THE NEW TESTAMENT SABBATH.
By Presbyterian Teacher
It is the fashion of the present day to assume that, under the Mosaic dispensation, the law of the Sabbath was altogether arbitrary, and in a very high degree oppressive, and that under the gospel it has been essentially modified. The position seems to be that there is a large abatement of the divine claim in regard to Sabbath observance. Under the Mosaic dispensation there were certain theocratic regulations and requirements, which, as belonging to the civil government, as administered by Moses and his successors, were not designed to be of permanent obligation. But it was a leading object of these precepts to impress upon the minds of the Jewish people a sense of the sacredness of the Sabbath, as a holy day. It was the purpose to give them an impressive lesson in regard to the spirituality of the law and the extent of its application. And the divine legislation, under the theocracy, was of such a character as to leave no one in doubt in regard to its import. The precepts of the law and the teachings of the prophets, during the subsequent history of the Jewish nation, taught the people how to keep the Sabbath. And so far as relates to the essential spirit of the command, there has been no change. During the later history of the Jews, their religious teachers gave such an exposition of the law of the Sabbath as rendered it burdensome and oppressive, but for every precept in regard to it, which was inconsistent with the highest and best interests of the people, temporal not less than spiritual, their teachers, and they alone, were responsible. There was nothing in the commandment, in itself, nor in any precept of the Old Testament in regard to it, of which they had the smallest reason to complain. There was nothing that forbade any work of necessity or mercy. The conscientious Jew did not hesitate to care for his own necessities, nor for the necessities of those dependent upon him. He did not hesitate to supply the wants of his domestic animals, or to afford relief to such as were in distress, and what might be done for a beast might certainly be done for a fellow-man. In his exposition of the law of the Sabbath, our Lord added nothing to the precepts of the Old Testament. He simply delivered his disciples from the bondage into which they had been brought by Jewish tradition. He made no abatement of his claim, and he put no new construction upon the fourth commandment. He simply corrected the misconstruction of the Jewish teachers. He taught his hearers how the commandment was to be obeyed. It is somewhat remarkable that writers who claim for the New Testament law a great superiority over that of the Old Testament, should altogether lose sight of the unscriptural and dishonoring imputation involved. They assume that the cruel and oppressive ruler of the Hebrew people has become the gracious and beneficent Saviour of the new dispensation. But the Son of man is the same person who revealed himself to ancient Israel as "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." And there has been no change in his character or work. The personal ministry of Christ was simply a fuller and clearer manifestation of the same character and the same general plan of saving lost men.