THE SABBATH OF THE LORD by Alvares Pierce

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Sep 19, 1854

THE SABBATH OF THE LORD.

By Alvares Pierce

IN attacking an old theory it appears as it does in making an attack on a fortified town or castle, it requires a good degree of skill and experience. The siege must be carefully and judiciously planned, and all the avenues should be strictly and diligently guarded: the attacking party should be well entrenched with good and sufficient breast-works, and then with a magazine well stored with ammunition and the siege properly prosecuted, it seldom happens but that the besieged must in time yield to the besiegers, though it may take weeks, and months, and even years, to effect it. So in the subject before us, "Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isa. xxviii, 10.

I commence this article with hesitancy, knowing my weakness, and inability to write any thing that will be edifying to a Christian public, it having been but a short time since I embraced the present truth; yet I can say with our dear brother Wm. Miller, that since then, I have felt that I had a new Bible, as it never read so plain before. "Days should speak and the multitude of years should teach wisdom; but there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Therefore I said hearken unto me, I also will shew mine opinion." Job xxxii, 7, 8, 10.

In treating of the law of the Sabbath we must begin where the Sabbath first began, which carries us back to the first work of time. Gen. ii, 2, 3. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made." After God had finished his work he rested on the seventh day. He then blessed and sanctified it; and he here assigns the reason why he blessed and sanctified it; and it was because that on it he had rested from all his work. We hear no more about the seventh day until after the children of Israel left Egypt; though there is no doubt but that the Sabbath was observed by all the holy men of old. But we will pass to the time that the Israelites left Egypt. On that fifteenth day of the second month they came to the wilderness of sin.

Ex. xvii, 22–30. "And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. "And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." Verse 25. "And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath; therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day."

Here is plain and positive scripture testimony that the Sabbath had been previously instituted as the Lord speaks of it as a thing that was well known and understood among the people; as he says, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws;" and Moses tells them too that "the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath." We have no other account of any but the one instituted on the first week of time; and although the Israelites might not have had the privilege of keeping holy the day in Egypt, yet in all probability the theory of it was taught and they well understood it; if they had not it would have been inconsistent to have accused them of breaking his commandments and laws.

We will pass to the time when the Israelites encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, which was on the fifteenth day of the third month after leaving Egypt. The Lord here proclaims with an audible voice, the law of the ten commandments; and when he comes to the law of the Sabbath he tells them to remember the Sabbath and speaks of it as a subject well-known, and charges them to remember it, not forget it, but remember it to keep it holy; for it is his Rest-day, his holy Sabbath. Here, too, a definite time is specified: it was the seventh day. And had the Sabbath day been always remembered there would have been no Pagans, no Idolaters, no Heathen: we should have heard nothing of deism or atheism: God would always have been worshiped in the beauty of holiness: times and laws would never have been altered: we never should have had Sunday instituted by "His Holiness Lord God the Pope," for the holy Sabbath of the Lord.

When I think how God’s holy day has been desecrated by the professed followers of the Lamb, and by myself in particular, through the tradition and commandments of men, and Sunday substituted in its place, and at last that I should be brought to hear the truth in my old age, when the lamp of life is about flickering in its socket, I am led to cry out, "Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

In further treating of this subject we will consider the number seven, and there is no other number so often mentioned in the Bible, as that of seven. The first seventh day brought the holy Sabbath of the Lord; and when Noah had built the ark, to the saving of himself and family, he was commanded to take of clean beasts and of fowls by sevens, while of the unclean only by pairs. See Gen. vii, 2, 3. Verse 4, reads, "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth." And seven is so often mentioned, not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New, that if it were possible to attach divinity to numbers, I would say that seven was a divine number; but I think our opponents cannot accuse us of sacrilege, if we at least call it a sacred number.

In Deut. xv, we have the law of release, or where the poor were sold, or become bond men. Verse 12 reads: "And if thy brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee." Here the number seven is recognized again. And not only were the inhabitants to keep the seventh day holy, but the land was to have the privilege of resting every seventh year. See Lev. xxv, 1–7. "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; for it is a year of rest unto the land, and the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat." Thus they were neither to sow their fields on the seventh year or to reap the fruit of that which grew of itself; and if it should be asked what they should subsist on, we will give the answer that the Lord gave. Verses 20–22. "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold we shall not sow nor gather in our increase, Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year; and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store."

Here blessing and mercy and goodness are promised as the reward of obedience and these are but temporal blessings in this world, while glory immortality and eternal life await the faithful to the world to come.

But we pass to the time of some of the prophets. Neh. ix, 13, 14, speaks of God's giving the people right judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments, and making known to them his holy Sabbath. In Chap. xiii, Nehemiah speaks of closing the gates on the Sabbath; of the merchants' lodging about the walls on the Sabbath day and bringing wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. God tells the eunuchs that keep his Sabbaths [Isa. lvi,] that he will give them in his house and within his walls, a name better than of sons and of daughters, even an everlasting name that should not be cut off. Also the strangers that joined themselves to the Lord and kept his Sabbaths from polluting them, their sacrifices and offerings should be accepted upon his altar, and he would bring them to his holy mountain, and make them joyful in the house of prayer. Now all these blessings were promised on a strict obedience to the Sabbath and "the Lord is not slack concerning his promise." 2 Pet. iii, 9.

Isaiah lviii, 13, 14, speaks of the blessings promised to Sabbath-keepers. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." All the honor that one could wish for in this life, is here promised; for he would make them to ride on the high places of the earth and feed them with the heritage of Jacob. Ps. lxi, 5. "For thou O God hast heard my vows, thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name." Ps. cxix, 111. "Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever; for they are the rejoicing of my heart." Isa. liv, 17. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord." We here see that Sabbath-keeping is the corner stone and foundation of every other blessing. No weapon formed against them should prosper, and their righteousness should be of the Lord, and he would feed them with the heritage of Jacob.

