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The Sabbath.

Database

The Sabbath.

James Dodson

[From the London Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, January, 1866, pages 10-16.]

The interest of this subject being perpetual, some remarks upon it are presented here. The institution, the gift to Israel, the change, and the continuance as the Lord’s Day, of the weekly day of holy rest, invite the attention usually given to it, and that which is now offered.

I. The Sabbath was instituted in the Garden of Eden, by God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” (Gen. ii. 2, 3.) The resting here revealed was the keeping of a Sabbath. The keeping of their Sabbath is enjoined upon the children of Israel in the use of the same word as is here employed. “Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest.” (Exod. xxiii. 12.) But it is a different word that describes the resting of the ox and the ass in the following clause of this verse 12, “that thine ox and thine ass may rest.” The word rendered Sabbath is derived from the word meaning in the record of institution “he rested.” Before the giving of the Law, the Sabbath was well known to the children of Israel. Accordingly Moses does not speak of it as a rest which was new to the people, but says, “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 ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” (Exod. xvi 23.) In the Fourth Commandment the Sabbath is revealed as the Lord’s, “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy God.” (Exod. xx. 10.) It would accordingly appear that God has a special propriety in the weekly Sabbath throughout all time. As He kept the First Sabbath, and claimed the Sabbath of the Israelites as His own, the Sabbath of all ages, kept according to His will, by whomsoever belongs to Him. And the Lord of the Sabbath says, “The Sabbath was made for Man.” (Mark ii. 27.) It was accordingly made for man in all states,—in the state in which he was created, in a fallen state, in a state of grace, and in the state of glory.

God, the Creator and Preserver, who is also, the Lord, foreseeing the end from the beginning, kept, on the seventh day, a Sabbath, which He should dispense to men, according to His sovereign immutable purpose, first to the patriarchs, next to the nation of Israel, by the hand of Moses, then to the Church in Gospel times, by His own personal acts, appearing in the nature of Man, and lastly in heaven; on the seventh day, till the resurrection of Christ, on the first day thereafter till the end of time, and to eternity in the heavenly world, where neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, measure time, but where the glory of the Lord enlighteneth, and the Lamb is the light thereof. The law of the Sabbath, given in time, reaches to eternity. The day of the keeping thereof was given and changed in sovereignty. The keeping of the Sabbath in Eden comprehended the offering of praise to God, the Greater and Preserver. That in the times of the patriarchs, worship to God revealed as merciful That in the times of the covenant of Sinai, the service of God as prescribed in the Law. That in the Gospel times, the rest of a people saved by the triumph of the Mediator. And that of the heavenly world, the rest of a people wholly saved from sin and misery.

In the law of Moses, and the rest of the inspired Scriptures, the observance of the Sabbath in the beginning, like the Being and Perfections of God, seems to be implied rather than explicitly declared. It may be inferred from certain expressions: in Gen. ii. 8, it is said, “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” The Hebrew “gan,” for “garden” here, is rendered by the Seventy “paradeisos.” In the New Testament, the same Greek word is used to denote the abode of the blessed in heaven. To the penitent thief the Lord Jesus said, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke xxiii 43.) The apostle Paul said, 2 Cor. xii. 3, 4, “And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” And by the Divine Mediator, it is said to the angel of the church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God;” where an allusion to the tree of life in the garden of Eden (Gen. iii. 22,) is most manifest. The Hebrew word “pardes,” is used in the singular, for an “orchard” in Solomon’s Song, iv. 13, and for a “forest” in Neh. ii 8, and in the plural for “orchards,” in Eccles. ii. 6. Whether, therefore, the Paradise of the New Testament recognise the Paradise of the Septuagint or not, without attributing to that version an inspired authority, it may reasonably be concluded that the scene of the heavenly rest of God’s people, is metaphorically described by inspiration as a garden or orchard, such as that in which man spent the first day of his existence, and that the exercises of the redeemed in heaven, through an eternal Sabbath, will correspond to their circumstances as restored from the effects of the fall, as the Sabbath kept in Eden agreed to the condition of unfallen man.

Again, in the reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment, (Exod. xx. 11,) it is said, “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.” The word rendered here “he rested,” is different from that so translated in Gen. ii. 2, 3. A word of the same origin, in Deut. v. 14, is rendered “may rest.” “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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.” The very same word which is rendered in this verse “may rest” is used in Exod. xxiii. 12, “'Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest (i.e., keep a Sabbath); that thine ox and thine ass may rest and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.” Thus in the use of one word under various forms, it is revealed, first, in the Fourth Commandment, including the reasons given for keeping it, that the Lord rested. Secondly, in a repetition of that precept, that neither man nor beast should do any work on the seventh day, for the purpose thus described to the Israelite, “that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.” Thirdly, in another rehearsal of the statute, to the Israelite, that he should keep a Sabbath, toward the end stated to him, “that thine ox and thine ass may rest^ and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.” Accordingly, the rest indicated was of different kinds. First, it was the Lord’s rest, identical with the Lord’s keeping of the Sabbath, in which strictly no creature could participate with the Creator and Redeemer. Secondly, it was the rest of man, identical with his keeping of the Sabbath, in which the lower animal creation could participate with him only to the extent of freedom from labour, and the enjoyment of corresponding bodily ease. Thirdly, it was the rest of the ox and the ass, and the cattle, which was merely physical, being destitute of the moral and spiritual elements that entered into the refreshing of man, and his keeping of a Sabbath.

God being infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His Being and Perfections, and therefore without the succession of thoughts and feelings as in man, when represented in His word as keeping a Sabbath, resting, and being refreshed, is revealed as having infinite, eternal, and unchanging complacency in himself, His purposes, and their accomplishment in His Providence, arrived at whatsoever stage, whether of the finishing of creation, the intimation of mercy to fallen man, or the working out, and the application of, the benefits of redemption to the elect.

But, setting forth His own example as a reason annexed to the Fourth Commandment, He encouraged His people to follow that example, as far as it is imitable in keeping that precept. And that true believers have had the enjoyment of communion with Him in all ages in keeping the Sabbath, would appear to be a revealed truth. From some passages, in addition to those already quoted, the keeping of the Sabbath before the giving of the law may be inferred.

Both Enoch, Gen. v. 24, and Noah, Gen. vi. 9, walked with God, and did they not keep the Sabbath? When the Lord appeared to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 1, and said unto him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect,” did not His injunction to the patriarch imply that he should keep the Sabbath? If the Gentiles, Rom. ii. 14, 15, “Do by nature the things contained in the law,”—“which show the work of the law written in their hearts,” is it warrantable to suppose that the law of the Sabbath was not there inscribed? And can it be considered probable that God, in making special intimations of His mind and will to Abraham, did not renew impressions of that exercise, the example to which had been set by himself from the beginning? Most probable it is that patriarchs, comprising Jacob and his predecessors, of whom he said, “God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads,” did, in following the Divine example, keep the Sabbath day.

This view seems to receive illustration from the inspired account given of the birth and name of Noah, and the acceptance of his burnt offerings. “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” Gen. v. 28, 29. The name Noah signifies “rest,” being derived from the word rendered he “rested,” in Exod. xx. 11. The birth of this son was accepted by his parents, who would appear to have been fearers of God, as a pledge of comfort, in the enjoyment of the blessing of God, instead of suffering from the curse which the Lord had pronounced on the ground. The descendants of Cain who surrounded them, might have disregarded the Sabbath. Striving to take more out of the earth than it could give, they might have given themselves to labour on the seventh day, and either to labour or not on the other days of the week as they chose, but to be disappointed by the harvest’s returns. Lamech seems to have expected a revival of the Sabbath rest from the gift of his son. Further, after the flood, “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake,” Gen. viii. 20, 21. The “sweet savour” here is, literally, a “savour of rest.” The least that can be included in this rest is the only previous rest that had been known,—the Sabbath rest certainly revealed to man in his original state. In various passages of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the offerings to the Lord to be presented in the land of inheritance, the land of Sabbaths, are called individually, a “ sweet savour.” And that one sacrifice, of which the sacrifices offered in Canaan were typical, is thus described, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” Eph. v. 2. To preserve the worship of God in the patriarchal times, the services of Noah, described as acceptable in terms applied to the acceptance of sacrifices under the law, when the Sabbath is known to have been kept, and to the sacrifice of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath, required a Sabbath to be kept by him and his descendants; so that thus the chain of Sabbath keeping, authorized by the Divine example in Eden, commanded in the law, and illustrated in the example of Christ, might not be broken. The observance may have reached a low level at the flood, and thereafter revived as it did nine hundred years afterwards, following upon the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

The word from which the name Noah, “rest,” is taken, famishes in Scripture a derivative, that describes both the land of Canaan and the Sanctuary at Jerusalem, as a “rest,” or literally a “place of rest.” “For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you.” Deut. xii 9. “Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou, and the ark of thy strength.” Ps. cxxxii 8. “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it,” verses 13, 14. As the dove which Noah sent forth from him, Gen. viii. 8, 9, found no rest for the sole of her foot, so the children of Israel found no rest in Egypt. But as when she returned the second time, she brought in her mouth an olive leaf pluckt off, so when Israel came into the wilderness, in the song of Moses, they sang, with the hope of peace, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountains of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Exod. xv. 17. And the tribes, as was predicted of Issachar, one of their number, Gen. xlix. 15, saw that “rest” was good, and the land that it was pleasant Here double sacrifices were presented on the Sabbath day, Numb. xxviii. 10, “This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering.” Whence it is difficult to conceive that Noah should have had no Sabbath, when it appears that the sacrifices offered by him were accepted, like the sacrifices offered at Jerusalem, twofold, on the Sabbath day, as a “savour of rest.”

The word for “rest,” in Deut. xii. 9, and Ps. cxxxii, is also applied to the heavenly rest that remains for the people of God. “Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest,” Ps. xcv. 11. “And in this place again. If they shall enter into my rest.” “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus (i.e., Joshua, margin) had given them rest, then would be not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God.” Heb. iv. 5, 7, 8, 9. If Noah, therefore, and other patriarchs, had no weekly Sabbath, then they were destitute of that memorial, or earnest, or foretaste of the heavenly rest, of which they had the expectation held out to them in the promise of the seed of the woman, required by them as much as by God’s people in later times, and yet enjoyed ordinances, recorded in the use of names implying their enjoyment of that very Sabbath’s rest.

