The third article of the Mosaic Code not only enunciates the law of rest, but says just how much time shall be given to its observance; it prescribes neither a week nor a few hours, but one day in seven.  If you have a taste for such things and look well, you will find several reasons put forth as justifying this special designation of one day in seven.  The number seven the Jews regarded as a sacred number; the Romans, as the symbol of perfection.  Students of antiquity have discovered that among nearly all peoples this number in some way or other refers to the Deity.  Science finds that nature prefers this number; light under analysis reveals seven colors, and all colors refer to the seven orders of the solar spectrum; the human voice has seven tones that constitute the scale of sound; the human body is renewed every seven years.  Authorities on hygiene and physiology teach that one day in six is too much, one day in eight is too little, but that one day in seven is sufficient and necessary for the physical needs of man.

These considerations may or may not carry conviction to the average mind.  On the face of it, they confirm rather than prove.  They do not reveal the necessity of a day of rest so much as show its reasonableness and how it harmonizes with nature in its periodicity, its symmetry and its exact proportion to the strength of man.  As for real substantial reasons, there is but one,—­a good and sufficient,—­ and that is the positive will of God.  He said:  keep this day holy; such is His command; no man should need a better reason.

The God-given law of Moses says Saturday, Christians say Sunday.  Protestants and Catholics alike say Sunday, and Sunday it is.  But this is not a trifling change; it calls for an explanation.  Why was it made?  What is there to justify it?  On what authority was it done?  Can the will of God, unmistakably manifested, be thus disregarded and put aside by His creatures?  This is a serious question.

One of the most interesting things in the world would be to hear a Protestant Christian, on Protestant grounds, justify his observance of the Sunday instead of the Sabbath, and give reasons for his conduct.  “Search the Scriptures.”  Aye, search from Genesis to Revelations, the Mosaic prescriptions will hold good in spite of all your researches.  Instead of justification you will find condemnation.  “The Bible, the Bible alone” theory hardly fits in here.  Are Papists the only ones to add to the holy writings, or to go counter to them?  Suppose this change cannot be justified on Scriptural grounds, what then?  And the fact is, it cannot.

It is hardly satisfactory to remark that this is a disciplinary injunction, and Christ abrogated the Jewish ceremonial.  But if it is nothing more than this, how came it to get on the table of the Law?  Its embodiment in the Decalogue makes it somewhat different from all other ceremonial prescriptions; as it stands, it is on a par with the veto to kill or to steal.  Christ abolished the purely Jewish law, but he left the Decalogue intact.