Earlier text: General ArticlesThoughts on Daniel—Chapter XI.
By Elder U. Smith
VERSE 17. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do; and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her; but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. BISHOP NEWTON furnishes another reading for the verse, which seems to express more clearly the sense, as follows: "He shall also set his face to enter by force the whole kingdom." Verse 16 brought us down to the conquest of Syria and Judea, by the Romans. Rome had previously conquered Macedon and Thrace. Egypt was now all that remained of the "whole kingdom" of Alexander, not brought into subjection to the Roman power, which power now set its face to enter by force into that country. Ptolemy Auletes died B. C. 51. He left the crown and kingdom of Egypt to his eldest son and daughter, Ptolemy and Cleopatra. It was provided in his will that they should marry together and reign jointly; and because they were young, they were placed under the guardianship of the Romans. The Roman people accepted the charge, and appointed Pompey as guardian of the young heirs of Egypt. A quarrel having not long after broken out between Pompey and Cæsar, the famous battle of Pharsalia was fought between the two generals. Pompey, being defeated, fled into Egypt. Cæsar immediately followed him thither; but before his arrival, Pompey was basely murdered by Ptolemy, whose guardian he had been appointed. Cæsar therefore assumed the appointment which had been given to Pompey, as guardian of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. He found Egypt in commotion from intestine disturbances, Ptolemy and Cleopatra having become hostile to each other, and she being deprived of her share in the government. Notwithstanding this, he did not hesitate to land at Alexandria with his small force, 800 horse and 3,200 foot, take cognizance of the quarrel, and undertake its settlement. The troubles daily increasing, Cæsar found his small force to be insufficient to maintain his position, and being unable to leave Egypt on account of the north wind which blew at that season, he sent into Asia, ordering all the troops he had in that quarter to come to his assistance as soon as possible. In the most haughty manner he decreed that Ptolemy and Cleopatra should disband their armies, appear before him for a settlement of their differences, and abide by his decision. Egypt being an independent kingdom, this haughty decree was considered an affront to its royal dignity, at which the Egyptians, highly incensed, flew to arms. Cæsar replied that he acted by virtue of the will of their father Auletes, who had put his children under the guardianship of the senate and people of Rome, the whole authority of which was now vested in his person as consul; and that, as guardian, he had the right to arbitrate between them. The matter was finally brought before him, and advocates appointed to plead the cause of the respective parties. Cleopatra, aware of the foible of the great Roman conqueror, judged that the beauty of her presence would be more effectual in securing judgment in her favor than any advocate she could employ. To reach his presence undetected, she had recourse to the following strategem: Laying herself at full length in a bundle of clothes, Apollodorus, her Sicilian servant, wrapped it up in a cloth, tied it with a thong, and raising it upon his Herculean shoulders, sought the apartments of Cæsar. Claiming to have a present for the Roman general, he was admitted through the gate of the citadel, entered into the presence of Cæsar, and deposited the burden at his feet. Undoing the bundle, the beautiful Cleopatra stood before him. Cæsar was far from being displeased with the strategem, and, being of a character described in 2 Pet. 2:14, the first sight of so beautiful a person, says Rollin, had all the effect upon him she had desired. Cæsar at length decreed that the brother and sister should occupy the throne jointly, according to the intent of the will. Pothinus, the chief minister of State, having been principally instrumental in expelling Cleopatra from the throne, feared the result of her restoration. He therefore began to excite jealousy and hostility against Cæsar, by insinuating among the populace that he designed eventually to give Cleopatra the sole power. Open sedition soon followed. Achillas, at the head of 20,000 men, advanced to drive Cæsar from Alexandria. Skillfully disposing his small body of men in the streets and alleys of the city, Cæsar found no difficulty in repelling the attack. The Egyptians undertook to destroy his fleet. He retorted by burning theirs. Some of the burning vessels being driven near the quay, several of the buildings of the city took fire, and the famous Alexandrian library, containing nearly 400,000 volumes, was destroyed. The war growing more threatening, Cæsar sent into all the neighboring countries for help. A large fleet came from Asia Minor to his assistance. Mithridates set out for Egypt with an army raised in Syria and Cilicia. Antipater, the Idumean, joined him with 3000 Jews. The Jews, who held the passes into Egypt, permitted the army to pass on without interruption. Without this, the whole plan must have failed. The arrival of this army