Duty of a More Strict Observance of Sabbath

THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
BY REV. G. W. BLAGDEN, D. D.
BOSTON: NICHOLS AND NOYES. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by NICHOLS AND NOYES, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND FEINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
Is the keeping of the Sabbath, now, commanded by Divine authority; or, is it only a duty required by a wise expediency, but not Divinely, and absolutely, commanded under the Gospel of Christ?
In reply to this inquiry, I shall try to show that the remembrance of the Sabbath day, " to keep it holy," is now required of all believers in Jesus, by the law of God as it is magnified and made honorable in the Gospel; and that the manner in which this is done leads" us to right conclusions respecting the ways in which we should fulfil " the duty of a more strict observance of the day."
I. The Lord Jesus declared, on one occasion, that the “Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day." What does such a declaration imply?
It implies that Jesus, as the Son of man, possessed and exercised authority to regulate the keeping of the Sabbath. He spoke the words in asserting His authority to do this, for He was then correcting the false views the Pharisees entertained of its observance. They supposed it unlawful for His disciples, in passing through the corn-fields on the Sabbath, when engaged with Him, their Lord and Master, in works of love and mercy to men, to pluck the ears of corn and satisfy IJieir hunger. But He assured them, from facts in their own history, that the spirit of the law of the Sabbath permitted such necessary acts. He alluded to the act of David and those who were with him, in entering, when they were an hungered, the house of God, and eating the shewbread, which it was lawful, commonly, for only the priests to eat; and He cited the conduct of the priests as being harmless, when they, on the Sabbath day, did certain acts which might seem to profane it, thus showing His hearers, as He is recorded in the Gospel of Mark as having distinctly declared, that " the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." It was designed and adapted to promote alike the holiness and the comfort of men; and therefore permitted, and even required, those acts which were needful to renew and preserve the vigor and health of their bodies, that they might the more fully and faithfully worship and serve God, and do good to man on His holy day with all the powers of their souls. Therefore, in His own words, if they had known what this meaneth, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," they would not have condemned the guiltless.
The declaration that the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day, also implies, that Christ, the Son of man, came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law of the Sabbath. This law is clearly contained in the fourth commandment of the moral law, given by Jehovah to Moses amid the solemn scenes of Mount Sinai. Of this, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until all shall be fulfilled." Unless it can be shown that this particular command of the law, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," has been clearly repealed and annulled by the Saviour in His Gospel, it is still, binding on all who believe in His name. But this cannot be shown. So far from this, it seems evident from the whole tenor of His words to the Jews, at various times, respecting the Sabbath, that He always spoke of it as an institution which was ever to continue under the gospel, as it had done under the law. He corrected their superstitious and self-righteous errors respecting it; but, in doing this, He always implied that it must continue to be kept in its true spirit.
We may apply to His declaration, that He is Lord even of the Sabbath day, the same principle of reasoning which He also applied to His Own citation from the Old Testament respecting the resurrection from the dead, saying, " Touching the resurrection from the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying 6 1 am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? ' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." So here we may say, that, as it is directly affirmed by our Lord, that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it, and as the keeping of the Sabbath is a commandment of the law, when Jesus declares that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath" day, He is Lord not of a dead, but of a living day. In correcting and reproving the false ideas of the Pharisees respecting it, He only restored it from the letter which killeth to the spirit that giveth life, causing the ministration written and engraven in stones, which was glorious, to have no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth.
