Page:Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1.djvu/195

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TO THE MAGNESIANS.
181
the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master—how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead.[1]

Saviour, saying, "He will come and save us."[2] Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat."[3] For say the [holy] oracles, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread."[4] But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them.[5] And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, "To the end, for the eighth day,"[6] on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of

  1. Comp. Matt. xxvii. 52.
  2. Isa. xxxv. 4.
  3. 2 Thess. iii. 10.
  4. Gen. iii. 19.
  5. Reference is here made to well-known Jewish opinions and practices with respect to the Sabbath. The Talmud fixes 2000 cubits as the space lawful to be traversed. Philo (De Therap.) refers to the dancing, etc.
  6. Ps. vi. xii. (inscrip.).