New Britain herald., 1923-10-01

Jesus laid down no rule for Sab
bath observance" he said. "He gives
us no method of Sabbath observance.
He is the champion of some of those
who violate mans Interpretation of
the Sabbath.
| THE fundamental principle Of the
old was keep 1t holy This might be
said of any day. The new idea is
Sabbath was made for man. He
made no protest by word or example,
| nor condemnation of those who vio-
lated man-made laws governing the
day.
"All things God made were pro-
nounced good. Good for what?
Good for man. So we can infer that
when Jesus said the Sabbath was
made for man it was as If saying the
Sabbath was made for mans good.
when we begin to think of what
| is good for a man we are, surprised
to find how many different lives may
be affected by any means. A thing
might be good for a mans physical
life, his intellectual life, his spiritual
life or his material life. Man needs
work, labor, producing something.
He also needs rest and confidence and
peace. The first attempt to regulate
the Sabbath was an adjustment of
these two factors, work and rest, both
good for man, into the right relation
ship.
1T is true that good demands more
than mere physical reaction. A man
must give time to the development of
his spiritual life. 1t is possible that
at one time in mans development
one thing was needed more than an
other for mans good. This has taken
place in a significant change in the
observance of the Sabbath.
THE Sabbath day was changed in |
the Christian era from Saturday to |
the first day of the week SO we could !
start the week right. Begin your
week with God is the significance of
the change.
When the old requirements were
first promulgated the underlying idea
was rest, ceasing from toiling. Thou /
shalt not do any work, thou nor thy /
manservant, ETC.
TO stop toiling was the underlying t
principle. We can see why it should
have been SO. Most of mans and
weman's and beast of burdens ac-
tivities was physical toll, early and
late. No change from that meant
wearing out the physical forces of
life. To do that was wrong. To get
back to normally was what was need
ed
i,p !, oh ~, Id rn /
spect very much. The change that
impresses many is the change in the
of hours toilers must work to
supply their physical and material
needs 1t is now practically accepted
as right adjustment of life that
man shall not toll more than one
third of the day. eight hours. Then
he will not need SO much physical
rest. And this has gone into the Sab
bath Few of our people feel the
call to physical rest after 10 or IL
a. nj, Sunday They want to do some
thing else. The average American
would go crazy IL he had to rest in
bed all day Sunday.
There isn't a line in the New
Testament that says Jesus spent the
Sabbath resting. his Sabbath was
quite active. He went to the syna-
gogue, He went into the fields. He
went to the sea shore and He visited
Ut His friends house.
But we find people nervously ex-
hausted at the end of the week and
needing to rebuild their nervous sys-
I'm.
Now If the Sabbath is to be for
mans good, how should it be OBJ
served? 1t has broken away from the
I'D moorings and has come out into
he new of Make it good for man.
What is good for man that could en-
,hasize the Sabbath? How shall he
tart the week right? There are a