THE CATHOLIC RECORD VOLUME X L V. LONDON, CANADA, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER, 1. 1923. You Catholic and Christian out there, if anyone tells you that Saturday is the Lords Day not Sunday. You have the answer all here before you. A short time ago this staid city of London experienced a Tempest in a teapot over Sabbath observance. It was proposed to allow children to use the municipal swimming pool during the sweltering weather we were than having. Immediately there was a ministerial chorus of protest. One reverend Boanerges valiantly declared that they would not rest until they had routed the hosts of hell. Presumably he saw in apocalyptic vision the infernal armies Lined up behind His Worship the Mayor and others in their impious assault on the sanity of the Sabbath. Imagine the consternation in the ministerial association and the jubilation among the hosts of hell when they read in the London Free press of this dastardly flank attack on their citadel of Sabbatorianism: That Sabbath observance in the strict sense of the law of Israel, whether on the traditional on the traditional or any seventh day, is no concern of the Christian, was the assertion of Rev. J Marion Smith, of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Toronto, in his evening sermon yesterday at the Talbot st Baptist Church. And this under a two-column heading: Sabbath Observance not any part of Mans Duty as a Christian! True, Mr Smith was speaking to the interrogative subject. Can a saved man be lost? That is quite a big subject in itself; but we shall take first his pronouncement on the Sabbath,which evidently struck the reporter and the city editor as the more sensational If not the more important part of the sermon. The Report Of the Free Press Continues: Quoting St. Paul, he declares that making any point of the old Mosaic law a test of Righteousness is to accept the full burden of the rules, rituals and custom enjoined by Moses. In Toronto, for instance, he said, there are many who make a point of Sabbath observance. I do not consider it any part of my duty as a Christian to observe the Sabbath. When Christ came the old law was fulfilled and done away with. Christ was the only being as a human, who could and did observe the whole law. Of course as a Christian I observe certain rules of conduct and habit. But that is a matter of personal purity. It will be noted that the last paragraph to quote the very words of the preacher. To the Toronto Star the Rev. Mr Smith gave an explanatory interview which, though it may tread to allay Sanitarian indignation, does not claim that he was misreported; indeed he further emphasizes the fact that the Jewish Sabbath and Christian Sunday are quite distinct and separate institutions. WE QUOTE FROM THE STAR The Jewish Sabbath is not Sunday, the Lords Day. Christian are all wrong in speaking of the Sabbath as Sunday. said Mr Smith. The Sabbath is not binding upon a Christian as a means of justification from sin, he went on. The Keeping of Sunday, The Lords day, is quite a different matter, and springs not from any obligation to the Jewish law, but is the ready response from the heart of the Christian who observes Sunday as a day set aside for worship and rest. This observance is one of the highest privileges of mankind and it is only reasonable that one-seventh of a mans time should be devoted to special worship and Spiritual refreshment. And further to mollify the critics he added in conclusion. One of the greatest blessing of Canada had been due to the strict observance of the Lords Day. To them Sunday wide open would be to paralyze much good that is now accomplished and to them unlimited temptation before the young life of our boys and girls. The ministers of London who criticize Mr Smiths sermon left the real crux of the question untouched. And that is not surprising, for an Protestant principles there is no possible explanation of the substitution of the Christian Sunday for Jewish Sabbath, for this plain abrogation of the express commandment of God as recorded in the Bible. Protestant reject Divine Tradition, the Unwritten word, the Divine authority given by Christ to the Church to teach in his name, to bind and loose, Protestants deny. For them-it is their boast-the Bible and the Bible alone has the Divine authority. Now in the matter of Sabbath observance the Protestant rule of faith is utterly unable to explain the Substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Saturday. It has been changed. Surely it is an important matter. It stands there in the Bible as one of the ten Commandments of God. there is no authority in the Bible for abrogating this Commandment or transferring its observance to another day of the week. For Catholic its not the slightest difficulty. All power is given me in heaven and on earth; as the father sent me so I also send you, said our Divine Lord in giving this tremendous commission to His Apostles. He that heareth you heareth me We have in the Authoritative voice of the Church the voice of Christ Himself. The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof of that fact. Denny the Authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explnation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Thired-Protestant Fourth- Commandment of God. As the Rev Mr Smith rightly points out. The Jewish Sabbath is not Sunday, The Lords day Christian are all wrong in speaking of the Sabbath as Sunday. The Christian who so speak are Bible Christian , those who make the Bible the sole rule of faith, and the Bible is silent on Sunday observance, it speak of Sabbath observance. The Lords Day-dies Dominica- is the term used always in the Missal and the Breviary. It occurs in the Bible once(Apoc. 1. 10) in Acts xx 7 and 1 cor xv. 1.2 there is a reference to the last day of the week. But in none is there the remotest invitation that henceforth the first day is to take the place of the seventh. That is the crux of the whole question, what authority does the Bible give for the change? And that difficulty Mr Smith and his critics though pious and effusive and vaguely eloquent about many things, have each and all sedulously evaded. If affects very materially and very intimately the question of the proper observance of the Lords Day. In the first centuries the obligation of rest from work remained somewhat indefinite.The Council of lacdicea held at the end of the fourth century, was content to prescribe that on the Lord day the faithful were to abstain from work as far as possible. At the beginning of the sixth century St Cesarins and others showed an inclination-very familiar to us-to apply the law of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian. But the Council of Orleans in 538. Reprobated this tendency as Jewish and non- Christian thus by the same Divine Authority, in virtue of which she did away with the Jewish Sabbath and substitution therefor the Christian Sunday, the Catholic Church legislated as to how the Lords day should be observed. Due to the exaggerated importance given in the Bible after the Reformation and to the influence of Puritanism, The lords day in England and still more in Scotland began to take on all rigor-ism of the Jewish Sabbath. that heritage, through somewhat softened, we still have in us. A game of ball where participants and spectators enjoy health-giving is another good example.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 02:59:41 +0000
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