HALLOWING THE SABBATH

     "The Sabbath was made for man" -- to meet the necessities of his physical, mental, moral and spiritual natures. Man was made for labor, and only in laborious activity can he secure his highest good for the life that now is and for the life to come. But he who labors as he should six-sevenths of the time will find that resting from secular toil the other seventh is a physical as well as a moral necessity and blessing.

     While the day to be recognized as the Sabbath is based on positive law, or divine appointment, and therefore may be changed at the will of the lawgiver, the Sabbath as an institution is based on physical and moral necessity back of all positive law, and hence can never be abrogated. Having been "made for man," as an institution designed to conserve and promote his highest well-being, the requirement for hallowing it was made a part of the moral law, originally graven by the finger of God on tables of stone as significant of its permanent character. Hence it is that, though the day for celebrating the Sabbath has been changed and the gospel furnishes different motives than did the law for its observance, the hallowing of the Sabbath is as incumbent upon Christians as upon the Jews of old. While the gospel frees from the observance of the Sabbath in its purely Jewish aspects, it does not, and can not, in its abrogation of the Hebrew economy, annul or abrogate the Sabbath institution. As such it existed before the Mosaic law was given, and was designed to meet a universal necessity of the human race.

     But how should the Christian Sabbath be observed? Let Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, answer: "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, honorable; and shalt honor 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" (Chapter 58:13,14). Observe,

     I. The Things Which Are Here Prohibited:

     1. We are not to do our own ways. That is, we are not to make the Sabbath a day for attending to our own lawful but secular concerns. The law of the Sabbath prohibits buying, selling, laboring, traveling, making business plans and calculations, taking inventories, footing up accounts, engaging in business correspondence, holding business interviews, etc., on the Lord's day (Exodus 20:8, etc.). Nor should we employ others to do on the Sabbath what would be unsuited in its character to our own performance. To ignore the rights of our employee or of public servants to the Sabbath and its privileges is criminal in the sight of God.

     2. We are not to pursue our own pleasure. It is a grievous abuse of the Christian Sabbath to convert it from a holy day into a holiday. The tendency in this country toward the continental method of Sabbath observance -- toward making it a gala day, a day of recreation, amusement, jollification, carousal and debauchery -- is an evil omen. Many kinds of pleasure wholly innocent on other days are sadly desecrating on the Sabbath. Excursions, journeys, parties, games, athletic sports, social visitation, the perusal of secular papers or books, festivity and mirth of all kinds -- these are wholly unbecoming the sacredness of the holy Sabbath, and ought not to be engaged in or countenanced by the followers of Christ.

     3. W, are not to speak our own words. In other terms, we should not engage in secular or jocular discourse. The Sabbath is not a day for discussing matters of business, commerce, politics, science, or any other purely secular themes; and much less is it a day for the indulgence of hilarious discourse, or for the many pleasantries which might be regarded innocent on other days. The extent of the prohibition includes abstinence in action, speech and feeling from all that is unsuited to keeping the Sabbath distinctively holy.

     II. The Things Which Are Here Enjoined:

     1. That we call the Sabbath "a delight." We are not to observe either its prohibitions or injunctions in a legal but in an evangelical Spirit. It is not a day for sadness, gloominess, long faces, penances, mortifications, or ascetic practices of any kind; but a day rather for cessation from the wearying toil of life, and for delightful engagement in those holy occupations, contemplations, exercises and fellowships, which we can scarce find time to cultivate during our busy laboring days. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will be glad and rejoice in it."

     2. That we regard it as "the holy of the Lord." It is emphatically "the Lord's day" -- the day set apart as exclusively devoted to his service -- and therefore a holy day, or rather the holy day of Jehovah. Hence the command to "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." We should study and exercise ourselves to spend it in all respects in a holy manner. Both negatively and positively -- by refraining from all that is profane or secular, and by engagement, so far as practicable, in whatever will tend to promote the glory of God and the well-being of men -- we should keep the Sabbath holy.

     3. That we call it "honorable." The Christian Sabbath is the day God has honored as he has honored no other day, in making it the memorial alike of a finished creation and a finished redemption. The risen Jesus honored it; apostles honored it; the martyrs and confessors of the early church honored it; the church catholic through all the ages of Christian history has honored it; and in some degree at least all civilized nations recognize and honor it. God has also ever honored it with special promises and blessings bestowed on those who duly observe it. Shall we not then regard it as the "holy of the Lord and honorable?" If we do thus honor it, think you it will be the shortest day of the week with us? Will it be a day for sleeping, lounging, trifling, visiting, roaming, or selfish and unprofitable pursuits of any kind? Assuredly not. We shall instead give it fully to God's service, to meditation upon and exercise in divine things, and to that culture of the religious life for which the Creator has instituted and ordained it. III. Motives To Hallowing The Sabbath:

     1. The delight in God resulting therefrom. "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord" -- in the sight of his countenance, in the manifestations of his grace, in abiding fellowship with him.

     2. The spiritual exaltation promised. "I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth." Honor and exalt the Sabbath and God will exalt and honor thee.

     3. The goodly heritage assured. "I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father." The God of Jacob will be thy God. This includes all temporal and spiritual blessing, our highest good in every sense, and that for time and for eternity; all of which is ratified by the immutable word of Jehovah who hath spoken it.

THE END