Sabbath, or Sunday

Sabbath (from Shabbath, to rest from labor) is the name applied to the seventh day of the week. Throughout the world, one day in seven is very generally observed as a day of rest from toil. This custom originates from the fact, that in six days God created all things, resting on the seventh day; and He commanded that each seventh day should be a holy day.

The Sabbath was legally proclaimed about the year 1491 B.C., on Mount Sinai (Exod. xxi. 12-18). The first public observance is recorded in Exod. xxxv. 1-4. There can be no doubt about its meaning in the Old Testament: it is intended as a testimony of faith in God as the Creator of the world. The Jews in all parts of the world still keep the "Sabbath day," beginning with sunset on the evening of the sixth day (Friday), and ending with sunset on the seventh day (Saturday).

This is in accordance with the Scripture phraseology "and the evening and the morning were the first day."

The substitution of the first day of the week for the observance of the Sabbath, or holy day of rest, was made in the very early ages of Christianity, but the exact date is unknown; and at first the Christians observed both the first and the seventh days.

The argument for the observance of the Sabbath on the first day of the week is, that there is no proof that the Jewish count actually began on the seventh day from the creation; that as the Jews made it a memorial of the creation, and their liberation from bondage, so Christians may well observe it weekly upon the first day, when the Saviour rose from the dead, delivering them from the bondage of sin and eternal death.

Constantine the Great issued an edict, in A.D. 321, proclaiming Sunday as a legal day of rest, and holy unto the Lord, which edict was subsequently incorporated in the civil law of the empire, and ultimately adopted by all the nations which arose from the ruins of the Roman Empire.