THE GOSPEL AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
By R. S. Owen
CHRISTIAN MEMORIALS ARE FOR CHRISTIANS.
If the first day of the week be really the “Lord’s day,”—a memorial of the resurrection of Christ,—then, like all Christian institutions, it belongs to the church, and should never be enforced upon unbelievers. It would be as much out of gospel order for one who does not believe in Christ to celebrate his resurrection, as it would be for him to partake of the memorials of our Lord’s death. God does not wish unbelievers to observe his ordinances. They are designed to be an expression of faith, and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Rom. 14: 23. When ancient Israel forsook the Lord, and still kept up a formal observance of his ordinances, the Lord rebuked them, saying, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can not away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” Why were these things an abomination unto the Lord? Had he not commanded their observance?—He had; and when properly observed, they were a blessing to the people, and an honor to God; but the trouble was that this people were “laden with iniquity,” their hands were “full of blood.” Isa. 1: 11–17. Their profession of religion was only a pretense. To force an ungodly man to keep the Sabbath is to compel him to act the hypocrite. The same would be true of the Lord’s Supper. “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” 1 Cor. 11: 29. The Lord calls sinners to repentance, and offers them salvation full and free; but he wishes no hypocritical pretensions. ENFORCED IDLENESS IS A CURSE.
“We do not insist on a religious observance of the Lord’s day,” says one; “we only demand that men shall not work on our sabbath.” Here the advocates of the Sunday law fall into another serious error—that of encouraging idleness. There is no virtue in simply doing nothing. When the day is not observed from religious motives, it is far better that the time be spent in useful labor than in the manner in which it is often employed. Follow that young man from his usual vocation to his places of Sunday resort; witness the evil influences that surround him there; and no further argument will be needed to show that a mistake has been made in forcing him to leave his work. We here present a few statements from Sunday League Leaflets:— Make Sunday a holiday instead of a holy day, and you infallibly injure public morality. A holiday sabbath is commonly followed by a jaded Monday. About one fourth of the liquor drank is consumed on Sunday—a day of general idleness and temptation. Sabbath dissipation very commonly makes Monday an idle day. In Germany a great majority of the female suicides occur on Sunday. There is not a parish in Chicago where the Sunday saloon has not been the ruin of the most promising and brightest boys. These statements illustrate the folly of enforcing Sabbath observance upon the ungodly. Some of these evils are charged to the Sunday saloons; but these saloons are open every day of the week, not simply on Sunday, and they are only one of the many sources of evil. The reason for the excess of crime and licentiousness on Sunday is not that the saloons are open; but because ungodly men are idle. Saloons should be closed not only on Sunday, but on all days of the week. Satan ever “finds some mischief for idle hands to do.” The following forcible words on this subject are from Dr. Albert Barnes:— Extensively in our large cities and their vicinities, this is a day of dissipation, of riot, of licentiousness, and of blasphemy. It is probable that more is done to unsettle the habits of virtue and soberness and industry, to propagate infidelity, to lay the foundation for future repentance of ignominy, to retard the progress of the temperance reformation, and to prepare candidates for the penitentiary and the gallows, on this day than on all the other days of the week. So it always is where institutions designed for good are abused: they become as powerful for evil as they were intended for good. The Sabbath is an institution of tremendous power for good or evil. If for good, as it was designed, and as it easily may be, it is laid at the foundation of all our peace, our intelligence, our morals, our religion. If for evil, it strikes at all these; nor is there any possible power in laws or in education that can, during the six days, counteract the evils of a Sabbath given to licentiousness and sin.—“Practical Sermons,” pages 288, 289. WHAT IS TRUE SABBATH-KEEPING?
While useful industry is commended in the word of God, idleness is associated with vice, and is condemned as a sin. Prov. 31: 10–31; 6: 6–11; Heb. 6: 10–12; Eze. 16: 49. We may be sure that God never designed the Sabbath to be simply a day of idleness. If keeping the Sabbath consists in simply doing nothing, then Christ was a notorious Sabbath-breaker, for he did many wonderful works on the Sabbath; and when the Jews charged him with breaking the Sabbath, he replied: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” John 5: 17. The ancient priests of God did more work in the temple service on the Sabbath than on other days. Gospel ministers usually do their most arduous labor on the day they regard as the Sabbath. Diligence in the Lord’s service is repeatedly enjoined in the word of God. We are to “diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord” (Ex. 15: 26); to “teach them [the words of the Lord] diligently” (Deut. 6: 7); to seek God diligently (Heb. 11: 6); and look “diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.” Heb. 12: 15. The Sabbath is the Lord’s day, and it should be devoted diligently to his service. The Lord commands us to refrain from our own work on his day, not because there would be virtue in our being idle upon that day; but because he has other work for us to do. “Is it such a fast that I have chosen,” saith the Lord, “a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?” If this was all God required, the civil government could easily make Sabbath-keepers. It could compel the unbelievers to sit in sackcloth and ashes all day, or stand with bowed head and sober countenance; but it can not enforce true Sabbath-keeping. “He that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” Rom. 14: 6.212 From our Saviour’s words in the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath day, we may get the true idea of Sabbath-keeping. He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then, with the eyes of all that were in the synagogue fastened upon him, he added: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4: 16–21. Follow the Saviour throughout his public ministry, and it will be seen that especially on the Sabbath was the Spirit of God upon him in doing just this kind of work. Christ was the model Sabbath-keeper. And until the civil government can clothe men with the power of God to enable them to keep the Sabbath according to the example of the true Pattern, it should attend to its own legitimate work, and let God take care of his own day. Let the ministers of Christ “preach the Word” faithfully. Let them weep over the erring, and pour out their prayers for the salvation of the lost, as did our Saviour. Let them labor as ardently and unselfishly for the truth as did the early Reformers, and as did many of the pioneers of their own churches. Then their power will be felt, for their influence will be strong through the sweet savor of Christ. Then, too, they will have neither the need nor the time, nor yet the desire, to lobby at the halls of legislation, nor to attend upon the office of the magistrate, to secure better observance of the Sabbath or of any other form of religious service. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.”