In considering this part of the symposium, it is well to consider very briefly the character of Christ. He is the Son of God. He says: “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” “I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” John 16: 28, 32.
Coming from God shows that he had a pre-existence with the Father before his birth into the world. His own words revealed his existence with the Father before he was manifested in the flesh: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:5. It was when the space now occupied by this solar system was void, and man was yet a being of the future, that Jesus Christ sat with the Father, and together they planned for the creation of the world, with man for its ruler. “Let us make man” was the word spoken by Jehovah to his Son, and man came forth. See Ps. 33: 6, 9; Gen. 2: 7.
After completing his work in the creation of man upon the sixth day, “God 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. 2: 2, 3. The power of creating all things must have been manifested through Christ. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1: 1-3. From Christ’s own statement nothing was made without him. Everything, however small or great, that was made, had his presence in the making.
Of the Sabbath Christ said, “The Sabbath was made.” Mark 2: 27. Then, from the previous statement, who was its maker? It must have been the One who said, “The Sabbath was made for man.” If he made it, he would be the best prepared to teach by precept and example how it should be observed. Therefore, in considering his relation to the Sabbath, we will note, (1) his teaching; (2) his example.
His Teaching.
Christ taught that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 27, 28. The Syriac Version reads: “The Sabbath was made on man’s account, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath. Therefore also the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.” He, with his Father, made the Sabbath for, or on account of, man; therefore it was to be a blessing to mankind.
The Jews had, by their traditions, so hedged in the Sabbath that it was a burden. While they endeavored to legislate so as to have the Sabbath kept sacred, they only hindered those who had it in their heart to honor this institution. No part of the Jewish system was so marked as their strictures in the outward observance of the Sabbath as a day entirely free from labor. The interpreters of the law had inferred from the commandment a multitude of prohibitions and injunctions, covering everything in the social, individual, and public life. They carried many of these things to extremes that were ridiculous. Their rules extended to the kinds of knots that might lawfully be tied upon that day. A knot which could be untied with one hand might be undone. A shoe, or sandal, a woman’s cup, a wine, or oil-skin, or a flesh-pot might be tied. To write two letters with the right hand or the left, whether of the same size or different sizes, or in different languages, was considered to be a violation of the Sabbath commandment. Also, the quantity of food that might be carried on the Sabbath from one place to another was duly settled by their laws. To kindle or extinguish a fire on that day was a desecration, and even the sick must not be treated for their disease until the Sabbath sun had set. The rabbis held that whatever endangered life made the Sabbath law void, “for the commandments were given to Israel only that they might live by them.” If a man was buried under a ruin on that day, he might be dug for and taken out if alive, but if dead, he was to be left where he was until the Sabbath had passed.
A Sabbath day’s journey was prescribed as within 1,213 yards. While they had no definite distance named by Moses, yet it was commanded that no one should go outside the camp to get manna. The wise interpreters of the law had demonstrated that the Levitical towns were to have a district of 1,213 yards in breadth on all sides (Num. 35: 5), and there was to be the same distance between the ark and the people of Israel in their march behind it; therefore the conclusion that that was the distance between the tabernacle and the edge of the camp, out of which no one was to go.
When Christ came among them, he taught them that the Sabbath still occupied the place that it did at first, but it was for man rather than against him. He therefore used every opportunity to show all with whom he came in contact the true nature of the Sabbath. When he met the man with the unclean spirit whom the Jews would have passed by, he said, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him.” When questioned in regard to doing these acts of mercy on the Sabbath, he asked his accusers: “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?” Then follows a declaration that teaches the true idea of sabbath-keeping: “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Matt. 12: 11, 12. He had given a law to govern the Sabbath as to the time it should be kept and the manner of its observance: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” This command contained no injunctions that would forbid the caring for the sick or doing any act of mercy.
This Sabbath commandment was placed in the bosom of God’s great law, and was a part of the law of which Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5: 18. In this declaration he taught the perpetuity of the law, of which the Sabbath was a part. He did not regard it as a Jewish institution or he would have accepted their regulations in regard to its observance. But as his own institution, for the good of mankind, he could have no fear in speaking in its defense.
In his discourse in regard to the awful judgment that would befall Jerusalem, after he should again ascend to his Father, he speaks of the Sabbath and its observance. “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Matt. 24: 20. Jerusalem would be besieged and his people in danger of being destroyed. There would come a time when the armies would be withdrawn for a time, and all that would remember his words could flee to the mountains. Although more than thirty-five years should elapse before this should occur, yet he admonished them to pray that it might not be in the winter, for then they might perish in the mountains; neither on the Sabbath day, for then they would be obliged to desecrate it by their traveling, and providing for their comforts. Thus in his prophetic declaration, he teaches that the Sabbath should exist, and should be properly observed, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in A.D. 70.
His Example.
It is often said that example teaches with more power than precept. Jesus lived on the earth more than thirty years. The last three of these he was very actively engaged in the public ministry. He went about doing good as well as teaching good. In regard to his relation to the Sabbath we read, “He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. From his childhood he had been brought up by his mother to reverence the Sabbath and be present at the services in the synagogue. When he began his ministry, he did as he had been accustomed to do,—he recognized the sacredness of the day by refraining from the labor of the six days and taking a part in the Sabbath worship.
