The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-18
Special Contributors.
THE LEGAL SABBATH.
BY REV. MARY J. De LONG,
(Neenah, Wis.,

(Neenah, Wis.,
The number seven is used as mys-
tical, or symbolic, number among all the
primitive nations Of antiquity. The rea-
son which is given, is the observation of
the seven great planets which are proven
to have attracted attention very early,
and the changes of the moon which oc-
curregularly in about thatspace of time.
According to all accounts, the ancient
Chaldeans, or dweilers on the plains of
the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, were
the earliest known astronomers. They
invented the earliest known astrO-
nomical tables, and division of the day
into hours, and the year into months.
Prof. Rawlinson, in his history of this
monarchy, says that these observations
must have extended back to a period of
1884 3. G. When Abraham, Obeying
the voice Of God within, left his home,
his kindred and country and started
westward across the Euphrates, he
must have b3ulght the knowledge of
this division of time into Palestine,
but there is no mention of il in
the biblical account of his migration.
Through the entire patriarchal period,
up to the time Of their removal into
Egypt, during all their long stay in
that country, we read nothing OF the
especial observance of one day as day
of rest and worship, though they must
have had the division of time into weeks
practically as we have it now. Through
all this period no special sanctity is
given to the seventh day, although the
traditions of the Semitic race must
have already connected it with the
close of the creative work, and the di-
vine rest on that day. The first trace
we find of tie seventh day as day of
special observance, is in Che time of
Moses.
1t is mentioned first in connection
with the gathering of mama, EX. xvi. %.
''This Is that which the Lord hath said.
Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sab
bath unto the Lord. Six days shall ye
gather it, but ON the seventh there shall
be none2 This is evidently not its first
FORMULATION; it is already established.
The words "The Lord hath said, point
backward to some previous understand
ing among the people. Inthe fifteenth
1 yaoI fhof o. ar
the passage of the Red sea and the des-
truction of Pharaoh army, "they went
three days in the wilderness and found
no water" "And when they came to
Marah, they could not drink of the
waters of Marah, for they were bitter" !"
"And the people murmured against
loses, saying what shall we drink?' F"
After the waters were cleansed so that
they drank them, Moses "made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and
there he proved them" Jewish tradi-
ton holds that this statute was the in
stitution of the Sabbath. This seems
very likely considering the reason given
for the law of its observance, EX.XXxi.
IS. a'The Lord spake unto Moses, say
ing: Speak thou also unto the child
rem Of Israel, saying, Verify my
Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a
sign between me and you through
out your generations, that ye may know
that am the Lord that doth sanctify
you" Again in the seventeenth verse,
l'It is a sign between me and the
children OF Israel forever" In the
second copy of the ten commandments
given in Deut. in fifth chapter, fifteenth
verse there is his language. And Ta-
member that thou vast servant in
the land of Egypt, and that the Lord
thy God brought thee out thence
through a mighty hand, and stretched
out arm; Therefore, IL Lord thy God
commandeth thee to keep the Sabbath
day" This indicates that the Sabbath
was designed to be mementO, a sign Of
what God had done fOI his people in
giving them deiiyeran-e from the slav-
ery of Egypt Moses, feeling most
acutely the necessity Of restoring the
old Abrahamic faith, cleansing it of its
Egyptian accretions. and anchoring
the people fast in it, took the seventh
day, which, according to Jhe old Semi
tic tradition, God had hallowed by rest
and which was already received by the
children of Israel as symbolic, sad Ell
acted TIC solemn observance Of il into d