The gracious invitation, Matt. xi. 28. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” seems to allude to a Sabbath rest from the beginning. To man, worn out with toil, eating in sorrow, of the ground, Gen. iii. 17, what could be more refreshing than the weekly Sabbath, giving rest, and leisure to worship God, and meditate upon the promise of the great deliverer, first given, and afterwards repeated and enlarged? To those who have spent their strength in vain, whose own work cannot profit them, and whom the merits of no creature could save, how refreshing ought to be the offer of mercy made by Him who paid the penalty that was due to Divine justice on behalf of his people, and who purchased for them grace and glory, freely to be granted to them, to cause them to enjoy all those rests which He who had ceased from his works and entered into his “rest” of glory, Isaiah xi. 10, had secured for them! Such as are enabled to accept this offer may well say, with the Psalmist, “Return now unto thy rest (literally, thy rests), O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Ps. cxvi. 7.

One other word descriptive of a fact associated with the keeping of the Sabbath may be noticed here as significant. It is found in Exodus xxxi 17. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh, day he rested, and was refreshed.” In the word translated here "refreshed" is given a metaphorical account of the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable complacency of God in the works of his bands, and all the other issues of his sovereign decrees. That he rested, or kept a Sabbath, and was refreshed, is given here as a reason why the children of Israel should obey the Fourth Commandment. The same word occurs in Exod. xxiii. 12, “Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed,” where an object of keeping the Sabbath proposed was that the people in covenant with God might be refreshed. The stranger here was not a heathen, but an Israelite either of a distant part of the land, or of another tribe, for whom, and for the maid-servant, if refreshing were provided, not less was it furnished to the master. The verb occurs in only this one passage in addition to the foregoing, 2 Sam. xvi. 14, “And the king, and all the people that were with him, were weary, and refreshed themselves there,” which describes all as participating at least in bodily creation, if not in mental and spiritual enjoyment. But a word occurs in the Old Testament in the singular, or the plural, above eight hundred times, including forty instances at least in the Book of Genesis, signifying animal life, or the soul, or a person, literally “breathing,” which is derived from this verb. Such as were refreshed, therefore, by the keeping of the Sabbath were thereby endowed with the highest benefit, physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, of which they could partake in their peculiar circumstances. The Divine example was set before the Israelites for their imitation, calling them to seek to be refreshed. But that example was set from the beginning, and from the very nature of man, intended as an example for him, in all ages, including not merely those of the Law and the Gospel, but those of Abraham, and Noah, and Enoch, and Abel. But in proof of the view here maintained, the Scriptures, in the use of the same word, present the soul of the Divine Mediator, as the reverse of refreshed. His sufferings and their result are thus described, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” (Is. liii. 10, 11.) The soul of the Messiah here, by which is meant his holy human nature, consisting of a true body and a reasonable soul, is made an offering for sin, instead of being refreshed, enduring the penalty that was due to Divine justice on account of the sins of an elect world, which offering by reason of the union of His human nature to His Divine person, was of infinite worth. That His people, in all ages, might be refreshed, He obeyed, and suffered, and died. That they might enjoy temporal and spiritual and heavenly blessings. He undertook for them. The Sabbath tended by His blessing directly to afford the means of enjoying these gifts in the earlier, as well as in the later times. In the former of these periods, it would not therefore be withheld from them. He who said, “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men” (Prov. viii. 30, 31); who, when the creation was finished, rested and was refreshed; who, when his soul had been made an offering for sin, saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied; from whose presence the times of refreshing shall come; who shall conduct all his sheep to eternal life, even across the Jordan of death; of whom his servant said, “He maketh me to lie down in the green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (Ps. xxiii. 2.)—He would not leave hiss people in the first ages, though possessed of primeval vigour, to toil through life without a weekly Sabbath to give them solace, and prepare them for the heavenly rest.

THE SABBATH.

[From the London Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, April, 1866, pages 36-53.]

II.

The Sabbath was given to Israel in the Covenant of Sinai. After the people were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, and kept the Passover, the observance of which as a covenant duty was afterwards enjoined so specifically in the law, the Lord said concerning the manna in the wilderness, by Moses, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” (Exod. xvi. 15.) And after some of the people, disobeying his command, went out on the seventh day to gather, and found none, the Lord said unto Moses, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exod. xvi. 28, 29). And the gift is acknowledged in the prayer of the Levites, returned from Babylon, a thousand years afterwards. “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes, and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses, thy servant; and gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedest them that they should go into to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them” (Nehem. ix. 13—15). And as the Lord gave to Abraham, and his covenant descendants, the land of Canaan, and the covenant of circumcision, so He gave to the latter, at Sinai, the Sabbath, as a covenant privilege, and enjoined the observance thereof as a covenant duty. “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession: and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. xvii. 8—10). To this gift the proto-martyr, Stephen, makes the reference:—“And He gave him the covenant of circumcision” (Acts vii. 8). Thus, circumcision, which was new, and the Sabbath, which was from the beginning, were both given in covenant. The one was given to Abraham, for the first time, who enjoyed the other in virtue of the original grant thereof made to man. And the one and the other were given to his descendants, as a lease of privilege renewed.

The Sabbath was given as a rest to the children of Israel, after their hard bondage in the land of Egypt. And their deliverance conferred on them a superadded obligation to perform the duty of keeping that rest. The preface to the Ten Commandments, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Exod. xx. 2,and Deut. v. 6), implies that the keeping of the whole law was a privilege bestowed on them by their Almighty Redeemer, and that they owed obedience to Him as His ransomed servants. The words that follow the repetition of the fourth commandment in Deut. v. 14, expressly inculcate on them the observance of this precept as a privilege and a duty, because of their miraculous deliverance from bondage, as an example given from one commandment of the ten:—“And 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 a stretched-out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day” (verse 15). And to show that as the children of Israel should no more return into Egypt, so neither should they imitate the ways of the people thereof, nor serve either them or their idols, the Lord said, “They are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not he sold as bondmen” (Lev. xxv. 42). “For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (verse 55).

From the words of Pharaoh addressed to Moses and Aaron, when they said to him, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness” (Exod. v. 1), it may, not improbably, be inferred that these servants of the Lord attempted to revive the law of the Sabbath, in anticipation of the deliverance of the people.—“And the King of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens” (verses 4, 5), in the latter of which verses, for “rest” we might read, “keep a Sabbath.” So that as Moses, forty years before, undertook to act as a deliverer, by slaying the Egyptian, so here he sought to lead the people to the service of God, that had been almost wholly given up. The offering of sacrifice, and the keeping of the Sabbath, were alike commanded in the law, to be given from Sinai. And the renewal of the latter service was without doubt contemplated along with that of the former. Although the first and the last day of each of the feasts of the Lord was a Sabbath, yet when the seventh day of the week intervened, it was kept as a Sabbath too. This fact that may be inferred from the Sabbath-law, receives illustration from the habitual practice of the Jews in the keeping of their feasts to the present day.

That the children of Israel were not suffered to observe the Sabbath well in Egypt, if at all, may be concluded; as well as that they were not permitted to offer sacrifice, according to Exod. viii. 25, 26, 27, “And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God; lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He shall command us.” But that they had been to some extent seduced to idolatry, in that land, would appear from the worship of the golden calf at Sinai, however much the Jewish writers may attempt to exonerate them from blame, by attributing that unlawful service to the mixed multitude that came up with them to the wilderness.

The gift of the Sabbath enabled the people to enjoy to the utmost their deliverance from bondage, and their liberty to serve God. In the use of one word (Gen. xxxv. 2; 1 Sam. vii. 3) the gods of the heathen are denominated “strange.” Such were the gods of Egypt and Assyria. And in the use of another, incense, and fire, forbidden to be brought to God’s altar, are also designated “strange” (Exod. xxx. 9; Lev. x. 1). From the latter word, and another, the writers of the Talmud and the Rabbins, formed the expression which is rendered “strange service,” meaning thereby “idolatry.” In contrast with which phrase appear to be the words of the Apostle (Rom. ix. 4; Heb. ix. 6) rendered, the “service of God;” and also those addressed to the Thessalonians (1 Epist. chap. i. 9), “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” After the people were brought out of Egypt, no one of them could be compelled to wait upon an Egyptian master, as Naaman afterwards was constrained to give attendance to his master, the King of Syria, while worshipping in the house of Rimmon, his god. On the other hand, the door of the tabernacle of the Congregation was open to receive him and the members of his household, and the weekly Sabbath returned, to afford a special season of access thereunto.

The Fourth Commandment secured to the servants of the Israelite the rest of the Sabbath, alike with their master and his children. Thereby he was restrained from imposing on them service on that day, beyond works of necessity and mercy. On the other hand, he was called, in imitation of the Divine example, and because of the sanctification of the Sabbath day, and the deliverance of his nation from the bondage of Egypt, to afford to all the members of his household, domestics as well as children, and all his other servants on that day, the benefit so far as he could contribute towards it, of a holy rest. As a master, he would not likely degrade himself, as also by that precept he was forbidden, to let out his servants to others to labour on the Sabbath. And he was commanded so to protect and foster them, because he himself, or his fathers, had been in bondage in the land of Egypt, likely working hard every day of the week, and deprived of the ordinary means of grace.

And the precept conveys obligation of a like nature, aa to the Christian Sabbath, to the present time. God’s people were the servants of Satan, doing the hard service of sin. The Lord Jesus having set them free, hath given them rest; and sanctioned the Sabbath, as a day of holy rest to themselves, and to all under their authority. It is therefore a manifestation of very imperfect views of the spirituality of the moral law, and of the unity of the Church of God in all ages, which is made by a minister who affirmed that the Decalogue, as a Decalogue, was buried with Jesus Christ, as reported in a newspaper,[1] in the following words:—“He never brought me out of the land of Egypt or out of the house of bondage. I am not connected with the Jews in flesh or spirit. I am born of God, and the deliverance out of Egypt is no ground of obligation to me any more than the Reformation or any other great work the Lord has done for men.”

The church of God at Corinth, consisting of them who were called, including in its members persons who were Greeks, and likely some who were Jews by birth, was not Jewish, but Christian. But this the Apostle connects with the Church in the wilderness in the following terms:—“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized onto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. x. 1—4.) As, therefore, the people of God, in the Psalms, in many places, celebrate His goodness to their fathers, and saying, “Thou hast saved us from our enemies” (Ps. xliv. 7), identify themselves with those their honoured representatives; so the Christian Church, to whom the privileges of the House of God were made over, recognises the members thereof as the children of faithful Abraham. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. iii. 28, 29.)

