Volume II, Number 1

"THE SABBATH" By John Eadie

This was the title given to the Jewish day of rest. It is a Hebrew word signifying rest. Since the Christian era, the day of rest is properly called the Lord’s day, because it is now commemorative of Christ’s resurrection from the dead; and there is thus connected with it an affectionate remembrance of the whole character and offices of him to whose service and glory it is to be devoted. Sunday was a name given by the heathens to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshipped the sun; and this name, together with those of the other days of the week, has been continued to our times. There is reason to believe that as soon as man was created, and endowed with capacities to love and worship God, he was required to consecrate at least one-seventh of his time to the special and exclusive service of his Maker. The sanctification of this portion of time is regarded throughout the whole of the Old Testament as a fundamental principle of duty; and no sin, except perhaps idolatry, is threatened with heavier penalties than Sabbath-breaking.

The commandment which stands forth in the order of the decalogue (Exod. 20:8), "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," is founded on the fact that the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God himself, and that he requires his creatures to keep it holy to him. This commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation. The object to be accomplished by the institution is general, and applies to all people everywhere with like force. Wherever there is a human being capable of contemplating the character of the Supreme Being - of studying his revealed will, and of considering his own immortal destiny - this commandment requires him to consecrate at least one-seventh part of his time to these holy purposes.

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is but the re-enactment of an earlier statute, The rest of the seventh, as we have said is coeval with man’s existence. The Creator "blessed the seventh day" - declared it to be a day above all days, a day on which his favour should assuredly rest, and "sanctified it" - set it apart as a holy day - a day to be observed in a pious spirit, and for religious purposes. On that day God himself rested - set an example of abstinence from the work of the previous six days to the world. This first or patriarchal Sabbath is therefore to be observed as a day of rest and religious enjoyment. It was ordained for man as man - for unfallen man. The physical frame needs repose - so is man to rest every seventh day; his spiritual thoughts need revival, and on that day of release from secular occupation his mind is to contemplate the wisdom, power, and goodness of his Creator, for this early rest was consecrated in connection with the work of creation. So long, then, as man exists, and the world around him endures, does the law of the early Sabbath remain. It cannot be set aside, so long as its foundations last. Man, as man, is required to rest every seventh day, and employ this sanctified leisure in devout contemplation of Him who formed the world, with all its furniture, and adapted its numerous relations to us, so as to preserve our life and minister to our felicity. This early Sabbath gave origin to the weekly division of time, and to the notion of peculiar sacredness which attached, even among heathen nations, to the seventh day. This was the Sabbath referred to in the wilderness, and observed by the Hebrew hosts ere the descent of Jehovah on Sinai, and this is the Sabbath re-enacted specially for the Jewish people in the fourth commandment. Man is to rest, and the work of creation is to be commemorated. It is not the Jewish Sabbath, properly so called, which is ordained in the fourth commandment. In the whole of that injunction there is no Jewish element, any more than there is in the third commandment or in the sixth. The Jewish Sabbath, as such, has certainly been repealed; but the original Sabbath still rests on its first authority. The Jewish Sabbath was indeed the patriarchal Sabbath, with certain superadded elements and obligations. These have passed away with the transient economy to which they were attached; but the primitive statute is not therefore repealed because some temporary additions and ratifications annexed for a time to it have been annulled. There seems, moreover, in the fourth commandment, provision made for that change of day which has been effected under Christianity. It makes a careful distinction in its language between the seventh day absolutely and the seventh day relatively. Its command is, "Remember the Sabbath day," and it adds, "wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day." Thus the first enactment on which it rests is not affected by change of day. It still demands the rest of the seventh day, after six days of toil. The principle difference now lies in the object of commemoration. The Christian Sabbath, not overlooking man as a creature, regards him especially as a sinner; and while it still bids him adore God the Creator, it summons him particularly to confide in God the Redeemer, and sets before him the Saviour’s triumph in his resurrection from the dead. Our sabbath combines both man’s relations as a creature and a sinner, but assigns to the latter a peculiar and just pre-eminence in its change of day, and in the eclipsing glory of the event which it commemorates.

