1. The change of day from Saturday to Sunday in the Christian Church. — This change took place very early in the history of the Christian Church, but its date and reasons are somewhat indefinite. It scarcely requires any argument in justification, as (i) it preserves the spirit and purpose of the older practice ; and (ii) the change occurred so early that it must have had the sanction of the immediate disciples of Christ. Probably the change arose owing to Sunday being the day of Christ's resurrection, and the day upon Avhich He appeared to His disciples ( Jn 20'®- ^^). The work of redemption, being the creation of the new world, was regarded as superseding in importance the work of physical creation ; so the Ep. of Barnabas (15) speaks of Sunday as ' the beginning of another world,' and says : ' Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and, having been manifested, ascended into the heavens.' Evidences of the change are found in the NT in 1 Co 16^ and Ac 20''. The name i) KvpiaKT) i]fj.4pa for Sunday occurs in Kev 1'". In early Christian writings we find that the change had already taken place (Didache, 14 ; Ignatius, Magnes. 9 ; Pliny, Ep. X. 97 ; Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 67). Eusebius (HE iii. 27) says that the Ebionites kept the Jewish Sabbath and also Sunday (see Lightfoot, Ignatius, ii. 129 ; Allen, Christian Inst itiit ions, p. 467). See also ' Lord's Day ' in art. Calendar, vol. i. p. 251 tt".
Literature. — The Mishna (esp. Shabbath and Erubin) ; Edersheim, LT ; Geikie, Life of Christ ; art. ' Sabbath ' in Hastings' DB ; Farrar, Life of Christ, ch. xxxi. ; Schiirer, H.JP II. ii. 96. For the history of Sunday observance see Hessey, Sunday (Bampton Lect. 1860). F. E. ROBINSON.
SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY.
art. and Travel.
See preceding
SACKCLOTH. — A coarse, dark-coloured cloth, made of goat's or camel's hair (Gr. (jclkkos, Heb. p^), used in ordinary life for sacking, sieves, strainers, and the like, but in the Gospels twice named in connexion with prevalent mourning customs (Mt Ipi, Lk 10^3), coupled with 'ashes' (wh. see) as an expressi(m of penitential grief. The mourner wore the sackcloth garment, sometimes next the skin ; and because of the garment's coarseness it became a constant reminder of his grief, its ii'rita- tion being a sort of penance ; sometimes it was worn as an outer garment as a visible expression of mourning. Closely related to this use of sack- cloth was the use of it by ascetics and prophets (cf. later use by pilgrims). So John the Baptist wore a garment of camel's hair (Mt S"*, Mk 1*) as the expression of a certain austerity of life, and as a rebuke to the love of ease and luxury which
characterized the age.
E. B. Pollard.
SACRIFICE.— The saving significance of the death of Jesus Christ is of necessity the most important part of any article on the NT idea of sacrifice ; for it is in the light of the sacrifice of Christ that all Christian sacrifice must be viewed.
It is now universally admitted that there is de- velopment and difference in the doctrinal stand- point of the NT writers. The old method of taking texts at haphazard from the various Gospels and Epistles, and setting them side by side, has been given up. The only satisfactory results are to be obtained by examining in turn the teaching of each writer ; and this is the method which it is proposed to adopt in considering the subject of the sacrifice of Christ.
1. We begin with the teaching of our Lord as set forth in the Synoptic Gospels. Here there is nothing to be found in the natui'e of dogmatic assertion. The statements of our Lord as to the significance of His death are far from numerous, and in no case can they be looked at wholly by themselves. His whole life and teaching is their context. To any one carefully reading the Synop- tic Gospels it becomes plain that it is only towards the end of His life on earth that the meaning of His death begins to occupy anything like a promi- nent place in the consciousness of Christ. There is not a single word regarding it in the Sermon on the Mount. There He is the second Moses, the new Lawgiver, the Revealer of the Father and His will, the Preacher of that new Kingdom whose laws should be written upon the hearts of men. Man is to be transformed inwardly by the renewal of his mind as leaven works in dough. All ex- ternal religious practices are valueless except in so far as they manifest inward spiritual life. But it is already a Father of infinite tenderness and love, a Father only waiting to be gracious, whom He reveals, not a God full of wrath against sinful man, who must be propitiated and reconciled by the death of His Son before He can pardon. Forgive- ness is already offered to all who will do the Father's will, to all who in love forgive the tres- passes of their brethren. There is not one word to suggest that pardon and reconciliation aie condi- tional upon the sacrifice of Himself still to be offered. Here Christ is the Teacher of morality, with an authority greater than that of Moses, it is true ; but He "has not yet revealed Himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life. He is im- plicitly the Saviour in that His Person and work are alone the guarantee of the will of the Father, in that He embodies the attractive power of right- eousness, in that He is the source of healing grace to all afflicted ones who come with faith in Him ; but He has not yet made surrender to Himself the only way of salvation. It is only in consequence of the opposition of His countrymen that He gives