On the same principle, we may say, what some of the most pious and learned commentators on the text have said, that the declaration may have been designed by our Lord as a prophetic intimation of the fact, that the Gospel was, in its process of magnifying the law of God and making it honorable, to change the seventh-day Sabbath of the law, into the first-day Sabbath of the gospel, called repeatedly the first day of the week, and, in the book of the Revelation of John, " the Lord's day." Possibly, if not probably, this was intimated by David in the 118th Psalm, the versification of which by Dr. Watts, we often sing in our worship of God: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
We say, then, in great confidence, that, if any one will take the facts stated in the Bible respecting the Sabbath day; if he will take the fact that the keeping of it is directly commanded in the moral law of God; that Jesus declared repeatedly, in the Gospel, that this law shall never pass away; and His apostle, that we do not make void the law through faith, but establish the law; that in all our Saviour's instructions respecting the Sabbath, exposing and correcting Jewish errors respecting it, He never intimated, in a single instance, that it was not then binding upon men; that He declared Himself, as the Son of man, to be Lord of the Sabbath, and that it was made for man; that the disciples and first Christians, after His death and resurrection, evidently paid marked attention to the first day of the week; that He Himself first met with them on that day, after He rose from the dead; that they also met on that day to break bread, or, as we have the best reasons to believe, partake of the Lord's Supper; that Paul preached to them on that day; that he afterwards directed the members of the Church in Corinth each to lay by on that day, as God had prospered him, a portion of his earthly possessions for the necessities of the saints, and to aid in advancing the gospel; and that the last of the apostles, John, " the disciple whom Jesus loved," wrote, in recording the last words of His Lord to all His Churches in all ages to the end of time, that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and that the Lord appeared to him in a special manner then, and gave him special messages to deliver to the Churches, when we place all these interesting and remarkable facts together, and draw from them the general rule which a fair comparison of them with one another seems clearly to demand, the satisfactory conclusion must be, that the Sabbath is now binding on all men, and on every man, to be remembered and kept holy as a commandment of the moral law of God, which shall never pass away; that Jesus, the Son of man, is Lord of the day; and that He has exercised His lordship, not by annulling it, but, by giving to men, in His own person, and through the practice of His apostles, a larger and more intelligent liberty respecting the manner of keeping it; but no license to desecrate and neglect it. He has shown that the precise day on which a seventh portion of time shall be hallowed in the special worship of God, and the learning and doing of His will, is not important in the spirit of a true obedience to His commandment, as it is made impossible for all men, in all places, from the daily revolutions of the earth upon its axis in its orbit round the sun. He has, therefore, by leading His disciples to keep the first, instead of the seventh day of the week, enlarged and not contracted the blessedness and power of the motives for keeping it holy by making it commemorate the finishing of the work of redemption, as well as the work of the' natural creation. And He, therefore, by His Holy Spirit, led an apostle to teach men, in the liberty of the gospel, to rise above, and be superior to those self-complacent and contracted reasonings of the Jews, which, making the precise time, in which it must be kept, essential, fell into the error rebuked in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Let no man, therefore, judge you in. meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is Christ," Paul thus agreeing, in the teachings of his Epistle, with the remarkable declaration of Jesus, that " the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day."
Of this, as we think, very strong evidence from the Bible of the binding obligation of the law of the Sabbath, as a moral, and not a positive or temporary, institution, under the Gospel of Christ, there are two facts, one of a historical, and the other of a natural or physiological kind, strongly corroborative.
The historical fact is, that from the earliest history of the Christian Churches, the first day of
the week has been reverenced by being devoted, as the Lord's day, to be a Sabbath or day of rest from the earthly toils of other days, and passed in the worship and enjoyment of God in Christ.
And the natural or physiological fact is, that the direct testimony of a great number of the most learned and impartial men, sought and given with direct reference to this subject, testimony thus given by statesmen, physicians, lawyers, machinists, merchants, and intelligent men from other departments of life, agrees in affirming, that man and beast most evidently need the rest and recreation of one day in seven, for the restoration and vigor of their health and energy, otherwise exhausted by the perpetual toils and cares of life.
To this it may be added, that when the deistical philosophers, in a nominally Christian nation, not yet a century ago, attempted to abolish the Christian Sabbath, they were so deeply convinced of the natural need of men of some similar institution, that they appointed one day in ten as a season for similar needed rest and recreation, and change of employment, thus bearing their unwilling testimony to the truth that the Sabbath was made for man.
II. With these evidences, then, of its Divine authority, as it is confirmed by the precepts and practice of Jesus and His apostles, and the history of all the Churches of Christ, we are prepared to consider the duty of its " more strict observance."
This implies that its observance among us has been, and is, too greatly neglected, and needs to be more strict. Need I go into details to show that this is true? Is it not evident to every serious observer of the habits of our country and commonwealth and city, that the neglect of the worship of God on the Sabbath, and the positive and unnecessary breaking of its rest, by various practices, has of late years greatly increased?
In our own city and vicinity we are certainly coming very near, under fair and plausible names, to theatrical performances on the evening of the Lord's day; to political harangues during the day and evening, sometimes from the lips of professed preachers of the Gospel; to habitual drives for pleasure; and a great neglect of attendance on the public worship of God, and the hearing of His Word, by private persons.
Without speaking farther of what all know, let us inquire what we ought to do far the more strict observance of the day.
To this inquiry it may be said, generally, that, as it is a day of rest on earth, in which men may, in the use of its means, be preparing to enter into the rest of heaven, and as they are specially encouraged and aided by the day to come unto Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, and find " rest unto their souls," which shall thus prepare them for rest eternal; so, whatever duties lead them most directly and perfectly to rest in Christ must be, so far as practicable, done; and all acts which hinder them from thus coming unto Him, and finding rest unto their souls, on this day of rest, ought to be, so far as practicable, avoided.
