255 The Sabbath. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour 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 maidservant, thy cattle, and thy stranger that is within thy gates." --Exod. xx. 8-10. WILL you please listen to the following con versation between two gentlemen - Mr Orthodox, who keeps the Sabbath or thinks he keeps it, and Mr Heterodox, who doesn't keep it and doesn't wish to keep it. Mr H. Why do you keep Sunday? Mr O. Because of the fourth commandment. Mr O. Well, I don't know. I suppose the apostles. We read in the New Testament that they assembled together on the first day of the week, and this answers to the old meetings in the synagogues on the Jewish Sabbath. Mr H. What business had the apostles to change the day? What business had they to observe the first day when they were commanded to observe the seventh? Mr O. I don't know. But they were apostles ; they were inspired; it must have been all right. Mr H. I should like to ask you another question. Do you believe that the Levitical regulations for the Sabbath are still binding? that people should have no fires, no candles, no anything? Mr O. Certainly not. The rigour of the old Jewish Sabbath has been relaxed. Mr H. Indeed! Who relaxed it? Mr O. I don't know. I suppose the apostles. Mr O. I don't know. Mr H. How far has it been relaxed? Mr O. I can't exactly say. Mr H. Well, how do you keep it? Mr O. I go to church twice. Mr H. Is that all? Mr O. I read a chapter in the Bible. Mr H. Is that all? Mr O. Well, I make the children learn hymns. Mr H. Would you like to see the museums and picture-galleries open on Sunday? Mr O. No; certainly not. Mr H. Why not? Mr O. It would involve labour. Mr H. Oh, I see; you don't approve of labour on Sunday. I suppose you give your own servants a holiday. Mr O. Well, no. Mr H. That, of course, is one of the obligations which have been relaxed! We need not listen any more. We have heard enough to convince us that the views of Mr Orthodox upon this subject are in a state of hopeless confusion. I venture to say there are hundreds and thousands of persons who, if asked the same sort of questions, would give the same sort of replies. The fourth commandment, as a matter of fact, is only obeyed by one small sect in England -viz., the seventh-day Baptists. And yet an immense number of professing Christians believe that they ought to obey it, and what is still more curious, believe that they do obey it. How wonderful is man's power of self-deception! Just think of it. People fancy they are obeying a command to keep a certain day in one way, when they keep a different day in another way. It is as if they were told to wear a white dress on Monday, and imagined they were complying when they wore a black dress R on Tuesday. How can Christianity ever be respected by the world at large when people like this are regarded as its representatives? I. Now I want you to observe, in the first place, that the fourth commandment is distinguished from the other commandments in the Decalogue by being exclusively addressed to Jews. The reasons which were given for its observance are reasons which cannot have any weight with us. In Exodus xx. 11, it is based on the six days' theory of creation, which has long ago been exploded. Remember the Sabbath, 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 Deut. v. 15, it is based on the fact that those to whom it was addressed had been slaves. "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day." II. The fourth commandment is distinguished from the rest by being addressed exclusively to the rich. It is a command given to the owners of men-servants and maid-servants, &c. It was evidently laid down in the interests of the poor. Servants were in those days mere slaves; and under the Mosaic government many enactments were made in their favour. This was one. The fourth commandment was intended to secure for them a periodical respite from the excessive toil to which they were generally condemned. III. The fourth commandment says nothing about worship. It is a command to rest. The meaning of to keep holy, or to sanctify, is simply to set apart for a particular purpose. It is used in other passages, where the purpose is purely secular. It is the same word which is translated in Jeremiah xxii. 7, "prepare"; and in this passage the word signifies setting apart for war. And so the Saturday was to be set apart for rest, as is shown by the context-" Remember the Sabbath-day to set it apart; in it thou shalt do no manner of work." Of course it is desirable to take advantage of any special opportunity afforded by any special days for worship and spiritual contemplation, but this is not keeping the fourth commandment. That commandment was kept by any one who abstained from work and let his servants abstain from work, even though he never once thought of God. It was broken by any one who allowed a single animal to labour, even though he himself spent the entire day in spiritual exercises. Such a man, under the Levitical dispen |