The Sabbath was made for man, we say also; but the view we take of man, lets in a light on wants and necessities in his nature, of which we have, hitherto, been allowed to hear nothing. The Sabbath was made for man, we say; and we adore the wisdom as well as the benevolence exhibited in the ordinance; but it was not made for man merely as an intellectual creature, an animal gifted with various talents, and subject to various wants, but, at the same time, possessed of no other capacities than those of mind and sense, and liable to no other accidents than those which affect mind or body. According to our view, and we feel that our view must be that of the whole christian world, it was made for man as a being born for eternity,—as created in his Maker’s likeness,—as fallen from his high original, but capable of restoration,—and as born under a system which unfolds the scheme devised by Infinite Wisdom, for the accomplishment of this great and glorious purpose. It was made for man, we say, as a spiritual and eternal existence, for a time clothed with flesh, subjected to the infirmities of the body, and the perverse influences of the mind, placed in the world with the view of developing in a state of trial, the graces and glories that belong to a higher nature, but destined to be a partaker of the inheritance of everlasting bliss. It was made for him, for his refreshment and repose under the burdens of his lot,—for the enlargement and perfection of his intellectual powers, by directing them to things above the world; and thus for the purpose of cherishing and strengthening that spiritual growth, which is the only real end of his being on earth, as it is the fulfilment of the will of God concerning him.
For this purpose we say the Sabbath was ordained. In this sense we can say that it was made for man, for we here perceive its merciful adaptation to the complicated wants of his mixed and mysterious nature. In the Sabbath, therefore, thus understood, and thus applied, we see the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the goodness of God, and we adore the mercy which provided alleviations for a life doomed to labour, and cheered the burdened traveller on his way, by the pledge of a rest eternal in the heavens. With this view of the Sabbath before us,—with this picture of its purpose and its end,—while we thus gaze on the glorious destiny unfolded to man in the institutions of the Sabbath, and see the steps by which he is prepared to inherit it in its sanctifying influences,—we must feel that all the temporal advantages offered to him here—the refinement of tastes, the enlargement of knowledge, are but a mockery of his woe, if they are proposed as the blessings connected with the ordinance; and we wonder at the audacity that can present such a petty allurement to the inheritor of the kingdom, as worthy of his acceptance.