Out we went; and my thoughts soon turned from the scenes I have been lamenting, to the satisfactory feeling of having, in both my countries, such dear and good friends.
21st. Sunday.—In the course of a conversation this morning about the Sabbath day, a lady, who is here on a visit, remarked that it was the idea of some people, that the Sabbath, having been instituted at the time that the Israelites received the Ten Commandments, is not binding on Christians, any more than the other Levitical institutions.
In order to show what a mistaken idea that is, my uncle read to us the extract which I am going to copy here.
“It is a great mistake to consider the Sabbath as a mere festival of the Jewish church, deriving its whole sanctity from the Levitical law. The religious observation of the seventh day is included, in the Decalogue, among our first duties; but the reason assigned for the injunction is general, and has no relation to the particular circumstances of the Israelites, or to the particular relation in which they stood to God as his chosen people. The creation of the world was an event equally interesting to the whole human race; and the acknowledgment of God as our Creator is a duty, in all ages and countries, incumbent on mankind.
“The terms of the ordinance plainly describe it as an institution of an earlier age—‘Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and set it apart,’ which is the true meaning of hallowed it. These words express a past time. It is not said, Wherefore the Lord now blesses the seventh day, and sets it apart, but, Wherefore he did bless it, and set it apart in times past; and he now requires that you, his chosen people, should be observant of that ancient institution.
“In confirmation of this fact, we find, by the 16th chapter of Exodus, that the Israelites were already acquainted with the Sabbath, and had been accustomed to a strict observance of it, before Moses received the tables of the law at Sinai. For, when the manna was first given for their nourishment in the wilderness, they were commanded to lay by, on the sixth day, a sufficient portion for the succeeding day. ‘To-morrow,’ said Moses, ‘is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: on that day ye shall not find it in the field; for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day bread for two days.’ He mentions the Sabbath as a divine command, with which the people were well acquainted; for he alleges the well-known sanctity of the day, to account for the extraordinary supply of manna on the preceding day. But the appointment of the Sabbath, to which his words allude, must have been earlier than the appointment of the law, of which no part had yet been given. For this first gathering of manna was in the second month of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; and they did not arrive at Sinai, where the law was given, till the third month.
“An institution of this antiquity and importance could derive no part of its sanctity from the authority of the Mosaic law; and the abrogation of that law no more releases the worshippers of God from a due observation of the Sabbath, than it cancels the injunction of filial piety, or the prohibition of theft or murder.
“The worship of the Christian church is properly to be considered as a restoration of the patriarchal church in its primitive simplicity and purity; and of the patriarchal worship, the Sabbath was one of the noblest and simplest rites. As the Sabbath was of earlier institution than the religion of the Jews, so it necessarily survives the extinction of the Jewish law, and makes a part of Christianity.
“It differs from all other ordinances, of similar antiquity, and is a part of the rational religion of man, in every stage and state of his existence, till he shall attain that happy rest of which the Sabbath is a type.
“Let us remember, always, that to mankind in general, and to us Christians in particular, the proper business of that day is the worship of God in public assemblies. Private devotion is the Christian’s daily duty; but the peculiar duty of the Sabbath is public worship. Every man’s conscience must direct him what portion of the remainder of the Sabbath should be allotted to private devotion, useful duties, and sober recreation. And, perhaps, a better general rule cannot be laid down than this—that the same proportion of the Sabbath, on the whole, should be devoted to religious exercises, public and private, as each individual would employ, on any other day, in ordinary business.”