NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
Church

     "REMEMBER the Sabbath day--to keep it holy: six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man--servant, nor thy maid--servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

     When God had completed the six days' work of creation we are told (Gen. ii. 2.) "and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." And when God gave the people his commandment by Moses, he gave as the reason why it should be kept, that the Lord labored six days and rested the seventh. (Ex. xx. 8--11.) "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth  *  *  *  and rested the seventh day. Where

fore the Lord blest the Sabbath day and hallowed it" Oh, hallowed rest that must have been!

     The term Sabbath is from the Hebrew Sabbata, to rest. The New Testament name for the day of rest is "The Lord's Day." But in the presentation of our thoughts in this chapter we shall speak of it as the Christian Sabbath, as in contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath. For as God, when he had finished the work of creation, "rested from all the work which he had made," so Christ our Lord, when he had finished the work of redemption, rested. Hence the Lord's Day--the Christian Sabbath--is to be a day of "rest." But some people have very strange ideas about the term rest. Solomon long since expressed their idea of rest in his description of the sluggard (Prov. vi. 9, 10): "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." But this is not the Bible idea of the term rest. Rest does not mean inactivity or idleness. Were this true, then heaven would be the idler's ideal home. But on the other hand, we are told that no idler shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But the true, the Bible idea of rest, is recuperation--building up. This is secured in a change of conditions and circumstances. This idea is demonstrated in

every--day life. We labor until wearied and exhausted, then lie down to sleep. But at no time are certain functions of the body more busy than when we sleep. Rest is not idleness, therefore, neither is idleness rest. Apply this principle to the divine idea of the Sabbath, and we have the true idea of the Sabbath as a rest day. But God rested from all his labors--kept it as a day of hallowed, triumphant joy over a week's work. It was a blissful change from the busy scenes of creation--from the exercise of his omnipotent power, in its execution, to viewing and gleaning of real glory from his work. So the Christian, turning from six days of the busy scenes of life to enjoy the Sabbath, views and gleans the glory of God from it. This is true rest. And in this we have the divine idea of the Sabbath. Hence God said: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

     But there are those who seem perplexed as to when and why the change from the seventh to the first day took place. If God originally appointed the seventh day as the Sabbath, and commanded his people to recognize and keep it as such, why, when, and by what authority the change? From the time God instituted the Sabbath to the time of the crucifixion of Christ, there was no interrup-

tion in the keeping of the original day. But the change was made by Christ himself. We are told (Matt. v. 17) that he came to fulfill the law. But in fulfilling the law he completed the works of one dispensation by inaugurating a new and more glorious one. Hence the fulfilling of the law meant a complete change in all the leading features of the economy and government of his visible kingdom. Instead of circumcision, as the initiatory rite into his kingdom, we have baptism; instead of the passover, we have the Lord's Supper; instead of the blood of beasts as a sacrifice for sin, we have the precious blood of Christ; instead of the seventh day, or Jewish Sabbath, we now have the first day as the Christian Sabbath. The change, therefore, took place at the resurrection of Christ and by his authority. For we observe

     1. That to the time of his crucifixion Christ regularly and rigidly observed the seventh day as the Sabbath. But after his crucifixion--the work of atonement done--then he would rise and rest from all his labor and keep it as the Christian Sabbath. And from this time to his ascension he kept the first day as regularly and rigidly as the Sabbath as he had before kept the seventh. In John xx. 19-20; 26, we have the record of the first

Christian Sabbath spent by our Lord with his disciples between his resurrection and ascension. "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you." Without any record, or even any intimation that they kept any other, we do have the record of their keeping the first day--and that against fierce opposition; such was their fear of the Jews that they had the doors closed.* But notwithstanding the opposition, the change was a permanent one. From the scene of Christ's ascension the disciples returned to Jerusalem to await the day of Pentecost, as instructed in Luke xxiv. 49. "And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." (Read also Acts i, 9, 14).

