CHAPTER XIX.

THE SABBATH A DIVINE INSTITUTION, AND ITS SACRED OBSERVANCE OF PERPETUAL OBLIGATION.

LTHOUGH the Sabbath was instituted by the

Divine Being for the holiest of purposes, and

was religiously observed as a sacred day of rest and an unspeakable blessing to mankind, M. Renan represents our Lord as winking at its profanation, and says, “He openly violated it." With such teachers as M. Renan for their guides, is it any wonder that the French have become so notorious for their open desecration of the Sabbath? If they strictly adhered to the violation of it with which Jesus was charged, however-merely satisfying in the most frugal manner the cravings of nature for food, and performing deeds of love and mercy to man-theirs would be an enviable notoriety. The Sabbath was made for man as a day of rest and spiritual improvement-a day in which men were to specially reverence God's sanctuaries, and meet for the observance of public and Divine worship. Does the teaching of M. Renan and his infidel coadjutors lead to such an observance of it? Let the history of revolutions in France, and the demoralizing effects which have continued to flow from them in the open, shameless, and widespread desecration of the Sabbath, answer.

It is much to be lamented, however, that not only in France, and throughout the continent generally, but even

among the English speaking populations, whether at home. or in the Colonies, the crime of Sabbath-breaking is deplorably prevalent. Individuals and companies, railway, shipping, and others, with the Governments that control them, are alike guilty of this great sin against the expressed will of the Almighty. With daring impunity God's holy day is still extensively desecrated, and there appears to be little tendency at present towards an abatement of the evil. As prevalent in some professedly Christian countries to-day as it was in ages past, the crime becomes magnified, and the guilt thereof greatly increased. It must, I think, be manifest to every unprejudiced mind, that the guilt incurred by Sabbath-breakers of the present day must be immeasurably greater than that of those who lived in an age of comparative darkness and ignorance. At no period of the world's history was religious light and knowledge so universally diffused as it is at the present; and never was there a time when the minds of men in general were so much enlightened as it respects their duty to God and their fellows. This, as a matter of course, brings with it a vast increase of moral responsibility, and renders our age really a critical one to live in. But how strangely overlooked and disregarded is this great fact, this momentous truth, by the great majority of those who constitute civilized, cultivated, and, in a certain sense, Christianized Society. Although the Bible has been proved, beyond the possibility of refutation, to be Divine, and although through the instrumentality of God-sent messengers, the scenes of Sinai and of Calvary, the glories of heaven and the miseries of hell, have frequently been made to pass before the mind with all the vividness of a panoramic view, and all the forcibleness of conscious reality, yet, so depraved is man, that in number

less instances it is all of no avail! Disregarding the benignant designs of the Creator and Lawgiver, they continue to despise His sanctuaries, desecrate His holy day, and in the madness of their wicked career defiantly raise their puny arm of rebellion against the revealed will of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

To refer only to the open desecration of the Sabbath by legalized companies as an instance, irrespective of the crime in itself, and their own individual accountability to their Maker for its commission, the infidel example which they set to the country at large is very pernicious in its effects, and reflects very discreditably on the Government that permits it. Is it any wonder, if, on rebuking a rustic for using the spade or the scythe on the Lord's day, we get the reply: "Have I not as good a right to work upon the Sabbath as railway and steamboat companies and their men?" The Government, with the various legal authorities of a country, has its interests professedly at heart. The promotion of the welfare and best interests of the entire community is its legitimate province; and its powers and prerogatives are sufficiently extensive, if properly used, to effect this object. Now the Sabbath, as Jesus tells us, being made for man, and not for the Jew merely, from a candid consideration of the following passages of Holy Writ, it must appear quite evident to every intelligent mind that national prosperity in a very great measure depends upon the manner in which the sacred institution of the Sabbath is observed: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speak

ing thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth." 1 "It shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but 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 throne of David riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain for ever." Allowing

this to be the case, which the history of nations, corrupt and imperfect in obedience as without exception they have been, fully confirms, would it not manifestly be the wisest policy the governing powers of a country could adopt, to enact the most stringent laws relative to the devout observance of this holy institution, and to enjoin and encourage the highest possible degree of vigilance in the enforcement of them? It certainly would.

Permit me to add to the foregoing, in the hope that it may not be altogether unproductive of good effects, the following brief view of the general question of the institution of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a Divine institution, the seventh portion of time being hallowed and set apart for holy purposes from the creation of the world. Its nature as a precept may be regarded as twofold, positive and moral; and such is the intimate connection between its proper observance and the moral and religious prosperity of the world that God has been pleased to make it a precept of the Moral Law. It was therefore "made for man," not as he may be a Jew or a Christian, but as man, a creature bound to love, worship, and obey his Creator and God. "It is impossible," says

1 Isa. lviii. 13, 14.

2 Jer. xvii. 24, 25.

Dr. Gardiner Spring, "to account for its collocation in the Decalogue with the highest duties of religion, and the leading rules of personal and social morality, except on the ground that it is intimately, or rather, essentially connected with the sacred principles of homage to God, and mercy to men, involving public, and undistracted public religious worship, as a means to an end."

That the law of the ten commandments, and therefore of the Sabbath, is obligatory on Christians, plainly appears from the following passage from the Romans: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." Again he says, "I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." This being a plain reference to the tenth commandment of the Decalogue, as plainly shows that the Decalogue is "the law" of which he speaks, and that it is therefore of perpetual obligation.

A sufficiently explicit enforcement of the moral law, and therefore of the Sabbath, as binding upon Jew and Gentile alike, and extending to the end of time, may be gathered also from the teachings of Christ. First: "I came not," said He, "to destroy the law;" which shows that it was still to remain in full force, and that the Sabbath which, He said, "was made for man "-a general expression embracing the entire race-was to continue to be regarded as an existing institution. Secondly. This view of the case is still further confirmed by His having indirectly commanded its continued observance. In addressing the rich young man of whom we read in the Gospels, after calling his attention to the fact that there is none inherently good but God (whom, judging from Christ's remark to him, he did not take the "good master" to be) Christ said, “If thou