What Others Think of the Sabbath and Law.
By W. H. Blaisdell
The following remarks on the Sabbath are taken from the Union Bible Dictionary, by the Am. Sunday School Union. “The Sabbath—The only weekly feast among the Jews was the Sabbath. Gen. 2:3; Ex. 16:23; Lev. 23. This feast or festival did not come into being, however, with the Jewish worship, but was appointed before the apostasy, as a special memorial of the goodness and power of God displayed in the finished work of creation; and it is the opinion of many very learned men, formed after the most laborious and unprejudiced investigation, that it is in some form or other recognized throughout the world as a sacred day. “It seems to be agreed among Christians generally, that the knowledge and observance of the Sabbath were preserved in some form and degree, through Noah and his family; nor is it surprising that it is not particularly mentioned in the concise history of the intervening period, which the Bible contains. In the law of the ten commandments, the Sabbath not only is recognized, but its inviolable sanctity and perpetual obligation are both taught us, not only in the language and spirit of the commandment itself, but by its incorporation with that original and fundamental law of God’s government, which was promulgated amidst the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai, and engraved on tables of stone.” The following is an extract from the work entitled “The Four Pillars,” by Harvey Newcomb, A. D. 1842:— “The religion of the Bible furnishes a perfect code of morals, with adequate motives and sanctions. In the ten commandments every thing wrong is forbidden, and every thing that ought to be done is required. “This is brought into a very small compass by a classification of offenses and duties, and forbidding or requiring the highest of each class. “A close examination of them in this light, will show that there is not the slightest defect in them; and that perfect obedience to them would secure a perfect state of society, like that which exists in Heaven.” In regard to the abrogation of the ten commandments, he says:— “Some are disposed to undervalue the Old Testament. They say Christ came to introduce a new law or new covenant; and that therefore he has abrogated the old. “But Christ teaches no such thing. On the contrary, he says he came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil; and that not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. The only part of the Old Testament which is done away in Christ, is the ceremonial observances which have their accomplishment in him. The substance having come, we have no longer any need of the shadow.” In the “History of the Bible,” by John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., author of London Pictorial Bible, Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, History of Palestine, &c., the author speaks as follows, respecting the ten commandments:— “Though the ten commandments were given to the Jews particularly, yet the things contained in them are such as all mankind from the beginning were bound to observe; and therefore under the Mosaic dispensation, they, and the tables on which they were engraven, and the ark in which they were put, were distinguished from the rest of God’s ordinance by a peculiar regard, as containing the covenant of the Lord. And though the Mosaic dispensation be now at an end, yet concerning those moral precepts of it, our Saviour declares, that “one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” “To comprehend the full extent of these commandments it will be requisite to observe the following rules:— “Where any sin is forbidden in them, the opposite duty is implicitly enjoined; and where any duty is enjoined, the opposite sin is implicitly forbidden. “Where the highest degree of any evil is prohibited, whatever is faulty in the same kind, though in a lower degree, is by consequence prohibited. And where one instance of virtuous behavior is commanded, every other that hath the same nature, and the same reason for it, is understood to be commanded too. “What we are expected to abstain from, we are expected to avoid, as far as we can, all temptations to it, and occasions of it; and what we are expected to practice, we are expected to use all fit means that may better enable us to practice it. “All that we are bound to do ourselves, we are bound on fitting occasions to exhort and assist others to do, when it belongs to them; and all that we are bound not to do, we are to tempt nobody else to do, but keep them back from it as much as we have opportunity.” “The ten commandments, excepting two that required enlargement, are delivered in a few words: which brief manner of speaking hath great majesty in it. “But explaining them according to these rules,—which are natural and rational in themselves, favored by ancient Jewish writers, authorized by our blessed Saviour,—we shall find that there is no part of the moral law but may be fitly ranked under them.” The above remarks on the law are very beautifully in harmony with Ps. 19: 7. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” W. H. Blaisdell.