John Love
1. I have these commands:
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22). “This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 3:23).
2. I have these promises:
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:14,15). “If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it” (Jn 14:14). “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:21). “I will pour upon the house of David . . . the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced” (Zec 12:10).
3. These effects will flow from the right contemplation of Christ’s sufferings:
“We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). “God forbid, that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal 6:14).
^1Taken, with editing, from Love’s Memorials, vol 1. It is dated 19 October 1776.
The Day of Worship^1
A Review Article by Matthew Vogan
This is not simply one more book on the principle of keeping the Sabbath. That doctrine is well summarised in The Shorter Catechism, Question 61. Neither does the book primarily focus on practical issues relating to the Fourth Commandment. The author maintains that widespread rejection of Sabbath-keeping is a symptom of other major problems. Wrong attitudes towards the law of God and the world prevail. These must be addressed to prepare the way for accepting the biblical concept of Sabbath-keeping. In short, the Puritan, biblical Sabbath will never be adopted until Puritan attitudes to the Christian life are understood and accepted as scriptural.
The book seeks to address “the primary underlying issues behind the widespread neglect of the Sabbath Day” (p 2). It responds to those who “have dismissed this viewpoint out of hand, as unwarranted from Scripture, legalistic, and inconsistent with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The book is about much more than the Sabbath itself. It addresses “significant issues such as the kind of obedience required by the gospel, the relation of the believer to an unbelieving world, the relationship between the law and the gospel, and the focus of our hope of eternal life” (p 4). The whole purpose of the book could be well summarised in the words of J C Ryle: “Vital religion never flourishes where the Sabbath is not well kept” (p 143).
The book begins by outlining the importance of Sabbath-keeping as emphasised in Scripture. As a creation ordinance it is as fundamental to society as marriage and work. The author emphasises how often the Sabbath is stressed in Scripture. In particular, it is often the litmus test of backsliding. It is “one of the greatest causes of the weakness of the Church and serves as a lightning rod that attracts the judgement of God to churches and nations” (p 8).
Yet “Reformed” Churches in the USA treat it as a peripheral issue. According to the author, there is a general acceptance amongst them that the Fourth Commandment remains binding. Yet they believe it is only breached by volunteering for secular employment on the Lord’s Day. It must be genuinely shocking to some to learn that in 1853 the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the USA declared: “A Church without the Sabbath is apostate” (quoted p 12). The author engages with and effectively counters R C Sproul’s “anti-Puritan” interpretation of the concluding verses of Isaiah 58 and shows that recreation is prohibited on the day as contrary to its spirit and purpose. The practical implications of “not finding thine own pleasure” or “speaking thine own words” on God’s holy day are drawn out for life in contemporary society.
It is no surprise that this view of Sabbath-keeping seems like a spiritual endurance test to the average Christian today. “Striving to keep the Sabbath Day holy may reveal that we are out of shape spiritually. Worldliness, or earthly mindedness may be the underlying cause” (p 65). Sabbath-keeping exposes the extent to which worldliness has gained upon us. In this section the author also refutes the idea that Sabbath-keeping is unnecessary because of the slogan: “All of life is worship”.
The author explores the theme of godly living and separation from the world. He emphasizes that the Westminster position on Sabbath-keeping cannot survive in a worldly church. He uses an apt, pithy turn of phrase to underline this point: “Sabbath-keeping either causes the church to flee from worldliness, or worldliness causes the church to abandon the Sabbath” (p 89). “Observing the Sabbath as a day of worship to the Lord must either begin killing the worldliness dwelling in the hearts of God’s people, or it will uncover it to an extent they have never known before.” No wonder it is “so painful to many, because it places a firm finger on a besetting sin that mars the entirety of their Christian lives” (p 91). “Keeping the Sabbath as a day of worship will either help prevent hypocrisy in religion or it will help expose it” (p 90). This should cause us all much searching self-examination.
Chapter 6 deals with the Reformed application of law as central to this question. He shows that it is scriptural to see the Commandments as both positive and negative in purpose. People can sin in thought, word and deed.
“Some General Practical Observations” are introduced in the next chapter. The chapter is comparatively brief and hints at miscellaneous issues such as preparing the night before the Sabbath, what best facilitates worship, and the priority of corporate worship. The allegation of legalism is addressed and the term accurately defined. He shows that it is either justification by the works of the law, sanctification by the works of the law, or adding to or taking from the law of God. It “cannot refer to the careful and particular keeping of God’s law” (p 126). Antinomianism (refusing to be under the law) is in fact “a subspecies of legalism” (p 137). Both regard the law as only a covenant of works. The gospel requires joyful obedience and love to the law of God, in dependence upon the Spirit of grace. If “a man spent one-seventh of his
life in a foreign culture . . . he could not return to his own country without weaving something foreign into all he said and did” (p 145). A Sabbath in communion with God is a day spent in heaven; the influence of this queen of days upon our lives ought to be evident.
