WHEN a ship is going into battle the decks are cleared for action. Everything that can be moved out of the way which may interfere with the free movement of the men manning the ship, or which might prove injurious to them in the event of the ship being hit, is cleared out of the way. A similar care and foresight is demanded of those who enter into action with the enemies of the Sabbath Day. There are various lines along which the defenders of the Sabbath may move in meeting the enemy in the gate, but after considering the whole question seriously and after having read a considerable amount of literature on the question, we are profoundly convinced that in asserting that the Sabbath is a Divine institution having its binding authority on all classes and conditions of men from the fact that it is sanctioned by universal immutable law. We take our stand behind these impregnable lines and from this high vantage ground we go forth to meet the enemy or await his attacks. We live in an age when the rights of man are stressed to breaking point, while his duty is well nigh overlooked. The prevalent rebellion against heaven has confused the relative importance of the rights of man and the rights of God—emphasising the former and neglecting the latter. But in this welter of confusion it is time that the servants of Jehovah raised their voice like a trumpet and let the people know that Law universal and unchanging is reigning supreme. The fact that the spirit of lawlessness in transgressors will call forth the mocking laugh and the scornful look need not worry the defenders of a law that is holy, just, and good. Their success may be disconcerting, but after all it has its definite limitations and it is less even than the success with which men have checked the flow of the tide by embankments thrown up at considerable expense. He would be a foolish man indeed who would credit the Earl of Sutherland, who built The Mound across the Dornoch Firth and checked the flow of the tide into Strathfleet, that he had mastered the laws that regulate the ebb and flow of the tidal waters. In every inlet of the sea the tides ebb and flow as they did before. There is something very majestic and imperative in the march of law; the defiance of it by a few or by millions does not alter its course. It brings a blessing to the law-keeper and pays a penalty to the transgressor, however long that penalty may be delayed. A medical professor once addressing his students warned them: “Remember, gentlemen, you cannot trifle with nature’s laws, for as sure as you break them it will exact the penalty some day.” The same is true about God’s moral law, in which the law of the Sabbath is embedded. The enemies of the Sabbath are confronted with a much more formidable force than natural or human law; they are attempting the eternally hopeless task of setting aside the law of Heaven.
The Moral Law, to take our Shorter Catechism definition, is “the rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience.” The Larger Catechism definition amplifies this in its definition: “The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding everyone to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man; promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it.” It is common to speak of the Ten Commandments (“commonly called moral,” says the Confession), as the Moral Law, but strictly speaking the Commandments are a summary of the Moral Law; hence the Shorter Catechism tells us: “The Moral Law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.” But even this view of the Ten Commandments in no way invalidates the claim made for moral law that it is universal and unchanging as applicable to these Commandments. We do not purpose in this article to enter on a discussion of the rejection of the Law as no longer binding on Christians so vehemently asserted by the Antinomians in Luther’s time and later during the 17th century; nor do we purpose dealing with the position taken up by the Neo-nomians (that is the “New Law” men) in the beginning of the 18th century in England. These views have had a recrudescence in the views held by Darby on the Law and adopted by the Plymouth Brethren and so extravagantly set forth by the advocates of “Dispensational Truth” as they term it. These views have done immense mischief to the cause of Sabbatarianism, but we cannot discuss them meantime, and mention them in passing as a warning to our readers to be on their guard against them. They are plausibly and subtly presented, and have all the appearance of Scripture, but are in direct opposition to its plain teaching.
The honour put upon the Ten Commandments to show their universality and supremacy is very striking. (1) God proclaimed them with His own voice, in the hearing of all the people, amid thunders and lightnings. This was not the case with any of the temporary ordinances of Judaism—such as Passover, Jubilee, nor Day of Atonement, important though all these were. And in connection with this proclamation it is significantly added: “These words [the Commandments] the Lord spake unto all your assembly . . . and He added no more” (Deut. v. 22). It has been well said: “He did not put this unexampled honour on any of the shadows of Judaism. ‘The Lord your God talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire’ and ‘the talk,’ thus conducted, was rigorously restricted to the Ten Commandments. Could anything indicate more solemnly their unique pre-eminence?” This event is dwelt on as unparalleled in the world’s history, as the following impressive words of Moses indicate: “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it, Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” (Deut. iv. 32, 33). Time and space are challenged to produce such a marvel.
(2) Not only did God’s voice speak the Ten Commandments but His “finger” wrote them twice on tables of stone—they were graven on the rock as it were by the finger of God. No chisel fashioned by man cut them out in stone, but God’s finger wrote them and the hard material became plastic at the Creator’s touch to receive the impression of His law. No prophecy, no psalm, etc., received such signal honour; for though inspired by the Holy Spirit they were written with the fingers of men.
(3) When the Tabernacle was erected and the Ark of the Covenant was put in the Holiest of All, the Ten Commandments found a lodgment within. “I put the tables in the ark which I had made,” said Moses to the children of Israel, “and there they be, as the Lord commanded me” (Deut. x. 5). No merely Jewish temporary law had this honour.
Signal honour was thus placed upon the Ten Commandments by the Lawgiver, and any disrespect shown to any of these Commandments is an indication, not of larger liberty under the Gospel, but of rebellion prompted by the Lawless One. Other aspects of the subject must be left over meantime, but we hope to deal with them in future articles, and in concluding this article we stress the fact that the Ten Commandments which contain the law of the Sabbath were given a place of honour not granted to any temporary Jewish institution, however important it might have been.