, sacredness, and perpetual obligation of 
 the Sabbath. The knowledge of God cannot be 
 perpetuated without such a day, nor can vital 
 godliness flourish where it is lightly esteemed. 
 The Church is to-day suffering serious enfeeble- 
 ment for want of a well-kept Sabbath. The 
 institute is for man as man. It would have been 
 needed had our first parents and their posterity 
 continued in innocency. It is absolutely indis- 
 pensable now. But an institution so necessary to 
 human weal, yet so often crossing to greed and 
 the love of pleasure, could not be left to caprice 
 or "the light of nature." Its experienced and 
 proclaimed physical, mental, moral, social, do- 
 
THE SABBATH. 61 
 
 mestic, and political benefits do not deter men 
 from desecration. The " Continental Sabbath" 
 much better than. none is a striking proof of 
 the need of the distinct recognition of the 
 authority of underlying law. In all human 
 experience on the high plane of Christianity law 
 must assert itself, and prepare the way, before 
 love will supersede the demand for its enforce- 
 ment. There must be a Sabbath law. The need 
 is profound, beneficent, universal, imperative. 
 
 WHERE SHALL WE FIND IT? 
 
 Let us recall the sublime mission and divine 
 guardianship of the Hebrews. Doubtless many 
 things important to them, but not requisite to 
 show " the footprints of God in human history," 
 do not appear in the record. Only the great 
 particulars are given. Glance at these. At 
 midnight the death-blast swept through all the 
 dwellings of the Egyptians. At dawn the 
 Hebrews commenced their journey. The line of 
 march was marked out for them. From Rameses 
 to Succoth ; from Succoth to Etham in the edge 
 of the wilderness ; from Etham they turned again 
 
62 THE SABBATH. 
 
 unto Pihahiroth, " which is before Baalzephon," 
 and "pitched before Migdol," near the sea. 
 Here they discovered that they were pursued, 
 and here the sea was divided. 
 
 It has been inconclusively argued that the 
 fleeing host rested a whole day at Succoth for 
 purposes of Sabbath-keeping and thankful sacri- 
 fices. From this assumption is drawn the infer- 
 ence that the sixteenth of Abib was the Sunday 
 of the Egyptians and the patriarchal Sabbath of 
 the Hebrews. The large element of speculation 
 renders this argument valueless for sober pur- 
 poses of proof. The fact that the sixteenth was 
 Sunday is not disputed. But, that fact con- 
 ceded, the question remains broadly open 
 whether the one party would have postponed 
 their angry pursuit, or the other their alarmed 
 flight, on that account. And the theory that the 
 Hebrews tarried at Succoth to sanctify a proper 
 patriarchal Sabbath, besides being wholly gratu- 
 itous, is negated by the certainty already estab- 
 lished that, up to that time, they had kept 
 Sabbath only as the sun's-day. The incident of 
 their baking bread from the dough brought in 
 
THE SABBATH. 63 
 
 their kneading-troughs from Rameses was simply 
 a matter of sumptuary necessity. 
 
 The fugitives had journeyed at least three 
 days, with whatever intervals of rest, before 
 their pursuers came in sight. Num. xxxiii, 3-8. 
 It must be remembered that the Egyptians had 
 their dead to bury, even "all their first-born 
 which the Lord had smitten among them ; " then 
 to get " six hundred chosen chariots, and all the 
 chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of 
 them, and all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, 
 and his horsemen and his army " into marching 
 array. They must have been in eager and wrath- 
 ful haste, to pursue so soon. The king thought 
 he had his runaways hemmed in by the wilder- 
 ness and the sea, and by great expedition he 
 might capture them near home. In such an 
 exigence it is not probable that either party 
 suspended exertion for a worship-day. 
 
 What a scheme of object-teaching God pro- 
 vided for this people! After the divided sea 
 came Mara, manna, Eephidim, and the great 
 victory over Amalek. What a destiny must be 
 in prospect for a people under such tutelage ! 
 
64 THE SABBATH. 
 
 At length, on the fifteenth of the third month, 
 they came into the wilderness of Sinai. Here 
 they received such communications and beheld 
 such wonders as were never before vouchsafed to 
 man. Here were given them minute directions 
 for building, furnishing, and frequenting their 
 tabernacle; the order and manner of their an- 
 nual feasts ; statutes and judgments for the reg- 
 ulation of their lives ; directions concerning the 
 tribes and nations they w r ere to pass or, encounter ; 
 specified penalties for a long list of offenses; 
 promises of special providential interpositions in 
 the exigencies of the journey they had under- 
 taken; the ordination of a priesthood and the 
 appointment of sacrifices and sacred vestments 
 all of which ceased when Christ entered into the 
 Holy of Holies by his own blood, and became 
 our High-priest in heaven and an instructive 
 but burdensome code of ceremonial law, which 
 lost its significance when Jesus died and rose 
 again. These statutes, judgments, and ordinances 
 were adapted to the condition and mission of 
 this one people, and could not be made to fit any 
 other. They were of the nature of special legis- 
 
THE SABBATH. 65 
 
 lation. See Exod. xxiv to xxxii ; also parallel 
 chapters in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. 
 
 It is too obvious to require argument that 
 many of these statutory regulations were wise, 
 timely, and practicable only for this one people, 
 and were destined to pass away with the dispen- 
 sation to which they appertained. But there was 
 a body of CONSTITUTIONAL LAW committed to 
 Israel in trust for all mankind. This code was 
 not written by Moses on parchment or papyrus, 
 but by the finger of God on tables of stone. 
 The Ten Words, Ten Commandments, Decalogue, 
 is applicable to all people in all times. It is fun- 
 damentally necessary to the order and happiness 
 of the race in all lands, under all changes of gov- 
 ernment, laws, language, and education. The 
 great nations have recognized its vital value and 
 builded their systems of jurisprudence upon it. 
 Its philosophy, breadth, and completeness are the 
 wonder and admiration of the wise. It is unlike 
 the statutory and ceremonial codes in that it- 
 postulates no particular people, is limited by its 
 relations to no particular dispensation, commands 
 no sacrifices or ceremonial observances adjusted 
 
66 THE SABBATH. 
 
 to a particular chapter of history, has no penal- 
 ties attached, and in its structural plan is incon- 
 testably framed for universal use. 
 
 In this code we find : 
 
 First. The recognition of one God. This 
 unifies truth, science, righteousness. 
 
 Second. The non-use of images. This fore- 
 stalls the debasement of worship, the ignobleness 
 of idolatry, and the degradation of mind. 
 
 Third. The reverential use of the Divine 
 Name. This prevents the lightness and blas- 
 phemy which tend to impair and destroy the 
 sense of the majesty, holiness, glory, presence, 
 and power of the Almighty. 
 
 Fourth. A day in perpetual recurrence, spe- 
 cially devoted to the perpetuation and spread of 
 the knowledge of God, his works, will, and provi- 
 dence, to be preceded by six days of labor. 
 
 Fifth. Respect and obedience toward parents. 
 This is the best safeguard of domestic peace and 
 civil loyalty and good citizenship. 
 
 Sixth. Murder and all that leads to murder, 
 the taking of the life out of life, is forbidden. 
 
 Seventh. The invasion of connubial sanctity 
 
THE SABBATH. 67 
 
 and indulgence in all sexual impurity are for- 
 bidden. 
 
 Eighth. The prohibition of the unpermitted 
 and uncompensated appropriation of what is 
 another's. 
 
 Ninth. False witness forbidden. 
 
 Tenth. Covetousness, "which is idolatry," is 
 interdicted. 
 
 A close study of the Decalogue will convince 
 the reader that, while every command is in itself 
 indispensable to a high civilization, every one is 
 also necessary to the full use of every other. 
 But the Fourth is so related to all the others 
 that they stand or fall with it. Without a 
 periodic day sacred to appropriate teaching| the 
 knowledge of God would soon be lost, and idol- 
 atry and crushing superstitions reign. Thus with- 
 out a Sabbath the three preceding precepts of the 
 First Table would be unavailing for good. It is 
 equally clear that, as to their import and effec- 
 tiveness, the Sabbath is an essential condition also 
 of the fulfillment of the six precepts of the Sec- 
 ond Table, which regulate the conduct of man 
 toward man. The knowledge of duty must pre- 
 
68 THE SABBATH. 
 
 cede its performance ? and how shall they hear 
 without a teacher? And how shall one teach 
 without a time and opportunity ? 
 
 The fourth commandment, then, is the nexus 
 which unites the three preceding precepts, which 
 look Godward, and the six following, which look 
 manward, into a symmetrical whole, thus bring- 
 ing God and man into relation under a covenant 
 of law. The loss of it would be the direst calam- 
 ity, and the abuse of it is flagrant unwisdom and 
 blind misanthropy. The notion that it is of the 
 nature of a Hebrew statute and has expired by 
 limitation, appears to me as mischievous as it is 
 baseless. Its repeal would be the virtual repeal 
 of the Decalogue. 
 
 Here, then, we find the SABBATH LAW, a law 
 as unchangeable as the nature of man and the 
 beneficence of God. It is the core of the CON- 
 STITUTION of constitutions. It is a vital part of 
 the basis of free government, the charter of 
 human rights, the matrix of aggressive and be- 
 neficent civilizations. The life to which the 
 fourth commandment leads is the right life. 
 Any day to which this commandment applies is 
 
THE SABBATH: 69 
 
 a true Sabbath of the beast's rest, the toiler's 
 respite, the rich man's recall from worldliness, 
 the home's reunion and delights, the sanctuary's 
 resounding praise and ennobling worship. With 
 the Hebrews it applied to the day of their escape 
 from Egypt in perpetual septenary recurrence, 
 and not less to the tenth day of the seventh 
 month. Both these Sabbaths were new and 
 national, yet they rested under the full force of 
 the Sabbath law. If at any time and for any 
 reason it has pleased God to restore the pristine 
 Sabbath, or put Sabbath sanctity upon another 
 day, that, too, is covered by all the sacred sanc- 
 tity which the law conveys. That if the day is 
 changed the law must be changed, is a fallacy so 
 obvious as scarcely to escape the imputation of 
 puerility. 
 
70 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 THE LAW OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 WE have the Sabbath law. JsTow what is 
 the law of the Sabbath ? The law exists 
 in form only until we reach a true interpretation. 
 Our inquiry is, therefore, of the essence of the 
 controversy. If the repeal of the fourth com- 
 mandment would be, practically and in effect, 
 the repeal of the Decalogue, it is vain to think 
 of maintaining a holy Sabbath by inference, con- 
 venience, physical benefits, public decency, pa- 
 tristic example, or what not. Where there is no 
 law there is no transgression. License never 
 leads the wild horse into harness nor the sinner 
 to righteousness. Law must impel till love con- 
 strains. "What, then, are the contents of the 
 law of the Sabbath ? 
 
 First, it requires six days of labor honest, 
 virtuous, useful labor. The lawgiver cannot 
 demand or approve work the legitimate effect of 
 
THE SABBATH*. 71 
 
 which is harmful. The man who follows an evil 
 business counterworks the spirit of the whole 
 law. The idler breaks the Sabbath law through 
 all the work-days of the week, however sancti- 
 moniously lie may treat the Sabbath. Six days 
 of well-directed toil every week are enough for 
 all the authentic needs of society in the highest 
 advancement. 
 
 After six days of labor comes the day of rest. 
 To the beast of burden it is physical rest. To 
 the man it is rest of body and mind, spiritual re- 
 freshment, and opportunity to increase his 
 knowledge of divine things. This is a universal 
 law, because it meets a universal need. "Lex 
 stat dum ratio manet." If a universal law, 
 obedience must be practicable in every latitude 
 and longitude. It must also be possible for plain 
 minds to understand it. Wherever there are 
 solar days to regulate industrial life, there the 
 law plainly requires that every seventh day should 
 be set apart as sacred to devout uses. This is 
 true in England, China, America. Yet the 
 devout in these several countries do not keep, 
 and practically cannot keep, the identical twenty- 
 
72 THE SABBATH. 
 
 four hours which make the same day in exact 
 astronomical series. To do this is practically im- 
 possible ; first, for the reason that no man knows 
 the starting-point, and, second, the shape of the 
 planet makes such a construction of the law un- 
 reasonable in the last degree. Saturday-Sabbath 
 writers wrestle bravely with this insuperable 
 obstacle to their exposition, but utterly in vain. 
 The Outlook, the ablest of Saturday-Sabbath 
 periodicals, and J. N. Andrews, author of His- 
 tory of the Sabbath and First of the Week both 
 works as acute as any on that side pass it over 
 glibly with the statement that the natural course 
 of peopling the planet is with the course of the 
 sun, from east to west, and that commerce has 
 agreed upon a line of longitude where the day 
 shall change ; and it is a pity if religion cannot 
 do as much as commerce ! The reader must not 
 take offense at the flippancy of such an inconse- 
 quent evasion. The writers named, and some 
 others of the same school, are really keen, capa- 
 ble men. They have done the very best that 
 could be done without abandoning their theory. 
 The explanation of so utter a failure lies in the 
 
THE SABBATH. 73 
 
 fact that the theory is radically and incurably 
 wrong. 
 
 Is it true that the natural course of peopling 
 the earth is from east to west ? There have been 
 strong tides of emigration and travel eastward. 
 Cannot people going eastward keep the Sabbath 
 as obediently as people going westward ? Does 
 the Sabbath law specify or imply a necessary 
 direction of spreading humanity, or certain lines 
 of longitude, or certain agreements of navigators 
 in the interest of commerce and the calendar ? 
 Suppose that two devout Saturday-Sabbath men 
 should set out from San Francisco, say, and travel 
 in opposite directions till they meet on the oppo- 
 site side of the globe. They are a day apart. 
 How shall they reconcile their differences, both 
 having conscientiously kept seventh-day from 
 the start ? They must adhere to arithmetic and 
 keep two seventh-days, or, like men of common 
 sense, conclude that the law of the Sabbath is to 
 be rationally interpreted, and so harmonize their 
 count to the shape and motions of the earth. 
 
 Again, a universal law must be obeyable in all 
 latitudes where men live and travel. "What 
 
74 THE SABBATH. 
 
 shall the inhabitants of the far north do ? They 
 have a seventh solar day only once in seven years. 
 Will one long day's rest and worship in seven 
 years meet the demands of the law ? These peo- 
 ple have customary and convenient divisions of 
 time, established by experience, measured by 
 sleeping and waking, eating and fasting, working 
 and resting. Does not every one unblinded by 
 a false theory see that if the Esquimaux or 
 Greenlanders devoutly consecrate every seventh 
 of these convenient and usual portions of time to 
 rest and worship they obey the law of the Sab- 
 bath as strictly as our Saturday-Sabbath brethren 
 imagine they are- doing? 
 
 Again. It is a familiar history that the first in- 
 habitants of Pitcairn's Island, made up of the 
 mutineers of the ship Bounty and the heathen 
 women they picked up on their way, were con- 
 verted through the use of a single Bible found 
 in a seaman's chest. They became a God-fearing 
 people, and, of course, kept the Sabbath ; for the 
 teaching of the word is plain. They had reached 
 the island from the east, and kept their Sabbath 
 by regular count. A British ship reached the 
 
THE SABBATH. 75 
 
 island on Saturday, counting from the west, and 
 found Adams and his people devoutly keeping 
 the day holy to the Lord. "Which were right, 
 the discoverers or the discovered ? Suppose now 
 that a number of the sailors of the visiting ship 
 had decided to cast in their lot with the happy 
 islanders would devout respect for the law of 
 the Sabbath have required each party strenuously 
 to hold to its day, and thus confuse, distract, and 
 destroy the order and quiet of ooth days ? Com- 
 mon sense, the spirit of the law, and the character 
 of the Lawgiver cominandingly suggest that 
 either party might have yielded its day and 
 adopted the other's without infracting the law, 
 dishonoring God, or injuring their own souls. 
 As the great body of the Christian world was 
 keeping the Sunday-Sabbath the islanders did 
 wisely and Christianly to change their day and 
 come into harmony with general Christian usage. 
 And yet again. The early navigators used to 
 change the day at Callao because that was a usual 
 place of meeting. More accurately, and by com- 
 mon consent, the point of change is now 180 
 east or west of Greenwich. Let us suppose two 
 
76 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ship-loads of Saturday-Sabbath people sailing in 
 opposite directions, about to meet at the 180th de- 
 gree of longitude. The weather is fine. The ships 
 are two hours apart. An. observation is taken to 
 decide whether it is Saturday or Sunday on board 
 the ship east of the line, and whether it is Friday 
 or Saturday west of the line. They have counted 
 the days, and by count it is Saturday on one and 
 Friday on the other. If clouds and storm pre- 
 vail it is impossible to settle the grave question 
 for two days. It clears up, and the observation 
 shows that the ship from the east crossed the 
 line twenty -four hours ago, and the people on 
 board have been keeping Sunday, that " wicked 
 heathen day," while the other ship crossed the 
 line on Friday and has made secular use of 
 sacred time ! " Commerce has agreed upon a 
 line where the day shall change ; and it is a pity 
 if religion cannot do as much as commerce ! " 
 But no sooner does " religion do as much as 
 commerce " does in this sensible way than THE 
 seventh-day theory, by logical necessity, goes by 
 the board. All that is left is a relative, not an 
 absolute seventh-day. And the inference is irre- 
 
THE SABBATH. 77 
 
 sistible, either that God has set geography and 
 necessity at war with the law of the Sabbath or 
 the law of the Sabbath requires a relative seventh- 
 day that is, every seventh day in every place ; 
 which Sunday-Sabbath people may and do keep 
 as truly as their brethren who accuse them of 
 wearing the " mark of the beast." 
 