There are two appendices. The first is B B Warfield’s excellent defence of the perpetuity of the Sabbath, rooted in Paul’s epistles and the words of Christ. In particular, he draws vital truths from the way in which Paul applies the rest of the Ten Commandments. The second appendix is Mr McGraw’s review of Keeping the Sabbath Today? by Jay E Adams. We were not familiar with this book, but the attitude to the law of God and the Old Testament revealed by Adams is deeply shocking. It is solemn to learn that one of the reasons that Adams wrote the book was to enable anti-Sabbatarians to take their ordination vows with “greater confidence”.
The Day of Worship is a robust yet accessible resource that can yield benefit. The chapters are concise and contain much in little. In some cases they are self-contained in their treatment of a subject. There is a direct style of engagement with the reader. It is more unique and hard-hitting than the title would suggest on face value.
There are, however, one or two areas that are a great disappointment. One of these relates to Sabbath public transport. The author is clear that it is contrary to the Fourth Commandment to engage others to work on our behalf. This is expressly forbidden within the Commandment itself: neither “thy manservant nor thy maidservant” (Ex 20:10). The author does not, however, apply this with consistency. “Is it not strange,” he asks, “when Christians do not hesitate to hire pilots and flight attendants to break the Sabbath for them?” (p 103). Only pages later we read that “though patronising the labour of others on the Sabbath is wrong, men’s consciences differ whether or not it is lawful to use public transportation on the Sabbath, provided that it is the only means of attending corporate worship” (p 109). The author recognises that there “is only one legitimate answer to such questions, yet the answers are not always easy to determine, and brethren must exercise charity and patience toward one another in these cases”.
Clearly, however, engaging such means on the Sabbath is “wrong on the part of the payee, because, without reference, implied or expressed, to what the Fourth Commandment prohibits, on the one hand, or allows, on the other, he, as a contracting party, carries forward into the business of the Lord’s Day the same mercenary aims, the same working conditions, and the same contract terms which he lawfully and necessarily employs on the six days during which, God says, ‘Thou shalt do all thy work’; and wrong on the part of the payer, because, as the other contracting party, by availing himself of
the service, and by paying the stipulated fare, he voluntarily, and for the most part, cheerfully accommodates himself to these aims and conditions and accepts these terms. Nor can any amount or species of motive serve to make it right.”^2
It is sad that the author’s charity and patience is less extensive to those who seek to be consistent on this matter. He refers the fact that Professor John Murray was unable to pursue licensing in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, since he wished to allow others to travel by public transport on the Sabbath. This was something that in conscience he could not himself do. The author then comments: “Sadly some will always lean toward an extra-biblical pharisaism” (p 23). This is a very strong, unsubstantiated charge indeed. The core of the matter is whether or not use of transport run for commercial gain on the Sabbath is a breach of the Fourth Commandment. It is worth noticing that notable ministers of the past such as J C Ryle, R Murray M’Cheyne, James Begg and John Kennedy were staunchly united against public transport on the Sabbath.
To shy away from the difficult applications of the Commandment will, in fact, undermine the consistency of our whole approach and encourage people to search for loopholes where they wish to find them. To leave this question open is foolish and dangerous. Would the author condone taking a Sabbath flight (run by a commercial airline) for the purposes of attending, or perhaps leading, corporate worship? If not, how can one condone the drivers, attendants, operators and owners of public transport run on the Sabbath who are employed by those who travel to corporate worship?
In a different context, the author quotes an apt remark by William Plumer: “He who is not prepared to stand in a minority of one, with a majority of millions against him, will not keep a good conscience respecting the Lord’s Day” (p 126). It may be of interest to learn that Samuel Miller led the 1836 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US in condemning Sabbath public transport as tending to “disgrace the church of God” and making those who used it to be “partakers in other men’s sins”.^3 In 1855 the Presbyterian Board of Publication published the title, Monitory Letters to Church Members,^4 which condemned Sabbath public transport as “a systematic violation of God’s holy day” (pp 51-55). Presbyterians also promoted strict laws in Pittsburgh in 1859 prohibiting Sabbath public transport.
To take refuge in the assertion that one would not travel by Sabbath
public transport but could not condemn others for doing so is, as Rev Neil Cameron pointed out, a form of sophistry. “God’s Word says: ‘Thou shalt not suffer sin on thy neighbour’. 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 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.”
We are pleased that the Bible version quoted throughout is the AV. McGraw is, however, critical at times of particular renderings adopted by that translation. One example is in Hebrews 4:11, where he believes unbelief should be disobedience (p 150). John Owen persuasively defends the AV translation of this word in his comments on Hebrews 3:18. A footnote on John 1:18 (p 152) suggests that the author does not have complete sympathy with the providentially-preserved Received Text underlying the AV. These are important points but this book can still prove profitable, if read with discernment. We hope that it will help to distinguish the precious (the glory of God through His appointed day of worship) from the vile (love of the world and hatred of God’s law). How desperately our generation needs what Thomas Watson calls “our spiritual harvest days”!
^1The Day of Worship: Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath, by Ryan M McGraw, published by Reformation Heritage Books, paperback, 208 pages. Available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom at £10.99.
^2“Statement in reference to Churchgoing by Public Conveyances on the Sabbath”, Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 1928.
^3The Religious Monitor and Evangelical Repository, vol 13, 1836, p 91.
^4Philadelphia, 1855.