Un

so, he shows us that rhyme is practically unimportant. consciously, too, he offers evidence against artificial conventions, and at the same time proves that the exact science of verse is a vain phrase until the value of speech sounds be settled by physics. A time may come when we shall not entirely agree with Sidney Lanier, in the last chapter of "The Science of English Verse" that: "For the artist in verse there is no law; the perception and love of beauty constitute the whole outfit; and what is herein set forth is to be taken merely as enlarging that perception and exalting that love." But we shall always hold that "in all cases the appeal is to the ear; but the ear should, for that purpose, be educated up to the highest plane of culture." The sense so refined makes for law.

The "Odes" of Coventry Patmore are precious for this sort of culture. They may lead to greater and more splendid forms of utterance in the future than either Shakespeare or Milton caught and gave forth. The day has not come when the reading of poetry will be taught as carefully as the musician teaches the reading of music, but a score of the verse effects of Mr. Patmore might easily be prepared, within certain musical limitations, which would broaden the views of those readers of verse who now fancy that the music of the great poet consists principally in recurrent rhymes or assonances, and thus limit their perception and enjoyment.

MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN.

THE PRE-MOSAIC SABBATH.1-I

The gradual evolution of man's rational faculties is accom panied by signs of a moral sense whence springs the manifestation of various duties that result from the necessary relations between Creator and creature. Rationalists and infidels excepted, all admit that man is obliged, by means of external worship, to acknowledge his dependence upon a Supreme Being, the beginning and end of human existence. Though generally received in principle, considerable diversity prevails in applying this truth,-due, no doubt, to the fact that the time of fulfilling the duty falls within the sphere of positive legislation. True, the leaders of the various theories concerning the existence of a pre-Mosaic sabbath do not assign this motive for their differences; nevertheless, they can be traced to an improper location of the borderland between natural and ceremonial law, or to a tendency in some to make every possible argument serve the purpose of a preconceived theory.

Hessey2 points out the salient features of six systems between some of which not more than an accidental shade of variation can be detected. A threefold division will, therefore, suffice to embody the chief ideas of the contending parties. There are the claimants of a sabbath before the exodus 3 ; the advocates of a sabbath under the law, and those who, while leaning to one or other of these views, hold that Christ abrogated the old covenant, and consequently the appointed day of worship is no longer the seventh but the first day of the week. The purport of the present article is simply to embody the line of argument favoring the existence of a pre-Mosaic sabbath. A cursory glance at the rise and progress of the preMosiac sabbath idea, a judicious examination of the Scriptural evidence and the results attained by the labors of orien

1 A dissertation offered to the Faculty of Theology for the degree of Licentiate in Theology (June 1898), by the undersigned, professor of fundamental moral theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore.

3

2 Sunday, its Origin and History.

Andrews, History of the Sabbath. Lewis, History of the Sabbath and Sunday.

tal scholars, together with the a priori reasons which demand a pre-Mosaic sabbath, will doubtless contribute to facilitate this undertaking.'

I. THE APOSTOLIC AND ANTE-NICENE FATHERS.-The necessity of giving undivided attention to the observance of the day on which Christ arose from the dead, prevented the Apostolic Fathers from commenting on those verses of Genesis, which have created the whole controversy upon this subject." They could scarcely have insisted on a pre-Mosaic sabbath, and consistently carry out their purpose with the conservative Jews.3

As the difficulties of the apostolic age were still unsettled, the pre-Mosaic sabbath did not elicit special attention during the Ante-Nicene period. Nearly all the allusions to it are gathered from passages bearing on other important points of belief or practice. The first line which has been turned against a pre-Mosaic sabbath is taken from Justin's works. Circumcision and sabbath-keeping are, to his mind, on a par. The former did not exist during the patriarchal age; neither did the

1 For the present study the original SOURCES are as follows: SACRED-Genesis II, 2, 3; Exodus XVI, XX. PROFANE-Babylonian Legends, Chaldean Account of Genesis, New York, 1880; Babylonian Calendars, Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, London, 1881-1884. LITERATURE-The Fathers, scholastics, early Jewish writers, and many_commentators treat different phases of the question. I have used especially: Tostatus, In Genesim et Exodum, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1613; A Lapide, In Genesim et Exodum, Lugduni, 1840; Hummelauer, In Genesim, Parisiis, 1895; Hummelauer, In Exodum, Parisiis, 1897; Dillmann, Genesis Critically and Exegetically Examined, Edinburgh, 1897; Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis, New York, 1889: Tappehorn, Erklärung der Genesis. GENERAL REFERENCE WORKS-Only those giving special attention to the question are mentioned. Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, London, 1887; Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions I, London. 1885; Wilkinson, Customs and Manners of Ancient Egyptians, London, 1857; Wellhausen, History of Israel, Edinburgh, 1885; Boscawen, Primitive Hebrew Records in the Light of Modern Research, New York; Rheim, Handwörterbuch des Biblischen Alterthns, vol. II, Sabbath; Smith, Bible Dictionary, Sabbath, Week: Encyclopaedia Brittanica, vol. XXI, art. Sabbath. SPECIAL TREATISES-Lotz, Questiones de Historia Sabbati, Lipsiae, 1883; Hessey, Sunday, Bampton Lectures, 1860, London, 1889; Gilfillan, The Sabbath viewed in the light of Reason, Revelation, and History, Edinburgh, 1861; Cox, Literature of the Sabbath Question, Edinburgh, 1865; Wood, Sabbath Essays, Boston, 1890 Warren, The Sunday Question, Boston, 1890. REVIEW ARTICLES--Proctor, Origin of the Week, Contemporary Review, June, 1879; Johnston, The Sabbath in the Monuments of Ninevah, Catholic Presbyterian, Jan., 1881; Johnston, Traces of the Sabbath in Heathen Lands, Catholic Presbyterian, Mar., 1881; Martin, Origin of the Week, Philosophie Chrétienne, Jan., 1882; Durand, La Semaine Chez Les Peuples Bibliques, Etudes Religieuses, Apr., June, 1895; Jensen, The Supposed Babylonian Origin of the Week and the Sabbath, Sunday School Times, Jan. 16, 1892: Jastrow, The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath, American Journal of Theology, April. 1898.