Presently the day of Pentecost came--it was the first day of the week, the new, the Christian Sabbath. On that day the disciples began their work with power, and three thousand souls were happily converted to Christ. Oh, blessed Christian Sabbath that must have been!

     But mindful of the fact that he came not to destroy but to fulfil the law; that it was a part of his mission not only to abrogate all that was merely formal, ceremonial and slavish, but more especially to bring forth the life and spirit of that law--mindful of these, let us hear his declaration to the rigid Sabbatarians of his day (Mark ii. 27-28). "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." If now he came to fulfil the whole law; and if Lord of the Sabbath; and if he arose on the first day, appeared to his disciples no less than five times on that day, and kept it as the Sabbath with them as he before had kept the Jewish Sabbath, it would naturally follow that Christ desired thus to complete his work on the earth by changing the last vestige in the Jewish economy and establishing for us, instead of the Jewish Sabbath, the Lord's day--the Christian Sabbath. But it will be observed also
     12

     2. That his disciples who were Jews, and who before the resurrection of Christ had uniformly kept the seventh day as the Sabbath, after his resurrection just as uniformly kept the first day as the Sabbath. In the Gospel by John (xx. 19) we read that they assembled under great difficulty --"for fear of the Jews"--but they assembled, nevertheless, to keep and celebrate the Christian Sabbath. In the Acts of the Apostles (xx. 7) we read: "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, and continued his speech until midnight." Here two things are brought to our notice: First, that they came together to break bread, that is, to celebrate the Lord's Supper. As the Jews celebrated the Passover on the Jewish Sabbath, so now the disciples would celebrate the dying love of their crucified Lord on the Lord's day--on the Christian Sabbath. Second, that Paul preached unto them. That is, as the Jews had formerly met in the temple and in the synagogues on the Jewish Sabbath to hear the law read and expounded, so now the disciples met to hear the Gospel of the "Lord of the Sabbath" preached unto them on the Lord's own day--on the Christian Sabbath. In 1 Cor. xvi. 2 Paul writes:

"Upon the first day of the week let every one lay by him in store as God bath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." And John in his vision on Patmos writes (Rev. i. 10): ''I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.'' From these passages it is evident that the disciples, in accord with the example and precept of their Lord and Master, and the significance of his resurrection, carefully and rigidly observed the first day of the week as their Sabbath.

     3. We observe that according to the uniform custom of the early church fathers, the first instead of the seventh day was kept as the Sabbath. The epistle ascribed to Barnabas, which was in existence in the early part of the second century, speaks of "celebrating with joy the day on which Jesus rose from the dead." Justin Martyr, A. D. 140, writes: "On the day called Sunday is an assembly of all who live in time cities, or in rural districts, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read." Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, in A. D. 178; Clement, of Alexandria, A. D. 194; Tertullian and Origen, a little later; Cyprian, A. D. 253--all speak of the first or Lord's day as observed by the Christian Church. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, A. D. 300, says: "We

keep the Lord's day as a day of joy because of him who rose thereon." In short, a review of the custom of the early Church shows conclusively that though many converts from Judaism observed for a time the Mosaic Sabbath, the Gentile converts were never taught or required to do so. (See Acts xv. 19-29.) But the whole Christian Church observed the first day of the week--met on it for worship, and on it abstained from all secular business, so far as they could in the midst of heathenism. It gradually took the place of the Jewish Sabbath, and became the holy-day of the new dispensation. Wherever the people became converted to Christianity they substituted the first for the seventh day--the Christian for the Jewish Sabbath.