 Superfluous as it will appear to intelligent 
 readers, let us carry the supposition a stage or 
 two farther. Suppose that the two ships' com- 
 panies, through death oi\ incompetence of officers, 
 loss or defect of instruments, or any other cause, 
 should miss the line and pass entirely around to 
 the place of starting. To their confusion and 
 horror they find themselves two days apart. 
 Both have counted with conscientious accuracy, 
 and both, as they fondly believe, have kept THE 
 seventh .day, yet they have been driven to prof- 
 anation by cogency of geography. 
 
 Take one more supposition. Let the ship 
 sailing eastward bear Saturday-Sabbath and that 
 sailing westward Sunday-Sabbath passengers. 
 The one will have gained and the other lost, say, 
 twelve hours. It may easily happen, with even 
 
78 THE SABBATH. 
 
 less days of cloud and storm than have often 
 prevailed, that both cross the line together, both 
 keeping the same day, the one sure it is Satur- 
 day and the other equally sure that it is Sunday. 
 Is astronomy irreconcilable with the fourth com- 
 mandment ? 
 
 It is idle to urge that the same embarrass- 
 ments beset the Sunday-Sabbath scheme. The 
 basal theory is wholly different. With intelli- 
 gent Christians of the Sunday-Sabbath school it 
 is not the first or seventh day in an absolute 
 identity. It is every first day, if you please, in 
 relation to the Hebrew week, every seventh day 
 in relation to six preceding days of labor, and 
 every seventh day counting from itself. 
 
 It may be argued with superficial plausibility 
 that, granting the interpretation contended for, 
 Saturday-Sabbath keepers are still right, inas- 
 much as they keep every seventh day in every 
 part of the world. 
 
 The answer is obvious : 
 
 1. By the terms of the defense they keep 
 every seventh day no more than Sunday-Sab- 
 bath people. 
 
THE SABBATH. 79 
 
 2. They keep, relatively, a Hebrew Sabbath 
 with only one of the four reasons which under- 
 lay that Sabbath. 
 
 3. They are a fraction less than seven tenths 
 of one per cent, of the population of this coun- 
 try, and if they yield THE seventh-day idea it is 
 obviously wrong that they should remain an ele- 
 ment of disharmony in Christian communities, 
 thus weakening the force of Sabbath-keeping 
 sentiment, and, as far as their influence extends, 
 disturbing the industrial order of week-days and 
 impairing the quiet and comfort of their neigh- 
 bors who keep the Lord's day holy. 
 
 4. As soon as they place their justification on 
 this ground their absurd and conceited denunci- 
 ation of the vast majority who observe the 
 Sunday-Sabbath becomes consciously false and 
 wicked. 
 
 5. The form and motions of the earth compel 
 an accommodation of time. Is it not as much 
 in keeping with the character of the God and 
 Father of the spirits of all flesh to believe that the 
 unity and harmony of Christian believers should 
 be deemed sufficient to justify and demand an 
 
80 THE SABBATH. 
 
 accommodation of usage with respect to the day 
 to be held sacred, seeing that neither is, nor can 
 be, THE seventh day in every longitude, and one 
 as much as the other is the seventh day in sep- 
 tenary order. 
 
 6. And if agreement is to be sought, which 
 ought to yield : the seven tenths of one per cent, 
 or the ninety-nine and three tenths per cent? 
 Let common sense, religion, Christian con- 
 venience, the long-established date periods of 
 Christian society, history, and nations, and the 
 spirit of the Scriptures answer. If every small 
 fraction may set apart a separate day, all in- 
 dustry, all order of commerce, courts, and re- 
 ligious social life are at an end. 
 
 The law of the Sabbath, then, requires that 
 every seventh usual and useful division of time 
 be set apart as a Sabbath holy unto the Lord. In 
 it we are not to do our own work, nor seek our 
 own pleasure, unless our pleasure is to worship 
 and obey the Lord of the Sabbath. ISTo man 
 knows or can know that lie has the original 
 starting-point and THE identical seventh day. 
 Few will contend that the days of creation were 
 
THE SABBATH. 81 
 
 solar days. Paradise may have been at the 
 north pole, as ingeniously maintained by Dr. 
 Warren. It is certain that, in the strict astro- 
 nomical sense, but a small fraction of the race can 
 have the day. All others must have it in a rel- 
 ative and movable sense. God's law is addressed 
 to human intelligence and is adjusted to the 
 necessities and innocent conveniences of human 
 life. This is an abiding, universal, irrepealable 
 law. The history of the Hebrews makes plain 
 a distinction between statutory and constitu- 
 tional laws. There were annual Sabbaths con- 
 nected with their great feasts. Two of these 
 annual feasts could not be celebrated until after 
 they reached Canaan. Even the Sabbath of the 
 great day of atonement was temporary as be- 
 longing to a peculiar people and a preparatory 
 dispensation. Yet these " Sabbaths of the land," 
 in their times, rested under all the binding force 
 of the fourth commandment. The law of the 
 Sabbath would abide when all exceptional Sab- 
 baths should pass away. 
 
 Is not the Decalogue the law alluded to in 
 Matt, xxii, 36-40 ; Eom. iii, 31 ; vii, 12 ; viii, 4 ; 
 
82 THE SABBATH. 
 
 xiii, 10 ? Are not these the commandments in 
 view in Matt, v, 19, 20 ; xix, 16-22 ; xxii, 36-40 ; 
 Mark xii, 28-34 ? St. James puts the essential 
 unity of the law into a sentence : " Whosoever 
 shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one 
 [commandment] he is guilty of all." The 
 essence of the law is the sovereign will, which, 
 like a golden cord, runs through all the com- 
 mandments. To break any one of them we 
 must break the cord. 
 
 -Certain statutory provisions of the Hebrew 
 code stand in such relation to the terms of the 
 law as to confuse the thought of the superficial 
 reader. As samples see Exod. xxi, 15-17 : " He 
 that smiteth father or mother shall surely be 
 put to death." The law is, " Honor thy father 
 and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, 
 and thy days may be long upon the land." By 
 blending the two both are misinterpreted. 
 Again : A man was found picking up sticks on 
 the Sabbath and was adjudged to death under 
 the statute. The law is, " Eemember the Sab- 
 bath day to keep it holy make it a rest to beast 
 and servant and stranger." By confounding the 
 
THE SABBATH. 83 
 
 two we miss the purpose of both and make " a 
 cruel Jewish Sabbath " out of the beneficent 
 fourth commandment. 
 
 A little intelligent reading will make it clear 
 to the humblest capacity that these statutory ex- 
 pedients, resorted to in an exigence and confined 
 to a peculiar people in a peculiar condition, are 
 no part of the universal law. 
 
84 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER YL 
 
 A CHANGE OF THE SABBATH FORESHADOWED 
 AND FORETOLD. 
 
 WE need only to glance at Israelitish history 
 to discover liow inseparately prosperity 
 and calamity were connected respectively with 
 the keeping or desecration of the Sabbath. As 
 long as they honored the Sabbath God honored 
 them. As often as they polluted it they were 
 rebuked, scattered, and peeled. It is a strong 
 proof of their stiff-neckedness that never until 
 after the great captivity did they show a stead- 
 fast loyalty to the holy day. Even then as the 
 spendthrift in youth becomes a miser in age 
 these strange people loaded down w r ith super- 
 stitions and unauthorized exactions the day 
 which they had so often defiled with their idol- 
 atries. 
 
 Along the ages of their unique history we catch 
 glimpses of a coming supersession of their feasts, 
 
THE SABBATH. 85 
 
 sacrifices, and set days. They are manifestly 
 designed as vehicles to carry forward a divine 
 purpose for a limited time. As Canaan was but 
 a shadow of " the better country, even the heav- 
 enly ; " so the whole ceremonial and representa- 
 tive economy of Israelitish life was made up of 
 types and shadows of better things to come. 
 
 One supreme promise runs through history, 
 discipline, miracle, prophecy, and sacrifices. All 
 lights focalize in the coming of the Messiah. 
 And in connection with the central beam of this 
 glorious prospect are many side-lights. Among 
 them are anticipatory glimpses of a coming dis- 
 pensation in which the work of redemption 
 should be commemorated in surpassing prefer- 
 ence to the work of creation, and the glory of 
 the "ministration of death" that shone on the 
 face of Moses should pale in the light of " the 
 glory that excelleth." 2 Cor. iii, 7-10. As a 
 sample the learned agree that Isaiah Ixv, 17, 18, 
 (cf. Isa. li, 16; Ixvi, 22; Ezek. xliii, 27,) re- 
 lates to the New Testament Church in its mili- 
 tant state, in which the high figure of "new 
 heavens and new earth" should be exempli- 
 
86 THE SABBATH. 
 
 fled and Jerusalem be created " a rejoicing and 
 her people a joy." This new dispensation was 
 so far to outshine the former that that should 
 not " come into mind." 
 
 Of the scripture just instanced Dr. Dwight 
 says : " This passage appears to me to place the 
 fact in the clearest light that a particular, superior, 
 and extraordinary commemoration of the work 
 of redemption, by the Christian Church in all its 
 various ages, was a part of the good pleasure of 
 God, and was designed by him to be accom- 
 plished in the course of his providence. But 
 there neither is nor ever was any public, solemn 
 commemoration of this work by the Christian 
 Church, except that which is holden on the first 
 day of the week, or the day in which Christ 
 completed his great work by his resurrection 
 from the dead. This prophecy has, therefore, 
 been unfulfilled, so far as I can see, unless it has 
 been fulfilled in- this very manner. But if it has 
 been fulfilled in this manner, then the manner 
 of fulfilling it has been agreeable to the true in- 
 tention of the prophecy and to the good pleas- 
 ure of God expressed in it, and is, therefore, that 
 
THE SABBATH. 87 
 
 very part of his providence which is here un- 
 folded to mankind." 
 
 A clearer light is thrown into the forward dis- 
 tance by Psa. cxviii, 22, 23, 24 : " The stone 
 which the builders rejected is become the head 
 of the corner. This is the Lord's doing ; it is 
 marvelous in our eyes. This is THE DAY WHICH 
 THE LORD HATH MADE; we will rejoice and be 
 glad in it." Six times in the New Testament 
 this scripture is applied to our Lord. See Matt 
 xxi, 42 ; Mark xii, 10 ; Luke xx, 17 ; Acts iv, 11 ; 
 Eph. ii, 20 ; 1 Pet. ii, 4, 7. 
 
 Of this Psalm Dr. Hibbard says : " It is pro- 
 phetic of Messiah and was the last of the Psalms 
 composing the great hallel or chant whicfi the 
 Jews in latter days sung at the passover." 
 
 Bishop Horn calls it " a triumphal hymn, sung 
 by King Messiah at the head of the Israel of God 
 on occasion of his resurrection from the dead." 
 
 Matthew Henry, on v. 24, says : " It [the day] 
 may be fitly understood of the Christian Sabbath, 
 which we sanctify in remembrance of Christ's 
 resurrection, when the rejected stone began to be 
 exalted.'" The learned divine then proceeds at 
 
88 THE SABBATH. 
 
 length to discourse with rare and beautiful force on 
 " the day," its blessedness, duties, and privileges. 
 
 Robert Hall has a sermon of great power on 
 "The Lord's day commemorative of Christ's 
 resurrection," in which he says of the Psalm 
 under view : " No doubt can be entertained of 
 its referring, in its fullest and sublimest sense, 
 to the person and kingdom of the Redeemer. . . . 
 On this day [the Christian Sabbath] the purchase 
 of our redemption was completed. On this day 
 the character of Christ was illustriously vindi- 
 cated and his pretensions fully asserted and sus- 
 tained. This day afforded to Christ a signal tri- 
 umph over his enemies. On this day our Lord 
 gained an everlasting victory over the last enemy 
 and triumphed over death hi that nature which 
 had always been subject to his dominion before. 
 On this day we are called to rejoice in that sure 
 and certain prospect which the resurrection of 
 Christ affords to all true believers of ascending 
 with him to heaven and of their partaking with 
 him of his glory." 
 
 Dr. Isaac Barrow quotes this Psalm as appli- 
 cable to Christ. 
 
THE SABBATH. 89 
 
 Saurin uses v. 24 as a text for a sermon on the 
 resurrection, in course of which he remarks that 
 " the ancient Jews understood the Psalm of him, 
 and, therefore, made use. of it, formerly, among 
 their prayers for his advent." 
 
 Meyer, Bengel, Whedon, and numberless 
 others recognize the authenticity of the inter- 
 pretation. Beyond question it is sustained by the 
 consensus of Christian scholarship. 
 
 Such a magnification of the day of triumph 
 over death and demonstration of immortality ac- 
 cords with the tone and trend of all New Testa- 
 ment references to the resurrection. Jesus was 
 " declared to be the Son of God with power, ac- 
 cording to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
 tion of [from] the dead." Rom. i, 4. (Of. John 
 xi, 25 ; Acts i, 22 ; ii, 31 ; iv, 2, 23 ; xvii, 18, 
 32 ; xxiii, 6 ; 1 Cor. xv, 13.) The fact of our 
 Lord's resurrection is made illustrious above all 
 other facts and the day above all other days. It 
 is a day worthy of ceaseless commemoration ; 
 which commemoration it has had in the joyful 
 and adoring observation and worship of the 
 Christian Sabbath, and in no other way. The 
 
90 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Jews do not celebrate it. The Jewish Sabbath 
 cannot commemorate it. The Saturday-Sabbath 
 people even though they claim to have no su- 
 persensuous nature, no souls or spirits, and to 
 depend solely on the resurrection of the body for 
 the hope of future conscious being do not com- 
 memorate it. The great pivotal fact of the 
 scheme of redemption is suffered to remain among 
 unmonumented, uncelebrated events, except so 
 far as the perpetual recurrence of the Christian 
 Sabbath brings it to mind. 
 
 "Would any important purpose be served by 
 substituting the Christian for the Hebrew Sab- 
 bath? Bearing in mind the distinction clearly 
 made between the Sabbath and the day on which 
 it was celebrated ; are there in view any cogent 
 reasons to justify and demand the change ? 
 Among the reasons which commend themselves 
 to our intelligence are the following : 
 
 1. The resurrection is constantly set forth as 
 the supreme fact and completion of our Lord's 
 provisional redeeming work. We are begotten 
 again to a lively hope by it. 1 Pet. i, 3. Its 
 constant commemoration is essential to the con- 
 
THE SABBATH. 91 
 
 tinned faith and holy living of the Church. 1 
 Cor. xv, 13-19. Bnt in no other way has it been, 
 or will it be, fittingly and continuously celebrated 
 than by worship and praise on resurrection day. 
 
 2. The apostles and early Christians could not 
 worship with the Jews on Sabbath without ap- 
 pearing to countenance rites, ceremonies, sacri- 
 fices, and teachings which denied Christ as the 
 crucified and risen Saviour, who " by his own 
 blood entered once into the holy place, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us." 
 
 3. There was a tendency to commit the sin of 
 Judaizing, against which the disciples were zeal- 
 ously warned. The Jewish Sabbath was so as- 
 sociated with the rites of the ceremonial law a 
 law fulfilled and annulled by Christ's death as 
 greatly to increase the menacing peril of the in- 
 fant Church. Any countenance given to Juda- 
 ism, after the resurrection, was by so much a 
 betrayal of the Lord. 
 
 4. The visible recognition of the divine 
 sovereignty of the risen Christ as Lord of the 
 Sabbath day, and, therefore, of all days and all 
 men, could not otherwise be so well accomplished 
 
92 THE SABBATH. 
 
 as by the weekly public worship offered him on 
 the day of his triumph over death and hades. 
 
 5. It would be a significant and strong wall of 
 separation between the Church of the risen 
 Christ and the exhausted and displaced " cov- 
 enant of works," to which its members were never 
 to return. 
 
 These reasons have great weight, and were so 
 regarded from the earliest times, in proof of 
 which I need not pause here to cite authorities. 
 Add to these reasons and to the f orelookings of 
 prophets and Psalmist the following list of 
 "teaching facts," which; I submit, can be ac- 
 counted for on no other theory than that the 
 keeping of resurrection-day is agreeable to the 
 will of Him who holdeth the issues of life in his 
 hand: 
 
 1. It is certain that our Lord, who had power 
 to lay down his life and to take it again, chose to 
 lie in the tomb throughout the Jewish Sabbath, 
 leaving his enemies loud in their triumph and 
 his disciples dumb in their despair. 
 
 2. It is certain that Christ rose from the dead 
 on the morning after the Jewish Sabbath, thus 
 
THE SABBATH. 93 
 
 completing the provisional work of redemption, 
 filling his murderers with consternation, certify- 
 ing his Godhead, demonstrating the divinity of 
 his mission, inspiring his disciples with uncon- 
 querable courage, opening the gates of hades, 
 giving the world a living hope, and making the 
 resurrection and the life visible to heaven, earth, 
 and hell. 
 