2 Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, v. 7.

3 Vid. Barnabas' Epistle §15, Ignatius ad Magnesianos, cc. 8, 9.

latter. No doubt Justin's intention was simply to show how the sabbath, such as it was under the law, did not exist in pre-Mosaic times. In order to show that the sabbath was not a means of justification, Irenaeus quotes passages from Exodus and Ezechiel. No more judicious appreciation could be presented on this point than the following: "Neither Ezechiel nor Moses claims that the sabbath was not observed before the Mosaic age, but both consider that no other nation accorded it such a position as the Jews."

The commentary of Estius' on Genesis declares that St. Cyprian opposes the existence of a pre-Mosaic sabbath. While it is evident that St. Cyprian refers to the Almighty's complaints against the manner in which the Jews observed the sabbath, yet his language must be strained to obtain anything like a protest against the pre-Mosaic sabbath." Elsewhere St. Cyprian explains the meaning of sabbath as well as its application to weeks and years, but leaves no clue regarding its earliest observance. 10

Perhaps, none of the Ante-Nicene writers leans so much towards a pre-Mosaic sabbath as does Origen. For him there is a sabbath which lasts during the duration of the world, and in which all those will keep festival with God who have done all their work in six days, and, who, because they have omitted none of their duties, will ascend to the contemplation (of celestial things) and to the assembly of righteous and blessed beings."

Tertullian coincides with his predecessors in many ways, but he deviates from them in his episode upon Abel."2 No one can deny that sacrifice and sacred time are correlative; one

1 Dialog. c. Trypho, c. 19, Migne, P. G., IV, 348.

2 Cox, Lit. of Sabbath Question, vol. I, pp. 213, 214.

3 Contra Haereses IV.

Ezechiel XX, 12.

5 Exodus XXXI, 3.

6 Lotz, Questiones de Historia Sabbati, p. 10.

7 Posthumous Work.

8 Genesis II, 3.

9 Tractatus adv. Judaeos.

10 Oratio de Sp. Sancto.

11 Contra Celsum VI, 61.

12" Consequently his (Adam's) offspring also, Abel offering him sacrifices uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath whilst he accepted (or credited him with) what he was offering in simplicity of heart, and reprobated the sacrifice of his brother Cain, who was not rightly dividing what he was offering." Contra Judæos II.

calls for the other. Several of the Fathers regarded the sabbath as a sign between Jehovah and the chosen people, but it is idle to argue that, as a consequence, this militates against its pre-Mosaic origin. Did not the rainbow become a sign between God and Noe? Who will contend that it never appeared in the heavens prior to this covenant? Assuredly the Fathers would not reason thus in the latter case; why ascribe such a method to them in the former ?

The language of Eusebius all but entitles him to rank as the earliest exponent of a pre-Mosaic sabbath.1

Though imprudent to disregard the opinion of these writers in doctrinal matters, yet since they realized their inability to settle all mooted questions, it is not minimizing their authority to scrutinize their writings. Inasmuch as they have followed not only the same line of thought, but the same form of expression, the consensus thus obtained can scarcely carry as much weight as if they reached an agreement by personal reflexion and research. Finally, the speculations of a Gentile philosophy on the one hand, and the conservatism of a Jewish cult on the other could not fail to give a coloring to their views such as never would have occurred under more favorable circumstances.

II. POST-NICENE WRITERS.-As the main tendency of the leaders in thought during this period is to insist on the mystical or figurative sense of Scripture, definiteness of detail concerning a pre-Mosaic sabbath should not be anticipated. Saint Chrysostom is first in clearness, as he is first in time. From the very beginning, says he, God intimated the separation of one day in seven for spiritual exercise. In a way less explicit, St. Ambrose alludes to God's rest on the sabbath day and insinuates that the sabbath commemorative of this rest was anterior to the law. St. Jerome points out the analogy between the sabbath and circumcision, but sheds no light on the present issue. Many passages in St. Augustine's works

1 Eusebius, Præparatio Evangel. XIII 2, Migne, P. G. XII, 1190.

2 "Jam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc aenigmatice nobis insinuat Deus erudiens nos in circulo hebdomadis diem unam integram segregandam et consecrandam spiritualium operationum." Hom. X in Gen.

3 In Hexameron VI 8, 10-"Dies autem sabbati erat dierum ordine posterior, sanctifatione legis anterior." Ennar. in Psalmum XLVII. *Com. in Ezechielem, Lib VI, 20, in Amos, VI, 2.