60 



SABBATH 



SABELLIANISM 



or really disorderly and disquieting conduct. Sab- 

 bath bic.ikinx was one of tlie charges on which the 

 bishops were deposed by the Covenanting General 

 Assembly of 1638. Scotland has since then been 

 specially the classical land of Sabbath observance, 

 though the early legislation of Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut (where it was ordained that Sunday 

 should be counted from sunset on Saturday) was 

 even more puritanically rigorous. But in Scot- 

 land, an in England and America, the tendency 

 is towards giving greater freedom to the indi- 

 vidual conscience. Still, great numbers of devout 

 ( 'In JM inns regret this tendency, and press for greater 

 strictness of olwervance, and' seek legislative sup- 

 port. In Scotland public-houses have been strictly 

 kept closed since 1853; in Ireland, with exception 

 of the great towns, since 1878 ; and in Wales since 

 1881 ; but English Sunday Closing Acts have 

 always been negatived. In Scotland especially 

 there is frequent agitation against Sunday trains, 

 Sunday postal deliveries, the opening of museums, 

 libraries, or botanic gardens, and Sunday cycling : 

 and disasters such as that of the Tay Bridge ( 1879 ) 

 have by some been treated publiclv'as God's judg- 

 ment on Sabbath breaking. The Sabbath Alliance 

 was founded in 1847 for promoting the stricter 

 observance of Sunday. On the other hand, the 

 Sunday Society was founded in 1875, under the 

 auspices of Dean Stanley and others, to secure the 

 opening of museums and galleries on Sunday. The 

 Grosvenor Gallery was opened on Sunday in 1878 ; 

 the same year the Manchester and some others 

 were openea on Sunday for the first time. The 

 question as to Sunday trains, long fiercely debated 

 in America, was compromised by allowing the run- 

 ning of the through mails, while, as in England, 

 local trains do not usually run. 



The law of England on Sunday observance l>egins 

 with acts of Charles I. (1625 and 1627), but is mainly 

 based on the Act 29 Car. II. chap. 7, dating from 

 1676, which forbids all labour, business, or work 

 done in the course of a man's calling on the Lord's 

 day, works of necessity and mercy being excepted. 

 It does not apply to coach-hirers, or drivers, or 

 farmers. A baker baking bread transgresses the 

 statute, but not one who bakes his customers' 

 Sunday dinners. Contracts entered into on Sunday 

 are not void if they are not within the regular 

 business of the contracting parties ; a tradesman 

 may draw or accept a bill of exchange on Sunday, 

 and a professional man may sell his horse. By an 

 act of Geo. III. any house of amusement to wliich 

 persons are admitted on a Sunday on paying 

 money, or by tickets already paid for, is a dis- 

 orderly house the test being wnether the thing is 

 done for gain. In some respects English Sunday 

 laws are more explicit than those of Scotland. 

 Special licensing laws regulate hotels and public- 

 houses. There are also laws against killing game, 

 using dogs or nets for sporting purposes, or fishing 

 for salmon otherwise than with rod or line ; the 

 Factory Acts and Pawnbroking Acta exclude Sun- 

 day labour (Jews being excepted). Local regula- 

 tions deal with theatres, museums, galleries, &c. 



In Scotland a law of 1579 prohibits hand-labour- 

 ing, working, gaming ami playing; there was 

 another act in 1661. And CaM statutes, often 

 continued, have recently been held to be still valid. 

 In some resiwets the law of Scotland is stricter ; 

 all salmon-fishing is forbidden. But in the main 

 the legislation is the same. Diligence cannot be 

 executed on Sunday, save in case of persons in 

 meditatione ftirftr. ; contracts signed on that day are 

 not necessarily void. 



In America the law generally follows that of 

 England, though some states have special regula- 

 tions almut Sunday travelling. There are rules in 

 force for preserving order and quiet on that day; 



by munici|>al regulations or general statute place* 

 of amusement and houses for the sale of intoxicants 

 are usually kept shut. 



