EDITOR'S TABLE. 



3 6 7 



dress meat, or visit the neighbors, or 

 walk abroad in the fields. Acts intrin- 

 sically proper have been construed as 

 crimes if done on Sunday. The absurdi- 

 ties of Sabbatarian legislation illustrate 

 the grossest superstitions of the past. 

 The following statement from Cox's 

 "Sabbath Laws" represents the char- 

 acter and logic of the old practices: 

 "At Aberdeen, in the month of Novem- 

 ber, 1608, a great panic arose by reason 

 of an earthquake which had visited the 

 city, and as the cause of the earthquake 

 was distinctly traceable to the custom 

 of salmon-fishing on Sunday, the pro- 

 prietors of the salmon-fishings were 

 summoned before the Session and sol- 

 emnly rebuked." This may seem ridic- 

 ulous, but do we not still hear of the 

 judgments that follow Sabbath-break- 

 ing? 



And it is important to note that, 

 when viewed even theologically, the 

 strictness of the Puritan Sunday is 

 without authority. If the Old Testa- 

 ment is appealed to, the fourth com- 

 mandment forbids work with emphatic 

 detail on the seventh day of the week, 

 but forbids nothing else. If the New 

 Testament is appealed to, we find Christ 

 nowhere establishing Sunday, but en- 

 tertaining such latitudinarian views on 

 the subject as to incur the reproaches 

 of the pietistic Pharisees for Sabbath- 

 breaking. And in reply to their pu- 

 ritanical notions he curtly told them 

 that "the Sabbath was made for man, 

 and not man for the Sabbath." Hence 

 it has been justly said that " Christ 

 himself did nothing more by word 

 or act than protest against the super- 

 stitious abuses which in course of time 

 had grown around the Sabbath." Paul 

 exhorts the Colossians to independence 

 of thought upon the subject, and to let 

 no man judge them in respect of holi- 

 days, new moons, and Sabbath-days. 

 It is alleged that there is no evidence 

 that the early Christians kept Sunday, 

 or the first day of the week, with Jew- 

 ish strictness, but that it was first en- j 



forced by law in a. d. 386 by the Em- 

 peror Constantine, " who attached just 

 as much importance to his own birthday 

 as to the day of the Lord." But the 

 puritanical spirit grew apace. " In 

 proportion as the Church triumphed 

 over paganism, so did the Christian 

 days over those of the old world. The 

 Church naturally used every effort to 

 secure an increased respect for the days 

 of its own creation. And though it was 

 not till the time of Leo the Philosopher 

 (889-910) that Sunday field-work was 

 forbidden by an imperial law, in refer- 

 ence to public games and amusements 

 the ascetic tendencies of the Church 

 were earlier and more generally felt. The 

 first innovation in this direction was 

 the law of Theodosius the Elder, which 

 included in its prohibition not only sec- 

 ular business but secular amusements. 

 Abstinence, therefore, from toil and 

 pleasure, having thus become the law of 

 the Christian empire, the subsequent 

 history of Sunday resolves itself simply 

 into an extension of the principle." 



Coming down to the Reformation, 

 we find its master-spirits still struggling 

 against the tendency to Sabbatarian in- 

 tolerance. " Cranmer speaks of Sun- 

 day and other days as mere ' appoint- 

 ments of the magistrates,' but considers 

 that a sufficient reason for their observ- 

 ance." Tyndale says: "As for the Sab- 

 bath, we oe lords of the Sablath, and may 

 yet change it into Monday, or into any 

 other day as we see need, or may make 

 every tenth day a holy day, only as we 

 see cause why; neither need we any 

 holy day at all if the people might be 

 taught without." Luther said: "If any- 

 where any one sets up its observance 

 on a Jewish foundation, then I order 

 you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance 

 on it, to do anything that shall remove 

 the encroachments on Christian liber- 

 ty." Calvin, in this, was equally lib- 

 eral, and set an example by playing the 

 game of bowls on Sunday. In all these 

 cases we note the recognition of Sun- 

 day as a human institution, subordinate 