And deliverances wrought for the Church of God, by Himself, in different periods, bring His people under new obligations of gratitude and obedience to Him in all succeeding times. Where had the Christian church been in our time, but for such freedom as was given to God’s people from the bondage of Egypt, and Assyria, and Pagan and Papal Rome? To dwell for a little on the last, let us meditate upon the benefits of the Reformation. The numerous saints’ days, given in the Romish Calendar, effectually interfered with the keeping of the holy Sabbath. While the modem Jew kept, after his manner, the seventh-day Sabbath, as well as the double Sabbaths, both at the beginning and the end of his feasts, appointed by rabbinic authority, instead of the single Sabbaths of the written law, the devotee of Rome was taught to give only one-half of the Lord’s Day to religious worship, and the other half to, pleasure, and to attribute a greater sanctity to Christmas and Good Friday, and other days, than to the weekly day of rest. By the pen of inspiration (Rev. xi. 8.) Antichristian Rome is likened to Sodom and Egypt, and the place—namely, Jerusalem—where our Lord was crucified. And such as countenance what might properly be termed an Antinomian keeping of the Sabbath, of which so signal an example is set in the “Sunday” of Rome, are not, perhaps, all aware that they countenance a backward pace to bondage, like those Israelites in the wilderness who said one to another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt” (Num. xiv. 4). What did Scotland become in times of Reformation by her Sabbath! And what benefits have the three kingdoms enjoyed from the keeping of the Lord’s Day!

The Sabbath was given to the children of Israel that they might keep it holy to the Lord. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Exod. xx. 8). “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Gen. ii. 3). “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” (Exod. xx. 11.) It is one and the same word which is rendered, severally, in these passages, “to keep holy,” “to sanctify,” and “to hallow.” And the word is used, in all, to signify the separation of one day of the week from the other days, as holy to the Lord. “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death” (Exod. xxxv. 2). In which verse, for “an holy day,” there might be read, as in the margin, “holiness;” and, where thus, the rest of the Sabbath is pronounced to be “holiness to the Lord.” It is so spoken of likewise, in Exod. xvi. 23, and xxxi. 15. The title indicates, therefore, the consecration of the Sabbath Day to the service of the Lord, or, in other words, to the duties of religion. Moreover, this title, “holiness to the Lord,” given to the keeping of the Sabbath, is given to various offerings, and persons, and things, as set apart to His service. This was the engraving on the golden plate put upon the fore-front of Aaron’s mitre (Exod. xxviii 36). The Lord directed Jeremiah to declare, “Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase” (ch. ii. 3). And Ezra records concerning the people that returned with him from Babylon (ch. ix. 28), “I said unto them, ye are holy (Heb. holiness) unto the Lord; the vessels are holy (holiness) also.” The Nazarite, all the days of his separation, was “holiness to the Lord” (Numb. vi. 8). A sacrifice of peace-offerings (Lev. xix. 5—8); the wave-offering of the bread from the first-fruits of the wheat harvest, offered at the feast of Pentecost, with the two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace-offerings (Lev. xxiii. 15, 17, 20); the fruit of the fourth year, being the first-fruit of a fruit tree (Lev. xix. 24); all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, being claimed as the Lord’s (Lev. xxvii. 30); a house sanctified, to be holy unto the Lord (Lev. xxvii. 14), and a field devoted (Lev. xxvii. 21); these were all termed “holiness to the Lord.” Ezra and Nehemiah, addressing the captives returned from Babylon, so described the first day of the seventh month, that of the feast of trumpets (Nehem. viii. 2, 9). Accordingly the weekly Sabbath has applied to it the designation which is given in common to what pertained not to secular matters, but to the service of the Lord in the duties of religion; proving that the duty enjoined to be done on that day was not merely the taking of bodily rest and refreshment, but also the performance of the worship of God.

And a precious promise is made to such as should spend the Sabbath in the worship of God, neither doing business nor seeking pleasure on that holy day. “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 speaking 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, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Is. lviii. 13, 14). Also judgments, terminating in captivity, came upon the people for their desecration of this day of holy rest. “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” (Nehem. xiii. 17, 18).

From such views of the Sabbath, as well as all others respecting it, presented in the Scriptures, will appear the erroneous and dangerous nature of statements made, the one in a church court, the other to his congregation, by a minister of whom notice has been twice taken already, such as the following:—“I am certainly for one inclined to think it was only endless rest in the Fourth Commandment.”[2] To say the least of it, it is doubtful whether even the duty of worship can be found in the Fourth Commandment, though possibly it may be inferred from it, for it must be admitted that there is not one hint about worship, but only of sanctifying it, or of setting it apart for rest.”[3] Even the modern Jew, following tradition, by observing on the eve of Sabbath the rite of the Habdalla, or “separation” of day from night, and of the six common days from the holy Sabbath, when he lights the Sabbath lamp, manifests his impression that his Sabbath should be set apart to a rest for worship. This separation, which includes many ceremonies, such as the consecration of wine by certain prayers, then of aromatics, and thirdly of the light of the lamp, presents blessing to the Lord, who commanded the Sabbath. With all his care, it is true, the Jew did not sufficiently provide for the sanctification of the Sabbath. Though he set a fence about it by the Habdalla, evil thoughts would surmount it, and like the fowls that devoured the seed sown by the way side, would soon cause his impressions of truth and duty to disappear. When the fowls came down upon the carcases of Abram’s sacrifice, he drove them away (Gen. xv. 11). But the modem Jew has not the faith of Abraham. Nor would such a faith recognise a Sabbath day now extinct. Neither will the Lord’s day be preserved from the invasions of evil thoughts and practices, without reliance on the influences of the Holy Spirit.

Against a like dangerous expression of sentiment, published in a newspaper,[4] a warning would be given here. “Another Scottish Clergyman, the Rev.---- --------, says on John—‘Besides, as a Jewish institute, the Sabbath was not a religious day in the sense in which we use the term “religious.” It is very remarkable—I think it must have struck all readers of Scripture—that in the Psalms, the great book of devotion with the Jews, there is not one mention of the Sabbath day. It is never spoken of as a day of religious service. The Jews never thought of it in that light.’” Whoever this Clergyman is, for he is personally unknown to the writer of these lines, he has erred from not consulting the book of Psalms itself. And though he may possibly be one of those who move fast with a view to enlighten the present generation, his influence for good will be small, and for evil great, when he moves without “book.” The Hebrew title of the xcii Psalm, which we have reason to believe to be inspired, as well as the Psalm itself, means, “A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day.” And if there be worship in the book of Psalms, the book of worship, there is surely worship in this Psalm. With whatever qualifications, too, the testimony of the modem Jew respecting many of the habits of his ancestors may be taken, his evidence respecting the use of this Psalm in worship on the Jewish Sabbath is unequivocally given in his weekly devotions. This Psalm stands in his Prayer-book among the Psalms used on the Jewish Sabbath, and he recites it both on the Friday evening and the Saturday forenoon.

The Sabbath was given to the children of Israel, and the office of the priesthood to Aaron and his sons, in the same covenant, and for the same period. “Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death” (Numb. xviii. 7). According to the texts (Exod. xxxv. 2 and xxviii. 36) already quoted, “Holiness to the Lord,” was the title of the one and of the other. The superlative, “most holy,” or literally, “holy of holies,” distinguishing certain things and services pertaining to the sanctuary, was a title given neither to the Sabbath nor to the high priest. This was given to the tabernacle, anointed with the holy anointing oil, and to all its vessels and furniture, and to the altars of burnt offering and of incense, and to whatsoever touched them, namely to the offerings there presented (Exod. xxx. 25—29; xxix. 37; xl. 10; xxx. 10). This was given to the “sweet incense” (Exod. xxx. 36), as well as to the altar on which it was burnt. This was given to the offerings granted to be eaten by the priests; to the meat-offering (Lev. ii. 3, 10; vi. 17; x. 12); to the sin-offering (Lev. vi. 25, 29: x. 17); to the trespass-offering (Lev. vii. 1, 6; x. 17); to the shew-bread, or, “bread of the presence,” which, every Sabbath, was set in order before the Lord, an offering made by fire unto the Lord (Lev. xxvi. 7, 8, 9); to every oblation of the children of Israel (Numb. xviii. 9, 10); and to every devoted thing (Lev. xxvii. 28). This was a title given to the inner sanctuary (Exod. xxvi. 33, 34). In Lev. vi. 16, the court of the tabernacle of the congregation is called the holy place; and in Numbers xviii 10, the “holy of holies;” the place where Aaron and his sons did eat of the most holy things. The distinction of holy from most holy was not made between days or persons, but between certain places of the house of God. And sometimes the one title and sometimes the other was given to certain things there offered (Numb. xviii. 9, 10). In the court of the tabernacle, and in that of the temple, the priests and the people met, both on the weekly Sabbath, and on other days, each in their place, to engage in certain services, in the use of things, which were termed, now, most holy, and then, holy. The inner sanctuary, as a type of heaven, was most holy. The court of the tabernacle, and the outer sanctuary, as types of the church on earth, separated from the world, were holy; but, as consecrated to God, were most holy. And the food of the priesthood, from the offerings made by fire unto the Lord, was most holy. On the weekly Sabbath the double sacrifices offered (Numb. xxviii. 10) called both the priests and the people to the place, and to things, whether termed holy, or most holy, the use of which was certainly not made in idleness, but with energy, as consecrated to the worship of God. Not less than the office of the priesthood, which was no sinecure, was the weekly Sabbath, “holiness to the Lord.”

And the period during which both were granted was that of the Covenant of Sinai, the deed of gift wherein they were conveyed. As well as from other expressions, this appears from the words, “throughout their generations,” applied thereto in both cases. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (Exod. xxxi. 16). “And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall bum incense upon it; a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations” (Exod. xxx. 8). “And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office; for their anointing shall be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations” (Exod. xl. 16). When the second temple was destroyed, the course of the Covenant of Sinai was run, and with it the Aaronic priesthood, and the Seventh-day Sabbath, as ordained of God, together passed away. It is true that the children of Israel, rejecting the New Covenant, have continued to observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath; and to recognise certain persons among them, termed “cohanim,” “priests,” as the descendants of Aaron, to whom the reading of an occasional service in the synagogue is committed. But in the light of the word of God, from the Old and the New Testament Scriptures, all such of their observances appear to be will-worship, and nothing more. And to them has been fulfilled the prediction, “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim” (Hosea iii. 4). While to such of them as have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ has been fulfilled the promise, “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days” (verse 6).

