that they do not—I fear that Paul, in his customary language, would pronounce their conduct to be "without excuse."[1]
Science, which is the logic of nature, demands proportion between the house and its foundation. Theology sometimes builds weighty structures on a doubtful base. The tenet of Sabbath observance is an illustration. With regard to the time when the obligation to keep the Sabbath was imposed, and the reasons for its imposition, there are grave differences of opinion between learned and pious men. Some affirm that it was instituted at the Creation in remembrance of the rest of God. Others allege that it was imposed after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and in memory of that departure. The Bible countenances both interpretations. In Exodus we find the origin of the Sabbath described with unmistakable clearness, thus: "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 seventh day, and hallowed it." In Deuteronomy this reason is suppressed and another is assigned. Israel being a servant in Egypt, God, it is stated, brought them out of it through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm. "Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day." After repeating the ten commandments, and assigning the foregoing origin to the Sabbath, the writer in Deuteronomy proceeds thus: "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more," But in Exodus God not only added more, but something entirely different. This has been a difficulty with commentators—not formidable, if the Bible be treated as any other ancient book, but extremely formidable on the theory of plenary inspiration. I remember in the days of my youth being shocked and perplexed by an admission made by Bishop Watson in his celebrated "Apology for the Bible," written in answer to Tom Paine. "You have," says the Bishop, "disclosed a few weeds which good men would have covered up from view." That there were "weeds" in the Bible requiring to be kept out of sight was to me, at that time, a new revelation. I take little pleasure in dwelling upon the errors and blemishes of a book rendered venerable to me by intrinsic wisdom and imperishable associations. But when that book is wrested to our detriment, when its passages are invoked to justify the imposition of a yoke, irksome because unnatural, we are driven in self-defense to be critical. In self-defense, therefore, we plead these two discordant accounts of the origin of the Sabbath, one of which makes it a purely Jewish institution, while the other, unless regarded as a mere myth and figure, is in violent antagonism to the facts of geology.
With regard to the alleged "proofs" that Sunday was introduced
- ↑ I refer, of course, to those who object to the opening of the museums on religious grounds. The administrative difficulty stands on a different footing. But surely it ought to vanish in presence of the public benefits which in all probability would accrue.
