THE

LUTHERAN MAGAZINE.

VOL. III.]

JUNE, 1829.

[NO. 5.

BRIEF DISCOURSES, NO. 1.

OF THE SABBATH. LUKE, 14: 1–6.

As early as the completion of the work of creation, it is said of God, "He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made, and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God, created and made." God does not grow weary with labour;-He needs no rest, nor refreshment of exhausted powers, nor does He require sleep as men do. Isa. 4: 28, we read, "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,." Notwithstanding rest is here ascribed unto God, as also in Ps. 95: 11, mention is made of the rest of God, and it is said that to the unbelieving and murmuring Israelites God sware, "They shall not enter into my rest;" from which the Apostle, Heb. 4: 9, draws the conclusion that, "there remaineth a rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, hath also ceased from his works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest." Rev. 14: 13, it is said of the blessed that die in the Lord, "The spirit saith, that they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." Wherein now consists the rest of God, and what connexion has it with our Sabbath day? God was not employed on the seventh day, with His works, in the same manner as on the six days of Creation; in Ex. 31: 17, it is said He refreshed Himself. God is never idle, after our way of speaking, neither can he be; for should he cease a moment, to preserve the world which he has created, it would immediately fall into its original nothing. Therefore Jesus says, John 5: 17, when the Jews accused him of breaking the Sabbath, "my Father worked hitherto, (constantly, even on the Sabbath,) and I work," (but only for good.) Still, to speak after a human mauner, the activity of God is not at all times always the same. Since then, man was made in the image of God, and the Sabbath was sanctified and blessed in the state of innocence; this may teach us that it is not a matter of indifference, whether or not we abstain for a season from our ordinary labour, and rest as God, with God and in God. Therefore to these commands, thou shalt have no other God before me-nor take the name of God in vain-honor thy father and mother-do not kill-do not commit adultery, &c. God has joined with equal authority, this command also: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. On the other

hand it is true, what Jesus said of all the commandments, consequent→ ly of the sanctification of the Sabbath also; that the love of God and of our neighbour is the fulfilling of the law, Mat. 22: 40, Rom. 13: 10; likewise what he says, Mark 2: 27, "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," and again Mat. 12: 12, “ it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." He also performed many miracles on the Sabbath, without caring that the Pharisees and other Jews took offence; so that when they saw his miracles and could not deny their reality, they pretended, "this man is not of God, since he does not keep the Sabbath." Even so it is at the present day; men are always running into extremes in regard to the observation of the Sabbath.

1. In respect to the unconverted. There are to this day, even among the common and poorer class of persons, when they have ever so little authority over others, if it extends only to their own families and children; wicked men like Nicanor, 2 Mac. 15: 3, &c. who said to the Jews: "he that instituted the Sabbath, is He not Lord of Heaven? Aud they replied, yes, he is the living Lord, he is the Lord of heaven, who has commanded us to sanctifiy the Sabbath; he answered them, but I am Lord on earth, and command you to prepare yourselves" for labour.

Others, who are no better, do it without being commanded. With them it is as Sirach says of the scoffers, "Why should one day be more holy than the rest? since the sun makes all the days in the year." Upon the Jews especially, God had enforced the sanctification of the Sabbath very strongly, and had set a great blessing upon it, if they would obey in this matter, as well as a great curse, if they would transgress. But they cared little for either blessing or curse, profaned the Sabbath not only with ordinary labour, but with gross sins and vices more than on other days. Wherefore all the prophets testified against it and ́announced to them that the threatened curse certainly would fall upon them; as was actually the case, when all these warnings were disregarded. Therefore God said unto them by the prophet Amos, 5: 21, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies." Nay, Mal. 2: 3, we read, "behold, I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts." That it goes no better among so called Christians, in regard to the Sabbath, we learn from welt known, sad experience. Especially is this the case both among the wealthy and common people, many of whom do not commit as much wickedness in the whole week, as they do on the Sabbath. Can we suppose that God is less concerned for the conduct of Christians, than he was formerly for that of the Jews? Surely not.

The more respectable among the unconverted, imagine that they sanctify the Sabbath, by abstaining not only from servile labour, bnt from gross excess of sin. But as in all things their heart is earthly minded, so we find it here too. Before public worship commences, their conversation is directed upon worldly subjects-when the religious exer

cises are ended, they devote the remainder of the day, neither to reading and prayer, nor to works of charity; but it is spent in useless amusements-in visiting, where they often return worse than they went, and if from necessity or otherwise, they remain at home, still their hearts are on their farm, or their merchandize, or whatever they have to do, or hope to profit by in the following week. They are likeminded with those spoken of by Amos 8: 5, 6, who said "when will the new-moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the epha small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit." Were it not, that the laws of the land, restrained in some measure, the inhabitants from breaking the Sabbath, what should we not witness in a short time? Or if there are some among the unconverted who are actually conscientious about profaning the Sabbath, yet thereby they are not acceptable in the sight of God; because, like the Pharisees, they cleave to the letter of the law, count it to themselves for righteousness before God, and suppose that heaven is due to them for it; while they regard those, who, according to the divine intention, sanctify the Sabbath by labours of love, towards their fellow men, as Şabbath-breakers; as it has often happened to Christ.

