Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
IT TWASEADE FOR NAN
ChriSt'S Broad Interpretation of the
Fourth Commandment
HOW THE SABBATH is BROKEN.
Why the Seventh Day Was Set Apart as a
Day of Rest.
A LAW WRITTEN UPON NATURES FACE
HOW THE SABBATH Is BROKEN.
ALAw WRITTEN UPON NATURES FACE
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.I

perfectly plain. There is no excuse to be
found for us in that direction. There are
no disputed readings in the text of 1t, nor
any obscurity, nor any ambiguity about it.
We know well enough that this command
ment sets down for us two entirely unmis-
taxable duties: We are to set apart Ger
tain day, and we are to keep that day in a
certain manner. As a matter of fact, we
neither keep that day, nor do we observe
even the day which we have put in its place
in that manner.
"The seventh day." the commandment
says, sis the Sabbath of the Lord thy God"
No kind of arithmetic, no kind of almanac
can make seven equal to one nor the sew
enth mean the first, nor Saturday mean
Sunday.
And upon this seventh day ''thou shalt
do no manner of work; thou and thy son,
and thy daughter, thy man-servant and thy
maid-servant, thy cattle and the stranger
that is within thy gates" Let US even sup
pose, for a moment, that when the Bible
says Saturday it means Sunday. Even so,
who can plead innocent? Wherever there
is fire in a cooking-stove to-day there is the
fourth commandment broken. Whoever
goes to church to-day in his own carriage,
or in the peoples carriage-the cars. steam
cars or cable cars-breaks the fourth COM
mandment. Whoever is interested in a mill
where men work on Sunday is just as much
guilty of violation of the fourth command
ment as the men who work. The opening
of public conservatory or readlng-room,
the running of a summer excursion train,
the consequent necessity for work-these
BREAK THE SABBATH DAY.
The fact is that we are all Sabbath break
ers, every one of us.
Christ was a Sabbath-breaker, the Jews
said. "It came to pass" we read, "as He
went into the house of one Of the chief Phari-
sees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that
they watched Him." They watched Him,
because they fully expected that He would
break the Sabbath. He had many times al
ready done things upon that day which went
straight in the face of the fourth command
ment, so the men of that generation thought
And, sure enough, "behold, there was GER
tain man before Him which had the dropsy"
And il was written down somewhere in the
"a dreary chapters which the Rabbis had oc-
cupied with their expoundings of the law of
the Sabbath, that one of the works which
was forbidden in that comprehensive phrase
'no manner of work" was the exercise of
healing. And so, here was a man in need,
here was a deed which called for Christ's do
here were the watching scribes, reciting the
law over to themselves, and waiting to see
what He would do. They stood on the 9TH
er slde. Upon one hand, a man; upon the 9TH
er hand, the Sabbath. Christ hesitated not.
Straightway he put aside all that the Rabbis
had taught, and helped that man. Saying
here, perhaps, as he said another time-say-
ing it at least by his significant action
The Sabbath was made for man, not man
for the Sabbath
Everyone who interprets a law in large
way runs the risk OF being a sinner to him
who interprets it in a small way. The letter
is always striving with the spirit, and the
temporary with the eternal, and the local
with the broad and universal
There are two elements within this fourth
commandment, two plain parts There is
an eternal and universal principle, and
there is local and temporary application
of it. There is Gods part and there is
mans part. The two parts show them
selves the more distinctly if we accept the
opinion of scholars that the ten command
ments, or the stem words" as they are
called in the Bible, were originally as brief,
all of them, as several of them are still.
This fourth commandment for instance, is
recorded twice in the Old Testament, and
each time
IN DIFFERENT WAY
We are all familiar with the wording OF it
in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, but this
is how it stands in the fifth chapter of
Deuteronomy: Keep the Sabbath day to
sanctify it, as the Lord they God hath COM
manded thee. Six DAYS thou shalt labor
and do all thy work, but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thv SON nor
thy daughter"-and the rest of the list as it
&c rix-p in hot 81
and thy maid-servant may rest as well as
thou. And remember that thou vast a SER
want in the land of Egypt, and that the
Lord thy God brought thee out thence
through mighty hand and by a stretched
out arm: therefore the Lord thy God COM
manded thee to keep the Sabbath day."
The resting of God from the act of making
the universe is not mentioned. The deliver
ance out of Egypt is put in the place of it.
Did God write the commandments in two
versions? Did the chronicler make a mis-
take? Is the Exodus wav the true reading.
or the Deuteronomy way? Or Isl it this: |
that God gave the commandments and |
Moses set his co nmentary beside them?
Remember that thou keep holy the Sab |
hath day." That, l take It is the whole of |
the original fourth commandment, The rest
was added by way of explaining and apply |
ing. Here is the statement of the eternal |
VIII OF God. Ihls touches US. and claims |
obedience from us to-day; while the rest,
written for the Jews, has gone ont with |
the old sacrifices, and with all else which was |
merely provincial and temporary in the Old |
Testament
The word ''holy" means separate" The |
word sabbath" means "rest." Set aside |
day of rest; that is what God commands, in
the fourth commandment.
The two versions of the fourth command
ment agree in selecting for this rest day one
day out Of seven. And whether this proyis-
ion was written or not upon the tablets of
stone, it is written plainly enough upon the
nature of man. Rest is an eternal necessity
for man. A stated rest is a necessity eqally
lasting and universal.
ONE DAY IN SEVEN
is the best of all possible arrangements.
That is what experience saws, setting its
testimony here beside the commandment.
They tried the experiment at the French
Revolution, as everybody knows, of separat-
ing out one day from ten. And they found |
thar men could not stand that. They found |
that 1t was needful for the well-being of that |
nation that the old law should stand.
Now out of the Old Testament into the |
New comes every word of teaching which is |
true eternally. And nothing else lasts. |
We read the Book of Psalms continually. |
and the Book Of Leviticus verv rarely. |
Why? Why, because these psalms are full |
of truth which is eternal, which was true /
then, is true now, and will be true in heaven;
while these elaborate services and ceremon- /
les have done their part and are worn out /
They were true for men once; they fitted /
men once, Just as the coats which we wore /