What authority have Christians for observing the first day of the week as their Sabbath? They have the sanction of Christ himself, and the example of his apostles.* The same day, being the first day of the week, &c. John xx. 19. After eight days again--came Jesus. John xx. 26. The Holy Ghost fell on the apostles on this day. Acts ii. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. Acts xx. 7. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in, store, &c. 1 Cor. xvi. 2, In what manner was the Sabbath-day directed to be kept holy by the Jews? They were not to gather manna. Exod. xvi. 26. No man was to go out of his place. Exod. xvi. 29. Whosoever doeth any work therein shall be cut off. Exod. xxxi. 14. They were not to gather in harvest on that day. Exod. xxxiv. 21. They were forbidden to kindle a fire throughout their habita tions. Exod. xxxv. 3. They were not to gather sticks. Num. xv. 32-36. They were not to tread wine-presses, nor to bring any burden into Jerusalem. Neh. xiii. 15. In what manner should we keep holy the Sabbath-day? We must not only cease from all worldly business, and abstain from indulging worldly thoughts, and engaging in worldly amusements; but we must devote the whole of the day to acts of private and public worship. We should be engaged in prayer to God in private, as well as in our families and in public; in attentively reading and hearing his word; and in singing his praises, "making melody unto him in our hearts." Our Lord's custom was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day. Luke iv. 16. Paul and his company did the same. Acts xiii. 14. Paul and Silas went out of Philippi on the Sabbath, to a place where prayer was wont to be made. Acts xvi. 13. Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath. Acts xviii. 4. We must not trifle in the house of God, but remember that "we meet together to render thanks to Almighty God for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul." * See note at the end of this section, page 147, Many persons buy and sell, or settle their accounts, and write letters on common subjects, on this sacred day; others spend it in travelling or feasting; and others walk, or loiter, or engage in trifling occupations, rising later, and retiring to rest earlier, than on any other days; as if it were a weariness to them. Mal. i. 13. These are all so many ways of breaking the Sabbath, and are exceedingly displeasing to God, who considers such conduct as a gross insult offered to himself. When will the Sabbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath-day. Matt. xxiv. 20. Diligently attend to the discharge of your duty in that state of life in which God has placed you; and do not, by your loitering and imprudence, make it necessary to do any work, or engage in any business, on that day which the Lord has set apart for himself. May no other works but those of piety be done on the Sabbath? Yes: works of necessity and of charity. But we must be careful to know that they are really such. Those are not works of necessity which will admit of being done at another time; and it is only such works of charity as cannot be deferred, or which have an immediate reference to our religious duties, which are lawful. If a sheep fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, &c., wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-days. Matt. xii. 11, 12. Mark iii. 4. Jesus healed the infirm woman on the Sabbath. Luke xiii. 14. Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not pull him out. Luke xiv. 5. Jesus healed the impotent man on the Sabbath. John v. 8, 9. We must not only keep holy the Lord's day ourselves, but take care, as far as we can, that all belonging to us do the same. I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, &c. Gen. xvii. 19. That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed. Exod. xxiii. 12. The Sabbath of the land shall be meat for thee, for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. Lev. xxv. 6, 7. Ye shall rejoice, ye and your households. Deut. v. 14; xii. 7. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh. xxiv. 15. In what light will the true Christian consider the Sabbath? It will be his delight; for he loves the house and worship of God, and he considers this day of rest is a figure of the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, &c. Ps. xxvii. 4. A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2. 10. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Ps. cxviii. 24. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Ps. cxxii. 1. There remaineth a rest for the people of God. Heb. iv. 9. They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, &c. Rev. iv. 8. Pray for and expect a blessing on this day; for though the Christian endeavours to serve God truly all his days, yet on this day his service is more especially delightful to him. Consider what a blessing is the institution of the Sabbath. If it were not for this day, religion would soon disappear, and all its ordinances be neglected. Duties which men are at liberty to discharge when they please soon come to be utterly neglected. The very people who complain of want of time to attend to the concerns of eternity on other days, grudge giving the Sabbath to this purpose. Is the care of the soul, then, so trifling, that one day in seven is too much to devote to it? God has allotted us a sufficient portion of time for all our worldly business, without interfering with his own day. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do." Sabbath-breaking is a very hardening sin: it frequently leads young persons to keep bad company, and prepares the way to the commission of all sorts of crimes. Many persons whose offences have brought upon them the punishment of death, have attributed their dreadful end to Sabbath-breaking! Beware how you suffer yourselves to be drawn into so dangerous a course! May the Lord of the Sabbath keep us from incurring that punishment with which he visits those who profane it, and teach us to call and feel it a delight. 