The Working Man a Self Sovereign on the Sabbath
H. W. Beecher. Mark 2:27-28 And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:… Now, I say to this large class of men, the Sabbath comes as a boon from God. It is like an island in a stormy sea. There is a way in which poor men, for the most part, own themselves. The man whose horse and dray are imperatively at the command of his employer, on whose favour he depends, who says to him on Monday, "Go," and he goes, and that from daylight to dark — it being the same on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on every day of the week, so that the man cannot go out of Brooklyn without permission of his employer, cannot go to this or that exhibition unless his employer gives his consent — that man has sold out his industry, which carries his person with it, and for six days in the week he is restricted by the will of another; but when the seventh day comes round he says, "Thank God, I have nobody to ask today. I am free to come and go. I can rise up or lie down as I please." That is the only day that the poor man has out of the seven in which he has absolute ownership of his body and soul in the thronging industries of modern civilized society. And yet it is this very class of men who are being taught to throw stones at the Sabbath day. It is precisely the same thing over again which occurred when Moses appeared as the deliverer of his people against the Egyptians, and sought to reconcile the quarrel which had arisen between the two peoples. They turned against him and said, "Who art thou?" And he had to run for his life. The Sabbath comes to men who are tied hand and foot, and need emancipation; and upon this beneficent day of rest for them they turn and say, "It is the priests' day; it is the church's bondage; and we are not going to be tied up to any Sunday." Tied up! It is the only day on which your hands are untied. It is the only day on which the poor man is sovereign. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: WEB: He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.