law, after the whole has been abolished, is utter folly. If the law has been
abolished, no part of it can now exist without re-enactment. This leads us to
inquire, Has the law of God been re-enacted? If so, by whom? Certainly not by
the Son of God, for it is not claimed that the law ceased until his death. Instead of
coming to give another law, be came to "fulfill," to "magnify," and to make
"honorable" the law, which already existed. Isa.xlii,21.
Not by the great Lawgiver, for leaving out of the question the fact that the
abolition of the law, and its re-enactment in an amended form would be a virtual
confession that his law was imperfect and needed correction, we ask, Where is
the passage of Scripture which shows any such act of the Lawgiver? - where?
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Another question arises, Wherein has the law been improved by the alleged
amendment? Was it not already "perfect," "spiritual," "holy," "just, and good?"
Wherein has it been made better? It is answered, that the Sabbath has been left
out. The subject is brought to this point then: the Lord would strike the Sabbath
commandment from his law. To accomplish this purpose, he abolishes his whole
law, and then re-enacts all of its precepts, save the fourth commandment! If such
a view does not make God altogether such an one as ourselves, we ask, what
could? But we fail to discover wherein the law has been made better. If "the
Sabbath was made for man," we are by this alteration deprived of one of those
blessings, which had been bestowed on the human family. That which has been
made for man, is certainly inseparable from his well-being. But if the Sabbath has
been abolished, it has failed to fulfill the original design of God, because a part
only of the human family are permitted to share in its blessings. Nay, it would
seem that the great Lawgiver had already discovered that the Sabbath was not
calculated to benefit man, though he made it for that purpose. Hence, he recalls
his law, and having struck out the fourth commandment, gives the remainder to
man as his amended will!
But the foundation, the reality, and the perpetuity of the Sabbath, may be
learned from a few simple facts. It was instituted in Paradise. Gen.ii. It was
guarded from profanation by the fourth commandment of "the royal law," even as
marriage was by the seventh. Ex.xx. Christ testifies, that "the Sabbath was made
for man;" and that "till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled." - We look forward to Paradise restored, and
there stands the holy Sabbath. Isa.lxvi,22,23. Think you, that the Gospel so far
exceeds, in spirituality, Paradise when first created, or Paradise after its
restoration, that the Sabbath is not congenial to its character, and must needs be
abolished? Nay, we ask our friends who would thus destroy "the Holy of the
Lord," [Isa.lviii,13,] how they can reconcile the idea, that the Sabbath has been
struck out of existence, with the fact that it existed in Paradise lost, and
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that it will exist amid the glories of Paradise restored? The Sabbath was made for
man; it began with the first man, and continues notwithstanding the "man of sin,"
