Sanctification of the Sabbath.
On the sanctification of the Sabbath, Mr. Baird is self-contradictory. He says:— “A preacher parading a Hebrew Bible and Lexicon before a popular audience, and attempting to show that the statement in the second chapter of Genesis, with regard to God’s hallowing the seventh day, is equivalent to a positive enactment regarding the Sabbath, shows nothing so plainly as he shows his utter ignorance of Hebrew.” By this we are led to believe that Mr. Baird considers himself capable of deciding who is and who is not ignorant of Hebrew. Of this we will soon enable the reader to judge for himself. Yet it is quite certain that the words quoted above are a mere flourish, to ward off the force of a plain truth. Gen. 2:3 says God sanctified the seventh day. Ex. 20:11 says he hallowed the rest-day, which is the same thing; for sanctified and hallowed are from the same word, and the seventh day is the rest-day. Of the Hebrew original, Gesenius says it signifies “to sanctify, to make holy, to appoint, to consecrate.” Dr. Clarke says it “signifies to consecrate, separate, set apart a thing or person from all secular purposes to some religious use.” Of the English word sanctify, Webster says: “To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a religious use.” Also, “To secure from violation; to give sanction to.” “The Sabbath was made for man.” Man was to be the observer of the day, and of course it could not be set apart, consecrated, appointed to be sacredly used, secured from violation, and sanction given to it, except by commanding man to refrain from secular labor upon it. A day cannot be appointed for man’s observance, and guarded from violation, and sanction given to it, and man not be informed of it. Instances might be given to show its use in the Bible, but it is not necessary. They all correspond to the following, in Joel 2:15: “Sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly.” A fast could only be sanctified, or appointed, by informing the people and directing them to observe it. He who says the sanctification of the Sabbath was not its appointment for observance shows himself ignorant, not only of the Hebrew, but also of the English as given by Webster. But Mr. Baird contradicts the position he assumes against “a preacher.” On page 8, speaking of their knowledge of weeks as shown in Genesis, he says:— “The blessing and hallowing of the seventh day, spoken of in the second chapter of Genesis, refers to the making that day a blessing to mankind, by setting it apart as a day of rest and sacred observance.” Of course this could not be done and man not be informed of it. And when man was informed that God appointed, or “set it apart, as a day of rest and sacred observance,” that information carried with it the obligation to so observe it. The reader will now be ready to justify our assertion that his declaring “a preacher” ignorant of Hebrew was a mere flourish to cover up the truth; a truth, too, which he elsewhere virtually confessed.—Waggoner’s Review of Baird, pp. 17, 18.