For these reasons the day has been naturally changed, and changed by divine authority. The first day of the week was the usual day on which the apostles met for divine worship - which, as Christians, they celebrated. The language of the New Testament implies that it was the usual period; and the very incidental mention of it without further explanation corroborates the truth of our assertion. Moreover, it is called "the Lord’s day." The early disciples, who were Jews by birth, kept both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s day. The fact is undeniable; nay, the practice continued in the Church for several centuries. But the two days were observed in a different manner and with a different purpose. Paul himself appealed to the Jews, and said that he "had committed nothing against the customs of our fathers." The observance of the Jewish Sabbath as a fast, or a season of preparation for the Christian first day, lingered through four centuries, and gradually fell into desuetude. The Council of Laodicea, a.d.364, at length reprobated this practice, and condemns those who abstain from work on the seventh day, "for it was Judaizing, but on the Lord’s day men should rest as Christians."

The records of the early churches all show that, in obedience to apostolic enactment, they kept sacred the first day of the week. Ignatius bids those to whom he wrote keep the Lord’s day, "on which our Life arose." Justin the martyr says, "On Sunday we all assemble in common, since that is the first day on which God, having changed darkness and chaos, made the world, and on the same day our Saviour, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead. For on the day before Saturday they crucified him, and on the day after Saturday which is Sunday, he appeared to his apostles and disciples, and taught them the things which we enjoin you to observe." However confused the previous portion of Justin’s statement seems to be, it appears, both from his reference to the resurrection of Christ and to the instructions of the risen Saviour, that he pleaded divine authority for all Christian practices - for the Sabbath, too, which commemorated Christ’s rising. Barnabas, as old as Ignatius, says "We observe the eighth day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead." Dionysius of Corinth says, "To-day (the first day) we observe the Lord’s Holy Day." Athanasius affirms, "The Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lord’s day." Eusebius, whose knowledge of Christian antiquities no one doubts, expresses his mind thus, in his comment on the 92nd Psalm, which is headed, "A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath Day."-"The Logos (Christ) by the new covenant translated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the morning light, and gave us the symbol of true rest, the saving Lord’s day, the first day of the week. On this day we do those things according to the spiritual law which were decreed for the priests to do on the Sabbath; all things proper to do on the sabbath we have transferred to the Lord’s day; ...it is delivered to us that we should meet on this day." This statement is quite clear, and to the point. The fathers were but men, yet their record may be so far trusted. They rail against the Jewish Sabbath as an ordinance repealed; but all agree in declaring that the Lord’s day is for Christians; and they enter not into laboured arguments to prove its divine authority, just because no one was then bold enough or ignorant enough to call it in question. What inspired apostles did in founding the Church, they received as Christ’s injunction. The simple rule as to the mode of observing the day seems to be this,--that there should be a cheerful resting all the day from such worldly employments and recreations as may be lawful on other days, and the spending of the whole time in the public or private worship of God, except so much as may be occupied by works of necessity or mercy. To test the propriety of an act or pursuit on that day, it is only needful to inquire whether the doing of it will tend to advance us in holy exercises and affections, and in preparation for the heavenly rest; or whether it is an act of necessity which cannot be postponed without serious injury.

Christians can never value the Sabbath too highly. It is a precious boon to the Church, and a blessed gift to a weary and sin-laden world. It points us back to the bowers of Eden, which we have forfeited, and bids us not despair; for it is a pledge and a foretaste of a nobler inheritance in a better country, where there is an everlasting Sabbath.

Taken From: Eadie, John, A Biblical Cyclopaedia. London: Charles Griffin & Company, 1870, pp. 561-563.

EXCERPT FROM "A DAY TO KEEP" By J. C. Ryle

I propose, in the third place, to show the manner in which the Sabbath ought to be kept. This is a branch of the subject on which great difference of opinion exists: it is one on which even the friends of the Sabbath are not thoroughly agreed. Many, I believe, would contend as strongly as I do for a Sabbath, but not for the Sabbath for which I contend. My desire is simply to state what appears to be in the mind of God as revealed in Holy Scripture.

Once for all, I must plainly say that I cannot entirely agree with those who tell us that they do not want a Jewish Sabbath, but a Christian one. I doubt whether such persons clearly know what they mean. If they object to a Pharisaic Sabbath, I agree with them; if they object to a Mosaic Sabbath, I would have them consider well what they say. I can find no clear evidence that the Old Testament Sabbath was intended by Moses to be more strictly kept than the Christian Sunday.

What then appears to be the will of God about the manner of observing the Sabbath Day? There are two general rules laid down for our guidance in the Fourth Commandment, and by them all questions must be decided. One plain rule about the Sabbath is that it must be kept as a day of rest. All work of every kind ought to cease as far as possible, both of body and mind. "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." Works of necessity and mercy may be done. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us this, and teaches also that all such works were allowable in the Old Testament times. "Have ye not read," He says, "what David did?"-"Have ye not read that the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?" (Matt. 12:5) Whatever, in short, is necessary to preserve and maintain life, whether of ourselves, or of the creatures, or to do good to the souls of men, may be done on the Sabbath Day without sin.

