ABSTRACT
The Sabbath is ordained in many passages of the Bible. The Sabbath is at once a religious and an historic celebration. It commemorates the Creation; it brings before the mind the important truth that this infinite universe is not the product of chance, but the handiwork of a Divine Power. But it also commemorates the great deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The advantage that animals can derive from the Sabbath is exclusively physical. To devote the Sabbath entirely to pious exercises, and so to make it a day of severe austerity, would be to misuse it. Recreation on the Sabbath is not merely permissible, but a duty; but it is a duty whose fulfilment must be subordinated to reverence for the day's sanctity. The Sabbath is a season of joy, for without joy there can be no real recreation.