decided the contest. A decisive battle was fought near the Nile, resulting in a complete victory for Cæsar. Ptolemy attempting to escape, was drowned in the river. Alexandria and all Egypt then submitted to the victor. Rome had now entered into, and absorbed, the whole of the original kingdom of Alexander. By the "upright ones" of the text, are doubtless meant the Jews, who gave him the assistance already mentioned. Without this, he must have failed; with it, he completely subdued Egypt to his power, B. C. 47. "The daughter of women, corrupting her." The passion which Cæsar had conceived for Cleopatra, by whom he had one son, is assigned by the historian as the sole reason of his undertaking so dangerous a campaign as the Egyptian war. This kept him much longer in Egypt than his affairs required, he spending whole nights in feasting and carousing with the dissolute queen. But, said the prophet, she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. Cleopatra afterward joined herself to Antony, the enemy of Augustus Cæsar, and exerted her whole power against Rome. VERSE 18. After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him. War with Pharnaces, king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, at length drew him away from Egypt. "On his arrival where the enemy was," says Prideaux, "he, without giving any respite either to himself or them, immediately fell on, and gained an absolute victory over them; an account whereof he wrote to a friend of his in these three words: Veni, vidi, vici, I came, I saw, I conquered." The latter part of this verse is involved in some obscurity, and there is difference of opinion in regard to its application. Some apply it farther back in Cæsar's life, and think they find a fulfillment in his quarrel with Pompey. But we think that preceding and subsequent events, clearly defined in the prophecy, compel us to look for the fulfillment of this part of the prediction between the victory over Pharnaces, and Cæsar's death at Rome as brought to view in the following verse. A more full history of this period might bring to view events which would render the application of this passage unembarrassed. VERSE 19. Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found. After this conquest, Cæsar defeated the last remaining fragments of Pompey's party, Cato and Scipio in Africa, and Sabienus and Varus in Spain. Returning to Rome, the "fort of his own land," he was made perpetual dictator; and such other powers and honors were granted him, as rendered him, in fact, absolute sovereign of the whole empire. But the prophet had said that he should stumble and fall. The language implies that his overthrow would be sudden and unexpected, like a person accidentally stumbling in his walk. And so this man, who had fought and won five hundred battles, taken one thousand cities, and slain one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men, fell, not in the din of battle and the hour of strife, but when he thought his pathway was smooth and strewn with flowers, and when danger was supposed to be far away; for, taking his seat in the senate chamber, upon his throne of gold, to receive at the hands of that body the title of king, the dagger of treachery suddenly struck him to the heart. Cassius, Brutus, and other conspirators, rushed upon him, and he fell, pierced with twenty-three wounds. Thus he suddenly stumbled and fell, and was not found, B. C. 44. VERSE 20. Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. Augustus Cæsar succeeded his uncle Julius, by whom he had been adopted as his successor. Being in a distant province engaged in the study of rhetoric and eloquence, when he heard of his uncle's tragical death, he displayed marked ability in returning to Rome, placing himself at the head of the army, and establishing himself the successor to Julius, according to his design. He publicly announced his adoption by his uncle, and took his name, to which he added that of Octavianus. Combining with Mark Antony and Lebidus, to avenge the death of Cæsar, they formed what is called the Triumvirate form of government. Having subsequently firmly established himself in the empire, the senate conferred upon him the title of Augustus, and the other members of the Triumvirate being now dead, he became supreme ruler. He was emphatically a raiser of taxes. Luke, in speaking of the events that transpired at the time when Christ was born, says: "And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." Luke 2:1. That taxing which embraced all the world was an event worthy of notice; and the person who enforced it has certainly a claim to the title of "a raiser of taxes," above every other competitor. And he stood up in the glory of his kingdom. Rome stood in his days at the pinnacle of its greatness and power. The "Augustan Age" is an expression everywhere used to denote the golden age of Roman history. Rome never saw a brighter hour. Peace was promoted, justice maintained, luxury curbed, discipline established, and learning encouraged. In his reign, the temple of Janus was for the third time shut, since the foundation of Rome, signifying that all the world was at peace; and at this auspicious hour, our Lord was born in Bethlehem of Judea. In a little less than eighteen years after the taxing brought to view, seeming but a "few days" to the distant gaze of the prophet, Augustus died, not in anger nor in battle, but peacefully in his bed, at Nola, whither he had gone to seek repose and health, A. D. 14, in the 76th year of his age. Trusting God for Deliverance
