60 OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Au historical mistake corrected. Tlio Sabbath purified, and ennobled. 



it was clianged, as we have seen. The connection was dis- 

 solved at once, bj the abrogation of the Jewish code. The 

 Decalogue remained immutable, but all else iliat icas j^eciiliai' 

 to Juclaism was abolished. 



But the Sabbath " was actually peculiar to the Jews/' says 

 my friend. " Throughout all history we discover no trace of a 

 Sabbath among the nations of antiquity." (p. 24.) My friend 

 here speaks as if all history were under his eye. But he has 

 fallen into a mistake here, which proves that he has not read all 

 history. I have corrected his mistake by the united testimony 

 of seveii competent witnessés : — Hesiod, Homer, Callima- 

 CHUS, Philo, Josephus, Clement, andEusEBius. 



But '^ moral law/' says my friend, '' being founded on natu- 

 ral and universal relations, must be as immutable as those re- 

 lations.'^ (p. 24.) Granted. And, therefore, the Decalogue, which 

 is founded on such relations, remained intact, when everything 

 " strictly ceremonial and Jewish" was swept away like shadows 

 before the sun ! 



But, says W. B. T., '41ie Sabbath has beeu clianged in its 

 period, clianged in the reasons for its observance, clianged in 

 the character of its requirements, and clianged in its sanction." 

 (p. 24.) Wherein ? It is still the same loeeMy "period" required 

 by the Decalogue. The original " reasons'^ for its observance 

 remain ', only new and niore aflPecting motives have been sup- 

 plied, by the death and resurrection of our Bedeemer ! No 

 change has been made in the "nature of its observance,^' except 

 the abolition of the " strictly ceremonial and Jewish'' code, 

 with which it once was incorporated, together with all the 

 peculiar constructions, penalties, and sanctions of that code. 

 Like Marriage, it now stands as " in the beginning ;" pure from 

 every tincture of Judaism; hallowed and beautified with new and 

 loftier associations. Pre-eminently now a part of " the perfect 

 and royal law of liberty," from the slavery of the woi^d, the 

 bright link of man with man, and earth with heaven, the safeguard 

 of virtue, the glory of religion, the pillar and prop of society, the 



