Review and Herald, Vol. 19, No. 1. (12/3/1861)

Review and Herald

Dec 3, 1861

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1861

History of the Sabbath.

By John Nevins Andrews

THE CREATION.

TIME, as distinguished from eternity, may be defined as that part of duration which is measured by the Bible. From the earliest date in the book of Genesis to the resurrection of the unjust at the end of the millennium, the period of about 7000 years is measured off. Before the commencement of this great week of time, duration without beginning fills the past; and at the expiration of this period, unending duration opens before the people of God. Eternity is that word which embraces duration without beginning and without end. And that Being whose existence comprehends eternity, is he who only hath immortality, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.

When it pleased this infinite Being, he gave existence to our earth. Out of nothing God created all things; "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." This act of creation is that event which marks the commencement of the first week of time. He who could accomplish the whole work with one word chose rather to employ six days, and to accomplish the result by successive steps. Let us trace the footsteps of the Creator from the time when he laid the foundation of the earth until the close of the sixth day, when the heavens and the earth were finished, "and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good."

On the first day of the week God created the heaven and the earth. The earth thus called into existence was without form and void, and total darkness covered the Creator's work. Then "God said, Let there be light; and there was light." "And God divided the light from the darkness," and called the one day and the other night.

On the second day of the week "God said, Let there be a firmament [margin, Heb., expansion] in the midst of the waters; and let it divide the waters from the waters." The dry land had not yet appeared; consequently the earth was covered with water. As no atmosphere existed, thick vapors rested upon the face of the water; but the atmosphere being now called into existence by the word of the Creator, the fogs and vapors that had rested upon the bosom of the water are borne aloft by it. This atmosphere or expansion is called heaven.

On the third day of the week, God gathered the waters together and caused the dry land to appear. The gathering together of the waters God called seas; the dry land, thus rescued from the waters, he called earth. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind; and it was so." "And God saw that it was good."

On the fourth day of the week "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also." Light had been created on the first day of the week; and now on the fourth day he causes the sun and moon to appear as light-bearers, and places the light under their rule. And they continue unto this day according to his ordinances, for all are his servants. Such was the work of the fourth day. And the great Architect, surveying what he had wrought, pronounced it good.

On the fifth day of the week "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good."

On the sixth day of the week "God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was good." Thus the earth having been fitted for the purpose, was filled with every order of living creature, while the air and waters teemed with animal existence. To complete this noble work of creation, God next provides a ruler, the representative of himself, and places all in subjection under him. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Last of all God created Eve, the mother of all living. The work of the Creator was now complete. "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Adam and Eve were in Paradise; the tree of life bloomed on earth; sin had not entered our world, and death was not here, for there was no sin. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Thus ended the sixth day.

THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH.

The work of the Creator was finished, but the first week of time had not yet expired. Each of the six days had been distinguished by the Creator's work upon it; but the seventh was rendered

memorable in a very different manner. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." In yet stronger language it is written: "On the seventh day he rested and was REFRESHED."

Thus the seventh day of the week became the rest-day of the Lord. How remarkable is this fact! "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary." He needed no rest; yet it is written, "On the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Why does not the record simply state the cessation of the Creator's work? Why did he at the close of that work employ a day in rest? The answer will be learned from the next verse. He was laying the foundation of a divine institution, the memorial of his own great work.

"And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." The fourth commandment states the same fact: He "rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it."

The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day was because that God had rested upon it. His resting upon it then, was to lay the foundation for blessing and sanctifying the day. His being refreshed with this rest, implies that he delighted in the act which laid the foundation for the memorial of his great work.

The second act of the Creator in instituting this memorial was to place his blessing upon the day of his rest. Thenceforward it was the blessed rest-day of the Lord. A third act completes the sacred institution. The day already blessed of God, is now, last of all, sanctified or hallowed by him. To sanctify is "to separate, set apart, or appoint to a holy, sacred, or religious use." To hallow is "to make holy; to consecrate; to set apart for a holy or religious use."