If we believingly refer our cases to God, he will kindly undertake and work our deliverance. Faith in God Amid False Accusations
WE are apt to care more about what is said of us than what God knows about us. But a proper faith in God drives away all fear of man, and blessed is he who can hide in God from persecution, and upon whom false accusations fall harmless. We dare not for the sake of Christ, whose we are, rest under charges of wrong-doing on our part; but having disproved them we may need to bear till the truth vindicates us in God's own time. Be right and then have faith in God.—Sel. GREAT temptations are not the most dangerous to Christian people. We are not likely at once to deny the Lord or to commit flagrant violations of law. There is more danger of yielding here a little and there a little from the right. One does not become a Sabbath-breaker or profane, because any one great temptation is too strong for him, but by a gradual process. He does not become cold in his service through any sudden chill, but by first neglecting one duty and then another. The disciples slept during Christ's agony before they forsook him and fled. Peter followed afar off before he denied him. Those who would serve faithfully must avoid the beginning of evil. The same thing is true of churches. They do not become cold and negligent, or formal, or loose in doctrine or practice, by any sudden transition. On the contrary, the change is usually unnoticed, save by those who recollect the past, and put it side by side with the present. They remember how the prayer-meeting was first neglected, and then the night service; how family worship became less common, and the Sabbath-school less interesting; how the young people drifted away; how infidel ideas crept in. Christian people, and especially those who, as officers in the church, have accepted a special responsibility, need to watch the beginnings of evil.—Journal and Messenger. THE JEWS DECIDE TO KILL JESUS.
THE results of the resurrection of Lazarus were momentous to Jesus himself. Many of the party of the Rabbis who had come to comfort the sisters, found themselves constrained to believe in one whose claims were attested by an act so transcendent, and so indisputable. But some justified all that Jesus had said of their malignity by not only shutting their eyes to what they were determined not to admit, but by playing the informer to the ecclesiastical authorities. The great ecclesiastical court of the nation, known in the Talmud as the "Sanhedrim," had been in abeyance for many years, for there is no trace of it during the whole period of the Herods, or of the Romans. The name, indeed, occurs in the New Testament, but it is simply as the Greek word for "an assembly," which was adopted by the Rabbis, at a later period. Herod had broken up the great Rabbinical council, and henceforth, the only authorities recognized as the fountains of Jewish Law were the schools of such Rabbis as Hillel and Schammai. There was no such a thing as a legal Jewish court, which had power to enforce its decisions. The authority granted to the leading schools was only a tribute of confidence in their soundness and wisdom. Hence, in the days of Christ, there was no legal Jewish court in existence, and the criminal processes mentioned in connection with him, were only acts of assemblies which the high priest for the time, the only representative of the old theocracy recognized by the supreme Roman authority, called together in angry haste, informally, and which acted by no judicial rules of procedure. Such an illegal gathering was summoned by the Sadducean chief priests and the leading Pharisaic Rabbis, to discuss what should be done respecting Jesus, now that the incontestable fact of the resurrection of Lazarus had crowned all his preceding miracles. Having no idea of a Messiah apart from political revolution, to be inaugurated by him, it seemed likely that, if something were not done to put him out of the way, the excitement of the people, through his miracles, would become irresistible, and lead to a national rising, fiercer even than that of Judas the Galilæan. To the popular party, represented by the Pharisees present, this would be no undesirable issue; but the courtly Sadducees shrank from any disturbance, fearing that, in the end, the Romans would crush it with their legions, and as a punishment, abolish the hierarchical constitution, which gave them their wealth and position; and, with it, the ecclesiastical and civil laws which flattered the nation with an illusory independence. The temple, and all the far-reaching vested interest bound up with it, had long existed only on tolerance; and would at once perish in the storm of a national insurrection; and the nation, stripped of its local laws, so vital to a theocracy, would be secularized into a part of Rome, with the hated imperial heathen law, instead of the laws of God and the Rabbis. The acting high priest at this time was Joseph Caiaphas. He had been