^ if! t Hi m m mm ill I feu pi- 1 ■PI ••] jm'l ili -''! iifi £ il i il'Sl University of California • Berkeley TIEHIE CHRISTIAN SABBATH OIEe WEEI^LY I^BST DAY^ By ^Idef Coluir\tu^ 0dott. LAMONI, IOWA: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OP LATTER DAY SAINTS. / pestilences and great plagues, when they should break his covenant i. He punished them seven-fold, with con- suming diseases — epidemics, drouths, giving them into^ the hands of their enemies who should rule over them, and the fruit of their land would be smitten. He would break the pride of their power, and they should be rohhed of their children. He would lay waste their cities, deso- late their sanctuaries, visit them with such dire and strange calamities, that even their enemies would be astonished at them; and if they refused to "be re/brme<^'^ by all this great punishment, then they should even be destroyed out of their land, and it be left desolate, and g Heb. 10: 9, 10. ^ Deut. 24: 16. i L-jV. 2G: 14-33. 12 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. they left few in number. And when these sad predic- tions were all fulfilled against Israel, and their children in exile were made to feel that they were thus suffering on account of "the sins" of their "people Israel," need we wonder that the captive Daniel prayed, ' 'O Lord, accord- ing to all t -y righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jeru- salem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fatliers, Jerusalem and thy people are a reproach to all that are about us" j. Laws or cove- nants involving this principle could not, in their very nature, unless such principle was eliminated, be an adjunct to, or a part of the gospel. The law of Christ does not deal with nations, as such, in that manner. Nor does it propose penalties either in this world or that to come, wherein the children shall, in any sense, or to any degree, be held responsible for the iniquties of their fathers; but, on the contrary, "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God" h. 6. There are some who seem to have discovered such a high degree of morality and perfection in the ten commandment law that they, in their claims for it, assert that it is the code that governs in heaven; that the angelic hosts in their exalted sphere render homage to Grod in accordance with its requirements. "It existed," say they, "before man was created. The angels were governed by it" I. If this statement be true, the Sab- bath was not instituted in Eden^ or "made for ma/i" •only, but for the angels as well! Will one of the believ- ers of this "spirit of prophecy" give us a dilation on the application of the decalogue, in all its bearings, to the •conduct of the angels? Perhaps they will enlighten us -as to how the angels order their households, including j Dan. 9: 16. Ic Rom. 14: 12. I Mrs. E. White.'in "Spirit of Prophecy," vol. 1, p. 261, THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. la their servants and beasts of burden on the Sabbath dayt Possibly they could render clear to our understanding what effect it would have on the angels in heaven were they to fail to carry out the letter and spirit of the fifth commandment, or the tenth and last one, for instance. This would be a source of edification that the gospel of Christ fails to afford. Now we believe in revering the law of God given to Israel, just as he designed we should, but we do not wish to make claims for it that, in their logical deductions, would render it ridiculous, or that are absurd. 7. We here observe that, by the law of the ten com- mandments, no one can be convicted of sin, unless guilty of committing the overt act by it prohibited. It does not make the conception of the act in the hearty or its desire, sin. Nor can we determine from them what the penalty is for their violation, or, indeed, wh^^er there be a pen- alty save for the violation of the fi^ two; and that, as we have seen, is for national transgressions. Now to illustrate the truth of this statement, take the case of the man who "gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day," whom the children of Israel incarcerated till Moses might be informed of the Lord what the penalty might be m. "If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant^ and hath gone and served other Gods ti, and worshiped them, either the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel: then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed m Num. 15: 32-35. »Deut. 17: 2-7. 14 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witness, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you." This passage of holy writ demonstrates the fact, that the law of the ten commandments is a part of the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai — that law prohibiting idolatry — and that to break it was ^^transgressing Ms cove- nant;'' and, that its violation was determined by an ■earthly court, and that by an earthly court was the pen- alty executed. It further shows that, in its very nature, it is no part of the code that constitutes the unexecuted thoughts of wrongdoing, sin. Only He who knows the secret operations of the human mind and affections, can judge and convict, and he can convict justly, only, after the law is revealed defining evil thoughts to be sin. With the foregoing facts concerning the ten command- ments, as viewed abstractly and apart from the statutes and judgments that actually grew out of them, carefully noted, we notice again the further fact that, if Moses did not add to the ten commandments as originally given on the Mount Sinai, they are not all contained in the record as found in Exodus, chapter twenty. For as they stand recorded as rehearsed by Moses from the second set of tables, these additional words are found: *'And remem- ber that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy G-od brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sahhath day'' o. That Moses did not add the contents of the verse cited, oDeut. 5:15. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 15 but that Grod spoke these words, Moses declares: '/These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me" p. Observe now that the rea- son here assigned by the Lord, why he commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath day holy, is omitted from the copy we have of the decalogue in Exodus. But it is substan- tially the wording of the title to the enactment of God in ordaining, formulating and recording the other nine also: ^'I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" q. These are reasons God gave for requiring Israel to keep the ten commandments as formulated and given to them at Sinai, and shows us that he designed them to be kept by those so brought out of Egypt, from "the house of bondage." And further, they show that the claim made by seventh-day Sabbath advocates, that the fourth com- mandment is a memorial of creation and designed to com- memorate God's work, in the creation of the universe, is an assumption. The decalogue nowhere states that the Sabbath was or is a "memorial," either of God, or his creation; nor does the Bible anywhere so state, so far as we know. The claim is an assumption; for this, the Bible says, is God's memorial, "And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus sh alt thou say unto the children of Israel; the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abra- ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all geneneraf ions' z. Now join the fact that God brought" Israel out of the land of Egypt attended with such wonders and signs as to demonstrate to them his A Imighty power and goodness, and this p verse 22.. g Ex. 20:2. « Ex. 3:15. 16 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. Name^ his ^ 'memorial,*' tog'ether, and the divine reason for Israel's keeping the Sabbath, assigned in Deuteronomy, fifth chapter and fifteenth verse, becomes obvious. And 80 inspiration understood this matter in after times, for David. recouniiDg the wonderful works of God in deliv- ering Israel from Egypt and planting them in Canaan, in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, concludes with these words, *'Thy name^ O Lord, endureth forever; ani thy nif^morial^ O Lord, throughout all generations" r. But again, we have no evidence in the Biole that the decalogue was ever revealed to man till it was given to Israel at Sinai: ''^For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned /ro?/i Adam to Moses, over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come" 8. And this accounts for the fact that, in all the history of things prior to Moses, we have no account of the injunction being given to anyone to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath. God made a covenant with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The decalogue was made the basis of that covenant. The covenant was national in its character. As a nation they had to be located. By this covenant they were to be organized into a "kingdom," somewhere on earth. This kingdom was to be of a twofold nature, — a kingdom at once religious and political, the religious phase of it being largely ceremonial, being governed b}'^ that department of the code of laws, and so we read : **Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary t. Now the ten commandments, being the foundation of this covenant, it must, in its nature, be a religio-political enactment, and hence it is that six of the ten commandments relate r Pb. 135: 13; Bi. 3: 15; Hos. Ill 5. « Rom. 5: 13, 14. i Heb. 9: 1. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 17 directly to the relation of man to his fellow, while four relate to the obligations of man to God. The decalogue was so all-important a factor in the covenant that, some- times by a figure of synechdoche, where a part of any- thing is put for the whole, the ten hasic conditions of the covenant are called ''the covenant." ''And he de- clared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments: and he wrote them upon two tables of stone" tt. Indeed, sometimes a single enactment is called a covenant, as, when Canaan was given to Abraham the rite of circumcision is called a covenant u. Doubtless the reason why this is so, is, because it was the sign or seal of the covenant, v, with Abraham, and as the rainbow in the cloud was in the covenant made with Noah w. In the covenant made with Israel at Sinai, the Sabbath day was assigned the important position of token, sign, or seal; also "a per- petual covenant" x; and like the rite of circumcision was to be observed by Israel "throughout their generations" by a perpetual covenant, just like the atonement Sab- bath y; or the statute governing the weekly arrange- ment of the shewbread z. The seventh-day Sabbath then, was the seal of the covenant made with Israel at Sinai. This covenant was to give way to the new 'and everlasting covenant, we are taught, the covenant rati- fied by the blood of the Son of God. Will the old be re- enacted — made anew — or will the Lord make a new cov- enant? What is the seal of the new covenant? Not baptism, for that seems to have been foreshadowed by the natural birth, under the law. Natural birth brought one into the literal kingdom of Israel; but in the new covenant we are told that ' 'as many of you as have been baptized ttDeut. 4: 12, 13. w Gen. 17: 9, 10. u Rom. 4:11. w? Gen, 9: 12, a? Ex. 31. y Lev. 23:31. ^ Lev. 24: 8. 9. 18 THE CHRISTIAN SABfeATH. into Christy have put on Christ. And if ye he Christ's^ then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The act of making covenant, on our part, could not be the seal of it. The seal of the new covenant seems to be an act consummated on the part of G-od thus, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom [Christ] also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased pos- session, unto the praise of his glory." And, ''Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" a. The decalogue, separate and apart from all other law, statutes and judgments, with no rewards or penalties, and therefore not administered or executed, is a passive or inactive formulary, and hence it is that, in the nature of the case, definitive regulations, of equal authority with itself, must be provided; and so we find in the history of the case that, when Moses went up into the Mount to receive the tables of the covenant, God also gave him statutes and judgments so that the code might become operative, such judgments and statutes having the sev- eral ten commandments for their basis, as we read in the twenty-first, twenty-second and twenty-third chap- ters of Exodus, the Sabbath being no exception. And after all this, and Moses had written the words of the Lord in a book, and the people had heard them and freely agreed to keep them, the people, the altar, and the book of the covenant, were sprinkled with "the blood of the covenant," which God had made with them '^concerning all these loords.'' Of God's doings in the Mount, Moses said: "And the Lord commanded me at aEph. 1: 13; 2 Cor. 1: 22. V THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 19 that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it" h. Since law is inoperative unless administered, who were the authorized, ordained administrators of this law? Who were to instruct the people and see that the law was carried into effect? Answer: "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations; and that ye may put difference between- holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses" c. "If there- fore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the lavj^ d. Now, if God gave tioo separate and distinct codes of law to Israel at Sinai, the decalogue and the ceremonial, the former immutable^ but the latter mutable and tem- porary, and if the latter only was, as was designed to be, abolished at the death of Christ, what law is it that is, "of necessity'' changed'^ The only law left, according to the assumption that two were given, is the ten com- mandments. Now to abolish a law, is not to change it. The heavens and the earth are to be changed e. The children of God are all to be changed:, at the resurrec- tion /, but not abolished nor exchanged. To abolish one code of law, and institute an entirely different and 6Deat. 4:14. 