Questions on Chapter 7.

Sabbath has been shown to be a part, can never receive its complete fulfillment while a human being is left upon earth to observe it, so the obligation of the Sabbath, according to Christ’s declaration, can never be annulled.

Equally explicit is the testimony of St. Paul upon this subject. He asks: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law.” That the apostle here spoke of the Decalogue, or moral law, there can be no question. In continuation of his argument, he says. “I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (See Romans 3:31; 7:7.) Here the apostle, by directly quoting one of the Ten Commandments, shows conclusively that he referred to the moral, and not the ceremonial, law. Hence, as he does not “make void,” but establishes this law, and as the Sabbath is one portion of it, it necessarily follows that the obligation to observe this precept exists under the gospel, and, if so, this obligation must be perpetual and universal.

Thus we conclude that, as the Sabbath is a moral duty, as it originated at the birth of creation, as it was made for man in general, as it was recognized in the wilderness as a previously known institution, as it is embraced as a part of the Decalogue, or moral law, and as this moral law is recognized by Christ and his apostles as authoritative under the gospel, therefore this institution is of perpetual and universal obligation. QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER 7.

QUESTION 1. How have theologians differed in their views concerning the Sabbath?

2. What is the distinction between a moral and a positive duty?

3. What is the first argument presented in favor of the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

4. Is the Sabbath a positive or a moral duty?

5. What serious objection is offered to Paley’s “Moral and Political Philosophy”?

6. What appendages to the Jewish Sabbath come under the head of positive duties?

7. That a duty may be moral and not positive, must it necessarily be discoverable by reason?

8. What is the second argument offered in favor of the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

9. Where is the origin of the Sabbath recorded?

10. What Saying of Christ proves the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

11. What is the third proof given of the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

12. How is the untenableness of Dr. Paley’s view of the subject shown?

13. How is his plea, that the Sabbath is not mentioned during the patriarchal age, met?

14. What is the fourth proof of the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

15. How does Christ’s comment on the Decalogue prove the perpetuity of the Sabbath?

16. What farther proof on this subject is given by Christ and his apostles?

17. How is the proof summed up?