252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that they do not I fear that Paul, in liis customary language, would 

 pronounce their conduct to be "without excuse." * 



Science, which is the logic of nature, demands proportion between 

 the house and its foundation. Theology sometimes builds weighty 

 structures on a doubtful base. The tenet of Sabbath observance is an 

 illustration. With regard to the time when the obligation to keep the 

 Sabbath was imposed, and the reasons for its imposition, there are grave 

 differences of opinion between learned and j^ious men. Some affirm 

 that it was instituted at the Creation in remembrance of the rest of 

 God. Others allege that it was imposed after the departm-e of the 

 Israelites from Egypt, and in memory of that departure. The Bible 

 countenances both interpretations. In Exodus we find the origin of 

 the Sabbath described with unmistakable clearness, thus : " For in six 

 days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, 

 and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh 

 day, and hallowed it." In Deuteronomy this reason is suppressed and 

 another is assigned. Israel being a servant in Egypt, God, it is stated, 

 brought them out of it through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out 

 arm. '' Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sab- 

 bath-day." After repeating the ten commandments, and assigning the 

 foregoing origin to the Sabbath, the writer in Deuteronomy proceeds 

 thus : " These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the 

 mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and the thick dark- 

 ness, with a loud voice ; and he added no more," But in Exodus God 

 not only added more, but something entirely different. This has been 

 a difficulty with commentators not formidable, if the Bible be treated 

 as any other ancient book, but extremely formidable on the theory of 

 plenary inspiration. I i-emember in the days of my youth being shocked 

 and perplexed by an admission made by Bishop Watson in his cele- 

 brated " Apology for the Bible," written in answer to Tom Paine. " You 

 Lave," says the Bishop, " disclosed a few weeds which good men would 

 have covered up from view." That there were "weeds" in the Bible 

 requiring to be kept out of sight was to me, at that time, a new reve- 

 lation. I take little pleasure in dwelling upon the errors and blem- 

 ishes of a book rendered venerable to me by intrinsic wisdom and im- 

 perishable associations. But when that book is wrested to our detri- 

 ment, when its passages are invoked to justify the imposition of a yoke, 

 irksome because unnatural, we are driven in self-defense to be critical. 

 In self-defense, therefore, we plead these two discordant accounts of 

 the origin of the Sabbath, one of which makes it a purely Jewish in- 

 stitution, while the other, unless regarded as a mere myth and figure, 

 is in violent antagonism to the facts of geology. 



With regard to the alleged " proofs " that Sunday was introduced 



* I refer, of course, to those who object to the opening of the museums on religious 

 grounds. The administrative difficulty stands on a different footing. But surely it ought 

 to vanish in presence of the public benefits which in all probability would accrue. 



