---
title: 'A Pastoral Letter on the Sabbath'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2023-12-31
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2023-a-pastoral-letter-on-the-sabbath
---

# A Pastoral Letter on the Sabbath

“The Sabbath is an essential bulwark of evangelical Christianity, without which, in its true scriptural sacredness, vital godliness cannot be maintained. In the beginning (Gen. ii: 3) ‘God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.’ It was republished from Mt. Sinai in a way the best suited to show its perpetual obligation, receiving the remarkable distinction of being ‘written with the finger of God’ among the other commandments of the decalogue. It is impossible to give any reason for this, except that the fourth commandment is founded upon the same moral and religious principles which underlie all the others, and is of like permanent force. The change of the day from the 7th to the 1st day of the week, under the New Testament, does not infringe in the least upon the fundamental principle of the commandment, the duty of devoting one-seventh of our time to rest and religious worship. But while it leaves in unabated force the original idea and aim of the institution, viz: by its recurrence every seventh day, to commemorate the creation and keep alive the knowledge and worship of God, at the same time, by its occurrence now upon the first day of the week, it serves the important end of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised for our justification.” — [**James R. Crews**](/authors/james-richard-crews), *Pastoral Letter From the Presbytery of Roanoke to the Churches Under Its Care, In Regard to the Sabbath* (1879)