THE COMMANDMENTS.—PART I.
By A. C. Spicer
Further Conclusions from the Foregoing.
4. THAT the Sabbath, considered both in respect to the rest provided for, and the specific time of that rest, and also the fourth precept of the decalogue commanding its observance and protecting it, are wholly moral in all respects, and must, as such, exist just as long as the moral reasons for ordaining and commanding them exist; and this must be just as long as the moral relations and reasons out of which they originated remain, as must exist the institution of marriage and the fifth precept of the decalogue commanding respect to, and protecting, the family relation just so long as147exist those moral relations and reasons in which they were based. The claim is not valid, that while the marriage institution and all the other precepts of the decalogue are moral because they can be seen to be based in, and to grow out of, man's moral relations and necessities, yet the Sabbath and its enforcing law are not moral but positive, because the time of the rest appointed, was arbitrary with God and not based in, or growing out of, moral relations, but might have been appointed on the first or eighth day or on any other day just as well. That claim is fallacious. Not any more valid is the claim that the Sabbath institution is in part moral and in part positive,—moral in respect to the rest appointed, because that can be seen to be a moral necessity of man growing out of his moral nature and relations, but positive in respect to the time or day appointed for the rest, as that cannot be seen to grow out of any such necessities or relations. These pretences have not the least possible weight in reason, and certainly no authority from Scripture. They are apparently based upon the assumption that the idea of moral fitness or moral necessity either could only grow out of moral human relations, or that it could not exist in, or grow out of, the relation of man to divine moral reasons, or to the divine idea of moral fitness or necessity; or, that in the divine reason or idea of fitness or necessity there could be no moral quality. Each and all of these assumptions are based in error. God is wholly a moral being in all his attributes and qualities; and moral quality necessarily inheres in all his reasons and elections, and especially so when he is considering moral needs and providing for them. The Sabbath was not appointed from considerations of any physical necessity of rest for either God or man. It stands to reason and experience both, that in respect to physical necessities simply, sufficient bodily rest had better be taken each day to prevent exhaustion, rather than to toil so exhaustingly on each of six consecutive days as to require the seventh for bodily rest and recuperation. In fact, it were better never to indulge in such physical exhaustion, not even for the sake of the luxury of the rest to follow. No, the Sabbath was instituted for reasons far higher than any necessity for mere physical rest. It originated in, and was based upon, considerations having respect primarily to the honor and glory of God as Creator of all, and secondarily to the moral and religious necessities of man. It is a memorial day appointed by God to commemorate the work of God in creating the worlds, and the rest of God on the seventh day, “from all the works which he created and made.” As such it stands forth before the world as a memorial monument conceived in divine wisdom and erected by divine authority to declare weekly that there is a God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day, and thus to rebuke idolatry and induce man to believe in, and to adore and trust, his Maker. Mark well here that it is not alone the work of creating that was to be memorialized; but God's resting, as well. Secondarily it was appointed as a day of cessation from man's secular labor and for religious instruction and worship. But that secondary object had respect not simply to man's good, but through it to the primary idea, the honor and glory of God. We underrate and belittle the importance of the Sabbath when we consider it designed only for man's convenience and rest. Considered now with respect to this secondary object of the Sabbath institution, it must be seen that no other day would have been as appropriate or as suitable as the seventh day was; for the duty to sabbatize on any other than the seventh day could not have been enforced by the sabbatizing example of God. The full birthday of the created universe was the most appropriate day, which was the seventh day. The first day would not have been appropriate for a Sabbath; for then the work of creation had but just been commenced, and man, for whom the Sabbath was made, and who was the crowning workmanship of all, was as yet uncreated. The fourth day would not have been appropriate; for then the creative work had been but partially completed; besides, as that was the birthday of the sun, moon and stars, the honoring of that day would have been suggestive of honor to those bodies and hence of idolatrous homage to them. Neither of the other six working days would have been most impressive, not even the sixth, the day of man's creation; and to have appointed that as worship day would have been suggestive of honor to man instead of all honor to God as Creator. No other day would have been so suggestive of the infinite power, wisdom, and glory of God, and hence have conduced to call out from man homage and honor to God as the day immediately following the one on which he finished all his work, and, having executed the crowning work of all in the creation of man, and conferred upon him honoring and distinguishing authority, dominion, and all the prerogatives of his moral and intellectual manhood, surveyed all the grand workmanship of his hand and pronounced it “very good.” That was the seventh day, in which could be memorialized all the work of creation at the same time, as it was then all completed, and which was therefore free from any specific event, except God's rest, and hence free from aught to divert homage from the Creator to the created. In considering this subject this thought should ever be remembered, viz: God undertook to recommend to man the Sabbath day, by his own example. Then the seventh day was the very earliest day possible in which God could have rested for such a commanding example in which rest could be the only event of the day and stand forth as such to impress the mind and suggest honor to God only. There was, then, a moral reason for God's resting on the seventh day; an idea of moral appropriateness that could apply to no other day. Therefore there could be in the Divine mind a moral reason for the election and appointment of the seventh day as Sabbath in preference to any other day. The particular day chosen for the Sabbath considered now with reference to the primary object of the Sabbath only—that of its being a memorial of creation and of God's rest—and the above considerations apply with more force, and it is seen even more clearly that no other day of the seven would have been appropriate. No earlier day would have been suggestive of the celebration of the whole creative work and of that rest of God. Either of the earlier days would have been liable to the objection of diverting the mind, and hence the homage, of man to the thing created and hence from the Creator. The seventh day was the first upon which God could have celebrated all his works of creation completed, by a rest therefrom. And as God did so celebrate by resting and being refreshed on that seventh day, and as that was also the very earliest day in which man could participate in that celebration, it was not only the suitable day to elect, bless, and sanctify, as a Sabbath, but it was the only appropriate day for such memorial rest. Then God had a moral reason for electing and sanctifying the seventh day in preference to any other day; and a reason that could not then, nor can now, apply to any other day. And in the light of all the circumstances, relations and events preceding and attending the election of the Sabbath, it must be apparent to all who, without any pet creed to defend, will, with open mind, look at the subject, that the reasons for the appointment of the Sabbath were based upon relations and considerations wholly, moral and religious. Verily the Sabbath and the fourth commandment are wholly moral; and the Sabbath is “holy,” “honorable,” and a “delight” to the true people of God, and its “commandment holy, just, and good,” and to be “delighted in” after the inner man, by them all, as “the law of God.” A. C. SPICER.