ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA vs. SUNDAY-KEEPING.
By Editor
FROM the Encyclopædia Americana, we are induced to make the following extracts on the subject of the Sabbath, thinking they may not only be of interest, but also of profit, to our readers. Although the writer takes some positions which we think untenable, as we shall notice in their proper place, he nevertheless treats the observance of the first day of the week as a day of rest, with a candor which is not to be found with any of the ultra-advocates of Sunday-keeping. He is also inclined to certain distinctions which we think owe their existence to long-standing prejudices and traditions, rather than to any declarations of the Word of truth. But we need not anticipate. From the above work, Art. Sabbath, we commence to read as follows: "SABBATH (a Hebrew word signifying rest) is the day appointed by the Mosaic law for a total cessation from labor, and for the service of God, in memory of the circumstance that God, having created the world in six days, rested on the seventh. Concerning the time when the Sabbath was first instituted, some Jewish writers, and some fathers of the church, have believed from the language of Gen. ii, 2, (where it is said that God blessed and sanctified the day,) that it was established from the moment of creation; but as there is no proof in the Old Testament, that this day was observed by the patriarchs before Moses, others have supposed that the words in Genesis mean that God intended to have the Sabbath celebrated in future; but some modern writers, particularly English and American divines, adhere to the first opinion." We must here stop long enough to inquire upon what ground the distinction is based upon which we already find the writer definitely standing. It is said, "Sabbath is the day appointed by the Mosaic law," &c. What are we to understand by the Mosaic law? Those laws given by the hand of Moses to Israel—laws local in their application, adapted to the particular circumstances in which a particular people were placed for a given time. Entirely distinct from these must of course be those moral laws which all must admit God has instituted to govern mankind, in all places, under all circumstances, and in all time. These are generally conceded to be the ten commandments as written by God's own finger upon tables of stone. And those who would regard the Sabbath as a ceremonial or local institution are here obliged to make a most unnatural exception. The very fact that it is enrolled in the bosom of the decalogue is prima facie evidence that it is of the same nature as the other commandments with which it is associated, and like them unchangeable and eternal. No other place than paradise, and no other time than the creation of the world can be pointed to for the institution of the Sabbath. If it was not then and there instituted, we have no record of its institution; and the declaration that "there is no proof in the Old Testament that the day was observed by the patriarchs before Moses," is more than met by the fact that the division of time into weeks, which can be derived from nothing else than the division which God gave man at the beginning, of six days of labor and one of rest. The force of this fact is very generally admitted even by those who contend for a change of the day. We have before us a tract on the "Law of the Christian Sabbath," No. 443, published by the "Tract Society, New York," which says: "The Sabbath was no merely ceremonial or transitory law. Born as the institution itself was, so to speak, in Paradise; recognized by patriarchs from Noah onward, as indicated by the division of time into weeks; lost and trampled down under the hoof of slavery in Egypt, (as it has ever been where slavery has prevailed) but experiencing a resurrection in the wilderness, where Israel was free to serve and sacrifice, to worship and give praise to their fathers' God—the covenant of Sinai gave awful sanction and permanent establishment to a 'law' which from the beginning had its moral claims over the race, and was emphatically 'MADE FOR MAN.'" From the Encyc. Americana, we extract again: "The explicit injunction of the celebration of the Sabbath, the enumeration of it even in the decalogue [Ex. xx, 8.] had a great influence upon Christian observances; and there are many Christians to this day, especially in England and North America, who transfer all the injunctions contained in the Old Testament, respecting the observance of the Sabbath, to the first day of the week, and even give this the name of Sabbath. The use of the word Sabbath, in this application, we believe is confined to these two countries. In the earliest times of Christianity, the law of the Sabbath, like other parts of the Jewish faith, could not be received into the new religion, except spiritualized and refined like the sacrifices and other ceremonies. Every day, the whole life of the Christian had become a Sabbath, destined for the service of God. St. Paul explicitly treats the reverencing of certain days, as invested with a holy character by a divine ordinance as Jewish and unchristian, and as a return to servitude of the law. The first communities assembled every day; e. g., the community of Jerusalem for common prayer, meditation on the Word, communion and love-feasts. Traces of these daily meetings are found even later. With the spread of Christianity, however, and the necessity of instructing a greater number, the appointment of a certain time became necessary. This was not a departure from the spirituality of the new religion, but only an accommodation to the wants of mankind. In the same way, peculiar persons became priests, though all Christians had an equal sanctity of character, and the departure from the spirit of Christianity consisted only in assuming a peculiar spiritual character for the priests. The gradual adoption of forms and ideas from the Old Testament took place in the same way, in respect to the Sabbath as in respect to the priesthood. When the Montanists intended to establish new fasts, assigned to fixed times, they were reminded of the Epistle to the Galatians; but Tertullian treated the censure of St. Paul as attaching only to the celebration of Jewish festivals, (Tertullian, De Jejuniis, c. 14.) The weekly and yearly festivals of the Christians originated from the idea of following Christ, the crucified and the arisen; hence the festival of the resurrection, and the fasts preparatory thereto. In each week the joyous festival was on Sunday; and the preparation for it was on Wednesday and Friday, the days of the Saviour's