The Penn's Grove record., 1913-04-11
HOLY DAY or REST
Sabbath Wisely Set Aside for the
Worship of God and the
Needs of Humanity.

1t is worth while to allude often to
Prot. Carl HiIty's delightful book on
Happiness" and especially to its
glorifcation of work.
One of Professor Hilty's strong
points is that no one has a real right
to the rest of Sunday unless he has
toiled during the preceding six days.
The keeping of the Sabbath among
the ancient Jews was counted a car
dinal virtue. 1t extended even to their
plants, which could not be watered or
plucked on that day. Of course, the
ceremonies Of the priests, as of those
Of all sects in our own day, were not
accounted as labor.
We can only fully realize the inten-
sity of the old Jewish feeling for the
day when we consider the fact that a
deliberate breach of the Sabbath was
punishable by death.
That the national feeling on this
subject approached fanaticism is seen
by the record that a Jewish steersman,
during a terrible storm, left the helm
INTENDED, because the hour had struck
80 NHN ONS4-1A4AA6 VI LLA6 odDDdLA. IL
is well attested by passage5 from the
books Of the Maccabees, from Jose
plus and from Plutarch, that the Jew
ish armies refused to bear arms on the
Sabbath, ever suffering their enemies
to cut them down rather than to desc
crate the day.
Sabbath Rigors Mitigated.
Prudent commanders, however"
says Doctor Strong, seeing the great
advantage thus given the enemy. OBJ
served the Sabbath rest only so far as
to abstain on that day from offensive
operations"
The Pharisees, Essences and Sanar-
itans were, in the time of Christ, the
chief sticklers for the old rigor. They
split the very smallest of hairs in their
zeal. Thus 1t was permitted among
them to give medicine to save life; but
to give it merely to make the sick
nor comfortable was forbidden.
Recent discoveries, as related by
Delitzsch and others, indicate that a
seventh day of rest was prescribed
among many, perhaps most, OF the an
cient nations, and markedly among
the Hittites and B~abylonians. 1t seems
to have been early felt that the repose
of the night did not suffice for the re-
freshment of the human system. and
that in addition a whole day of rest
was needed as often as once in each
week.
The Jew keeps the Sabbath as a fes-
tival. After a brief, ceremonious reli-
gious service of some kind during the
morning, feasting and pleasure are the
order of the day. The Jews consider
that lisa. 1913, IA enjofns this II say
ing, "If thou urn away thy foot from
doing thy pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight, the
holy of the Lord, honorable, then shalt
thou delight myself in the Lord. and I
will cause thee to ride upon the high
places of the earth"
Make Sabbath Day of Feasting.
Buxdorf, one of the great authori-
ties, says: $50 convinced are the Jews
that one way of honoring the Sabbath
is by feasting that they sometimes
fast the preceding day to enable them
to eat the more at the Sabbath meals"
Our modern evangelical methods
are very different. We consider this
day as sacred to the higher spiritual
needs of mankind. We deplore any
thing which tends to make it carna1
or sensual.
sAs for the special deeds to be done
or left undone on the Sabbath, men
are more and more leaving them to
the individual conscience; but let
each of us remember that, according
to the way the great rest day is spent.
SO will character degenerate or i'm
prove. Let US keep the Sabbath day
holy.-Christian Herald.