THE EPISCOPALIANS ON THE LAW AND SABBATH.
By R. S. Owen
In the “Church Catechism” published in London we find the following:— “Ques. You said that your godfathers and godmothers did promise for you that you should keep God’s commandments. Tell me how many there be? Ans. Ten. Q. Which are they? A. The same which God spake in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, saying I am the Lord thy God, &c. Q. Which is the fourth commandment? A. [Here the fourth commandment is inserted]. Q. What reason is given for the observance of this law? A. Because God himself rested upon the seventh day. Q. What then did he do upon the first six days? A. He made heaven and earth, the sea and all creatures in each of them. Q. What did God do on the seventh day when he had rested on it? A. He blessed and Hallowed it. Q. What do you mean by Hallowed? A. He made it holy. Q. Why did God bless and make it holy? A. That we might rest on that day from our usual works, and set it apart more especially for worshiping him.” In another work—“A Help to Catechising,”—we read, “Why did God choose the seventh day in particular?—Because he rested on it from making all things.—When did God make the seventh day holy?—As soon as he had made the world. Gen. 2: 3.—For whom did he make it holy?—For Adam and Eve and all their children and children’s children forever.” Language more clearly teaching our obligation to keep the seventh day could not be found; and “those who are to answer before God for young Christians,” [their definition for godfathers and godmothers] will be interested in knowing which the seventh day is. This they teach as plainly as the other. In the Episcopal hymn-book we find a hymn for each day of the week, which plainly marks the Sabbath. It runs thus:— “‘And God said let there be light. . . . And the evening and the morning were the first day.’ “On this day, the first of days,
God the Father’s name we praise,
Who, creations found and spring,
Did the world from darkness bring.” “‘And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. . . . And the evening and the morning were the second day.’ “Come let us praise the name of God,
Who on the second day
Spread out the firmament above,
His glory to display.” Here follow appropriate scripture quotations and verses for the other days of the week. We give only the last:— “‘And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made.’ “Six days of labor now are past.
Thou restest, holy God. . .
Blest is the seventh morn of light
Hallowed for rest divine.” &c. When they observe the first day of the week and not the seventh, do they not fondly contradict themselves as well as the Bible? R. S. OWEN.