 3. It is certain that after his resurrection Jesus 
 met with his disciples on two successive Sunday- 
 Sabbaths, and probably on at least three others. 
 
 4. It is certain that the disciples began imme- 
 diately to meet on the Sunday-Sabbath, to com- 
 memorate his death and resurrection. 
 
 5. It is certain that the Scriptures give no 
 intimation of our Lord's meeting with his disci- 
 ples, or with others, on the Jewish Sabbath after 
 his resurrection, although it had always been his 
 practice to attend the synagogue on that day. Thus 
 he put special honor upon First-day an honor 
 which his followers could hardly have interpreted 
 otherwise than they appear to have done, as mark- 
 ing it as the Sabbath of the new dispensation. 
 
 6. It is certain that on First-day the dispensa- 
 
94 THE SABBATH. 
 
 tion of the spirit was fully ushered in at pente- 
 cost. Pentecost always fell on the morrow after 
 the seventh Sabbath, counting from the morrow 
 after the Sabbath of the passover. Lev. xxiii, 
 15, 16 : " And ye shall count unto you from 
 the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that 
 ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering ; seven 
 Sabbaths shall be complete : even unto the mor- 
 row after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number 
 fifty days ; and ye shall offer a new meat-offering 
 unto the LORD." It must of necessity always 
 have fallen on Sunday-Sabbath, as any one will 
 see by counting. 
 
 7. It is certain that the disciples at Troas were 
 accustomed to assemble to break bread on the 
 Sunday-Sabbath. Acts xx, 7. 
 
 8. It is certain that the Corinthian Christians 
 were to have in readiness their gifts for the poor 
 on First-day. 1 Cor. xvi, 2. 
 
 9. It is certain that St. John, " in the spirit," 
 under divine inspiration, pronounced First-day 
 the Lord's-day. (I have studied with amazement 
 the futile attempt of Andrews and his imitators 
 to read a different meaning into the text.) 
 
THE SABBATH. 95 
 
 10. It is certain that a very large and enlight- 
 ened portion of the Christian world accept and 
 reverence Sunday as the true Sabbath a body 
 which includes a vast preponderance of the 
 learning and devotion of the Church of the 
 living God. 
 
 11. It is certain that, through the religious use 
 of the Sunday-Sabbath, the greatest social, civil, 
 domestic, and spiritual blessings have come to our 
 race. From which fact it is inevitable to infer 
 that the First-day, relatively to the Jewish week, 
 is the true Sabbath, or God has granted measure- 
 less blessings upon an almost measureless viola- 
 tion of the Sabbath law and profanation of the 
 Sabbath day. He has permitted a false day to be 
 the spring of moral health and the center of 
 moral and redemptive influences. 
 
 12. It is certain that with the Sunday-Sabbath 
 existing Christianizing agencies, to a well-nigh 
 exclusive extent, stand or fall. 
 
 To minds capable of weighing them these 
 tremendous facts carry with them a resistless 
 conclusion. And, in connection with them, we 
 shall not fail to remind ourselves that, in the 
 
96 THE SABBATH. 
 
 pre-advent history of Israel, great distinction 
 was put upon the day following the Jewish Sab- 
 bath. On that day the firstlings of the flocks 
 and herds and the first-fruits of the fields were 
 offered. Aaron and his sons were consecrated, 
 and the temple was dedicated on that day. It 
 was on Sunday that manna first fell, and on 
 Sunday it ceased to fall, and the people ate of 
 the old corn of the land of promise on the 
 plain of Jericho. Josh, v, 10, 11. 
 
 On Sunday began the count from passover 
 to pentecost ; and on Sunday pentecost always 
 fell. As the primeval Sabbath was the first day 
 of human history, so pentecost was the birthday 
 of the Church of the risen Christ and the first 
 day of man's history in the fully habilitated 
 kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 Before entering upon the next chapter of the 
 argument let us briefly recapitulate. We have 
 seen : 
 
 That the days of creation were not, in any 
 degree of probability, solar days. 
 
 That a Sabbath made for man could not be 
 the same as THE Sabbath, in the sense of an 
 
THE SABBATH. 97 
 
 identical twenty-four hours in an exact astronom- 
 ical series from the time and place of its original 
 institution. 
 
 That the Sabbath was instituted, like marriage, 
 in the time of man's innocency, and was one of 
 the undergirders laid into the foundation of all 
 orderly human life. 
 
 That the arbitrary septennial division of time 
 existed from the earliest ages and among all 
 Eastern nations. 
 
 That such a usage having nothing in nature 
 to suggest it is rationally accounted for on the 
 supposition that it descended from an authorita- 
 tive and well-known beginning. 
 
 That the week was crowned with a sacred day. 
 
 That, in strong probability, the Sabean idol- 
 atry the adoration of the heavenly bodies, 
 among which the sun was supreme was the 
 first corruption of primeval worship. 
 
 That the devotees of this idolatry were sun- 
 worshipers, giving only an inferior reverence to 
 the planets. 
 
 That the Sun's-day is most reasonably assumed 
 to be the perverted primeval Sabbath, as the sun 
 
98 THE SABBATH. 
 
 took the place of the Creator, Sustainer, and 
 Fructifier. 
 
 That this form of false worship was prevalent 
 before Job and Abraham. 
 
 That Egyptians were sun-worshipers centuries 
 before the Hebrews migrated into Mizraim. 
 
 That during the entire period of the Hebrew 
 residence in the land of : the Nile the chief 
 divinity of the Egyptians was the sun, imaged 
 by the golden bull, Apis, symbol of Osiris. 
 
 That from the time of Joseph to the exode no 
 hint appears of a contrariety of custom between 
 Egyptians and Hebrews with respect to the chief 
 day of worship. 
 
 That the probability, arising from their situa- 
 tion, that the Hebrew bondmen were sun-wor- 
 , snipers at the time of the exodus, is raised to a 
 certainty by their conduct at Horeb ; which con- 
 duct is interpreted and explained by the explicit 
 words of Scripture, as seen in Josh, xxiv, 14; 
 Psa. cvi, 19-22 ; Ezek. xx, 5-9 ; xxiii, 3 ; Acts 
 vii, 41, 42. 
 
 That, to separate them from the prevalent 
 idolatry to which for many generations their 
 
THE SABBATH. 99 
 
 descendants were inclined to return they were 
 given a new Sabbath the day of their toilsome 
 march from Rameses to Succoth to commemo- 
 rate their deliverance, their new covenant, and 
 their settiiig-apart from all other peoples. 
 
 That they had a Sabbath out of the septenary 
 order. 
 
 That Shabbath is the sacred proper name of a 
 movable festival, of which name neither rest, 
 nor seventh, nor week, nor all of them together, 
 can be accepted as an adequate rendering. 
 
 That Shabbath occurs one hundred and three 
 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in every 
 case, except the nine in which it is used to mark 
 the rest of the land and years, it designates a day 
 set apart for sacred uses. 
 
 That our Lord chose to sleep in the tomb dur- 
 ing the Jewish Sabbath, and to glorify the mor- 
 row after that Sabbath by his reviviscence. 
 
 That the " Day " was foretold by prophets and 
 Psalmist. 
 
 That on the day of his resurrection, and on 
 the next First-day, he met his disciples in solemn 
 conference. 
 
100 THE SABBATH. 
 
 That the disciples began immediately to meet 
 on that day to celebrate his death and rejoice in 
 his resurrection. 
 
 That our Lord does not appear to have met 
 with his "brethren" on the Jewish Sabbath 
 after his resurrection. 
 
 That the dispensation of the Spirit w^as ushered 
 in and the kingdom of Christ set up on the 
 Lord's day. 
 
 Confidence may find sure footing on such a 
 basis of facts. It must be an unhappily biased 
 mind which fails to draw from such premises the 
 commanding conclusion that the day of Christ's 
 resurrection is the appointed and approved Sab- 
 bath of the only wise God, our Saviour, who is 
 over all blessed forever. 
 
 But is there no explicit word in support of a 
 doctrine so vital and a day so heralded, so com- 
 memorated, and so favored of the God of provi- 
 dence and grace ? 
 
THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER YIL 
 
 THE LORD OF THE SABBATH MADE THE FORE- 
 SHADOWED CHANGE, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 CERTIFIES IT. 
 
 A LKEADY we have seen foretokenings of a 
 \ change. Now we come to the "words 
 which the Holy Ghost teacheth." The first 
 record to examine is Matt, xxviii, 1. This Gos- 
 pel was doubtless written in Hebrew (Aramean), 
 but it must have been early translated into 
 Greek ; and since its record concerning the great 
 question now in hand agrees with that of the 
 other evangelists, we will begin with the sen- 
 tence already indicated. It reads thus : Oifje di^ 
 oaf3j3arG)v y TTJ emfyuGKovori ei$ \IHLV oa/3f3ara)v^ qWe 
 Mapia 37 MaydaA?/^, etc. Opse d\ Sdbbaton, te 
 epiplioskousi eis mian Seibbaton, elthe Maria e 
 Magdalene, etc. " At the end of the Sabbaths, 
 as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sab- 
 baths, came Mary the Magdalene," etc. The Ac- 
 
J.OJ2V '; ( ; ' | '; ( , '; , TflE: SABBATH. 
 
 cepted Version reads it: "In the end of the 
 Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first 
 day of the week," etc. It appears presumptuous 
 to question a reading so long and so generally 
 acquiesced in. But is this a true translation ? Is 
 it, in truth, a translation at all? Suppose a 
 Greek scholar, who knew nothing of "Hebraisms," 
 were asked to read it into English, what would 
 he make it ? " Day " and " week " are both sup- 
 plied, the latter, I must think, gratuitously ; for 
 surely the aforesaid scholar would not find it in 
 the text, nor implied by the text. That given 
 above would appear to be a' literal rendering. 
 
 The principal reason assigned for the present 
 reading is that it is a Hebraism. May I be per- 
 mitted, with great deference, to express a clear 
 conviction that the Hebrew of the Scriptures has 
 no such idiom. It is true that from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath is a week, and equally true that from 
 any other day to the same day again is a week. 
 But Shabbath never in itself means week. I am 
 strongly confirmed in the view to which the 
 Hebrew Bible had led me by correspondence 
 which I have had with eminent scholars who 
 
THE SABBATH. 103 
 
 have heretofore supported the other theory. The 
 Hebrew has a specific term Shabua for week. 
 See Gen. xxix, 27, 28 ; Exod. xxxiv, 22 ; Lev. 
 xii, 5 ; Num. xxviii, 26 ; Deut. xvi, 9, 10, 16 ; 
 2 Chron, viii, 13 ; Jer. v, 24 ; Dan. ix, 24-27 ; 
 x, 2, 3. Shabbath, on the other hand, occurs one 
 hundred and three times, and never once, prop- 
 erly speaking, is the name for week. 
 
 "Contemporary usage" is pleaded as a last 
 defense. It is true that the rabbins contemporary 
 with the New Testament writers used the form 
 rnBqjinK, ro^qj^, rae^pe^i EchadBashabbath 
 " One from the Sabbath." Shme, B ashabbath 
 " Two from the Sabbath." Sheleshe Bashabbath 
 " Three from the Sabbath," etc. But contem- 
 porary usage cannot avail, for these cogent rea- 
 sons: 
 
 First. The evangelists are writing in Greek, 
 which has no such form. 
 
 Second. They are writing under inspiration for 
 all peoples and times. 
 
 Third. Both Hebrew (ancient) and Greek 
 had familiar forms for expressing the day fol- 
 lowing the Sabbath thus, Mimmachorath Ha- 
 
104 THE SABBATH. 
 
 shdblatfi in Hebrew, and tes epaurion ton Sdb- 
 latdn in the Greek "The morrow after the 
 Sabbaths." 
 
 Fourth.. The Septuagint i& " the mold in which 
 the thoughts, and expressions of the apostles and 
 evangelists are cast/' as it is the principal source 
 whence they drew their quotations. But the 
 Septuagint is a translation from ancient, and in 
 most respects, admittedly accurate Hebrew manu- 
 scripts. This appears to me to annul the plea of 
 contemporary usage and to throw it out of court 
 by force of a cureless anachronism. The ques- 
 tion of substituting an idiomatic sense for an 
 obvious translation must be settled solely by an 
 appeal to the Hebrew Scriptures and the Sep- 
 tuagint translation ; and such an appeal, I am 
 fully convinced, will not sustain the accepted 
 reading. 
 
 The Septuagint follows the Hebrew with se- 
 vere fidelity, using hebdomas (epdopas ) for SJiabua, 
 week, as in Gen. xxix, 27, 28 ; Exod. xxxiv, 22 ; 
 Lev. xii, 5 ; Num. xxviii, 26 ; DeuL xvi, 9, 10, 16 ; 
 2 Chron. viii, 13 ; Dan. ix, 24-27 ; x, 2, 3. In 
 Dan. x, 2, 3, it is weeks of days. 
 
THE SABBATH. 105 
 
 On the other hand, when the Sabbath is re- 
 ferred to as the Sabbath, the proper name 
 oaft^arov is employed. Witness one hundred 
 instances of its use, as follows : Exod. xvi, 
 23, 25, 26, 29 ; xx, 8, 10 ; xxxi, 13, 14, 15, 16 ; 
 xxxv, 2, 3 ; Lev. xvi, 31 ; xix, 3, 30 ; xxiii, 
 3 2 , 15, 32 2 , 38 ; xxiv, 8 ; xxv, 2, 4, 6 ; xxvi, 
 2, 34 2 , 35, 43; Num. xv, 32; xxv, 9, 10; 
 Dent, v, 12, 14, 15 ; 2 Kings iv, 23 ; xi, 5, 7, 9 2 ; 
 1 Chron. ix, 32 2 ; xxiii, 31 ; 2 Chron. ii, 4 ; 
 viii, 13 ; xxiii, 4, 8, 8 ; xxxi, 3 ; xxxvi, 21 ; 
 Neh. ix, 14 ; x, 31 2 , 33 ; xiii, 15 2 , 16, 17, 18, 
 19 3 , 21, 22 ; Psa. xcii, title ; Isa. i, 13 ; Ivi, 2, 4, 6 ; 
 Iviii, 13 2 ; Ixvi, 23 2 ; Jer. xvii, 21, 22 2 , 24 2 , 27 2 ; 
 Lam. ii, 6 ; Ezek. xx, 12, 13, 16, 20, 21, 24 ; 
 xxii, 8, 26 ; xxiii, 38 ; xliv, 24 ; xlv, 17 ; xlvi, 
 1, 3, 4, 12 ; Hos. ii, 11 ; Amos viii, 5. 
 
 In all these numerous instances which in- 
 clude the entire number except the three easily 
 explained in a preceding place Sabbath in the 
 Hebrew is rendered by Sabbath in the Septuagint. 
 Ought not such exactness of discrimination be- 
 tween Jiebdomas and Sabbaton to end dispute ? 
 
 Now return to the text in Matthew. Mm (mid) 
 
106 THE SABBATH. 
 
 means one. It is often intensive, and takes the 
 sense of first when emphatic, or used to desig- 
 nate by absolute priority, or by pre-eminence. It 
 occurs seventy-nine times in the New Testament, 
 and is rendered first only nine times, and of these 
 eight are found in connection with the resurrec- 
 tion Sabbath. Matt, xxviii, 1 ; Mark xvi, 2, 9 ; 
 Luke xxiv, 1 ; John xx, 1, 19 ; Acts xx, 1 ; 1 Cor. 
 xvi, 2. The ninth case is Titus iii, 10, which 
 admits of a different rendering. M.iav Mian 
 in th passage under view, is feminine and in the 
 
 t^^^*^ 
 
 , leaving a noun in the dafrwe feminine to 
 be supplied, which noun is unquestionably rj^epav 
 (hemeran, day). To leave fjjjiepa hemera (day) 
 to be supplied after \iia (mia) is a frequent usage 
 in Septuagint Greek, from which the evangelists 
 obtained their forms and quotations. See Gen. 
 viii, 13 ; Lev. xxiii, 24; Num. i, 1, 18 ; xxix, 1; 
 xxxiii, 38; Deut. i, 3 ; Ezek. xxvi, 1; xxix, 17; 
 xxxii, 1 ; xlv, 18. With this form the New 
 Testament writers were familiar. Indeed, it is 
 the natural form of speech where the first of two 
 or more is indicated. Hpurog (protos, first) is the 
 common ordinal in the Greek. Mm mia 
 
THE SABBATH. 107 
 
 therefore appears to serve as a technic or a 
 special qualifier of the Sunday-Sabbath. 
 
