Among the brief records of the ante-diluvian world, and in the lives of the Patriarchs before Moses, which are given us by the sacred historian, we find traces of a weekly division of time, and intimations that every seventh day was observed as a time of rest and religious worship. The sons of Adam are described as each making an offering unto God: “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord; and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” Now the words, “process of time,” literally mean “at the end of the days,” that is, at the end of a certain number of days,—a very natural expression for the end of a week. And they seem to convey an intimation of the original command to keep the Sabbath as a day of religious worship.
The account of the gift of the manna, [7] which took place in the second month of the Exodus from Egypt, is a very remarkable proof that the seventh day was kept holy, and regarded as a day of rest before the giving of the Law. Every seventh day the Israelites were commanded to gather twice as much manna as on ordinary days, as none fell upon the seventh day; and, contrary to what usually took place, the double quantity which they gathered was miraculously preserved in a state fit for food. Now, in the whole of this account, no precept is given for the observance of the Sabbath day; but it proceeds upon the supposition that the Israelites were well acquainted, both with the institution itself, and with the purposes for which it had been originally given.
2. We now come to what is said upon the Sabbath in the law of the Ten Commandments, which were given by God to Moses, and which are referred to in Scripture as the sum of the moral precepts of God to man. The obligation to keep holy the Sabbath day is repeated in the fourth Commandment. We shall find, from the writings of the New Testament, that our Saviour and His Apostles never allude to the Ten Commandments but as of permanent and universal obligation. “Think not,” says Christ, “that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” [8a] And not only is the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath to be inferred from such general expressions of our Lord but we have His own direct authority for it, when He says, “The Sabbath was made for man,” [8b]—for the race, and so is binding upon all to the end of time.
We might, if it were needful, refer you to the numerous threatenings which are denounced against those who shall violate the Sabbath, and to the blessings which are promised to those who shall keep it holy, which are scattered through the prophetic parts of Scripture, and to the latter of which the words of my text belong; but enough has been said to show that the perpetual obligation to observe a seventh day rests upon no less an authority than that of a Divine command.
3. The Christian Sabbath is the first day of the week. Intimations of the reason of the change from the seventh to the first day of the week are to be found in the fact that the glories of Judaism had passed away with the advent of the Messiah, and were succeeded by a new and better dispensation; and it may have been deemed a fitting honour to mark the commencement of this new dispensation, by the consecration in the Church of Christ of that day on which the mystery of human redemption was accomplished. It was on the first day of the week that the Saviour rose again, and so was “declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.” [9a] It was at the same time, a week afterwards, that He appeared to the disciples when they were assembled together, and confirmed by His presence the doubting faith of St. Thomas. This day, too, was marked by the descent of the Holy Ghost at the feast of Pentecost, when Christ was first preached by the Apostles to the Gentile world.
We find from the New Testament and the earliest ecclesiastical records, that the primitive Christians always observed this day during the lifetime of the Apostles. They seem to have assembled on the first day of the week to break bread, that is, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and to receive religious instruction; and the custom had doubtless become universal, as it was observed in Asia Minor. [9b] St. John [9c] appears to have kept this day with peculiar solemnity, and from him we learn that it had obtained a particular designation in the Church—“the Lord’s day,” a name which it has ever since retained.
In addition to this evidence, we may remark that some of the early Fathers refer to this day as the period set apart for religious worship, and allude to the difference between keeping the first day of the week and the seventh, especially on the ground of its being the day of our Saviour’s resurrection.
Such, very briefly, are the general arguments for the observance of the Sabbath, derived from the words of the original institution; from the practice of the patriarchs before the giving of the Law; from the express injunction contained in the Ten Commandments, which, by the authority of our Lord and His Apostles, are binding upon Christians; and from the practice of the primitive Church during the lifetime of the Apostles, and in the ages which immediately succeeded.
It is not needful that I should dwell upon them at greater length; and we proceed now to examine in what manner the Sabbath should be kept holy.
II. The words of the Prophet, to which I have called your attention, are primarily addressed to the Jews, but it involves no accommodation of Scripture to consider them as applying to ourselves, since the obligation to keep holy the Sabbath day rests equally upon us, as it did upon them. They embrace many particulars of duty, and contain a promise, on God’s part, to bless with honour and temporal prosperity those who shall reverence His day.