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Bible Terms and Customs: Sabbath

The Sabbath. The word "sabbath" is from the Hebrew "shabbath," signifying rest, or day of rest. It was the name of the seventh day of the week among the Hebrews, dedicated to an entire cessation from worldly labor. The word first occurs in the 16th chapter of Exodus, 23d verse, although its institution is recorded in the 2nd verse of the 2nd chapter of Genesis. The word usually indicates the 7th day of the week, which, by God's appointment, was set apart for His service, but it is used also of other days or times separated and sanctified in a similar way. In a spiritual sense it designates the eternal rest in heaven: Heb. iv. 9. In the Christian church the first day of the week has been substituted for the last. There is no explicit command on the subject, but the church naturally commemorated the great event which was in a sense her birth, the resurrection of Christ. By changing the day the Church threw off the Jewish regulations which had loaded down the Sabbath and had turned it into a day of ecclesiastical bondage. The Jews were not peculiar in their day of rest. It is a natural institution, and was observed by some Pagan nations quite independent of Judaism. The Christian Church keeps the first day of the week, which celebrates the close of the spiritual creation, just as the last day celebrated the close of the physical creation.

Bells. Bells are of the greatest antiquity. Many bells were found in the excavations at Nineveh. The introduction of bells into Christian churches is usually A