“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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” (Exodus xx. 8).
THE Sabbath Day rest was instituted in the garden of Eden. It was the first whole day man enjoyed after God created him. Although no mention is made directly of the Sabbath Day as a day for rest and worship, there is indirectly in the case of Cain and Abel’s sacrifices: “And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel, he brought also of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.” The expression, “in process of time,” means at the end of days, which may mean either at the end of the days they remained with their father (as we can trace down through the succeeding ages that the father acted priest in his own family), and that they began then to act as priests in their own homes. The end of days, we firmly believe, meant also the end of the week, or the Sabbath.
From the manner in which reference is made to the Sabbath in the 16th Chapter of Exodus, it must have been lost sight of and forgotten during the bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt. The divine record of the event reads thus:—”And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came to Moses. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord has said, ‘To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.'” This is one reason why this commandment is prefaced by the word, “Remember,” and, indeed, we as a generation have much need of considering seriously the obligation which this charge of Almighty God will one day mean to us should we forget our duty as to this commandment.
Let us consider now a few things in connection with this commandment of God’s moral law. May the Holy Spirit guide us in our thoughts and words.
I. Let us consider the perpetually binding obligation of this commandment.
(1) It was declared by the mouth of God from the top of Mount Sinai on that never-to-be-forgotten day in the hearing of all the children of Israel. We read:—”And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. . . . And the mount was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire . . . and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” The fourth commandment is a part of the expressions of the voice of God that day. It was placed in the middle of the moral law, not only as God expressed it, but also as He wrote it by His own finger on the tables of stone. We have it in the very words which came out of the mouth of God that day.
No sane man will deny God’s right to make and declare a law to show His rational, responsible creatures the rule of their duty towards Him, and towards one another. This is exactly what the moral law contains. No man, having his reason unimpaired, will deny that God has power enough to demand obedience to His law, and in the case of disobedience to punish the transgressor even with everlasting destruction. None will deny these things but “the fool who says in his heart there is no God”; but even the fool will not deny it at the Great Day, and before the Judge and the great white throne.
Let any man consider the precepts of God’s moral law and he will feel convinced that they are unchangeable in their nature. It will never be right for sons or daughters to disobey and dishonour their parents. Neither can it ever be right for a man to kill, commit adultery, steal, slander, or covet. The same thing is true concerning the first table of the moral law. It can never be but sin that any of His creatures should have any false God; or worship the true God by images; or blaspheme God’s great and terrible name by taking it into their lips in vain; or transgress the fourth commandment by doing any work on that day save those of necessity and mercy.
The moral law cannot and will not be abrogated. Our Lord says—”Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Notice that this fulfilment will not be consummated “till heaven and earth pass.” So it would be well for its transgressors to make sure that God has abrogated the fourth commandment before they dare profane it. But they will search in vain for its annulment in any place in God’s Word. It is written in God’s statute book, and while it remains there, its transgressors are in danger of being apprehended, and charged before the Great Judge, and condemned as sinners against God’s law. This takes place in the case of every Sabbath desecrator when death lands him in the presence of God in eternity. “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” But no.
The Papacy, when it introduced images into its worship as a body, removed the Second Commandment from the manuals which were placed in the hands of its people. If it had left it, its followers would have read—”Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them,” etc. It, therefore, removed it, because it prohibited the idolatrous form of worship which it purposed to impose upon the people. So the millions who adhere to the Papacy are idolators, and will be condemned for that sin at the day of final judgment.
There is now a supreme effort made by Satan and his servants to banish the Sabbath Day. Very few are met with anywhere who hold that the Fourth Commandment is an integral part of God’s moral law, and that such as transgress it, and such as will continue transgressing it to the end, will be punished with eternal death. They will tell one that it was only a Jewish institution, and that we as Christians are not bound to observe it. Some will allow that it should be observed for morning worship in our churches; while others deny that they are under any obligation to keep it holy, or to refrain from doing work on it. On account of these sophistries, Sabbath profanation has come in like a flood into industry of every description in this country, and also into the churches everywhere. Men go to their work on this holy day without a qualm of conscience, and ministers, office-bearers, and members travel by trains and street cars which are run for the very purpose of earning money. All seem to forget, or to disbelieve, that “sin is the transgression of the law, and that the wages of sin is death.” This flood has risen so high that one reads in speeches made ostensibly in defence of Sabbath observation that the speaker does not desire to go back to the puritanical manner in which the Sabbath was observed in the past. We are afraid that such statements are made to avoid being considered narrow and bigoted by such as hate holiness, or puritanism, on Sabbath or week days. The desire after popularity is the moving cause of such expressions.
