835. NEH 13:17, NEH 13:18. ON PROFANING THE SABBATH

Neh_13:17, Neh_13:18. On Profaning the Sabbath

"Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath."’97Neh_13:17, Neh_13:18.

Few subjects have been more discussed of late than that of the question of the Sabbath, or Lord’s day. Various views of this important subject are taken by different parlies. Some would put all distinction of days down entirely, and leave men to act as they pleased. Others would enforce a Jewish strictness of Sabbath observance. While others look at the Sabbath as a question both involving duties and privileges; but take a medium course between the letter of Jewish strictness and continental laxity. We contend for an observance of the Lord’s day, which shall include two grand points:’97Cessation from all secular labor and toil; and the devotion of its hours to our moral and religious improvement.

Observe, then,

I. For what we contend, in reference to the Lord’s day.

Now, we contend,

1. For a cessation from all secular labor and toil.

We do this on three grounds.

(1.) The facts stated in reference to the institution of the first Sabbath. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works which God created and made."’97Gen_2:1-3. Here was the divine Architect setting the illustrious example to his intelligent creatures. He distinguished the seventh day. He blessed it specially. He devoted it to peculiar purposes. Rest was one. "He sanctified it,"’97set it apart for holy exercises. And as God made the world extensively for man, so precisely for him did he make the Sabbath.

Then we ground it,

(2.) On its introduction into the moral code, as given on Sinai. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But 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 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it."’97Exo_20:8-11. How definite, exact, full, clear, and unequivocal is the whole language! Here it became part and parcel of the moral law.

Now, those who call it Jewish, forget it existed, by divine precedent, two thousand years before Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was born. It became a part of the code which still stands entire. Not one jot or tittle of the moral law has, or ever will, pass away. Now, are not these arguments, when fairly considered, unanswerable?

Then we ground it, also,

(3.) On the essential fitness of things. Because it was so, evidently, when God ordered it. To dispute this is to assail the infinite wisdom of God. He deemed the Sabbath’s rest necessary to man’s constitution and state. But if it was so to unfallen beings, how much more to those who are fallen. If holy beings required a Sabbath, how much more sinful and polluted ones. If in innocency’97before Satan erected his throne on the earth’97how much more now amid the perils of sense, the world, and the devil. It is alike needful to man’s body, mind, and spirit, that he should have a weekly Sabbath. It has been demonstrated, that real physical health, and mental vigor, can only be permanently sustained by intervals of repose and quietude; and there can be no doubt but many constitutions have prematurely become feeble, and many minds imbecile, by the continuous straining of incessant toil; without the intervening relief of the Sabbath. But,

2. We contend for the Sabbath, as a day of moral and spiritual improvement.

Now, the reasons for this must be manifest if we consider,

(1.) That the mind and the moral nature of man require improvement.

(2.) That it is awfully criminal to neglect them.

(3.) That the body and secular toils engross the greater part of the week; therefore the Lord’s day should be fully devoted to mental and moral services. Among these we include, profitable reading, private meditation, public worship, and works of benevolence, and chanty, and religion. It is right and proper to do good on the Lord’s day.

Now, thus in brief we exhibit a chart of Lord’s-day duties and exercises. Such as are alike in harmony with man’s moral nature, and the obvious demand of God’s holy word. Here we leave plenty of margin for other things to be introduced if they are only lovely and of good report

Let us consider,

II. How the Sabbath may be profaned.

I need not dwell on profaning it by attendance on our usual secular business. But it may be profaned,

1. By devoting it to indolence. Whiling, or sleeping, or lounging its hours away. While it is evidently for physical rest, it is not for mental or moral lethargy. We have the example of the pious Jews in their services; and also the conduct of Jesus and the Apostles’97afterwards the mode of life on this day of the early Christians. So that indolence is a profanation of the Lord’s day.

No scene is more disgusting, than to see a family in disorder’97its members unwashed’97and all in confusion, through the prevailing spirit of sloth, on God’s day.

2. By yielding its hours to foolishness and frivolity.

Now there are many things which tend to this kind of profanation. Frivolous reading will do it. Frivolous society and parties still more effectively. Mere sight-seeing, and rambling abroad for what is falsely called’97pleasure. Worldly pleasure is ever enfeebling to the moral powers, as well as being unfavorable to all pious influences; but how much more is it so when the day given especially for holy pursuits is thus prostituted to trifling and folly.

3. By neglecting the services of religion.

I don’t pretend to say how many we should attend. Our circumstances and opportunities must decide this. There needs no law on this point for those who love God and divine things. Such will ever exclaim, in reference to the house of God:

"I have been there, and oft would go;

‘Tis like a little heaven below."