The time when these three acts were performed is worthy of especial notice. The first act was that of rest. This took place on the seventh day; for the day was employed in rest. The second and third acts took place when the seventh day was past. "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work." Hence it was on the first day of the second week of time that God blessed the seventh day and set it apart to a holy use. The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day, therefore, relate not to the first seventh day of time, but to the seventh day of the week for time to come, in memory of God's rest on that day from the work of creation.

The days of the week are measured off by the revolution of our earth on its axis; and hence our seventh day, as such, can come only to dwellers on this globe. To Adam and Eve, therefore, as inhabitants of this earth, and not to the inhabitants of some other world, were the days of the week given to use. Hence, when God set apart one of these days to a holy use in memory of his own rest on that day of the week, the very essence of the act consisted in his telling Adam that this day should be used only for sacred purposes. Adam was then in the garden of God, placed there by the Creator to dress it and to keep it. He was also commissioned of God to subdue the earth. When, therefore, the rest-day of the Lord should return from week to week, all this secular employment, however proper in itself, must be laid aside, and the day observed in memory of the Creator's rest.

The Hebrew verb, kadash, here rendered sanctified, and in the fourth commandment rendered hallowed, is defined by Gesenius, "to pronounce holy, to sanctify; to institute any holy thing, to appoint." It is repeatedly used in the Old Testament for a public appointment or proclamation. Thus, when the cities of refuge were set apart in Israel, it is written: "They appointed [margin, Heb., sanctified] Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim," &c. This sanctification or appointment of the cities of refuge was by a public announcement to Israel that these cities were set apart for that purpose. This verb is also used for the appointment of a public fast, and for the gathering of a solemn assembly. Thus it is written: "Sanctify [i. e., appoint] ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God." "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify [i. e., appoint] a fast, call a solemn assembly." "And Jehu said, Proclaim [margin, Heb., sanctify] a solemn assembly for Baal." This appointment for Baal was so public that all the worshipers of Baal in all Israel were gathered together. These fasts and solemn assemblies were sanctified or set apart by a public appointment or proclamation of the fact. When therefore God set apart the seventh day to a holy use, it was necessary that he should state that fact to those who had the days of the week to use. Without such announcement the day could not be set apart from the others.

But the most striking illustration of the meaning of this word may be found in the record of the sanctification of mount Sinai. When God was about to speak the ten commandments in the hearing of all Israel, he sent Moses down from the top of mount Sinai to restrain the people from touching the mount. "And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai; for thou chargedest us, saying, Set bounds about the mount and sanctify it." Turning back to the verse where God gave this charge to Moses, we read: "And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount or touch the border of it." Hence, to sanctify the mount was to command the people not to touch even the border of it, for God was about to descend in majesty upon it. In other words, to sanctify or set apart to a holy use mount Sinai, was to tell the people that God would have them treat the mountain as sacred to himself. And thus also to sanctify the rest-day of the Lord, was to tell Adam that he should treat the day as holy to the Lord.

The declaration, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it," is not indeed a commandment for the observance of that day; but it is a record that such a precept was given to Adam. For how could the Creator "set apart to a holy use" the day of his rest, when those who were to use the day knew nothing of his will in the case? Let those answer who are able.

This view of the record in Genesis we shall find to be sustained by all the testimony in the Bible relative to the rest-day of the Lord. The facts which we have examined are the basis of the fourth commandment. Thus spake the great Law-giver from the summit of the flaming mount: "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it."

The term Sabbath is transferred from the Hebrew language, and signifies rest. The command, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," is therefore exactly equivalent to saying, "Remember the rest-day to keep it holy." The explanation which follows sustains this statement: "The seventh day is the Sabbath [or rest-day] of the Lord thy God." The origin of this rest-day is given in these words: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,

and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." That which is enjoined in the fourth commandment is to keep holy the rest-day of the Lord. And this is defined to be the day on which he rested from the work of creation. Moreover the fourth commandment calls the seventh day the Sabbath-day at the time when God blessed and hallowed that day; therefore the Sabbath is an institution dating from the foundation of the world. The fourth commandment points back to the creation for the origin of its obligation; and when we go back to that point, we find the substance of the fourth commandment given to Adam: "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it;" i. e., set it apart to a holy use. And in the commandment itself the same fact is stated. The Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it, i. e., appointed it to a holy use. The one statement affirms that "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it;" the other that "the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." These two statements refer to the same acts. Because the word Sabbath does not occur in the first statement it has been contended that the Sabbath did not originate at creation, it being the seventh day merely which was hallowed. From the second statement it has been contended that God did not bless the seventh day at all, but simply the Sabbath institution. But both statements embody all the truth. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; and this day thus blessed and hallowed was his holy Sabbath, or rest-day. Thus the fourth commandment establishes the origin of the Sabbath at creation.

