Striking God out of the Sabbath.
SOME of the religious papers made considerable ado over a remark of Judge Noah Davis, of New York. During the recent excitement in that city over the effort to strictly enforce the Sunday, the Judge made an address in which he said:— "I will say that I am not in sympathy with any sentiment that strikes God out of the Sabbath." In this expression the Judge spoke better than he knew. We are in hearty accord with the sentiment. Indeed, it has been one of the great objects of our life and life-work for more than thirty years to impress upon the world—the religious world included—the wrong of striking God out of the Sabbath. It has been done, and is still done, by the Catholic, and most of the Protestant churches. In the Bible the word "Sabbath" is a determinate word, specifying a particular thing. We mean wherever a weekly institution is the subject. But at the present day, among the Protestant churches, this is not the case; they have departed from Bible language and Bible usage. The Bible says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." It knows no other. But in modern language we have the Jewish Sabbath, and the Christian Sabbath, and the New England or Puritan Sabbath, and the American Sabbath, and any and every kind of Sabbath except "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;" that is entirely ignored. Now the questions are in place: Who instituted the American Sabbath? What is the origin of the New England Sabbath? Where is the commandment for the Christian Sabbath? And where is the record of its institution? In what scripture may we find the weekly Jewish Sabbath? When was it made, and by and for whom? In what commandment may it be found? And for whom was the Puritan Sabbath intended? Is the Christian Sabbath binding on any beside Christians? Is the American Sabbath binding on foreigners or aliens? Who will give us light on these points? The truth is that this subject which is so simple and plain in the Scriptures, placed within the comprehension of a child, is one of interminable confusion in the churches. The various Protestant denominations are not at all agreed as to what their favorite Sabbath shall be called; nor as to its origin; nor its obligation. They are agreed only in one thing—namely, that they will keep Sunday, without any regard to reason, institution, obligation, or commandment. It is "the venerable day of the sun," and they are resolved to venerate it. Again, is the name of Jehovah to be found in any of these Sabbaths? Do the Scriptures say that the Christian Sabbath, or the Sunday Sabbath, is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God? From what work did he rest or Sabbatize upon the first day? Is the American Sabbath the Sabbath of the Lord thy God? Did Jehovah ever acknowledge such an institution? The Protestant churches used to call the Roman Catholic Church Babylon—the Babylon of the Revelation. The name signifies "confusion." But where is Babylon on the subject of the Sabbath? "God is not the author of confusion." Whose work is this? We have often thought we would like to see a mass-meeting or general convention of Sunday-keepers and Sunday advocates, from rigid Scotch Presbyterians down through the gradations to the modern Disciples, and hear them give their various reasons for keeping the Sunday. What a mass of contradictions there would be. The speeches of the builders of Babel could hardly have been more varied. But their intention is the same. Yes, and so was the intention of the builders of Babel. And the only point of agreement then or now is that of the intention or the object. Now when we gather up all these sabbaths, leaving out the seventh-day Sabbath, as custom requires, we find that God is not in them. He never placed his name in any of them. Of the Sabbath, the Bible or seventh-day Sabbath, God said:— "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58: 13, 14. Notice the essential points in this scripture:—
1. The Sabbath. The Lord himself says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." From this let man take his foot, and no longer trample the rest-day in the dust.