     In A. D. 321 the Roman emperor Constantine issued his famous edict legalizing the Christian Sabbath as a day of rest. In A. D. 325 the Council of Nice recognized the observance of the first day, or Christian Sabbath, as an established institution of the Church. Richard Baxter says  "That the first Christian emperor, finding all Christians unanimous in the possession and keeping of the day," (that is, the Christian Sabbath) "should make a law for the due observance of it,

and that the first Christian Council should establish uniformity in the very gesture of worship on that day.'' From such testimony as this we must conclude that the Christian Sabbath was generally observed by all Christians. And so soon as the Christian became the prevailing religion, the Christian Sabbath was established by law. And to any reasonable person it would certainly seem incredible that in less than four centuries the observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath could become so universal as to become the lawful substitute for the Jewish Sabbath, instituted of God and kept by his people since Moses talked with God in the holy mount, if it (the Christian Sabbath) had not been instituted by Christ and his apostles as a substitute for the Jewish. And he who is Lord of the Sabbath, who arose on the first day, and met and blessed his disciples on that day, and on that day poured out his Spirit upon them, has been meeting and blessing his people on that day for more than eighteen centuries. In view of these facts, would any one think of returning to the seventh day--to the Jewish--as our Sabbath? O no! As well think of changing back from baptism to circumcision, from the blessed experiences in the sanctuary to the formal

ceremonies of the temple, or from our faith in the Lamb of Calvary to offering the firstlings of our flocks and herds as sacrifices for sin.

     It is well, however, that we do not become confused with the term "Sunday" so commonly applied to the first day of the week. The term Sunday is of heathen origin, but the day to which it is applied is not. The first day of the week is as distinctively the Sabbath to us as was the seventh to the Jews. The Jews under their dispensation had their Sabbath. We under the Christian dispensation have the Christian Sabbath. Let us rejoice, therefore, in the Lord's day as a day of hallowed memories, and strive to secure a more general and thorough sanctity of it.

     But having now settled in our minds the day to be kept as the Christian Sabbath, let us give some attention

     The commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man--servant, nor thy maid--servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

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."

     In this commandment several things are clearly presented to us

     1. That the Sabbath is to be a complete rest day. It is set apart as the Lord's day. And no unnecessary work whatever is to be done on that day. God says in this commandment "in it (the Sabbath) thou shalt not do any work." It means just what it says, and is no less comprehensive than positive. It means you, dear reader, and all persons and beasts under your control, and it includes all unnecessary work. But one will ask, what is unnecessary work? As the Bible is its own best interpreter, let us turn to it for an answer to this inquiry. In the Gospel by St. Matthew (xii. 10-12) we have the point illustrated. "And behold there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it shall fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How then is a man better than a

sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." The reader will do well to read also Luke xiii. 11-17, and John ix. 13-16. In these passages our Lord gives us a general principle from which we understand that relief rendered in sickness, or suffering, or danger of the loss of life, with man or beast, are always valid exceptions in this commandment. On the other hand, God's word is very explicit as to the unnecessary work. Aside from the positive command "in it thou shalt not do any work," we observe further:

     1. That no trading whatever is to be done on the Sabbath. We have an illustration of God's sore displeasure with Israel for this in the time of Nehemiah, xiii. 15-18. "There dwelt men of Tyre also therein which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath." This should forever settle the question of Sabbath shopping with all who have any regard for God or

his word. No victuals or wares--absolutely nothing was to be sold or bought on the Sabbath

     for God pronounced it "profaning the Sabbath." O that the "Lord of the Sabbath" may have mercy upon those who, in this advanced age of aggressive Christian civilization, persistently "profane" the Sabbath by opening their places of business and those who patronize them! For both are alike guilty of Sabbath desecration. The visitation of the barber shop, the meat market, the grocer, or any other place of business, is a flagrant violation of the principle and spirit of the Lord's day, and can not do otherwise than incur the sore displeasure of God upon us as a church and nation.

     But the word of God further specifies:

     2. That no provisions of food are to be made on the Sabbath, such as gathering of fruit or baking. Let us read from the book of Exodus (xvi. 22-26): "And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread and all the rulers came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth

over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. *  *  *  And Moses said, Eat that to-day, for today is the Sabbath onto the Lord, to-day ye shall not flod it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none."

