The Sunday question

Front matter

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Preface

The object of this work is to promote an intelligent understanding, appreciation, and love of the Lord's Day.

Mindful that a preface, like a lens, should enable one to see much through a small medium, I only wish here to define the position of this volume among others on the same subject.

To the question : Why do, or should, we keep the Lord's Day? four answers have been given.

1. Because Natural Religion favors it.

2. Because the Fourth Commandment demands it.

3. Because the Church orders it.

4. Because the New Testament indicates and exemplifies it.

Each of these answers has truth in it. Regarded dodrinally^ the specific object of this volume is, while recognizing and adopting all of present useful truth in the three former, to show that the immediate ground for the Christian keeping of Sunday holy, under the name of the Lord's Day, and in distinction from a merely useful and agreeable civil or social institution

PREFACE.

on the one hand, or on the other, an essentially Jewish seventh-day sabbath is found in the words and deeds of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles, witnessed to by the Primitive Church. Accordingly, the different divisions of the subject have been treated in the order of their immediate importance, relative to present duty, rather than in chronological order, and hence the New Testament teaching has been put foremost.

Regarded historically, justice to all times and parties has been sought by giving what is believed to be fairly representative testimony from each. As the strength and permanence of political parties attests the reality of the nation which contains them, and their devotion to it, so the same qualities, in parties on the question of the Lord's Day, indicate the reality and importance of the day. The following pages have, therefore, not been written with controversial intent, in such allusions to parties as have seemed unavoidable, but, rather, in the hope of exhibiting the unity of Christian sentiment as deeper and more controlling than its variety, and of uniting all, yet more fully, in an intelligent, reverent, and cherishing appreciation of the Lord's Day, as the "first and best of days."

Regarded practically, this work is not a collection of rules for the proper observance of the Lord's Day, but seeks to make an exhibition, brief, yet believed to be sufficient, of its transcendent benefits to

PREFACE, mankind; and it is hoped that some of the considerations in Chapter VIII may, among other ends, serve to give peace to such troubled souls as may chance to read them, as have heretofore known government more as a hard master than as a protector, and religion, more as priestcraft than as the revelation of God's beneficent love to man.

It is hoped that whatever of repetition may be found, will not be thought needless or tedious, but necessary to proper insistence upon important truth, or as showing the convergence of different lines of argument towards a common conclusion.

While it has been the purpose not to divert the attention of readers and weary them with too many foot-notes, it is believed that every statement is' sufficiently supported by comprehensive general references to authorities, if not by specific ones. The latter, however, are numerous.

Finally, while the extent of the literature of the subject leaves small opportunity for any thing strikingly original in discussing it, yet the time that has been spent, at longer or shorter intervals, for several years, in the preparation of this volume, has resulted in such a plan of treatment, and in such a number of points not met with by the author elsewhere, as will, he hopes, make the subject as interesting as it is important, and his work a contribution to the best welfare and lasting happiness of his fellow-countrymen.

Newton^ Mass,

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Lord's Day and Some General

Principles 9

Chapter I. The Lord's Day, And Some General Principles

" The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternaiy 2 CoR. iv : 18.

" To every thing there is a season^ and a time to every purpose under the heavens^ Eccles. iii : i.

THIS age is so excellently well up in practical knowledge of many material things, — food, clothing, shelter, air, light, heat, rest, and motion — that concern this present life, that the more is the pity, if it be found not equally advanced in wisdom concerning the invisible and immaterial, yet even more real, things of the mind and soul. A refined and withal deep thinker, lecturing on " Show and Substance," eloquently and elegantly set forth by various arguments and illustrations, that a fruitful thought is as truly a substance as is a mass of rock. It is so in the truest, deepest, best sense of being something imperishable and influential. For examlO THE SUNDAY QUESTION.

pie, the thought that liberty is a tree of gradual growth, brought to perfection by the long and diligent cultivation of centuries, has made the fabric of English liberty, mostly unscarred by bloody, violent, and even convulsive and destructive revolutions. The thought that liberty is something that can be made at a given time and place, and according to a preconceived pattern, gave the world the liberty-destroying French revolution. A host of other illustrations, which each can make for himself, will show the same thing. Thoughts being thus powers in life, the distinct provision of a time for undistracted thought is a priceless blessing, an indispensable necessity, indeed, for healthy and happy existence.