appointed by the procurator, Valerius Gratus, shortly before the governor left the province, in A. D. 25—when Jesus was about 20 years of age; and he continued to hold his office till the year A. D. 36, when he was removed by the proconsul, Vitellius, shortly after the recall of Pilate. He was, in every way, a creature of the Romans, and, as such, received little respect from the nation, though his dignity secured him official authority. Rising in the meeting, which had been hitherto very divided and irresolute as to the wisest course to be taken, Caiaphas begged to give his opinion:— "You know nothing at all," said he, "else you would not have so much questioning and discussing. You have not considered that it is expedient for you, in view of your interests as priests and Rabbis, that this one man should die, to save Israel, as such, from the destruction that threatens it, if you let him stir up a Messianic revolt; for, in that case, the whole nation must perish. The Romans will come with their legions and close our temple, annul our independence by abolishing our laws, and waste us with fire and sword." There could be no misconception of words so plain. They were a distinct advice to those present to put Jesus to death, as the one way to save themselves, and maintain things as they were in church and state. Words so momentous, for they decided the fate of Jesus, might well seem to St. John no mere human utterance, but the involuntary expression through unworthy lips, of the near approach of the supreme act in the divine plan of mercy to mankind. From that day the death of Jesus was only a question of time and opportunity. Henceforth, the Jewish primate and his suffragans kept steadily in view—in concert with their hereditary and deadly enemies, the Rabbis—the arrest of Jesus, and his subsequent death. Their officers, or any one hostile to him, might apprehend him at any moment. It was clearly no longer possible for him to show himself openly, and he therefore retired with his disciples to a city called Ephraim, now difficult of identification. It seems to have been in the wild uncultivated hill-country, northeast of Jerusalem, between the central towns and the Jordan valley. A village now known as El Taiyibeh, on a conical hill, commanding a view of the whole eastern slope of the country, the valley of the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, though only sixteen miles from Jerusalem, has been thought by Dr. Robinson the site. It answers at least in its secluded privacy, and the ready access it offers to the still wilder regions beyond.—Geikie. Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year.—By the law of Moses, Ex. 40:15, the office of high priest was for life, and the son of Aaron's race always succeeded his father. But at this time the high priesthood was almost annual: the Romans and Herod put down and raised up whom they pleased, and when they pleased, without attending to any other rule than merely that the person put in this office should be of the sacerdotal race. According to Josephus, Ant. xviii. c. 3, the proper name of this person was Joseph, and Caiaphas was his surname. He possessed the high priesthood for eight or nine years, and was deposed by Vitellius, governor of Judea.—Clarke. Unprofitable Servants.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
A VERY important lesson is conveyed by our Lord's illustration in Luke 17: 7-10. It is not among Catholics alone that it is considered possible to perform works of supererogation. There are very many, who, by their actions at least, hold that they can place God under obligations to them. Love of approbation, and the overvaluing of one's own deeds, are so universal that there are very few who do not at times have some traces of that disposition. With some the idea obtains that God keeps a debit and credit account, charging each individual with his evil deeds, and giving him credit for all his good deeds, and that if the good over-balance the evil, then God owes him a reward. With this idea, more or less clearly defined, most worldlings flatter themselves that their case will be all right at the last. Many professors often imagine God is under some obligation to them, and they manifest it in various ways. If they have given somewhat liberally to the cause of God, and have not been prospered as they think they should be, they withhold their gifts. They do not propose to work for the Lord unless they can receive at once large returns on the investment. Others find it difficult, when times are hard, to make as good a living for their families as they desire, and so they say, "We cannot afford to keep the Sabbath." As much as to say, "If God does not furnish me with everything I want he need not expect my services." Still others look for their reward in appreciation of their work by their brethren. If their efforts are not estimated at their true value, they become discouraged, and refuse to work when they are not appreciated. The disciples probably had some ideas of this kind in their minds when they said, "Increase our faith." They doubtless desired an increase of faith that they might rise in the estimation of their fellow-men, on account of the miracles which it would enable them to perform. Now against all feeling