A NATIONAL SABBATH by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1862

A NATIONAL SABBATH.

By Uriah Smith

A MOVEMENT has lately been inaugurated in New York, which will be of interest to all commandment-keepers. There is a growing tendency in the minds of some who occupy high places in Church and State toward the inauguration of a great national Sabbath to which all classes shall be amenable. In a late number of the N. Y. Independent, is an editorial on this subject, of which some paragraphs seem to be especially to the point. It opens as follows:

“The Sabbath question is on the way to be one of the most important moral questions of our times. That a whole people should agree to cease from secular industries, and open their hearts to truths of affection and of religion for one full day of every seven, is more than interesting, it is sublime. But how shall the inhabitants of this continent be brought to such a consent?”

The writer then speaks of a diversity of opinion and practice on this subject which should not exist, in the following language:

“While on one side of the street our children are, on Saturday, driving hoop, or playing boisterously, on the other side Jewish worshippers are chanting their services in their synagogue. On the morrow the Jew is at liberty, but the Christian is at church. But even on the Christian Sabbath there is no unity either of worship, opinion, or custom. The Lutheran Sabbath is not the New England Sunday. The Protestant day is not like the Roman Catholic day.

“Now we hold few things so important as the general and religious observance of the Sabbath-day. One of the most fatal blows at religion, and one of the most uncivilizing to society, would be that which destroyed the Sabbath-day. It would be peculiarly oppressive to the poor. It would make the yoke of labor yet harder, and the burden of care heavier. It would withdraw safeguards that now restrain pleasure from wantonness, and, leaving the popular mind without a regularly recurring moral influence, would soon demoralize it. Even if we regarded the question as one of health, there should be a physiological Sabbath;—as a matter of political economy, there should be one day in seven of productive rest.

“There are industrial, social, and moral reasons for a Continental Sabbath. Even if there were no authority in the Bible, there is authority in Nature for this day of rest. Even if the revelation of the letter had forgotten to ordain it, the revelation of creation did not forget; and, though the New Testament does not command the day, so neither does it command eating, sleeping, proper clothing, or any other act or course for which there is already a custom among men, and an organic necessity in nature.”

In arguing upon the methods by which this national Sabbath can be established, and its observance secured, the writer continues:

“What are the best methods of producing popular consent to the observance of the Sabbath? We cannot force the day upon people. It would not be desirable to do it if we could. It is not the American Christian way of dealing with men. Our civilization teaches us to take every man in society along with us. The poorest citizen is a general partner in this national concern. The American Sabbath must not be a class Sabbath; an ecclesiastical day; a peculiar church day. It must become the people's day. They must be led to adopt it; to love and revere it; to make it a delight and honorable! Then there will be a national Sabbath. But, in order to this, the Sabbath which we advocate must have in it some provision or allowance for the wants of every class and condition of men in our nation. It must be a day as humane to the poor as to the rich. Its observance must not be framed by the convenience of those who have ease and leisure, and without sympathy for those who all the week are ground and moiled with oppressive labor. If it is to be national it must be a people's Sabbath. If it is to be the people's, then it must be the Bible Sabbath. If it is to be the Bible Sabbath, it must, not alone in its general and remote intent, but in its details and working elements and observances, be thoroughly humane. It must be Christ's day.

“A course of sermons has been begun in New York, by such eminent and able ministers as Dr. Rice, Dr. Vinton, Dr. Wm. Adams, Dr. Hague, Dr. Ganse, and others fit to company with them. They will, without doubt, give the best scriptural view of the nature, authority, and benefit of this divine institution.”

From the expression, “it must be Christ's day,” it is not difficult to determine, in view of the popular belief on this subject, which day of the week will be taken as the national Sabbath. But, says one, you are expecting that what is denominated the Christian Sabbath will yet be enforced with severe penalties; and this writer says, “We cannot force the day upon the people.” Very well. This is the language which is just adapted to the present state of this question. This is the very language which we might expect while the enforcing element—the mass of the people—are yet to be molded upon this subject. But when all concur upon this question, except a few who conscientiously observe the fourth commandment; when those who stand out are only those whose godly lives are a standing condemnation of the formal course of an apostate and world-loving church, whose faithful warnings of approaching danger disturb their easy slumber, and their delusive dreams of peace and safety, whose very presence is as much of an annoyance to them as was that of Elijah to Ahab, and whose rejection of a false Sabbath is based upon their refusal to worship the beast, and his image, or receive his mark, how long before coercive measures would be adopted toward such a people? How long before their constancy would be attributed to obstinacy and bigotry? And how long before the sentence would go forth, as it did in the days of Pliny, that for this, if for nothing else, they deserved to be punished?

The course of sermons commenced by the five “eminent and able” doctors of divinity mentioned above, gives us something of an idea of the breadth and depth of the agitation upon this subject. We shall watch with interest the movement which is undoubtedly soon to be developed upon this question, believing it has a more intimate connection with the fulfillment of prophecy than its authors, though men of mighty intellects, and good intentions, are aware, or would be willing for a moment to admit.