Time and space are the underlying conditions of all human action. The word : I have no time for it, or no room for it, is decisive that it can not be done, or had. The word : I will, or I want to, do it, or get it, when I have time for it, or room for it, expresses each one's vision, or hope, of something better to come.

The time-absorbing, space-grasping world, with its ten thousand appeals to the senses, and with its lust for gain, would take all our time, and would make us forget that there was any other life than the present. Hence the divine and tender wisdom of the word of the "Father of Lights," **from whom cometh every good and every perfect gift," saying : " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," that is, as if there were no other.

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES. II

But the merciful provision of the Lord's Day, the rest-day God made for man, gives us, then, both time and space, of which nothing may rightfully rob us, in which, along with bodily rest and refreshing ** change of scene," to hear, read, and think of those highest, brightest, and best things, which purify and ennoble all life, just because they concern us as immortal beings.

Let us, then, readers and friends, sit down and reason together in the following pages, concerning the sacredness, permanence, and value, as shown by its origin, history, and uses, of the day of which it may so well be said : "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

"What Mean ye by This Service.?" Ex.xii:26.

Suppose, now, an intelligent stranger from far away were to land on our shores just before the Fourth of July, and that he should ask the meaning of all he might see of preparation and celebration. What answer would any intelligent citizen, or even school-boy, give him }

He might be asked, first, if he had ever seen, or heard of, either among his own people, or any others, any national festivals ; and, second, if he had ever known of a long and generally observed festival, founded on nothing, kept in honor of no person or event, and signifying nothing more than a general desire for a holiday, with no particular reason for keeping it at one time rather than another.

We can easily enough believe, first, that our visitor would have found no people without some permanent sacred or secular festival or memorial days ; and, second, that he, and all who heard him, would be impressed with a new realization of the fact that no such thing could be found as a long-continued and widespread observance, in memory or honor of nothing, or signifying nothing of special or lasting interest.

With curiosity and readiness to learn, sharpened by reflections like these, our friend would eagerly hear, and probably never forget, the story of our colonies and of their well-grounded discontents ; of their vain efforts to have their reasonable wishes granted ; of the exhaustion of their patience, and of their solemn appeal to arms, and to the decision of heaven, in behalf of a declaration of their independence, published to all the world. In a word, he could understand that a great nation was celebrating its own birth-day; that the testimony of many living witnesses showed that it had been doing so on every annual return of the day, as long as the oldest of them could remember ; and that some of their elders had heard of the same as handed down from their fathers, back to the original day in 1776.

Yet there is one point more that might occur to the mind of our friend. He might say, " I perceive that you have among you many laws, commanding or forbidding a multitude of things; and I see that you have courts to try offenders, and prisons in which to confine the guilty. Where is the law that secures this universal observance of the Fourth of July, that I see, and how many and strict are its provisions to secure such universal obedience as I witness?" But, again, he could easily understand what every one could tell him, viz., that there were sometimes stronger motives and promptings to action than could be derived from any written law, whatever its commands, or sanctions, or threatenings, might be. He would be everywhere eloquently and convincingly told that the spontaneous love of the people for their country, and their pride and joy in its glory and prosperity, were such a guaranty of the perpetual celebration of its origin, as could be derived from no other source ; and that a written law, formally commanding the observance of the nation's birth-day, would be as superfluous as would be one commanding a man to cherish his own life, defend his own possessions, or provide for his own children.

Suppose, now, that our visitor were an intelligent pagan, and that he were next to turn his inquiries from political to religious observances, and to ask questions concerning the meaning of the term, " Lord's Day," which day, under that or other names, he would so often hear mentioned, and see observed in a different manner from other days. By as much as eighteen centuries are more than one century ; aye, more : by as much as eternal interests are more than temporal ones, and by as much as love is better than law, he would be eagerly told that the Lord's Day is the name which has always been given by Christians to the first day of the week, and freely and gladly observed by them in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Founder of their religion.

