The Portland daily press., 1880-11-29
Tyndall on the Sabbath.
The Learned Disputant's Latest Contribu-
ton to Religious Discussion

Prof Tyndall, in the Nineteenth Century,
says:
1t was remarked by Martin Luther that
Jesus broke the Sabbath deliberately and even
ostentatiously for purpose. He walked the
fields; he plucked, shelled and ate the corn;
he treated the sick, and his spirit may be de-
tected in the alleged imposition upon the re-
stored cripple of the labor of carrying his bed
on the Sabbath day. He crowned his protest
against sterile Journalism by the enunciation
OF principle which applies to us to-day as
to the world in the time of Christ, ''The Sab
bath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath"
Though the Jews, to their detriment, kept
themselves as nation intellectually isolated,
the minds of individuals were frequently COL
ored by Greek thought and culture. The
learned and celebrated Philo, who was contem-
porary with Josephus, was influenced. Philo
expanded the uses of the seventh day by in
cluding in its proper observance studies which
might be called secular. Moreover" he says.
"the seventh day is also an example from
which you may learn the propriety Of studying
philosophy. As on that day it is said Gcd be-
held the works that He had made, SO you also
may yourself contemplate the works of ma
ture." Permission to do this is exactly what
the members of the Sunday Society humbly
claim. The Jew. Philo, would grant them
this permission, but our straiter Christians will
not Where shall we find such samples of
those works of nature which Philo commended
to the Sunday contemplation of his country
men as in the British Museum? Within those
walls we have, as it were, epochs disentombed
ages OF divine energy illustrated. But the
efficient authorities-among whom 1 would
include short sighted portion of the public
resolutely close the doors and exclude from
the contemplation of these things the multi
tude who have only Sunday to devote to them
Taking them on their own ground, we ask,
Are the authorities logical in doing SO? Do
they who thus stand between them and US
really believe these treasures to be the work of
God? Do they not hold, with Paul, that "ths
eternal power and Godhead" may be clearly
seen from 'the things that are made?" If
they do--and they dare not affirm that they do
not-I fear that Paul, in his customary Lam
guage. would pronounce their conduct to be
without excuse"
With regard to the time when the obligation
to keep the Sabbath was imposed, and the
reasons for its imposition, there are great dif-
ferences of opinion between learned and pious
men, Some affirm that it was instituted at
the Creation in remembrance of the rest of
God. Others allege that it was imposed after
the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and
in memory Of that departure. The Bible coun-
tenances both interpretations. In Exodus we
find the origin of the Sabbath described with
unmistakable clearness, thus: "For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea
and all that in them Is, and rested the seventh
day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh
day and hallewed." In Deuteronomy this
reason is suppressed and another is assigned.
stated, brought them out Of it through a
mighty hand and by stretched-out arm
therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee
to keep the Sabbath day." After repeating
foregoing origin to the Sabbath, the writer in
Deuteronomy proceeds thus: "These words
the Lord spake unto your assembly in
the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of
the cloud and the thick darkness, with
loud voice; and he added no more" But in
Exodus God not only added more but some-
thing entirely different. This has been diff
Guilty with commandments formidable il
the Bible be treated as any other ancient book,
but extremely formidable on the theory of
plenary inspiration. remember in the days
of my youth being shocked and perplexed by
an admission made by Bishop Watson in his
celebrated Apology for the Bible, written in
answer to Tom Paine. ''You have" saws the
Bishop, disclosed few weeds which good
men would have covered up from view." That
there were weeds in the Bible requiring to be-
kept out of sight, was to me at that time new
revelation. take little pleasure in dwelling
upon the errors and bemishes of q book rem
dered venerable to me by its intrinsic wisdom
and imperishable associations But when that
book is wrested to our detriment when its
passages are invoked to justify the imposition
OF yoke, irksome because unnatural, we are
driven, in self-defense to be critical. In self
defense, therefore, we plead these two dscord-
ant accounts Of the origin OF the Sabbath, one
OF which makes it purely Jewish institution
while the other, unless re- drded as mere
myth and figure, is in violelt antagonism to
the facts Of geology
With regard to the alleged "proofs'' that
Sunday was introduced as substitute for Sat
urday, and that its observance is as binding
upon the Christians as their Sabbath was up
on the Jews, l can only say that those which
have seen are of the aimsiest and vaguest
character. III" says Milton, "on the plea OF a
divine command, they impose upon us the OBJ
servance OF particular day, how do they pre-
sume without the authority of divine COM
mand, to substitute another day in its placer"
Outside the bounds Of theology no one would
think OF applying the term "proofs" to the
evidence adduced for the change; and yet, on
this pivot. 1t has been alleged, turns the eter-
nal fate of human souls Were such a doc
trine not actual, it would be incredible 1t has
been truly said that the man who accepts it
sinks, in doing so, to the lowest depth of athe-
ism. 1t is perfectly reasonable for a religious
community to set aside one day in seven for
rest and devotion. Most of those who object
to the Judaic observance of the Sabbath recoe-
nize not only the wisdom but the necessity Of
some such institution, not on the ground of
divine edict but of common sense. They con-
tend, however, that it ought to ,e as far as
possible day of cheerful renovation both of
body and spirit, and not day of penal gloom.
There is nothing that should withstand more
strenuously than the conversion of the first day
OF the week into a common working day.
Quite as strenuously, however should / op-
pose it being employed as day of sacerdotal
rgor.