TESTIMONY ON THE SABBATH.
By W. Pottenger
I was highly pleased with the article entitled, “Pres. Asa Mahan on the Sabbath.” He, and all others of our learned men, can, and generally do, give strong proof of the origin, nature, and object of the Sabbath when they are untrammeled by the traditions of men; and yet it oftentimes so happens that even from those who have certain “creeds” or “articles of faith” to support you can glean certain facts that will go far to show what their real sentiments are, and to establish you more firmly in the truth. To make the truth stand out more clearly, I will introduce the testimony of Dehon, D. D., in one or two of his sermons. The title of the book from which I quote is, “Sermons on the Public Means of Grace,” published in 1821. “That God is to be worshiped, is a sentiment of nature, a dictate of reason, and a declaration of the written law. This point being established, there follows a necessity that there should be established times for discharging the duties of devotion. “As regularity in transacting business of any kind is ultimately beneficial, so, in this particular, unless there be stated periods for paying our devotions to the Most High, inattention will produce indifference; indifference will form a habit of forgetfulness or neglect; and thus in the noblest employment of a rational being, the mind would but seldom and accidentally engage. When we further consider that there are favors which we unitedly need, and, consequently, for which we ought unitedly to petition; that there are sins, which we join in committing, and consequently, ought to join in imploring remission of the same; that there are blessings which we enjoy in common, and, consequently, for which we ought to return a common tribute of praise; in a word, when we consider that, social in everything else, man ought to be social in the worship of his God, we cannot but be convinced of the necessity that some definite part of time should be appropriated to the service of religion. “Now if it were left for men to determine among themselves how much time, and what particular part of time, should be thus consecrated, it would be rare indeed if, differing in sentiment upon every other subject, they should be united upon this. The supposition is inadmissible. We can conjecture ten thousand circumstances which would inevitably operate against this unanimity. But, blessed be God, in this respect, he has not left mankind a prey to uncertainty and discord. He, himself, has determined what portion of their existence his intelligent creatures shall dedicate to him. ‘Remember,’ says he, when promulgating his sacred laws, ‘remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ Permit me, beloved, to bespeak your attention, while I endeavor to state to you, in the first place, the nature of this day, and the reasons for remembering it; and, secondly, the suitable and reasonable methods of keeping it holy. “We learn from the history of the creation that Deity employed himself six days in forming the heavens and the earth and all the host of them. It could not have been necessary that he should be occupied for this or any other particular space of time, in effecting the purposes of his will. He, whose simple fiat could call light into existence, could, with equal ease have said, ‘Let creation be,’ and instantly the universe would have appeared. But for some certainly wise and good end, perhaps for our instruction, he chose to employ himself six days in creating our world. ‘The seventh day,’ says the sacred historian, ‘God blessed and sanctified, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created.’ Not that he was fatigued by the exertions which he had made, or exhausted by the greatness of the work which he had accomplished. Far otherwise. ‘The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary.’ When it is said, ‘God rested on the seventh day,’ the expression means that he then ceased from that particular employment in which he had been engaged. And when he sanctified this day, he determined that every periodical return of it should be duly observed by his intelligent creatures for commemorating the nativity of creation, when ‘the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,’ and for impressing upon their minds a remembrance that He to whom they dedicated the day was the author, and is the preserver and governor of the universe; of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things. “Such was the origin of the Sabbath day; and there is a probability that the observance of it commenced and continued from the time when the reason first existed for which it was blessed and sanctified. It is true that we have no account of the actual observance of the day before the time of Moses. Many have inferred from this that the notice of the day is to be dated from the solemn appointment of it by Moses. But if the Sabbath had been kept from the creation as a matter of course, it is a circumstance which we should not expect to find mentioned in a history so concise, when the author himself must have viewed the thing as common as the resting at night, after the labors of the day. Now, we have no account from which we can possibly infer the neglect of the day. And it is observable that the first observance of it noticed by the historian was previous to the promulgation of the law from Sinai. “When the children of Israel were miraculously fed with manna, they had not arrived at the holy mount, but were in the desert of Sin. This was their eighth encampment; that was their twelfth. In order to refrain from labor on the seventh day, they then gathered on the sixth two omers of manna, which was twice the quantity of one day’s consumption. When Moses assigns the reason for this, he mentions the Sabbath, not as anything new, but as something to which they had been accustomed. ‘To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.’ It may further be remarked that, notwithstanding the commandment in the text, and other arrangements in the Jewish law for the service of the day, there is no particular mention of the observance of it for several years after Moses. “But it is argued, if men had remembered the Sabbath day from the creation, why was it so formally ordained at the promulgation from Sinai? Now, would it not be equally as rational to argue that it was not esteemed unlawful to dishonor parents, to commit adultery, to murder, to steal, to bear false witness, etc., previous to the decalogue, because that, in that communication of the divine will, these crimes were formally forbidden? The truth of the matter undoubtedly is, that when Deity had sanctified the Sabbath, he informed man thereof; and from Adam to Moses those were not wanting who paid attention and reverence to the holy day. As man became more and more corrupt, the obligation to this, as well as to all other moral precepts, was held less and less sacred. To revive their ideas of duty, and preserve among mankind a knowledge of his will, Deity, in his own time benignantly vouchsafed to his people a written law. In this law the religious and constant observance of the Sabbath was solemnly enjoined, and two additional motives thereto urged upon the Jews: ‘Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence,’ therefore he ‘commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day,’ and likewise ‘that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed.’ Thus was the Sabbath established, and continued a day of rest, from the first pair of our race, to Jesus, the Immanuel. “There is something of an awful holiness, of a solemn dignity, surrounding the Sabbath, when we consider the consecration of it, as coeval with the existence of our race. How venerable its antiquity! How sublime the ends for which it was instituted! With what horror does the sensible mind recoil at the recollection of those who would demolish with worse than Vandal arms this first and most gracious institution of God. From the account which has been given of its nature and history you may gather reasons, sufficiently engaging, to fill you with a resolution that you and your house shall reverence the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” That this may be the determination of all who may read the above is my prayer.
W. POTTENGER.