Taking as a point of departure the principles — which we believe to be sound and reasonable ones — contained in the foregoing replies to our supposed visitor, we shall md^i^ primary, distinctively Christian timeSy grounds, and ways of keeping one day in the week as a day of worship and holy rest, and all other times, grounds, and ways of such action secojidary, whether founded on natural or revealed religion ; on the law of Nature and conscience, or the law of the Patriarchal or Jewish dispensations. All these latter may afford instructive guiding indications, pointings forward, and analogies ; but the immediate groimd for the distinctively Christian day should be found within the Christiaft system.

In thus defining our starting point and line of progress, it is with the hope of aiding, as we proceed, in the rescue of the Lord's Day, " the first and best of days," from confusion, and thence from abuse and neglect. In other words, we would help to rescue the day both from misuse and disuse ; and hence, finally, in so doing, would promote its observance, not as a burden grievous to be borne, but as a heavenly gift and blessing, which no man, or the world, can afford to lose.

Methods of Proof.

Such being our object, and such our fundamental conception of the Lord's Day as a distinctively Christian institution, we may consider the radically different methods of treatment to be pursued with correspondingly different classes of persons.

To unquestioning followers of Christ, his teaching, whether immediately from himself, or mediate, through his inspired apostles, is final.

To professed believers in natural religion, only, who may say that the teaching and example of Christ and his apostles are no more to them than those of any other recognized leaders and reformers — and who, in argument, must be taken at their word — a laborious application of the method of induction would be necessary. That is, the testimony of all sorts and conditions of men must be gathered, and of men in all times, places, and pursuits, as to the effects of keeping a periodical day of rest, and it must be in such amount as to indicate a natural law for such observance. Moreover, it should be in the same manner reasonably established that the day of rest should recur weekly.

Yet, after all this tedious labor, only a greater or less degree of probability, never, perhaps, amounting to a satisfying, or still less to a compelling certainty, could be thus obtained. It would also seem that no very high degree of probability could be obtained at an early stage of man's history ; while, in the mean time, mankind might be suffering both for lack of a knowledge of the truth on the subject, and by thence losing his capacity for and interest in discover ing it.

From this natural yet dismal picture of the finite creature, without a revelation from his Infinite Creator, who, in such a case, could hardly be appropriately called his loving Father, we turn to a happier vision, — that of the natural union of these different methods.

No free, intelligent, and active spirit likes to be bound, either in thought or action, by external authority, except in things undoubtedly beyond his power and knowledge, and by the authority of a wisdom and goodness indisputably higher than his own. Such authority, and in such things, is, however, to be prized and welcomed in the same way as is that of a faithful guide in a perilous journey, or a competent teacher by an earnest beginner. Hence it comes to pass, that while the intelligent Christian gladly accepts the authority of Christ and his instructed apostles as final, he is nevertheless innocently free and pleased to exercise his faculties in gathering confirmations from Nature and practical life of the wisdom of the divine appointments.

Thus, at the outset of our inquiry, do we find a new and charming application of the cheering assurance that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come " (i Tim. iv : 8); for while the follower of the light of reason and Nature, only, can never attain to certainty, the lover of the undeceiving Father of lights begins with what is most reasonably to him the absolute certainty of such a Father's word, and then enjoys the exercise of his faculties in discovering confirmations of that word everywhere.

Writing primarily for all who are in any degree believers in Christianity, the argument from revealed religion will here be preferred to that from Nature and experience, however fully the latter may be believed to agree with the former.

"He Taketh Away the First that he May Establish THE Second." Heb. x : <^.

Having taken the position that it is not necessary to go outside of Christianity in search of sufficient authority for a permanent keeping of the Lord's Day, we are bound to give here such a preliminary proof of this proposition as will sufficiently prepare the way for the chapters following, where further proof will, as we think, be only more and more evident at every step.

The Decalogue has for ages been most justly regarded as an incomparable divine summary of duty to God and man. It is worthy of being kept in perpetual remembrance, if for no other reason than that it may be regarded as given to the Jews, not for their own benefit only, but in trust for all mankind, until the fulness of time should come when its invaluable directions for all right-living should be restated on new and yet stronger grounds in the Gospel, and there made a direct gift to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.

Perhaps, therefore, no more satisfying short proof could be given of the abundantly adequate replacement of the Law by the Gospel than to show that the whole moral substance of the entire Decalogue can be constructed several times over out of the commandments and precepts of Christ and his apostles. Moreover, in doing this, it will become evident that the Gospel restatement possesses a searching penetration, a width of reach, an enlargement of ground, and a reinforcement of motive and appeal, that never would have been ascribed to the original Law.