      Here God would teach us to provide and prepare all food for the Sabbath the day before. Let there be "nu baking or seething on the Sabbath." Give your maid-servants at least one day in seven as a rest day--a day in which they may turn aside from the monotony of the kitchen and read and ponder over God's word, meditate upon his goodness, and worship in his holy temple. With Israel the Sabbath was to be a day of hallowed rest for all-for son and daughter, man-servant and maidservant, for cattle, and the stranger who might chance to be under their care. It was not to be a day of eating and drinking--a day of revelry--but the same provisions were to be made for that day as any other, only that all preparations were to be made the day before. ''Bake that which ye will bake and seethe that which ye will seethe to-day, for to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." This was not to be a day of social gatherings and feastings, but a day of fasting and holy

convocations--"a holy Sabbath unto the Lord." But with only too many now the Lord's day, instead of ''a holy Sabbath unto the Lord," has becoins a day of cooking, eating and drinking--a day of social revelry. How long, 0 Lord! how long shall these things he?

      But the Sabbath, instead of being a day for buying and selling, of cooking, eating and drinking, is to be

      2. A Hallowed Day.

      "Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." "Remember the Sabbath day to keep st holy." Hence the prophet Ezekiel (xlvi. 3) said: "Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths." "And (Heb. x. 24, 25) let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together (on the Lord's day) as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.'' The key-note in these passages is sanctity, holiness. God not simply rested on the Sabbath, hot hallowed and blessed it. He would have his people keep it as he himself kept it, and do homage to the Lord of the Sabbath by keeping it as a

day of devotion. Thus the Sabbath is designed to become an honor to God, and a blessing to ourselves. To those, therefore, who properly observe the Sabbath--to those who "remember to keep it holy"--it becomes in the true sense a test day for the weary body, and a day of blessed recuperation and feasting for the immortal soul, a foretaste of that eternal Sabbath in the city of our God.

     From the sanctity of the Sabbath let us turn to a brief consideration of

     Our Responsibility in Securing a Proper Keeping of the Sabbath.

     With one accord our readers will consent to the fact that the Sabbath ought to be respected and kept, but the fact of both personal and mutual responsibility has not been so generally realized and appreciated. But when we remember that every commandment from God involves responsibility, the fact of personal responsibility becomes at once apparent to all. Upon the presumption of personal responsibility God not only gave the commandment, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work," but proceeded to fix the penalty for its violation (Ex. xxxi. 14, 15) "Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you: Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death.

For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." Here is a penalty which is nothing more than the culmination of the responsibility presumed in the commandment. Hence personal responsibility becomes at once a fixed fact. But even of this fact the Christian public has either had very inadequate conception, or has had little if any regard to conscience. But God did not rest the matter even with personal responsibility, but would comprehend in his commandment mutual responsibility. He says, "Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man--servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." This commandment is no less comprehensive, therefore, than positive. It includes all with whom we have to do, religiously or civilly. For the language was addressed to Moses, and through him, as their ecclesiastical and civil head, to all the people. Even the stranger within their gates is included. It mattered not who he was or whence he came--whether a guest in a private family, or a traveler lodging within Israel's

gates or bounds--he was to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." And God held Moses and his people as executors of his law. "Whosoever shall do any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." Hence the mutual responsibility. This point is subsequently illustrated and confirmed by God's message through Jeremiah (xvii. 21-27) to Judah: "And it shall come to pass, if ye will diligently harken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein, then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the thrones of David, riding in chariots and on horses," etc. In short, God promises the mutual joy of civil and ecclesiastical peace and prosperity for the proper observance of his day. "But" (he continues), "if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day,  *  *  *  *  then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." This was God's message to all the people of Jerusalem, and for the violation of that message by any part, the whole city was held accountable. We have a similar illustration of mutual responsibility in the

book of Revelations (xviii. 4): "And I heard anther voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

     Babylon had fallen so completely under the reign of a fearful sin that the Christian people could no longer control it. Hence God would have his people manifest their disapproval of it by "coming out of it." A failure to do this would have made them "partakers of her sins," and of the penalty, "her plagues." What a lesson for us as a Christian Church and nation!

