416 



SJAIUTIER- SABBATH. 



s. 



SABATIER, Ix>ura ATJGCSTE, n French Protes- 

 tnnt theologian, was born nt Vnllon, Oct. 22, 

 1839. He studied theology at MnntnuUm, and 

 thereafter visited several German universities. In 

 1868 lie was made professor of French literature in 

 the normal school at Strasburg. and lectured them 

 in the Protestant theological' faculty. In 1873 he 

 removed to Paris, and became professor in the 

 newly-erected Protestant faculty. His writings 

 include Lt ttmoiynagt de Jt*us-Clirist stir sn per- 

 ennne (1863); Lea 'Sources (le In vie de Jesus (18d) ; 

 L'Aiftre /'awl (1870) ; Gttillaume le Tuciturne (IsTi 1 ) ; 

 De {'Influence dcs Femmes sur la Litttrtiture jfranytiM 

 ( 1S73) ; La notion htbraique de reyjrril (187SI) ; De 

 Viiriyine du j/eclie dims la thiologie de Vapotre Paul 

 (1887). 



SABBATH is the name in common of sundry 

 periodic times of rest ordained in the 

 XX 124 Mosaic economy. A Sabbath of the 

 fr> 'l5i ' an( * was a PP"' lltc d ' or every seventh 



Am. Rep.)- J' ear i w '' en lields were not to be sown 

 nor vineyards pruned (Lev. xxv. 4). 

 The yearly Day of Atonement, the yearly Feast of 

 Trumpets, the first and the eighth, .days of the 

 yearly Feast of Tabernacles were .severally distin- 

 guished as Sabbaths (Lev. xxiii. 24, 32, Sit). 



But the name most frequently indicated the 

 weekly rest of the seventh day, which had been 

 earliest appointed, and by God himself, in commem- 

 oration of his own resting from the work of creation 

 (Gen. ii. 3); and to this weekly rest-day of the 

 Mosaic Scriptures the name ''The Sabbath" is, in 

 ordinary usage, applied. The name covers literally 

 only the idea of rest. But the usage, as defined in 

 the" Mosaic law, included also the practice of relig- 

 ious duty, ' Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 

 holy" (Ex. xx. 8); and particularly of the great 

 duty of public worship, "The seventh day is the 

 Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation" (Lev. xxiii. 3). 



This Biblical institution of a weekly religious rest- 

 day has awakened immense interest nnd voluminous 

 -ion, in regard to its origin, its nneicnt design, 

 it- hit'>rv down to the time of Christ, and its stand- 

 ing with Him nnd His apostles. Yet its chief inter- 

 est lies in a fact so important and so manifest that 

 it supersedes all discussion: namely, that tin- ob- 

 servance of a weekly day of rjst and rel gion has 

 developed into one of the foremost factors of human 

 welfare. Only the family and civil government are 

 more conspicuously distinctive of Christian civiliza- 

 tion. The ways in which this notable observance 

 contributes to the advantage of individuals, of fam- 

 ilies, of communities, and of nations have been the 

 subject of clear statement, and often of very exten- 

 sive exposition, by a multitude of writers as diverse 

 in their views concerning the divine claims of the 

 u-age as Luther, Hooker, Grotius, Paley, Thomas 

 Arnold, Domville, Hessey, Dr. Norman MeLeod, 

 and P. J. Proudhon. six-ialist and atheist. But far 

 more formal attestation of the fundamental import- 

 ance of the usage has been given by that long array 

 of the acts of legislatures and courts, especially in 

 Great Britain and America, which is noticed below. 



It is in these two unquestionable relations of the 

 weekly rest-day, namely, to the Mosaic Scriptures 

 on the one hand, and to the fundamental and endur- 

 ing interests of mankind on the other, that writers 

 have found the motives of that eager and sustained 

 discussion of which the Sabbath has been the sub- 

 ject. Inasmuch ns the developed importance of the 

 usage lias, with thinking men, admitted no question, 

 If no more question had been raised concerning the 



divine prevision and ordalmnent of such a day, two 



things would have attended upon the hare l;n-t of 

 bath institution : a most eibvious and un- 

 answerable argument for the divine origin of the 

 Old Testament Scriptures, nnd cqunl argument for 

 the permanent authority of an ordinance that was 

 seen to have been aimed of God at i-ueh lasting 

 ell'eet. Upon both of these arguments, ns absolutely 

 fair and conclusive, a very large elass of Christian 

 writers have elaborately and confidently insisted. 



Their opponents ha\e had no n source but todi ny 

 the existence of any proof that the Old Testament 

 rest-day was appointed by (iod a- a usage in c e-s.uy 

 for men. Of such opponents there have l.een two 

 chief classes. One of these, being truly reverent 

 toward the Scriptures, have admitted the divine 

 origin of the ordinance. 1 ut have claimed that it 

 was a part of the ceremonial intended only for the 

 nation of Israel and done away in Christ ; so that 

 the useful elements of the modern rest-day, how- 

 ever analogous to similar eli nients in the .Sabbath 

 of Moses, are held to be enjoined in no law of God. 

 Of this representation it is an essential part that the 

 earlv statement of the institution of the Sabbath, 

 made Gen. ii. .'t, where it fairly describes an appoint- 

 ment for the whole race, is nothing else than an 

 anticipation by the historian, quite out of its date, 

 of the narrow appointment to be long alterward 

 made for Israel. 



The other class of objectors have adopted more 

 radical methods. As much of Old Testament text 

 as connects the institution of the Sabbath with any 

 choice oi'Uod, they set aside as unaulhcntic. Kvi n 

 then, however, the institution remains inwrought 

 with writings so ancient that a philosophical ob- 

 jector feels bound to give pome account of its pres- 

 ence there. This explanation is claimed to lie in 

 the united facts thnt the Hebrews kept a festival of 

 the New Moon : and that the intervals between the 

 new moons (of i!)^ days), when divided into quar- 

 ters according to the successive " quarterings" of 

 the moon would, most frequently, furnish periods 

 of seven days. This theory has "not attempted to 

 show how lunar phenomena, thought to be distinct 

 enough to etl'ect the observance, now of a seventh 

 day. now of an eighth, could have trained a people 

 while still religiously intent mi the phenomenon of 

 the new moon, to override nil phenomena in behalf 

 of a strictly seventh sacred day. Such a substitute 

 for the divine command being admitted, it would 

 follow, of course, that the relation of the weekly 

 rest-day to Christian worship nnd the world's ad- 

 vantage is a happy chance, involving no suggestion 

 of the inspiration of Moses or of the authority of 

 the Sabbath law. 



In this relation of the opposing sides nn element 

 of the debate, as yet unnoticed, becomes of chief 

 importance. The- Mosaic Se-riptures gave to the 

 Sabbath so signal a preeminence above 1 every other 

 usage which they named as to predict nnd require 

 its unexampled career. The Decalogue is by its 

 form nnd contents marked oil from all other writings, 

 not only of Moses, but of all men. To moralist* 

 and philosophers of every class it stands as a foun- 

 tain of law. Of the te'ii pree-epts thnt gave it name 

 nine are accepted on all hands as of the essence of 

 fundamental morality ; the> remaining precept being 

 the' law ot 'the Sabbath. This collocation is the more 

 remarkable by the fact that the Sabbath at that 

 date, if viewed apart from its history nnd ini 

 development, had no intelligible- claim to be' so ad- 

 vanced beyond all other Jewish usages. Nothing 



