The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-23 00:00:00

the first day of the week. It was the day, which on each
return of the day, the primitive Christians devoted in an
especial manner to the worship of their risen Lord. On that
day a new creation had been introduced. The risen body of
Jesus was (that new creation ; in its germ the first fruits,
and sure promise of the harvest to follow. The erder of things
was reversed. The established order of God, or as men speak
of nature in the case of the human body, from the beginning
of the world had been life, death, and after death, corruption.
But here was a new thing. Life, death, and after death
no corruption • but a resurrection of interruption and immor-
of m
tacii,i tY: This Was a great thing; a glorious thing; a fact full
?fright and blessed hope to man as man—not a disembeelred
t; but man both body and soul. This was a life-givingact proclaimed by the Apostles. Wherever they went with
great power gave the witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus.
And the habitual salutation of the believers of this
Efatt when they met with one another in the morning of this
we
-4 'day of the week was, " He is risen ! He is risen !" They
already act uaint .d with the loving commandment of
their God, which'reecued every seventh day front the sentence
aof labour pronounced against the fallen race. "In the sweat
4,,shy brow shalt thou eat thy bread ;" this was the sentence.
days shalt thou labour, the seventh is for rest, this was
the loving limitation of the sentence. They were acquainted
With the reason assigned in their inspired scriptures for his
rest, namely, that on the seventh day God ended his work
'which he had made, and heirested on the seventh day from
all his work which he had made, and God blessed the seve th
day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from his
iwork which God created and made. They had probably never
nquired why
God was pleased to occupy six portions of time
I.m. the work of creation, or why he was pleased to represent
tunself as resting on the seventh portion. They were influ-
enced by revealed facts. Doubtless, he who said, "Let there
d
ea light,"
be light," so that light was in a moment, might as easily have
, n Let there be a perfect creation iti all parts in a
(Rmoment ;" and in a moment all would have been perfect.
ear, hear.) But in point of fact he adopted another and
quite a different method. He chose to mark out several
distinct measures of time, each consisting of an evening and a
morning, and to divide the work of creation into a number of
compartments, assigning one to each of those measures of time.
Why lie fixed upon six of these periods for the accomplishment
of hie work rather than four, or five, or ten, or twenty, he did
;not seelt right to explain. But he did distinctly declare that
bin Blm days he made heaven and earth, the sea and all that
sn tiler's is, and rested on the seventh day," and that on that
eccount T6 he had '.blessed the seventh day and hallowed it."
this may be well applied what St. Paul says on another
that' after quoting the weds " thou shalt not muzzle the
,ox t treadeth out the corn," be says, " doth God take care
'or Zip,o
or is this written altogether for our sakes ?" For
Int sakes, no doubt, this is written. So may we say. does
""d take care for rest? Can the Most High be weary ? Or
Is this written for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this
spenie of creation was adopted and revealed. (Applause.)
~,,...lt° from the beginning, man's time was reckoned in seven
`-`"" hads God's time in the creation of man and man's
Worldbeen, six working portions and one resting portion.
"`his resting portion was allotted to the creature, for the
la,l espe-
service of God. In the early history of man, previous to
e itittoduction of the peculiarities of Judaism, we have
significant intimations of the observance of this portion of his
time. As the resolution before us expresses it, "it obtained
sie.ntinct recognition;' in the history of Noah for example.
~ ° read that when he sent forth a dove to see whether the
Waters were abated from the earth, "he stayed seven days
and again sent forth a dove out of the ark, and he stayed yet
°tler !seven days and sent forth a dove." This does not tell
tirLaah ; but it tells this much, that Noah gave special notice to
io- seventh 4Y. Still more explicit in the history of the
at"? of the Israelites through the'wilderuese, before they
reached Mount Sivai, and before the ceremonial law was given,
We read this recognition of the Sabbath. It occurs in the
history of the manna,
°tact " and this is the thing which the Lord
aotamanded--gather it every man according to his eating, an
P454°12°. ' for ever mao, according to the number of your
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered
'Mlle more, some less. And Moses said, let no man leave of
it till the morning* Notwithstanding, they hearkened not
!Into Moses; but some of them left of it till the morning, and
It bred worms and stank. And it Came to pass, that on the
eiZtil day they gathered twice as much, two omers for one
Mast, and Moses said, this is that which the Lord bath said,
to-Morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath, bake that which
ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that
Which remaineth over lay up for you to bo kept till the morn-
ing; and they laid it up till the morning, and it did not stink,
sieither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat
that to.day, for to-day is a Sabbath 'unto the Lord ; to-day
ye shall not find it in the field; six days ye shall gather it,
but, on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there
shall be none." Let it be carefully noticed that this was pre-
vious to the introduction of anything peculiarly Jewish.
This is enough of itself to show the essential distinction be-
tween the seventh day commandment, and the ceremonial of
the Jew, whatever place this commandment may have after-
Wards occupied in that ceremonial. (Applause.) Bearine all
this in mind, I proceed now to enquire in what connexion
.174. divine commandment was given that man should keep
JAZ.' day in seven. Was it amongst the ceremonials of
the 'as legal, typical, and temporary ; or was it amongst
law,
;everlasting arid unchanging requirements of the moral
' • The answer is plain. The seventh day commandinerit
8"t faand arming the ordinances banscribed from a pattern
in
the ministration of Moses, but, as our resolution affirms, it
etu seleranly re-enacted in
see. se -enacted he publication of the moral law.
