The Sabbath was instituted from the Beginning, and is of Per- petual Obligation.
1. This may be inferred from the nature and design of the in- stitution. It is a generally recognized principle, that those com- mands of the Old Testament which were addressed to the Jews as Jews and were founded on their peculiar circumstances and relations, passed away when the Mosaic economy was abolished ; but those founded on the immutable nature of God, or upon the permanent relations of men, are of permanent obligation. There are many such commands which bind men as men ; fathers as fathers ; children as children ; and neighbours as neighbours. It is perfectly apparent that the fourth commandment belongs to this latter class. It is important for all men to know that God created the world, and therefore is an extramundane personal being, in- finite in all his perfections. All men need to be arrested in their worldly career, and called upon to pause and to turn their thoughts Godward. It is of incalculable importance that men should have time and opportunity for religious instruction and worship. It is necessary for all men and servile animals to have time to rest and recuperate their strength. The daily nocturnal rest is not sufficient for that purpose, as physiologists assure us, and as experience has demonstrated. Such is obviously the judg- ment of God.
It appears, therefore, from the nature of this commandment as moral, and not positive or ceremonial, that it is original and uni- versal in its obligation. No man assumes that the commands, " Thou shalt not kill," and " Thou shalt not steal," were first announced by Moses, and ceased to be obligatory when the old economy passed away. A moral law is one that binds from its own nature. It expresses an obligation arising either out of our relations to God or out of our permanent relations to our fellow- men. It binds whether formally enacted or not. There are no doubt positive elements in the fourth commandment as it stands in the Bible. It is positive that a seventh, and not a sixth or eighth part of our time should be consecrated to the public ser- vice of God. It is positive that the seventh rather than any other day of the week should be thus set apart. But it is moral that there should be a day of rest and cessation from worldly avocations. It is of moral obligation that God and his great works should be statedly remembered. It is a moral duty that the people should assemble for religious instruction and for the
324 part m. ch. xix. — the law.
united worship of God. All this was obligatory before the time of Moses, and would have been binding had he never existed. All that the fourth commandment did was to put this natural and universal obligation into a definite form.
2. The original and universal obligation of the law of the Sabbath may be inferred from its having found a place in the decalogue. As all the other commandments in that fundamental revelation of the duties of men to God and to their neighbour, are moral and permanent in their obligation, it would be incongruous and unnatural if the fourth should be a solitary exception. This argument is surely not met by the answer given to it by the ad- vocates of the opposite doctrine. The argument they say is valid only on the assumption u that the Mosaic law, because of its di- vine origin, is of universal and permanent authority." 1 May it not be as well said, If the command, " Thou shalt not steal," be still in force, the whole code of the Mosaic law must be binding ? The fourth commandment is read in all Christian churches, when- ever the decalogue is read, and the people are taught to say, " Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law."
3. Another argument is derived from the penalty attached to the violation of this commandment. " Ye shall keep the Sab- bath, therefore, for it is holy unto you : every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death." (Ex. xxxi. 14.) The violation of no merely ceremonial or positive law was" visited with this penalty. Even the neglect of circumcision, although it involved the rejection of both the Abrahamic and the Mosaic covenant, and necessarily worked the forfeiture of all the benefits of the theoc- racy, was not made a capital offence. The law of the Sabbath by being thus distinguished was raised far above the level of mere positive enactments. A character was given to it, not only of primary importance, but also of special sanctity.
4. We accordingly find that in the prophets as well as in the Pentateuch, and the historical books of the Old Testament, the Sabbath is not only spoken of as " a delight," but also its faith- ful observance is predicted as one of the characteristics of the Messianic period. Thus Isaiah says, " 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 Lobd, Hon- ourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then
1 Palmer, in Herzog's Rml-EncyMopadie, art. " Sonntagsfeier."