THE LAW AND THE SABBATH.
By Gilfillan
That the Decalogue was not even as a code prescribed to the Jews only, or abrogated along with the other laws of Moses, but epitomizes the duty of human beings in all places and times, appears from the distinction conferred in Scripture on its precepts above the other commandments delivered to the Jewish people—from the catholic nature of the precepts themselves, and from their declared obligation on mankind. The Scriptures have in various and unequivocal forms done special honor to the law of the ten commandments. Its promulgation was heralded by solemn preparations. “Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain.” He is instructed to inform Israel of the divine condescension and kindness about to be shown to them in the covenant to be established between God and them, and the necessity of holy obedience on their part, that they might be a peculiar treasure unto him above all people. He intimates these things to the people, and “returns their words unto the Lord.” For two days they must sanctify themselves, that they might be ready on the third day, on which Jehovah was to come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Death was to be the penalty of going up into the mount, or touching the border of it. “And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” Ex. xix, 16–18. In these circumstances of glory, grandeur, and terrible majesty, which made Moses himself say, “I exceedingly fear and quake,” did Jehovah proclaim with his own lips the ten commandments. And thus, not only by priority of promulgation, but by the august solemnities attending it, did he distinguish these commandments above the civil and ceremonial statutes which were afterward privately communicated to Moses. “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more.” But in reference to “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” it is said: “But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.” Deut. v, 22, 31. Nor was this all. It is possible for ingenuity, under a partial bias, to make too much of the following circumstances; but to deny that they impressively teach us the distinction of the Decalogue above the other laws of the Jews would seem to be “a refusing of him that spake on earth.” The law of the ten commandments, uttered by “the great voice” of God, was also written by his own finger. It was too holy and glorious to be spoken “with the tongues of men and of angels,” or to be taken down from the divine lips by any human amanuensis. The Lawgiver must proclaim his eternal law with his own mouth, and indite it with his own hand. Twice was it so written. It was inscribed on tablets of stone, and in this form deposited in the ark, with all the security which incorruptible shittim-wood, and gold overlaid within, without, and above, could provide, and under the overshadowing cherubim, and inviolable Shechinah. But no divine voice is heard announcing the laws of a temporary polity, or of a shadowy ritual; they are uttered in the ears of Moses alone. No divine finger traces their written characters; for this the hand of Moses is deemed adequate. They are committed to no secure and precious casket; but placed beside the ark, as things warranting less reverence and care, and ready to be removed. In all these honors of the “ten words,” the fourth commandment fully shared. Prefaced by the same solemnities, attended by thunders and lightnings, articulated by the divine voice, all its words engraved by the divine finger, and intrusted to the sacred keeping of the ark, who could have any reason to imagine that the Sabbath was a Jewish rite, belonging entirely to a covenant which was to decay, wax old, and be ready to vanish away? The language in which the laws of the Jews are respectively mentioned in several parts of Scripture concurs with the circumstances now mentioned in discriminating them from each other. Not that the transitory rules of their politico-ecclesiastical state are ever absolutely depreciated. They are included in “the right judgments and true laws, the good statutes and commandments,” “which were given them by the hand of Moses.” The neglect or transgression of them was held to be an act of contempt to the divine Lawgiver and King, and was visited with severe retribution. The loss of them in the Captivity was deplored as one of Israel’s chief calamities; their recovery is promised as one of their greatest mercies. But there are several statements which indicate the inferiority of these privileges to others. Thus it is written in Hosea, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings;” Hos. vi, 6; and in Jeremiah, “I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifice; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice.” Jer. vii, 22, 23. We have similar statements in the New Testament: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” says our Lord, “for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Matt. xxiii, 23. How different the terms in which two of the apostles speak of the law of ceremonies and the law of morality! In referring to the former, the Apostle Peter asks, “Now, therefore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Acts xv, 10; while the Apostle Paul says of another law—plainly that of the Decalogue—“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good. We know that the law is spiritual; I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Rom. vii, 12, 14, 22. And when mentioning the “advantage”—the profit which belonged to “the Jew” to “circumcision,” largely and “every way,” the writer does not fail to give the preference to this one of their privileges, “that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” Comparing these passages with each other, we arrive at the conclusion that the law of the Decalogue was honored above the other laws. The Sabbath, in short, was a stated day of sacred service in honor of its almighty and gracious Author. Having rested from his work of creation, God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath-day. But the creation of the world by Jehovah is a fact which respects, not one nation only, but mankind, and the belief of which is fundamental to all true religion. If it was the duty of the Jews to remember their Creator, no less was it the duty of the patriarchs, and no less is it the duty of men now. If the one stood in need of the knowledge of God as the maker of all things, and required a Sabbath as the means, equally were these blessings indispensable to the others. When this last and best dispensation of religion was introduced, the world stood as much as ever in need of a Sabbath. All along from the time of its institution to the departure of Israel from Egypt—even though it were true that in a brief history it is not alluded to—it remained a standing rule for the world. When next expressly introduced, it is in the form, not of a revocation, but of a revival. Immediately thereafter, it is solemnly recognized in a law promulgated for mankind. Had the proceedings in Sin, or at Sinai, issued in an appointment that contravened or superseded the original enactment, there would be a plea for the opinion that the Sabbath of Paradise had ceased. But what plea of this nature can be preferred where that institution is made the basis of legislation, and its ancient reason, character, and sanction, only in expanded form and more solemn manner, renewed? The law given from Sinai, in like manner as that given in Eden, remained in full force. Christ was careful to clear it from Jewish corruptions, and if there was any precept more particularly vindicated by him and honored than another, it was that requiring the Sabbath-day to be kept holy. It is not the practice of a wise man to repair a house which he is about to pull down.—Gilfillan.