Note 18 — THE DIVINE AND PERPETUAL OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH.

We cannot see the distinction contended for by some, between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s day; namely, that the former was “rest,” while the latter is “public worship.” To us they appear identical. The Jewish Sabbath was not merely “rest,” but holy or sanctified rest. “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Moses calls it “the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord;” and God frequently declares that it was appointed as a “sign” between himself and his people, and commands them to keep it holy. Now, how could the Jewish Sabbath answer the description thus given of it, if mere rest, or cessation from bodily labour, was all that was required in its observance? We know that the Sunday, as kept by those who only lay aside their usual worldly employments, is neither “blessed,” nor “sanctified,” nor “holy,” nor a “sign” between them and God. On the contrary, it is made the occasion of the most awful immoralities, and is productive of the greatest misery. Instead of a blessing, it is converted into a curse. Besides, did not the instructions of the heads of families, and the teaching and ministrations of the Levites, in the earlier part of the Jewish history, and the services at the synagogue in after times, afford means of instruction very similar to those in the Christian church? By divine appointment the Levites were to teach the people (Lev. x. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 10), and the people were to teach their children (Deut. vi. 7); and we cannot conceive how this could have been done, or the Sabbath have been kept holy, according to the commandment, without some stated instruction and worship on the day of rest, from the first settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. A whole nation keeping holy every seventh day, without the aids and restraints of public worship, appears to us an impossibility. Indeed, why is the Sabbath expressly called “a holy convocation” [מקרא קדש] (Levit. xxiii. 3), if no assemblies of the people for worship took place on that day? But after all, what do the advocates of the strictest observance of the Sabbath require, more than was required of the Jews by God himself? (Isa. lviii. 13.) We therefore consider the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, the same in spirit, in character, and in their general religious requirements.