The following, which the reader can further amplify at pleasure, may sufficiently exhibit our meaning :

1. Having no other Gods but one. " Ye can not serve God and Mammon" (Luke xvi : 13). "Thee, the only true God " (John xvii : 3). " But to us there is but one God" (i Cor. viii : 6). ''One God and Father of all" (Eph. iv : 6).

2. Not worshipping idols. ''When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven " (Luke xi : 2). "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth " (John iv : 23). " Nor . . . idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God " (i Cor. vi : 9). *' Keep yourselves from idols " (i John v : 21).

3. Not taking God' s name in vain. " But I say, unto you, Swear not at all . . " (Matt, v : 34-36).

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES. I9

" He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness " (Markiii : 29). " But above all things, my brethren, swear not " (James v : 12).

4. Mahitaining industry ['' Six days shalt thou labor "] and also devoting a portion of time to public religious duties. "To every man his work " (Mark xiii : 34). "Because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities " (Luke xix : 17). "Be not slothful in business" (Rom. xii:ir). " Work with your own hands as we commanded you " (i Thess. iv : 11, 12). "The Sabbath was made for man " (Mark ii : 2*]). " And they continued in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayer'' (Acts ii : 42). " When ye come together in the church . . . When ye come together in one place " (i Cor. xi : 18, 20). " If therefore the whole church be come together in one place ..." (i Cor. xiv:23). "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans ; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea" (Col. iv : 16). "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee" (Heb. ii : 12).

5. Honoring parents and all holding parental relations. " For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother " (Matt. xv:4). "And Jesus said unto him . . . Thou knowest the commandments . . . Honor thy father and thy mother " (Luke xviii : 19, 20). " Render . . . unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's " (Luke xx:25). "For I say ... to every man . . . not to think of

20 7'HE SUNDAY QUESTION.

himself more highly than he ought to think" (Rom, xii:3). "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers," etc. (Rom. xiii : i, 7). " Children, obey your parents in the Lord," etc. (Eph. vi : 1-9).

6. Brotherly kindness. Doing no murder nor allowiftg what may lead to it. "But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment " (Matt, v : 22). "... Evil thoughts, murders ... These are the things which defile a man " (Matt, xv : 19, 20). "Forbearing one another and forgiving one another" (Col. iii : 12-14). ** Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (i John iii: 15).

7. Purity. Not committing adultery or a7iy of the sins of which it is chief (Matt, v : 28). " What .'' know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.?" (i Cor. vi: 19, 20, with iii : 16, 17).

8. Honesty. Good neighborhood. Not stealing. " Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away" (Matt, v : 42). ". . . Thefts . . . All these evil things . . . defile the man " (Mark vii : 22, 23). "Provide things honest in the sight of all men" (Rom, xii:i7). "Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth" (Eph. iv:28).

9. Truth. Not false speaking. " . . . False witness . . , These are the things which defile a man . . ." (Matt, xv : 19, 20). " Let love be without dissimulation " (Rom. xii : 9). " Putting away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor" (Eph. iv:25).

10. Contentment. Not being covetous. ** Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat } or, What shall we drink } or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed } " (Matt, vi : 31). ''Take heed and beware of covetousness " (Luke xii : 15). '' Be content with such things as ye have " (Heb. xiii : 5). "... Covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. iii : 5).

Now, as many strong strands are bound into one, and reinforced by enveloping bands, so is this reconstruction of the Decalogue from the words of Jesus and his apostles gathered up and strengthened by such additional words of original authority and power as these following : '* Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets " (Matt, xxii : 37-40). "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another ; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another " (John xiii : 34). "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. xiii : 10).