J. N. A.

(To be Continued.)

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY LORD.

By A. J. Dyer

"And they rest not day nor night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Rev. iv, 8.

WHILE within this world we stand, Midst the sin on every hand, Wickedness in places high, Reaching up unto the sky; And harsh discord greets the ear, From the great and mighty, here. Turn, O, turn thine eyes above, To that world of perfect love; In deep contrast hear the word— "Holy, holy, holy Lord."

Bitter curses, mocking jeer, Wicked hate, and restless fear, Worldly lust, and passion's fire, Here the hearts of men inspire, Satan, with unwonted power Ruleth in this evil hour. But, beyond this dreary wild, From lips ringing undefiled, Pure the praises, meek the word— "Holy, holy, holy Lord."

O! our God, while here we stray, In life's rough and thorny way, From the great apostasy, Which on every side we see, Keep us Lord, and make us pure, May we to the end endure. Holy Father, well we know, Thou wilt try thy saints below. Make us meet to strike the chord— "Holy, holy, holy Lord."

Soon this world shall meet its doom, Swift the time is hastening on; Soon probation's day shall close, Then shall come the woe of woes! Then the sword be bathed in blood, To fulfill thy judgments, Lord! O! when Jesus stands revealed, O'er dark Armageddon's field, May we join with sweet accord— "Holy, holy holy Lord."

O, the joys of Paradise Mortals may not realize. There they bring to Jesus' feet, Gushing songs of rapture sweet; Purity's on every brow, Sinless joy the ransomed know. Blessed mansions, glorious home! Given to those who overcome; Conquerors, you shall strike the chord— "Holy, holy, holy Lord."

A. J. DYER.

Amboy, Ohio.

Evidences of Christianity.

By Moses Hull

BY MOSES HULL.

CHAPTER I.

Does man need a revelation from God? Before undertaking an investigation of the evidences of Christianity, it will be necessary for us to learn whether man needs it. If man does not need Christianity, it is unnecessary for us to examine its claims. Christianity claims to be a positive institution, and has had a positive existence in the world for more than eighteen hundred years. It claims to have come from God. The blessed Jesus said, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." He also said that believing on him is the work of God. And Nicodemus, in behalf of the infidel Jews, said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."

Infidelity does not claim to have come from God. It is not an institution. It is a negation of Christianity and the facts upon which it is based. It does not claim to have anything in it essential to man's present or future happiness. It assails Christianity without presenting a substitute.

Man does not need infidelity. As to whether he needs Christianity, or the Revelation which it vouchsafes to him, we can determine very soon. We have only to compare the history of that part of the world which enjoys its light, with those parts which do not.

Before going into this comparison, let us permit infidels to speak for themselves upon this point. If I had not read the writings of infidels, and heard them talk, I could not have believed that they could declaim as they do against the need of a revelation and the possibility of God's making one. I have hardly been able to believe my ears as I have heard infidel lecturers utter the following: "It is impossible for God to make a revelation to man, or even for one person to make an infallible revelation to another. We can know nothing only what we learn by experience. The mother as she sees her babe catching for the blaze of the candle, cries out,

'It will burn,' but all to no effect. The child never learns the fact until it gets its fingers burned. So we can never learn a fact by external revelation: all we know or can know we learn by experience."

The above is not an isolated case. Nearly all of the infidel and Spiritualist writers speak in the same way. Mr. Tiffany says: "It is a self-evident truth that God cannot make an infallible revelation of his word and will to man." Dr. Hare says, "The Bible of the Spiritualist is the book of nature—the only one which by inward and outward evidences can be ascribed to divine authorship." Joseph Barker says, "It is not possible to fix in writing the standard of right and wrong. What is right for one may be wrong for another. Each man has his law within himself, which, if he will follow it, will guide him as surely as the instinct of the bird will guide it on the wing." Another infidel writer says, "You need not preach Bible to me, I know my duty well enough without it." Parker advocates a religion which "bows to no idols, neither the church, nor the Bible, nor yet Jesus. Its redeemer is within, its salvation within, its heaven and its oracle of God."

Many more extracts from infidel writers, both ancient and modern might be given upon this point, but let the above suffice.

Now I am led to inquire something about these wonderful men, who have so much "self-consciousness," "light of nature," "inner-light," "reason," &c., that they need none of the advantages of revelation. Who are these prodigies, and whence came they? Are they different from other men? Does reason teach them what others can only learn by the aid of external revelation? Let us see. If you will examine their history you will find that they made their advent into the world just like other folks, and that notwithstanding they are now so incapable of receiving anything by external revelation, they were once helpless infants, without self-consciousness enough to know their own names, or how to satisfy their appetite for food and drink without the aid of an external revelation!

Follow the history of these same individuals and you will find that all they know they have got just like others, by external revelation. Not one of them has learned by experience that arsenic or strychnine is poison. Not one of them ever could have learned even his alphabet by his "inner light," or "self-consciousness." Try it in any way you please and their poor, blind reason is incapable of revealing a single new fact to them.

To take the most simple form of illustration. My infidel friend finds a nest of eagle's eggs. He has never seen a bird upon the wing. I tell him that from these eggs will emerge animals which will move off with great rapidity through the air, but his "inner light" and "self-consciousness" does not tell him so. He therefore refuses to believe it. "For it is impossible," according to Emerson, "to receive anything upon the testimony of another." He weighs one of the eggs, and finds it heavy enough to sink in water. He breaks it and examines it minutely. He declares that it is unreasonable, and he is not to be humbugged by such marvelous stories. But at length the young eagles burst the shells of the other eggs and come out. He takes one of them and weighs it, and finds it much heavier than air. Not daunted in the least by his last failure, he says, "Nature does not teach that this animal should float in the air." But soon the bird spreads its wings and bids defiance to his short-sighted reason by soaring off through the air. Here the bird has taught him a lesson in one moment that unaided reason never could have taught him.

If "nature," "reason," and the "inner light," are incapable of guiding in the smallest matters, how dare we risk our eternal salvation upon them? Reason will no more teach a man moral principles, than it will teach him his own name, or the name of the State in which he lives. And infidels and Spiritualists, notwithstanding they boast so greatly of being guided by reason, dare not trust it unaided by revelation in the smallest matters. They must acknowledge that it is in vain that God has given us reasoning faculties unless he has given us something upon which they can act; and that is revelation.

The fact is, those who believe in revelation have reasoning faculties, and use them, as well as infidels. But they do not permit reason to take the place of evidence. They could no more reason without a revelation upon which to base their reasoning, than they can see with their eyes where there is no light, or hear with their ears where there is no sound. Revelation is the same to man's reasoning faculties, that the light of the sun is to the eye, or sound to the ear.

Suppose an infidel were delivering a lecture upon the science of astronomy, and were to assert that the sun is a light-bearer to the earth, and I were to dispute my indebtedness to the sun for light, asserting that I could see with my eyes, would you not consider me a fit subject for the lunatic asylum? Yet my position would be as consistent as the one which says we do not need revelation because God has given us reason.

"All religions have their miracles and revelations," says the rationalist, "and if we admit that the Bible contains a divine revelation, we must admit the same for the revelations of other religions." Mr. Barker supposes that if we admit the superhuman origin of the Bible, we must also admit the Vedas, the Shasters, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are of superhuman origin. What profound reasoning! It does seem that common sense takes its flight from some of the opposers of Christianity! What would the infidel think if he were to hear me argue that there are no genuine bank bills because there are so many counterfeits? I think I hear him say that counterfeits are the strongest evidence of the genuine. Amen! Is not the same rule good in this case?

We have found that we need revelation to teach us the most simple truths. Now let us inquire into moral and religious truths and see if we shall succeed any better without a revelation than in temporal matters.

It is certain that opposers of Christianity never have succeeded in agreeing among themselves in the most important matters. To use the language of another, "There is no agreement among deists as to what their natural religion consists in, or as to the truth of what some of them consider its most fundamental doctrines. Their chief writers are altogether at variance as to whether there is any distinction between right and wrong other than the law of the land or the custom of society, whether there is a providence, whether God is to be worshiped in prayer and praise, or the practice of virtue is not the only worship required, whether the practice of virtue forbids or encourages deceit, suicide, revenge, adultery, and all uncleanness . . . whether God has any concern with human conduct."

So it appears that the "inner light" does not guide all who follow it, alike. It taught Herbert that the "indulgence of lust and anger is no more to be blamed than the thirst of a fever or the drowsiness of a lethargy." It taught Hobbes that "every man has a right to all things and may lawfully obtain them if he can." It taught Hume that self-denial, self-mortification, and humility are no virtues, but useless and mischievous! that pride and self-valuation, ingenuity, strength of body, &c., are virtues; that suicide is lawful and commendable; that adultery must be practiced if we would obtain all the advantages of this life; that female infidelity when known, is a small thing, when unknown, is nothing. It taught Bolingbroke that modesty is inspired by prejudice, and has its sole foundation in vanity; that man's chief end is to gratify the inclinations of the flesh, that adultery is no violation of the religion of nature. It teaches A. J. Davis that war, polygamy, adultery, etc., are right. He would not be guilty of the crime of blaming any one for any thing that he does.

But we are not done yet. Infidels will not deny that their brethren in India or Hindostan, have the same "reason," "light of nature," and "self-consciousness" as themselves. How does it happen that human sacrifices are not as common among them as among their brethren on the other side of the Atlantic? "The book of nature" is open to the Fejee cannibals as well as to the heathen in this country. It has led them to feast on the limbs of women and children. Why are not our Barkers, Davisses, Dentons, etc., led in the same direction?

The heathens to whom I refer have never been cursed with that hard-to-be-got-rid-of book—the Bible, as our infidels in this country have. Nature has had full chance to do its work among them. Why will not our heathen friends here take them for an example? Certainly if they are not a specimen of what nature can do, I know not where to find one.

Again, if nature is a sufficient guide, why is it that those who have had no other guide have always found themselves panting after a revelation? Even those who have rejected the Bible have run after conjurers, star-gazers, sooth-sayers, spirit mediums, or have been left to doubt even their own existence. One of Hume's friends said that "an unfortunate disposition to doubt everything seemed interwoven with the nature of Hume, and never was there, I am convinced, a more thorough and sincere skeptic. He seemed not to be certain of his present existence, and could not therefore be expected to entertain any settled opinion respecting his future state."

McIlvaine quotes Hume as saying of his Philosophical Abstracts, "They have so wrought upon me, and heated my brain, that I am ready to reject all belief and reasoning, and can look upon no opinion even as more probable than another. Where am I, or what? From what cause do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return? Whose favour shall I court, whose anger must I dread? What beings surround me, and on whom have I any influence, or who has any influence upon me? I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty."

"Most fortunately it happens that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature itself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation and lively impressions of my senses, which obliterates all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of blackgammon, I converse and am merry with my friends; and when, after three or four hours' amusement, I would return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strained, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any further."

How humiliating the above facts. No law for Mr. Hume to "meditate upon day and night." No revelation to which he could appeal for the desired light. All he could do was to call his mind off from the subject by a "game of blackgammon." But he could not keep his mind off; his "chimeras" and "deliriums" would return. How different with the servant of God. David says, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Ps. xxiii, 4. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." Isa. xxvi, 3.

(To be Continued.)

A Gracious Answer from God

If you go to God on a throne of grace, you may rest assured of a gracious answer: he says, "I will be gracious."

Taste and See the Lord’s Goodness

A TASTE of Christ always leaves behind a longing for more, and a desire that others may enjoy: 'Taste and see that the Lord is good.'

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