VII. Man's moral and spiritual well-being requires just what the Sabbath precept provides, and hence it is moral.
Here, again, a wide field opens before us; but our space will allow us to explore but a part of it and that hastily. What are the proper uses of the Sabbath day? Simply the cessation of labor is not all. The day is to be employed in meditating upon God's works, in talking of his greatness and mercies, in studying his word, in going to the house of God for singing, prayer, Sabbath school, social meeting, hearing the word of God, and like exercises.
Deprive society wholly of this weekly rest day; abolish your Sabbath schools, prayer meetings, and regular sermons; let work of all kinds and classes go right on seven days in the week, and what would society be? If you want to know, go to heathen lands where they have entirely forgotten the Sabbath, and behold their ignorance, superstition, degradation and crime. That is just what would follow in any nation by the abolition of the weekly rest day. We are social beings, and one of the greatest means of improvement is social intercourse. Take the child that is kept away from Sabbath schools and Sabbath gatherings, and is kept at work in the same clothes seven days in the week, and he soon loses respect for himself, feels degraded in his own estimation, and his moral sensibilities become blunted. There are thousands of such examples as this. On the other hand it does have a refining and elevating influence upon children and youth to leave their ordinary work once a week, wash up, put on their best clothes, and assemble with others for social and religious purposes. Nothing else can take the place of this. All other means combined scarcely equal in importance the influence of the Sabbath for this purpose.
But take it from a religious point of view, and how inestimable are the benefits and advantages of the Sabbath day. To properly estimate this, we must suppose the Sabbath to be entirely laid aside and no fixed rest day to be regarded by society. What a condition of things we would then behold! We should have no Sabbath schools, no Bible classes, no regular days for meetings or divine worship, no day of rest from constant, wearisome toil; but everywhere shops and stores would be open, mills running, farm work going on, and, in short, one continued tide of work, work, work, business and worldliness. The anxiety of the employer to make the most out of his capital, and of the laborer to make the most of his time, crowds out all rest days. If the poor laborer wishes to rest, his employer will not allow him to do so. If one house closes the other will take its custom. And so all rush on in hot haste after the world, while God and man's spiritual wants are forgotten!
What could a minister accomplish with such a state of things? How long would the members retain their spirituality? How long would the church survive under such circumstances? Compelled to labor against disadvantages, it would not have been possible for the church to have accomplished one-hundredth part of what it has,—if, indeed, it could have survived at all. By taking advantage of a weekly day of rest when the people have leisure to come together to hear the word of God, the church has gained its strongest hold upon the people.
In wide contrast with the sad state of things which would result if the no-Sabbath theory were carried out, and the church and the world were entirely deprived of a weekly rest day, let us suppose for a moment that the Sabbath precept was carefully kept by all the world. What a delightful, what a heavenly sight we should behold. For six days all men are busily and honestly employed in their secular affairs; but now God's holy rest day comes. All business is suspended; all labor is laid aside; every shop and store is closed; the mills are stopped; the cars and the boats stand still; all toil on the farm is suspended; the beasts are allowed quietly to repose in the barn or in the field; all around the world everything is quiet and still; the children and youth, cleanly and neatly dressed, are wending their way to the Sabbath school, where they will learn about their Creator, their Saviour and a pure and holy life. The people gather at the house of God, where solemn prayer, and sweet songs of praise are offered to the Lord. The elevating truths of our holy religion are set forth before them. This would be a scene for angels to behold with delight. Heaven would come near to earth, and man would be lifted up into a higher and purer life.
Of the influence of Sabbath observance, an eminent author says:
"Its calm and heavenly stillness, when, after six days of labor and amusement, the activity, bustle, noise and tumult of worldliness die away, speaks of God. And as the Sabbath sun rises in his glory, and no man goes forth to labor, and all creation seems to listen, there is not an obedient child in the world, who knows the reason of this, and has been taught his duty, who does not feel more than he did before the Omnipresence of Jehovah; and have a more operative conviction that he sees everything, and hears everything, and knows everything, and is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Earth becomes like the house of God, and the Sabbath like the gate of Heaven. It seems to raise a ladder like that of Jacob, and to show him angels ascending and descending upon it. He can hardly forbear to say, 'Surely, God is in this place.' For him, in keeping the Sabbath, so to play the fool as to say even in heart, 'no God,' is next to impossible." Sabbath Manual, pp. 172, 173.
Reader, if the Sabbath day is not a moral institution, then God has never given one to man. It is one of the relics of Eden, a golden link that binds us to the throne of the Creator, and brings Heaven's blessings near to man. May it long remain, with all its hallowed and dear associations.
We grant, says one, that all the above-named evils would follow if there was no regular day for rest and public meeting; but the church or society could agree and fix upon some day for this purpose without a definite appointment by the Lord. Indeed! This admission is the strongest argument in favor of our position; for it admits that the necessity for a Sabbath day is so great that men would appoint one even if God had neglected to do so!! What does this show? Just what I am trying to prove, viz., that God in giving us a Sabbath day simply met a generally felt and acknowledged want of mankind, which grows right out of their nature physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. It shows that the Sabbath rests upon the same basis as all other moral precepts do, viz., the wants of man's nature.
It is a noticeable fact that our opponents who contend that there is no Sabbath day at all, do still keep a weekly rest day and use it for social and religious purposes. In this we see an illustration of the old proverb, "Nature will out." Why do they do this? The fact is that nature is stronger than their theories and will assert itself.
