THE CREED OF A SABBATARIAN

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 8, 1 September 1948, Page 2

THE CREED OF A SABBATARIAN

BY THE REV. PROF. R. A. FINLAYSON I believe that the Sabbath is a Divine institution drawing its authority from the wisdom and love of (k>d that ordained it and from the sovereignty of God that determined its obligations. I bel*e\e that the Sabbath law found a place among the Commandments of the Decalogue because it defined a relationship between God and His creatures that was to be as permanent as man’s weakness and need of God. I can no more regard it as a Jewish ceremonial regulation than 1 can regard the Seventh Commandment as such, nor can I regard it as having passed away with the Jewish Church any more than did the Sixth Commandment. Its place on the Statute-Book of British Common Law is a recognition of its authority and an acknowledgment ot its claims. Mad* for Man I believe that the demands of the Sabbath are embedded in the constitution of men's nature, and that the Sabbath was made for man because he is a man and not a machine or an animal or an angel. He needs its physical rest, its mental stimulus, its inspiration, .is spiritual quickening. Man can surmount the sordidness of his material surroundings only as he apprehends spiritual values and makes them the ultimate standard of his life. For six days he works among the material values of the world, among things seen and temporal. On the seventh he should be given an opportunity to make fresh contacts with thr spiritual values of life, to recharge the spiritual batteries that give power, direction, and purpose to his living. For that reason the jioorest drudge in the land, equally with the leisured and carefree, should be set free to do business with his Maker direct and unhindered. Neither commercial greed nor human selfishness should be permitted to rob him of his birthright. The Bulwark 1 believe tlie Sabbath is the bulwark of national righteousness, preserving the national conscience, developing the national character, and cleansing the national life. On this day the nation finds its soul—and the nations that have abandoned the Sabbath have largely lost their sense of spiritual values. Their national character has lost much of its strength and virility. I have observed on frequent visits the attitude of the towns of the British Commonwealth to the Sabbath Day’s rest. And what I have seen in Toronto, Winnipeg. Yancou’ er, Bel last, Cape Town, Dm nan strengthens my conviction that the British Commonwealth owes its strength of character and virility of life in no small measure to the

physical and spiritual refreshment of the Sabbath Day’s rest. Our Liberties For that reason, 1 believe that the liberties secured for us by the Sabbath Day—not without struggle and suffering—should be safeguarded by the • civil magistrate apijointed by us to protect our other lilierties, social, civil, and political. Those liberties should not he filched from us by our own thoughtless folly or by the selfishness of others. 1 think it futile, and worse than futile to attempt to draw up a detailed list of "do's and don'ts” for Sunday observance, since observance in the mere letter, without respect to the spirit, may well be a breach of tlie Sabbath law. It can, however, be said in a general way that anything that is motivated by commercial g r ted or thoughtlessness, selfishness that disregards the sacred rights and convictions of others —the Sunday cinema is an example of the one, and much of our present-day Sunday sports an example of the other —is patently a oreach of the Divine Commandment. Not Desirable In fact, any activity that caters to anything less than the highest good of man, and makes of the Sabbath “a screaming thing of mere sport and noise, a day of drink and madness,” the disturber of peace and worship, is not desirable, and ought not to lie tolerated in a Christian community. In the practice of my creed I would make Sunday my day of most serious thought, when I try to face problems and plumb depths that I merely skirt on ether days; my day of public and community worship in the fellowship of kindred spirits; my day of domestic peace ami tranquillity, and my day of most willing and sacrificial service to the lonely, the stricken, and the sad. (“Evening Post,” 26/6/48.)