The Christian Sabbath and the Fourth Commandment
By Editor
The Lutheran Observer of December 28 has an article against the continental Sunday, and says that "erroneous views of the apostolic institution of the Christian Sabbath, or Lord's day, and of the proper manner of observing it, have generally prevailed on the continent of Europe." By the "Christian Sabbath" the editor means Sunday. But it is only on the continent of Europe that we have Sunday kept as originally instituted. It was always regarded more as a holiday than a holy day. Down to within a few centuries, markets were held in the very churchyards, even in England, on Sunday. Luther and Calvin both regarded it as a holiday. So also did Tyndale, Zwingle, Cranmer, and others. It was to them a mere matter of human expediency. They knew that it could not be clothed with the sacred law of the fourth commandment. It has been reserved for the latter-day friends of Sunday to dress the institution in the garb of the rest-day of Jehovah. But the garb does not fit. The fourth command was given for one day alone, namely, the seventh. It cannot be made to fit any other.