An effort is being made to prove that the Christian Sabbath is unscriptural, and that the seventh day should be observed and not the first. (1) The seventh day was instituted by God to commemorate the work of creation. This day was the Sabbath Day during the Old Testament economy. It was the Son of God that created the heavens and the earth, and all that they contain, as it is written—”Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. . . And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thy hands.” (2) It was the Son in our nature, that suffered, obeyed, and died for His own elect people. This work of redemption He finished on the morning of the Resurrection. “There remaineth therefore a rest” (Sabbath-keeping) to the people of God. (The word translated “rest” in the original is “sabbatismos,” Sabbath-keeping.) For He that entered into His rest hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His.” Who is said to cease from His works in this scripture? Who but Christ, and the Sabbath-keeping that remains to the people of God now commemorates the work of the Son of God by which He laid the foundation of the new creation, which shall not pass away like the old creation. That the Church, especially among the Gentiles, in the apostolic age and ever since held the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath is manifest in the Scriptures of the New Testament.
On the evening of the Resurrection day Christ met with His disciples, Thomas being not then present. Eight days after that He came into their midst and cured Thomas of his unbelief. Again, we find that at Troas “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them, ready to depart on the morrow” (Acts xx. 7). Again, we find in I. Cor. xvi. 1-2, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia.” This shows that these churches assembled together on the first day of the week, and that an order was given them to make a collection for the poor on that day. In Revelation we read—”I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. i. 10). This shows that the first day of the week was called “the Lord’s Day.”
There was no cause why the terms of the Fourth Commandment should be altered; for the command is, “Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh day.” The seventh day after six days of labour is quite in agreement with the terms of the Fourth Commandment. I think every fair-minded man will feel convinced that notwithstanding the Jews met in the synagogues on the Sabbath day as before, the Gentile believers kept the Lord’s Day, i.e., the Christian Sabbath, from the beginning. If further proof were necessary, the many occasions upon which the Lord sent the Holy Spirit since the day of Pentecost to bless His word to poor sinners on the Lord’s Day should satisfy any reasonable person that the Lord still blesses this day of rest.
II. Let us now consider who are commanded to keep it holy.
(1) We have the father of the family commanded strictly to keep the Sabbath holy, and also to see to it that neither son, nor daughter, man-servant, nor maid-servant, nor his beast of burden, nor the strangers within his gates did any work on it save works of necessity and mercy. If the father should profane the Sabbath and ordered his son, etc., to do any unnecessary work on that day, the son, or daughter, or man-servant, or maid-servant, etc., should not obey him, for God alone is the ruler of man’s conscience. Each one should tell father, or master, “if you transgress the law of God contained in the fourth commandment, you have no right to ask me to do it; for God commands me not to do any work on the Sabbath day. You should remember that sin is the transgression of the law, and that the wages of sin is death.”
(2) The magistrates of our cities and towns are called city fathers, and are bound to obey the fourth commandment, and to see to it that all within their gates, or as far as their jurisdiction extends, shall keep it. They are to keep it holy in their own families, as regards their own sons and daughters and servants, and also to restrain all, even strangers, or aliens, who may live within their bounds from desecrating God’s holy day. I know the most of those in authority in our cities and towns will scoff at the idea, yea rather the fact, of their responsibility in this matter. But will God, who will be, and who is now, their judge, be put off by a scornful laugh at Sabbath Day profanation, or will it serve their turn to say with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” I am very sure that parents, masters, and magistrates will see their desperate madness in desecrating the Lord’s Day themselves, and in giving their consent to others to do so either in time or in eternity. The Sabbath-breaker may walk about with a high head, laugh at such as make conscience of doing their best to keep it holy; but you will yet see that scoffer, who is a tyrant in commanding to profane it with his head low enough when he will have to answer for his conduct to the august Judge of eternity. O what pangs of agony will seize the conscience of these men on that day! “Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”
(3) Kings, who should be nursing fathers to the Church of God, their Counsellors, both Houses of Parliament, and all in authority under them, are bound to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to prohibit any one who may be within their gates, i.e., so far as their authority reaches, from doing any work save that of necessity and mercy. This will include strangers, or aliens, as well as the natives of this kingdom.
