That man, on earth and fading things below,
Might not his firm affections all bestow,
That he might not, buried in worldly care,
Forget who made the earth and sea and air,
But calm his soul with holy thoughts of heaven,
The Rest-day of the Lord was kindly given:
A blest memorial which to mind should bring
Creation's birth-day and creation's King.
Here Error, busy with her countless arts,
To weave her webs and hurl her poisonous darts,
Ceaselessly striving with her sorcerer's rod
To mar the beauty of the truth of God;
To make mankind through some false medium see,
Till all their vision shall perverted be,
Zealously strives, with energy not slack,
To switch men off on a fallacious track.
This is her plea, though false and most absurd,
'Tis yet entitled to a passing word:
When Israel's sons were slaves in Egypt's land,
Close-fettered in oppression's iron band,
When God deliverance brought and freed from harm,
With mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm,
Therefore 'tis claimed, the Sabbath was designed,
Their great deliverance then to keep in mind:
A Jewish rite, memorial of the day
When they from cruel bondage fled away.
Now, then, shall reason and the Word declare,
How far with truth this theory will compare.
That they might ever cherish, fresh in thought,
The glad deliverance which for them was wrought,
And him who thus stretched forth his hand to save,
Two fit memorials Jehovah gave;
For oft as they the Passover observed,
So oft in strong remembrance they preserved,
When God through judgment brought deliverance
And Egypt's first-born sons were doomed to die,
How the destroying angel, dark with wrath,
Passed o'er their dwellings on his fearful path.
And oft as they the Unleavened Feast prepared,
So oft, with this memorial, they declared
How the Egyptians, fearful of their stay,
With hastening hand then hurried them away.
And when at length their sons should wish to know
What means this service? what designed to show?
This was their answer: For with mighty hand
Jehovah brought us up from Egypt's land.
Thus were two fitting, plain memorials given,
So to remind them of this work of heaven.
But such desires in some poor minds bear sway,
To get Jehovah's Sabbath out the way,
That they attempt, in furious strength to seize,
And crowd it in, and make it go with these!
Not satisfied with what God gives to man,
They must push in another if they can.
At once we see 'tis but an artful quirk,
And there's no fitness in such silly work.
A weekly rest, to keep in memory, clear,
A day that could come round but once a year!
Just as if we to celebrate should try,
Full once a week the fourth of our July!
But most in this propriety they crush;
They have a rest memorial of a rush!!
'Twas meet that God, when he had bared his arm,
To heal their sufferings, and release from harm,
And brought them from beneath the oppressor's rod,
Where they could freely serve and worship God,
Should charge to whom they homage then should pay,
And so remind them of the Sabbath-day.
And some there are who take no ground like this,
But still, take theories equally amiss.
Thus they contend: Since First-day was the day,
When from Death's bands our Saviour broke away,
Since then redemption's plan was made complete,
That is the day, henceforth, that we must keep:
Should keep, to bear in mind, in deed and word,
The resurrection of our blessed Lord.
First, then, in all sincerity, we seek
How you support the first day of the week,
And in all candor ask, Where do you find
Authority for changes of this kind?
Where, keep the Sabbath, does the Bible say,
To bear in mind the resurrection day?
Are not memorials already given,
Ordained, appointed and designed of Heaven?
For when we lay our bodies 'neath the wave,
Do we not emblem Jesus in the grave?
That as he from the dead arose, so we
Should rise, in newer life henceforth to be?
And oft as we, said Christ, the bread should break,
And in his memory should the cup partake,
So oft should we show forth, with symbols clear,
The death of Jesus till he should appear:
Are not these then sufficient? must we bring
A third memorial so unlike the thing?
And no way fitted to recall to mind
The scenes for whose remembrance 'twas designed?
If God proposed the Sabbath-day to change,
It seems to me 'tis something very strange,
That he no record gave to set it right;
But left mankind to guess it as they might;
For in God's Word, though men dont seem to mind
There's no such record, and they cannot find it.
'Twas naught, at first, but God's almighty power,
That placed the blessing on the Sabbath hour;
Naught but his mandate that enforced its claim,
On all men equal, and on all the same.
Know then that his almighty power, alone,
Can change that day he once declared his own.
No less than his command, express and plain,
Must you produce, to prove your theory sane.
On human creeds then dare you longer rest,
Slighting the only day that God has blest!
On human theories dare you trust your all!
Remember, by God's law we stand or fall.
The Sabbath a memorial we admit,
But not of actions which it will not fit.
To try and make it signalize events,
To whose resemblance it has no pretence,
To use it where no meaning it conveys,
Stretched and distorted in a thousand ways,
Shocks every law propriety e'er gave,
And finds for fitness an untimely grave.
Rightly applied, harmonious and fair,
The Sabbath stands, and there is beauty there.
Grant it the place for which it was designed,
And it has lessons for each honest mind;
For thus our actions speak, while we protest,
After six days of toil, a day of rest,
In stronger terms than language e'er unfurled—
Jehovah rested when he made the world.
Plainly he's given what day that day shall be:
He rested on the seventh and so must we.