I shall add a few words on the subject of the Sabbath, submitting them to the spiritual thoughts of my brethren. It is well to be subject to the Word. First, the participation in God’s rest, is what distinguishes his people, — their distinctive privilege. The heart of the believer holds that fast, whatever May be the sign that God has given of it. (Hebrews 4) God had established it at the beginning, but there is no appearance that man had any share in it. He did not work in the creation, nor was he set to labor or toil in the garden of Eden; he was to dress and keep it indeed, but he had nothing to do but continually to enjoy. However, the day was hallowed from the beginning. Afterward the Sabbath was given as a memorial of the deliverance out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 5: 15), and the prophets specially insist on that point—that the Sabbath was given as a sign of God’s covenant. (Ezekiel 20, Exodus 31:1313Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. (Exodus 31:13).) It was plain that it was but the earnest of that Word, “My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest.” (Exodus 33:14; 31:1314And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. (Exodus 33:14)
13Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. (Exodus 31:13); Leviticus 19:3030Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:30),) It is a sign that the people are sanctified to God. (Ezekiel 20:12; 20:13-1612Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. (Ezekiel 20:12)
13But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. 14But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. 15Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; 16Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. (Ezekiel 20:13‑16); Nehemiah 9:1414And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant: (Nehemiah 9:14). Comp. Isaiah 56:2-6; 58:132Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. 3Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. 4For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; 5Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. 6Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; (Isaiah 56:2‑6)
13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: (Isaiah 58:13); Jeremiah 17:2222Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. (Jeremiah 17:22); Laminations 1:7; 2: 6; Ezekiel 22:8;23:38;44:248Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. (Ezekiel 22:8)
38Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. (Ezekiel 23:38)
24And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths. (Ezekiel 44:24).) Besides these passages, we see that whenever God gives any new principle or form of relation with himself, the Sabbath is added. Thus, in grace to Israel (Exodus 16:2323And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. (Exodus 16:23)); as laws. (Exodus 20:1010But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: (Exodus 20:10).) See also, besides the verse we are occupied with, Exodus 31:13,14; 34: 2113Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. 14Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. (Exodus 31:13‑14), when they are restored afresh by the patience of God through mediation (35: 2), and in the new covenant of Deuteronomy already quoted in the passage.
These remarks show us what was the radical and essential importance of the Sabbath, as the thought of God and the sign of the relation between his people and himself; though, being only a sign, a solemnity and not a moral commandment. But if that be of the utmost importance, it is of an equal and even higher importance to remember, that the covenant between God and the Jewish people is set aside for us, although God’s rest be quite as precious to us, and even more so; that our rest is not in this creation—a rest of which the seventh day was a sign; and, moreover, which is more important still, that the Lord Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath,—a remark of all importance as to his person, and null if he was to do nothing with regard to the Sabbath; and that, as a, fact, he has omitted all mention of it in the sermon on the Mount, where he has given such a precious summary of the morality of the law, in its fundamental principles, with the addition of others (connected with the heavenly light brought by the name of the Father and the presence of a suffering Messiah, and the revelation of the heavenly reward), making a whole of’ the principles of his kingdom; and that he continually thwarted the thoughts of the Jews on this point, is a circumstance which the evangelists, that is, the Holy Ghost, have been careful to record.
The Sabbath itself Jesus passed in the state of death—a terrible sign of the position of the Jews as to their covenant: for us, of the birth of better things. It has been tried, with much trouble, to prove that the seventh day was in fact the first. A single remark demolishes the whole edifice thus reared; it is, that the word of God calls this last the first; in contrast with the seventh. What is then the first day? It is for us the day of all days—the day of the resurrection of Jesus, by which we are begotten again unto a lively hope, which is the source of all our joy, our salvation, and that which characterizes our life. Thus we shall find the rest of God in the resurrection. Morally, in this world, we begin our spiritual life by the, rest, instead of finding it at the end of our labors. Our rest is in the new creation; we are the beginning, after Christ, of that new dispensation. It is clear, then, that the rest of God cannot, in our case, be connected with the sign of the rest of creation here below. Have we any authority in the New Testament for distinguishing the first day of the week from the others? For my part, I do not doubt it. It is certain we have not commandments like those of the old law; they would be quite contrary to the spirit of the gospel of grace. But the Spirit of God has marked out, in divers manners, the first day of the week; that day is not made binding upon us in a way contrary to the nature of the economy. The Lord being raised on that day, according to his promise, appears in the midst of his disciples gathered according to his word—the week following he does the same. In the Acts, the first day of the week is marked as the day on which they gathered together to break bread. In 1 Corinthians 16, Christians are exhorted to lay by what they had earned, each first day of the week. In Revelation, it is positively called the Lord’s day; that is, designated in a direct manner by a distinctive name by the Holy Spirit. I am well aware that it has been sought to persuade us that John speaks of being in the Spirit in the Millennium; but there are two fatal objections to that interpretation; first; the Greek says quite another thing, and uses the same word that is used for the Lord’s Supper—lordly or dominical—the dominical supper—the dominical day. Who can doubt as to the meaning of such an expression? or, consequently, can fail in admitting that the first day of the week was distinguished from others? (as the Lord’s Supper was distinguished from other suppers)—not as an imposed Sabbath, but as a privileged day. But the reasoning against this thought is founded on a totally false idea, in that only a minimum portion of the Revelation speaks of the Millennium. The book is about the things that precede it; and in the place where the expression is found, there is decidedly no mention whatever of it, but of the existing churches, whatever besides might be their prophetic character; so that if we hold to the word of God, we are forced to say that the first day of the week is distinguished in the word of God as being the Lord’s day. We are also bound to say, if we desire to maintain the authority of the Son of man, that he is superior to the Sabbath— “Lord of the Sabbath;” so that in maintaining for us the authority of the Jewish Sabbath as such, we are in danger of denying the authority, the dignity, and the rights of the Lord Jesus himself, and re-establishing the old covenant, of which it was the appointed sign, of seeking rest as the result of labor under law. The more the true importance of the Sabbath—the seventh day—is felt, the more we shall feel, the importance of the consideration that it is no longer the seventh, but the first day, which has privileges for us. Let us take care, on the other hand, because we are no longer under the law, but under grace, not to weaken the thought, not only of man’s rest but of God’s, —a governing thought, in the whole of the revelation of his relationship with man. The final rest for us is rest from spiritual labors in the midst of evil; not only from sin, —a rest which we, as fellow-laborers, shall enjoy with him who has said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. J. N. D.