of the whole life and of all our time to God. With the Christian, it is said, every day is holy, and one day is not more holy than another. It is not true, however, that the New Testament re- quires greater consecration to God than the Old. The Gospel has many advantages over the Mosaic dispensation, but that is not one of them. It was of old, even from the beginning, re- quired of all men that they should love God with all the heart, with all the mind, and with all the strength ; and their neighbour as themselves. More than this the Gospel demands of no man. If it consists with the spirituality of the Church that believers should not neglect the assembling themselves together ; and that they should have a stated ministry, sacramental rites, and the power of excommunication, and all this by Divine appointment ; then it is hard to see why the consecration of one day in seven to the service of God, should be inconsistent with its spiritual char- acter. So long as we are in the body, religion cannot be exclu- sively a matter of the heart. It must have its institutions and or- dinances ; and any attempt to dispense with these would be as unreasonable and as futile as for the soul, in this our present state of existence, to attempt to do without the body.
5. Another ground is often taken on this subject. The impor- tance of the Sabbath is not denied. The obligation to keep it holy is admitted. It is declared to be sinful to engage in worldly avocations or amusements on that day ; but it is denied that this obligation to consecrate the day to God rests upon any divine command. It is denied that the original sanctification of the seventh day at the creation binds all men to keep one day in seven holy to the Lord. It is maintained that the fourth com- mandment, both as to its essence and as to its accidents is abro- gated; and, therefore, that there is no express command of God now in force requiring us to keep holy the Sabbath. The obliga- tion is either self-imposed, or it is imposed by the Church. The Church requires its members to observe the Lord's Day, as it re- quires them to observe Christmas or Good Friday ; and Chris- tians, it is said, are bound to obey the Church, as citizens are bound to obey the state. But Protestants deny that the Church has power to make laws to bind the conscience. That is the pre- rogative of God. If the Church may do it in one case it may in another ; and we should be made the servants of men. It is by this simple principle, that men are bound to obey the Church, that Rome has effectually despoiled all who acknowledge her author- ity of the liberty wherewith Christ has made his people free.
334 PART m. Ch. XIX.— THE LAW.
Most of the modern evangelical theologians in Germany say that the obligation to observe the Sabbath is self-imposed. That is, that every man, and especially every Christian, is bound to do all he can to promote the interests of religion and the good of society. The consecration of the Lord's Day to the worship of God is eminently conducive to these ends; therefore men are bound to keep it holy. But an obligation self-imposed is limited to self. One man thinks it best to devote Sunday to religion ; another that it should be kept as a day of relaxation and amuse- ment. One man's liberty cannot be judged by another man's conscience. Expediency can never be the ground of a universal and permanent obligation. The history of the Church proves that no such views of duty are adequate to coerce the conscience and govern the lives of men. The Sabbath is not in fact con- secrated to religion, where its divine authority is denied. The churches may be more or less frequented, but the day is princi- pally devoted to amusement. A German theologian1 says that the doctrine that the religious observance of the Sabbath rests on an express divine command, " prevails throughout the whole English-speaking part of Christendom," and that in the Evan- gelical Church in Germany, some either from a too legal view of Christianity, or from servile subjection to the letter of the Bible, or impressed by the solemn stillness of an English Sunday as contrasted with its profanation elsewhere, have ever been inclined to the same views. Although this writer, the representative of a large class, asserts his Christian liberty to observe one day above another, or all days alike, he admits that the religious ob- servance of the Lord's Day is not a matter of indifference ; on the contrary, he says that " its profanation (Verleztung) is a sin." To make a thing sinful, however, he says it is not necessary that it should be against an express divine command. A Christian's conscience, " guided by the word, and enlightened by the Spirit of God," is his rule of conduct. Conscience thus guided and enlightened, may enjoin or forbid much for which no explicit directions can be found in the Scriptures. No man denies all this ; but a man's conscience is a guide for himself, and not for other people* If we hold fast the fundamental principle of our Protestant faith and freedom, " that the Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith and practice," we must be able to plead express divine authority for the religious observance of the Lord's Day, or allow every man so to keep it or not as he sees fit. To
1 Palmer in Herzog's RecA-Encyklopadic.