And the actual service of the Israelite, on the Sabbath-day, in the court of the tabernacle or the temple, was to offer prayer and praise. One obvious end of the extra sacrifices offered on that day was to engage the devotions of a people set free from labour, by the law of the Sabbath. On every day of the week, the Israelite who resided near the Sanctuary had opportunities of offering worship, at the times of the morning and evening sacrifice. “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” (Ps. cxli. 2.) While Zacharias was detained by a vision, “The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense” (Luke i 10). “Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee and the other a publican” (Luke xviii. 10). “Now Peter and James and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour” (Acts iii 1). And, without doubt, in remembrance of the worship at Zion, Daniel, in the land of Babylon, was engaged in prayer, when the angel Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly, touched Mm at this hour, the time of the evening oblation (Dan. ix. 21). And if the gates of Zion were open on the week days, they were not shut on the Sabbath. Concerning the state of the Zion of God, in the latter day, we read, in language retrospective of the services of the sanctuary in past times, “Thus saith the Lord God, The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened” (Ezek. xlvi. 1). And the worship offered is recorded. David says (Ps. xxvi 6, 7), “I will wash my hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, Lord. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.” And the Psalmist, in Ps. xliii 3, 4, “O, send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, God, my God.” And, in Ps. xlii. 4, “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.” Whatever Psalms were written by Moses, the man of God, and other prophets, such as the ninetieth, and perhaps the eighty-eighth Psalm, would be used in the times of the judges. Then those of David would be added, and lastly those of the prophets that followed till the building of the second temple.

The Sabbath was given to the people, when the Levites were taken from among them, and given to Aaron and his sons, and when both the Priests and the Levites were set apart to the service of the Lord. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him…. And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel” (Numb. iii. 5, 6, 9). “And I, behold I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation” (Numb. xviii. 6). Step by step, in His holy providence, the Lord was pleased to lead the house of Levi to their proper work. He said to Moses, whose preservation in infancy was so wonderful, the son of Amram, the son of Kokath, the son of Levi, in sovereignty, as He had called Abraham out of Ur, of the Chaldees, “Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exod. iii. 10). And after He had showed to him signs to prove that He had sent him, and Moses began to plead that he was not eloquent, He called Aaron to be with him. “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and He said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart” (Exod. v. 14). “And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the Mount of God, and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people” (verses 27—30). And when the people sinned by worshipping the golden calf, it was given to the sons of Levi, alone of all the children of Israel, to respond to the appeal, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” (Exod. xxxii. 26—28). For Moses had said, “Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day” (verse 29). And in like circumstances was confirmed to Phinehas, the son of Aaron, and to his seed after him, the covenant of the priesthood (Numb. xxv. 10—13). The work to which the sons of Levi, whether Priests or Levites, were set apart, was to teach the people the Divine law; and to which the sons of Aaron were dedicated, was to minister in the Sanctuary. “And of Levi he said. Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren: for they have observed Thy word and kept Thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob Thy judgments, and Israel Thy law: they shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon Thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands” (Deut. xxxiii. 8—11). In those ages, during which copies of the law of the Lord, and of succeeding books of inspired Scripture, might be scarce, and confined chiefly to the Priests and Levites, and the judges of the land, the teaching of the former, and the decisions of the latter, by a blessing from on high, would be impressed so deeply on the memories of the people, as to render manuscripts, not to speak of printing, little needed in their times. Upon this principle, when it is considered how Jewish tradition floated for centuries, from lip to lip, on the stream of the conversation of the people, before it was written in the Talmud, not to speak of the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer, recited by the bard, or by others, and the poems of Ossian, before the age of printing, preserved by memory among persons of the Celtic race, it is reasonable to conclude that He who suffered what was less worthy, or rather really unworthy, to be kept in memory, and who overruled such for good, would cause His own revealed truth, in the infancy of the arts, to be graven deeply on His people’s mind.

The work to which the Levites should be put was not the only thing predicted concerning their tribe. The dying Jacob, in allusion to the murder of the Schechemites, said, by the spirit of prophecy:—“Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O, my soul! come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Gen. xlix. 5—7). Respecting Levi, afterwards the curse was changed into a blessing. As the powers and graces of Paul, the apostle, were given to preach the faith, which, as Saul, the persecutor, he once destroyed, so the power and energy of Levi, who was zealous to a cruel, and therefore sinful extreme, was, as inherited by his sons, dedicated in a twofold way, to the honour of God. The men whose father used instruments of cruelty, against the helpless Schechemites, both at Sinai and at Baalpeor, struck for the cause of religion and morality. On the day of battle, too, they were to be seen among the armies of Israel, to inspire these with courage to fight the battles of the Lord (Deut. xx. 2—4). And these furnished contingents of fighting men to the hosts of their people. Among the bands ready armed to the war, that came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul Ho him, according to the Word of the Lord, there were, of the children of Levi, four thousand and six hundred; also, Jehoiada, the leader of the Aaronites, and with him three thousand and seven hundred; and Zadok, a young man mighty of valour, and of his father's house twenty and two captains (1 Chron. xii. 23, 26, 27, 28). And when Uzziah, the king, contrary to the law, went into the Temple to bum incense, it is said “Azariah, the priest, went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were valiant men, and they withstood Uzziah, the king” (2 Chron. xxvi. 27, 28).

But these men, strong of bone and sinew, and full of courage, were set apart also to more congenial work than the slaughter of men, and called to use the knife and the hatchet rather than the sword or the spear. The priests had to kill and to flay the victims offered in sacrifice; and when the priests were too few, as when the temple was cleansed in the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxix. 18, 34), the Levites took part with them in the latter part of their service; as they did also at Josiah’s passover, where they made ready food for the people, and then for the priests, and for themselves (2 Chron. xxxv. 11, 13, 14).

The public ordinances were dispensed at the place which the Lord Himself did choose. But the distribution of the Levites among the people brought the means of instruction in the law of the Lord near to their homes. Thus was opened up the intent of the words, “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” In the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho, the Lord spake unto Moses saying, “Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. (Numb. xxxv. 1, 2.) “All the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall ye give with their suburbs,” verse 7. Next, the lot decided the cities, including the cities of refuge, to be thus given, Joshua xxi. To the families of the Kohathites, and to the children of Aaron the priest, were given nine cities out of the tribes of Judah and Simeon; eight, including Hebron, the city of the priests, in the former, and one city, Ain, in the latter; and four out of Benjamin; thirteen in all. And to the rest of the Kohathites, out of the tribes of Ephraim, and Dan, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, were given ten cities. To the children of Gershon, were given out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, in Bashan, thirteen cities. To the children of Merari, were given out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities. And these cities were so located, that easy communication, with respect to distance, might be maintained between them and the towns, or rural dwellings, of the people among whom they stood. Take, for example, by approximation, the square miles contained in the territories of Judah and Benjamin, and Simeon. Suppose the distance, along the hill country of Judea, from the south of Judah to the north of Benjamin to be, as the crow flies, about Eighty miles, and the average breadth of the two irregularly shaped territories to be Forty-two miles, this will give a surface of Three thousand three hundred and sixty miles. Add to this the surface of the territory of Simeon, say of Forty-two miles from North to South, and of Twenty-four miles from East to West, which will come to a Thousand and eight square miles. This amount, added to the former, will give Four thousand three hundred and sixty-eight square miles. Divide this, then, by thirteen, and the result will be that, on an average, each city would occupy the middle of a square space equal to Three hundred and thirty-six square miles, or would stand in the middle of a square of which the side would be over Eighteen miles, and the diagonal nearly Twenty-six miles. So that the distance between a Levitical city, and the angles of the average square in which it might be situated, woold not be over Thirteen miles, and the average distance of all parts of the square territory around it not over Six miles. True, looking at the map, the cities do not appear to be situated as here described. But this view presents a fair medium of the respective distances. Thus the people woold not travel to the Levites of the nearest city, nor the Levites to the people, over a space greater than many in Scotland here had to travel to the church on the Sabbath day. This distance, no doubt, is much greater than the Sabbath day’s journey of the Jews. Yet still, being by Divine appointment it was not so great as to cut off frequent communication, for instruction, between the Levites and the people. Most likely the Levites, who had no land to cultivate but that contained in the suburbs of their cities, would uniformly find their way to the people around them before the Sabbath eve, and return to their own cities when the Sabbath was gone. In reality, the positions of the cities were pretty central. In the south of Judah, Jattir, Holon, and Eshtemoa, on the main mountain range, or on the spurs extending therefrom, about some ten or eleven miles distant from each other, occupied the vertices of a triangle nearly equilateral. Debir, Hebron, and Juttah, lay on a parallel of latitude farther north, the distances between the first and second, and the second and third, in succession, being each about twelve miles. In Simeon, and the north-west of Judah, Ain, and Libnah, in the valley of the Sorek, and Bethshemeah, in the valley of Aijalon, were separate, in order, by distances not much greater. From Debir to Ain, the distance might be above eighteen miles; and from the latter to Libnah, and Bethshemesh, and any one of the three cities of Benjamin, Gibeon, Geba, and Anathoth, the stages might be about fifteen miles, if so much. And from Anathoth to Almon, or from thence to the most remote point of the northern boundary of the tribe, the space might be less. For a long time, from Bethel, which was not a Levitical city, but where the Tabernacle was set up, and therefore the priests and Levites, ordinarily convened, and where the people met to keep their solemn feasts, instruction most have gone forth, as if radiating from a centre, to all places around; and when the ark had been brought up to Mount Zion, and the temple was built on Mount Moriah, then Jerusalem filled up the vacancy that lay between the cities of the priests and Levites in the South, and those of the Levites in the North, as the place which the Lord did choose, and whence His Word went forth to the people. And finally, after the ten tribes revolted from subjection to the house of David, when the priests and Levites that were in all Israel left their suburbs and possessions, and came to Judah and Jerusalem, the means of grace in the kingdom of Judah must have been greatly increased (2 Chron. xi. 13, 14). As when the people wished to inquire of the Lord, or were visited with bodily trouble, they came to the priests; and as when disputes arose, they, came to the judges; so with respect to the matter of the tithes, the people and the Levites would have almost daily intercourse. The tithes of com and wine, and oil, and of fruit, and of beasts, and spices, whether for the priests, or for the Levites, or for the poor, occupied much of the attention of the people, and according to the Talmud, in a late age, at least, affected almost every meal of which they partook. And it cannot easily be conceived that, when the Levites and the people met together, even at meals on the Sabbath, the former would forget the great object for which they were dispersed among the tribes. From the great degeneracy of the people, even in the days of the judges, and in those of the kings who succeeded David, it is not warrantable to infer that the weekly Sabbath was not observed by some, as well as the annual festivals. As well might it be inferred, in ages succeeding to the present, from the obloquy now put upon the Sabbath by many professed or practical infidels, or victims of superstition, that the keeping of the Sabbath was not inculcated by the ministers of religion, or honoured in the practice of the Christian people. When we think of the wreck which liberal sentiments, the traffic of reckless speculators in the matters of religion, make of the profession and practices of some in these days of Gospel light, who had the privilege to enjoy a sound education, and see a corresponding godly example, it appears the more to be a wonder of Divine grace that some were kept faithful to the law of the Lord among the children of Israel; and that they did not wholly conform to the idolatry and immorality and barbarity of their cruel heathen neighbours. When the Israelite observed the rest of the Sabbath, he did not yield to idleness or sloth. The law of the Lord prescribed to him his duty. “And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deut. vi. 6—9). And that the teaching of the priests and Levites was made effective, we are taught from the word. “And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts” (Mal. ii 4—7). The priests and the Levites would have the whole of the Inspired Word upon their memories. The Levites were appointed unto all manner of service of the tabernacle of the house of God (1 Chron. vi. 48; Numb. viii. 5—11). They were appointed by David to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel (1 Chron. xvi. 4). The priests did blow with the trumpets before the ark of the Lord (1 Chron. xv. 24). Heman, of the sons of the Kohathites, was a singer (1 Chron. vi. 33). Such was Ethan of the sons of Merari (1 Chron. xv. 17). And such was Asaph, of the sons of Gershon (1 Chron. vi. 39—43). The Levites were appointed to be singers with instruments of music. Thus, when they returned to their cities from Jerusalem, they were well qualified to teach. All of them would instruct the people, and chiefly on the Sabbath, as the day of rest, concerning the truth and the service of God. And with their lessons, the Gershonites might deliver especial teachings respecting the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which was by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it, for all the service thereof, which were committed to their charge. (Numb. iii. 25, 26) . In like manner might the sons of Kohath dwell upon the ark, the table, the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary, and the hanging, and all the service thereof, of which they had charge (verse 32). And the sons of Merari, on the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof and all that served thereto, of which the custody and chaise was given to them (verse 36).