Another says, We agree that one-seventh part of time should be set aside as sacred to God; but it makes no difference which day it is, provided all are united upon it, which is the important idea. Here, again, they unwittingly admit all that we claim. They admit that it is a moral duty of man to devote one day in seven to the service of God. Thus they give it a moral basis,—just that for which we are contending! Again, they strongly urge the great importance of all uniting to keep the same day. They dwell upon the inconvenience to society, where one keeps one day and another some other day, and so on;—how this interferes with business; how each one annoys the other; how it breaks up society, &c. Thus they readily name a long list of evils which follow where men keep different days for the Sabbath.
Do they not see that these very facts overthrow their own position? They maintain that it is no matter which day you keep provided you keep one day in seven, and that every man has the liberty to choose for himself. Then they turn square about and show how very important it is that all keep the same day! Why, then, do they advocate the very principle which, if carried out, would produce the very division, discord and confusion which they deprecate so much? Did not the Lord have as much wisdom as man? Did he not know that it was important that all should keep the same day? Did he not see that, if he left it to every man to choose what day he would keep, confusion would inevitably follow, as all men would not be likely to choose the same day? Is God so unwise as to leave his laws in this slack manner? Is this not charging God with folly? What is gained to God or man by leaving every man thus to choose what day he will keep? The only way that union could be secured in observing the Sabbath, would be for the Lord himself to designate the definite day which all must keep. Then all would keep the same day, and all confusion would be avoided. We say, then, that reason and the nature of things teach us that if God should give man a Sabbath day at all, it should be a definite day, selected and appointed by God himself. That this is just what God has done in the Sabbath precept we will now show.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 8-11.
Notice this language carefully, and see if it does not designate a definite, particular day, not merely one day in seven, or simply one-seventh part of our time. The Lord says, Remember the Sabbath day. What are we to remember? Not the Sabbath but the Sabbath day, or rather the day of the Sabbath. The day, then, is the important thing which we are to remember. The Lord does not say that we shall remember a Sabbath day, some Sabbath day, any Sabbath day, one day out of seven, or one seventh part of our time. No such indefinite language is used; but it is just as definite as language can make it. "Remember the Sabbath day." The definite article the is used. If we wish to point out a definite, particular man, we say, The man. Otherwise we say, A man. So, here, the Lord says, The day, the Sabbath day. But which day is that? He makes it still more definite. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day," &c. "Well", says one, "that is just what we do. We work six days and rest on the seventh, and this is all that the commandment requires, viz., that we should rest one day after six days of work, no matter where we begin to count." But look a little farther. The Lord does not leave it in that way. Which seventh day we shall rest upon is pointed out in the most definite manner. "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work," &c. Here, again, we notice the Lord does not say a seventh day, or one day in seven, or one seventh part of time, nor is any such indefinite expression used. It is the seventh day.
But now comes the clincher, which settles beyond all doubt, just which seventh day we must rest upon. "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it," &c. Which seventh day are we to keep? It is that one which is the Sabbath day, or rest day of the Lord. Sabbath signifies rest. Sabbath day, rest day. The Sabbath day of the Lord, the rest day of the Lord, or the day upon which the Lord rested. Now which day is this? Let the same commandment tell us. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
The Lord worked the first, second, and so on for the first six days of the week. He did not rest upon either of these days. Hence neither of them is his rest, or Sabbath, day. Then he did rest upon the seventh day, the last day of the week. Nor was this simply one-seventh part of time, and no day in particular. It was a definite day, the last day of the week, and no other. When the Lord had rested upon the seventh day, that day thus became distinguished above all other days as the rest day, or Sabbath day, of the Lord, as Sabbath signifies rest.
To illustrate: Washington was born on the 22nd of February. That day thus became distinguished as Washington's birth-day. The day of the month, and of the year upon which he was born, and no other day, was, is, and always must be Washington's birthday. Could he change his birthday from the day upon which he was born to one upon which he was not born? Certainly not. Just so the Lord's rest day must come upon the very day of the week upon which he did rest. The commandment requires us to keep, not our rest day, nor the Jews' rest day, nor the Christian's rest day, but to keep the Lord's rest day. Which day is that? Every honest man must answer that it is the day upon which God rested.
Notice now how plainly the Lord has stated this. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work." The seventh day, then, upon which we must rest, must be the one upon which God rested; else it would not be the Lord's rest day. The commandment, therefore, was given to guard God's rest day and not some other day which any man's fancy might choose. Did God bless and hallow a day? Yes. Which was it? His own rest day, for so it says. Are there other days upon which God did not rest? Certainly. Has the Lord sanctified any of these? No, indeed. Thus we might go on to show in the plainest manner that the language of the fourth commandment in the most distinct and definite manner designates as the Sabbath day, not simply one day in seven, but the very day upon which the Creator himself did rest, the seventh and last day of the week. This view of the case is consistent. It is eminently reasonable that God should require men to reverence his own hallowed rest day; and farther, as we have already shown, in requiring man to keep a rest day, it is unreasonable to believe that God should leave it to every man to select which day he will keep, as no benefit would accrue to any one by such an arrangement; but great confusion and inconvenience must of necessity be brought upon all by such a course. God could easily designate a definite day which all must keep; and thus harmony would be secured. And this is just what the Lord has done in the fourth commandment.
D. M. CANRIGHT.