The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-05-30
sermon At ST.
KATHERINE S
INTERESTING
.ARcHDEAcoN ALLEN PREACHED
ON "THE LAW OF THE SAB
BATH" SUNDAY MORNING TO A
LARGE CONGREGATION.

Z -
ing. He spoke as follows:
1.-THE Law of the Sababth." Ezekiel
20:12.V. II gave them my Sabbaths,
20 be a sign between me and them,
that they might know that l am the
Lord that sanctify them. THESE
words though especially addressed to
Israel refer to an institution, or GIT.
which the whole Bible shows to be far
older and more lasting than the jew
teh dtspensations.
The first two ordinances given by
God 10 man were the law of marriage
and the law Of the Sabbath. Tamper
with the first of these and you inJure
all that is pure, and holy in family
and social life. Play fast and loose
with the second and all real worship
and devotion to God is stricken at its
very roots
b AS a matter Of fact the ordinance
OF marriage must have been given on
the sixth day when God made man,
male and female, and therefore before
the first Sabbath. Yet we read first
of the setting apart OF the Sabbath.
II may use such language, God
seems to 30 out of His way to place
the Sabbath at the very head of all
His commandments, and to hedge 1t
round with special force and sanct1ty.
AS, however, so many are arguing
against the institution of the Sabbath,
ms If 1t were not found on the very
first page of our Bible, 1t may be we'll
TO ask, What is the scr1ptural teaching
ON the Sabbath? The teaching Of the
Bible should be thoroughly known, all
the more because it is now the fash
don to speak Of the Sabbath as Jew
ish ordinance which has passed away
like the sacrifices, and other cere-
n1ontes Of the Law Of Moses.
M. When Instituted.
Z In the first place then, we have seen,
the Sabbath was instituted when man
was created, /. e., some $500 years be-
fore Moses, and was given to Adam.
the ancestor of everyone of us, Gentle
as well as Jew. Then again the refer.
ences to weeks in the account of the
food, and of Jacobs marriage with
Leah imply that the Sabbath was
known and kept by Gods people. At
the giving of the mama before the
Israelftes had come to Sinai, God calls
. their attention to the rest Of the Holy
Sabbath" as a thing already under
stood by them. When the command
nent was renewed on Mount Sinai, and
to this Ezekiel seems to be referring,
I. the first word of the fourth command
ment was Remember" pointing back
Z TO the old law given to Adam. 1t was
placed among the Ten Commandments
in such way as to make it of equal
force with the other nine, like them
tables of stone, while the regulations
concerning sacrifices and clean and un-
clean animals were written on perish
able parchment or Egyptian papyrus.
It is then one of those command
ments of which our Lord says, Who
soever shall break one of these
least he shall be called the least
+. in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.
6:19) and 1t is one of the four summed
up in "the first and great comand-
ments"
The prophet Isaiah is the most New
Testament like, and most evangelical
of all the prophets, and he it is who
writes, 'If thou turn away thy foot
from the Sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the
Sabbath a delight, the holy of the
Lord, honorable; md shalt honour
Him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasures then
shalt thou delight myself in the Lord"
0sath 5S:13-14) He enjoins, enforces,
the Sabbath especially in those very
passages where He speaks of the Cen
tiles being brought into Gods church,
and promises particular blessing to the
sons of the stranger, to everyone that
keepth the Sabbath from polluting it"
(Isaih $3.50.
= 1t is urged, however, that our Saviur
on the occasion Of the Disciples pluck
ing the ears of corn, and by several
OF His miracles, relaxed the binding
force of the Sabbath law. The answer
to this is, that our Lord was a re-
gtorer, not a destroyer.
A little careful thought win show
that He was really keeping the Sab
bath while the Pharisees were break
ing it. Take the case of the Disciples
plucking the corn. Would it have been
more rest for those Disciples to have
continued hungering, rather than rub
unnecessary hunger would have been
labor.
Day of consecrated Rest.
Our Lords enemies then would have
made it day of hardship and toll
while He was making it-what it was
intended to be-a day OF consecrated
rest.
The same applies to the healing of
the man with the withered hand, or
the important man at Bethesda, or the
man born blind. 1t was more rest for
them to be cured than to suffer; ii was
far more rest to the sympathizing
mind of the Savior to speak che word
OF power than to be the spectator of
Christ taught that the Sababth was
made to be a help. not a hindrance,
when He said, THE Sabbath was
made for man." But these words
show plainly that it was meant not for
jew OhAS, HOT 1OE one period,
but for man, /. e., 'the whole human
race" Our Lord went on to say, THE
Son OF Man is Lord also of the Sab
bath"
Then It is under His special protec-
ton, If the Lord of the Sababth is our
Lord too; we surely cannot neglect it
without dishonoring Him.
Did He not urge His Disciples to
pray that their flight from Jerusalem
might not be in winter, nor yet on
the Sabbath day, placing IL along
side one Of those seasons which God
told Noah should last while the earth
stood. 1t was in His capacity as Lord
of the Sababth that He changed the
time OF it's observance from the
seventh day to the first day of the
week. He did this Cd by appearing
among His assembled Disciples after
His resurrection on at least two sue
cessive Sunday evenings and so sane
tioning the first day of the week as
the day Of worship. (2) By sending
the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on
that day, and (S) by causing the New
Testament scriptures to endorse, as
they do, the practice which prevailed
amongst the earliest believers: when
most under the influence OF the Holy