passion. This point of view is necessary for the right understanding of the early festivals." Various ideas are introduced in the above extract which we are confident a "poor way-faring man" would never arrive at without help. The idea that the Sabbath was so rarified and expanded at the cross as to cover the whole week, we need not comment upon, till it shall be shown that it was in its origin and existence peculiar to the former dispensation. We call attention however to the only grounds which can be assigned for the observance of the first day; namely, as a festival, owing its existence to customs of the church and the "wants of mankind." And we might here ask, why the Lord did not permit the ancient Sabbath to continue to exist and meet with its presence these wants of mankind which he must have foreseen would shortly arise. "The desire of distinguishing the Christian from the Jewish observance, early gave rise to the celebration of Sunday, the first day of the week instead of the Jewish Sabbath; the first trace of which is found in Acts xx, 7." The declarations here made that the first trace of Sunday celebration is found in Acts xx, 7, is more than is generally conceded by First-day observers; for they will have us go back at least to just this side the resurrection, and believe that Jesus met with his disciples on two successive Sundays, at least, though more than "eight days" came between them! Closely examined, however, it will be found that Acts xx, 7, does not contain the "trace" that it is supposed to. This the writer partially admits, further on, and in so doing manifests more particularly that candor and fairness to which we have already alluded. He says: "This however, is by no means conclusive, because the community collected on the first day of the week, might easily have been assembled by the near departure of St. Paul; and still less can be proved from 1 Cor. xvi, 2. Another trace is in the Apocalypse, i, 10, as here we cannot suppose that by Lord's day is meant day of judgment." Having thus admitted it to be a matter of extreme doubt whether inspiration has ever in any degree distinguished the first day of the week, either by example or precept, the writer proceeds to introduce testimony showing us that Sunday observance is a human institution merely, and bringing to view the causes to which it owes its existence, and the authority upon which it rests. It is found in the following: "In the letter of Ignatius to the Magnetians, (chap. ix,) allusion is made to the Sunday celebration, as the symbol of a new life, consecrated to the Lord, in contradistinction to the former Sabbath. Sunday was distinguished as a day of joy, so that none fasted on it; people prayed standing and not kneeling, in allusion to Christ's having raised fallen man. Neander, (q. v.,) a most learned and faithful inquirer into ecclesiastical history, observes,* that "the celebration of Sunday was always like that of every festival a human institution; far was it from the apostles to treat it as a divine command; far from them and from the first apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. But perhaps as early as the end of the second century, a mistaken application of this kind had grown up, because, even then, the working on Sunday seems to have been considered sinful (as we may conclude from the words of Tertullian, De orat., chap. xxiii.) Wednesday and Friday, the latter particularly, were sacred to the memory of the Saviour's passion. Jewish-christian communities, however, retained the celebration of the Sabbath, though they adopted also that of Sunday, and thus it became customary in the Oriental church to distinguish this day also by not fasting, and by praying in a standing posture: on the other hand, in the Western and particularly in the Roman church, in which the opposition to Judaism prevailed, the custom grew up of using the Sabbath particularly as a fast-day. (Tertullian, De Jej., chap. 14.) And when at a later period, the causes of this fasting on Saturday were lost, legends were invented to explain it, such as that Peter had fasted on this day to prepare himself for the disputation with Simon Magus. Tertullian speaks of this difference between the Oriental and Western churches with much moderation. The learned Hyppolytus wrote at the beginning of the third century on this point of dispute. (Hyeronymus, Ep. 72, ad vital.) Constantine the great made a law for the whole empire (321 A. D.) that Sunday should be kept as a day of rest in all cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow their work on that day. In the year 538 (A. D.) however, the council of Orleans prohibited country labor; but because there were still many Jews in Gaul, and the people fell into many superstitious uses in the celebration of the new Sabbath in imitation of the practices of the Jews, the council declares that to hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle and carriages, to prepare food, or to do anything necessary to the cleanliness and decency of houses or persons, savors more of Judaism than of Christianity."45"The reformation abolishing so many of the festivals, which had increased in the Roman Church to an immense number, naturally elevated the character of those which it left, as Easter, Christmas, &c., and Sunday; but Sunday, though considered by the Lutherans as a proper day for religious service, was never regarded by them with that awe which was connected with its observance in the Old Testament. It is with them a day of rest and enjoyment; and many amusements are taken by Protestants on the European continent, during that day, which people there would think improper on week days appropriated for labor. Calvinism which is altogether of a sterner character than Lutheranism, may have induced its adherents to observe Sunday more strictly; but even at Geneva, the Sunday evening is spent in numerous amusements, in visiting, dancing, playing foot-ball, &c., and the labors of husbandry are permitted in harvest on Sundays. The custom of calling Sunday, Sabbath, indicates the inclination to transfer the character of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. In fact the Puritans from whom it has descended, showed in many respects a decided inclination to the sternness of the Old Testament. The Puritans rejected by degrees the feasts of the church as heathenish or Popish, and Sunday alone was retained, either because they considered it as, originally, of divine institution, or because being conscious of the disadvantage of abolishing all festival days, they felt the want of a divine injunction for the one which they kept."