In doing these duties, and abstaining from these unnecessary practices, we are ever to keep in mind that the Gospel teaches us that we are in a world of discipline; in which, for our highest good, we are to be continually tried, in our characters and conduct, by questions respecting truth and duty. On this account our path is not, and ought not to be, always and clearly “chalked out for us." Good is not to be done altogether or mainly by law, but by the Gospel. Some men among us are always relying on law too much. They would, in this sense, go back to the " weak and beggarly elements of this world," by specifying in distinct rules what may be done or left undone respecting the forms and institutions of religion, and, of course, in regard to the keeping of the Sabbath, instead of leaving the conduct to be prompted and governed by the intelligence of Christian love. The tendency of such legal action, respecting Christian duty, is to make the manners of men stiff, and suspicious, and censorious; not free, natural, confiding, kind and charitable.
We are ever to remember, that, in respect to all the forms and institutions of religion, we “have been called unto liberty; only we should use not our liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." In regard to the keeping of the Sabbath, therefore, we are to feel, and act as if we felt, that we are “not under law, but under grace." "We are to keep it, from the promptings of supreme love, and ever-operative gratitude and praise to God, in Christ; regarding it not as a yoke, but as a privilege; and well assured that when men are under the influence of the love and service of Jesus, they need not fear that they shall not arrive at clear and satisfactory views of truth and duty, respecting the keeping of the Lord's day.
There ought to be among us a more strict observance of the Sabbath, under the influence of this love and liberty of the Gospel, in OUT public, social, domestic, and personal duties respecting it.
By our PUBLIC duties respecting it, I would be understood to mean the influence we may properly exert on the acts of the government under which we live. It is plain that for its acts, each of us, as a subject of it, can be only indirectly and partly accountable. And this, our accountability, must be proportioned to the degree of influence we can exert in directing its action. This is, in most cases, small in degree, and very limited in extent. To whatever degree and extent it can be effectual, we are accountable, and no farther. But, to that degree and extent, we ought to exert our influence in promoting the public keeping of the Lord's day.
By the truths we embrace, and strive to promote respecting it; by our personal example in keeping it; by the character of the persons we aid in placing in positions of public trust, we can, and ought to strive to, promote its public observance. After having faithfully made such efforts, our personal accountability for what may be done by government, ceases. But whatever influence we can wield ought to be used to the extent of our ability.
In this way the Churches of Christian disciples, and private believers in Jesus, as they increase in numbers and influence in a nation, shall gradually, but surely make the government what the people are; and gradually, but surely, the rulers, of whatever form the government may be, whether despotic or democratic, shall be eventually wise men, ruling in the fear of the Lord, keeping His Sabbaths and reverencing His sanctuary, knowing that He is the Lord. In our own government does not much need to be done, in such ways, to promote the better observance of this holy time?
It is thus, also, with regard to our SOCIAL duties in keeping the Sabbath. In these I would include particularly the acts of the city, or town, or village, in which each of us may reside; and the various circles, whether of organized associations, or of a smaller kind, with which individuals may be connected. In these, much more efficaciously than in any departments of the public government, each person may exert an influence for good. In any official position he may hold, either permanently, or only for a limited time, each private disciple carf, in many ways, directly or indirectly, by his word, his acts, his example, do much to promote the observance of God's Sabbath, and the reverence of His sanctuary. This may be done, in any such bodies as are formed to advance public ends and private interests, like manufacturing companies, or railroad and steamboat associations. In any of those combinations of men where the personal influence, or the vote of an individual, can be intelligently and wisely used, to promote the keeping of the Sabbath, it ought, in conformity with the principles of the Gospel already stated, to be done.
I say, on the principles of the Gospel already stated, meaning by this, those principles which show us that we are under a dispensation of things, in a world of trial, where questions of truth and duty often arise in which it is difficult to decide what course of action, respecting the keeping of His Sabbaths, may be most pleasing to God, and, therefore, of the highest benefit to man.
Whatever may be the decisions of a truly Christian wisdom on such subjects, what I wish to say is this: that all who would keep the Sabbath socially, in the light and liberty of the Gospel, must be prepared to find questions of religious duty sometimes arising, which call not for quick and rash decisions, and stringent laws, but for humble, patient, prayerful watchfulness; and a firmer reliance on the ultimate influence of Christian faith, working by love, in men, than on laws quickly enacted, and sternly enforced. God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. We must have moral courage enough to be kind and forbearing and long-suffering to man in all our zeal for God.
