That the Lord’s day is the Bible Sabbath, admits of clear and certain proof. The argument stands thus: When God gave to man six days of the week for labor, he did expressly reserve unto himself the seventh, on which he placed his blessing in memory of his own act of resting upon that day, and thenceforward, through the Bible, has ever claimed it as his holy day. As he has never put away this sacred day and chosen another, the Sabbath of the Lord is still his holy day. These facts may be traced in the following scriptures. At the close of the Creator’s rest, it is said:—
“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”[412]
After the children of Israel had reached the wilderness of Sin, Moses said to them on the sixth day:—
“To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.”[413]
In giving the ten commandments, the Law-giver thus stated his claim to this day:—
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”[414]
He gives to man the six days on which himself had labored; he reserves as his own that day upon which he had rested from all his work. About eight hundred years after this, God spoke by Isaiah as follows:—
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, ... then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth.”[415]
This testimony is perfectly explicit; the Lord’s day is the ancient Sabbath of the Bible. The Lord Jesus puts forth the following claim:—
“The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”[416]