How are men in the highest places of authority in this nation keeping the Sabbath day? The fact is, with very few exceptions, they themselves are the chief transgressors, and their example is followed by the vast majority of the people. Instead of making laws to safeguard the fourth commandment, they allow all manner of profanation to go on without any restraint, notwithstanding the many salutary enactments on their statute books for the preservation of the Sabbath; statutes enacted by men of conscience, who had the fear of God in their hearts, and who were the builders of the British nation. But the Author of the moral law has no respect of persons. He is King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He will assuredly make kings and lords to give an account of their Sabbath desecration; but the fact that they do not do their duty will not excuse others who may now be following their example. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve God with fear.”
Nehemiah set a good example before all governors, as we find him recording:—”In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wines, grapes and figs, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city. . . . Why lodge ye without the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you.” This he said to the aliens from Tyre, so that they came no more. Is this not a really good example for the Government of this country? May the Lord open their eyes, and give them grace and courage to do their duty. For God has not changed in His regard for the Sabbath, and He will assuredly, in His own time, punish men and nations for desecrating it.
The Fourth Commandment is more binding in the religious sphere, if that be possible, than it is in the temporal and moral. The Church of Christ has obligations relative to the Sabbath Day. The records of that Church in the past prove that the true servants of Christ realised their responsibility as to this matter.
(1) Kirk Sessions are bound to keep the Sabbath Day holy within their gates, i.e., their congregations respectively. They are not to admit to Church privileges any who are employed in doing any work save works of necessity or mercy on God’s holy day. They are not to consider the pecuniary interests of men, who endeavour to bring works of necessity within the range of loss to their own purse; or who use the argument that they are compelled to work or to lose it; or who think that the guilt of it falls on the employer, but not on them. Works of necessity and mercy are (a) to attend to the sick on the Lord’s Day; (b) to feed and give drink to man, or beasts that are hand-fed; (c) to attend the outward and ordinary means of grace as enjoined: “Cease not the assembling of yourselves together.” If the means be at a distance beyond the reach of the man except he takes his horse, we see no reason why he should not do so: for if it is the man’s duty to go himself, we cannot see why he should not be allowed to open his gate for the beast of burden on that day. Motor cars have come to stay with us, and they have taken the place of the horse and conveyance. We have now come to the conclusion that a man may have the right to use his car provided the distance is too far for him to walk to God’s house, or for a doctor to visit cases of serious sickness. We consider also that such men as use their cars for hire on week days, but who do not go out for hire on the Lord’s Day, may, if they like, charge for the oil consumed on the journey, but we cannot agree to their charging any other fare for passengers on God’s holy day. Such as use their cars, etc., for earning money on the Sabbath must not be employed on the Sabbath by Free Presbyterians, or even on the week day so far as they can avoid doing so. (d) Navigating a ship at sea, providing they sailed not from port on the Sabbath, and providing that no unnecessary work is done on board on the Lord’s Day, is a work of necessity. (e) Watching or keeping fires alive in public works, which depend upon steam-power or fire-power during the week, we consider necessary, providing that no other work be done but the keeping of fires from becoming extinguished. (f) Policing a city or town, and lighting lamps on streets or stairs, are necessary to be done, as otherwise life and property would not be safe.
The running of trains and street cars and ‘buses on the Lord’s Day which are run for monetary purposes is a direct violation of the Fourth Commandment. Such as travel by these on the Lord’s Day ought not to receive Church privileges from our Kirk-Sessions. Since 1896 there has been a resolution on the records of the Kirk-Session of St Jude’s, Glasgow, to the effect “that no one who worked, or travelled by street cars or trains on the Lord’s Day would receive Church privileges from the Session.” This has been adhered to ever since, and there have been no complaints against it after the first year of its operation. If it should be relaxed now, as some demand (none of them in St Jude’s, I am thankful to say) I am convinced that it would appear to our people south and north as a long step of backsliding by the Free Presbyterian Church. The Synod’s finding on the subject shows that this is the unanimous judgment of all our ministers in Scotland, and of all our office-bearers and people. Consequently, it is the duty of our Kirk-Sessions to see to it that no one who works on the Lord’s Day, or who travels by trains or street cars, or Sabbath-breaking ‘buses, shall receive baptism or the Lord’s Supper from them.