In our DOMESTIC relations, by which are meant those of the family-circle, in our respective households, the influence, good or bad, of every member, in regard to the Sabbath, is most directly exerted by one's self, and felt by others. To this, therefore, the fourth commandment of the law of God directly refers, and is now binding: "In it thou shalt not do any work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." Regard should be had, in all domestic arrangements, to the religious good and bodily rest of servants.
How interesting and instructive it is, thus to have the law of God magnified and made honorable, as it is, by the Gospel, entering, by faith in Christ, our families, and commanding us, in the name of the Lord of the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; thus blessing all the families of the earth by its sacred rest; in which the parents and children, one day in every seven, take sweet counsel in their home, and go to the house of God in company. What a fountain of purity and peace is thus opened, by the arrangement of God, in every household, from which streams of blessed influence shall flow out into all the masses of a nation, and make glad the city of God. “Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord."
In our PERSONAL and private habits, ought there not to be a more strict observance of the Sabbath? In our time of rising in the morning; in the kind of books we read; in the nature of the thoughts and imaginations we indulge; in the regularity and number of the times in which we attend the public worship of God; in the kind of silent, yet great influence we thus exert on all whom we love in our domestic circle, ought there not to be more faithfulness? In prayer to God, and the searching of the Scriptures, ought not each of us to be more faithful, fervent, diligent? Should we not avoid the tendency to indolence, in which, during its hours, we may be tempted to indulge?
There are several very important, practical inferences, which might, were there time, be drawn from this subject, as thus presented.
One of them, were I to attempt to speak of them, would be the evidence it gives of the Di vine nature and authority of Jesus. He is Lord even of the Sabbath day, which day we are commanded to remember and keep holy, in God's eternal law.
But let me only speak, in closing, of the blessed opportunity afforded to every person, in a Christian land, by the weekly recurrence of each Sabbath, for coming unto Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, and finding rest unto the soul! Possibly, it might be said, with truth, that our Lord's frequent cures of the maladies of men, when He was on earth, on the Sabbath day, were designed to direct our attention to this blessed truth. On this day He healed the man with the withered hand; on this day He loosed the woman who " had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself;" on this day He commanded the man who had been waiting a long time at the pool of Bethesda, and had an infirmity thirty and eight years, to rise, take up his bed, and walk; and immediately he was made whole, and took up his bed and walked. “And on the same day was the Sabbath."
It was on the Sabbath day that Jesus made clay, and opened the eyes of the man who was blind from his birth. It was on the Sabbath day that He went into the synagogue, in Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and "stood up for to read; ': and when He had opened the book He found the place where it is written, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." “And He began to say unto them, ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.'”
So now, in our time, He comes by His Word, His preachers, His Spirit, in the rest of every Sabbath day, of which He is the Lord, to heal the diseases of the souls of men; to cause the spiritually blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk; to heal the broken-hearted; to deliver men from the slavery of sin; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Addresses to Churches
By THE CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS OF BOSTON,
Boston Congregational Council.
The following are now published, and ready for delivery:
No. 1. THE RESULT OF COUNCIL. Complete.
No. 2. THE CHRISTIAN'S RECONSECRATION. By Rev. E. K. ALDEN, Pastor of Phillips Church.
No. 3. THE WORLDLINESS OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. By Rev. Dr. WEBB, Pastor of Shawmut Church.
No. 4. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TO UNITE WITH SOME CHURCH, AND THE DUTY OF CHURCH-MEMBERS TO UNITE' WITH THE CHURCH WHERE THEY STATEDLY WORSHIP. By Rev. S. P. FAY, Pastor of Salem Church.
No. 5. THE DUTY OF DAILY SECRET PRAYER and DAILY STUDY OF THE BIBLE. By Rev. J. M. Manning
No. 6. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. By Rev. J. E. Tone.
No. 7. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY' IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN SALVATION. By Rev. Mr. BAKER.
No. 8. THE DUTY OF A MORE STRICT OBSER\ THE SABBATH. Bv Rev. Dr. BLAGDEN.
The remaining Addresses will follow at intervals of about one week
THE SPREAD OF THE CITY AMONG THE POOR, AND THOSE WHO HABITUALLY NEGLECT THE SERVICES OF THE SABBATH By Rev. Dr. DEXTER
THE CHRISTIAN’S DUTY TO WORK FOR OF THE SAVING OF SOULS. By Rev. Mr. BINGHAM.
THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. By Rev. Dr. ADAMS.
THE POWER OF PRAYER Rev. Dr. KIRK.
TAGS: [ChurchMembership]