 We now have the first day (more strictly, day 
 one) of whatever is meant by oapparw (Sabba- 
 ton). This word is the genitive plural of Sab- 
 bath. I think we have seen that Sabbath never 
 means week in the Hebrew Scriptures or in the 
 Septuagint Greek. Sapparov Sabbaton (Sab- 
 bath) is used, singular and plural, sixty-eight 
 times in the New Testament. Singularly enough 
 it is rendered week only nine times, and these, all 
 save one, in connection with the day of the res- 
 urrection. The one exception alluded to is Luke 
 xviii, 12, Nrjarevo dig rov aaj3j3aTo^ Nesteuo dis 
 ton Sabbatou " I fast twice in the week." This 
 language of a Pharisee relates to the Jewish Sab- 
 bath, and we might be well content to leave the 
 advocates of Saturday-Sabbath to harmonize it 
 with their theory. Fifty-seven times the word is 
 the name of the Jewish Sabbath. Let the reader 
 attempt to substitute week in any of the passages 
 except that alluded to in Luke and that certainly 
 admits of doubt and see what sense he will 
 make. The week was made for man, not man 
 
108 THE SABBATH. 
 
 for the week ; Lord of the week ; whether he 
 would heal on the week-day ; went into the syn- 
 agogue on the week ; doth not each one of you 
 on the week loose his beast from the stall ? the 
 Jews sought to kill him because he had broken 
 the week. If such readings are satisfactory our 
 Saturday-Sabbath brethren shall have a monop- 
 oly of them. 
 
 But why is the genitive plural (of the Sab- 
 baths) used ? 
 
 1. Because the Hebrews had more than one 
 Sabbath, and the plural form came necessarily 
 into use, and was followed by the LXX in the 
 Septuagint translation. 
 
 2. Because this form, the gen. plu., was of 
 frequent and necessary use to express the thought 
 of God. See Exod. xxxv, 3 ; Lev. xxiv, 8 ; Num. 
 xv, 32 ; xxviii, 9 ; Deut. v, 12, 15 ; Jer. xvii, 21, 
 22, 2 24, 2 27, 2 and especially Exod. xx, 8. In all 
 these cases the Greek reads the day of the Sab- 
 laths. 
 
 This language was in familiar and intelligent 
 use among devout Israelites, especially that of 
 the last citation, which is the fourth command- 
 
THE SABBATH. 109 
 
 ment as it stands in the Septuagint Mv^o^rt TV\V 
 rtfiepav ruv oafiparuv Mnestheti ten hemercm ton 
 Sabbaton " Remember the day of the Sabbaths to 
 hallow it." If the question should arise whether 
 this is an authentic translation of the ancient He- 
 brew text I have only to say that the spirit of 
 inspiration appears to have answered it by lead- 
 ing all the evangelists and the apostle to the 
 Gentiles to use this form in a revelation designed 
 for all the world and all time. 
 
 3. The form is the same as that which desig- 
 nates the Jewish Sabbaths in the same passages, 
 which Sabbaths were now passing away with the 
 superseded dispensation, of which they had been 
 so important a feature. Otjje 6e aapparuv Opse 
 de Sabbaton " in the end of the Sabbaths," pre- 
 cedes \LICLV aafiparuv mian Sabbaton " the first 
 of the Sabbaths," in the same verse. 
 
 4. It was, in fact, relatively the first of the Sab- 
 baths, as being the restoration of ^the primeval 
 Sabbath. 
 
 5. It was the first of the Sabbaths by pre- 
 eminence, as being the memorial of the supreme 
 event on which the whole scheme of redemption 
 
110 THE SABBATH. 
 
 was pivoted namely, the resurrection of Christ 
 from the dead. 
 
 6. It was first as celebrating and signalizing the 
 rest which followed the completed provisional 
 work of human salvation. 
 
 " 'Twas great to speak a world from naught, 
 But greater to redeem." 
 
 The observing reader will notice that there is 
 not only a change of day, but a change also in the 
 beginning of the day. The Hebrew Sabbath be- 
 gan in the evening to commemorate the " night 
 much to be remembered," when- the Hebrews ate 
 the passover-supper with girded loins and lasted 
 through the subsequent day till evening, to com- 
 memorate the day of their escape from bondage. 
 No such reason could exist for another people. 
 Hence the adoption of the Roman or common 
 day (see Alford, Bengel, and others) as is clearly 
 shown by the text. "As it began to dawn toward 
 the first day " is language wholly unsuitable to the 
 Jewish Sabbath, as the dawn would have been 
 about the middle of the day, which began at sun- 
 set. The same fact is evidenced by every evan- 
 gelist. 
 
THE SABBATH. HI 
 
 I have dwelt so long on the text from Matthew 
 for the reason that it so agrees with its parallels 
 as to make it needless to consider every one in 
 extenso. Thus Mark xvi, 2, reads kiav Kpui rrjg 
 \LI<L<; oaj3/3aTG)v Lion proi tes mias Sabbaton 
 " very early in the morning, the first of the Sab- 
 baths." V. 9 reads Avaarag 6e npwi Trpwn/ oapparov 
 Anastas cki^proi prote Sdbbatou which varies 
 in a term, using irpurri oaftftaro\ -prote Sdbbatofy (/ 4 
 " the early dawn of the Sabbath." Meyer 
 doubts whether Mark wrote the verse, and Ben- 
 gel construes nput-^proi with etyawrj ephane 
 (appeared) making the reading, very early in the 
 morning he appeared, instead of avaarag anas- 
 tas was risen. 
 
 Luke xxiv, 1, Trj 6s f.ua ruv oaQparuv Te de mia 
 ton Sabbaton " Now upon the first of the Sab- 
 baths." John xx, i, reads the same as Luke xxiv, 1. 
 Acts xx, 7, reads Ev de TTJ \iia ruv oapparuv En 
 de te mia ton Sabbaton " And on the first of the 
 Sabbaths," when the disciples came together to 
 .break bread, etc., stating a prevalent usage. 
 
 John xx, 19, while it confirms the reading in- 
 sisted upon, shows, also, that the Roman day was 
 
112 THE SABBATH. 
 
 adopted, and that our Lord met his disciples in 
 the evening of that day, as the 26th verse shows 
 that he met them again on the next Lord's day. 
 
 I must ask the reader's special attention to 
 some passages in Acts xiii. Paul and his com- 
 pany came to Antioch, in Pisidia, and entered the 
 synagogue of the Jews on their Sabbath. Upon 
 invitation Paul preached so searching a sermon 
 as greatly to excite the anger of his auditors. In 
 course of it he told them that the Christ whom 
 he preached was the burden of the prophets which 
 were read in their hearing every Sabbath. No 
 one pretends to doubt that the Jewish Sabbath 
 is meant in vs. 14 and 27. The Jews left the 
 synagogue in anger, and, when they were gone 
 out, the Gentiles besought that these words might 
 be preached to them ^iq TO fiera^v oapfiarov eis 
 to metaxu Sabbaton "in the Sabbath between." 
 
 Now what was the Sabbath " between ? " The 
 Gentiles of course knew that the Christians kept 
 sacred the day following the Jewish Sabbath. 
 What more natural than that they should desire 
 to hear the truths repeated and enlarged upon on 
 a day when the anger of the Jews would not 
 
THE SABBATH. 113 
 
 interrupt? Merafr Metaxu indicates nearness, 
 closeness-at-hand, as in Matt, xviii, 15, " Tell him 
 his fault between thee and him alone." Luke xi, 
 51, " Between the altar and the temple." Acts 
 xii, 6, "Sleeping between two soldiers." The 
 clear inference appears to be that it was the Sab- 
 bath between this and the next Jewish Sabbath. 
 Bear in mind that the evangelists and the apostles 
 had no other name than Sabbath for the day of 
 resurrection. 
 
 But the narrative continues: To> re e^opeM 
 <7a/30ar6> To te echomeno Sabbato " on the Sab- 
 bath just at hand," nearly the whole city came 
 together to hear the word of God" [the Lord], 
 Echomene is a term of strict meaning and limited 
 use. The lexicons define it thus: "E^o^ev?/ 
 Eclioinene the day after to-morrow that is, 
 which is next or contiguous to to-morrow ; from 
 E%ofjiev()$ Echomenos holding of, following, 
 subsequent, next, contiguous, neighboring." 
 "E^o^G)? adv. echomenos immediately after." 
 These two strong words, witnessing together, 
 would appear to decide the question on soundly 
 critical grounds. Once get rid of the bewilder- 
 
114 THE SABBATH. 
 
 ing notion of an "idiomatic sense" of Sabbath, 
 arid we shall see in the narrative a clear and 
 simple statement of the fact that " when the 
 synagogue broke up " (R. V.) the Gentiles asked 
 Paul to preach to them on the Christian Sabbath 
 just at hand, with which request he complied. If 
 further confirmation were needed it could be 
 found in the succeeding verses : " Paul and Bar- 
 nabas spake out boldly, and said. It was necessary 
 that the word of God should first be spoken to 
 you [Jews]. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and 
 judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we 
 turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord com- 
 manded us, saying, I have set thee for a light of 
 the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salvation 
 unto the uttermost part of the earth. And as the 
 Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified 
 the word of God " [the Lord]. 
 
 Thus far the argument has been severely 
 scriptural. It would be easy to add a strong col- 
 lateral argument drawn from the providence 
 which has attended the consecration of resurrec- 
 tion day to holy uses. This day was, in fact, to be- 
 come the sacred day of the great body of the 
 
THE SABBATH. 115 
 
 Christian world. The change, right or wrong, 
 was destined to take place, and it was too great to 
 pass without notice. It was to be as must have 
 lain within the foreknowledge of the Lord the 
 Sabbath of the Christian Church in its then 
 future career. To it were to cling ordinances, 
 sacraments, public worship, and the agencies of 
 evangelization. In the nature of the case it 
 must have appeared to the Head of the Church a 
 matter of commanding interest, and could not 
 have been passed as indifferent. That the day 
 did change in practice all the world knows. If 
 it was to be wickedly and profanely changed, 
 here was the place to set the beacon of warning. 
 If it was to be changed by the will of God, here 
 was the place to say just what the Spirit does say 
 through all the evangelists. And when we add 
 to the precurrent probabilities the list of " teach- 
 ing facts " given in preceding pages, " the dem- 
 onstration by results " becomes overwhelmingly 
 strong. Albeit the Scriptures themselves leave 
 no room for cavil and no need for collaterals. 
 
 The Lord, who constantly vindicated his con- 
 duct against the charge of Sabbath-breaking, had 
 
116 THE SABBATH. 
 
 a sovereign right to set the day forward, rel- 
 atively, to its primeval place, and did so set it, as 
 the record clearly proves. There could be no 
 stronger proof than is given, in the sacred desig- 
 nation bestowed upon the day. The day on 
 which Christ rose from the dead is never called 
 by any other name than Sabbath, save in the one 
 instance in the Revelation. It is time, therefore, 
 that the Christian world should dismiss the name 
 Sunday and call the day what the Spirit of the 
 Lord calls it the Sabbath. That the early 
 Christian fathers, in their constant and harassing 
 controversies with the Jews, their remorseless 
 persecutors, rather than contend with such adver- 
 saries for a name used the words Sunday, Eighth 
 day, First day, and Resurrection day, only shows 
 their confidence in the strength of their cause and 
 their unwillingness to contend for a word. That 
 they devoted the day to sacred uses and regarded 
 it as representing the primeval Sabbath is made 
 apparent by many passages. It will be sufficient 
 to quote a full statement of the Christian uses of 
 the day and its relation to the original Sabbath 
 from Justin Martyr, an eminent Gentile convert. 
 
THE SABBATH. 117 
 
 born about 110 or 114 A. D., in a village of 
 Samaria, near Jacob's well, and amply qualified 
 by learning, devoutness, and travel to state the 
 faith of the early Church. After dwelling on the 
 EvXapiGTia Eucharistia (eucharist) he pro- 
 ceeds to describe the weekly worship of the 
 Christians thus: "And we afterward continually 
 remind each other of these things. And the 
 wealthy among us help the needy ; and we always 
 keep together ; and for all things wherewith we 
 are supplied we bless the Maker of all through 
 his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy 
 Ghost. And on the day called Sunday all who 
 live in cities or in the country gather together to 
 one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the 
 writings of the prophets are read as long as time 
 permits ; then, when the reading has ceased, the 
 president verbally instructs and exhorts to the 
 imitation of these good things. Then we all rise 
 together and pray, and, as we before said, when 
 our prayer is ended bread and wine and water 
 are brought, and the president in like manner 
 offers prayers and thanksgivings according to 
 his ability, and the people assent, saying amen ; 
 
118 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and there is a distribution to each and a partici- 
 pation of that over which thanks have been given, 
 and to those who are absent a portion is sent by 
 the deacons. And they who are well-to-do and 
 willing give what each sees fit, and what is col- 
 lected is deposited with the president, who succors 
 the orphans and widows and those who, through 
 sickness or any other cause, are in want, and 
 those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourn- 
 ing among us, and, in a word, takes care of all 
 who are in need. But Sunday is the day on 
 which we all hold our common assembly, because 
 it is the first day on which God, having wrought 
 a change in the darkness and matter, made the 
 world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same 
 day rose from the dead. For he was crucified on 
 . the day before that of Saturn, and on the day 
 after that of Saturn, which is the day of the sun, 
 having appeared to his apostles and disciples, he 
 taught them these things which we have submit- 
 ted to you also for your consideration." 
 
 It is clear not only that the sacredness was 
 transferred from Saturday to Sunday, but also 
 that the time of beginning the day was changed. 
 
THE SABBATH. 119 
 
 All the evangelists speak of the day in a way to 
 leave no room for doubt that the Eoman day had 
 been and was to be adopted. Alf ord is explicit 
 on this point. On Matt, xxviii. 1, he has these em- 
 phatic words : a Oi/>e 6e aaQparuv opse de Sab- 
 baton not at the end of the week. The words 
 aaj3/3aro)v Sabbaton and fua oapParuv mia 
 Sabbaton are opposed, both being days. . . . 
 It is best to interpret a doubtful expression in 
 unison with the other testimonies, and to sup- 
 pose that here both the day and the Breaking of 
 the day are taken in their natural, not in their 
 Jewish sense." In this position the eminent 
 translator is supported by men not less eminent, 
 and, best of all, by the structure and necessary 
 sense of the sacred writings which he translates. 
 The reason for beginning the Sabbath in the 
 evening was no longer pertinent, and the conven- 
 ience of a world-wide worship would be better 
 served by a day in harmony with the calendars of 
 ordinary life, as three of the reasons which un- 
 derlay the Hebrew Sabbath were inapplicable to 
 any other people. 
 
 The general effect of these reasonings and 
 
120 THE SABBATR 
 
 authorities appears to me to sustain the following 
 position : 
 
 The Jewish Sabbaths and feasts were a part of 
 the regimen of the chosen people. x They be- 
 longed to a dispensation which was now super- 
 seded. Sacrifices had no significance after the 
 death of Jesus, and ceremonials no obligation 
 after his resurrection. After that glorious morn- 
 ing, to observe the Jewish Sabbath, with its sac- 
 rifices and rites, was to deny the Messiahship of 
 the risen Christ. These Sabbaths, feasts, cer- 
 emonials belonged to a dispensation now com- 
 pleted. They could have no legitimate place in 
 the new, and could retain their hold on human 
 reverence only as matters of great historic inter- 
 est, their obligation having expired by virtue of 
 the expiration of the reasons that supported them. 
 u Le& stat dum ratio rwmet " is a maxim which 
 prevails in the kingdom of God as well as in the 
 kingdoms of men. " At [or after] the end of 
 the [Jewish] Sabbaths " " the first of the Sab- 
 baths " of the new dispensation was ushered in 
 with the rolling away of the stone from the door 
 of the sepulcher and the coming forth of the JSes- 
 
THE SABBATH. 121 
 
 urrection and the Life. So did the all-conquer- 
 ing God our Saviour change the day, that the 
 world might, on the same precious day, commem- 
 orate the creation and the new creation ; the 
 finished work of fitting up an abode for the race 
 and the finished work and glorious certification 
 of the redemption of the race. This is ike day 
 the LOKD hath made, we will rejoice and l>e glad 
 -in it ! Both the Hebrew and the Greek have 
 facile and unconfusing ways of expressing " the 
 morrow after the Sabbath ; " but God the Holy 
 Ghost put the day in its place and fixed its name 
 and sacredness forever. 
 
 That Sabbath means " week by synecdoche " is 
 a theory which, I respectfully submit, must be 
 abandoned, as it fails every-where, unless its 
 advocates resort to a bald petitio prindpii and 
 quote in its support the very scriptures in con- 
 troversy. 
 
 Should an ardent disputant persist in arguing 
 that, although Sabbath never means week when 
 applied to the seventh day, unless in the doubt- 
 ful case of Luke xviii, 12, yet it always means 
 week when it designates the eighth or first day, 
 
122 THE SABBATH. 
 
 I should mildly point to the marvel that the 
 "Hebraism" passed over the entire period of 
 Hebrew history proper, to expend its mysterious 
 force exclusively on the New Dispensation. 
 Such a procedure would counter-work the gen- 
 eral scheme of a revelation intended for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness, that the man of God may 
 be perfectly instructed in good works. 
 
THE SABBATH. 123 
 
 CHAPTER YIIL 
 PATRISTIC TESTIMONY AND USAGE, 
 
 IT would be easy to fill pages with the testimony 
 of the fathers ; but the main point in con- 
 troversy may be settled within limited space. 
 The persistency with which Saturday-Sabbath 
 writers evade the true issue here is another of 
 many proofs of the degree to which a favorite 
 theory may blind the judgment. They spend 
 much time dwelling upon the superstitions which 
 crept into the Church in the early centuries, while 
 the vital questions, as to this issue, are but two : 
 First. Were the fathers competent and credible 
 witnesses concerning the query whether the 
 Lord's day, or First day, was recognized as ex- 
 ceptional; and, second, Did the disciples gen- 
 erally consecrate the day to the celebration of the 
 Lord's Supper and to worshipful rejoicing in the 
 
124 THE SABBATH. 
 
 resurrection of Jesus ? In other words, Was it 
 their Sabbath? 
 
