Conclusion,
We are bound, therefore, to insist upon the maintenance and faithful execution of the laws enacted for the protection of the Christian Sabbath. Christianity does not teach that men can be made religious by law ; nor does it demand that men should be required by the civil authority to profess any particular form of religious doctrine, or to attend upon religious services; but it does enjoin that men should abstain from all unnecessary worldly avocations on the Lord's Day. This civil Sabbath, this cessation from worldly business, is what the civil government in Christian countries is called upon to enforce. (1.) Because it is the right of Christians to be allowed to rest on that day, which they can- not do, without forfeiting their citizenship, unless all public busi- ness be arrested on that day. (2.) Because such rest is the command of God ; and this command binds the conscience as much as any other command in the decalogue. So far as the point in hand is concerned, it matters not whether such be the command of God or not ; so long as the people believe it, it binds their con- science ; and this conscientious belief the government is bound to respect, and must act accordingly. (3,) Because the civil Sabbath is necessary for the preservation of our free institutions, and of the good order of society. The indispensable condition of social order is either despotic power in the magistrate, or good morals among the people. Morality without religion is impossible ; religion cannot exist without knowledge; knowledge cannot be disseminated among the people, unless there be a class of teachers, and time allotted for their instruction. Christ has made all his ministers, teachers; He has commanded them to teach all nations ; He has appointed one day in seven to be set apart for such instruction. It is a historical fact that since the introduction of Christianity, nine tenths of the people have derived the greater part of their religious knowledge from the services of the sanctuary. If the Sabbath, therefore, be abol- ished, the fountain of life for the people will be sealed.1
Hengstenberg, after referring to the authority of the Church and other grounds, for the observance of the Lord's Day, closes
1 The Sabbath and Free Institutions. A paper read before the National Sabbath Con vention, Saratoga, August 13, 1863, by the Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., President of Williams College, Mass. See also an able article from the pen of the Rev. Joshua H. Mcllvaine, D. D., entitled, " A Nation's Right to Worship God," in the Princeton Review for October, 1859; also the article on " Sunday Laws," in the same number of that journal.
348 PART III. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
his discussion of the subject with these words : " Thank God these are only the outworks ; the real fortress is the command that sounded out from Sinai, with the other divine commands therewith connected, as preparatory, confirmatory, or explana- tory. The institution was far too important, and the tempta- tions too powerful, that the solid ground of Scriptural command could be dispensed with. ... It is as plain as day that the obligation of the Old Testament command instead of being les- sened is increased. This follows of course from the fact that the redemption through Christ is infinitely more glorious than the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, which in the preface to the Ten Commandments is referred to as a special motive to obedience. No ingratitude is blacker than refusing to obey Him who for our sakes gave up his only begotten Son."1 He had said before that the Sabbath " rests on the unalterable necessities of our nature, inasmuch as men inevitably become godless if the cares and labours of their earthly life be not regularly inter- rupted."2
§ 9. The Fifth Commandment. Its Design.
The general principle of duty enjoined in this commandment, is that we should feel and act in a becoming manner towards our superiors. It matters not in what their superiority consists, whether in age, office, power, knowledge, or excellence. There are certain feelings, and a certain line of conduct due to those who are over us, for that very reason, determined and modified in each case by the degree and nature of that superiority. To superiors are due, to each according to the relation in which he stands to us, reverence, obedience, and gratitude. The ground of this obligation is to be found, (1.) In the will of God, who has enjoined this duty upon all rational creatures. (2.) In the nature of the relation itself. Superiority supposes, in some form or degree, on the part of the inferior, dependence and indebted- ness, and therefore calls for reverence, gratitude, and obedience ; and, (3.) In expediency, as the moral order of the divine gov- ernment and of human society depend upon this due submis- sion to authority.
In the case of God, as his superiority is infinite the submission of his creatures must be absolute. To Him we owe adoration or the profoundest reverence, the most fervent gratitude, and
1 Ueber den Tag des Herrn, Beilin, 1852, pp. 92-94. 2 Ibid. p. 40.