4C Lav. 10: S-11. d H >b. 7: 11, 12. e Ileb. 2: 12, /I Cor. 15: 51. 20 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. distinct law in its stead, is not to change the law, but institute an entirely different, distinct and new order of things. This consideration, it seems, is fatal to the ''two-law" theory. But from the last scriptures quoted, we learn that the Aaronic Priesthood were the adminis- trators of the old covenant. Again, "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Jaw at his mouth" g. But the priesthood of Christ did not minister that covenant, nor did Christ constitute his servants ministers of that covenant. Says Paul, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter^ hut of the Spirit: for the letter hilleth^ but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death [the letter] , written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance: which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious" h. The ministration of Moses, when his countenance was so illumined that Israel could not steadily behold it, was on the occasion of his descent from the mountain ' 'with the two tables of testimony," "and all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them m commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai" i. And the command, "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest," was among the things then and there administered j. Moreover, the Lord told Moses to write "these words," "for after the tenor of these ivords I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." . . *'And he wrote upon the tables the words of the cove- flfMal. 2:7. 7i 2 Cor. 3: 5, 6, 7. i Ex.chap. 3!|^ i verse 21. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 21 nant, the ten commandments" h. Of this covenant — the ten commandments, including the seventh-day rest — ■ Paul says he and his fellow laborers in the Christian i economy Grod had not made them ministers. They, then, did not preach or practice, or administer to others, that law, or hold it as of force in the kingdom of heaven. It was a law of death. They administered "the law of the Spirit of life." 8. One thing more is lacking in the decalogue, view- ing it as a separate code from the rest of the system. It does not define when the seventh-day rest shall begin or end, whether at sunset on Friday evening, at midnight following, or on Saturday" morning as we say. No light is given us on this point till the regulation is given, as we learn, when Moses went into the Mount to receive the statutes and judgments I. Nor does the decalogue define whether there shall be '^a holy convocation" on the Sabbath or no. When the Sabbath was given to Israel in "the wilderness of sin" they seemed to be entirely ignorant as to what was meant by the Sabbath, so much so that, when the people gathered the double portion on the sixth day^ "all the rulers of the congrega- tion came and told Moses." Then Moses proceeded to instruct th&m OTL the subject thus: "This is that which the Lord hath said. To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morn- ing" m. Had even the rulers of Israel been taught concerning the Sabbath, and had been habituated to its observance weekly, they would have understood the matter without going to Moses about it. They did not have to go to Moses to learn whether the man "that gathered sticks fcEx. 35:27, 28. ? Lev. 23: 32. m Ex. 16:22-S0. 22 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. on the sabbath," had transgressed^ or no. after the Lord had uttered the ten commandments on Mount Sinai. Only the penalty for the transgression they desired to- learn. The Lord fed Israel miraculously in the wilder- ness, and gave them regulations pertaining to the gath- ering and use of it, also prohibiting their gathering the manna on the Sabbath day, and when the children of Israel failed to observe those regulations which God had given 'Ho prove' them, the Lord asked: "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws," and then follows another regulation relating to the manner of observing the Sabbath, as follows: "See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in Ms place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." If Israel had been instructed thus from their youth up, there would have been no necessity for the explicit infor- mation here given. "So the people rested on the sev- enth day," not even ujoJdng their food. But it is prob- able that these restrictions ceased with the manna, for after the giving of the law there was a statute given, authorizing ^^an holy convocation^^ on the Sabbath, and this would necessitate the going "out of their place" on the Sabbath, to attend the assembly n. But 7ione of these regulations of human conduct are found in the decalogue, therefore we are not taught by it what it is to keep the vSabbath day '7io7?/," but we must look elsewhere for the law explaining hoio to keep it holy. And the fact that God did, by other enact- ments, give Israel to understand what he meant by their being required to keep the Sabbath day holy, leads us, undeniably, to the conclusion that God did not design that the decalogue was to be understood a^ a complete^ n Llv. 24: 3. THE CPIRISTIAN SABBATH. 23 immutable, unchangeable, irrevocable code of law any- where and in any age. God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai. A cove- nant denotes a coming together of mutual parties, and a mutual agreement. At Sinai GdcJ and Israel came together in mutual agreement — covenanted with each other; God agreeing to do certain thingg^for Israel upon certain conditions, and Israel agreeing to hear and obey God's law. But such a thing as a covenant without conditions is inconceivable. The conditions are the things that both parties to a covenant agree to do conditionally. They are the specified requirements of the covenant. This proposition is true of every covenant that God ever. called any people of any age to make with : him. The basic specifications of the covenant made at Sinai are the ten commandments, but it also included the testimonies, statutes and judgments. Moses so understood this sub- ject, and that the conditions of the covenant as then and there made pertained to no other covenant that God ever had made. The proof of this is the fact that, when Moses rehearsed the law, nearly forty years after the covenant was made, he began by quoting the fundamental specifi- cations of the covenant as follows, also including the statement that God had not rnade this covenant with any other people: "And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them. Hear, O, Israel, the statutes and judg- ments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not THIS covenant with our fathers^ but ws, even us^ who are all of us here alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, 24 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. and went not up into the mount), sayuig, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" o. This passage of Bible his- tory is as plain as comment could possibly make it, as to what the covenant was, of which the seventh-day Sab- bath was a part, arwl where, and when, and with whom this covenant was made. The reason assigned here in the words of this covenant tchy the Israelites were to observe the Sabbath, is, "And remember that thou wast a serv- ant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. " Observe: The fact that God brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage, attended with stupendous manifestations of his glory and power, is not only the reason why they were to keep the seventh day holy, but also God's reason for instituting the command, as a part of his covenant with Israel. ^'Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day;" and, for this reason, God could give this command to no other people but those so brought out of Egyptian bond- age. By the enactment of God on Mount Sinai the decalogue was formulated and ordained law, conjointly with the statutes and judgments that rendered it operative p. And by virtue of the covenant entered into, and sancti- fication and ratification with blood, it became binding — of force q. And such a process with regard to any pre- cept, ordinance or observance, is its institution. And thus we have the manner of the institution of the sev- enth-day Sabbath as well as the place where, and the time when, and God's reason why, all plainly revealed. Dent. 5: 1-21. p Deut. 4: 13, 14. 5 Ex. 34:1-8. CHAPTER IV. THE EDEN IDEA OF THE SABBATH INSTI- TUTION EXAMINED. It has been assumed by nearly all classes of professors of religion in Christendom that, because at the conclu-- sion of the creation Grod ended his work on the seventh day, and on that day he rested, and, because that after having rested that day ''He blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it," that he therefore instituted the sev- enth-day Sabbath in the garden of Eden a. That this idea is an assumption is shown from the fact that there is not a passage of Scripture supportive of it in all the Bible. The reason assigned, and only one, why God sanctified the seventh day of the creative cycle is "be- cause that in it he had rested from all his work, which Grod created and made." Nor is there a word connected with the narrative, giving the faintest idea of a Sabbath institution there for man, much less of a Sabbath enact- ment in Eden. This Eden Sabbath theory assumes that the six days of creation were of only twenty-four hours duration each, as man measures time, and as a consequence the absurd idea goes with it that God just spoke the mate- rial world into existence out of nought — nothing — in just one hundred and forty-four hours of common time! Of course, it would not do to admit that hefore the creation 'Hhe earth was'' h yet unformed — not created — even if the a Gen. ^: 3. 6Geii. 1;2. 26 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. Bible does so aflBrm; for that might involve the gradual development or scientific idea of the creation, and that would make the six days of creation too long, and, conse- quently, the seventh day, to suit the theory of the Sab- bath in Eden, as inferred from the passage in Genesis, chapter two, would be too long. Now, it appears from the history we have of the creation, that the adjustment of our solar system to the earth, and of its parts to each other, so as to measure and create for us day and night, was a part of the fourth creative day's work. We do not know how long it took the light of the sun, after God created it, to reach the earth, nor do we know the length of the first three creative days. But the six days of creation av^all summed up as one day — '^the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens" c. In Paul's reference to that seventh day when God ended his work, although writing to the Hebrews, he does not call it the Sabbath, but seems to refer to it as being typical of the "rest" that God offered to Israel, and classes it with "another day" of rest, of anmdefi- nite length, that remains for the people of God. And further, he says that Israel was the first to whom this rest of God was preached, and in the wilderness was the time 1^:^671 it was "first preached." Now, if this be true, it was not first preached to Adam in Eden d. But if that seventh day that God rested on was a day of twenty-four hours, he did not rest on that day Ix cause he had previously appointed it and sanctified a sabbath, and of course Adam did not sahhatize on that day, for it had not yet been appointed a sabbath. Adam was not created till the sixth day of creation. The seventh was his first full day of life. He had not worked six days, and the Sabbath is to succeed six days of labor. It is just as great a sin not to labor six days before we rest c Gen. 2: 4. dHeb. 4:1-9. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 27 the seventh, as to refuse to keep the seventh; just as much a transgression of the law, "/SVx days slialt thou lahoi' ' e. To refuse to keep the letter of that law, was to vitiate the spirit of it, and thatxwas sin. In harmony with this fabled idea 6f a Sabbath in Eden, it is imagined that our first parents retired to some quiet spot in the garden on the Sabbath,, and there, in solemn seclusion, with reverence, did "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it lioly^'' just as though they were^ sufficiently developed, mentally and morally, to disdern between one day as being more holy than the others, or as though the distinctions between the sacred and the pro- fane then existed and were by them recognized and appre- ciated. But, unfortunately for this idea, it is all imag- ination; such a condition of things had not obtained with Adam and Eve till they progressed sufficiently to eat of the fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," for after eating of that fruit they became sensible of the fact that it%as necessary to get some "fig leaves" and make aprons with which to clothe themselves. Eating of that fruit had such a wonderful effect on their mental powers and developed them so that G-od said, "Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken" /. Now we have no evidence that Adam was permitted to remain in the gar- den of Eden over another seventh day after partaking of the fruit, and these facts show plainly that the idea of a Sabbath institution for man in Eden is not correct. The Bible says that after ^ and because God fcai rested on the seventh day of the creative cycle, he blessed and sanctified that day; but how long after we are not told eEx 20:9. /Gen. 3:22-24. ^8 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. in the book of Genesis, and hence we look elsewhere for this information. The first time the injunction to observe the Sabbath was given, was to Israel after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. This is the exact fact, so far as the Bible record shows. We pass over the patriarchal age as nothing is found in the record of those times pertaining to the Sabbath, and, arriving at the waters of Marah along with the children of Israel, and being camped there, with no water that they could drink, they "murmured against Moses," and "he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which, when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made «weet. There lie made for them a statute and an ordi- nance, and there he proved them ' g. The Lord informed Moses what this "statute" and "ordinance" was that he there made to prove them with; but Israel went on to Elim, and from Elim they "came to the wilderness of Sin," on the fifteenth day of the second month after leav- ing Egypt. At Sin they murmured for br^d, and here the Lord sent the manna, and gave certain regulations about the daily gathering of it, to ^^prove them, whether they" would walk in his law, or no h. No law seems to have been specified by Moses till the twenty-first day of the second month, and then, when, on the sixth day, the people gathered twice as much as on either of the previ- ous five days, the "rulers of the congregation came and told Moses," and he then informed them what the Lord had said, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord. " . . . "See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath" i. Then Israel being informed what the "statute" and "ordinance" was, that God had made for them, that he might ^^prove them,'' . . . "rested on the seventh day"i. This narrative unlocks to the under- standing this statement of our Savior: "And he said g Ex. 15: 23-25. h Ex. 16: 4. i veree 23. j verse 30. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 29 unto them [Pharisees], The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" h^ as to the place wJiere^- the time when^ and the people for whom, th6 Sabbath ordinance was made. This "ordinance," like the Pass- over, afterward became a part of the national code; was the sign of the covenant made at Sinai, and a memorial of the deliverance of Israel from their rigorous servitude in Egypt and was attended by the grandest series of wonders of the Divine hand ever seen displayed /. Having taken a review of the assumptions underlying the position of those holding to the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath, viz., that that Sabbath was insti- tuted in Eden, and that it is therefore a memorial of the creation, or of God's rest; also the assumption that the decalogue is G-od's perfect law, the acme of all moral law, and is therefore immutable and eternally perpetual and ■unchangeable, and found them to be simply taking for granted the things that ought to be proved, and the very points for which no Bible proof exists, we now submit the following: The assertion that the decalogue is the moral, immutable law, and therefore perpetual, implies that that part of the law not contained in the ten com- mandments and that was (as is admitted) abolished and not perpetual, was not perfect nor moral, and that God gave a law to Israel that was not moral! Yet notwith- standing this anomalous position, our Savior found two divine commands in the law (and not found in the ten) that gave to the ten whatever moral effect they exerted or possessed, and on which they depended, and were therefore ^Hhe great^^ commandments in the law, viz.: ^'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it^ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. fc Mark 3: 27." ZDeut. 5:15. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 30 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets'' m. By this statement of Christ, we learn, not only that "the great" commandments of the law were found elsewhere than -in the decalogue, but also that he recognized that the law, in its entirety, was a unit}/, and not divided, as to jjfs moral and ceremonial phases. The phrases, .^tiaw of the Lord," or "of G-od, and "law of Moses," do not imply two distinct and separate laws, the one moral and the other ceremonial. The law given of God to Israel through Moses is all one law, as a code. It was ordained for, and applied to, a government that was cit the same time civil and religious — a union of church and state — and hence it is that the decalogue, the fundamental basis, the constitution of the code of law, contained four obligations relating to the service of God, and six that pertained to the relation of man to his fel- lows. This law that constituted Israel a "kingdom of priests," is, by the apostle James, called "the royal law," and included the ten commandments: "If ye ful- fill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the tvJiole laiVj and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. Por he that said. Do not commit adultery, said also. Do not kill. Now if thou commit no. adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law" n. "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false wit- ness. Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as th^^self" o. This law required that a man only love his neigJihor, for "he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law." Bvit m Mait. 22: 37-40. n James 2: 8-11. o Horn. 13: 9. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 31 James desired the Saints to conform to a law higher yet than that "royal law" in moral culture, more wealthy in spiritual endowments; one which did not limit their charitable services to neighbors only^ but a law involving this principle, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, ^ do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them [onlyj-^which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And i.^ yQ lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies^ and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful" p. And while this is the law and the prophets, it is to be noted that it is not the doctrine of the ten commandment division of it. And hence it is that James cites us at once to "the perfect law of liberty," exhort- ing us to "so speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty" g. Thus the apostle recognizes the unity of the law- - "royal law" — and does not appear to know anything whatever of this artificial division of the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai, which division is made, evi- dently, in the interests of the seventh-day Sabbath theory. The world of mankind will be judged at the last day by "the law of liberty" — the gospel of Christ — that which makes men "/7*ee from the law of sin and death" r. Luke recognized that the law which was called by Jewish custom "the law of Moses," was "the law of the 2> Lake 6: 31-36. g James 2: 1>. r Acts 17: 31; Rom. 2: 16; Hcb. 10:28,29. 32 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. Lord," *^the law," and was a unity s. Likewise our Savior called that law, "the law given of Moses," as also ^^tlie Jaw' tj and quoted from any portion of it suit- able to the case in hand, as may be seen by referring to Matthew, chapter five, calling it all by the simple title, ''the law." J The modern idea, then, of dividing the law, designat- ing the divisions, moral, and ceremonial, respectively, is unauthorized either by the Bible or any inspired prec- edent. And until its abrogation, according to the orig- inal design, Christ enjoined strict obedience to all its requirements, including the "least" commandment, the jots and the tittles u; nor did he follow the example of those who "have hQ&n. partial in the law." (Mai. 2: 9). 5 Luke 2: 22-24; 10:25-27. < John 7: 19. « Matt. 5: 18, 19; 8:1-4; 15:1-6; 23:2. / CHAPTER IV. ABROGATION OF THE LAW. We now pass on to notice briefly the end, or abroga- tion of the law, as a code, in order to the establishment of the "better covenant, which was established upon better promises." For, says Paul, "if that first covenant had been faultless^ then should no place have been sought for the second" v. "Everlasting righteousness"" awaited the advent of the Messiah for its introduction. (Dan. 9: 24). "A law" should "proceed from Him;" "and the isles" waited for "A/s law.'' He was to be, and is, "for a covenant of the people, for a light to the gentiles." — Isa. 51:4; 42:4-6. "Behold the former things are come to pass, and new tilings do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." — verse 9. Thus did the prophets view beforehand, by the Spirit of Christ which was in them, the bringing in of the "better hope," by grace and truth. If, then, the Messiah came that we might have life^ and that, too, because the law could not give life, and,, therefore everlasting righteousness was not introduced by the law; and, also, inasmuch as the inheritance of the Saints is not of the law, what was th.Q purpose of the law? — "Wherefore then serveth the law?" Answer: — "It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." And "knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous vHeb. 8:6, 7. 33 34 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons. and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the gloriovs gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust" w. Because of trans- gression it was necessary that a law be made and given to the children of Israel, the penalties of which should not be deferred to "the world to come" for visitation on the transgressor; hence the law was added to the ''prom- ise" made to Abraham, which promise embodied the gos- pel preached to him, namely, that in Abraham and his seed, [Christ] , all nations shall be blessed x. This added law was ''ordained oy angels in the hand of a mediator." The angel that appeared to Moses in Mount Horeb called himself "the Lord God of your fathers"?/. Again, "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them" 2;. "And the angel of his presence saved them." — Isa. 63:9. The explanation to thus using the term "angel" interchangably with the name of God is thus given: "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not, for he tvill not pardon your trans- gressions; for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice^ and do all that / speak, then I will be an enem.y unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries" a. The. authority of the angel was the authority of God; and the voice of the angel was to Israel to 1 Tim. 1 : 9-11. a? Gal. 3: 8-19. yFx. 3:2, 14. « Ex. 13:21. a Ex. 23 : 20-22. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 35 the voice of God. In the light of the explanation here given, the following is of force: "This is he [Moses], that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fath- ers; who received the lively oracles to give unto us." . . ' 'Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it" &. Of the words spoken by the angel in Mount Sinai it is said: "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he add.ed no more. And he wrdte them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me" c. Paul says of this law, "It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." . . "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteous- ness should hav^ been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin; that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by [the] faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a school- master'' d. Such is the apostle Paul's explanation of the purpose, and duration, of the law given to Israel, (that law including the decalogue), and, therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath. Again: The law given to Israel, including the deca- logue, is called "the covenant," and "the words of the covenant." Further: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And b Acts T : 38, 53. c Deut. 5 : 22. d Gal. 3 : 19-25. 