 These questions admit of but one intelligent 
 answer. The superstitions and mistakes attributed 
 to the patristic writers in no manner impair their 
 competency or credibility as witnesses of facts. 
 And their testimony puts it beyond rational dis- 
 pute that the early Church did so regard and 
 treat the Lord's day. Therefore I deem it need- 
 less to occupy space with quotations which may 
 be found in a score of works on the Sabbath. 
 
 Why the fathers did not call the day Sabbath 
 is an inquiry of more significance than would at 
 first appear. We have seen that the Holy Spirit 
 gave the name Sabbath to resurrection-day. Why, 
 then, did the practice prevail of calling it Eighth- 
 day, Lord's-day, Resurrection-day, Day of the 
 Sun, Sunday ? All which names were applied to 
 the same day. 
 
 It is indisputable that in their controversies 
 with the Jews, who, as Tertullian affirms, were 
 " the seed-plot of all the calumnies " against the 
 Christians, they suffered these adversaries to re- 
 tain the name to which they so tenaciously clung. 
 
THE SABBATH. 125 
 
 The Jews were numerous and, in many ways, 
 powerful, and they clung to the name Sabbath as 
 some small sects in our own time try to monop- 
 olize the name Christian. JiWtin Martyr, Clement 
 of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, 
 Eusebius, Chrysostom, and August^, and others 
 of later date, more intent on truth than names, 
 left their Judaic disputants the name of a super- 
 seded day, while they demolished their assump- 
 tions respecting law and obligation. It is on this 
 account that readers of patristic literature have 
 to exercise vigilance to avoid confusion of thought. 
 It may also be added that, Sabbath having so long 
 been the designation of Saturday, it appeared ex- 
 pedient, for the time, to employ a distinctive name 
 in order to prevent the confounding of Lord's- 
 day with the Jewish day. 
 
 In several instances the fathers use Sabbath in 
 the Jewish sense. This was almost unavoidable 
 in controversy, and in discriminating the worship 
 days of Jews and Christians. It is also true that 
 the Nazarenes and Ebionites a sort of Jew- 
 Christians kept both days, thus ignoring half 
 the law, namely, " Six days shalt thou labor." 
 
126 THE SABBATH. 
 
 These persons were not considered as belonging 
 properly to the Church, although, in many par- 
 ticulars, they sympathized with it. In the time 
 of Justin Martyr it was a grave question whether 
 a Christian who observed Sabbath (Saturday) 
 should be admitted to the holy mysteries. 
 " Against such Sabbatarianism not only he, but 
 Clement and Dionysius of Alexandria, Tertullian, 
 Victorine, Novatian, and others, testified." 
 
 There is a disputed passage in the New Testa- 
 ment which falls in place here Matt, xxiv, 20. 
 The Lord instructed his disciples to pray that 
 their flight from Jerusalem might not be in the 
 winter, nor on the Sabbath. He who enjoined 
 the prayer was able to insure its answer. He 
 gave them a sign by which they should know 
 when to flee. When " they should see the abomi- 
 nation of desolation [the military ensigns of 
 Rome] set up in the holy place," they were to 
 make their escape. Gilfillan gives satisfactory 
 reasons for the opinion that they escaped to Pella 
 on Saturday, while Titus knowing that the Jews 
 would not molest him on that day employed his 
 army in preparing and setting machines and 
 
THE SABBATH. 127 
 
 making other approaches for an assault on Sun- 
 day. It is a curious, fact mentioned by Kitto in 
 his History of Palestine, Vol. II, p. 756 that 
 Titus employed Saturdays in preparing for at- 
 tacks on the succeeding Sundays. Thus his first 
 assault was on Sunday, April 22, A. D. 70. Part 
 of the Lower City was taken Sunday, May 6 ; 
 the Temple was burned Sunday, August 5 ; and 
 the Upper City was taken and destroyed Sunday, 
 September 2. The Christians could not have es- 
 caped on the days of assault. Saturdays were the 
 favorable days. Thus the Hearer of prayer put 
 another mark of approbation upon the first of 
 the Sabbaths. His disciples, in answer to their 
 prayer, escaped in summer and on a secular day. 
 A flagrant falsification of history is prevalent 
 among Saturday-Sabbath people. Many who 
 know nothing of Constantine or the Council of 
 Nice, save what they have read in the contro- 
 versial writings of their own peculiar school, are 
 loud and bold in affirming that Constantine insti- 
 tuted or first gave authority to the Christian Sab- 
 bath, and -the Council of Nice, under his imperial 
 control, confirmed the innovation by fixing the 
 
128 THE SABBATH. 
 
 annual festival of the passover on Sunday ; and 
 Sylvester, Bishop of Rome, joined in the con- 
 spiracy against a holy Sabbath by helping to 
 transform the festival of the sun into a Christian 
 institution. As a popular sample of this sort of 
 one-eyed reading see Andrews's History of the 
 Sabbath, pp. 349, 350 : " Thus it is seen that the 
 law, enacted in support of a heathen institution, 
 after a few years came to be considered a Chris- 
 tian ordinance ; and Constantine himself, four 
 years after his Sunday edict, was able to control 
 the Church, as represented in the general Council 
 of Nice, so as to cause the members of that coun- 
 cil to establish their annual festival of the pass- 
 over upon Sunday. Paganism had prepared the 
 institution from ancient days, and had now ele- 
 vated it to supreme power; its work was ac- 
 complished. We have proved that the Sunday 
 festival in the Christian Church had no Sab- 
 batical character before the time of Constantine. 
 We have also shown that heathenism, in the per- 
 son of Constantine, first gave to Sunday its Sab- 
 batical character, and in the very act of doing it 
 designated it as a heathen, and not as a Christian 
 
THE SABBATH. 129 
 
 festival, thus establishing a heat! i en Sabbath. It 
 was now the part of popery authoritatively to 
 effect its transformation a work which it was not 
 slow to perform. Sylvester was the Bishop of 
 Rome while Constantine was emperor. How 
 faithfully he acted his part in transforming the 
 festival of the sun into a Christian institution is 
 seen in that, by his apostolic authority, he changed 
 the name of the day, giving it the imposing title 
 of LORD'S-DAY. To Constantine and to Sylvester, 
 therefore, the advocates of First-day observance 
 are greatly indebted. The one elevated it as a 
 heathen festival to the throne of the empire, 
 making it a day of rest from most kinds of busi- 
 ness ; the other changed it into a Christian insti- 
 tution, giving it the dignified appellation of 
 LORD'S-DAY." 
 
 I have given so long a quotation because it 
 contains the distilled essence of volumes of 
 paralogism and misreading, and also because it 
 puts so many false and contradictory assertions 
 into small space. 
 
 Notice First. Constantine was a heathen wor- 
 shiper of the sun of course on the sun's day 
 9 
 
130 THE SABBATH. 
 
 as his predecessors had been ; and he elevated 
 the heathen festival of Sunday to the throne of 
 the empire, where if the phrase means any 
 tiling it had long been recognized by all cus- 
 tomary forms and rites ! 
 
 Second. On March 7, A. D. 321, Constantino 
 issued his edict setting Sunday apart for Christian 
 uses, and depriving employers of the power to 
 deprive the employed of a day of worship. 
 Andrews quotes from Mosheim to prove that the 
 emperor was not truly converted till three years 
 after the edict. Yet after he became " an abso- 
 lute Christian " he " was able to control the 
 Church, as represented in the general Council of 
 Nice, so as to cause the members of that council" 
 to confirm an edict which he had issued while an 
 unconverted heathen ! 
 
 Third. " Sunday had no Sabbatical character 
 before the time of Constantine." " Heathenism, 
 in the person of Constantine, first gave Sunday 
 its Sabbatical character ! " 
 
 Pray, what sort of Sabbatical character could 
 heathenism give to any day ? "What constitutes 
 Sabbatical character? A day of weekly recur- 
 
THE SABBATH. 131 
 
 rence, set apart and sacredly observed by the 
 "assembling" or "coming together" of Chris- 
 tians for the study and hearing of the word of 
 God, the celebration of the eucharist, and wor- 
 shipful rejoicing in the resurrection, constitute a 
 Sabbatical character such as the true Sabbath 
 has to-day among devout disciples of our Lord. 
 Do Saturday-Sabbath writers I say writers, for 
 they all run in one line and " repeat the blunder 
 o'er and o'er " do Saturday-Sabbath writers ex- 
 pect to be believed when they affirm that this 
 character was not possessed by Sunday-Sabbath 
 till the time of Constantine ? Andrews himself, 
 on the very page from which we quote, refers to 
 the fact that one of the fathers, as early as A. D. 
 200, calls Sunday Lord's day, and names seven 
 others before the Council of Nice who apply 
 the same name; namely, Tertullian, Origen, 
 Cyprian, Anatolius, Commodianus, Victorinus, 
 and Peter of Alexandria. With singular incon- 
 sequence he reasons that the use of the name by 
 these eminent fathers signifies nothing, because 
 they do not claim apostolic authority for the 
 designation ! Pray^ what need was there of a 
 
132 THE SABBATH. 
 
 constant iteration of such a claim, since it was as 
 well understood as Sabbath among the Jews, and , 
 an apostle had set the first example of using it ? 
 
 Let me add a few names to the list of the 
 fathers given above : Ignatius to the Magnesians 
 p. 63, Ante-Nicene Fathers rebukes such as 
 kept the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and 
 adds : " After the observance of the Sabbath let 
 every friend of Christ keep the LorcPs-day as a 
 festival, the Resurrection-day, the queen and chief 
 of all the days. Looking forward to this, the 
 prophet declared, ' To the end, for the Eighth 
 day,' on which our life both sprang up again 
 and the victory over death was obtained in 
 Christ, whom the children of perdition, the ene- 
 mies of the Saviour, deny." 
 
 As to the Sabbatic character, I have already 
 quoted the illustrious Justin Martyr, who must 
 be rated as better authority than Saturday-Sab- 
 bath writers. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria thus writes : " And the 
 LorcPs-day Plato prophetically speaks of in the 
 tenth book of the Republic." He again alludes 
 to it by name in these words : " He, in fulfillment 
 
THE SABBATH. 133 
 
 of the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps 
 the Lord?s-day, when he abandons an evil dispo- 
 sition and assumes that of the gnostic, glorifying 
 the Lord's resurrection in himself." 
 
 Let me quote a sentence from Tertullian, men- 
 tioned in Andrews's list : " Not the I#r<P 8-day, 
 nor pentecost, even if they had known them, 
 would they have shared with us ; for they would 
 fear lest they should seem to be Christians ! " 
 Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. Ill, p. TO. 
 
 In The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles V?Q 
 have, for what it is worth, this sentence: "He 
 was crucified on the day of the preparation, and 
 rose again at break of day on the Lord?s-day" 
 
 In The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles there 
 are several allusions to the Lord's-day by name. 
 Thus, " But on the Lord's-day do ye gather your- 
 selves together, and break bread, and give thanks- 
 giving after having confessed your transgressions, 
 that your sacrifice may be pure." Ante-Nicene 
 Fathers, Vol. VII, p. 381. 
 
 I have dwelt a little on the designation of 
 Lord's-day, not because it is of any vital impor- 
 tance to the argument, but to show with what 
 
134 THE SABBATH. 
 
 apparent recklessness of truth an honest man 
 may try to prop a false theory. Returning to a 
 more serious answer to the misstatements quoted 
 from Andrews, I have these things to say : 
 
 First. As already abundantly proved, the 
 Christian Sabbath had been sacredly observed 
 two hundred and eighty-eight years before Con- 
 stantine issued his Sunday-law. 
 
 Of John xx, 26, Dr. Schaff says : " This is 
 the beginning of the history of the Lord's-day, 
 which to this day has never suffered a. single in- 
 terruption in Christian lands, except for a brief 
 period of madness in France during the Reign of 
 Terror." 
 
 Second. The decree of the emperor now a 
 Christian by conviction simply recognized an 
 existing Christian institution, and disclothed his 
 subjects of power to deprive their fellow subjects 
 of their day of rest and worship. 
 
 Third. The question of the weekly Sabbath 
 had no prominence in the discussions of the 
 Nicene Council. Ecclesiastical discipline of 
 apostates was one theme of earnest discussion. 
 The time of the passover which is not properly 
 
THE SABBATH. 135 
 
 a Christian festival engaged some thought ; but 
 the great debate was on the Trinity the unity 
 of substance between the Father and the Son. 
 There was no manifested difference of opinion 
 with respect to the Sabbath. 
 
 Fourth. Constantine, whose veneration for 
 bishops was little less than a superstition, pre- 
 sided over that august assembly, composed of 
 three hundred and eighteen bishops and two 
 thousand and forty-eight ecclesiastics of lesser 
 degree, in a manner so gentle, conciliatory, and 
 dignified as to excite the admiration of students 
 of history. At later periods in his reign age, 
 gluttony, and arbitrary power bore evil fruits and 
 darkened the record of his imperial career. 
 
 For confirmation of the above statements see 
 Neander's History of the Christian Church, 
 edition of 1849, Vol. II, pp. 366-380. Also 
 same volume, pp. 217-221. Also Gieseler's 
 Ecclesiastical History, Vol. L, pp. 257, 258, and 
 294-323. Also Beacon Lights of History, by 
 Dr. John Lord, Vol. I, pp. 249-272. Also read 
 the Nicene Creed itself, which may be found, in 
 Greek, in Gieseler, Vol. I, p. 297, and, in both 
 
136 THE SABBATH. 
 
 Greek and English, in McClintock and Strong's 
 B'iblical and Theological Encyclopedia , p. 256. 
 It would be as historically accurate to say that 
 Abraham Lincoln " instituted " Independence 
 Day as that Constantine or Sylvester, or both of 
 them together, instituted the Christian Sabbath 
 or gave to Sunday a Sabbatical character. Con- 
 stantine did what every Christian State ought, in 
 substance, to do that is, to assure to every man 
 the privilege of a day of rest and worship, if he 
 chooses to use it. 
 
 It is needless to heap authority upon authority. 
 Yet one can scarcely forbear to refer to author- 
 ities higher than the fathers, who recognized a 
 Sabbath character in the day of resurrection long 
 enough before Constantine or Sylvester. Paul 
 and Luke ought to be accepted as credible wit- 
 nesses. In Acts xx, 7, we have the testimony of 
 both principal and amanuensis : " On the first of 
 the Sabbaths, when the disciples came together 
 to break bread." 'No ingenuity can torture this 
 into any thing less than a prevalent custom 
 among the Christians of that time, "who," says 
 Bengel, " were met together, as already at that 
 
THE SABBATH. 137 
 
 time was their wont, on the Lord's day." A 
 literal rendering, with the obvious ellipse sup- 
 plied, makes the passage, if possible, still stronger. 
 "When we [ruv padrjr^i^o)^ the disciples 
 come together to break bread." Again 1 Cor. 
 xvi, 2 " On the first of the Sabbaths, let every 
 one of you lay by him in store," etc. We have 
 seen the prevalent custom of the early Christians. 
 Bead again Eev. i : John " was in the Spirit on 
 the Lord's day." What day was that ? I have 
 read with care all that Saturday-Sabbath writers 
 say in fheir attempt to evade the force of this 
 statement, and have been equally amazed at the 
 fatuity and the futility of their strenuous en- 
 deavor. Jehovah (probably Yaveh before the 
 changing of the vowel points) is the memorial 
 name which God in -the second person takes 
 when he descends in mercy into the affairs of 
 men. It was a name so sacred that the Hebrews 
 pronounced it only in whispers, Kv^iog Kurios 
 Lord is applied to Christ as an equivalent 
 term, and never in a lower sense when used as a 
 distinctive title. But the context puts the sense 
 beyond any thing but purblind dispute. Bead it. 
 
138 THE SABBATH. 
 
 It is a vision of the risen LORD ; concerning the 
 will and work of the LORD ; given by the Spirit 
 of the LORD, on the day of the LORD. 
 
 It has been already shown that Jesus our LORD 
 
 o^^/L^if^v^J^^^ 
 aB-ged- -tae-4ay baeb to the primeval Sabbath, 
 
 and fixed its designation by a teaching fact louder 
 than the blast of a trumpet from the throne ; the 
 spirit of inspiration made an indelible record of 
 the fact in immediate connection with the resur- 
 rection ; the risen Christ put special distinction 
 upon the day of his resurrection, and that the 
 disciples held the day sacred for their assemblings 
 to break the bread of the eucharistic supper, and 
 to worship the risen LORD with the assured hope 
 and mighty joy begotten by his reviviscence. 
 All this some time before Constantine and Syl- 
 vester! Constantine and the Bishop of Rome 
 might as well have attempted to " institute " the 
 resurrection as the day which commemorates it. 
 It is worth noting in this place that the 
 Outlook, much the ablest periodic publication of 
 Saturday-Sabbath advocates, admits that the early 
 Christians did keep the Sunday as Sabbath, but 
 denies that they had divine authority for so do- 
 
THE SABBATH. 139 
 
 ing! I must think that they were the better 
 judges. 
 
