THE SABBATH IN THE LAW.
By G. B. Thompson
THE Rev. Benjamin Fields, in his "Hand-book of Christian Theology," in demonstrating the universal and perpetual obligation of the Sabbatic institution, brings forward, among other points of proof, the fact that it is incorporated in the moral law. After speaking concerning the limited and temporary character of the ceremonial law, he says:— But moral duties belonged to the Jews in common with all mankind; they were of universal and perpetual obligation. Now, the law of the Sabbath holds its place among the moral precepts. It is found in the Decalogue, the doctrine of which our Lord sums up in the moral duties of loving God and our neighbor. That law is our law as well as the law of the Jews. Our Lord upheld its authority, announcing it as God's testimony to the end of time (Matt. 5:17, 18); and it is established and confirmed by the gospel, as the rule of all inward and outward holiness (Rom. 3:31). It belongs, therefore, to no one age or nation. Wherever there is a moral and sensible being, the moral law, of which the Decalogue is a clear and comprehensive summary, is binding on his conscience, and with it the day of consecrated rest. The position taken by some writers on this subject is that, whilst all the other commandments belong to essential morality, and are of lasting obligation, the fourth is an exception. It is not easy to imagine a more incredible paradox than this: That one commandment of a merely national scope and temporary obligation should have been associated, in a summary of moral duty, with nine others of perpetual obligation; that it should have been placed in the very central niche of all the commandments, as on one side directly touching the honor and worship of God, and on the other, the rights and well-being of man; that, equally with all the other commandments, it should have been spoken by the voice of the Most High, and written by the divine finger on one of the tables of stone; and yet that this one "word" alone of all the ten should be merely ceremonial and temporary, the rest being all of a moral nature and of permanent obligation. Surely, it must be felt as if no arguments could establish such a paradox as this.—Sunday Magazine, 1866. This was written by an observer of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, and who, in the same chapter from which this is quoted, attempts to prove that it is the Sabbath. But the above excerpt is true, and contains uncontrovertible facts which not only establish the universal obligation of the Sabbatic institution, but also of the seventh day as the Sabbath for all time. And in the light of the above, the argument of Mr. Fields in support of other than the seventh day seems tame and strangely incongruous. And in the midst of his argument he himself makes the frank confession that "there is not on record any divine command to change the Sabbath from the day on which it was held by the Jews." Though he claims an equivalent, there can be no equivalent. This admission is fatal to the sanctity of Sunday, for "where no law is, there is no transgression." Rom. 4:15. Law—the moral law—is the standard of the great assize above, and by it we will be judged. "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:12.