In sharp opposition to the bulk of Puritan testi- 

 mony is the contention of the devout people for- 

 merly known as 'Sabbatarians,' still represented 

 by the Seventh-day Baptists in America, and a 

 Hi of the Tunkers there. The Kngli.-h Sab- 

 batarians of the 17th century (represented by 

 Theophilus Brabourne) strenuously contended that 

 the Sabbath was divinely instituted at the close nf 

 the work of creation, and remains binding on all 

 mankind till the end of the world; the seventh 

 day of the week alone is the Scriptural Sabbath : 

 as there is alwolutely no warrant in Scripture for 

 changing from the seventh day of the week to the 

 first, this change is mere will-worship, and a most 

 unjustifiable encroachment of man's imagination 

 on God's law. From the time of the Apostles, they 

 hold, there never wanted down to the Reforma- 

 tion sincere Christians who, in the face of obloquy 

 and persecution, continued to observe the fourth 

 ruiimiamlinent. In the Abyssinian Church the 

 Sabbath has not been supplanted by the Sunday, 

 both days being kept; Mip]>ort is al-o claimed 

 from the practice of the Armenians and Nestorians. 

 Immediately after the Protestant Reformation 

 were founded small societies testifying to the truth. 

 In the later part of the 16th century and earlier 

 part of the 17th there were at least eleven churches 

 of Seventh-day Baptists in England, now dwindled 

 to one or two. In America there are some flourish- 

 ing churches of Seventh-day Baptists in sixteen 

 states of the I'nion, with a membership of 10,000, 

 two colleges, and an extensive literary propaganda. 



The literature of the Nihhath controversy is exceed- 

 ingly voluminous, as may best be seen by consulting 

 Kobert Cox, The Literature of the Satbath Question (2 

 vols. 1865). See also, on the Puritan side, Hol.l. n's 

 Christian Sabbath (IS'.T.i; Gilfillan's Sabbath (1861)* 

 Four Prize Essays (Sabbath Alliance, 1886) ; and on the 

 Dominical side, Hengstenberg's The Lord'* Day ( Kng. 

 trans. 1853); Hesscy's Sundin/ (Hampton Lectures for 

 1800 ) ; Zahn, Oeschithtedet Sabbath( 1878 ) ; Gaintner and 

 Spedding, SI ml ins in k'nyliih History ( 1881 ) ; Crafts, TKe 

 Sabbath for Man ( New York, 1885 ). For the Seventhly 

 Baptists, see Lewis, Sabbath anil Sunday ( new ed. 1886); 

 Andrews, History of the Sabbath ( 1873 ) ; and Bailey's 

 History of the Seventh-Day Baptist Oeneral Conference. 



Sabbaliil (named from Sabbati, an Italian 

 botanist), a genus of plants, of the natural order 

 Gentianocea?, natives of North America. They 

 are small herbaceous plants, some with simple, and 

 some with branched stems. They all contain, like 

 many others of the same order, a pure bitter 

 principle, useful in fevers and as a tonic. 



SalH'lliailislll. a heresy about the distinction 

 of Persons in God, the name of which is due to 

 Sabellius, of whom but little is known, save that 

 he was most probably a native of Libya, came to 

 Home under Zephyrinus, and was banished by 

 Callistns, whereupon he took refuge in the Libyan 

 Pentapolis. The Adoptianists ami Modalists up 

 to this time were the chief divisions of the Mon- 

 archians, the former making Christ the chosen of 

 (Sod, His divinity the effect of a complete oneness 

 of will with Him", the latter making Him merely a 

 manifestation of God. Modalism prevailed in 

 Rome under the patronage of Calixtus, hut was 

 denounced by Hippolytus, who was himself accused 

 of ditheism. Sabel'lius led the more extreme 

 Modalists, and ottered strong opposition to Calix- 

 tus, but his influence was far more important in 

 the East than in the West, where the phrase of 

 Athanasius that the Son and the Father are one 

 and the same in substance ( o^oowioi ) was at once 

 accepted, though rejected at Antioch in 268. 



The earlier form of Sabellianism was almost 