4,r„.. sue fourth among ten commandments given as no other
andmieesta were ever given. This appears specially in
tee Particulars. First : All the details of the Jewish cere-
Zelda' were given to Moses, and by him communicated to
noweeLP,les But the ten commandments, including the one
e, —'t° "7 were spoken to the whole nation, by the voice
of God himself.
This appears on ti a face of the history.
r.a not this to invest Moses with a degree of importance
.e.4l' ti:e to the ceremonial institutions, which was denied to
satllis
us)
.regarded
ee, , the moral commandments ? And was not
42).07,
aenedvecadetae moral commandments with a superiority
Pendent, of, Moses ? (Hear, bear.) Secondly :
Kti moral cornmanements alone were written—engraved
PaY God hinsself--by a direct and immediate exercise of
his
Pallor, and thus secured from any possible mixture,
addition,
sitrunaentalty. °ir mutilation, by the infirmity of a human in-
(Bear, hear.) And so important was this,
:etas when the tables wore broken, a special commandment
_ 0, given to prepare new tables, and again the same sacred
w 44 Were ieseribe.d by the finger of God. Thirdly, the Ten
Commandmeata alone were Put into the ark, and deposited in
:the_ most holy place. This fact is plain, and it involves a
ear Rod very eignificant separation between these command-
ents and the ceremonial institution of the Jews. The full
force
of this cannot be appreciated without reference to the
type--the ark in
the. moat holy place, The moral law within
it, and the mercy seat upon it, was the typehaouf Christ. Con-
cerning it the Lord himself had said,
mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ar shall put theal
Pat the testimony, that is, the tablas that I shallgive thee t
and there I will meet with thee, and I will ocinainune with!
thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cheru-
biees which are upon the ark of the testimony." Here, in a
figure, and by representation, was Christ risen and ascended
into the true holy place. By him the moral law was kept, in
the letter of it and in the spirit of it : it was in his heart. In
him It was honoured and magnified. In him God is well
pleated. IfereY and truth, like cherubims of glory, here meet
together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The
loire, the everlastiog love of God, flows forth in blessed harmony
With his untarnished holiness. He is just, while he justifies the
ungodly, Perfectly righteous, and just, and true, while he
lovingly and freely justifies the most ungodly. This was the
high lesson taught by the ark,e—now observe, the command-
Meets enelosed in the ark were of such a nature as to need the
Mediation of Jesus Christ to make atonement for the breach
of them. The uncleanness contracted by the breach of the
eerettumial law might be removed by a .ceremonial sacrifice,
batithe guilt incurred by a breach of the moral law could not
be removed except by the sacrifice of the Sun of God.
(Seer, hear.) This stamps the eteroal obligation of the
Moral Law, the seventh day comMandment included, in the
high court of the everlasting and unchanging equity of
Jehovah. But In Opposition to all this it is asked, where is
the morality of observing every seventh day more than every
sixth, or every tenth, day? For !the other commandments of
the moral law- We can see a reason. It commends itself to
sound enlightened reason, that we should worship only one
true and living God; and that we should worship bins in
spirit and in .troth, without the absurd use of images; also
that we should not profane his name ; also, that we should
honour our parents, and-avoid all manner of . injury to our
neighbours, in their life, or property, or purity. These'com-
mandments commend themselves to our reasoo. But where
where is, or can be
is the reason after all, s the morality of
T more than the
Paying special attention to the seventh day, an
nixth? Our answer is, the very highest saeea of morality
4 submission to the mind and absolute sovereignty of God.
(Rear, hear.) Those commandments which commend them..
selves to the dictates of sound human reason, and have for
their immediate object the advantage of human society, mriay
he complied with, without any reference to God. The
of man's reason may be flattered ; the convenience ience of
fsociety,
and the security of property may be consulted,andt hus obe
client, ,ay t„sent, without any direct regard to God's
authority. On the other hand, a command which makes no
ePPeal at all to human reason, but rests entirely on the law-
giver, -
River, cannot he to treated. If obeyed at all, it is because re
is ecknowledged ; if disobeyed, it is because he is disregarded.
o
uch a commandment is the fourth. I do not indeed deny,
out that it may be shown by sound reason that creatures
should have some periodical rest. But it would be difficult
to give sufficient and reasonable proof that that rest should
b 0 every seventh day. (Applause.) The sanction of the
commandment is exclusively the divine authority% a
signlt towas
°ll this account that this commandment was given a
the Jewish people in the inspired ministry
ef the prophets,
as it is written, " Behold I have given you my Sabbaths. to
ha signbetween you and sue, to know whether ye will serve
: Lord." With such as commandment before them, so
doe
Went and so sanctioned, what were the primitive Christians to
''''"? They were to render loving obedience to the commands
silent their God, which sanctified one day in every seven,
klrd they were to honour with holy joy the day of their Lord
sad
Qa.viour's triumph aver death. Their inspired leaders
taught them how to do this ; by transferring the item the seventh thy to the first day of the week. The seventh
been 4Poititai because of creation finished, and spoke of
i "t
felt s th a ..-e
' . in WIS 400E1 booms° of OW ;nation corn!

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