36 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments^ d. "And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my cove- nant." Here we learn that "the covenant" included all the commandments, the statutes and judgment. The tables of stone upon which were written the ten com- mandments, are called "the two tables of the covenant" e. And the hooh wherein were written by Moses, the Lord's "commandments and his statutes" and all "the words of this covenant," was called "the book of the covenant" /, as also the "book of the law;" and the Ark wherein the tables of the covenant and the book of the covenant were deposited by the priests, was called "the ark of the covenant" g. To engage in idolatry and thus violate the second command- ment, was to break the covenant: "Then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant" h. Likewise to "covet" was a trans- gression of "the covenant of the Lord" i. To observe the passover, was to keep the covenant of the Lord — ' 'Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant" y. When Israel, as a nation, broke the covenant of the Lord as found writ- ten in the book of the law, God visited the iniquities of the fathers on the children, and. this peculiar procedure, is based on the second commandment of the decalogue: ' 'Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kin- dled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto dEx. 34:27, 28. eDent. 9:15. /2 Kinscs 23: 3,21; 22: 8. g Deut. 32: 26. h Deut. 31 : 20. i Josh. 7: 15, 21. ^"2 Kings 23: 21. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 37 the words of this hook, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us" k. Rebellious Israel broke the covenant of the Lord in allowing the uncir- cumcised in heart and flesh to minister in the sanctuary at the altar I: '^And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testi- monies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written is this hook. And all the people stood to the cov- enant" m. To refuse to liberate the Hebrew servant, in the year of release, was to transgress the covenant of r, 15: 45, 46. i 2 Cor 3: 7; Eph. 2:15, 16. j* Rom. 7: 6. &2Cor 3:6,7. #' 52 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to he offered? . . . because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin"y. "Above when he said, Sacri- fice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.'^ Hereby we learn that it was "the law" that cast the "shadow" of "good things to come," and that the "offerings for sin" were "by the law." When the substance or "body," the gospel is reached, the types or shadow are no longer of use. And because the law could not, in part or in whole, "take away sins," but only memorialize it, God had no "pleasure therein," and therefore annulled it. The shadow will remain as long as the law casting it remains binding. Please remember that "the law" here referred to is "the first testament" and "the first covenant" of the previous chapter of the letter to the Hebrews; and the covenant, as we have already learned, has for its basis the ten commandments. Moreover, it is assumed that the decalogue is the supreme, unchangeable, eternal law of G-od, and, that the ceremonial law was the law "added because of trans- gression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made," and that it was done away by Christ, leaving the decalogue still of force, and that therefore the Sab- bath of the fourth commandment is now binding. So far as "burnt offerings" and attendant ceremonies are concerned, are not the intimations of the Bible more favorable to the idea that they existed before the deca- logue was formulated at Sinai? All the patriarchs who lived prior to the exodus, so far as history shows, offered typical sacrifices, beginning with Abel. And further; if the ceremonial law is "the law" that "entered, that j Heb. 10 : 1, 2, 8. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 63 the offence might abound, '.' as stated in Romans, chapter five, it is the law that is afterward, in the same letter, said by Paul to be designed- to cause sin to ^'"become exceeding sinful^ ' ' and also the law that is holy^ just and good! h. That law by which comes ''the knowledge of sin;" that law, of which Paul further argues, "Yea, we establish the law" I. But this position could not be admitted for a moment by the seventh-day Sabbath advocate, for by so doing he admits that the law con- taining the Sabbath is abolished. But such is the log- ical deduction from their chosen premise. The fact is, their attempt to divide the law by that line of reasoning is solely an assumption, and the attempt to prove the perpetuity of the decalogue thereby fails. That the apostle Paul does refer to the same law in the Roman letter he does in that to the Galatians is evident, for he quotes the same text in both epistles thus: "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth those things shall live in them" m. "And the la IV is not of faith, but, the man that doeth them shall live in them."7i. Can the same word "law" found in the same text, when used by the same writer, on two different occasions be construed to signify that two distinct laws are meant? More than this, when the prophet Ezekiel reproved the children of Israel for not observing that same law referred to by Moses and Paul, he included not only the "statutes" and the "judgments," but the Lord's ^^sah- hath'' alsoo. Thus does the testimony of Ezekiel and Paul concur in applying the statement of Moses to ''the law'' as a whole, statutes, judgments, and that which the Lord calls "my sabbaths." And the Holy Ghost was the inspirer of all three. & Rom. 5: 20: 7: 12, 13. ?chap.3:31. mRom.lO:5. n Gal. 3: 12; Lev. 18: 5. o Ezekiel 20: 21. 54 THE CHKIISTIAN SABBATH. Of the law thus identified as including the Lord's Sab- baths, Paul says to those in the new covenant, "For ye are not under the law, but under grace." What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid" p. And why? Answer — "Where- fore, my brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christy that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.'' J? Rom. 6: 14, 15; 7:4. 65* CHAPTER VII. • THE WEEKLY SABBATH. It is denied that Paul referred to the weekly Sabbath- when affirming the "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances," because it is classed with the meats and drinks and "the new moons," etc. But in doing this the apostle but follows the precedents of the prophets and authorized teachers of the law, as the following references conclusively show. Moses, through whom the law was given, so classes the Sabbath of the law, as we have seen q: "And he said. Wherefore wilt thou go to him to- day? it is neither new moon, nor sahhatli' r. Solomon says, "And for the burnt offerings morning and evening^ on the sabbaths, and on the neiv moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel" s. "And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the Lord in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and ON the set feasts" t. Here "the set feasts" include every legal Sabbath except the weekly Sabbath, and hence "the sab- baths" of the text are the weekly Sabbaths. For the writer to say "the sabbaths," meaning the annual Sab- bath, and then in the same breath to use the phrase "set feasts" with reference to the same days, would be a species of tautology hardly chargeable to an inspired historian, unless the one was used as an expletive of the other. Such is not the case here. But further: "Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the q Lev. 23 : 3, 5, 16, etc. r 2 Ki n sjs 4 : 23. s 2 Chron. 2 : 4. tl Cliron.23:31. 55 56 THE CHKiSTlAIN SABBATH. year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles" u. "And the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord'' v. The distinction between the weekly Sab- baths, and the set or solemn feasts — annual Sabbath — is by these texts plainly indicated, yet these writers, like the apostle Paul, associate the weekly Sabbaths with the new moons, and set feasts. The prophet Amos attaches the same degree of sacred- ness to the new moon as he does to the Sabbath, saying, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat" w. Likewise Isaiah, placing it with the Sabbath among the memorials of the age to come: ' 'And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sab- bath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord" x. And so the apostle, in the Col- ossian letter, following the foregoing examples, associ- ates the weekly Sabbaths of "the law of the Lord" with the other holy days, "wew; moons,'' meats and drinks, affirming that all these were blotted ouc, "took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross," because it "was against us," and "contrary to us" y. In what respect was the law "against," and "contrary to us?" It was national, enacted especially for the nation brought out of Egypt, "out of the house of bondage," and more especially was the decalogue so designed z. Being national, it was a civil — ecclesiastical law. This no one will deny. In its very nature and intention it could apply to no other people, seeing no other nation was so brought out of Egyptian bondage. It is the "titleji' of any given law, or code of law, that determines M^Chron. 8: 13. v 2 Ctiron. 31 : 3. w Amos 8: 5. a; lea. 66:23. y Col. 2: 14-17. z Ex 20: 2; Deut. 5: 6, 15. THE CHRISTIAISr SABBATH. 57 its application. God, who brought Israel out of Egypt, ''out of the house of bondage," foreknew the future con- ditions of his chosen people and what he designed to accomplish through them, and so determined and suited his enactments for them^^from his right hand went a fiery law /or them^ ... even the inheritance of the congre- gation of JacoV^ h. And thus was it designated that Israel was the cAose/i people, ''above all people that" were "upon the face of all the earth" c. It will be well to note that Moses, when making this statement, was instruct- ing Israel with special reference to the principles of the decalogue against idolatry. Now, Israel being so cho- sen of God above all other people, were, by all the cir- cumstances and the peculiar law given to them, "^'^p- arated" . . . ''''from all other people." "For thou didst separate them from among, all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spaJcest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O, Lord, God" d. By the law given to Israel was the distinction between them and the Gentile world maintained, and hence it became necessary for Christ to nullify the cause of this distinction — separation — that was created at the exodus and that discriminated "against" all other people, and thus take this '^middle wall of partition between us" down. Another respect in which the law was "against" us, and "contrary" to us was, that so long as it remained, in force there could be no such thing as the forgiveness of sin; hence, repentarice was not an element of the law. It was a law of absolute justice, without any intermingling, of mercy. When a willful or "presumptuous" sin was committed, the law was inexorable; the sinner must be put to death. "Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul h D.ut. 3 5: 1-4. c Deut. 7:6. d 1 Kings 8: 63. 68 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him" e. If the sinner did "the like to any one of" the things contrary to the law, he was "guilty of all," his blood should be upon him/. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or fhree witnesses" (/. When the nation of Israel or any individual of it sinned ignorantli/y the law provided a substitute — the life of a beast, instead of the life of the transgressor — and an atonement was thus made in a typical sense, or, in a figure. But in this there was no more of real forgiveness than the transfiguration of Christ upon the mountain was the second advent of Christ in glory — in fact. Those typical offerings but memorialized sin, annually, pointing forward to the great antitypical sacrifice to be offered for the race in the person of Jesus Christ, God's Son, "who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God," to ^ ''purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this caur.e he is the medi- ator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament^ they which are called might receive the prom- ise of eternal inheritance" 7i. "But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou pre2:>ared me. . . . Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" i. The Israelites alone were under the law. The Gentile nations were not placed under its rule. Under it, as we eNum. 15: 30, 31. /Ezek. 18: 10-13; Janius 2: 10. ^ tieb. 10: 28. h Heb. 9: 14, 15. i Ucb. 10: 3-5, 9, 10. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 5» have shown, there was no future rewards. Its penalty was death. It provided no remedy for sin in fact, but only in figure. Now it is proposed by the advocates of the seventh-day Sabbath to abolish that part of the law (the ceremonial) that provided for the substitution of the life of the beast for the sin of ignorance, which allowed the sinner the continuation of this life, and no more, and perpetuate the decalogue, which they affirm is perfect, have it incorporated into the new covenant; for by the new covenant, say they, or under it, G-od will write the ten commandments in the heart, instead of on the tables of stone, and thereby procure pardon for the transgres- sion of it. If a circle be perfect, to add anything to it renders it imperfect. To add anything in any way to a perfect dollar according to the authorized standard, ren- ders it useless. To add the ten comir^a^idments to the gospel would not change their effects^ unless there was a change in their intention by the Lawgiver. To assert that the ten commandments are the perfect and immu- table moral law of God^ and then say that their intention^ office, or effects, under any circumstance whatever, can he changed, is a glaring inconsistency, and a contradiction in logic. Now, we have seen that under the law (the law includ- ing the decalogue) the effects were temporal — on the ona hand long life — on the other, no remission — but death, "without mercy," Therefore to combine the decalogue, unchanged in any respect, whatever, with the gospel, will not alter its effects — reward and penalty — an iota. To make it of universal application is to bind its effects-: upon all nations. And, to make it a part of the new covenant — "the everlasting covenant" — would be to ren- der its intended, effects everlasting. And "as there is no man that sinneth not"y, "there is none that doeth good,, ^"1 Kings 8: 46. m^ THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BOj 7iot one^ Jc, but all are under, sin, and "the wages of sin is death;" there is therefore no salvation for anyone- hereafter, so long therefore, as this immutable law of. the unchangeable God is in force and unrepealed, death only awaits the race! '^But," say they, ''God has transferred the commis- sion of execution of the penalty, from men to the hands- of the Savior, and from this age to the judgment day." Then the original intention of the unchangeable God in ordaining this immutable law was, that the Son should execute hereafter the penalty for breaking this law, and, that the penalty should be ^^ sorer" i than isi simply death here, at the hands of a fellow mortal. Then God varied just a trifle from the original intention in the establish- ment of the covenant with Israel at Sinai! For under it man executed the penalty! This position involves three changes. One in God, and two in his moral, perfect, im^ mutable law! A change on his part with respect to the time of executing the penalty; a change from man to his- Svn in the execution of the penalty; also a change of the de1. 1: 13. u Eph. 1: .»;3. r Acts 2: 86. w 1 Tim. 2: ^ 6; 1 John 2: 2. a; 2 Phil. '^: 10, 11. yLuhe2:ll. « Gal. 6: 2. a 1 The^s. 4: 2. 61Tkes2. 3:8; Act«»10.36; 1 Cor. 2: 8. 91 ^ THE CHKISTIAN SABBATH. bondage, and of the acts of God in then redeeming them. But where in "the new covenant" is the memorial of the act of God and our Lord giving the pledge of our redemp- tion from the dominion of death! Is there no "Lord's -day" essentially distinct and marked in ^^the law of Christ'' — "of liberty!" Answer: "I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. / was in the Sjni-it on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great Yo'ce, as of a trumpet" c. The fact that such a wondrous measure of the Holy Spirit rested on the apostle John as to give him a vision of the seven churches of Asia, while yet on the lonely isle, and of the spiritual condition of their membership, and of the Son of God personified walking in the midst of the churches, and of having the Son reveal himself to him as "the first and the last," and being commanded to write his revelation and send it to the churches, impressed him so powerfully that he fell at the Savior's feet as dead. He was also impressed that the time of seeing this wonderful manifestation of the love of Christ to him was "the Lord's day." Here, then, Is the insjnration of God designating the memorial day of the resurrection of Christ given through the resur- rected One! The seal of divinity is thus placed upon that day — "the first day of the week." The day of Christ's resurrection is "the Lord's day." But does "the Lord's day," as referred to by the Holy Spirit to John, signify "the first day of the week"? We know of no instance either in the Bible or in history where the phraseology, "the Lord's day," is used with respect to the Jewish Sabbath — the seventh-day Sabbath. All his- tory teaches that "the Lord's day" of Revelation is "the c Rev. 1 : 9, 10. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 9a first day of the week," the eighth from the day of our Lord's glorious resurrection. This, the strongest of Sabbatarians concede, that the Holy Spirit, through John, uses a new form of expresssion, with reference to the Christian's rest day — "the Lord's day." But when we reflect for a moment that it was designed to memo- rialize one of the greatest events conceivable toman, and also itself an institution connected inseparably with the establishment of the Christian covenant, it is not strange that terms designed to meet the ends sought should be composed, legitimately growing out of the nature of the institution and the attendant events. As, for instance, "Independence day," "New Year's day," relating to the opening of a new era; also "Emancipation day," etc. Events of importance connected with the establishment of the Israelitish economy were memorialized on certain days designated by titles then new, as, "the Sabbath day," day of "atonement," "pentecost," etc. So in the gospel economy, the unparalleled event and fact of the resurrection of Christ, the great Head and Lord of the plan of human redemption, was celebrated on the newly named resurrection day — "the Lord's day." Of this Dr. Barnes in his commentary says: "This was a day par- ticularly devoted to the Lord Jesus, for that is the natural meaning of the word Lord as used in the New Testament; and if the Jewish Sabbath was intended to be designated, the word Sabbath would have been used." In his New Testament Grammar Prof. Winner says: "Entirely new words and phrases were constructed, mainly by composition, and for the most part to meet some sensible want" d. But why construct "new words and phrases" to designate old institutions as "the sal^- bath"? No "sensible end" could have been reached in d p. 25. M THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. this manner, relating to the Sabbath of the law. But the phrase, "the Lord's day," is essentially a New Testa- ment formation. Of their usage of words, Liddell and Scott, in their lexicon say: "We have always sought to give the earli- est authority for its use first. Then if no change was introduced by later writers, we have left it with the early authority alone" e. And hence when they come to define the Greek term "Kuriakos," it is "Of, belonging to, concerning a lord or master, especially belonging to the Lord Christ; hence kuriake hemera, the Lord's day." Tb3 New Testament, then, was their earliest authority for this usage, and no authority since had required any change. Greenfield defines the derivative "Kuriakos, of, or pertaining to the Lord, that is the Messiah; the Lord's, 1 Cor. 11: 20; Rev. 1: 10." And Rolison's lexicon, thus: ' 'Kuriakos — Pertaining to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus Christ; e. g., kuriakos deipnon, — the Lord's supper, (1 •Cor. 11: 20), kuriake hemera, the Lord's day (Rev. 1: 10)." Bagster's Analytical Greek Lexicon, thus: "Kuriakos — Pertaininr to the Lord Jesus Christ; the Lord (1 Cor. 11: 20; Rev.^1: 10)." Parkhurst says: "This is the usual name of Sunday with the subsequent Greek fathers." The above learned evidences show most conclusively that the Lord's day was a new institution, and pertained to the gospel in the Apostolic Age, and is identical with "the first day of the week" — Sunday. We do not find the phrase "the Lord's day" once used, in all the Bible, in application to the sev§nth-day Sabbath. The new relations connected with the institution of the "kingdom of heaven" would necessitate the use of terms and phrases suited to its heavenly and peculiar charac- rt Pieface p. 20. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 95 ter, and of such a nature as to convey to all its close relation to its preeminent Head, our Lord. Hence the institution itself, is called "the Lord's body"/. The holy communion is designated '^the Lord's supper," and, "the Lord's table" g. The observance of "the Lord's supper" commemorates "the Lord's death" h. And as the baptism with which our Lord was to be bap- tized involved the idea of not only being buried or hid away out of sight, but also the act of rising again from that condition, "the Lord's supper" was observed on "the Lord's day" — the resurrection day, "the first day of the week." No one will contend that "the Lord's supper" is any other than a purely gospel institution. Since "the Lord's day" is first found in the New Testa- ment institution and ever after associated with the wor- ship of Christ, because of the glory attendant upon his triumphal victory over death, could it be made to appear as any other than the day celebrated as Christ's resur- rection day? The foregoing ought to be decisive in relation to this division of the subject. /lCor.l2:^7, 23; 11:29. y I Cor. 10; 21; 11: 30. A v. 27. 96 CHAPTER XL HISTOEICAL IDENriTY OF "THE FIEST DAY" WITH "THE LORD'S DAY." Leaving, now, the consideration of the testimony of the lexicographers and commentators, we will notice, briefly, some of the historical testimony to the identity of ^Hlie Lord's day^ of Revelation with ''''the first day of the weelz'' of Pa.uV s divinely inspired instructions to ^^the churches of Christ.'' Our statements under this head are taken from writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers^ also a work — "a collection of ecclesiastical statements" — called, ^^The Apostolic Constitutions,'' with other accredited historical data. "The Ante-Nicene Fathers are those Christian writers who flourished after the time of the apostles, and before the Council of Nice, a. d., 325." In a little work by Elder Andrews, (Adventist), entitled, The Complete Testimony of the First Three Centuries, in his History of the Sabbath, page 204, "Introductory Statement" he remarks: "Many of the Fathers call the first day of the week the Lord's day." Also: "For those Fathers who hallow the Sabbath do generally associate with it the festival called by them the Lord's day"i. Here is the confession of one of the ablest of modern Sabbath advo- cates, with "The Complete Testimony of the Fathers" before him, that the seventh-day Sabbath and the Lord's day are not identical, but that "many of" them "call the first day of the week the Lord's day," thus admitting the identity of "the Lord's day" with Sunday. The testimony of the Fathers to the fact that many of >pp. 10 11. 96 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 97 the Saints observed the Sabbath with **the first day of the week," is by this able writer not questioned. The Fathers are also admitted as evidence on other points relative to the doctrine and practices of the church in the times immediately succeeding the apostles' days. That the Sabbath was observed by some of the Jewish converts in the Apostolic age is shown by New Testa- ment history h. It was evidently done as a matter of policy by those who fully understood the matter. Paul says: ^'I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ... To them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but being under the law of Christ), that I might gain them that are without law." Again; "to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them th^t are under the law." Paul here argues, substantially^ that, as a religious code, all other laws save the gospel, are simply nothing. And he argues precisely similarly in reference to eating meats and things offered to idols, — that to those enlighted by the law of Christ the idol was ''nothing" I. To the Jewish convert yet unenlight- ened by the gospel, circumcision was everything, and just as essential as baptism and the Sabbath; but in the gospel covenant neither circumcision or the Sabbath were profitable m. As a matter of policy among the new Jewish converts, James counseled Paul to observe the law, when at Jerusalem; but ''as touching the Gen- tiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing. ^^ "Ah! but the laio that the apostles of Christ wrote to the Gentile believers not to keep, was the ceremomanaw, " says the objector! Then, on the same ground, "the law" referred to in the same connection in the statement, *^Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there fcl Cor. 9: 20-22. Zl Cor. 8:4. m Gal. 5: 6; 4: 10. 