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"While the Sabbath is a groat blessing to man
considered merely from the standpoint of tiie
blessings it brings to the physical being, we
must remember that we are immortal and
should ever consider our relation to God and
to eternity. We need to devote time and direct
our attention to the saered purposes of true
and pure religion. The Sabbath is our blesseu
opportunity for this. We need the Sabbath to
call us to the house of God, where the true wor
shipper finds relief from the humdrum and monotony
of a busy life, by thinking of the life
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uuLi nunu nitti tire luiwueiy aoove wie toil,
weariness and anxiety that beset us here. Jr
we work, we need the Sabbath for rest; and
if we are in the busy world we need it for spiritual
privilege and life, From every point of
view, physically, mentally and morally, man's
nature demands one day of rest in seven, cid
nothing that deprives him of it or entices him
from it is his friend. The experience of France
confirms this. Feeling herself wiser than (.lod
France once decreed that every tenth day was
enough to rest; "the Bible was ridiculed, a
goddess of reason was enthroned and death
was pronounced an eternal sleep." And what
was the result? All kinds of crime and vice
immediately increased to such an extent that
even France herself turned in disgust from the
reign of atheism, skepticism and fatalism which
followed.
To fully realize what the Sabbath means to
man, we need only to compare conditions in
those nations which recognize and protect the
Sabbath with conditions in Sabbathless and
sabbath-breaking nations. You will find, 1
think, that Sabbath-breaking nations orj, inferior
in every sense. Physically they u ivc declined,
and this in so marked a degree that it
is said of some of them that they have been
necessitated to cut down the physical standard
for soldiers in order to keep their armies recruited.
In such countries the greatest il
literacy prevailed, and they are mentally below
the average of other nations. Morally, tiny
fall far short for they have the most vice; and
the masses are uniformly poor, while their
workmen, despite longer hours per day and one
more clay in the week, get the lowest wages.
And what a sad picture they often present politically,
vibrating between the extremes of
despotism and anarchy, and some of them engaged
in almost constant revolutions. Xo nation
that spends its Sabbaths in work and play
has ever developed safe and stable popular
government. How different with Sabbath
keeping nations! Surely the Sabbath was
made for man.
II. Let us now notice its plaee in the Christian
dispensation.
As the Sabbath was made for mau in the
broad sense of that term and not for the Jew,
as such, it follows that its law was not abrogated
with the passing away of the .Jewish
dispensation. As the reasons for the law remain
in the Christian dispensation the law itself
remains. As a matter of fact the law of
the Sabbath was recognized as of binding obligation
both by Christ and his Apostles.
With respect to the time of its nhse pvjinnr? if
is the belief of the Christian Church, that 'lie
Sabbath has been transferred from the Sevei.tii
to the first day of the week by the authority
of Jesus Christ, and he is Lord of the Sabbath.
In making this change He simply exercised
the same power and authority by which it was
made.
While our Lord during his personal ministry
before His death, observed the Jewish Sabbath
from the time of His resurrection we find
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
him putting the seal of Ilis example and approbation
upon the tirst day of the week?an evidence
that His resurection furnished the reasons
for the change. And then we hud that
the Apostles, who were under Christ, the infallible
founders of the Christian Church, incorporated
the change into the Christian dispensation.
It is true that there is 110 positive precept <
changing the Sabbath from the Seveuth to he
first day of the week, but we must not overlook
the fact that the acts of Christ have au
thority as well as His words:?that the. sample
of Christ comes to us with all the force :iud
authority of a diviue coinmaud. If lie was
pleased to single out the first day of the week
and put llis name and blessing upon it by gre 1
and glorious deeds, need we wait for a verbal
command to make it saered to us ? On the first
day of the week Christ arose from the dead.
And it was certainly not without a saered purpose
that the first day of the week from that
time forward became the day of days to the
followers of Christ. We find that the first day
of the week was the day for the outpouring of
the spirit on Pentecost, and the day for nearly
all the religious services mentioned in the
New Testament except those occasions when
the Apostles, taking advantage of the opportunities
they afforded, went to the Jewish services
of the synagague to reason with the Jewish
people out of the Scriptures, to show ih an
that Jesus was the Christ.
Important Christian duties were also assigned
to the first day of the week, thus designat
mg 11 as xne aay ior puDiic worship; and 011
this (lay John had his vison of the opened
Heavens and the glorified Saviour.
