THE SABBATH. 253 



as a siibstitute for Saturday, and that its observance is as binding 

 upon Christians as their Sabbath was upon the Jews, I can only say 

 that those which I have seen are of the jflimsiest and vaguest character. 

 " If," says Milton, " on the plea of a divine command, they impose 

 upon us the observances of a particular day, how do they presume, 

 without the authority of a divine command, to substitute another day 

 in its place ? " Outside the bounds of theology no one would think of 

 applying the term " proofs " to the evidence adduced for the change ; 

 and yet on this pivot, it has been alleged, turns the eternal fate of 

 human souls.* Were such a doctrine not actual it would be incredible. 

 It has been truly said that the man who accepts it sinks, in doing so, 

 to the lowest depth of atheism. It is perfectly reasonable for a reli- 

 gious community to set apart one day in seven for rest and devotion. 

 Most of those who object to the Judaic observance of the Sabbath 

 recognize not only the wisdom but the necessity of some such institu- 

 tion, not on the ground of a divine edict, but of common sense. f They 

 contend, however, that it ought to be as far as possible a day of cheer- 

 ful renovation both of body and spirit, and not a day of penal gloom. 

 There is nothing that I should withstand more strenuously than the 

 conversion of the first day of the week into a common working day. 

 Quite as strenuously, however, should I oppose its being employed as 

 a day for the exercise of sacerdotal rigor. 



The early reformers emphatically asserted the freedom of Chris- 

 tians from Sabbatical bonds ; indeed, Puritan writers have reproached 

 them with dimness of vision regarding the observance of the Lord's 

 day. " The fourth commandment," says Luther, " literally under- 

 stood, does not apply to us Christians ; for it is entirely outward, like 

 other ordinances of the Old Testament, all of which are now left free 

 by Christ. If a preacher," he continues, " wishes to force you back to 

 Moses, ask him whether you were brought by Moses out of Egypt ? 

 If he says no, then say. How, then, does Moses concern me, since he 

 speaks to the people that have been brought out of Egypt ? In the 

 New Testament Moses comes to an end, and his laws lose their force. 

 He must bow in the presence of Christ." " The Scripture," says 

 Melanchthon, " allows that we are not bound to keep the Sabbath ; 

 for it teaches that the ceremonies of the law of Moses are not neces- 



* In 1Y85 the first mail-coach reached Edinburgh from London, and in 1788 it was 

 continued to Glasgow. The innovation was denounced by a minister of the Secession 

 Church of Scotland as " contrary to the laws both of Church and state ; contrary to the 

 laws of God ; contrary to the most conclusive and constraining reasons assigned by God ; 

 and calculated not only to promote the hurt and ruin of the nation, but also the eternal 

 damnation of multitudes." (Cox, vol. ii, p. 248.) Even in our own day there are clergy- 

 men foolish enough to indulge in this dealing out of damnation. 



\ " That public worship," says Milton, " is commended and inculcated as a voluntary 

 duty, even under the Gospel, I allow ; but that it is a matter of compulsory enactment, 

 binding on believers from the authority of this commandment, or of any Sinaitical precept 

 whatever, I deny." 