98 THE CHRISTrAN SABBATH. ' are which believe; and they are all zealous of tlie law''' — refers to the ceremonial law! And, of course, they manifested no zeal for the ten commandment law! *^A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. " All the law, or none of it, as a religious guide under the gospel, is the logic of the New Testament argument for keeping the Sabbath of the law n. "But," says the objector, " 'all the law' is said by Paul to mean ^all things which are written in the hook of the law.' " Just so; Paul and the Jews of his day were indebted to "the book of the law" for all they knew of the law, whether of the decalogue or the ceremonial. So are we. After the Babylonish captivity, "the book of the law" was the only source of obtaining the law given to Israel, or any part of it, save as it might be revealed anew through the prophets. After this slight digression from the line of argument from a historical basis to meet the objection to us and seemingly favorable to the Sabbath of the law, we now resume the subject. We have already seen by the New Testament, that the churches presided over by the apostle Paul assembled on "the first day of the week" for divine worship in accordance with Christ's example, and divine regulation through thi^ apostle, Paulo; also that, John was inspired by the Holy Ghost to speak of a day especially related to the Cliristian Institution, calling it "the Lord's day;" and that there is no evidence eithe i: sacred or profane that the term ^TL, Clement referring to a prophecy of the philosopher Plato, says: "And the Lord's day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of the Rejjuhlic, in these words : 'And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth day they are to set out and arrive in four days' " c. I do not quote Clement's explanations of Plato's sub- ject, it being unnecessary here, but enough of this fath- er's language and his quotation to show that in the days of Dionysius and Clement the eighth day from Christ's resurrection, the first day of the week, and the Lord's day, were then identical. Clement again observes: "He, in fulfillment of the precept, according to the gospel, keeps the Lord's day, when he abandons an evil dispo- sition, and assumes that of the Gnostic, glorifying the Lord's resurrection in himself" d. For the sake of consistency, it should not be urged by seventh-day advocates that the seventh day is referred to by the fathers when using the terms "Lord's day," for they, almost without exception, when writing of the seventh day, call it the Sabbath. This statement can- not be successfully controverted. But it is evident that the first day of the week was called "the Lord's day" by a Testimony of Fathers, p. 11. 6 chap. 20:26. c B^ok 5, chap. 15. d Miscellanies of Clement, Book 7, chap. 14. THE CHRLSTIAN SABBATH. 105 otliers than John the apostle, before the days of Diony- sitis and Clement (a. d. 170-194), for in the writings ascribed to Ignatius, mentioned and cited by Irenaeus (a. d. 177), Origen and others still later, and believed by many able men of the past to have been collected by Polycarp, the disciple of John the Revelator, we find the following: * 'Wherefore, if they who were brought up in these ancient laws came nevertheless to the newness of hope; no longer observing sabbaths, but keeping the Lord's day, in which also our life is sprung up in him" e. The translation from which I here quote, is that of Wil- liam Wake, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, afterward, of Can- terbury. I mention this because this translation does not agree in verbiage precisely with those given by Elder J. N. Andrews in his '^Testimony of the Fathers.''^ Bishop Wake cites abundant testimony, in the Introduction to his translation of the epistles of Ignatius, to their antiq- uity. "The Lord's day, " referred to in this text, can refer to no other than the first day of the week, for the sev- enth day is referred to in the immediate connection and called the Sabbath. Here^ then, is evidence identifying the Lord's day with the first day of the week prior to the days of Dionysius and Clement. But the earliest use of the term "Lord's day" now known, is that of John the divine. The phrase is a for- mation by the Holy Spirit, it would seem, and is never applied to any other than the day of Christ's resurrection, the first day of the week, as we have already seen. In regard to the words, "no longer observing the sabbath, but living in observance of the Lord's day," as found in the shorter epistle of Ignatius, according to Elder An- drews he lends favor to a translation of these words that excludes the word "day" and inserts "life," making it read "Lord's life," instead of "Lord's day," "literally, e Epistle to the Meagnesians, chap. 3:3. 106 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. ^no longer sabbatizing, but living according to the Lord's life' "/. But his effort on this, as on the text relating to the meeting at Troas, overdoes the matter and causes the writer to deny that Christ kept the Sabbath!— "No longer sabbatizing, hut living according to the Lord's life,'' This translation is not only what the writer, or any other of the fathers taught not, but does violation to the subject had under consideration by the writer. He was exhorting the Christians to no longer observe the Sab- bath of the law, but to observe, as a day of worship instead, "the Lord's day." This is the face of the record as given us. Why this effort to break down the testi- mony of Luke, John, and the Ante-Nicene Fathers, in. reference to first-day observance on the part of the ancient Christian Church? Simply because they believed in keeping "the first day of the week," "the Lord's day," as a day of worship, while the Sabbatarians believe in keeping us around the foot of Mount Sinai, in the wilder- ness, keeping Saturday as a rest day. They celebrate the coming of Israel out of Egypt ^, while "the children of the kingdom'i- believe in ' celebrating the emancipa- tion of the ivhole world, from the bondage of sin, death and hell A on the glorious resurrection day of Christ, Sunday, and by an undeniable manifestation of their faith in a Savior who, on that venerable day, broke the bands of death, and drew aside the dark veil that had, until then, wrapt in eternal night the shining way to the world of bliss and eternal peace, (so far as the benighted world was concerned), and by the gospel led the mind of the world, as yet "without hope, and without God in the world," from the day by them revered, to Sim icho formed the day! Also that the nations might no longer worship and serve the creature (the sun), but him who had cre- ated it. /Testimony of Fathers, p. 27. p Dent 5: 15. h John 1 : 29; Horn 5: 18, 19; 1 Cur. 15: 22; Kev. 1: 18, 20; 2J: 13. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 107 The Jews were not far behind the Gentiles who revered Sunday, in their reverence of Saturday, for Paul had * 'proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." And in that same letter i, Paul charged both Jews and Gentiles with having too great regard for certain days^ and too little for Him to whom the day and the whole creation points — the Creator. Bardesanes, who flourished and wrote about A. d. 180, a resident of Syria, and a member of the Gnostics, will be cited next. Of the establishment of Christianity, which "Christ at his advent planted in every country," he remarks: "On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together, and on the days of the readings we abstain from [taking] sustenance" y. Thus speaks this writer of the assembly of the Christians in his times on the firsl^ day of the week. And this day, as we have seen, was the day of public worship in the days of Justin Martyr. And Ignatius, Dionysius (a. d. 170), and Clement call "the first day of the week" "the Lord's day." Bardesanes belonged to the Gnostics. And Elder Andrews says "This shows that the Gnostics used Sun- day as the day for religious assemblies" h. Precisely. A nd Bardesanes writes of the institution of Christianity, which "Christ at his advent planted in every country ^'^ and was designed to be published among "all nations." The evi- dence, therefore, is now before us, that early in the second century the Christian church, including the heretical sects, all observed the first day of the week as the day of religious worship, celebrating the worship of God on the day of the resurrection of his Son — the Lord's day. < Horn. 14: 5. 3 Book of tbe Laws of Countries. U TestimoDy of Fathers, p. 54. 108 CHAPTER XII. DID NOT OETGINATE WITH ROMAN BISHOPS. FIRST DAY AND LORD'S DAY IDEN- TICAL. A noticeable insinuation^ amounting in effect to an assertion that Sunday observance, as a day of Christian worship, originated at Rome, after the days of the apos- tles, is manifest in the works of Sabbatarians on this subject, generally. Now the evidence, as we have pre- sented so far, is just the reverse of this idea. Justin Martyr was, as Dr. Schaff says, ^'an itinerant evangel- ist." He traveled among the churches in different coun- tries. Dionysius was Bishop at Corinth, in Greece. Bardesanes was of Ed^ssa, in Syria; and Clement resided in Alexandria in Egypt. So that down to A. D. 194, we have offered no testimony specially Roman, unless it be that of Paul or Luke I. The church at Rome, having been founded in the apostolic age, no doubt kept sacred the first day of the week like the churches of Galatia, Corinth and Troas, and as Christ and the apostles before them had done. But the testimony of the Fathers goes to show conclusively, that whether the Roman and other w:estern churches kept "the Lord's day" or not, the Eastern and Southern churches did. And this was more than three hundred years before a pope had an existence in the church to issue bulls, ordain canons, hurl anathe- mas, change tiines and laws, or crimson his hands with the sacred blood of the martyrs. r^^- Tertullian, of Africa, also an extensive traveler, who ■wrote about A. D. 200, and who, as Johnson's Cyclopedia 11 Cor. 16: 1. 2: Acts 20: 7. 108 THE CHEISTIAN SABBATH. 100 says, ^Vas a representative of the African opposition to Eome," comes next. Elder Andrews says of him: "He speaks of the Lord's day as the eighth day;" also, ''He was not so far removed from the time of the apos- tles but that many clear rays of divine truth shone upon him" m. And we add, when referring to the seventh day he called it Saturday, and the Sabbath. And after a number of references to the Sabbath, Sabbaths, and other festivals observed by the Jews, he says while apolo- gizing for the church for observing the first day of the week for the solemn celebration of public worship, — "Not on the Lord's day, not Pentecost, even if they had known them, would they [the Jews] have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Chris- tians" n. Again : ' 'We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath, and, devoting it to ease and eating, deviating from the old Jewish customs, which they are now very ignorant of"o. "The day after Saturday" was "the Lord's day" when Tertullian wrote his able and learned defense of the doctrine and practice of the church in his times. He was among the ablest of the Fathers whose writings have come down to our day. His writings, bold advo- cacies of what he believed to be true, forbid the idea that he, as a bishop of the church, accepted without question whatever might be presented as truth. He opposed Jew and Grentile, in the church or out, in what he believed to be wrong. With examples of Christian heroism like Paul and other noble martyrs of Jesus, he would not yield to what was popular merely for the satisfaction or a love of the glory of men. He, with the other official representatives of the church in the first and second cen- turies, must have had ample and satisfactory evidence of m Testimony of the Fathers, pp. 63. fi4. n On Idolatry, chap. 15. Sec. 16. 110 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. the sacredness of the first day of the week as a day of worship, and that John by the divine Spirit called that day "the Lord's day." It cannot be argued with any greater regard for the truth that "Lord's day" observance was an innovation on the Christian religion, brought in by apostasy, than that the continued observance of circumcision, or the Jewish ritual for two or three centuries, was the work of the apostasy. Those who, in the church, during those times, kept the seventh day, did not question the right or propriety of first-day observance. This is most sig- nificant. On this point we quote the following facts, and the more readily because they are accepted by seventh- day advocates as valid and used by them in evidence^. They testify to the verity of first-day worship in the church in the Apostolic Age: "The last day of the week was strictly kept in connection with that of the first day, for a long time after the overthrow of the temple and its worship" g. Again: "The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the apostles themselves, as appears by several Scriptures to that purpose; who [the apostles] keeping both that day and the first day of the week, gave occasion to succeeding ages to join them together, and make it one festival, though there was not the same reason for the continuance of the custom as there was to begin it" r. That the apostles, and even Christ, kept the Sabbath in the early church, before the crucifixion, no one ques- tions. The first day of the week would hardly have been observed as a sacred day prior to the resurrection of p Andrews' H'etory of the Sabbath. g Coleman's Ancient Christianity Exemplified, chap. 26, see. 2. r Morer's Dialogues on the Lord's Dayi page 189. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. Ill Christ, for the law embodying the Sabbath did not die as a religious code, till Christ died, and the new cove- nant, embodying the Lord's day, did not come into effect till after the death and resurrection of the testator which it was designed to commemorate. But there is now the unquestioned evidence before us, that ^^the apostles" and ' 'primitive Christians" did keep ''the first day of the week" sacred to "devotion and sermons;" and this fact Elder J. N. Andrews admits, tacitly, when he intro- duces these witnesses into the controversy. Paul met with the Jews frequently on the Sabbath, in his efforts to convince them of the Messiahship of Christ; but we have no record of his assembling with the disciples — the church only — on the seventh day for worship. William Twisse, D. D. , of England, in his Morality of the Fourth Commandment, says: "Yet for some hun- dred years in the primitive church, not the LorcVs day only, but the seventh day also, was religiously observed, not by Ebion and Cerenthus only, but by pious Chris- tians also" s. Yes; and the effort on the part of the Jew- ish converts to perpetuate the lata and the Sabbath, sowed the seeds of heresy in the church in the days of the apostles that afterward developed the sects of Naza- renes, Ebionites and the Hypsistarii. Of the first of these Morer says: "They pretended to believe as Chris- tians, yet they practiced as Jews, and so were in reality neither the one nor the other" t. Paul was at war with the originators of those heresies during his entire min- isterial career, and the church was much disturbed by them. Even the apostles Peter and James were infected to a degree with some of the ideas from which those sects were afterward developed and distinguished i«. With such examples — apostolical — we need not be sur- prised to find the superstitions among the converts after- i Pag-i 9, London, 1641. t Dialogaee, p. 66. 112 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. ward magnifying those apostolic weaknesses. . Even some of the ministry among the Gentile churches went off into the error of teaching the perpetuity of the law as binding on the Christians in a religious pense. Of them he gave in charge to Timothy: "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou might est charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the command- ment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good con- science, and of faith unfeigned; from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to he teachers of the law: understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lainfidly^ [in the hands of the officers of the civil government since the introduction of the gospel, and not in the hands of the gospel ministry], knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing contrary to sound doc- trine; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust" v. These men in their endeavor to adopt the laiv and enforce it on the Christians conjointly with the gospel, had swerved from the gospel requirements called by Paul here "the com- mandment." Peter once called "the way of righteous- ness" "the holy commandment" w. And the law, of which they desired to be teachers, was that which embodied the decalogue; that by which liars, thieves, It Gal. 2: 11, 14, 15 ; Acts 21: 17-25. v 1 Tim. 1 : 3-11. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 113 murderers and ^^the lawless ^^^ were tried, condemned and punished; and the only place ^^the law" could deal with such characters, since the introduction of the gospel, was in the civil courts, and at the hands of the civil officers. It was by these heretics that the seventh day, with the rest of the law, was observed and perpetuated in the early ages of the church, -and by later historians asso- ciated with "the primitive Christians." We have now found by the testimony of the Scriptures that the first day of the week was kept as a day of worship to God by the apostles and primitive Christians, and confirmed by the uncontroverted testimony of the history; also that the first day Of the week and "the Lord's day" were ident- ical and those terms used interchangeably from the days of John, A. D. 96, to the end of the second century. Also that the seventh day was observed by the heretical sects that arose through the influence of false teachers, usu- ally resulting in apostasy from the gospel of Christ, and illustrating the truth of Paul's statements, that "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" x. By reference to Elder J. N. Andrews' Complete Testi- mony of the Fathers, I find he mentions the "seventh fragment" of the "Lost Writings of Irenseus," preserved by some writer to us unknown, and gives the quotation. In the quotation the "unknown writer" speaks of the custom "of not bending the knee upon Sunday," it being "a symbol of the resurrection," and then represents "the blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons," "in his treaties 'On Easter,'" as tracing the origin of the custom of not kneeling on Sunday, to the "apostolic times," also mentioning Pentecost, and calling what the w 2 Peter 2: 21. x Gal. 5: 4, 9. o 114 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. '^unknown writer" calls Sunday ^^the Lord's day." Elder J. N. Andrews represents the **un known writer" as using the terms ''the Lord's day," but the quotation itself shows that the writer quotes it from the treatise of Irenaeus. It is strange the Elder would do thus and then give the quotation of the unknown writer! y. In his "History of the Sabbath" Elder Andrews, after thrice quoting from Irenaeus says: ''These things indi- cate that Irenaeus was opposed to sabbatic observance." Now, Eusebius, the Father of church historians, and an admitted authority, in his Ecclesiastical History z, allud- ing to a controversy that occured in the times of Irenaeus, A. D. 167-178, concerning the annual celebration of Christ's resurrection called the festival of the passover, states that the bishops of the different countries, of whom Irenaeus was one, decided "that the mystery of our Lord's resurrection should be celebrated on no other day than the Lord's day; and that oh this day alone we should observe the paschal fasts." It is not just nor fair to presume, as some Sabbath advo- cates do, that because Eusebius lived and wrote after the days of Irenasus, and that because the first day of the week was then known to be called "the Lord's day," that this learned historian, in recording the words and actions of those eminent men who preceded him, would misrepresent them or commit a fraud. There is no evi- dence that he so did regarding the Sabbath, Pentecost, the Passover, or any other day. Eusebius learned, of those preceding him, that the first day of the week was the Lord's day; and besides, he preserved the title to a work written by Melito a, A. D. 177, "0^ the Lord's day.'' The testimony of Irenaeus and Melito to the identity of the Lord's day with Sunday, the Lord's resurrection y Page 49. z Book 5, chap. 23 a Book 4, chap. 26. TOE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 115 day, precede that of Bardesanes, Clement, and Tertullian, from three to twenty-three years. But Irenseus was acquainted with Polycarp, che friend and disciple of John the Revelator, who first, by divine inspiration, ■used the phrase the ' 'Lord's day. " We cannot well avoid the conclusion, therefore, that that apostle was the source of Irenseus' information respecting the identity of the Lord's day with the day of the Lord's resurrection. The apostle John is the first person known in all antiq- uity to haA'^e used the phraseology, ''the Lord's day." In all his after writings in the gospel and in the Epistles, it is significant that he never applied the term "the Lord's day" to the seventh day — the Sabbath! He, like the Fathers that followed him, called it "the first day of the week," and the "eighth day" from the resurrection of his Lord. All history points to John's Revelation on Patmos as the origin of the appellation, "the Lord's day." All history, and the very nature of the combination of the appellation, unite in testifying that "the first day of the week" — the first day that ever witnessed, as an accomplished fact, the completeness of the plan of eter- nal redemption for mankind — the day of our Lord's resurrection — is "the Lord's day." Origen comes next after Tertullian in witnessing not only to the identity of "the first day of the week" with "the Lord's day," but also to the observance of the Lord's day as a sacred day of worship by the church in his times. He is admitted on all sides to be one of the ablest churchmen of his times, and his writings are numerous. He flourished about A. D. 225. He is sup- posed to have been born in Egypt, at Alexandria. It is stated that he traveled extensively among the churches and died at Tyre. He speaks of the Sabbath and the Lord's day, in one place arraying them in direct con- trast, alleging that "the manna fell on the Lord's day, 116 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. aud not on the sabbath" h. And in defense of the church practice against Celsus he says: ''If it be objected to us on this subject that we are accustomed to observe cer- tain days, as, for example, the Lord's day, the Prepara- tion, the Passover, or Pentecost, I have to answer, that to the perfect Christian, who is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds, serving his natural Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord's, and he is always keep- ing the Lord's day" c. This testimony of Origen is decisive as to the belief and practice of the church in the opening years of the third century in sacredly observing "the Lord's day" as a weekly rest-day, a Sabbath. Origen's reference to the daily practice of righteousness by the Christians, as in contradistinction to the supersti- tious idea of the heathens that we ought to live letter some days than on others ^ and his judicious remarks on the subject, are in harmony with Paul's instructions to the Romans: "He that regard eth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it" d. And like Paul he looked upon the seventh day of the creation as being typical of the final rest of the people of God e. And since Joshua was unable to lead into that rest the people to whom this rest, thus typified by God's rest on the seventh day, was first presented, because of their unbelief, God spoke of another rest day, by the prophet David. Instead of the Roman church being guilty of the charge, so often made by Sabbath advocates, of gradu- ally changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day, we find the churches of the east and of Africa observing the first day of the week as a day of assembl- ing for divine worship, from the days of the apostles; and, as^ the witnesses say, commemorative of the resurrec- tion of our glorious Lord from the dead^ and as typical of, 6 Opera Tome 2, p. 158. c Book 8, chap. 22. d Rom. 14: 6, 7. Book 4, chap. 31. e Heb. 4: 4-10. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 117 or looking forward to; that rest and life that is by the Savior's resurrection assured. As late as the days immediately succeeding those of Origen, a Roman presbyter, Novatian (a. d. 245-50), who also is said to be the founder of the Cathari or Puri- tan sect, is found contending for the Sabbath of the law, teaching that the giving of the decalogue at Sinai was only a revival of the ten commandment law, and trying to wrest the law from Jewish superstition. This was at Rome! But the result was sectism, as other similar efforts had been. Novatian was no doubt an indirect successor to those met by the apostle Paul in his famous argument to the Roman church, wherein he shows that, to be placed under obligation to keep the law and the gospel at the same time, as a religious code, forced the Christian into a condition of spiritual adultery I No won- der those sects who so teach finally die out e. We believe the foregoing testimonies, gathered from the New Testament, the history of the first three cen- turies of the church by Morer, Twisse and Coleman, together with the statements of the Fathers, so far pro- duced, is sufficient to establish beyond successful dispute the truth of the proposition, viz., — The first day of the week, the Lord's resurrection day, was the 'day called by John the Revelator ^^the Lord's day," and that, there- fore, it was the day divinely appointed for the solemn celebration of the worship of God under the gospel, and that the apostles and early Fathers, with the church, so understood it, and therefore so kept it, that day also commemorating the glorious resurrection of the Lord and Savior. cKom.7:l-6. 