     Dear reader, let this thought be riveted on your mind that wherever the sin of Sabbath desecration exists, we become partakers of the sill with all whom we can control either by home, civil, or ecclesiastical rule, and partakers of the penalty. While it is true that we are not, in the literal sense of the term, our brother's keeper, yet there are some sins so unique in their general tendencies, and in their effects in both private and public life, as to involve mutual responsibility. The sin of Sabbath desecration is one of that kind.

     But with a few practical observations we will leave the matter of this chapter to the prayerful consideration of our readers.

     1. That we can not be truly God's people without a careful observance of his day. It is the Lord's day, to be observed by the Lord's people at least. "For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people." (Ex. xxxi. 14.) God would not permit such a person to be numbered among his people. But what of those now whose names are recorded in our Church records, but who profane the Sabbath by unnecessary work, and by visiting barber shops, meat markets, the grocer and baker--or what is even worse, to witness the scene of revelry and riot of a baseball ground on the Lord's day? Are their names written in the Lamb's book of life? Dear reader "think on these things."

     It will be observed

     2. That upon the proper observance of the Lord's day will depend largely both our civil and religious prosperity. Of this history affords us ample illustration. Every one conversant with the history of God's ancient people under their original and subsequent forms of government is well aware of the fact that the secret of either their prosperity or their adversity and failure was traceable to their observance of or their disregard for the divine law and its precepts. The history of

the great empires of the world bears testimony to the same truth. And strange to say that this one respecting the Sabbath is a sort of key to all the rest of God's law. Hence, the rise and fall of the great empires of the world have kept pace with their observance or desecration of the holy Sabbath. If from no higher motive therefore than that of civil prosperity, what an incentive for a careful and rigid observance of the Lord's day! Surely we can not afford to allow the greed for worldly treasures to swallow up the hope of national prosperity under the fool's verdict (1 Cor. xv. 32): "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But these illustrations from God's word are only a fulfilment (sic) of God's word at the mouth of his prophets (Jer. xvii. 21-27; Zech. vii. 14). And shall we not have regard therefore for God's word as demonstrated and verified in history? O that our hearts may be inspired with the true spirit of patriotism which will have regard for the God of nations and for his day! Then shall we hear our nation's great populace join in one universal song:

13

     3. The conversion of souls and the general prosperity of the Church will depend on the use we make of the Lord's day. God has set apart this day--" hallowed and blessed it"--as his. It was set apart for the specific purpose of man's moral and spiritual amelioration. As man's physical nature needs proper exercise for development, so his spiritual. God has set apart and hallowed his day for this purpose. Hence the great achievements that have been witnessed on that day. On that day the first apostolic sermon yielded the fruit of three thousand converts--3000 souls were made happy in a Saviour's love, and many more made strong in his grace. Paul preached his greatest sermons on the Lord's day, and on that day reaped his greatest harvest of souls. How diligently our Lord wended his way to the synagogue or the temple on each Sabbath of his ministry! How carefully his disciples subsequently followed his example. Why all this? The fruit of their work is the answer! Their examples speak to us, "Go thou and do likewise." Surely

those were days of spiritual prosperity in the midst of a gainsaying and stiff--necked people. The same use of the Lord's day will bring like results even in this age of aggressive worldiness and sin.

     Blessed thought, that in the proper use of the Sabbath we have a type of that which is to come. At the institution of the first Sabbath the Lord himself rested. At the institution of the second the Lord of the Sabbath taught us how to keep and use it that we might find that rest which God himself enjoyed on the first. But only in the proper use of that day will these joys be realized. Would, therefore, that the Christian world, inspired by this thought, might lead in what should be the universal song:

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.