of this kind, our Lord utters a rebuke. Summing up the case, he says: "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.'" The truth is that the obligation is all on the side of man. The fact that God created us and preserves us alive, places man under obligation to give his whole service to God. Jeremiah says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." Every moment of man's life places him under greater obligation to God than he can ever hope to fulfill. And as this mercy is extended to all, it is not alone the professed Christian who owes service to God. Sinners are under as much obligation to God as though they had made a profession to serve him. But if we repent and obey the commandments of God in every particular, how does the case stand then? We are still unprofitable servants. God is none the richer for our service. There is a vast amount of sin that we have committed in the past, and as we can do no more than our duty from day to day, we are still largely in debt. Were it not that Christ has been set forth "for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God," the best of men would fail to obtain Heaven. And so after all that has been done, eternal life must be "the gift of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord." A proper appreciation of this would serve to keep us humble, and prevent many mistakes made on account of our self-sufficiency. Let us be careful lest we become lifted up because of the faith that we have, and so lose the grace of God, which is promised to the humble. The more real faith we have in Christ, the more will we acknowledge our entire dependence on him, and our own utter weakness. Let us heed these words of the apostle: "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith." Rom. 12: 3. E. J. W. OXFORD S. S. TEACHERS' BIBLES.
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Address PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal A CONTRAST OF TRUE AND FALSE THEORIES.
THIS is a pamphlet of only 84 pages, but its value is not to be judged by its size. It is just what its title indicates: a faithful presentation of Bible truth on this important subject, and an exposure of the false theories prevailing in regard to it. Every believer in Bible truth should read it. Buy it, read it, and lend it to your neighbor. Price 10 cts. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal. THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR.
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Or SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal. The Seventh Day of the Week Not a Jewish Sabbath
It is customary with Protestant churches to call the seventh day of the week “the Jewish Sabbath.” They do not consider the injury that they are doing to the fundamental and most important truths of God’s word by their course in this matter. It leads, 1st, to entire disregard of the fourth commandment of the decalogue. And, 2ndly, to a depreciation of the whole decalogue. It is a fact, and very unfortunate for the morals and manners of the Christians of this age, that there is a constantly growing contempt for the fourth commandment in the churches, even in those who would repel the slightest intimation that they are antinomians. The Methodist church was founded upon opposition to antinomianism. But to-day we find Methodist authors, in their opposition to the Seventh-day Sabbath, taking positions which are calculated to destroy the authority of the fourth commandment. James says of the commandments, that he who offends in one is guilty of all. The law is a unit; one precept cannot be cast aside and the remainder be retained in their purity and honored in the life. And thus we find that with this growing contempt for the fourth commandment, there is a corresponding disregard for the whole law of ten commandments. Ministers, pretending to great insight in the mysteries of godliness, and to great spirituality of mind, rise up and boldly proclaim that the decalogue is an old abrogated law, altogether unsuited to the spirit and liberty of the gospel age. Such a course must of necessity bear a fruit which can be pleasing only to the enemy of righteousness. In 1872 the editor of the SIGNS was challenged to a written discussion on the subject of the Sabbath by a Disciple preacher of high standing in his denomination. On the nature of the Seventh-day Sabbath we then wrote the following remarks, which we still believe to be conclusive as proving its morality, and its entire separation from all Jewish or typical institutions:— The seventh-day Sabbath stands apart from all the other sabbaths, which were afterward ordained, in respect to its title; the reason of its institution; and the nature of the obligation to observe it. And 1st. Its title. In any and all of the yearly sabbaths, such as were peculiar to the Jewish system, there is no rest of the Lord from any work given as their basis; and therefore they are not the sabbaths of the Lord as is the seventh day, his Sabbath, or rest day. We find this distinction recognized in the Scriptures, as in Lev. 23. The yearly sabbaths are enumerated and enforced, “beside the Sabbaths of the Lord,” verse 38. As all the other sabbaths were local and contingent, limited to that dispensation, to Israel, it was said in prophecy, “I will cause all her sabbaths to cease.” Hos. 2:11. 