From Jer. xvii, 21-27, we may learn the high estimate that the Lord puts on Sabbath-keeping. Speaking of the Sabbath to his ancient people, he says that if they would diligently hearken to the Lord and bear no burden through the gates into the city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, "then shalt there enter into the gates of this city, kings and princes, sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bring sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord. By the two verses quoted above, we see the great joy and rejoicing it produced in the hearts of those who then observed the Sabbath to keep it holy, and blessed be God! it produces the same now. Now see by verse 27, the contrary effect, or the curses that follow the Sabbath-breaker: "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." Sabbath-keeping, then, was to decide the fate of Jerusalem. The contrast is truly drawn, that if they would keep the Sabbath of the Lord, the city should remain forever; but if they desecrated the Sabbath, then the city should be burnt with fire that should not be quenched.

The Sabbath was also given to be a sign between God and his people. Eze. xx, 12. "Moreover, also, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Verses 19-21. "I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them, and hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding the children of Israel rebelled against me; they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my Sabbaths: then I said I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness." Eze. xxiii, 38. "Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths." Also Chap. xxii, 8, 26. "Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths." "And have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them." Eze. xliv, 24, speaking of the priests, says: "And they shall keep my law and my statutes in all mine assemblies, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths."

In Mal. iii, 7-9, the Lord accuses his people of going away from his ordinances, and not keeping them, one of which was Sabbath-keeping. "Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." Thus the people, in profaning and desecrating the holy Sabbath of the Lord, were accused of robbing God, and of being a nation of robbers, and were cursed with a curse for so doing. The same language is used in these days that is found in verse 14; that is, "It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance." In Matt. xii, 8, Christ claims the Sabbath as his day. He says, "For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day."

It is often stated by our opponents that if the law of the Sabbath was perpetuated in the New Testament, Christ would have some where mentioned it; but this is not the case even with the rulers of this world; for when our legislature meets to enact a code of laws, those laws are of force until the meeting of the next legislature, and then if there is any defect in any of those laws, they are called up and altered or repealed. Now is not this the case, in a measure, with the laws of God, or what he gave at Sinai, both the moral, the ten commandments, and the ceremonial, and they were in force until Christ came, and he then tells us by his servant Paul what laws or sections are repealed and taken out of the way: Col. ii, 14. "Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Thus as the law of the Sabbath was not specially acted on, it stands good, according to the rule of all legislation. Only the law of ordinances was done away. Eph. ii, 15. "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace." Here we see what was abolished and taken out of the way, and that it was no part of the law written on the tables of stone.

But may it not be said in these days, as in the day of ancient Israel, "Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths." Eze. xxii, 8. The clergy, also, may be compared to the ancient priests. Verse 26. "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." In Matt. xii, we have an account of Christ's healing the man with the withered hand; and the Pharisees asked him if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him; and he reasons with them to show them their hypocrisy, and that they were placing a false estimate on the Sabbath. Christ tells his followers to "search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Now as Christ came to be the captain and leader of his people, if any part of the law was to be done away, he certainly would have informed his disciples of it, and what part it was; but he frequently enjoins it upon them to keep the commandments, and thus he sanctions the law.

Not long since I had conversation with a Presbyterian minister and he stated that he thought he had apostolic example for the first day; but when we turn to Mark vii, 7, we find that Christ taught differently. He says, "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." He said likewise that it was not so much the day, if we only entered into the spirit of it; but I conceive that this is making void the law. In Matt. xxviii, 1, and Mark xvi, 1, and Luke xxiv, 1, we have an account of certain women who came to the sepulchre to embalm their Lord. Matthew says "In the end of the Sabbath;" Mark says "When the Sabbath was past;" and Luke xxiii, 56 says: "And rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment;" and Chap. xxiv, 1, "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre." John xx, 1. "The first day of the week."

Thus it appears that not only Christ, but also all his disciples rested over the Sabbath according to the commandment; but on the first day of the week they were ready again to commence the avocations of another week.

Christ in giving his disciples instruction respecting their conduct at the destruction of Jerusalem, tells them to pray that their flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath day; and thus looks forward and recognizes the Sabbath thirty-seven years after his death. The writer of the Acts recognizes the Sabbath something like thirty years after the cross. Acts xiii, 14. "And went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and sat down." Verse 22 "And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Verse 44. "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts xvi, 13. "And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side where prayer was wont to be made and sat down and spake unto the women that resorted thither." Acts xvii, 2. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures."

In all the texts above quoted, the seventh-day Sabbath is recognized, not only by Christ, but by his apostles; and if the Sabbath has been altered, it must have been since the days of the apostles; as they all recognize it. Paul declares [Acts xxviii, 17] that he had "committed nothing against the people or custom of the fathers; yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans." Now this declaration would have been false, had he not been a Sabbath-keeper. In speaking of the commandments they are universally enforced not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New. No less than eighteen times are they mentioned in Psalm cxix. Christ repeatedly enforces them. St. Paul says in 1 Cor. vii, 19. "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." James speaking of the royal law, says, If we keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all. 1 John v, 3. "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous." Rev. xii, 17. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. xiv, 12. "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xxii, 14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city." Verse 18, 19. "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city; and from the things which are written in this book."

ALVARES PIERCE. Allegany, Potter Co. Pa., Sept. 2d, 1854.