2. My holy day—the holy of the Lord. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord." Ex. 31:15. It, and no other, is "the Lord's day." The Lord makes this claim himself; why should we not allow it? He never thus spoke of any other day. 3. Honor him. In blessing and hallowing the seventh day, Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:11, and making it the memorial of "all his work which God created and made," he connected its observance with his own honor and glory. Surely the Creator and One Lawgiver is not honored in the observance of a day which he did not hallow, and which he never commanded anybody to keep. He who keeps the "American Sabbath" may honor the American people, but such honor does not reach to Heaven. Our friends say that they honor Christ in keeping the "Christian Sabbath." We will admit their claim whenever they prove that there is any such institution,—that Christ did anything toward establishing a weekly Sabbath. It is not only our right but our duty to require proof, for we have no right to yield to unauthorized institutions under the Christian name. They cannot point to a single action performed or a single word spoken by our Saviour indicating any intention on his part to set aside his Father's law, to put under foot the hallowed rest-day of Jehovah, and substitute another in its stead or erect another on its ruins. Such important changes are not to be accepted on inferences. But we can point to the origin of this misnamed "Christian Sabbath." All authorities agree that the first day of the week was dedicated by the heathen to the worship of the sun. Dr. Schaff says that Constantine, the author of the first "Sunday Law" that ever existed, was a worshiper of Apollo, the sun-god; he enforced the day under the title of "the venerable day of the sun." And the Bishop of Rome, profiting by this action of the civil power, made it a means of exalting himself by adopting it as "the first festival of the Church." Such was its origin; such were its institutors. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" Rom. 6:16. 4. Not doing thine own way. Sunday-keepers tell us that it does not matter which day is kept, only so that there is uniformity; the choice is left to those who to keep it. The Christian Advocate would have no objection to keeping Saturday if in a country where that day was kept; but being in a country where Sunday is kept, it is expedient, and of course right, to keep Sunday. But all such proceedings effectually set aside the claims of Jehovah, and the sanctification of his rest-day. These are only excuses for doing their own way. How can they expect God to approve their course? He says: "Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring every work into judgment." "Popular consent," or "civil arrangements," or "police regulations," which set aside the commandments of God, will cut but a sorry figure in unfailing rule. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. Blessed are they who renounce their own ways, and the ways of this world, and who "tremble at the word" of the Lord. 5. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. Precious assurance! worth more to the humble, God-fearing soul than all the favor and support of legislatures, congresses, and kings. But our opposers tell us that they delight themselves in the Lord in the observance of Sunday. We cannot accept their statement, for (1) The Lord never required it of them; it is no act of obedience to him. God is not acceptably worshiped in human inventions which set aside his institutions and his laws. They may have received many blessings in spite of this observance, but never any because of it. Infidels receive many blessings from Heaven; but this is no reason why they should continue to disregard his word and authority. (2) They are constantly proving by their word and their actions, that their enjoyment is not so much in the Lord, or in the observance of the day, as in seeing others observe it, either voluntarily or by compulsion. Haman thought he delighted in the honor which had been so lavishly bestowed upon him by the king, but he was mistaken. His chief enjoyment was in seeing others humbled. When he recounted the glory of his riches, and his promotion above the princes of the realm, and of the invitation to banquet with the king and queen, he added: "Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." And so with the keepers of Sunday. With all the advantages of popular consent, and of a legal holiday, and of almost entire cessation of labor on the Sunday, their minds are wondrously disturbed, their worship is a mournful ceremony, and their sleep is troubled, while they see Mordecai the Jew assuming the right to labor six days and rest the seventh, as the great Creator commanded! This is no fancy sketch. We have more than once been told by Sunday-keepers that they did not enjoy their meeting—not because they were disturbed, but only—because they knew that their Adventist neighbors were working while they were in meeting! With those who keep the Sabbath it is not so. They trust the word and promise of the Lord; they delight themselves in him, and enjoy his worship while their neighbors are noisily working all around them. This is a privilege we have found in living in obedience to God. And we live in joyful hope that we shall not always be subjected to sinful surroundings. If faithful we shall by and by find a city where all will keep the commandments, and observe the holy Sabbath. Rev. 22:14; Isa. 66:22, 23. 6. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Ah, would not our Sunday-keeping friends raise one universal shout if they could find a word in favor of Sunday, a promise of blessing for its observance, which the mouth of the Lord has spoken? But on every hand they are bringing up their doleful acknowledgments that the Lord and his inspired servants have preserved a remarkable silence on that subject. "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges."
Jehovah placed his own name in his commandment which points out his own rest-day. God himself spake and wrote these words: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God." On the seventh day he rested from all his work. "The first day of the week, commonly called Sunday," as the law of New York expresses it, was not and is not the Lord's rest-day. He did not bless it; he did not sanctify it; he did not command its observance; he never placed his name in it. The Lord is not in it. We are willing to leave it with every candid reader that to change the day of the Sabbath—to substitute another day for his own blessed, sanctified rest-day, is to strike God out of the Sabbath.