Whatever places were provided to accommodate the people, in offering worship before the captivity, on the Sabbath, after their return, in the course of time, they erected the proseuchae, or places of prayer, mentioned by Josephus, and the synagogues, to which they had recourse on the Sabbath. The name of the former is metaphorical, the word in the singular meaning prayer, as in Luke vi. 12. In one of these places the apostle Paul taught the people of Philippi. (Acts xvi. 13—16.) For the latter there is no name in the inspired Hebrew Scriptures. A later Hebrew name for a synagogue means the “house of assembling.” And in the New Testament Scriptures we have abundant evidence of the existence thereof, not merely in the land of Canaan, but also among the Jews in foreign countries, and of the services of reading the law and the prophets, and of offering exposition of the word and exhortation, and prayer therein. Whence it may be safely inferred that the Jews, a people so much influenced by tradition, in such places of worship, continued exercises which were performed by their fathers throughout the coasts of Israel, however partially and varied, when they sang the songs of Zion before the captivity, on the Sabbath day.

The Jewish tradition and practice of the “Stations,” gives an illustration of this subject. According to 1 Chron. xxiv. and 2 Chron. viii. 14, David, and after him Solomon, appointed the twenty-four courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and to minister before the priests as the duty of every day required. And of the service of one of these courses we have an inspired account in Luke i. 5—8, to the eighth of which, the course of Abia (1 Chron, xxiv. 10), Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist belonged. As will appear from Buxtorf, in the Talmud it is said “These are Stations, Because it is said (Num. xxviii. 2), ‘Command the children of Israel, and say unto them. My offering and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.’ But an oblation could not be offered by any one who did not assist at the offering. Accordingly the earlier prophets instituted Twenty-four Watches (so the courses are described), and to each watch was adjoined a station at Jerusalem, consisting of priests and Levites, and Israelites. When the time of a Watch (i.e, course) drew near that it should go up to Jerusalem, and the priest and Levites were going up, the Israelites of that watch were assembled in their cities, and read in the history of creation….” Maimonides says that, those (Israelites of a Station) who were far from Jerusalem, assembled in their synagogues, and prayed and read, and were engaged in Divine worship during the whole seven days throughout which their watch continued, in supplication, reading, and fasting, and reading the history of creation, because the perfection of existence is Divine worship. And Obadiah de Bartenora, an Italian Jewish Commentator on the Talmud, bears a corresponding testimony. The period of each course would appear to have been seven days, twice a year; the whole time of the Twenty-four courses occupying Forty-eight weeks, which, with four weeks for the three annual festivals, would take up the fifty-two weeks of the year. And the Station was a name that seemed to have been given to those connected with the courses, which the Rabbins termed Watches, because these used a Liturgy in a standing posture. Hence there is a small book, about the size of a Psalm-book, of which the title means, “The Order of the Stations;” that is, the order of the prayers and lessons for each of the seven days which they were obliged to use. The prayers are in Chaldee. A copy of this Work was seen by the writer within the last few years, in the house of a Jew, still living, in the parish of St. Giles, London. The use of these prayers among the Jews does not prove too much. From time immemorial the Jews in their synagogues had especial services on their Sabbath day, and on two other days of the week. And, as in the Apostolic age, the doors of the temple were open every day, so in ages later, if not earlier, the synagogues have been open for prayer every day. The inference from the synagogue services of the “Station” rather is, that the Jews who were so careful, for fourteen days of the year, to engage in prayer every day, when the priests and Levites were up at Jerusalem, would not fail to avail themselves of the instructions of the ministers of religion, according as these were dispensed on the weekly Sabbath. And from the supreme standard of the Word, we may conclude that the Levites who were offered before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they might execute the service of the Lord (Numb. viii. 11), would endeavour to inculcate by their teaching and example the command, to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

The Sabbath and the three annual festivals were given together to the children of Israel, to be observed. These are all enjoined in Exod. xxiii. 12—17; again in Exod. xxxiv. 18—23; next, in Lev. xxiii.; and lastly in the repetition of the law made upon the plains of Moab, Deut. v. and xvi. After what has been said already on the subject of sacrifice, little may be stated here respecting this significant fact. But it may be added, that as all are explicitly enjoined in the same covenant, all were to be observed without one of them being disregarded for the sake of another. Several days of the feasts were Sabbaths, and when the weekly Sabbath fell on one of these days, two Sabbaths were united in one. Had either the passover, or the feast of pentecost, or that of tabernacles, been ordained alone, without any leave being given to omit the keeping of the weekly Sabbath, on account of the occurrence of one of these feasts, we should not have had reason to conclude that the observance of the weekly Sabbath might be suspended even for a single day. But when we find that not merely is there no allowance given to omit, but on the other hand, express commands to observe the keeping of the Seventh day, we are warranted to hold the Sabbath as enjoined, to be observed weekly, not merely at the times of the annual feasts, but also through the rest of the year, when, if possible, from the lack of the services of the feasts, it was more required.

Finally, the Sabbath was given to the children of Israel, along with the Sabbatic year, and the year of Jubilee. In Exod. xxiii. 10—12, the rest of the seventh year and that of the Sabbath are enjoined together, and, along with them also, the three yearly feasts (verses 13—17). Ordinary labour was forbidden on the seventh year, as well as on the weekly Sabbath. “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall lie a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.” The rest of the seventh year was to be enjoyed every day of the year, and the rest of the Sabbath on the Seventh day of the week. The latter, consequently, was superadded to the rest of the former, on the Seventh day, carrying with it privilege and duty, as dedicated, beyond the other days of the week, to the worship of God. So that, if it be assumed, with some, that the rest of the Sabbath was only rest from labour, then there will appear to have been no need for it in the Sabbatic year, while by express command it is enjoined with the whole year’s rest, and an assumption will be made which destroys itself. On the other hand, if the Sabbath be taken as it ought to be, for a rest from labour, and a rest for worship, too, the engagements of the first six days of the week, in ordinary years, and those of the same days in the year of release, will appear both harmoniously to have given way to the more special rest of the Holy Sabbath when it came in.

Further, the Sabbatic year, and the year of Jubilee, were enjoined together. The duties and privileges of both are detailed in one chapter. (Lev. xxv.) And each, as well as the weekly Sabbath, was a period of release. The Sabbath gave release from ordinary labour. The Sabbatic year gave release to the Israelite from yearly labour; to the debtor from the pecuniary claims of his brother of the children of Israel; and liberty to the man who had served his brother in covenant for the space of six years. And the Jubilee released the lands of all the people who had sold them, and restored them to their owners free from mortgage. All these Divine arrangements were made for the benefit of the poor, and to restrain the prosperous in worldly things from growing wealthy and powerful to the injury of their poor brethren. And these were made not merely that provision might be made for the needy and helpless, but also that all the people might be furnished opportunity, and worldly means, to serve the Lord. And the great lesson ran through all, that man, at first a captive to Satan and sin, was furnished, through Divine grace, with the means of emancipation from the bondage of corruption, of access to his Divine Redeemer, in the ordinances of His grace, and of attaining to meetness for the rest that remaineth for lie people of God.

THE SABBATH.

[From the London Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, July, 1866, pages 69-76.]

III.

The change of the weekly day of holy rest, from the seventh day of the week to the first, was made by Divine authority. Or, The Jewish Sabbath ceased to be lawful, and the Christian Sabbath came into its room, according to God’s appointment.

The seventh-day Sabbath was given to the Israelites, in Covenant at Sinai, as one of certain institutions which were only to be temporary, and confined to the period of their journeys from Egypt, and their future occupation of the Promised Land.

