The Progress., 1893-04-01
Jesus Christ put on II. Certain II -

i
that Jesus never set aside one of the Ten
Commandments; that he enlarged and
fulfilled every one of them in a higher
and grander sense. Jesus made the obli-
cation no less binding, Thou shalt not
steal" He went even further and made
the question of stealing so broad that it
covers thousand transactions the Mo-
sale law never touched. Jesus Christ
never proclaimed perhaps, Thou shalt
not kill" but he said, "If you hate your
enemy, you have committed murder al
ready" Turn to the life Of Jesus and
ask about the Sabbath. Jesus Christ
himself distinctly approved the grand
idea. He said, "The Sabbath was made
for man." He approved the idea. He
preserved the Sabbath in reality, in spirit,
In truth. Ii Jesus thus approved and full
filled and enlarged the true idea of the
Sabbath, we have here the final moral
ity, the final word from God to us upon
this subject
THE PHARIsRR's SABBATH.
Jesus, while he approved the funda-
mental idea of the Sabbath, distinctly
repudiated the pharisaical conception of
it. He said: Did not David take the
shew bread because he had need? Can
not l pluck the ears of corn; cannot /
heal on the Sabbath day2 Was not the
day made for man? Why quibble over
the little traditions when you have failed
in the greater matters of the law?'' The
pharisee's Sabbath was an uncomfortable
Sabbath. They had everything regulated.
They discussed tremendous questions
like this, Gould a man walk on stills on
the Sabbath day." The general accepta-
ton was he could not because he would
be bearing burden. They had q regu-
lation that said a man could not wear
false teeth on the Sabbath because he
would be bearing a burden; that he
could not feed chickens on the Sabbath
because it might be sowing seed-a har-
vest might be the result
Another regulation said that man
could not pluck a bunch of grapes be-
cause it was kind of harvest, or eat an
egg laid on the Sabbath because the hen
violated the Sabbath by laying on that
day. They had another regulation that
you could not kill flea on Sunday be-
cause it would be hunting. When Jesus
broke the Sabbath, he broke that sort of
Sabbath He set aside that sort of a
Sabbath and came down to the great
fundamental principle which God had
ordained in that law of rest when he gave
it to Moses.
| would not want to perpetuate the
pharisaical Sabbath or the Sabbath of
the pilgrim or the Puritan fathers. We
do not need any of them, but we do need
the Sabbath of Jesus. What was that
Sabbath? Distinctly Jesus : '"'sres that
that day was pre-eminently mans day
He does not emphasize the letter, bat Che
spirit The Sabbath was made for man
You understand the Sabbath means the
seventh day. Any man who studies
Scripture and history must be unfaithful
to the most superficial observance that
does not know that our Saturday is the
Sabbath referred to in the days of the
Jewish ordinance How, then, do we OBJ
serve Sunday? We observe it because Of
the overwhelming Importance of the
the Lords lay. when the old calendar
was blotted out of the Christian world
and when every line of human history
was redrawn and took its center at the
cross.
The fourth commandment does not say
Observe Saturday" 1t says, Keep the
serenth day" And whether you begin
numbering one day or another, you keep
the commandment when you keep the
seventh day. If man is obliged to work
and there are thousands who must
work on that day-if that be the case
then man must observe the seventh day
1t does not matter what day it is. We do
not observe Sunday becauseit is the jew
ish Sabbath. We observe this Lords day
because it is the seventh day, and God
said, Work six days and rest one." And
this day has in the heart of the Christian
world absorbed all other days, because il
is the day of the Lord. And Jesus said
distinctly, This day is made for man."
THE LABoRING MANS SABBATH.
1t embodies the old conception of rest
from labor. say to the workingman,
be he skeptic, atheist or infdel, when
ever you surrender your Sabbath's rest,
your one days rest in seven, you have
bound the chains of slavery round your
own foolish necks, and you have bound
your own hands and delivered yourself
to your enemy, for whenever man can
do it he will grind every ounce of man
hood out of your miserable body. The
day you allow that day to be taken from
you, that day you have surrendered your
birthright, what God Almighty gave you
when you were born into this world, and
you have sold it for mess of pottage.
God ordained in nature when he made
this world that man should rest one day
in seven. 1t was an old Jewish ordinance,
but it was made for all time. The Jew
is a man. He is made as you are; he
has nerves and body; he must live. rs
a nation he had the highest hygienic
rao,lat;oue lonO before yOur ancestors