 In contrast with the Saturday-Sabbath sects 
 stands a party at the other extreme, maintaining 
 that all Sabbaths are done away in the Christian 
 Church, or what practically amounts to the 
 same that every day is a Sabbath. They at- 
 tempt to support so untenable a theory by an 
 appeal to Col. ii, 16, IT. The apostle is guard- 
 ing the Colossians against the philosophy, tradi- 
 tions, rudiments, and ordinances which were being 
 used to obscure and deny Christ. They had in 
 him the spiritual import of circumcision and res- 
 urrection. There were those who insisted that 
 Christians ought to observe ceremonial eating 
 and drinking, new moons, feast-days, and Jewish 
 Sabbaths. Hence the apostle exhorts them : 
 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or 
 drink, or in respect of a feast-day, or of the new 
 moon, or of the Sabbaths aa^ar^v Sabbaton." 
 These things all belong to the same category and 
 appear in the same relation. Who were the peo- 
 ple that demanded the observance of these things, 
 and fiercely accused the Christians because they 
 
140 THE SABBATH. 
 
 declined to regard them as binding on their con- 
 sciences ? None other than the Jews. It was, 
 then, the Jewish feasts and Sabbaths which they 
 were at liberty to ignore. To observe these was 
 to deny their Lord. They were but "a shadow 
 of things to come ; " and, the foreshadowed things 
 having come, there was no longer need of the 
 shadows. Indeed, they could no longer participate 
 in these things in a manner to satisfy their cap- 
 tious critics without denying the Lord that bought 
 them. It is a far-fetched and absurd inference 
 from this timely piece of apostolic instruction 
 that they should set aside, or treat as indifferent, 
 the very day which commemorated the sublime 
 event by which these types and shadows were 
 fulfilled and superseded ! It is not easy to refrain 
 from saying that such a " lame and impotent con- 
 clusion" from such premises is a ludicrous non 
 sequitur. 
 
 As logical effects of the preceding argument 
 note, 
 
 First. It destroys the validity of the following 
 propositions : 
 
 a. The Sabbath is and has always been the 
 
THE SABBATH. 141 
 
 seventh day, in an exact astronomical series, 
 from the rest-day of creation. 
 
 ~b. The Sabbath is every-where a solar day of 
 twenty-four hours, counting from evening to 
 evening. 
 
 c. Sabbath always means "rest " and " seventh." 
 
 d. The fourth commandment applies to no 
 day but the Saturday-Sabbath of the Jews, and 
 therefore is violated by keeping the Sunday- 
 Sabbath of Christians. 
 
 e. As the law requires six days of labor and 
 one of rest it is the duty of all persons in health 
 to labor on the Sunday-Sabbath. 
 
 Second. It sustains the following propositions : 
 
 a. The Sabbath is not every-where a solar day 
 of twenty-four hours, counting from evening. 
 
 5. The Sabbath is not an absolute, but a rela- 
 tive seventh a seventh relatively to six days of 
 secular employment. 
 
 -c. The Sabbath law is adjusted to the shape 
 and motions of the planet, and is obeyable at the 
 poles as at the equator ; by voyagers eastward as 
 by voyagers westward. God does not contradict 
 himself. 
 
142 THE SABBATH. 
 
 d. Longitude compels an accommodation of 
 time. Without such accommodation all calen- 
 dars, all business, all Sabbaths, all distinctions of 
 week-days and Sabbaths, and all religious order, 
 are thrown into hopeless confusion. 
 
 e. In order to the proper and profitable keep- 
 ing of the Sabbath the same day must be ob- 
 served by the same people. Otherwise all 
 industries would be deranged and the Sabbath 
 quiet destroyed. If a part of the civil officers, 
 or the operatives in shops and manufactories, or 
 the hands on a farm were to keep Sabbath, and 
 a part Saturday, industrial efficiency and order 
 would be impossible, while the quiet of the Sab- 
 bath would be sacrificed to the disharmony of 
 the situation. And if the same day is to be 
 guaranteed and guarded by law no other day 
 can for a moment come into competition with 
 the Christian Sabbath. 
 
 f. Both the septenary and the annual Sabbaths 
 of the Jewish dispensation were superseded at 
 the resurrection, the one by displacement, the 
 other by fulfillment of its f orelooking sacrificial 
 significance, and both by the supersession of the 
 
THE SABBATH. 143 
 
 dispensation to which they belonged ; and the 
 relative first day became the ever-recurring and 
 only Sabbath of the Church of the risen Christ. 
 
 g. The Christian Sabbath, while it necessarily 
 drops the special reasons underlying the Hebrew 
 economy, retains the primal reason with the 
 primal day, and adds the commemoration of the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
 
 A. The Sunday-Sabbath, being the true and 
 universal Sabbath, falls under the full force and 
 authority of the fourth commandment. 
 
 i. The fourth commandment being the nexus 
 which joins the two tables into a whole and per- 
 fect law, to secularize the sacred day for business 
 or dissipative pleasure is, practically, as far as the 
 transgressor's influence extends, to annul the com- 
 mandment and repeal the Decalogue. 
 
 j. "Sunday" being a designation given by 
 idolaters to the perverted primeval worship-day, 
 should no longer be used by Christians. The 
 day which the Lord hath made should bear its 
 own name, Sabbath, and be kept holy by all who 
 fear God and love men. 
 
 Tc. The resurrection of our Lord, without 
 
144 THE SABBATH. 
 
 which the scheme of redemption would have 
 proved abortive through incompleteness, is not 
 now, and is destined never to be, suitably and 
 continuously commemorated otherwise than by 
 the reverent and worshipful keeping of the 
 Lord's-day. 
 
 I. The knowledge of God in creation and re- 
 demption would cease in the earth if the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath were to fall into universal desuetude. 
 
 We have reached what, we respectfully submit, 
 may justly be regarded as a scriptural, historic, 
 philosophical, and philological DEMONSTRATION. 
 If any insist on a mathematical demonstration as 
 well they are referred to Dr. Akers's Biblical 
 Chronology, pp. 33-40, where they will find all 
 the elements of the problem, and may work it 
 out for themselves. By this process they will be 
 carried to the same conclusion ; namely, that Sun- 
 day was the primeval Sabbath, which was re- 
 clothed with authority at the resurrection of the 
 Lord. 
 
THE SABBATH. 145 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 OPINIONS OF WISE MEN. 
 
 " Y main aim has been to present a conclusive 
 scriptural argument. Volumes could be 
 filled with the opinions of the wisest and best of 
 men statesmen, jurists, legislators, philosophers, 
 and philanthropists with respect to the necessity 
 and benefits of the Sabbath. I shall content my- 
 self with a very few samples, taken here and 
 there from among a great number within easy 
 reach. 
 
 Justice McLean said: "Where there is no 
 Christian Sabbath there is no Christian morality, 
 and, without this, free institutions cannot long be 
 sustained," 
 
 Governor Ellsworth, of Connecticut, in a 
 message to the Legislature, said : " The Christian 
 
 religion owes its extension, and its power over 
 10 
 
146 THE SABBATH. 
 
 the consciences of men, to the institution and 
 influence of the Sabbath." 
 
 Chief Justice Story, in an inaugural address at 
 Harvard, said : " It is one of the beautiful boasts 
 of our municipal jurisprudence that Christianity 
 is a part of the common law. . . . There never 
 has been a period in which the common law did 
 not recognize Christianity as lying at its founda- 
 tion." 
 
 Chancellor Kent said : " Christianity, in its 
 enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught 
 in the Bible, is not unknown to our law. The 
 statute for preventing immorality consecrates the 
 first day of the week as holy time, and considers 
 the violation of it immoral." 
 
 Dr. layman JBeecher said : " By the grace of 
 God the members of this Union [the United 
 States] will exercise their rights of citizenship 
 for the preservation of th& Sabbath to their 
 families and their beloved country, unangered 
 and unawed." 
 
 8. J. Buckingham said : It " was designed by 
 a wise and beneficent Deity to give to his creat- 
 ures that expansion of heart, and cheerfulness 
 
THE SABBATH. 147 
 
 of mind, and serene and satisfactory enjoyment 
 of body which the observance of the Sabbath as 
 a day of rest brings to all." 
 
 De Tocquemlle said : " France must have your 
 [American] Sabbath or she is ruined." 
 
 Hon. George Bancroft, America's most emi- 
 nent historian, said : " Certainly our great united 
 Commonwealth is the child of Christianity. It 
 may with equal truth be asserted that modern 
 civilization sprang into life with our religion ; 
 and faith in its principles is the life-boat on 
 which humanity has at divers times escaped the 
 most threatening perils." 
 
 Voltaire said (for contrast) : " There is no 
 hope of destroying the Christian religion so long 
 as the Christian Sabbath is acknowledged and 
 kept by men as a sacred day." 
 
 F. W. Robertson who will not be suspected 
 of austerity, or of that gorgon of a fool's imag- 
 ination, "Puritanism," said: "I am more and 
 more sure by experience that the reason for the 
 observation of the Sabbath lies deep in the ever- 
 lasting necessities of human nature, and that, as 
 long as man is man, the blessedness of keeping 
 
148 THE SABBATH. 
 
 it, not as a day of bodily rest only, but as a day 
 of spiritual rest, will never be annulled . . . for 
 the Sabbath was made for man." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson said : " The Sunday is 
 the core of our civilization." 
 
 Dr. Isaac Taylor said : " I am prepared to 
 affirm that the Sabbath is the best of all means 
 of refreshment to the mere intellect." 
 
 Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, A.M. author of a 
 book suffocatingly full of facts and figures, a 
 rich thesaurus of information on this subject, 
 says : " Marriage and the Sabbath were the Jacin 
 and Boaz of man's Edenic temple, and they re- 
 main the two chief pillars of his home to-day." 
 
 Coleridge said : " I feel as if God in giving 
 the Sabbath had given fifty-two springs in the 
 year." 
 
 Opinions of laboring men are equally explicit. 
 Go where you will to inquire, and you will find 
 all intelligent laboring men (and most unintelli- 
 gent) in favor of a civil Sabbath when they come 
 to understand its design. The most thoughtful 
 among them see that the civil Sabbath the 
 toiler's rest-day can be maintained with cer- 
 
THE SABBATH. 149 
 
 tainty no longer than the day is recognized as 
 resting on the warrant of a divine law. Hence 
 a number of bright, argumentative, and very 
 instructive books, and many tracts, in defense of 
 the Christian Sabbath, have been written by 
 working-men. While such eminent persons as 
 Gladstone, Disraeli, the Earl of Shaf tesbury, and 
 many others only less eminent, have ably de- 
 fended the laboring class against the insidious 
 attempts of greed and atheism to rob them of 
 their one precious day of rest, home, and culture, 
 they have bravely risen in England to defend 
 themselves. They know full well that when the 
 sense of religious obligation fades out the day 
 which many w T ish to devote to pleasure will be 
 demanded of them for toil. The scheme to 
 annul the Sabbath is as crafty as it is cruel, as to 
 the leading spirits ; but thousands are unwittingly 
 drawn into it by the most specious sophistries, 
 which the want of accurate information and dis- 
 ciplined thought makes the self -harming victims 
 too inexpert to detect. 
 
 There are laborers who dream that if all Sab- 
 bath restrictions were repealed they would still 
 
150 THE SABBATH. 
 
 enjoy a weekly holiday. This is probably a delu- 
 sion. Already, against law and without necessity, 
 a million of men are deprived of Sabbath by the 
 railroad system ; many thousands by the pleaded 
 exigences of pleasure resorts ; a large number by 
 the milk business ; and, where no civil Sabbath 
 prevents, another large number by public shows, 
 street-cars, saloons, and tobacconists' stalls. The 
 change in California is too recent to have yielded 
 its full crop of evil fruits. The repeal of our 
 Sabbath law was a grim and ghastly bid for the 
 votes of the slums and the agents of demoraliza- 
 tion. But what shall hinder now if employers 
 begin to demand seven days of toil in the week ? 
 Work or starve will be the alternative. The 
 employed classes have no legal protection against 
 the exactions of greed and the brutality of tyran- 
 nous power. 
 
 Contrasts of average condition as between 
 Sabbath-keepers and Sabbath-breakers constitute 
 an argument in favor of a civil Sabbath. Ex- 
 treme comparisons of the worst with the best are 
 neither just nor manly. No man of habitual 
 observation will attempt to deny that Sabbath- 
 
THE SABBATH. 151 
 
 keepers average better than Sabbath-breakers of 
 the same class. The very condition of filth and 
 squalor which is pleaded to justify, or at least 
 extenuate, Sunday excursions, pic-nics, and thea- 
 ters, grows largely out of Sabbath dissipation and 
 the vices to which it leads. For order, neatness, 
 thrift, and domestic comfort, compare dozen with 
 dozen, or thousand with thousand, as you find 
 them, and the contrast will furnish a cogent rea- 
 son for the proper keeping of the Lord's-day. The 
 Sabbath is pre-eminently the poor man's day, 
 yet not in so exclusive a sense that the rich, bur- 
 dened with the care of riches and dependent on 
 the conscience-culture of many servants, do not 
 also need a day of respite for themselves and of 
 moral and religious uplifting for their employes. 
 
152 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GROUNDS AND CLAIMS OF A CIVIL SABBATH. 
 
 rpHE right to legislate a civil Sabbath into 
 JL being, and guard it against the conscience- 
 less rapacity of bad men in bad businesses, is one 
 feature of the right of self -protection which 
 States as well as individuals enjoy. Indeed, the 
 State's right is paramount, inasmuch as it engages 
 to protect the individual, which engagement it 
 cannot fulfill without protecting itself. All the 
 States of the Union, save California, now assert 
 and maintain the right under view. It is also 
 fully recognized in England, and, in its essence, 
 in all Christianly civilized countries. Such is the 
 fact. Let us briefly attend to what wise men say 
 of the underlying reasons : 
 
 Count Montalembert, a French statesman, said : 
 " London is kept in order by a garrison of three 
 small battalions and two squadrons; while to 
 
THE SABBATH. 153 
 
 control the capital of France, which is half the 
 size, forty thousand troops of the line and sixty 
 thousand national guards are necessary. But the 
 stranger who arrives in London on Sunday morn- 
 ing, when he sees every thing of commerce sus- 
 pended in that gigantic capital in obedience to 
 God ; when, in that colossal business, he finds 
 silence and repose scarcely interrupted by the 
 bells which call to prayer, and the immense 
 crowd on their way to church, then his astonish- 
 ment ceases." 
 
 La Place wrote : " I have lived long enough to 
 know, what at one time I did not believe, that no 
 society can be upheld in happiness and honor 
 without the sentiments of religion." 
 
 Senator Bayard, of Delaware, said : " I most 
 sincerely approve of the civil institution of the 
 Sabbath. I heartily desire to see its observance 
 under statute law." 
 
 Joseph Cook said : " The enemies of Sunday 
 in a republic are the enemies of the poor man 
 and of the political sanity of the community at 
 large." 
 
 Justice "Woodward said of Sunday: "The 
 
154 THE SABBATH. 
 
 common law adopted it along with Christianity, 
 of which it is one of the bulwarks." 
 
 Ex-Chief Justice Agnew recently said : " This 
 brings us to the Sabbath, essential to the welfare 
 of man and an indispensable means of instruc- 
 tion. In this we see a necessary union of relig- 
 ious and civil life, a necessity which rightfully 
 demands the power of the civil law, that branch 
 termed the police power of the State." 
 
 In an able and spirited address delivered before 
 a law and order mass-meeting in the Odeon, Cin- 
 cinnati, March 29, last year, Judge M. B. Hagans 
 made a powerful appeal for the enforcement of 
 the civil Sabbath law. We wish we could give 
 space for the entire address ; but a few extracts 
 must suffice. Of the Sunday-Sabbath law the 
 Judge says : " It is a question which is grounded 
 upon the needs of society and lies at the founda- 
 tion of the State. It is essentially a civil regu- 
 lation made for the government of man as a 
 member of society. It is not, therefore, extrava- 
 gant to declare that the day set apart as a day of 
 rest from secular employment is the American 
 Sabbath. These laws are founded on the needs 
 
THE SABBATH. 155 
 
 of men for a day of rest, and are therefore jus- 
 tified by the public policy of the State. Nor has 
 their constitutionality ever been questioned by 
 any court anywhere, as I remember, except early 
 in the history of California ; but since, in four 
 cases, the law in that State has been uniformly 
 upheld and approved, if not enforced. It has 
 always and every-where been held that such laws 
 are within the constitutional powers of the Legis- 
 lature." 
 
