Lessons for Bible Students.
(HISTORY OF THE SABBATH, PP. 24-42.)
What was the character of the seventh day, as hallowed in Eden? Being instituted in Eden, can it be a memorial of the flight of Israel from Egypt? Do the most distinguished Jewish writers claim the Sabbath as a Jewish memorial, or deny its primeval origin? What allusion does Josephus make to the Sabbath in the wilderness of Sin? How does he speak of it at creation? What does Philo say of the Sabbath as a memorial? The Sabbath being instituted before the fall, could it be a shadow or type of man's rest after his recovery from the fall? and why not? Why may not the Sabbath be one of the carnal ordinances imposed till the time of reformation? Heb. ix, 10. Where is the next mention of the Sabbath after man's apostasy? What objection to the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise is attempted to be drawn from the fact that the book of Genesis does not contain any formal precept for its observance? State the defects in this argument. From what other sins besides Sabbath-breaking, does the book of Genesis contain no prohibition? Can we affirm from this that the patriarchs were under no restraint in these things? Why was it not necessary that the book of Genesis should contain a moral code? How much time is spanned in its brief record? From the fact that the book of Genesis, after giving the institution of the Sabbath, does not again mention it, what conclusion has been drawn? State the defect in this argument by naming other important doctrines not mentioned in that book. By what penalty was the Sabbath enforced after the time of Moses? Yet how long a period is passed over after the time of Moses, without a mention of the Sabbath? What other observances, which were at that time important, are passed over in silence? What conclusion follows from these facts? From what is the reckoning of time by weeks derived? What texts of scripture show that the patriarchs so reckoned time? Could they retain the week and yet forget the Sabbath? How would the facts respecting the creation, naturally, and even necessarily, become diffused among the godly of mankind? What succession of holy, and probably inspired, men, spanned the whole time from Adam to Abraham? What is the record concerning Abraham? How is the Sabbath next mentioned among his posterity? What is it only necessary to do to vindicate the Sabbath from the reproach of being Jewish? What were the reasons for separating the family of Abraham to be the depositaries of divine truth? What means did God take to distinguish them from the heathen around them? What foreshadowed to Abraham the bitter servitude of Egypt? How long after the promise to Abraham, was the deliverance from Egypt? God brought Israel from Egypt to give them his Sabbath, his law, Ps. cv, 43-45, and himself, Num. xv, 41; why did he enter into this formal transaction with them? (See p. 35, commencing in 4th line from top. And although God thus became the "God of Israel," yet he is "the God of the Gentiles also," Rom. iii, 29; and in like manner the Sabbath did not thus become Jewish, but still continues to be the Sabbath of the Lord, and the law to be the statutes of the Most High.) At what point in the narrative of Moses, do we find the second mention of the Sabbath? In Ex. xvi, 4-30, we have a circumstantial narrative touching the Sabbath; what is the first point proved by this record? In what respect did God test his people by giving them bread from heaven? How do we know that the holy Sabbath was a part of that existing law? Did Moses here give any new precept respecting the Sabbath? What did the people do on the sixth day? Did they do this of their own accord? What did they show by this act? What proves that the reckoning of the weeks had been correctly kept up to that time? What assurance did God give on this point? Was there any act of instituting the Sabbath in the wilderness? Did God then make it his rest-day? Did God then bless and sanctify the day? What does the record show to the contrary? Give the substance of second foot note, p. 49. Does the language of the record show that the obligation to observe the Sabbath, existed and was known before the fall of the manna? When some of the people violated the Sabbath, what did the language in which they were reproved, imply? What was the effect of this rebuke of the Law-giver? What does the language of Ex. xvi, 29, imply? (See note.) Every man was commanded to abide in his place on the Sabbath; to what did this have reference? What texts of scripture show that religious assemblies were to be held on the Sabbath? Did the act of God in committing the Sabbath to the Hebrews as a special trust, imply that they had not before observed it? Moses is said to have given circumcision to the Hebrews, yet how long had they had it before his time? (See in connection, note, p. 41.) What does the language, "The Lord hath given you the Sabbath," imply? As no act of instituting the Sabbath here took place, how could God give them the Sabbath? In what sense was the Sabbath a sign to the Hebrews?