Thus we see that the change of the Sabbath
from the Seventh to the first day of the week,
was made in apostolic times, and is distinctly
indicated in the writing of the Apostles in the
New Testament. Our authority for observing
the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath
is found, therefore, not in the Romish
Church, as the Seventh Day Adventists tell us,
but in Christ's own personal acts and example,
and the official acts and example of the Apostles,
and hence it comes to us with all the force
and authority of a divine command.
In the face of the personal acts of our blessed
Lord, and the official acts of His chosen
Apostles, there is no possibility of going back
to the Seventh day without turning our backs
upon that which connects our faith with our
risen Lord.
We have also historic evidence that the early
church observed the first day of the week
as the Christian Sabbath. We are informed by
Eusebius, who is called the'father of Ecclesiastical
history, that "from the beginning the
Christians assembled on the first day of the
week, called by them the Lord's day, for the
purpose of religious worshin to read the Serin.
tures, to preach, and to celebrate the Lord's
Supper."
And Justin Martyr states that "on the first
day all Christians in the city, or country, meet
together, because it is the day of our Lord's
resurrection, and then we read the writings
of the Apostles and Phophets; this being done,
the President makes an oration to the Assem}il\r
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-v, ?, untiu iu imii,in- aim to practice
the things they have heard; then we all join
in prayer, and after that we celebrate the
sacrament. Then they that are able and willing,
give what they think proper and what is
collected is laid in the hands of the president,
who distributes it to orphans and widows and
other necessitous Christians, as their wants require."
Thus we see that the example of
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IUTH [May 22, 1912
Christ and that of the Apostles and the Early
Church Fathers all tell us that the Sabbath
law was not abrogated with the coming in of
the Christian dispensation; and that the day
has been changed from the seventh to the first
day of the week. Every possible consideration
indicates that it was given to be a permanent
institution. Our blessed Lord said: "The
.Sabbath was made for man," i. e., not for Jew
or Gentile or Christian as such, but for man
in the broad sense of that term?for the human
race, and therefore when the human race
began, and to continue as long as the necessities
of tllP humnn rncp roniiiro eu?li on .
tution. In other words: the Sabbuth law is
grounded in the necessities of our human nature,
and is as much a need of our hearts and
homes and society today as when first promulgated,
for all time, by Almighty God.
What think ye, has there ever been a time in
the history of the world when man needed the
Sabbath more than in our day and generation?
Will God then take it from us when we need it
most ? Picture our first parents in Eden to
whom the Sabbath law was first given?who
1 new nothing of painful and wearisome toil?
who knew nothing of conditions which are now
oppressive to men of toil?nothing of the sharp
competition with which men of our day have to
contend?did our first parents under these conditions
and with no master but a loving Heavenly
Father need a Sabbath of rest and worship
more than we since sin has put its curse
upon labor and turned it into wearisome toil 1
Think you that the Lord of the Sabbath, who
made the Sabbath for man, would recall it just
when man needs it so much ?
Did the Hebrews at Sinai when the Sabbath
law was reproclaimed, as they journeyed at
easy stages toward the promised land, need the
Sabbath law to protect them against a nervous
overstrain more than men in this day of rapid
transit who stand at the wheel or the thottrle
of our modern monsters of land and sea with
their freight of human souls? Is it reasonable
to suppose that the Lord of the Sabbath, who
made the Sabbath for man, would revoke it
just when man so much needs its helpfulness
and blessing?
Surely man in this strenous age of ours
needs the Sabbath rest and blessing if he ever
needed it in any age; and yet there are those
who tell us that the Sabbath law is no longer
of binding obligation, while others tell us that
the complicated conditions of the age in which
we live require that Sabbath observance and
Sabbath laws should be relaxed. But rather is
it true that every interest of man calls out to
God for Sabbath rest and the Sabbath blessing.
Man needs the Sabbath with reference to his
physical nature and powers?He needs it with
reference to his intellectual nature and faculties?He
needs it with reference to his wellbeing
as a citizen, for the Sabbath is a powerful
conservator of morals. This needs no
proof for that Sabbath observance is a determining
factor in the formation nf mni-ol *>har
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acter, both national and individual, is undisputed
history.
Common patriotism calls for the maintenance
of the Sabbath, for it teaches men to
be law abiding. In this respect it has no equal.
The foundation of self-government is a due re
gnrd for" law. Take this away and the dividing
wall between democracy and anarchy is
obliterated. Men who work seven days in the
week with no opportunity for thought or worship,
soon get out of harmony with surrounding
conditions and lose their respect for the
authority of law. Sabbath-keeping people are
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