 Judge Allen G. Thurman, the eminent states- 
 man and jurist of Ohio, in a very recent decision, 
 uses language equally clear and strong, thus : 
 
 " We have no union of Church and State, 
 nor has our Government ever been vested with 
 authority to enforce any religious observance 
 simply because it is religious. Of course it is 
 no objection, but, on the contrary, is a high 
 recommendation, to a legislative enactment, based 
 on justice or public policy, that it is found to 
 coincide with the precepts of a pure religion ; 
 but the fact is nevertheless true that the power 
 to make the law rests in the legislative control 
 over things temporal, and not over things 
 
156 THE SABBATH. 
 
 spiritual. Thus the statute upon which the de- 
 fendant relies, prohibiting common labor on the 
 Sabbath, could not stand for a moment as a law 
 of this State if its sole foundation was the Chris- 
 tian duty of keeping that day holy and its sole mo- 
 tive to enforce the observance of that duty. For 
 no power over things merely spiritual has ever 
 been delegated to the Government, while any 
 preference of one religion over another which the' 
 statute would give upon the above hypothesis is 
 directly prohibited by the Constitution. Acts 
 evil in their nature, or dangerous to the public 
 welfare, may be forbidden and punished, though 
 sanctioned by one religion and prohibited by an- 
 other ; but this creates no preference whatever, 
 for they would be equally forbidden and pun- 
 ished if all religions permitted them. Thus, no 
 plea of his religion could shield a murderer, rav- 
 isher, or bigamist ; for the community would be 
 at the mercy of superstition if such crimes as 
 these could be committed with impunity because 
 sanctioned by some religious delusion." 
 
 " We are, then, to regard the statute under 
 consideration as a mere municipal or police regu- 
 
THE SABBATH. 157 
 
 lation, whose validity is neither strengthened nor 
 weakened by the fact that the day of rest it en- 
 joins is the Sabbath day. Wisdom requires that 
 men should refrain from labor at least one day in 
 seven, and the advantages of having the day of rest 
 fixed, and so fixed as to happen at regularly re- 
 curring intervals, are too obvious to be over- 
 looked. It was within the constitutional compe- 
 tency of the General Assembly to require this 
 cessation of labor and to name the day of rest. 
 It did so by the act referred to, and, in accord- 
 ance with the feeling of a majority of the people, 
 the Christian Sabbath was very properly selected. 
 But, regarded merely as an exertion of legislative 
 authority, the act would have had neither more 
 nor less validity had any other day been adopted." 
 Bloom vs. Kichards. 2d O. S. 391 and 392. 
 
 The distinguished jurist also quotes with ap- 
 probation the following from Specht vs. The 
 Commonwealth, 3 Barr, 312 : 
 
 "All agree that to the well-being of society 
 periods of rest are absolutely necessary. To be 
 productive of the required advantage these 
 periods must recur at stated intervals, so that the 
 
158 THE SABBATH. 
 
 mass of which the community is composed may 
 enjoy a respite from labor at the same time. 
 They may be established by common consent, 
 or, as is conceded, the legislative power of the 
 State may, without impropriety, interfere to fix 
 the time of their stated return and enforce 
 obedience to the direction. When this happens 
 some one day must be selected, and it has been 
 said the round of the week presents none which, ' 
 being preferred, might not be regarded as favor- 
 ing some one of the numerous religious sects 
 into which mankind are divided. In a Christian 
 community, where a very large majority of the 
 people celebrate the first day of the week as their 
 chosen period of rest from labor, it is not sur- 
 prising that that day should have received the 
 legislative sanction ; and, as it is also devoted to 
 religious observances, we are prepared to esti- 
 mate the reason why the statute should speak of 
 it as the Lord's day, and denominate the infrac- 
 tion of its legalized rest a profanation. Yet this 
 does not change the character of the enactment. 
 It is still, essentially, but a civil regulation made 
 for the government of man as a member of 
 
THE SABBATH. 159 
 
 society. The Court further proceeds to show 
 that the statute interferes with no man's con- 
 science, compels no religious observances, ' enters 
 upon no discussion of rival claims of the first 
 and seventh days of the week, treats no religious 
 doctrine as paramount in the State,' and gives 
 no preference to any sect ; that ' the selection of 
 the day of rest is but a question of expediency,' 
 and that the adoption of Sunday confers 'no 
 superior religious position upon those who wor- 
 ship upon that day.' ' ! 
 
 Judge Hagans, after quoting Judge Thurman, 
 proceeds thus : 
 
 " Now, what is this ' public policy,' founded 
 on the well-being of society, which underlies and 
 justifies this legislation? I cannot state the 
 multitude of reasons. One is, however, the 
 necessity of periodical seasons of rest. All hu- 
 man experience demonstrates that men require it, 
 and that one day in seven is the best period for 
 it. The tremendous strain of labor and business, 
 the cares, peplexities and turmoil of trade, the 
 stretch of mind and body in digging, delving, 
 building, buying and selling, exchanging, thinking 
 
160 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and planning, would wear out and destroy mind 
 and body unless these regularly recurring periods 
 of rest are observed. Some men may bear the 
 strain without serious injury, possibly, but the 
 exception only proves the rule. Thus these laws 
 are at once the plea and refuge of labor in all 
 lands and in all ages. The civil Sabbath is the 
 people's day ! Resting one day in seven insures 
 recuperation of mind and body, so that every ' 
 citizen is at his best to contribute to the general 
 prosperity and success of the State, both in peace 
 and war in peace, for the highest and best re- 
 sults in the vast and complicated transactions 
 and duties of modern civilization ; in war, for 
 the stalwart defense of the State." 
 
 Then, addressing himself to those who seek to 
 amend the law, he makes this appeal : 
 
 " Come, let us reason together. Both you and 
 your families, your employes and the public will 
 be all the better off in mind, body, and estate, 
 by a cessation from your secular pursuits on the 
 civil Sabbath and devoting its hours to rest and 
 recreation that does not infringe on the rights of 
 others rest from cankering care; rest from 
 
THE SABBATH. 161 
 
 the wearing perplexities of business ; rest from 
 the ceaseless strife of the market and the anxious* 
 collisions of shrewdness and competition ; rest 
 from the swinging of the hammer, the shoving 
 of the plane, the guiding of the plow, and the 
 roar of trade in all its multitudinous forms ; rest 
 from the weariness of the desk and the office ; 
 rest in the bosom of your families and amid the 
 sanctities of the hearth-stone, where the sweet 
 incense of communion shall smoke on the home 
 altar forever. Such a day will be a vindication 
 of the divine philosophy of the apothegm, 
 ' The Sabbath was made for man, and not man 
 for the Sabbath.' " 
 
 The civil Sabbath draws strong collateral sup- 
 port from the vast moral and educational advan- 
 tages inseparably associated with an orderly Sab- 
 bath. These tend to uplift and ennoble citizens 
 and thereby benefit the State. The measure of 
 authentic manhood is the expansion and strength 
 of the moral nature. The Sabbath law is written 
 in the frame of beasts, the soil we till, the con- 
 stitution of steel and iron, brass and wood, mus- 
 cle and intellect ; but pre-eminently in conscience 
 11 
 
162 THE SABBATH. 
 
 and will. Lord Macaulay, discussing the ten- 
 r hour bill before the British House of Commons, 
 said: 
 
 " The natural difference between Campagnia 
 and Spitzenbergen is trifling when compared with 
 the difference between a country inhabited by men 
 full of mental and bodily vigor, and a country in- 
 habited by men sunk in bodily and mental decrep- 
 itude. Therefore it is we are not poorer, but richer, - 
 because we have in many ages rested one day in 
 seven. That day is not lost. While industry is 
 suspended, while the plow lies in the furrow, 
 while the exchange is silent, while no smoke as- 
 cends from the factory, a process is going on 
 quite as important to the wealth of nations as 
 any process which is performed on more busy 
 days. Now the machine of machines, the ma- 
 chine compared with which all the contrivances 
 of the Watts and the Arkwrights are worthless, 
 is repairing and winding up, so that he returns 
 to his labors on the Monday with clearer intel- 
 lect, w y ith livelier spirits, with renewed corporeal 
 vigor." 
 
 It is scientifically demonstrable that on a work- 
 
THE SABBATH. 163 
 
 ing day we give out more vitality than we take 
 in. On a rest-day we take in more than we give 
 out, and so restore and maintain the condition of 
 prolonged and vigorous life. 
 
 I need not burden these pages with further 
 quotations. A civil Sabbath law, to fully answer 
 its beneficent intent, should close the doors of 
 dissipation and demoralization, such as the saloon, 
 the dance-house, the house of the strange woman, 
 and every place admittedly corrupting and de- 
 structive to health and public morals. If a gov- 
 ernment can close saloons on election it can 
 close them on Sabbath. Who oppose such a law ? 
 Possibly many of the unthinking would rank 
 themselves with the opposition without purpose 
 or conviction. But, mainly, the angry and organ- 
 ized opponents will be found among the keepers 
 of Sunday resorts, the owners of lines of Sunday 
 travel, saloon-keepers, wine-makers, distillers, gam- 
 blers, pickpockets, courtesans, pimps, and thieves 
 in general. Let me quote a piece of sarcasm, as 
 true as terrible, from an eloquent address de- 
 livered in Cincinnati in March last year, by Kev. 
 M. C. Lock wood: 
 
164 THE SABBATH. 
 
 "We have heard men trying to rouse race 
 prejudices, and in the name of the German peo- 
 ple asking for a German Sunday. It is the 
 clamor of anarchists ; I see the red cap of Jacobin- 
 ism above it all. Do you want the German 
 Sunday, working-men of America ? Have a Ger- 
 man Sunday and we shall need a German gov- 
 ernment. We must have the authority of mili- 
 tary, as the authority of law these anarchists 
 do not and will not respect. Do you want a 
 German Sunday ? Ask the soap-boilers, leather- 
 dressers, molders, porcelain and glass-makers, en- 
 gravers, and butchers of Germany. Say, Myn- 
 heer Turner, why did you not telegraph to 
 the laborers in convention held at Berlin a few 
 weeks ago and secure their congratulations that 
 you expected to win a German Sunday for them 
 in America ? Do you know all that a German 
 Sunday means for these ? Read their resolutions 
 condemning Sunday w r ork, and asking that it be 
 prohibited by law. They are weary of Sunday 
 work. Their cry has gone up through all the 
 earth. They w r ant their Sunday rest, and under 
 an absolute reign of labor over the whole realm 
 
THE SABBATH. 165 
 
 of their lives they suffer under as great a wrong 
 as ever man has borne. 
 
 " Who are these philanthropists clamoring for 
 the poor working-men ? The railroad corpora- 
 tions, working their hands sixteen hours a day, at 
 $1 75 per day, seven days in the week. These want 
 the poor working-man to have his Sunday recrea- 
 tion ; and the theater manager, one of the sort 
 that, Sunday, in this city put a little child on the 
 stage, of tender years, within a few hours of her 
 long journey from Chicago, to dance and go 
 through her performance, all for the benefit of 
 the poor working-men. And the saloon-keepers, 
 working their barkeepers, on slender pay, from 
 daylight until after midnight, giving them little 
 more than four or five hours a night for sleep 
 these are anxious about the poor working-men. 
 As anxious as a politician or a party newspaper 
 round about election times while one inside 
 of two months will vote under the instruction of 
 the corporation lobby, and the other will write 
 long editorials against trades-unions the rest of 
 the years; but we preachers, pietists, pharisees, 
 the disciples of the Nazarene Carpenter, we want 
 
166 THE SABBATH. 
 
 to deprive the poor working-man of his c moral 
 education ! ' Ah, what moral education mar- 
 velously moral ! O the diabolical cant, the rank- 
 smelling hypocrisy, the hell-generated lying as 
 to the moral education of our stage! 
 
 " Go and get it of a Langtry and Freddie, of a 
 Bernhardt, of a Neilson. Get a moral education 
 of a Camille, ' Moths ' and ' Kit, the Arkansas 
 Traveler.' Get it from the ballet and female 
 minstrels. Why, actors are laughing in their 
 sleeves, and wink when they borrow the phrase. 
 One can get as good a moral education in a brothel 
 as in the average theater. Well, all these railroad 
 corporations, saloon-keepers, theater managers, 
 and beer brewers insist that their cars shall be 
 crowded, saloons filled and theaters packed, all 
 for the benefit of the poor working-man and his 
 toil-worn family." 
 
 The benevolent interest of the agents of de- 
 moralization in the happiness of the poor " work- 
 ing-man" is like that of the tender-hearted 
 Apache who kindly proposes to lift from the 
 object of his solicitude the burden of his scalp. 
 
 A civil Sabbath law should be so framed as to 
 
THE SABBATH. 167 
 
 make it legally impossible for one man or class 
 to compel another man or class to labor. With- 
 out this, greed and selfish pleasure-seeking will 
 force hundreds and thousands to work or starve. 
 No manly man, when once made to see the rela- 
 tion which his recreation sustains to others 1 toil, 
 will willfully persist in seeking enjoyment at the 
 expense of those who must work seven days in a 
 week to furnish the means of it. 
 
 The ditty of employers to the employed has an 
 important relation to the Sabbath law. The 
 money craze of the present century, especially 
 in America, is alarming. The idolatry of covet- 
 ousness is not a new thing under the sun ; but 
 the rapidity of amassment and the insane ambi- 
 tion to amass are marked phenomena of the in- 
 tense life we are living. Every business must 
 be driven at cost of comfort, health, and life, if 
 need be. As yet one day in seven is grudgingly 
 given to such workman as are not actively con- 
 nected with the vastly multiplied agencies of 
 Sabbath desecration. Railroads, steamers, all 
 modes of public conveyance, put a premium 
 upon Sabbath-breaking by offering excursion 
 
168 TEE SABBATH. 
 
 rates on the holy day ; and hundreds of thousands 
 are obliged to work on that day or sacrifice place 
 and bread. 
 
 Many who enjoy release from toil plead with 
 plausibility that they need and must have recre- 
 ation, and Sabbath is the only day which affords 
 the requisite opportunity. Their notions of 
 " recreation " are often contravening to the laws 
 of health ; but the plea finds ground in the 
 severe confinement of the week, often carried 
 late into Saturday night. It must be apparent 
 to a man who thinks, that every useful branch of 
 trade and business would enjoy the same average 
 prosperity if less hours of toil were exacted. In 
 England, on a wide scale, Saturday afternoon (a 
 full-measured, honest afternoon) is given to the 
 employed classes in shops and stores. Thus in- 
 door laborers are refreshed and are deprived of 
 every reasonable pretext for desecrating the Sab- 
 bath or embarrassing the operation of a Sabbath 
 law. 
 
 Of all countries America most needs a well- 
 kept Sabbath, and, of all countries, can best 
 afford the requisite relief to her laboring people. 
 
THE SABBATH. 169 
 
 Under a government as free as ours, with so 
 wide a distribution of the suffrage, there lodges 
 with the masses a tremendous power of self- 
 preservation or self-destruction. It needs only a 
 majority of conscienceless voters to overturn the 
 Government and destroy the liberties which have 
 cost so dear. Every thing depends on conscience- 
 power, and that on conscience-culture. But 
 there can be no general and adequate conscience- 
 culture without a periodic day set apart and 
 guarded for this high purpose. In a land of vast, 
 varied, virgin resources a land of plenty in a 
 sense unknown to other lands a Saturday half- 
 holiday can well be afforded. There are impreg- 
 nable reasons for assuming that nothing would 
 be lost in the aggregate products of industry by 
 this beneficent arrangement. Let Christian em- 
 ployers lead off, and Christian and temperance 
 employes prudently demand such a modification 
 of the labor system, and it will erelong be granted. 
 Then let the civil Sabbath be respected for its 
 proper uses and guarded against demoralizing 
 abuses. 
 
170 THE SABBATH. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 PKEVALENT ABUSES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 THE growing irreverence for the Sabbath is 
 to be ascribed, in a large degree, to the ill 
 use made of it by its professed friends. I write 
 this sentence advisedly and with sorrow, after ex- 
 tended observation. The readiness and reckless- 
 ness with which professedly Christian people 
 turn the day into a time of half business, pleas- 
 ure, or mere animal rest, indicates great irrever- 
 ence toward the divine law or great ignorance 
 of its claims. The day is secularized for pleasure 
 or gain for reasons so frivolous and impertinent 
 as to excite the contempt of sensible men of the 
 world. 
 
 A party of municipal and State officials in 
 Yosemite Valley were planning to go out ma 
 Glacier Point on Sabbath. When remonstrated 
 with they said they knew it was not entirely 
 
THE SABBATH. 171 
 
 right, but they could worship so amid the grand 
 scenery ! Men of the world laugh at such 
 puerility, and well they may. These men were 
 under obligation, as civil officers, to treat with 
 respect the Sabbath sentiment of the American 
 people if they had no personal regard for the 
 divine institute. Square-shouldered sinning, law 
 or no law, would have been less nauseating and 
 less a mockery of common sense. 
 
 A young church member took stage from 
 San Jose to San Francisco on Sabbath, making a 
 journey of fifty-one miles, for the assigned 
 reason that it would have cost him a dollar and a 
 half [of the Lord-of-the-Sabbath's money!] to 
 stay till Monday. 
 
 Two ladies wished to ride into the country on 
 the holy day, but had faint scruples of con- 
 science, and especially feared that their pastors 
 (they belonged to different churches) would re- 
 buke them. Happily they bethought them that 
 there was a melodeon at the house they wished 
 to visit. So they made the ride of twelve miles, 
 ate a chicken dinner, talked, laughed, joked, 
 mongered news, had a good time, and then sang 
 
172 THE SABBATH. 
 
 two Sunday-school songs to make it right with 
 their consciences and the Lord ! 
 