It is a heinous sin to despise God’s house, and to refuse him our public homage and worship. Not only is public worship demanded on the ground of God’s claims to our reverence and praise; but it is exhilarating and refreshing, often both to body and mind. When rightly regarded, it is a feast of fat things to the soul,’97a season of spiritual banqueting to the devout spirit.

4. By mixing the world and the Sabbath together.

By giving God and worship the forenoon, and the world and pleasure the afternoon and evening; by giving God certain external duties, and giving the world vain and secular conversation; by trying thus to serve both God and mammon. This mixture defeats the service of both.

No doubt, a worldly man, who lives entirely in a worldly atmosphere, may afford much gratification to his carnal desires; but bring in this religious element, and it will destroy this earthly enjoyment. So the good man will have spiritual enjoyment in God’s service; but bring in the worldly element, and it will neutralize it altogether. Yet, how this is extensively done, by the attempt to divide or compromise the Lord’s day.

Then,

III. Let us offer some suggestions why we should not profane the Sabbath.

We should neither profane nor neglect the Sabbath,

1. For it is God’s favorite day.

He has distinguished it, and so should we: he loves it, and so should we. If there were no other reason than this, it should suffice; for if we love God, our hearts and minds should be in harmony with his.

2. It is our day. A part of our patrimony as God’s children.

As such, we should make the most it, and also the best of it,’97use it in reference to our inward moral necessities’97use it in reference to God’s claims upon us. It is too good to be neglected or perverted. There are but three gifts to be compared in value to it’97Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word; and these and the Sabbath are all in unison with each other.

3. On account of its typical character. Now there are two other Sabbaths, of which this is the external sign. One of these is the Christian’s rest in Christ. "We who have believed, have entered into rest." Believing in Christ gives the soul an inward spiritual Sabbath. Then it also points to the eternal rest of heaven. The apostle adds’97"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." So that the salvation we have now in Christ, and the eternal consummation of that in the glory of heaven, are both typified by the Sabbath which God has given us. On account,

4. Of its connection with the Divine blessing.

Let us hear the evangelical prophet’97"If 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 shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,"’97Isa_58:13, Isa_58:14. "Blessed 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."’97Isa_56:2. Now, don’t suppose that these passages must have a Jewish exposition, and be confined only to that people, and to that dispensation.

The universal history of nations and countries shows, that the Divine blessing accompanies the honoring and keeping the Sabbath. While laxity, as to the Lord’s day, invariably produces dissipation’97dissoluteness’97open profligacy’97contempt of religion’97despising the written or preached word; with all the moral train of evils, arising therefrom. On the other hand’97with a due observance of the Sabbath, there will be national intelligence’97national propriety of moral and manners’97a regard to Divine worship; as the moral result, the accompanying smile and blessing of God. Then let us,

1. Have, and hold right views of the Sabbath. A false impression on this subject will lead to a bad use of it. Let us,

2. Rightly use the Sabbath. Apply it to its true and legitimate purposes. Give it to God, and the soul’s intellectual and spiritual improvement.

Let us,

3. Not withhold the Sabbath from those connected with us. Remembering the Sabbath is precious to us; it is, or ought to be so, also to our domestics and servants. Let us not, for the sake of any comfort’97imaginary or real’97deprive our dependents of the privileges and blessings of this day. And let us not countenance its profanation in others. Let us not avail ourselves of the toil of any class of men on this day.

Finally,’97Devote it to a devout preparation for the sabbath of heaven. That it may tend to that,’97begin it with prayer. Be conscientious in the application of its hours to spiritual and religious objects; and conclude it in God’s fear, and in the expectation of his blessing.

Thus, this day will be as a green and verdant spot in this wilderness world. Here will be fruit found for the soul. Here vigor and strength will be renewed; and all the duties of the coming week, whether secular or moral, will be discharged with greater promptness and efficiency. The spiritual mind would rather add to the number of his Sabbaths, than diminish them. He would lengthen them out, and extend their hallowed hours, rather than abridge them. And such know, by an experience the most blessed, that a Sabbath’s emotions, and desires, and delights, lead to the devout longing for that eternal Sabbath-keeping, in the celestial state, which remains for all the children of God. Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord; for they shall rest from their labors. Their future being is one sabbatical service, devoted to Him who loved them, and Washed them from their sins, in his own blood; to whom be ascribed all praise, and honor, and glory, forever and ever. Amen

Autor: JABEZ BURNS