In his active ministry on the Sabbath is the best object lesson on how he regarded it. “He went about doing good.” When he met the poor, unfortunate man, possessed with an evil spirit, he regarded not the traditions of the Jews, but with a word freed him from his bondage. When he went to Peter’s house and found his wife’s mother sick with a burning fever, he stopped not to ask the rabbis whether they considered it lawful to heal, but took her by the hand, and commanded the fever to depart. When passing through the corn field with his disciples, he took another opportunity to defend this institution. His disciples took of the corn, as was lawful for one passing through the field, and did eat. The Pharisees, who were watching to bring a charge against him, remembered that all species of threshing was forbidden. They construed the act of separating the grain from the head of wheat, by rubbing it in the hands, as a kind of threshing, and accused the disciples of Sabbath breaking. He defended the act by teaching them that the Sabbath was a day for acts of humanity and mercy rather than for criticism and wicked thoughts. In every act he upheld the sacredness of the Sabbath and tore away the traditions that made its observance a hardship rather than a pleasure.
Time has sped away, and this Saviour now lives in the presence of the Father. He6 (70)has not changed. He regards the Sabbath to-day as he did at that time. Were he here now, he would say, “The Sabbath was made for man.” He is still its Lord, and desires that it shall be kept in a manner so as to make it a pleasure. Good acts are proper, and ministering to the sick and discouraged is what he wants his people to do on the Sabbath at the present time. It is the same Sabbath and the same Saviour.
We may pile up traditions around this institution until it becomes as irksome to us as it did to them. We may make rules for its proper observance that will make it a hard yoke to bear, and thus cause the Sabbath to be trodden underfoot. But let us go to Jesus and ask him how he would have us as individuals observe the Sabbath.
THE APOSTLES AND THE SABBATH.
By H. P. H.
BY H. P. H.
There is comparatively little or no controversy about the Sabbath in the old dispensation; nor is there scarce a shadow of effort to show that a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week took place during the time of Christ; hence the change must have taken place in the time of the apostles, or after their day. What took place in this line after the time of the apostles may be of importance to the Roman Catholic, who is guided by tradition as well as Scripture; but it has no weight with the Protestant who is guided by the word of God alone. Hence, as the Sabbath was not changed before the days of the apostles, and as a change after their time could not be accepted by Protestants, it becomes of special importance to study what took place with reference to this subject during the time of the apostles, since in this brief period of time we must find the settlement of the question.
The New Testament makes plain the attitude of the apostles to the Sabbath. Christ sent his disciples into the world as he was sent. John 17:18. He came not to destroy the law of Ten Commandments, but to magnify and make it honorable. His disciples were to do the same. They were sent forth as ministers of the new covenant; under this covenant, the law was not to be abolished, but to be written in the heart. Heb. 8:10. Before, it was written in tables of stone; but now it was to be more intimately connected with the life of the believer. Out of the heart are the issues of life, and, the law being written there, all the outward life would be in harmony with that law.
As to what law is to be written in the heart and form the basis of the Christian life, there can be no question; for the promise of the new covenant was written over six hundred years before Christ, when the term, as all admit, included the Ten Commandments as proclaimed on Sinai. The term “the law” is frequently used in the New Testament without qualification, and hence can apply only to what the same term signified in the Old Testament.
The apostles not only recognized the law as binding for Christians but showed that the object of Christ’s coming in the flesh was for the express purpose of enabling man to keep this law perfectly. In his own strength man can not keep the Ten Commandments, and for this reason many argue that they were abolished. The apostle Paul also recognized the fact that man of himself could not keep this law; but instead of concluding that it was therefore abolished, immediately adds, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:3, 4. Hence the righteousness which comes alone by faith in the Son of God does not destroy the law, but establishes a law is to keep it. The apostles further teach that the keeping of the law includes every part of it, for says James, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10.
It being clear that the apostles taught the keeping of every part of the law, without the slightest reference to a change, we must conclude that they taught the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath; for the law provides for no other day as the Sabbath. That in teaching the binding force of the law the apostles taught the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, is further evident from their own custom and experience on this point.
The apostle Paul was chosen of God to preach the Gospel to the gentiles, and received his knowledge of the Gospel by revelation. When, in accordance with the instruction of the Holy Ghost, he was sent forth to this work from Antioch, he went regularly into the synagogues to teach on the Sabbath. This was not for the Jews only, for gentiles also were present. Acts 13. When the gentiles requested a meeting expressly for themselves, the apostle said nothing about a special day for them, but met with them the next Sabbath. (See Acts 13:42, 44.) This was Paul’s first journey among the gentiles; many were brought to the faith, and thus the foundation was laid for the great work among the gentiles that followed. Yet here the seventh-day Sabbath is regularly introduced as a meeting day, and no mention made of any other.