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 our fathers thus, and did not God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel, by profaning the Sabbath. Neh. xiii. 17, 18. NOTE. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. THE following most striking and able remarks on the perpetual obligation of the fourth commandment, and the propriety of Christian usage in relation to the day for its observance, are from a sermon of the Rev. Isaac Milner, D.D., the author, in connexion with his brother, of Milner's Church History. The view which he presents appears to be beyond the reach of reasonable objection, while it "leaves in their full force," as has been remarked, "all those subsidiary considerations which have usually been chiefly relied on,-such as the uniform practice of the Christian Church from the primitive times-their meetings on the first day of the week, recorded in the New Testament-and the remarkable expression of the last of the canonical writers, who calls it the Lord's day." "The Jews," says Dr. Milner, "could never have determined from the fourth commandment on what day their first Sabbath was to be kept. It says, Six days shalt thou labour, and on the seventh thou shalt rest: which implies no more than that, after six days' labour, the seventh was to be a day of rest, and to be kept holy. Therefore I maintain, that in the sense of the fourth commandment, the Christian Sabbath is as much the seventh day as the Jewish Sabbath was the seventh day. It is kept after six days' labour, as that was: and it is the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of our first working day, as well as their Sabbath was the seventh day, reckoning from the beginning of their first working day. "Moreover, the reason given in the fourth commandment why there should be six working days and then a resting day, is a reason which remains in full force under the Christian dispensation; namely, because God himself set the example of working six days in the creation of the world, and then resting on the seventh day. It is in the proportion of our time -namely, one part out of seven-dedicated to rest and to sacred purposes, in which the essence of the commandment consists: the day when we begin to compute, abstractedly considered, is of very little consequence. There may, indeed, be circumstances sufficient for the determination of the commencement of the Sabbath-day; nor can any thing be conceived more satisfactory than the account I have just given of the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, at its revival, on account of the passage of the Israelites through the Red sea. They adhered to the divine original institution of six days of labour and one of rest; and on their first day of rest they commemorated their deliverance from slavery. The real day being lost, in all probability, it must then have undergone a change. The shadow was of no moment, when the substance was preserved. "The very same things may be said of the Christian Sabbath: The real day of the week, reckoning from the creation, had long been utterly unknown, and was probably irrecoverably lost; and it was changed again, for reasons worthy of being engraved on the heart of every grateful, rejoicing Christian-namely, the resurrection of our Lord from the dead-his victory and triumph over death and sin, and his rising again for our justification. But never forget, that no change whatever was made in the principle on which the original commandment rested; which commandment, by its appointment, was divine, substantial, reasonable, and important in its very essence, and evidently founded on the relation in which man, as a dependent creature, stood to his Maker and Benefactor from the first moment of his existence." ON THE COMMANDMENTS. § 6. FIFTH COMMANDMENT. THE first four commandments, which we have already considered, make up the first table, and instruct us in our duty towards God. We now come to those contained in the second table, which teach us what is our duty towards our neighbour. Genuine piety is the surest spring of kind, dutiful, and benevolent feelings and actions towards our fellow creatures; and the performance of relative duties is the best trial of true godliness. That he who loveth God, love his brother also. 1 John iv. 21. How many Commandments belong to the second table? The last six. What in general is your duty towards your neighbour ? "To love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me." Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Lev. xix. 18. Matt. xxii. 39. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matt. vii. 12. What is the fifth Commandment? Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Surely we owe the utmost affection and attention to our parents, whom God has, by natural relationship, placed so immediately over us. What does this commandment imply? It includes the duty which we owe not only to our parents, but to all our superiors. 1. "To love, honour, and succour my father and mother." He that smiteth or curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. Exod. xxi. 15. 17. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father. Lev. xix. 3. Every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Lev. xx. 9. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or his mother, all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die. Deut. xxi. 18-21. Cursed be he that setteth light by father or mother. Deut. xxvii. 16. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Prov. i. 8, 9; vi. 20. A fool despiseth his father's instruction. Prov. xv. 5. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Prov. xx. 20. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old, &c. Prov. xxiii. 22-25. The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. Prov. xxx. 17. |