The Sabbath and the Aaronic Priesthood were two of these institutions, and one word, sometimes rendered “everlasting,” and at other times “perpetual,” defines the period of both. The people were commanded to keep the Sabbath, to observe it throughout their generations for a “perpetual” covenant (Exod. xxxi. 16). The anointing of Aaron and his sons was surely to be an “everlasting” priesthood throughout their generations (Exod. xl. 15). Combined with one or another of two prefixes, it is rendered “for ever.” And in this connection, it means “eternally,” as in Deut. xxxii. 40, “For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever,” obviously meaning from eternity to eternity, as used by God of Himself; according to a twofold use of the word in Ps. xc. 2, ‘From everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God.” But it means in other passages, “to eternity,” as applied to creatures; of which these two examples may be given:—“My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Ps. lxxiii. 26). “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. xii. 2, 3). The phrases have besides, however, three acceptations, each of them denoting a period that is finite. The first is that of the duration of the family of man upon the earth, from the time of Noah, till the general judgment. “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth” (Gen. ix. 16). “And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations” (v. 12). The second is a period not exceeding that of the life of man. “Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for over” (Exod. xxi. 6.) The third is that of the covenant of Sinai, a period less than the one, but greater than the other; For God said to Abraham, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Gen. xvii. 8). “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever” (Gen. xiii. 15). Now, since the people have been disinherited, and the sons of Aaron have ceased to minister at the altar, for long ages, the time of the grant of the Jewish Sabbath must have been completed when the second temple was destroyed. Legally it was past when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. When the Jews object, and say that they will yet return to the land, it will be sufficient to reply, that their fathers were commanded to keep the Sabbath “throughout their generations,” addressed as inhabiting the land. And whereby no recognition is made of the people as driven from it.

Sacrifice, which occupied the priesthood on behalf of the people, was another of these institutions which, with the Jewish Sabbath, was to come to an end. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy” (Dan. ix. 24). Instead of the words, “to make an end of sins,” the original allows us to read, “to seal up the sin-offerings.” And according even to the Jews themselves, “to seal up the vision and prophecy” is to perfect, to finish, to fulfil, and consummate the promises, and the prophecies. All, therefore, that is prophesied in this verse behooved to be done before the event happened that is thus predicted in verse 26—“And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” The Lord Jesus Christ, in his obedience and sufferings and death, did these things, and thus fulfilled besides, all that is predicted in Psalms xxii., xl., Isa. liii., Zech. xiii. 7, and in the other prophecies concerning the offering of Messiah. And while the Jews, who do not believe in Christ, cannot deny that their house has been left to them desolate, they are unable to show a personage who did these things.

On every day of the week, in the temple, a burnt-offering and its meat-offering were presented, both in the morning and the afternoon. On the Sabbath day, these offerings were presented twofold. With whatever care, or short-comings, the Israelite, in his dwelling, far from the temple, kept the Sabbath day, the priests and Levites represented the people, by offering these sacrifices at Jerusalem on that holy day. When these were remitted, one important end for which the Sabbath was given, had been attained. That one sacrifice, by which are for ever perfected them that are sanctified, had been offered. And when these sacrifices ceased altogether, the Jewish Sabbath, as ordained by God, disappeared with them.

The great work which the sacrifices offered on the primitive Sabbath contemplated having been accomplished, the day of the Sabbath, on which especially such sacrifices were offered up, was changed, and the following day, the first day of the week, suited to a new state of things, was set apart, through all succeeding time, by Divine appointment, as the Lord’s day, to the weekly Sabbath rest. From the fall of man till the death of the Divine Redeemer, in every sacrifice, one thing above every other was proclaimed, and doubly on the Sabbath—death, death. The sacrifice of Abel told that man had sinned and deserved death, and that the Mediator would submit to death for His people. The sacrifice of Noah, offered when the waters were dried up from the face of the earth, told that the waters of the flood had not washed away the sins either of the living or the dead, but that an offering of life of infinite value, unto death, should be made to secure atonement for the elect in due time. The sacrifices of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, all announced the same truths, calling out, in renewed and increasing accents—death, death. The Mosaic ritual, in which the sacrifice of the clean inferior animals was brought to the highest pitch to which it was Divinely intended ever to attain, with the deepest emphasis said—death, death. Thus it was taught that judgments such as those poured out on the cities of the plain, on Egypt, and on Babylon, or even on Jerusalem itself, were not expiations for sin. Under Moses, the judges, the kings, and the rulers of the people returned from Babylon, both on the working days of the week, and on the Sabbath day, when sacrifice was offered, the cry with varying compass of tone was distinctly and impressively heard—death, death. And the sum of all these utterances was given from the tomb of Jesus; on the last Jewish Sabbath, in the inspired language. He gave up the Ghost. The Jewish Sabbath, then, had done its work, and the day, with one important end of its calling, gave way to another, the Lord’s day, which immediately succeeded, and took its place as the weekly Sabbath.

The change of the Sabbath may be inferred from the change of the priesthood. Not merely did the priesthood and the sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation cease at a given period, but that priesthood was abolished for another. And the functions of the other priest that should arise required a change also of the Sabbath. “For the priesthood being changed there is made, of necessity, a change of the law” (Heb. vii. 12). The Jews ought to accept the reasoning of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. vii., from Ps. cx., on this subject. Melchizedec, as a type of the Messiah, was the superior of Abraham, and his descendants of the tribe of Levi. He received tithes of the patriarchy and blessed him that had the promises. “And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better” (Heb. vii. 7). And the order of his priesthood was not broken through by death. “Without father, without mother, without descent; having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually” (Verse 3). The sons of Aaron, one after another, died, as well as the victims which they slaughtered, and their decease told that the great atonement by which the life of salvation was to be secured, had yet to be made by death. But He, who by his own sufferings and death was to inaugurate his priesthood, was to abide a priest for ever. “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedec” (Ps, cx. 4). “And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth” (Heb. vii. 8). “And yet it is far more evident, for that, after the similitude of Melchizedec, there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec. For there is, verily, a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh to God. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord aware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec)” (Verses 16—21). The Jewish Sabbath was the day of death; the Lord’s-day, the day of life. And as one day was appointed for the recognition of death, so another was appointed to hail the life that followed. The baptism of John, the last of the Old Testament prophets, looked forward to the coming Kingdom of Heaven as at hand. But it did not contemplate anything beyond the death of Christ. Christian baptism recognises both his death and resurrection: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. xv. 21, 22). “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead?” (Verse 29). Accordingly, upon the Lord’s-day, in holy vision, the Redeemer said to his servant John, “I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen! and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. i. 18). There was no work left for the priesthood of the sons of Aaron to perform upon the Seventh day, when the Saviour died. But on the day that He rose from the dead, his people, a spiritual priesthood, clothed in the beauties of holiness, the garments of a royal priesthood, weekly, as well as daily, are called to show forth the praises of “Him who brought them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.”

The seventh-day Sabbath was given to be kept no longer than the three annual festivals which were restricted to be kept only at the place which the Lord should choose. The passages in which this restriction is put to the offering of sacrifice and of tithes, and the keeping of the feasts of the Lord, are at least nineteen in number (from Deuteronomy xii. 5 to Joshua ix. 27). When, therefore, the tabernacle and temple service ceased, the Jewish Sabbath ceased legally with them. Though the Sabbath was lawfully observed by the Israelites in their private dwellings, the ministers of the sanctuary at Shiloh or Jerusalem represented the people when they offered Divine service on the Sabbath day. “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob.” (Ps. lxxxvii. 2.) The weekly Sabbath was one of the days of the feast of the Passover, and also of the feast of Tabernacles. And when these feasts were no longer kept according to the law, neither was the Sabbath which was bound up with them. Though the Jews do not believe it, their observance of the different feasts which they keep is not according to the law of Moses, but without Divine authority, and only in obedience to the precepts of men. And their Sabbath is annulled, though they keep it after their manner. In the dedication of the temple by Solomon, that house is contemplated as the only place where the public worship of God should be offered, and to which the prayers of the people, whether in their own land or in foreign parts, should be directed. Accordingly, Daniel prayed with his windows open in his chamber towards Jerusalem. And the captives from Babylon, by Divine counsel, built the second temple to offer such services as were observed in the first, though without certain visible signs of the Divine presence. But neither in the law of Moses, which the Jews profess to prize above all the Word of God, nor in the prophets, is their present keeping of the Sabbath or the feasts so much as recognised.

The last proof that shall be given here of the change of the Sabbath is that which is derived from the prediction of the abolition of the Covenant of Sinai, and the dispensation of the New Covenant in its stead. This is contained in Jer. xxxi. 31—34. “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Among the breaches of the Covenant of Sinai stood conspicuous Sabbath desecration (Neh. xiii. 17, 18.) And for the profanation of the weekly Sabbath, and polluting the other feast days (Ezek. xx. 12, 13, 16, 24), God said, “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts” (Hosea ii. 11). In judgment to some, and in mercy to others, the kingdom of heaven was taken from the children of Israel and given to the Gentiles, a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. The New Covenant is dispensed by the Son of God, become incarnate, and ascended on high. “But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”…“In that He saith, A New Covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. viii. 6—13). A New Covenant, with a new Sabbath, and higher exercises, was to take the place of the Old Covenant and its Sabbath and sacrifices now come to an end. With that Old Covenant, the ceremonial and judicial law given to Israel, including the moral positive institution of the seventh day as the Sabbath, disappeared, but the obligation of the moral law remained, as it will remain for ever. The promise of the New Covenant is, I will put my law in their inward part, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. The Sabbath, therefore, according to the moral positive institution thereof to be kept on the First instead of the Seventh day, is given in the New Covenant, to be observed to the end of the world. Thus an advance was made in the Divine dispensation of the Sabbath. Of the earlier believers it may therefore be said, in reference to the Christian Sabbath, as a part of the good things then to come, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb. xi. 39, 40). Only the following of the objections made by the Jews to the change of the Sabbath seems necessary to be noticed here—That the change imputes mutability to Him who is immutable. The reply to this objection obviously is that all the changes that occur in the kingdom of Divine providence are due to God’s immutable purposes. Thus day succeeds to night, and night to day, according to His will. Thus prosperity at one time, and adversity at another, is sent by Him who is of one mind, and none can turn Him. Thus He dispensed his Covenant with all flesh, to Noah, the second father of the world. Then his Covenant to Abraham, the father of the faithful. Next to the children of Israel at Sinai And we are warranted to add, next, the New Covenant, with its peculiar duties and privileges.