2ndly. The reason of its institution. We take the first sabbath given to Israel as peculiar to their dispensation; the fifteenth and twenty-first days of the first month, connected with the feast of the Passover. These, as each of the other sabbaths peculiar to their system, were (1) to commemorate an event in their experience; (2) they were typical of future events; (3) they were yearly and not weekly sabbaths. The weekly Sabbath, the seventh-day Sabbath, was made at creation, and commemorated that work; and in its institution it was related to God’s work only. But the others are relative to man’s action and condition as a sinful being. I cannot conceive how a greater difference could exist. Had man never sinned, it would then have been forever true, as it is to-day, that God made the world in six days. Had no system of redemption been devised or needed, it would still have been eternal truth that God rested the seventh day, and that he blessed and sanctified his rest day. But, on the other hand, had not man sinned; had no system of redemption been promised; had no types of the Redeemer’s work been ordained, then none of the typical or yearly sabbaths would have been instituted. Had man not sinned, the whole train of circumstances by which those sabbaths were called into being, would not have existed. They all stand related to man’s action as a sinner, and to Christ’s work as Redeemer. And as they point to, and have their fulfillment in, his work, they are appropriately denominated, “A shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Col. 2:14–17. But the Lord’s Sabbath, as has been shown, is of an entirely different nature. It is not so related to man’s action as a sinner, or to the work of redemption. It was not based upon any contingency, or upon any future work. But it had for its foundation a glorious work all finished and complete “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy;” a work in which Jehovah himself delighted, and which he pronounced “very good.” And 3rdly. The nature of its obligation. A difference in this is the necessary result of the truths before stated. In three respects I notice this difference:— a. The obligation to keep the seventh-day Sabbath is based on primary and eternal truth. By primary truth I here mean that which grows out of the action of God alone—out of the original constitution of things; truth that existed before the fall of man, and would ever have existed had he never sinned. There is a class of secondary truths growing out of a perversion of God’s work; out of the contingent relation we sustain to God since the fall. And all institutions, and obligations corresponding thereto, growing out of these secondary relations are necessarily limited by their nature; they are typical or shadowy. I think that no person, on reflection, will dispute the ground I here take, that, NO TYPICAL INSTITUTION OR MERELY POSITIVE DUTY CAN GROW OUT OF ORIGINAL RELATIONS; i. e., out of those relations existing from creation, and by virtue of creation. And, on the other hand, NO MORAL OBLIGATION CAN ORIGINATE IN, OR SPRING FROM, A SECONDARY RELATION; i. e., a relation growing out of man’s act of rebellion. In God’s own mind all moral relations and duties originate. Man may, and he did, create the necessity for a scheme of restitution and redemption; but no part of this plan is elementary. It owes its origin to wrong-doing; its necessity is laid in sin and rebellion. b. The seventh day was from the beginning a hallowed or sanctified day. It was “holy to the Lord.” Ex. 16:23; 31:15. “The holy of the Lord.” Isa. 58:13. “My [the Lord’s] holy day.” Id. The obligation to observe it has sacredness as its basis; the commandment guarded an original, sacred institution. The Sabbath, like its twin sister, marriage, though often and much abused, comes down to us from Eden’s purity and glory. c. It is based on the right of property. God always claimed the seventh day as his; and this claim he based on facts as old and as unalterable as creation itself, as has been abundantly shown. But the obligation of the other sabbaths did not rest on any such original relation; and, coming yearly, they fell at different times on all the different days of the week which God gave to man for his own work. The days of the week on which any of them fell (except when they fell on the seventh day), were not holy by reason of any blessing or sanctification ever put upon those particular days. The consecration, in their cases, attached to institutions which were temporary, and (as to the days of the week) were movable. God never claimed the right in them that he did in the seventh day. He did not rest from his work on any of them. They could not be the Lord’s sabbaths, or rest, as the seventh day was and is. In a word, the duty to keep the seventh day holy is based on the original right of property, specifically declared. And if the eighth commandment is moral because it guards the right of property, evidently the fourth is moral for the same reason. Certainly, every relation upon which the institution and obligation of the seventh-day Sabbath depended is as old as creation itself—as old as any of man’s moral relations possibly can be.