 A camp-meeting committee, possessed of a 
 contract power to prevent the running of Sunday 
 trains, deliberately voted to run extra trains on 
 the sacred day, and charge forty cents extra the 
 round trip as reveKmoo* to the ground. Some of 
 the reasons urged in extenuation were these: 
 1. So many pious people coiild not come from 
 the city [full of needy and half -empty churches] 
 to the camp on any other day. 2. They had 
 eight policemen to preserve order [among these 
 devout souls !] 3. They sang hymns on the way. 
 4. And finally they ran Sunday trains six years 
 before, a crowd of roughs came out from the city, 
 and two of them were converted. Did not that 
 prove that God approbated the Sunday train? 
 
 The devil must be delighted with such logic. 
 When told of two young men who fell under 
 deep conviction while stealing watermelons, and 
 both were converted, which of course proved 
 that stealing melons is a valuable means of grace, 
 they appeared to think that somehow or some- 
 where there was a fallacy in the reasoning. 
 
THE SABBATH. 173 
 
 An official member of a church found himself 
 far from home when overtaken by Saturday 
 night. He knew that it would not be right to 
 travel on Sabbath in a secular way. But happy 
 thought thirty miles on the homeward road was 
 a little meeting-house, and he could attend service 
 there at night ! So he mounted his horse, made 
 the journey, lied to God and his conscience all 
 day, and made all right by the beggarly cheat of 
 a sleepy attendance on evening preaching. I 
 never heard whether the preacher took the fourth 
 commandment for his text. 
 
 The fashion of pleading puerile extenuations 
 of a great and glaring sin is not confined to the 
 laity. Sometimes (I hope but rarely), to accom- 
 modate a lecture engagement, or sleep in his own 
 bed, or exchange pulpits after spending half a 
 \veek in idleness, or gain considerable notoriety 
 and some money by preaching at some noted re- 
 sort of Sabbath-breakers sometimes, I say, min- 
 isters set a damaging, if not damning, example 
 before all eyes. There is hardly a train run on 
 Lord's day which may not hook itself to the 
 crazy and selfish logic of Sabbath-breaking 
 
174 THE SABBATH. 
 
 church members. Is it ignorance of the law.or 
 defiance of the Lawgiver ? 
 
 There are church members who dream in 
 cushioned pews while their coachmen sit, reins in 
 hand, through the wearying service, and their 
 servants at home are hot and angry in kitchen 
 and dining-room, preparing sumptuous dinners 
 for their self-denying master and mistress and 
 more or less invited disciples of the lowly Jesus ! 
 No wonder that such masters wish to believe 
 that the fourth commandment lias been repealed. 
 
 There are Christian (?) families whose mem- 
 bers, from grandsire to youngest reader, are 
 engaged, through all the studious hours of the 
 day with the Sunday newspaper and novels of 
 the lighter sort, with occasional games of chess 
 or cards for variety. These people are usually 
 too tired to attend evening service in their re- 
 spective churches, and the dear children can't 
 go to preaching after Sabbath-school. No won- 
 der. Friday night they were at the theater till 
 eleven ; Tuesday night they attended a fashion- 
 able party ; Wednesday night they were at the 
 dancing-school ; Saturday-night they were at the 
 
THE SABBATH. 175 
 
 skating-rink. Why did God make a Sabbath 
 law to put inconvenient demands upon children 
 who are being trained in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the ? When the Son of man 
 
 cometh shall .he find faith upon the earth ? Who 
 is to answer for souls that perish through such 
 examples ? 
 
 I need not make mention of the pomp of an 
 empty " worship," of forms as dead as the souls 
 that rest in them, of the sensationalism which de- 
 grades the pulpit, of the vanity that defiles the 
 pew, of the arrogance that repels the humble, 
 and the bigotry that disgusts the sensible. These, 
 too sadly often, are spots in our Sabbath feasts 
 of charity, clouds without water, trees without 
 fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. God's 
 " house of prayer for all nations " is all too often 
 a synagogue of Satan for the display of the 
 wretched cheatery of a sham religion ; and Sab- 
 bath is made the day for its chief exhibition. 
 
 The very Sabbath-school, in many places, has 
 ceased to be an auxiliary of home and pulpit in- 
 struction, and become a substitute for both. It 
 ought not so to be. Such a perversion frustrates 
 
176 THE SABBATH. 
 
 the legitimate design of one of the best of insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 There are incidents and items of associated 
 life, to many apparently trifling, which involve 
 the question of Christian Sabbath-keeping. Mu- 
 tual dependence suggests mutual responsibility. 
 "We have many men-servants and maid-servants 
 not of our immediate households, oxen not of 
 our own herds, strangers not within our own 
 gates, for whose toiling on the sacred day we may 
 be held to answer. We must have milk ; there- 
 fore the milkman can enjoy no Sabbath. "But 
 how can we be comfortable without milk ? " 
 Suppose we should consent to a trifle of discomfort 
 in this single item ? " He will have to come to 
 our irreligious neighbors, and it adds little to his 
 work to come to us." Teach your neighbor a 
 better way. "How would you rear a family 
 without milk ? " Some have succeeded in rear- 
 ing sons and daughters without one call from the 
 milkman on Sabbath. "But what would you 
 do if you had a sick babe ? " If I had a sick 
 babe and it needed milk I would procure it at 
 any necessary cost, on the same principle that I 
 
THE SABBATH. 177 
 
 would go for a doctor. Albeit I would not de- 
 mand Sabbath visits from the milkman the year 
 round in anticipation of sickness, or in remem- 
 brance of sickness long since past. Ludicrously 
 enough, this " argument " of the sick babe falls 
 glibly from the lips of well-to-do parents of 
 grown-up children; married people who never 
 had children ; venerable maidens who are not 
 in imminent peril of that sort of domestic 
 affliction, and wrinkled bachelors who will darn 
 their own socks till they need darned socks no 
 more. I dwell a little on this commonest and 
 cunningest" of the defenses of Sunday work be- 
 cause it is omniaudient. But God's law sweeps 
 down upon all evasions, even the most plausible. 
 Thy man-servant, the milkman, must rest as well 
 as thon. 
 
 A lady has a costly dress or hat in process of 
 making. She left the order late and is to go to 
 a party, a missionary meeting, a carnival for the 
 benefit of the poor, on Monday. She is very 
 particular, and will carry her patronage to another 
 establishment if disappointed. The dressmaker 
 
 or milliner toils with aching eyes till long past 
 12 
 
178 THE SABBATH. 
 
 midnight of Saturday. The work is not done. 
 It must be finished before Monday morning ; so 
 the weary worker for bread, thoughtlessness, and 
 vanity, must work on the Lord's day. O woman, 
 professed follower of the Nazarene, thy maid- 
 servant, the dressmaker, must rest as well as thou. 
 
 The barber would so enjoy a rest-day with wife 
 and children, a breath of fragrant air in the little 
 home garden, or an hour of spiritual uplifting 
 in the sanctuary ; but stately old men, thought- 
 less young men, consequential rich men, and 
 querulous poor men, resident and transient, 
 have neglected to get shaved on Saturday after- 
 noon or evening and must be served to-day. 
 
 I need not carry the train of thought farther. 
 Every one can, if he will, see very far along the 
 line of Christian practical life. A supreme de- 
 sire to do the will of God will give open vision. 
 It is needless to specify Sabbath pleasure-riding, 
 parties, excursions by land or water, shows, 
 " sacred concerts," Sunday papers, and a hundred 
 and one unworthy uses of the Sabbath made for 
 man. 
 
THE SABBATH. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 EIGHT USES OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 rpHE Sabbath is a day of physical rest. " Six 
 X days shalt thou labor and do all thy work " 
 all properly belonging to that week. Thought- 
 ful Christian thrift will have every thing in 
 order, outdoor and in, for the precious joy-day. 
 All the practicable cooking will be done on Sat- 
 urday, with special reference to cheerful, taste- 
 ful, grateful meals. Shoe-blackening, preparation 
 of Sabbath clothes, bathing, oiling of carriage, 
 adjustment of harness, and all the little things 
 which enter into preparation for a restful home- 
 day and a profitable church-day will be habitually 
 and cheerfully attended to on Saturday. 
 
 Sabbath is a holy day. The - reading and 
 conversation of the day should wear a cast of 
 sober cheerfulness, of grateful, deep, reverent 
 joy. Reading-matter suitable to interest 
 
180 THE SABBATH. 
 
 instruct children and youth should be selected 
 during the week and laid aside for their special 
 and profitable pleasure on the Lord's day. No 
 growling or groaning, fault-finding or back- 
 biting, evil surmising or tale-bearing, should 
 defile the tongue and the day (or any other day). 
 God's word, delightedly studied, should hold the 
 supreme place. 
 
 Sabbath is a glad day. As far as possible 
 banish every element of discontent and gloom. 
 It is the joy-day of the world. On this day we 
 were begotten again to a lively hope and to a 
 glorious inheritance by the resurrection of our 
 Lord. Occupy the best room, let rarest flowers 
 bloom in every vase; sing happy Christian 
 songs ; walk and talk in the garden ; watch the 
 birds building their nests in the vines ; converse 
 about the resurrection, and what it did for the 
 world ; teach children and servants realizingly to 
 "call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the 
 LOED, honorable." 
 
 Sabbath is a day for worship and instruction 
 m the sanctuary. " Ye shall keep my sabbaths 
 reverence my sanctuary : I am the LORD." 
 
THE SABBATH. 181 
 
 " The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the 
 fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to 
 beautify the place of my sanctuary ; and I will 
 make the place of my feet glorious." " Let us 
 consider one another to provoke unto love and 
 to good works : not forsaking the assembling 
 emovvayvyTjv episunagogen u synagoguing" 
 of ourselves together, as the manner of some 
 is." Episunagogen is a strong term, and enjoins 
 the higher synagoguing together in the Chris- 
 tian sanctuary, above Jewish zeal and Jewish 
 privileges. The duty of attending the stated 
 services of the house of God is as plain as that 
 of keeping the Sabbath holy. The design of 
 the Sabbatic institute would be largely frustrated 
 without consecrated places of teaching and wor- 
 ship. A man who dishonors the place of worship 
 by needless absence and neglect on the holy day 
 violates the Sabbath. And it is no abatement of 
 the misuse if he stay at home and read the life 
 of Henry Martyn, or his Bible, or attempt to 
 compromise by praying more than usual. Duty 
 admits of no proxy, no substitute, no compromise. 
 The place for Christians, parents and children, 
 
182 THE SABBATH. 
 
 young and old, is in the assemblies of God's peo- 
 ple at the stated hours of public worship. We 
 have only to reflect on what would be the conse- 
 quence of universal neglect in order to realize 
 the force of individual obligation. So imperative 
 is the duty and so priceless the privilege that 
 the disciples of the early centuries periled life to 
 perform the one and enjoy the other. Who, then, 
 will measure our guilt and shame if we, with no 
 jealous Jews to spy upon us, no pagan laws to 
 imprison us, no red hand of the persecutor to 
 pursue us, no need for concealment in dens and 
 caves if we, whose houses of worship stand 
 boldly on public streets, whose bells call to 
 prayer with a voice which no power dares at- 
 tempt to silence; if we, from happy homes 
 guarded by Christian law and sentiment, with 
 paved and lighted city streets, and broad and 
 safe country roads ; if we, with full tables and 
 golden harvest fields ; if we, favored above many 
 leave our empty pews to cry out against our in- 
 difference, to discourage the spirit of the faithful, 
 and sanction the negligence of the supine, and 
 embolden the profligacy of the profane ? 
 
THE SABBATH. 183 
 
 The Sabbath is as agreeable to the wise benef- 
 icence of God and as necessary to the welfare of 
 men as in any age. It is as binding upon your 
 conscience, reader, as it was upon that of Joshua, 
 or Caleb, or Paul, or Justin Martyr, or our Pil- 
 grim Fathers, who sought and found on these 
 
 shores 
 
 "Freedom to worship God." 
 
 The sacred keeping of the Sabbath must ever 
 remain a prominent feature in the distinction be- 
 tween those who serve God and those who serve 
 him not. Is it reasonable to suppose that those 
 who find no pleasure in keeping the day of the 
 Lord holy here will be found meet for the Sdb- 
 ~batismos of the life beyond ? THE SABBATH WAS 
 MADE FOR MAN. " Remember the sabbath day, to 
 keep it holy," bears as much of the wisdom, 
 authority, and love of God, as " Thou shall not 
 kill." 
 
INDEX AND BRIEF ANALYSIS OF CHAPTERS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE SABBATH, ITS INSTITUTION, ITS PERVERSION INTO 
 THE DAY OP THE SUN, ITS DEGRADATION TO SUN- 
 WORSHIP 17 
 
 Early notices of the weekly division of time 19 
 
 Early prevalence of the Sabean idolatry with its 
 
 sun-worship 21 
 
 Sun-worship in Egypt Sunday the perverted 
 
 primeval Sabbath 24 
 
 The Hebrews worshiped the Egyptian sun-god, 
 
 Osiris , 26 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MEANING OF THE NAME SABBATH 30 
 
 Shabath means more than rest, or seventh, or 
 
 week, or all of them together 32 
 
 Sabbath is a sacred proper name of a movable 
 
 festival 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXODUS THE REVISED CALENDARTHE NEW 
 
 SABBATH 44 
 
 A new beginning of the Hebrew year Abib 
 
 changes place with Tisri 48 
 
186 INDEX AND BRIEF 'ANALYSIS. 
 
 The 15th of Abib, the day of the Exode, made PAa 
 the initial of the septenary Sabbaths of the 
 Hebrews Their Sabbath began in the even- 
 ing, to commemorate the passover supper. . . 49 
 
 Further proofs of Hebrew sun-worship and change 
 
 of Sabbath ............................. 53 
 
 The Hebrews had a Sabbath out of the septenary 
 
 order ................................... 56 
 
 The revised Hebrew calendar .................. 58 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 SABBATH LAW ................................ 60 
 
 Formally announced at Sinai Decalogue univer- 
 sal law Unlike Hebrew statutes and cere- 
 monials ................................. 64 
 
 The Fourth Commandment is the Sabbath law.. . 67 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE LAW OP THE SABBATH ........................ 70 
 
 Requires six days of virtuous labor ..... . ........ 71 
 
 Requires the suspension of secular toil in order to 
 
 the higher uses Every seventh convenient 
 
 and usual division of time ................. 71 
 
 Adapted to the shape and motions of the earth 
 
 and obeyable in all latitudes and longitudes. . 72 
 
 The theory of the seventh day, in absolute astro- 
 
 nomical and septenary identity, absurd, and 
 
 the laws so interpreted unobeyable ......... 73 
 
 It is a relative and ordinal seventh every-where. . 74 
 
 An accommodation of time imperative Which 
 
 party should yield ? ...................... 80 
 
 Statutory provisions not to be confounded with 
 
 the law.. ................... 82 
 
INDEX AND BRIEF ANALYSIS. 187 
 
 CHAPTER VI. PA6B 
 
 A CHANGE OP SABBATH FORETOLD AND FORESHADOWED. 84 
 One great promise runs through Israelitish his- 
 tory And one day, the morrow after the Sab- 
 bath, particularly distinguished 85 
 
 Reasons for the change 90 
 
 " Teaching facts " 92 
 
 Recapitulation s . 96 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LORD OP THE SABBATH MADE THE FORESHADOWED 
 
 CHANGE, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT CERTIFIED IT 101 * 
 
 Right rendering of Matt, xxviii, 1 ; Mark xvi, 2, 
 9; Luke xxiv, 1; John xx, 1, 19; Acts xx, 
 7 ; 1 Cor. xvi, 2 ; Acts xiii, 42, 44 " Contem- 
 porary usage " of the Rabbins not authority. 105 
 
 Argument from Providence 114 
 
 Early Christian usage and views Justin Martyr.. 116 
 The Roman or common day adopted Evangelists 
 
 Alford 119 
 
 General effect 120 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PATRISTIC TESTIMONY AND USAGE 123 
 
 Competent witnesses of matters of fact 123 
 
 Why the fathers, in disputing with Jews, did not 
 
 use the name Sabbath for resurrection day. . 124 
 The escape of the Christians from the siege of 
 
 Jerusalem ^ 126 
 
 A flagrant falsification of history corrected 127 
 
 No Sabbath or all Sabbath theory 139 
 
 Logical effects of the preceding argument 140 
 
 Mathematical demonstration 144 
 
188 INDEX AND BRIEF ANALYSIS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 OPINIONS OP WISE MEN 145 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GROUNDS AND CLAIMS OP A CIVIL SABBATH 152 
 
 The right to enact a civil Sabbath law generally 
 
 sustained 152 
 
 Opinions in support of its value Count Monta- 
 lembert, La Place, Senator Bayard, Joseph 
 Cook, Justice Woodward, ex-Chief Justice 
 Agnew, Judge M. B. Hagans, Judge Allen G. 
 
 Thurman, Rev. M. Lockwood 152 
 
 Vast moral and educational advantages 160 
 
 Lord Macaulay 162 
 
 Scientific reasons 163 
 
 Who oppose the law 1 64 
 
 A civil Sabbath, how framed 166 
 
 The duty of employers toward the employed 167 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 PREVALENT ABUSES OP THE SABBATH 170 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 RIGHT USES OP THE SABBATH. . 179 
 
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