Keeping these comprehensive and explicit words in mind, and adding, yet again, that Jesus, when he left the world, did not leave his disciples comfortless, but provided, firsts as shown in the Book of

Acts, for the founding of a permanent, divine institution, with which he promised to be to the end of the world (Matt, xxviii : 20) ; and, second^ the gift of the Holy Ghost (John xiv : 20, and xvi : 13, 14) ; we may enter upon our study of the Lord's Day with a reasonable and comfortable assurance that all necessary proof of its authority, value, and permanence can be found within the bounds of Christianity as a whole ; that is, in the Christian Scriptures, and in Christian history from the time of the Book of Acts — which is its first volume — to the present day. Then, having finished this study, we can gratify ourselves by a pleasing search for confirmations elsewhere of the conclusions to which the Christian argument alone will always and certainly lead.

We have finally to notice, briefly, certain facts of human nature which have a bearing on our subject. First among them we mention

Action and Reaction.

These are equal and opposite, in morals as well as in the material world. The wall pushes me as hard as I push it. The rope pulls me as hard as I pull it. Likewise, the further custom degenerates from aighteous use into wicked abuse, the further will reform, when its time comes, as it always will, swing in the opposite direction towards rigorous strictness. Then, when the uninformed multitude have, through the lapse of time, forgotten the abuses which called for the reform, and impelled it to excessive rigor, a reaction, in favor of a greater semblance of freedom in the form of looseness, again sets in.

"As a man thinketh so is he,'* and so this principle of action and reaction applies to the opinions, out of which both use and abuse grow. Thus, if a misplaced reverence for merely human authority, disguised as ecclesiastical authority, leads to the perversion of a divine institution, the reaction from it may lead to a strained effort after divine authority by seeking in Judaism for the grounds of what belongs to Christianity. It is equally true that the subsequent discovery, by experience, reflection, and comparison of views, that Judaism has been disproportionately drawn upon for authority for any Christian institution, may lead, by another excessive reaction, to abandoning all Scripture authority for the institution, and to treating it as having no divine authority.

The same principle applies yet again to \^q feelings as causes of action. Thus, if what is doctrinally right, relative to some institution of religion, is made hateful by the evil conduct of its advocates, those who may suffer from such conduct will be quite apt to make both Xh^form and XkiO, grounds of the institution as different as possible from those which are advocated by the offending party. Both parties will be likely to make themselves disagreeable to each other, and to intensify each other, until active mutual opposition and offense die out under the diverting influence of new circumstances.

24 THE SUNDAY QUESTIOIV.

But when persecution, whether bodily, moral, or social, has mostly ceased; when controversy has become more fair and amiable, seeking truth more than victory ; when modesty and charity have largely replaced bigotry and hatred ; and when action, reaction, and counter-reaction have all taken their turn ; one may hope that a calm re-examination ot a subject like the one before us may lead to a position where all can find rest from extremes.

Facts and Theories.

Again : A fact, or any item of practice, in any department of life, in art, commerce, science, morals, or religion, is one thing. The theory of that fact, or practice, — that is, how and why it came to be, — is another. Moreover, the certainty of the fact, or the stability and the correctness of the practice, while they do really have a theory, or reason for being, do not depend on our knowing what that theory is, nor upon such theories as we are able to form.

Thus, the sun rose and set, long before men knew how the phenomenon was caused. Again, in the moral sphere, three men may be equally scrupulous in paying their just debts, and whether legally obliged to do so or not. One of these men, animated by a lofty abstraction, says he does it "because it is right." The second, ever loving the thought of beneficence, says : "If a thing is right, there is a reason why it is right," and that reason is his ground for acting, and he declares that the promotion of the good oi all concerned, is the reason why an act is right, and therefore why he wishes to do it. The third, reverently contemplating the thought of a holy, living, and supreme authority, says that he pays his debts because it is agreeable to the expressed will of such authority that he should do so.

Yet, however different their three ultimate reasons for acting, these three men are equally to be depended upon to do their duty, so that no one need be at all solicitous lest either fail to do it, on account of the speculative theory by which he accounts to himself for \.\iQfact that he does it. The good will to do it lies deeper than the scientific ground for doing it.

Likewise, on the great subject before us, any, even a moderate, breadth of reading shows that while the serious, earnest, devoted Christian world is everywhere fully prepared to keep the Lord's Day holy, there is some difference in the particular ground for doing so in different cases. Yet, so long as practice is thus alike settled, and substantially correct, we need not be anxiously solicitous as to the theoretical ground on which it is supposed to rest ; especially as, if theory be essentially wrong, it will correct itself through experience of its corrupting effect on the practice.