200 The Fundamentals sand years before Socrates was born. Not from the Romans, masters of jurisprudence, for these words antedate the found ing of Rome, by seven hundred and fifty years. They come from our Heavenly Father and they embody the great sep tenary law which runs through nature ; therefore it is of equal application to every nation on earth. The Sabbath is the savings bank of human existence. It conserves man’s physi cal, mental, spiritual and eternal welfare. WHY THE FIRST DAY INSTEAD OF THE SEVENTH ? I f you ask why the Jewish Saturday once observed as Lord’s Day was changed to the First Day, the answer is that Jesus proclaimed Himself Lord also of the Sabbath day, therefore greater than the statute law of Moses. Jesus is the incarnate Legislator of the world. As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus had the right to interpret and ennoble the day, so that it might be the greatest institution for the culture of the three fold man. The Scribes and Pharisees had misconceived the genius of the Sabbath law. They missed its underlying prin ciple, encumbered it with intricate and inflexible rules, assum ing themselves to be the judges of every act. “The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.” Jesus rescued the Sabbath from its burial under a mass of ceremonialism, and revealed its true spirit and meaning. “Jesus did for the Sabbath what a skipper does for his ship, when she comes laboring into port, unable to make headway, because her hulk is covered with barnacles. He puts her into drydock, and scrapes off the barnacles. He does not scuttle the ship. So our Lord does not repeal nor annul the Sabbath law when He strips it of the intolerable burdens which the ceremonialists had heaped upon it.” In order to emphasize His new idea of the old Sabbath the disciples chose a new day as Lord’s Day. The disciples also desired to commemorate the greatest of all events since the world’s creation, namely, the resurrection of our Lord, for it was on the first day of the week that
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker