THE SABBATH | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1859

THE SABBATH.

The following is extracted from a discourse by Eld. A. Lowrey, published in the Western Christian Advocate of Dec. 22, 1858. We copy such portions as relate to the general principles upon which the Sabbath institution is based. How any one endorsing these principles, can imagine that he is rendering obedience to the fourth commandment by the observance of Sunday, looks to us like a problem not easy to be solved. The discourse opens upon Matt. xii, 12, as follows:

"Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day." Matthew xii, 12.

I shall in this discourse assume the divine appointment and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, after simply recapitulating the points of evidence on which I rest this assumption.

1. All the necessities which originally required the sabbath, still exist—Did human nature ever demand regularly recurring periods of rest? That nature having undergone no change, makes the same demand now. Was it necessary in the beginning that God should teach, by example, that six-sevenths of our time might be devoted to secular pursuits, and that one-seventh would be needed for rest and holy duties? We still need the force of that high precedent.

2. Every argument which proves that the sabbath law remained in force throughout the Jewish era, will prove its continued obligation under the Christian economy.

Was it introduced into the Decalogue, and made a part of their great standard of moral rectitude and duty? That same Decalogue has been grafted into the Gospel. Was the sabbath made a part of the Levitical code and interwoven with the civil government? All the moral elements of the Levitical code have been incorporated into the Christian system.

The Gospel is no abolishment or relaxation of any moral principle in the Jewish religion.—Our Lord does modify some Old Testament precepts in his sermon on the mount; but that modification was designed to give them greater stringency and a higher sanctity. "Ye have heard that it hath been said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies." "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that you resist not evil." * So also in regard to murder and divorcement. A higher standard of moral conduct is established. The Gospel is but a revision, enlargement, perfecting, and spiritualization of the moral laws and religious economy given to the Jews.

The Decalogue being purely a moral code, has been grafted into the Gospel without abridgment or change. Nor has there been the slightest abatement of its sanctities or relaxation of its binding force.

That we have but nine commandments is a new discovery, not of this city, but of the semi-infidelity of the old world, and recently imported into this country.

The Decalogue, being preeminently a moral code, can not be repealed without subverting the moral government of God over free intelligences. God indicated the surpassing importance of the Decalogue by the sublimity of its communication. He wrote it with his own finger upon the durable substance of stone. He selected, as the seat of his announcements, the rocky summit of Sinai. He descended in a pillar of fire, and constructed his sanctuary out of the terrors of the elements. He spoke with the voice of thunder and the tongue of lightning. As he wrote, Sinai trembled to its base, buried in cloud and smoke, while the thunder waxed louder and louder. This scene of grandeur has its meaning. Can any one believe it a pompous show? Does it not proclaim that the principles of the Decalogue are essential to moral order every where and perpetually? If so, the 4th commandment can not be repealed.

Let us group together the evidence upon which this proposition rests.

1. Our Lord says: "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Does not this prove that the integrity of the Decalogue must and shall be preserved while heaven and earth remain? The death penalty and temporal judgment in regard to the Sabbath have been relaxed, but a more direct appeal to the more awful retributions of eternity have been substituted for them.

2. When the young man came to Christ inquiring what he should do to inherit eternal life, our Lord quoted the commandments, and taught that to observe them was essential to salvation.

3. When asked by a lawyer, a man belonging to a class generally versed in subtilties, and a man desiring to draw from Christ, no doubt, something disparaging to the law, which was the great commandment in the law, Jesus said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew xxii, 36. A summary, but no repeal of any part of the Decalogue.

4. Paul pronounced the law holy, just and good, and ascribed to it his knowledge of sin. Rom. vii.

5. James makes the Decalogue a unit, and therefore not repealable in its parts. He lays down this premise: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet shall offend in one point, he is guilty of all." He elaborates the proposition, thus shewing clearly that he is speaking of the binding force of the Decalogue: "For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law;" that is, of the law as a whole.

6. If it be asserted: "The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath," and therefore competent to repeal the Sabbath law, the claim is conceded. But we inquire, has he done it? When he came into the world he found the Jews observing the Sabbath with superstitious exactness, and therefore had the fairest opportunity to declare it a nullity; but he did not do it. He simply taught that works of necessity and mercy might be done on that day as they always had been.

He declared: "The Sabbath was made for man." Not for the Jew—not on account of any peculiar circumstances, but for man; thus giving that day an application to the race, in all times and countries.

7. He maintained the hallowed character of the day, by example and doctrine. He neither did nor sanctioned secular labor on this day, excepting acts of necessity. The Jews after watching Jesus with a malignant scrutiny, that they might accuse him, only charged that his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and that Jesus healed the sick on the sabbath day.

There is not even a forced resemblance in these acts to the secular pursuits and carnal pleasures, of which complaint is now made in this community. Indeed, the sabbath was occupied by the Saviour in teaching—in promulgating his own Gospel, and the acts of healing, which were no desecration of the day, were usually incidental to public instruction. It has been said by those who desire loose views to prevail, respecting the sanctity of the Sabbath, that our Lord performed most of his miracles on the Sabbath day. This, we are told, is a remarkable fact, as though it bore a striking resemblance to the thunder of the omnibus in our streets. But the position of our Lord is defined in the text, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day."