Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-03
ONE DAY In SEVEN.
The Sabbath SET Apart to Enable the
World 10 Rest From Labor.
NAN SHOULD NOT WORK FOREVER.
HoW Sunday Should be Observed in
Christian Families.
TIE SOCIAL MEANING OF TIE DAY.
AN SHOULD NOT WORK FOREVER.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

dav has gone out with the old reasons which
made it sacred. The Saturday of the He
brews means no more to US than the Friday
of the Mohammedsns.
But all that was essential and helpful
about that ancient Sabbath, all of it which
Christ kept when He lived here, stayed.
The central meaning of the fourth COM
msndmeDt was in the word rest. If you
will think Of it, YOU will see that in the
commandment as it stands, rest is command
ed, and nothing beyond that physical rest
the stoppage of work, day for tired people
to get some leisure-tnat sthe whole meaning
OF this fourth commandment There is not
smention here, if you will notice, of re-
Hgion. We are apt to think that there is,
on account of the word "holy." But that
word, as l said, simply means separate.
Keep this day apart Six DAYS you work;
that is we'll; now take one day for rest
The Sabbath, as a matter OF fact, was not
kept by the Jews as day IN which the chief
thought was religion. True, in later times,
they had preaching in the synagogues on
that day. But quite another thought was
uppermost in the Hebrew mind. The Sab
bath was the day of rest. DR.. Edersheim,
in his life of Christ, has long and curious
anDenQl1 upon ll6 LdluuOl NdOOobA
Law" It is singular illustration of the
abysses of folly into which it is possible for
men to fall, The details which are
set down for conscientious observance,
one hardly knows how to believe
that sane men ever invented
them. "And vel" says Dr.. Edersheim, Sin
all these wearisome details there is not
single trace of anything spiritual-not
word even to suggest higher thoughts of
Gods holy day and its observance"
SIMPLY FOR REST.
Because the central purpose was not wor-
ship, but rest. And men somehow persuaded
themselves that rest, which to most of us is
the simplest thing in the world, was most
elaborate affair indeed. They would COM
pei people to rest by violence, If it was
necessary. The complicated Sabbath law
was like great, cast-iron rest machine. 1t
rested people as the iron clamp at the pho
tographer's rests our heads.
However, the point which desire you to
notice is that the emphasis was upon rest.
God gave a commandment that men should
not work forever, but that they should have
little leisure in their lives. 1t is very
beautiful and gracious and loving, the inser-
tion into the midst of the moral law Of God of
an Injunction against excessive work.
There were the lightniGgs and thupderings
and strange voices about the peak OF Sinai,
and below were the frightened Hebrews
shaking with fear. And then down comes
Moses with the will of God written out so
that men may trem bliugly read it, and here,
lust in the midst, God saws: my children,
1 would not have you work too hard; take a
day of once every week, and get good
rest, all of you" To me, this word Of
fatherly solicitude is very touching.
! L l., ! 4 A.. l..
of it, working out its meaning with such
narrow measures that the great, fine, father
ly intention was lost altogether. And what
a tragic failure men make to-day in the
keeping of It'll "Six DAYS shalt thou labor
and six hours day" wish had been
pStiRto the. commandment-"but the sew
enth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God. In it thou shalt do no manner of
work"
Why, there are thousands of men and
women in this Christian world to-day who
do not know what rest is; they are slaves in
a bondage compared with which Old Egypt
was blessed Paradise. They are ground
between the upper and the neither milestone,
over-hours on one side and under-pay on the
other. There are men and women who
WORK SIXTEEN HOURS DAY,
and miss then of getting decent food. One
day in seven? No; not one day in 700l
And in the midst of such a condition of
things-did you read the story of the Lon
don strike?-in the midst of such a world,
over a part of which Satan himself seems to
be ruler the priest reads the commandment
of rest, and the people answer, lord, have
mercy on US, and incline our hearts to keen
this law" Have mercy on us for what?
The sooner we find that out the better. The
sooner we learn the meaning of the COM
mandment of rest in this world Of work, the
better for all of US.
And yet, on the other hand, "no manner
of work"-shall we hold to that literally?
That is very comprehensive phase. | am
afraid thstif we we're to insist upon it strictly
1t would defeat for q good many Of us the
whole purpose of the commandment.
There we're certain Rabbis who held that
when a man walked up on the morning of
the Sabbath, he should continue in the atti-
tude in which he found himself. and stir
neither hand nor foot till the sun went
down. To csll this rest is like making a
wilderness and calling ii peace. No; the
best rest is oftenest found in work, in change
of work.
If we are to make mo manner of work"
phrase to be interpreted bv grammar and to
be translated into rubrics. we Will all find
ourselves Sabbath breakers as said at the
beginning. But Christ did not so interpret
it. Common sense is wiser than all the
grammsrs. mo manner Of work"-that
means no work which interferes with the
purpose of the commandment, which is rest.
1.-THE Sabbath" Christ said, twas made for
man." God established it for our benefit.
"Not man for the Sabbath"
But the Christian Sabbath means more
than the Hebrew Sabbath ever meant. The
Christian Church has taken this fourth
commandment, as Christ took others OF the
commandments, and added to it, put new
and higher meaning into it. The old law
concerned the body, the new law concerns
the body and the soul too. The central
thought of the old Sabbath was rest; the
central thought of the new Sabbath is
REST AND RELIGION.
The old was negative; it commanded rest
from work. The new is positive; it COM
mands rest for worship. Both were davs of
commemorstion, but the events which the
Christian Sabbath brings to mind are far
more diStinctively religious, far more closely
connected with God and the soul. Accord
lngly, the new day has new name. 1t is
never called the Sabbath. That day
throughout the Bible, means Saturday,
always. Ii is called the Lords day"
Once every week there comes into every
well ordered Christian life day which
deserves 70 bear that name. The hurry,
the rush, the noise of the week, is shut out.
II is q quiet day.
The books, the magazines, the papers
which are read every other day, are read
sparingly to-day. Sunday is made a differ
ent day. even mentally, from the other DAYS.
The emphasis is put upon the higher side of
life, upon religion. That is read to-day
which lifts us up, and makes us think
thoughts which are high and ennobling and
worth while, And nothing else. There is