Some use sophistry of this description, that they themselves would not work, or travel by trains or street cars, etc., on the Lord’s Day, but that the Synod should not debar from church privileges such as would use them. God’s Word says:—”Thou shalt not suffer sin on thy neighbours.” The real meaning of such an argument is that the Synod should consent to allow their people to do that which they (these sophists) feel to be sin in their own conscience. If that be not so, why do they say that they would not do it themselves? Such arguments are devoid of any real force in face of the terms of the Fourth Commandment, and integrity of conscience.
Should any Kirk-Session allow their people to travel by such God-dishonouring means to Church or otherwise on the Lord’s Day and extend to them the privileges of the Church, the Presbytery is bound to restrain it within their gates, that is, within their bounds. They have full powers to bring such a Session to an account, and to deal with recalcitrants in accordance with the law of the Church, even to the length of deposition. Each individual who may feel aggrieved by the decisions of Kirk-Session or Presbytery can appeal to the Synod for final decision. This is as it should be, in order to deal justly, in accordance with God’s Word and the law of the Church, in every case.
The Synod is bound to deal with every case or matter that comes before them. In the cases of laxity as regards breaches of the moral law, they are to see to it that no one guilty of transgressing it, shall, without repentance, confession, and reformation, receive the privileges of the Church. Transgressions of the fourth commandment should not be, and are not to be, connived at. This duty becomes more imperative on account of the fact that “the enemy has come in like a flood” of Sabbath desecration into this sinful generation, and that those who ought to be shields against it in the State and Churches have collapsed before it. A very determined effort is now being made in order that barriers raised against Sabbath desecration by our Synod should be swept away. The Synod should realise that this effort is made, not in accordance with the clear requirements of the Fourth Commandment, nor with the creed and constitution of the Church of the Reformation in Scotland; which creed and constitution we have bound ourselves, by the most solemn vows, to maintain. The statements of the Confession of Faith are as follows:—”As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him: which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparation of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy” (Confession of Faith, chap. xxi., sects. vii. and viii.).
The thin end of a wedge is being driven into the Free Presbyterian Church so as to split it on this question. It is well known that a thin wedge will not split a log; but a thick one may do it. Every man and woman who add to the wedge their support are doing what they can to split the Church. I appeal to all concerned to consider seriously as in the presence of God whether they desire to open the flood-gates of Sabbath desecration into our Church. All who are determined to have the laxity claimed can easily find churches in Scotland or elsewhere in which they may have it to their heart’s content.
III. Let us consider the punishment which follows the sin of Sabbath desecration.
The Jews were very guilty of Sabbath desecration as well as of their contempt of God’s prophets, and of defiling God’s house. So we find on holy record the causes why God destroyed by sword, famine, and pestilence, the greatest number of them, and sent the few that remained to Babylon for seventy years:—”Moreover, all the chief priests and all the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His word, and misused His prophets until the wrath of God arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore, He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; He gave them all into his hand. . . . To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil three score and ten years” (II. Chron. xxxvi. 14-21).
We have truly been guilty as a people in what used to be called Sabbath-loving Scotland, but may now be called Sabbath-hating Scotland of the very sins charged in the above catalogue against the Jews. Let us take serious notice of the fact that these things are written for our admonition. We have to deal with the same holy and just God, who is unchangeable in His hatred to sin, and who will not connive at the sins in us for which He punished others so severely. The desecration of the Sabbath was of the first magnitude in His estimation; for the land itself had to get rest from the desecrating feet of old and young during seventy years. Let us beware that our Sabbath desecration, etc., if not repented of, will assuredly bring down the wrath of God upon us as a country; and let Free Presbyterians take to heart that God will not connive at sin in them in the day of judgment.
The French acted as the Jews did, they persecuted to death on Bartholomew’s day the people of God, and did cast away the Sabbath, as those who were there during the Great War have reported to us. What is the effect? France is a nation of atheists. “God has given them over to believe a lie; because they received not the truth in the love of it.” The bulk of that nation are going to a lost eternity in their atheism and Sabbath desecration. We are following hard in their footsteps as a country. Therefore, let us beware that God will take away the gospel and the Sabbath from us, unless timely repentance may prevent such a terrible judgment:—”If thou turn away the foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasures on my Holy Day: and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord: and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah lviii. 13, 14).