The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-04-15

VIII III --AHA Fa-a -AC 60 "-~ L--~~N- $780,
In a second sermon ON the Sabbath and It's OBJ
s~eryancc, DR.. Fal.ows ofChicago said The ques-
ton Of the Obligation and mode of Observance OF
the Sabbath has caused very serious disagreement
Of option among the most learned, consistent
and dcyOut teachers Of the Christian Church.
ANY one ~hO i= al all conversant with the history
Of the controversy which has gathered around the
subject, and who desires 10 present his own con-
illusions after a mature and candid survey Of all
the points 1t Issue, will be the last person IN the
world 10 dogmatize and hurl his opprobrious cpl
thets at bis opponents.
VIEWS OF THE REFOENERS.
Differences of opinion exist first as to the
ground of obligation. The Reformed SWISS cAur-
ches held that the Sabbath was simply a Jewish
institution, and was abrogated by our Lord.
Their confession declared that the observance Of
the Lords Day is founded, not on any command
ment of God, but on the authority Of the Church,
and that the Church may alter the day at pleas
ure.
The Augsburg Confession, which was drawn
up by Melancthon. avows that the Lords day.
Easter, WhitsuHtide, and other such holidays,
ought to be kept, because they are appointed by
the Church.
Cranmer, in his Catechisn, published in 1913,
says 1--WE now keep no more Sabbath on Satur-
day as the Jews do but We observe the Sunday
and certain other days as the magistrates do judge
convenient whom in this thing we ought to obey"
Tyndal said As for the Sabbath, we be lords
over the Sabbath, and may yet change 1t into
Monday, or into any other day as We see need,
or may make every tenth day holy only ii we
see cause why.
1t is also stated that . it is on record that Cal
vim debated whether the reformed, for the purpose
of estranging themselves more completely from
the Romish Church, should not adopt Thursday
as the Christian Sabbath
On the authority of Bishop Horsley it is also
stated that Calvin regarded the Sabbath as one OF
/ those cardinal ordinances of the Jewish religion
which our Lord had blotted out.
All these eminent men, and many others that
might be mentioned. held that there was no obli-
CATION in the Old or New Testament for the OBJ
seryance of the Sabbath by Christians, but that
it simply rested on the authority OF the Church
or on the basis of expediency. Many hold that
the Sabbath was simply a Jewish institution,
that it's authority persisted when Christ came, but
believe that the Christian Sabbath, or the first
day of the week, was instituted by the Apostles,
and is therefore binding upon all Christians to
the end of time. Others believe that the Sabbath
is Il primitive institution, given by God at the
creation, and re-enacted amid the most impressive
circumstance at the giving OF the law on Sinai.
Some Of these contend that the law thus given
has never been repealed, and that the very day OF
the Mosaical institution is still binding; while
others, holding the views OF the primitive, Mos
aic Sabbath, believe that the obligation was trans
ferred to the first day by the Apostles.
Not only is there this divergence of opinion
respecting it's obligation, but also its observance
Zwingle, One of tie greatest of reformers, de-
clared that it was lawful on the Lords Day, after
divine service, for any man TO pursue his labOrs.
Beza taught that no cessation of work on the
Lords Day is required of Christians. Buccr, still
more radical, says it is not only to be called "a
superstition, but an apostasy from Christ, to think
that work on the Lords Day, in itself considered,
is a sinful thing. Others, who maintain with
these reformers that there is no religious Obliga-
ton to keep the day, yet plead for a far different
mode of its observance. The profound and re-
vered DR.. Arnold of Rugby, in a letter to Justice
Coleridge, SAID &" Although | think that the
whole law is done away with, so far as it is the
ii 99EEy 9ii ii Sc g gt MNtqSaHntt v Sin Il vas / h9 aid i tb tH b sb a!r Rind,
its observance is Gods will, and is likely. so far
as we see, to be SO to the end of time, / should
think it most mischievous to weaken the respect
paid to it,"
WHAT DIR. FALLoWs HIMSELF THINKS.
My own views is, as l have before stated that
the sabbath was instituted at the creation of man;
that 1t was reannounced at the giving of the law
1t seems to me, upon a careful perusal of God
word, that this is the correct view. g" God rested
on the seventh day from all His works which He
had made. And God blessed the seventh dav,
and santifed it because that in it He had rested
from all His work, which God created and made. =
Gen. IL: 2, 3. l know that many veritable div
ines would make this language anticipatorv of
VIZ 6AfAhS VI VIZ A1H 90 L.ldI IL 1 L " u ut
stood as if Moses had said, " God rested on the
seventh day, which He has since blessed and sane,
titled"
l cannot take the language to be thus antici-
patlye, because | believe that in the very nature
or constitution of man the necessity for the Sab
bath is written, and that the Creator made the
outward law because He had already stamped in
man 6 being the inward law.
Second-There appears to be a recognition ola
division of time into weeks by Noah. He was
commanded to enter into the Ark seven days be-
fore the flood came (Gen. vii: 4. 10Y: seven DAVIS
elapsed between the time of sending forth the
dove (Gen. viii: 10, 12): Jacob fulfilled a week
for Rachael (Gen. xxx: 25); and Joseph made a
mourning for his father seven days (Gen. l.: 10Y.
Third-The sabbath is mentioned in Exodus
xvi: 25-3O, on the occasion of the giving of the
mamma in the wilderness, prior to the giving of
the law of Sinai. Everything connected With
that occurrence points out, | think, to an ac-
knowledged, though perhaps neglected, obser-
vance of the Sabbath.
FOurth-It is a welI-known fact that nearly all
the nations OF antiquity observed a division of
time by weeks. Among these we may mention
the Phenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Sla-
vonIans, Chinese and Mexicans. 1t is next to
impossible to suppose that they derived the idea
from the Jews. While preparing this sermon,
L came across an item q day or two ago, in one
OF orr leading periodicals for March, to the effect
that an Oriental scholar, in deciphering the cunei-
form inscriptions of the ancient Chaldeans, had
found unequiYocal reference to the h~ebdomadal
division Of time, and also the word SABBATH.
which means in that language " the rest of the
heart" tie thinks the Jews may have derived
their Sabbath from the Chaldeans. To me it is
cumulative testimony to the ~primeval,
universal Sabbath given at the creation.
1t has been objected to this primeyal Sabbath
that in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, fifteenth
verse, it is stated, as a reason for the Fourth
Commandment, And remember that thou vast
a servant in the land Of Egypt, and that the
Lord thy God brought the out thence through a
hand and by u stretched out arms therefore,