2. Awakened persons, also, in this matter, go sometimes too far, and sometimes not far enough. Some make conscience of such things as they might innocently perform on Sundays. They are generally desirous to hear, on such days, of nothing but praying, reading and singing; they eagerly attend one meeting after another, and are apt to neglect and forget every thing else, even the performing of works of necessity and mercy. Whoever will may take the cattle from the stall to the watering; Luke 13: 15. Whosoever will, may lift out the sheep that is fallen into the pit; Mat. 12: 11. At the commencement of this awakening, we must make great allowances for such persons. Should their hunger after the word and bread of life, for which they have now acquired a taste, be insatiable; still this is vastly better, than if they should soon be satisfied and grow weary of it. But as they grow in knowledge, they must learn to comprehend this too, that such a course is directly contrary to the ordination of God both in nature and grace. If a person should undertake to eat all the day long of the most pleasant, wholesome and nourishing food, the stomach could not endure, and it would make him sick. If the sower continues the whole day to sow his seed upon the same ground and harrow it under, one seed would choke the other and no crop would be gained. Just so it is if a man, on a Sunday reads continually, or hears sermons; or reads for hours together at a sick or dying bed, prays or converses with the patient. Who can contain it all? How can a man digest so much?— Let him then, hear or speak and read that which is calculated to edify, but not too much at one time. Let him do it as it is said of Mary, Luke 2: 19," but Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her

.

heart." Let him

has heard or read.

examine himself, whether he understands what he Meditate and compare himself with it, whether he has lived up to this word or not; or how he intends in future to act in regard to it, &c.

But it is also possible that awakened persons do not go far enough in this matter. As when they consider the Sabbath day altogether as a Levitical ordinance and its observance as legal, suitable only for the children of God under the old dispensation, from which Jesus came to make his people free. But as Christ did not come to destroy his Father's commandments, or the law and the prophets, but to fulfill, (Matt. 5: 17,) he surely had no intention entirely to take away this ordinance, which is some thousand years older than the Jewish Levitcal service, yea, as old as the world itself; but to restore it according to the design of God.

3. Believing children of God celebrate, (1,) even such days as are merely appointed by Government according to the general command of yielding cheerful obedience to the magistrates, unless they contravene the commands of God. Rom. 13: 1. Further, that they may not give offence unto others, but rather set before them a good example, and because every opportunity is welcome for exchanging their ordinary labour for the nearer and more peculiar service of God. (2.) As according to the words of Christ already quoted, "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," and it is allowed to do good on the Sabbath day, they make no conscience of performing works of necessity or love. As visiting the sick, taking care of children and providing for cattle, &c. so any other works of charity or necessity may be performed that have no relation to our ordinary daily labour, and which do not admit of being delayed, but are preformed purely out of love to God and to our neighbor. To works of necessity we may reckon servile labour if enjoined by government; in such a case government abuses its power, if the thing commanded to be done admitted of delay, and is by no means Lord of the Sabbath, but the child of God that is under the yoke in communion with Jesus, the true Lord of the Sabbath, is with him Lord of the Sabbath. (3.) Excepting these cases, which God himself has excepted, the believer will be directed by the example and word of God. He will rest on the Sabbath day from his ordinary labours, and attend both to the private and public worship of his God. He will adore the wisdom of God, that when he placed us in an earthly state and appointed us for earthly concerns, he seperated one day, knowing how prone our hearts are to all that is temporal; that on this day we prove our walk upon earth, whether and how we stand in our intercourse with God and remain in union with Jesus. Whether we suffer ourselves to be led by his grace and spirit, that this present life may be no hindrance, but rather a season of improvement and of preparation for an eternal Sabbath, where we shall forever rest from all earthly labor, and rest in God alone.

THE NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER, They who believe in Jesus Christ the mediator, interceding for us perpetually at the right hand of God, till the redemption of mankind shall be finished; must also acknowledge Prayer to be a proper means of drawing nigh to God, or a necessary method of restoring sinners to his favour Therefore, when we are in the spirit of prayer, when our hearts are lifted up to God, breathing out holy petitions to the throne of grace, we are encouraged to be constant and fervent in it; because we then join with an intercession, at the right hand of God, and are doing that for ourselves on earth, which our blessed Saviour is doing for us perpetually in heaven.

Devotion is neither public nor private prayers: but prayers, whether public or private, are particular parts or instances of devotion, which signifies a life given or devoted to God. External acts of devotion, like other external actions, are very liable to delusion and falseness, and can be no otherwise good and valuable, than as they proceed from a right disposition of the inward man. God alone is to be the rule and measure of our prayers; in them we are to look wholly unto him; we are only to pray in such a manner, for such things, and for such ends, as are suitable to his glory. Therefore solemn prayers, rapturous devotions, unless the mind and heart be conformable to them, are but like zealous professions of friendship, where there is no sincerity of the

heart.

Since it is the heart only that is devout towards God; since the regularity and fervency of the heart, is the regularity and fervency of devotion, we shall chiefly treat of devotion,as a state and temper of the heart: for, it is in this sense only that Christians are called to a constant state of devotion. Prayers have their hours, their beginning and their ending: but that turn of mind, that disposition of the heart towards God which is the life and spirit of prayer, is to be as constant and lasting, as our own life & spirit. Verbal prayers are acts of devotion; but that prayer, which penetrateth the gates of heaven and holds an intercourse with God, stops not at forms and manuals of devotion; but is a language of the soul, a judgment of the heart, which worships, adores and delights in God, at all times, and all seasons.

The necessity and reason of PRAYER is founded in the nature of God; because he is the fountain and cause of all happiness; and in the nature of man; because he is weak, helpless, and full of wants. So that prayer is an earnest application, or assent of the heart to God, as the sole cause of all happiness. He therefore that most truly feels the misery, corruption and weakness of his own nature; who is most fully convinced, that a relief from all these disorders, and a true happiness, is to be found in God alone; he, who is most fully convinced of these truths is most fully possessed of the spirit of prayer. Therefore, there is but one way to arrive at a true prayerful state of mind; and this is to get,