the Sabbath day, is plain from Isa.lviii,13.
As the SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN, we find it under all dispensations,
and in every part of the Bible. Those, therefore, who profane the Sabbath, sin
against God and wound their own souls.
THE PERPETUITY OF THE LAW OF GOD
It is painful to witness the various inconsistent and self-contradictory
positions, resorted to by those who reject the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment. But of all the positions adopted, no other one seems equally
dangerous, or fraught with such alarming consequences, as the view that the law
of God by which the Sabbath is enforced, has been abolished, and that we are
therefore under no obligation to "remember the Sabbath day." The question
whether God has abolished his law or not, is indeed the main point at issue in the
Sabbath controversy; for when it is shown that that law still exists, and that its
perpetuity is clearly taught in the New Testament, it most conclusively settles the
question, that the Sabbath is binding on us, and on all men.
Matt.5. The first testimony on this point was borne by the Lord Jesus in his
sermon on the Mount. He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or
the prophets." We believe therefore that he did not destroy them; consequently
they are yet in force. He adds that not "one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till
all be fulfilled." Hence no one of its precepts will cease before the rest. And that
shall not be "till heaven and earth pass." Hence we say that the law of God
extends down through the Gospel dispensation to the end. He testifies that he
came not to destroy, but to fulfill; and that he might stop the mouths of those who
teach that his obedience to the law annulled it, he adds that "WHOSOEVER shall
break one of these commandments," etc., "shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven." Campbell renders it, "shall be of no esteem in the reign of heaven."
And, that we might not mistake the commandments referred to, he proceeds to
quote and comment on the law of the Decalogue, the ten commandments. This is
a nail fastened by the Master of assemblies "in a sure place," and it
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is a clear proof that the mission of Jesus was not to destroy, but to "magnify the
law and make it honorable." - Isa.xlii,21.
Matt.xxii. Jesus teaches that on two precepts, viz., to love God with all the
heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, "hang all the law and the prophets."
These two great commandments from their nature can never cease to exist,
consequently, the law and the prophets, which hang on them, can never fall, -
can never be abolished. The law of commandments contained in ordinances has
been abolished, that the ordinances of the Jewish church might make way for
those of the Christian church. But that the ten commandments are
comprehended in these two precepts, and are therefore inseparable from them,
is clearly taught in James ii,8-11; Rom.xiii,9; 1John v,3.
It is a fact of much importance, that the ten commandments