And a change, to be compared with a change of the Sabbath day, was made when the beginning of the year was changed from the day of the Feast of Trumpets to the first of the month in which the feast of the Passover was kept, over the period of six months. “And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, in the land of Egypt, saying. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year unto you” (Exod. xii. 1, 2). If the beginning of the year was changed from the first to the seventh month of the civil year, that emphasis might be put upon the deliverance of the people from Egypt, and their thoughts might be directed forward to the greater deliverance from Satan and sin, to be wrought by the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world; was not the Sabbath changed from the Seventh day, that spake of death, to the First day, that spake of life, when that deliverance was wrought, the Lord of Life had risen from the dead, and death was destroyed, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil?

Moreover, the objection comes with no weight from a people of whose feasts the times of the observance were subjected to incessant change. The synodic revolution of the moon, occupying twenty-nine days and a half, and a fraction of an hour more, the reckoning of thirty days to a month, agreed neither to the solar year, nor to twelve revolutions of the moon. Some system of correction, therefore, was required to cause the feasts, which were guided by the course of the moon, to fall as near as possible to constant times of the solar year. The mode of interpolation, used for ages by the Jews, serves their purpose well enough. Six months of the year are reckoned at thirty days each, and six at twenty-nine. Then to make up the deficiency of nearly thirty-three days, the month Adar, in spring, is doubled every third year, and minor corrections are applied. So that on every third year, all the feasts, beginning with that of the Passover, fall later, about a month respectively, than they do on each of the two preceding years.

And the Calendar of the Jews does not seem to have been always constructed after the tradition of the elders, but to have been subjected to variations in conformity with that of Pagan Rome. Thus, according to Jahn,[5] “The commencement of the sacred year was reckoned from the month Nisan, or the first new moon in April, because the Hebrews departed from Egypt on the fifteenth day of that month (Exod. xii. 2). The prophets use this reckoning. The civil year, which was the more ancient, was used only in civil and agricultural concerns. The Jewish Rabbins say, that March and September, instead of April and October, were the initial months of these two years. That they were so at a late period is admitted, but the change was probably owing to the example of the Romans, who began their year with the month of March. The Jews being pleased with their example in this respect, or overruled by their authority, adopted the same practice. That this is the most probable statement, is evident also from the fact, that the position of the Rabbins is opposed not only by Josephus, but by the usage of the Syriac and Arabic languages; from the fact also, that the prescribed observances of the three great festival days will not agree with the months of March and September, as has been shown by Michaelis, in his ‘Commentary on the Months of the Hebrews.”’

On matters of this kind, it may be added, the agreement or disagreement of the Rabbins is alike of small moment, of which an illustration may be given from the “Treatise on New-Year’s Day,” in the Talmud, where one argues that the world was created at the commencement of the civil year, and another that it was created at that of the ecclesiastical.

Finally, in reference to the objection under our review, it may be stated that instead of two New Year’s days in one year, the Jews had four. The opening paragraph of the Mishnah, upon Rosh, Hashshanah, “New Year’s Day,” may be rendered thus: “The beginnings of the years are these: The first day of Nisan (March or April), was the beginning of the year for kings and for festivals; the first of Elul (August or September), was the beginning of the year for the tithing of cattle; the first of Tishri (September or October), was the beginning of the years for release, and for jubilees, and for the planting of trees and herbs; and the first of Shebet (January or February), was that for the tithing of fruit trees.” It would hence appear that the objection of the Jews to the change of the Sabbath is more than answered, in a high degree by the changes of times to which they themselves have deliberately submitted, leaving the whole weight of the positive evidence for the change of the Sabbath undiminished.

THE SABBATH.

[From the London Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Magazine, October, 1866, pages 101-110.]

IV.

The Sabbath was continued from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, by Divine authority, as the Lord’s day; or, The first day of the week, ever since the resurrection of Christ, God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath, to continue to the end of the world as the Lord’s day.

As the first day of man’s existence, after his creation, was the Sabbath, so the first day of the new dispensation, which brought together elect Jews and Gentiles, both created in Christ Jesus unto good works, was the Sabbath, the Lord’s day. On that day the Lord of Glory rose from the dead, and secured the acceptance of His people, and their eternal salvation. “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Rom. iv. 25.) “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Rom. v. 10.) “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Rom. viii 10, 11.) “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” (Rom. vii. 4.) “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. ii. 20.) “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. xv. 20—23.) And, accordingly, in token that all the dead in Christ should be raised at the last day, many bodies of the saints arose after His resurrection, thus giving a visible proof that the salvation of God’s people, which is begun in regeneration, is completed at the resurrection. “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (Matt xxvii. 52, 63.)

Further, as man in a state of innocence, bearing the moral image of God, held communion with the Lord God on the first Sabbath of time, so men redeemed held communion with the Lord of Life on the first Christian Sabbath, and every such Sabbath that succeeded, proving that the latter Sabbath was put by the Eternal in the room of the other. The record of the Lord’s appearance to the two that were going to Emmaus, and also to the eleven at Jerusalem, and them that were with them (Luke xxiv. 13—49; John xx. 19—23), affords a direct proof of the former of these statements; and the evidence of the latter is clear from various passages. On the evening of the second Christian Sabbath the Lord. Jesus stood in the midst of His disciples, and said, “Peace be unto you … blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John xx. 26, 29.) The great Commission (Matt. xxviii. 18—20) includes the law of the Christian Sabbath: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” In the course of fulfilling his part in that commission the apostle Paul gave order to the Church at Corinth and to the Churches of Galatia to make collection for the saints. (1 Cor. xvi. 2 ; Gal. ii. 10.) But it was upon the first day of the week that the former were ordered every one of them to lay by him in store, and whence we conclude the latter also on the same day. But it must have been according to order, and not of themselves, that they made collection on that day. The day was not a feast-day among the heathen, nor was it kept as a Sabbath by the Jews. And it must have been kept by people who had to employ themselves to gain a livelihood, at a disadvantage for the time being, to which they would submit only from a sense of duty to obey a Divine command. There is reason to believe accordingly that the first Christians everywhere met for public or private worship on the Lord’s day, by His authority. From Acts xx. 6, 7, we read, “And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” The purpose for which the people came together was no doubt to engage in worship, as well as to eat bread together. For it is said of the people that received the word on the day of Pentecost, “They continued stedfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts ii. 42.) At Troas, on the Lord’s-day mentioned, the people were favoured with the public ordinances. And without any reasonable doubt the Apostles and Evangelists were occupied every Lord’s-day in their various spheres of labour, as Paul and his companions were at this place. Moreover, the apostle John testifies, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s-day.” (Rev. i. 10.) He enjoyed, therefore, the fulfilment of the promise of the Comforter, made in John xvi. 7; and saw a vision of the exalted Redeemer, who had reappeared to His disciples on the evening of the first day on two occasions at Jerusalem. Jesus was glorified, and the Holy Spirit Was given. Neither at Jerusalem nor yet at Mount Gerizim were men to worship the Father. Wherever two or three are gathered together in His name there is the Redeemer in the midst of them. And by the influences of His Spirit they who worship Him do worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Redeemer, by the miraculous manifestation of Himself to His servant, and the Divine Spirit by His all-embracing influence, set the seal of Divine Authority to the keeping holy to God, as the weekly Sabbath of rest, the Lord’s-day.

As the evening went before the morning of each of the first six days of time, and the Jewish Sabbath immediately preceded the Christian, so the earlier dispensations of Divine grace were but as the night of the Church’s existence before the dawn of the gospel day. That day dawned with the resurrection of Christ. Then the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing under His wings. Then the Church herself was to arise and Shine, for the glory of the Lord had arisen upon her. The Divine command was tendered, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph. v. 14.) Life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel. These issue from Christ. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. iv. 6.) On the Lord’s day the Redeemer ceased from His works as God did from His. (Heb. iv. 10.) On that day, on which His people also rest, He receives them graciously, is pleased to cause His face to shine upon them, and give them peace. He gives them the bread of life and the water of life, and they eat and drink before Him. Their eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off—the heavenly rest. (Is. xxxiii. 17.) The miracle of the manna was wrought to enforce the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath. And first the manna, and long afterwards that Sabbath was withdrawn. But the greater miracles of the advent and resurrection of Christ—the bread of life—were wrought that the “Lord’s day” the Sabbath of the gospel times, might be enjoyed. It was not necessary to promulgate the Christian Sabbath in the express terms of a new statute. This had been done before at Sinai, in the words “Remember,” not the seventh, but the “Sabbath day,”—namely, the Sabbath to be kept for ages on the seventh, and afterwards on the first day. None of the ten commandments were so repromulgated by the Redeemer. In His teaching He assumed their obligation. (Mat. xxii. 87—40.) Love to God includes the duties of the first table of the law, and love to man those of the second. When He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John xiii. 34), He enforced the observance of the latter by His own high example. The keeping of a Sabbath was a duty binding in all time. The periods of observing it were fixed by Divine sovereignty. The way, too, in which the Lord’s day was introduced, was that which seemed best to infinite wisdom. As God commended His law which was given from Sinai, as from Him, by deeds as well as by His word, so in His holy providence He brought in the New Testament times by miracles as well as by His teaching, and taught His people their duty by facts as well as by express statements. When so much evidence appears for the Christian Sabbath as from God, and when it is remembered that the law of the ten commandments was given in that dispensation which stood between the patriarchal and the gospel times, and that the Sabbath of the seventh day was observed in the former without a written precept, it seems to be asking more than God saw to be needful, to demand an explicit precept for the Lord’s day.

The change of the Sabbath day may be viewed as predicted in the words of the prophet Daniel:—“Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His : and He changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.” (Ch. ii. 20—22). The prerogative of God to change times and seasons, to remove some kings and set up others, to give wisdom, and to make revelations of deep and secret things is here affirmed. And His omniscience is celebrated. The dispensations of the Eternal here described were connected with each other. The change of the rulers of Israel, the change of the rulers of the four great empires, the change of the times and seasons of worship, the gift of wisdom, the revelation of mysteries, by Him who knoweth what is in the darkness, and with whom the light dwells, are all the doing of Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. If therefore, all these changes have taken place, with what propriety can it be affirmed, by such as take the word of God for the rule of their faith and practice, that these changes were not effected by His power and will? The Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires, have flourished, and perished; the last remains of the last of them alone existing. The Jewish worship at Jerusalem has been for ages abolished. The light of the Gospel has illuminated the world to an extent which even adversaries cannot deny. And the “Lord’s day” has been observed for ages as the weekly Sabbath, furnishing the most signal change of times recorded in history. If these things, so clearly fulfilling this prophecy, are not the doing of the Lord, what things are to be accounted as his operation? And among these, the “Lord’s day,” if not from Him, whence does it come? The Christian Sabbath seems to have been predicted also in the following passage from Ps. cxviii. 19—27:—“Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee; for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected, is become the head stone of the comer. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” Of this passage, the Divine Redeemer applies verses 22, 23, to Himself, in Matt. xxi. 42. “Jesus saith to them, did ye never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the comer; this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Thus also the apostles Peter and Paul apply the passage. (Acts iv. 11; Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 4—7.) From this prediction and its application to Himself by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jews and all others should learn that His humiliation and exaltation were miraculous, for that is the meaning of marvellous in the words quoted.

When the Psalmist said, “This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it,” he was guided by the Holy Spirit to write of the “Lord’s day” in New Testament times. This was the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. And on the evening of that very day was the gladness foretold felt by the disciples: “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.” (John xx. 19, 20). And on that very occasion the Redeemer made manifest His Mediatorial power and authority by bestowing His commission and the gift of His Holy Spirit, under whose Divine influence one of these apostles was, on the “Lord’s day,” many years thence. (Rev. i. 10). “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (John xx. 21, 22.) Mother proof of the application of the words quoted from Ps. cxviii. to the Lord Jesus Christ is found in the plaudits of the people, old and young, presented to Him when He rode in triumph into Jerusalem, and His acceptance thereof. “The multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matt, xxi 9.). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David! they were sore displeased, and said unto Him, hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea, have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (verses 15, 16). “And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke xix. 37—40).

Though the superscription of Ps. cxviii. does not name the prophet by whom it was written, and therefore we cannot say positively that it was composed by David; notwithstanding that, as some have well thought, “it largely partakes of David’s spirit, and was probably composed by” him “after Nathan’s prophetic address; and was sung by alternate choirs at some public festival;” yet manifestly the inspired writer was a type of the Divine Redeemer, who was assailed by the most numerous and bitter enemies, over all of whom he triumphed gloriously. The “day” which he celebrates as that which “the Lord hath made,” was, as observed by him and the people of Israel, either a Sabbath-day of one of the festivals, or the weekly Sabbath. Such a day as that on which the ark of the Lord was brought up from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness (2 Sam, vi. 12), or some feast day kept afterwards in commemoration of the events or of succeeding victories. (2 Sam. vii. viii) It was the day of the inauguration of a stable kingdom. Typically it represented the day of Messiah’s triumph over all His enemies, the day of His resurrection from the day, the first day of the glorious period termed the “latter days” (Is. ii. 2; Micah iv. 1; Joel ii. 28, 29; Acts ii. 17;) and the first of a succession of weekly Sabbath is to the end of the world.

There is emphasis laid upon this day, as the day which the Lord hath “made” in preference to every other day. This is not affirmed even of the seventh day as the Sabbath, any where in the law; probably, because the seventh day as the Sabbath was to give way to the first. The Redeemer states, in reference both to the Jewish Sabbath, which He was about to annul, and the Christian Sabbath which He was about to consecrate, the end for which the Sabbath was “made.” “And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” (Mark ii. 27, 28.)

And, finally, the Psalmist says, “God is the Lord, which hath showed us light.”' (Verse 27.) The Redeemer claims this prerogative, saying, “I am the light of the world.” (John viii. 12.) The natural light was created on the first day of time. God is light, and with Him is no darkness at all. And on the first day of the last times, the light of the arisen Saviour was to arise, in fulfilment besides of another prophecy, I will “give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” (Is. xlii 6.)

The “Lord’s day” belongs to a system which is set forth, in prophecy, in various ways, as new.

This system, which is the Gospel dispensation, belongs to the era of a new heavens and a new earth. In Isaiah lxv., where one of the passages, occurs in which the promise of this era is made, the calling of the Gentiles, verse 1, being foretold, the future state is not described, but a state of the Church, which, though at the highest on earth, in millennial times, was inaugurated when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended on high, no more to return to dwell on earth, but to come to judgment. In Isaiah lxvi. 20—23, this promise is repeated, and connected with the Sabbath. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” But the calling of the Gentiles is in this chapter especially foretold. It is reasonable, nay, absolutely necessary, to conclude from the passage, that the Sabbath, in the times of the Gentiles, should accord to the new heavens and the new earth, and should therefore be observed as belonging to a new system of things. The new moon and the Jewish Sabbath both belonged to the former heavens and earth, of which it is said they “shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Isa. lxv. 17.) As it cannot be meant by verses 19, 20, of chapter lxvi., that the Gentiles should come up to the earthly Jerusalem to worship, so neither can the Jewish new moon nor the Jewish Sabbath be meant here. The Jews themselves hold that the ceremonial law was not intended for the Gentiles, although one of their learned men, Maimonides, vainly suggested the hope that the Jews would bring back the Gentiles to the worship of the One God.

The new moon and the Sabbath, therefore, of the new heavens and the new earth, are different from the former, and denote seasons of grace belonging to the Gospel times. Conspicuous among these is the “Lord’s day.” And by the observance of this day as holy to the Lord, God, in His holy providence, has pointed out, as with His own finger, the Sabbath which the prophet had foretold.

Again, the Gospel dispensation is the dispensation of the New Covenant. (Heb. viii.) Now this was foretold to be made in the days to come, corresponding to the “latter days,” which the Jews express by the “time to come,” the times of Messiah. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. xxxi. 31—33.) Among the breaches of the covenant of Sinai is ranked the desecration of the Sabbath. “Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths.” (Ezek. xxii. 8.). Wherefore the Sabbath, with other institutions of the old covenant, was taken from them. But a new covenant is promised in days to come, among which days, thereby also promised, is to be considered as included the chief of days, devoted to the worship of God, the weekly recurring “Lord’s day.”

Further, the gospel dispensation was provided for a new people. “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Ps. cii. 16—18.) The people here promised were converted Jews and Gentiles. “Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.” (Rom. ix. 24—26.) These are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Thus it is also said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. v. 17.) Not merely is the old leaven east out from them, and they become a new lump, depravity being subdued, and grace made to reign in its stead; but the benefits of a new dispensation are bestowed upon them. A new heart is given to them, and a new spirit put within them. They are called to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Eph. iv. 24.) They have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil—that is to say, his flesh.” (Heb. x. 19, 20.) And there is given to them a new name.

And the work to which this people is devoted is to praise. “And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Verse 18.) To Israel was given Psalm xcii.—a psalm, a song, for the Sabbath-day. This is not withdrawn any more than the rest of the psalms, from the use of God’s people of all nations; but they are privileged to sing not merely the song of Moses, but also that of the Lamb.

On the “Lord’s day,” therefore, they are called to praise. As man in innocence was called to praise God on the very first day after he was brought into existence, so God’s people, in the gospel times, are called to praise Him on that day on which the light at first arose on them. The Lord’s day celebrates the rising of the Sun of Righteousness upon a new race brought to life by His beams, and the work of creation wrought by the Holy Spirit of God. Without the Christian Sabbath a blank would be left in the arrangements made for the Christian Church, which nothing else would fill. No such blank, however, has been left by Him who doeth all things in sovereignty, and doeth all things well. He withdrew the Sabbath kept by the Jews, and put that of Christians in its stead, God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Heb. xi. 40.)

The title given in the Hew Testament, by Divine inspiration, to the Christian Sabbath is a proof of its institution by the glorious Redeemer. The apostle John says (Rev. i. 10), “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” The adjective κυριακός, ή, όν, “pertaining to the Lord,” or “the Lord’s,” is applied, by inspiration also, to the sacrament which the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the same night in which He was betrayed, in the words “the Lord’s supper.” (1 Cor. xi. 20.) If the said title, therefore, describes this sacrament as instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, as it does, no less does it indicate the first day of the week to be instituted by Him as His day, the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord.

What the precise day meant is the practice of the Christian Church puts beyond a doubt. So that as from the history of the Jews there can be answered every question that might be raised as to the day of the week on which the Jewish Sabbath fell, so from that of the worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ we learn beyond all dispute that the first day of the week is the Lord’s day.

Between the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s day there is an agreement in some things, and a difference in others, both of which, however, are traced to their common Divine origin.

They agreed in superseding directly older institutions, and being ordained in their stead. The Lord’s supper succeeded to the passover, and made it void, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. v. 7.) The Lord’s day succeeded to the Jewish Sabbath, and made it void, along with its sacrifices; for “Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more” (Rom. vi. 9.)

The passover and the Jewish Sabbath belonged both to the Old Covenant; the Lord’s Supper belongs to the New Covenant, as the Redeemer said, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” (1 Cor. xi. 25); and so, according to these very words, also does the Lord’s day pertain to the New Covenant times.

The Lord Jesus Christ held communion with His disciples at the institution of the Lord’s Supper. And He held communion with His people on the first Lord’s day and the second, as revealed: “And as they went to tell His disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid; go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.” (Matt, xxviii. 9, 10.) On the first day He appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to the two disciples that journeyed to Emmaus, and to the eleven as they sat at meal He appeared also to Peter, according to the testimony: “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.” (Luke xxiv. 34). And on the evening of the next Lord’s day He appeared to all His disciples. “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.” (John xx. 26.)

The Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s day differed in other things. The one was a religious service, the other a holy season; but both were appointed by the same Lord. Concerning the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine, the Lord said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” without limiting the observance to stated times. In the course of His holy providence, in the lapse of time, the Christian Sabbath came weekly round, and He fixed His own mark and seal upon it as the Lord’s day, gave countenance to the keeping of it, and thus stamped upon it His authority.






[1] The Daily Review, Friday, November 17, 1865, p. 3, col. 6.

[2] The Daily Review, Nov. 17, 1865, p. 3, col. 4.

[3] The Daily Review, Nov. 28, 1865, p. 2, col. 4.

[4] Standard, Dec. 28, 1865.

[5] Biblical Archaeology.

tags John Cunningham