The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-03-05
The Necessity Of the Sabbath.

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The Necessity Of the Sabbath.
But Nature needs more than
the natural rest of night, and the de-
mands OF life can be met with less
than the labor of all the days. And
hence our world has Sabbath rest,
as that Hebrew word means. One day
in seven, one-seventh of our working
time, should be given to rest of body
and mind; not absolute cessation from
all activity, for that would be itself a
labor, but a rest from toll, and a
change from the ordinary pursuits of
life. The best authorities in physiology
declare this to be the law and the need
of our human lives. And hence, study
ing the great laws of labor and rest as
conditioning life and happiness, we find
the Sabbath, the day of rest, was made
for man.
Another reason for the Sabbath is
found in the fact that man is a spiritual
being. Within and above the life and
struggle of the body, and the outgoing
OF the mind in its study OF the loss and
gain, and its mastery of the secrets of
the rocks and the lessons of the stars,
there is something that perceives the
divine, that hungers for Righteousness,
that longs for Immortality. This spir-
itual nature in man is just as much a
fact as is his body; and as such it has
its world and its needs; and the Sab
bath. the rest-day, is the servant of the
soul in many ways. 1t calls halt in
the rapid march of worldliness. The
scenes of work and of business are
right and necessary In their places; but
they should not so fill up life as to
crowd back the life of the soul. And
this is the tendency unless there can be
some check, some cessation in the
struggle for gain and pleasure. And
hence the Sabbath comes in as day of
blessing to the soul; day of reilec-
ton; a day when the mind is called to
think upon the questions of life's deep
er and vaster concerns, and the heart
finds rest and strength in the house of
worship. And in this sense the Sab
bath is for man; not something i'm
posed upon him, but an appointment
for his good. .....
To the Jews, coming from the toll of
bondage, the Sabbath, the rest-day, was
q great change and a great blessing.
They did not, l think, observe it for
public assemblages in worship till after
their return from bondage. In that
lonely land they adopted the synagogue
worship, and carried it with them on
their return. And with that, some four
hundred years before Christ, the Phari-
sees sought to hedge the day about with
all kinds of restrictions. They forbade
walking with shoes that had nails; they
forbade even rubbing grain between
the hands," and in many ways made
the day burden, and not rest. Into
this form of Sabbath our Saviour came !;
and He showed the utmost disregard
for all their superstitious notions, and,
Selling the spirit, the intent of the day,
sought to make it simply a day of rest
and worship, of growth to the spirit in
love, and devotion, and usefulness. In
the earlier and medieval days of Chris
tianity the Sabbath was largely secu-
larized, and even the Reformers seem
not to have regarded it with much
strictness. Then from this falling away
came the reaction of the Puritans, who
sought to do away with the Christmas
and Easter Holidays and to make the
Sabbath a dav of severity and gloom.
In the early days of our own country
the Puritan ideas of the Sabbath pre-
vailed. We may think they were too
severe, and so they were, but they made
strong men and women. The tendency
now is to the other extreme, and we
are in danger of losing our more sacred
American Sabbath and getting in turn
the looser European. What think we
should contend for, both as citizens and
Christians, is neither the old severity of
the Puritans nor the indifference of the
Germans and the French, but an Ameri-
can Christian Sabbath that shall give
rest to body and mind, and shall find
sweet employ in friendship, and love,
and worship.
How to spend the day religiously
each one must in sense determine for
himself; that is, live by conscience.
The Sabbath should be not only day
of rest, but of public worship. 1t
should be different from other days in
this. 1t is set apart for this. 1t should
be so that all the people can attend the
House of God once on the holy day. 1t
should not be day of gloom or sever
ity, but of joy and rejoicing. 1t should
not be day of sports or amusements.
To make it such is to take away its
sanctity; to destroy its purpose and
power in helping the soul to better
life. And he who loses this finer sense
of the sanctity of the Sabbath is in dan
ger of losing with it the sense of the
sacred and the divine in the soul.
o! beautiful may be the day of rest
when the laborers cease from TOLL when
the noise of the worlds great work is
hushed when parents and children
gather around the table and the hearth
of home; and when the church-bells bid
us go into the House of the Lord. Let
us all try to make it such to ourselves,
and in our homes, and in our great city.
From q Recent Sermon by Req. DR..
Thomas, cf Chicago
Tho Dauun,.oI oh