As the apostle Paul continued to extend his work, and build up new churches among the gentiles, we find him steadily following the custom of giving the Sabbath the same place as the Jews gave it. When the Gospel was first introduced into Europe, at Philippi, Paul met on the Sabbath with gentiles who feared God, and taught them the Gospel. When he came to Thessalonica, “as his manner was,” he met with the people on the Sabbath. During the year and a half spent developing the church at Corinth, Paul supported himself by working at his trade, and in order to do so more effectually, he entered into partnership with a Jew. Had he observed another day as the Sabbath than the Jews, he would have gone into partnership with a gentile. That he here observed the seventh day is further evident from the fact that while working “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Acts 18:4.
The greatest enemies of the Gospel were the Jews. Wherever the apostles preached, the Jews were on hand to oppose them. In many of the churches sharp disputes resulted. But in no case was there contention about the seventh-day Sabbath, or suggestion of another Sabbath. As may be seen from the epistles to the Romans, Galatians, Colossians, etc., which were written in part to correct the errors introduced by Jews that had accepted the Gospel, the main points at issue were circumcision, and righteousness by works instead of by faith alone.
When the apostles were publicly accused as destroyers of the faith of the fathers, they were never once accused of Sabbath breaking, or of teaching the gentiles another day. To the Jew nothing was more sacred and prominent than the Sabbath and circumcision. The apostles plainly taught that circumcision as practiced by the Jews was done away; and at every step the Jews controverted them on7this point. As the Jews held the Sabbath as sacred as circumcision, had the apostles set it aside as they did circumcision, the Jews would have made no little stir about it. But their entire silence on this point, and the fact that the apostles regularly met with the people on the Sabbath for preaching the Gospel, leaves not the least room for doubt that they kept and taught to the gentiles the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. This conclusion is further strengthened by the fact that, when near the close of his life, Paul could say to the chief of the Jews at Rome, “I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers.” Acts 28:17.
While there is such uniform testimony in the acts and teaching of the apostles in favor of the seventh-day Sabbath, there is nothing to establish the first day of the week, or Sunday, as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is always mentioned as a secular day, and not once given a sacred title. Some think to find evidence in favor of the Sunday sabbath in the fact that the apostles once met on that day. They met on other days also; but that does not make them Sabbaths. But even in this instance the context shows that the meeting was held on the Sabbath, and continued over part of Sunday, and that the remainder of this Sunday was employed in a secular way.
It is also argued by a few that Paul’s order to make collections on the first day of the week indicates that this was the common day of meeting. But Paul’s order expressly stated that they were to do this at home, showing that they were not in meeting; and this collecting of goods to send to the poor at Jerusalem was a work more suitable to a secular day like Sunday than to the Sabbath.
That the seventh-day Sabbath was recognized as such in the Christian church as late as the close of the first century, when the last of the apostles passed away, is evident from Rev. 1:10, where the apostle says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” In all the Bible, none other than the seventh day is called the Lord’s day. The Sabbath means God’s rest day; it is the day on which the Creator rested. Jesus Christ is the Creator, and hence the Sabbath is his rest day; therefore he declares himself to be Lord of the Sabbath day. Mark 2:27.
Thus all through the work and teaching of the apostles, to the very close, we find the Sabbath of the Lord uniformly recognized, observed, and taught, and never once set aside, while the first day of the week is always mentioned as a secular day, and not once given a sacred title. Therefore, as those that follow the word of God and that alone, we can accept no other rest day than the Sabbath of the Lord.
WELCOME, thou day of sacred rest!
We hail thy coming with delight;
By thee we are divinely blest,
And filled with heavenly beams of light.
O perfect seal of God's great plan,
Thou hast not changed since worlds began!
Memorial blest and sanctified,
We find in thee a heavenly guest,—
Our Saviour doth in thee abide,
Who is of every good possessed;
So thus in thee to man is given
A foretaste of the life of heaven.
The holy Life which flows through thee
Is full of peace and joy divine;
And, by partaking, we shall be
Transformed, and in his glory shine;
Then shall we see with wond'ring eyes
A new and blest creation rise.
May every heart find sweet employ
By feasting on the living Word,
And only find its chiefest joy
In what his presence doth afford;
So ever will thy coming prove
A deeper measure of his love.
O perfect seal of true design
Which bears the image of our Lord,
Who out of darkness made light shine,
And formed creation by his word,
We still can claim thee as our own,
Because no change that Word has known.
The Word of God shall stand secure
Through every age, in every clime;
The keeping of his precepts pure
Will fill each soul with joy divine.
O perfect seal of God's great plan,
Thou hast not changed since worlds began.
THE CRISIS.
By Whittier
THE Crisis presses on us; face to face with us it stands,
With solemn lips of question, like the Sphinx in Egypt's sands!
This day we fashion destiny, our web of fate we spin;
This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin;
Even now from starry Gerizim, or Ebal's cloudy crown,
We call the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down!
By all for which the martyrs bore their agony and shame;
By all the warning words of truth with which the prophet came;
By the future which awaits us; by all the hopes which cast
Their faint and trembling beams across the blackness of the past;
And by the blessed thought of Him who for earth's freedom died,
O my people! O my brothers! let us choose the righteous side.
— Whittier.