The other great rule about the Sabbath, is, that it must be kept holy. It is not to be a carnal, sensual rest, like that of the worshippers of the golden calf, who "sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play" (Exod. 32:6). It is to be emphatically a holy rest. It is to be a rest in which, as far as possible, the affairs of the soul may be attended to, business of another world minded, and communion with God and Christ kept up. In short, it ought never to be forgotten that it is "the Sabbath of the Lord our God" (Exod. 20:10).

I ask attention to these two general rules, I believe that by them all Sabbath questions may be safely tested. I believe that within the bounds of these rules every lawful and reasonable want of human nature is fully met, and that whatsoever transgresses these bounds is sin.

I am no Pharisee. Let no hard-working man who has been confined to a close room for six weary days, suppose that I object to his taking any lawful relaxation for his body on the Sunday. I see no harm in a quiet walk on a Sunday, provided always that it does not take the place of going to public worship, and is really quiet, and like that of Isaac (Gen. 24:63). I read of our Lord and His disciples walking through the cornfields on the Sabbath Day. All I say is, beware that you do not turn liberty into license - beware that you do not injure the souls of others in seeking relaxation for yourself - and beware that you never forget you have a soul as well as a body. I am no enthusiast. I want no tired labourer to misunderstand my meaning, when I bid him to keep the Sabbath holy. I do not tell anyone that he ought to pray all day, or read his Bible all day, or go to church all day, or meditate all day, without let or cessation, on a Sunday. All I say is, that the Sunday rest should be a holy rest. God ought to be kept in view; God’s Word ought to be studied; God’s House ought to be attended; the soul’s business ought to be specially considered; and I say that everything which prevents the day being kept holy in this way, ought as far as possible to be avoided.

I am no admirer of a gloomy religion. Let no one suppose that I want Sunday to be a day of sadness and unhappiness. I want every Christian to be a happy man: I wish him to have "joy and peace in believing," and to "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." I want everyone to regard Sunday as the brightest, cheerfulest day of all the seven; and I tell everyone who finds such a Sunday as I advocate a wearisome day, that there is something sadly wrong in the state of his heart. I tell him plainly that if he cannot enjoy a "holy" Sunday, the fault is not in the day, but in his own soul.

QUOTES ON THE SABBATH

The commandment of keeping the sabbath was not abrogated with the ceremonial law, but is purely moral, and the observation of it is to be continued to the end of the world. (Thomas Watson)

Let everyone that loveth Christ keep the first day of the week, the Lord’s day. (Ignatius)

Make the Lord’s Day the market for thy soul. (John Bunyan)

Did you ever meet with a lively believer in any country under heaven one who loved Christ, and lived a holy life who did not delight in keeping holy to God the entire Lord’s Day? (Robert Murray McCheyne)

A Sabbath-breaking or Sabbath-neglecting people are notoriously irreligious the Pharisaical way of observing it is one extreme...the European way is worse still. (Charles Hodge)

The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claims to Divine authority. (Adam Smith, Political Economist)

I am in favour of Sunday legislation and a strict observance of the Christian Sabbath. (William McKinley, 25th President of the United States)

A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content, and health for the toils of tomorrow, but a Sabbath profaned whate’er may be gained is a certain forerunner of sorrow. (Sir Matthew Hale)

The present neglect of the Sabbath by many church members imperils the very existence of the Church as well as the Sabbath. When Sabbath observance declines the Church declines. When it dies, the Church will be buried in the same grave. (Wilbur F. Crafts)

For not withstanding this rest and cessation from labour which is required on the Lord’s day, yet three sorts of works may and ought to be performed...these are works of piety, works of necessity, and works of charity. (Ezekiel Hopkins)

What fitter day to ascend to heaven, than that on which He arose from earth, and fully triumphed over death and hell. Use your Sabbaths as steps to glory, till you have passed them all, and are there arrived. (Richard Baxter)

There is nothing in which I would recommend you to be more strictly resolute than in keeping the Sabbath holy. I can truly declare that to me the institution of the Sabbath has been invaluable. (William Wilberforce)

As it is the law of nature, that in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral,, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture, is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments, and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private excercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy. (Westminster Confession of Faith)