Discussions (Vol 2) - Dabney - XXV - The Sabbath of the State

Required reading
Discussions (Vol 2) by Robert L. Dabney (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'The Sabbath of the State'.

My summary
Today Dabney argues that the secular state should retain a Sabbath.

His reasons include that:
(i) total separation of church and state is not possible;
(ii) sabbaths are an old tradition;
(iii) physical science demands a sabbath.

What grabbed me
I liked the point that science argues positively for a weekly sabbath: 'The third proof of our proposition is that presented by man's body and spirit themselves. The experimental science of physiology has evinced that man's body and nerves were created by their Maker a seven-day clock. To secure their best endurance and working, they must be "wound up " weekly by the Sabbath rest. Yea, God has written the same law on the constitution of the very brutes which he has given to man for servants. The wayfarer who rests one day in seven progresses farther than he who presses on seven days. The army which rests on the Lord's day marches farther, in the long run, than the one which moves seven days in the week. The team which does its task on the Sunday is worn and broken down, while that which is permitted to keep the Sabbath rest continues fresh and healthy. The body of the human being who observes the rest is, other things being equal, more healthy, efficient, and long-lived than that of the Sabbath-breaker. The same rules hold of the health of the spirit. Let the tension of worldly care and business, of study, or of executive tasks, be continued through the seventh day as well as all the six, and the poise of the faculties is lost, the spirit becomes feverish, the emotions are exasperated, the soul wears itself out by its own friction. For the intelligent and candid reader these facts need only be intimated. He knows that they are too numerous and authentic to be disputed. It is thus seen that he who " made the Sabbath for man," made man for the Sabbath. The creature and the institution are fitted to each other. This is a perfect proof that our thesis is correct in asserting the Sabbath rest to be an institution coeval with the race, and designed for a whole race, under all dispensations. '

I love my days off!

Next week's reading
Commence 'The General assembly of 1881' by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'We venture to predict that the church will finally concur in these conclusions, as to the various subjects agitated...'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.