118 CHAPTER XIII. DID THE POPE CHANGE THE SABBATH? In view of the fact that the gospel nowhere enjoins anew the observance of the seventh day as a Sabbath; and, that Christ did not re-enact it; and, of the further fact, that the church as such did not adopt its observ- ance, but only the Jewish converts at first (and not all of them), followed in after times by Judaizing sects; and, further, from the general historical fact, as we have hitherto seen, that the church, with the apostles, at the beginning, and right along down the ages after, did assemble for worship — preaching, prayer, reading the Scriptures, celebrating the Lord's death by partaking the Lord's supper, and also his resurrection — on "the Lord's day" — the question at the head of this division of the subject appears almost impertinent. Moreover, the evidence found in the New Testament of Sabbath observ- ance, so far as the argument is concerned, is just as strong in favor of circumcision and other legal rites. And yet further; we have failed to find the least iota of evidence in either the Bible or the writings of a single one of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, so far as examined, that the name — "the Lord's day" — was ever applied to the seventh-day Sabbath of the law, but mvariahh/, and without exception, to the first day of the week. Eead- ers of the Fathers will note this fact with special attention. But it has been assumed, first by the Catholics, in their Catechism, and more recently by Sabbatarians, 118 THE CHRISTIAN SAD3ATH. 119 that the Pope of Eome changed the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week; and by the latter it is asserted, but totally without proof, that to observe the Lord's day as sacred is but observing an institution of the Pope! This assumption, to be true, must take for granted that the Catholic Church, y/ith a Pope at its head, was the church originally established by Christ, and that Christ placed toithin the church the authority to annul, or change at will, any divine law, ceremony or institution, at any time it saw lit! These two proposi- tions must be unquestionably established, or the assump- tion is baseless. But there is no way of proving either of these assumptions to be true, therefore the statement that the Pope of Rome changed the Sabbath is false. All history accords (backed by previously uttered and divinely inspired prophecy), that the Catholic Church, in its primal organization, was the result of a gradual and deceptive apostasy from original Christianity. There was no such personage in the church, or out of it, as a Pope, with assumed powers of universal control and dictatorial, decretal, or other arrogated right, till the beginning of the sixth century. Andrews, in his History of the Sahhath, says: "In the early part of this (sixth) century, the oishop of Rome was made head over the entire church by the emperor of the east, Justinian," and Ke'crles'^as* authority for the statement Shimeall's Bible Chronology/. But history, generally, places the universal ascendancy of the Roman bishop one hundred year^ later, when, (in A. D. 606) Boniface was declared to be "Universal Bishop." But it is urged that much earlier than this, even in the reign of Constantine (in a. d. 321) that emperor issued an edict to the citizens of the Empire that Sun- day should be observed as a day of rest from secular / Page 369. 120 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. labor, and that this wa3 an all-important step in the movement of changing the Sabbath of the decalogue, and that the change, by successive steps or stages, was fully accomplished, to the satisfaction of the church, by an ecclesiastical council held at Laodicea (a. d. 364), a city of Asia Minor, and more than one thousand miles from Rome. Let anyone read the edict of Constantine, a copy of which is given by J. N. Andrews in his History of the Sabbath, and it will be seen that there is not one word in it having the most distant reference to the Sabbath! ^r. And, in fact, it is now confessed in a recent number of the Advent Revieiv, that ''it is safe to affirm that there was nothing done in the time of Constantine, either by himself or any other, that has the least appear- ance of changing the Sabbath" h. This confession super- sedes the necesSit}^ of further argument in rebuttal of the claim that Constantine the Great changed the Sab- bath. -. But >vhat was the result of his edict with the people of the Empire, heathen as well as Christian? We will let the ecclesiastical historian, Mosheim, answer this question: "The first day of the week, which was the ordinary and stated time for the public assemblies of the Christians, was, in consequence of a peculiar law enacted by Constantine, observed with greater solemnity t han it had formerly been" i. Constantine's Sunday law could have had no special influence over the Christians, who had observed that day with sacred regard, as we have shown by Sabbatarian evidence, from the days of the apostles, save as a protection from heathen inter- ruption of religious services on that day. According to the edict itself, whatever veneration the people of the Empire entertained for Sunday, to use the language of g Page 342. h Number for Dec. 13th, 1887, p. 780. i Hist. Cent. 4, part 2, chap. 4. THE CURISTIAN SABBATH. 121 an able Sabbatarian, Elder and Editor Waggoner, "the idea of rest from worldly labor in its worship was entirely new" j. By the testimony of Constantine's edict, then, and this confession of Elder Waggoner, the church did not borrow, or in any way derive the idea of worship to God on the first day of the week from the heathens! The Encyclopedia Britannica, Article Sunday, of Con- stantine's edict, says: "Before him, and even in his time, they observed the Jewish Sabbath, as well as Sunday; both to satisfy the law of Moses, and to imitate the apos- tles tcJio used to meet together on the first day ^ 7c. Elder Andrews calls this citation "a high authority." We observe in this connection that those sects who adhered to the law of Moses, did not question for a moment the right or propriety of Lord's day observance; not an instance of the kind is found even from the days of the apostles. Those heretics recognized the first day o^ the week as being the Lord's day. Another writer of acknowledged authority with Elder Andrews I testifies harmoniously with the last passage cited, who, writing of the practice of the church in the days of Pliny, and of Pliny's statement concerning the Christians, says: "As the Sabbath day appears to have been quite as commonly observed at this date as the sun^s day (if not more so), it is just as probable that this stated day, referred to by Pliny, was the seventh day? as that it was the first day; though the latter is gener- ally taken for granted." The "date" referred to here is A. d. 103-104, only seven to eight years after John wrote the book of Reve- lation. It will be remembered that after the over- throw of Jerusalem, Asia Minor became the principal j Advent Review, N ov . '22, 1 8Sr. ^- E d i r i ) »i f 1 8 42. I Testimony of Fathers, p. 25. 01)li!j;ati >r3 of the Sabbath, p. 300. 122 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. fielu of operation and settlement for the Christians. Also, large and important settlements of Jews were made in the localities of the "seven churches." They, doubtless, with their zeal for the law, influenced the Jewish converts among the churches, and some of thern^ no doubt, revered the seventh day, as this writer observed. It is evident that such was the case, as their influence was demoralizing on the lives of some in the church at Smyrna, and also at Philadelphia. And since the coming of the Messiah, by the gospel only can any become Jews in factm. The Holy Spirit denies their claim to Abrahamic descent by virtue of the law, and denounces them as being "the synagogue of Satan." And besides, there were many in the church in those regions, ^^ specially they of the circumcision,^' who were "unruly and vain talkers and deceivers," whose mouths it became necessary to close, who for the sake of money subverted the faith of entire households ?2, hence the sabbatizing sects that began to develop about that "date." But this witness testifies that the first day of the week — the Lord's day — was observed as a day of worship by the Christians at the opening of the second century. No doubt the Jews joined the heathen in cast- ing the observers of the Lord's day "into prison," to try them. From the foregoing it appears that the first day of "the week had been observed from the apostolic age as a day of worship, therefore the edict of Constantine restrain- ing labor on "the venerable day of the sun," on the part of the citizens of the Roman Government, had not the remotest relation to a change of the Sabbath. It would have a tendency to invite the attention of the mind of the Roman world to a consideration of the basic fact of the gospel of G-od, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from m Rom. 2 : 28, 29. n Titus 1 : 10, 11. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 123 the dead, the weekly recurrence of the day, as one of the leading reasons ivJiy the day should be observed, and thence on to the honor of the Lord of the day, their Savior. 124 CHAPTER XIV. ''THE APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS." This work is cited by Elder J. N. Andrews, in the Complete Testimony of the Fatliers^ and their evidence to the identity of the first day of the week with the Lord's day, is examined, and admitted also that "they were in existence as early as the tliird century, and were then very generally believed to express the doctrine of the apostles. They do therefore furnish important testi- mony to the practice of the church at that time." Mosheim's notice of these "Constitutions" is also cited and reads: "The matter of this work is unquestionably ancient; since the manners and discipline of which it exhibits a view are those which prevailed amongst the Christians of the second and tliird centuries, especially those resident in G-reece and the oriental regions" o. Also, the Historian Guericke's reference to the Apostol- ical Constitutions which says: "This is a collection of ecclesiastical statutes purporting to be the work of the apostolic age, but in reality formed gradually in the second, third, and fourth ce^ituries, and is of much value in reference to the history of polity, and Christian archae- ology generally" i>. Here we are carried back to the days inmiediately succeeding those of the apostles, with "important historical testimony^' concerning the polity, manners, discipline, and archaeology of the church of €hristg. In these, -as in other writings of the Ante- Hist. Com. Cen. 1, sec. 51. p Ancient Ctiurcti, p. 313. q Complete Testimony of the Fathers, p. 13. 124 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 125 Nicene Fathers, Saturday is never called the Lord's day, but invariably "sabbath," and, "the seventh day." By them the Sabbath is recognized as a suitable "fast" day. Of the manner in which the Lord's day was observed in those times, the "Constitutions" state this: "And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus and sent him to us." This testimony, also, confirms that of Ignatius, Barnabas, and others of the second century, who identify the Lord's day with the first day of the week: "Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resur- rection, on which we pray thrice, standing, in memory of him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food" r. If the churches of Asia had not been taught that the Lord's day — so-called by the apostle John — was the first day of the week, and that it was the day on which it was designed that the Lord's supper, with other religious services, were to be observed weekly, it appears utterly unreasonable that the entire body of the church could have been brought to accept so important a change in less than half a century, and that,' too, without valid authority. That the Lord's supper, a memorial of our Lord's death, should be celebrated on the Lord's day, appears consistent and harmonious with divine arrangement. The Jews, under the law, had a weekly and an annual memorial of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt — the seventh day of the week and the Passover fes- tival s. Would it not be strange, indeed, that the r Book 2. sec. 6, par. 47. s Ex. 13; Deut. 5: 15. 126 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. redemption of the world from death, as assured by the resurrection, should not be held in sacred remembrance by those whose hope of eternal life is founded on the great central fact of the gospel, God's power to their sal- vation, the resurrection of their Savior on the Lord's day! The technical quibble about the word ^^death," con- nected with the observance of the Lord's supper, in com- memoration of the Savior's death, and that Friday would be a more appropriate time to celebrate his death, is a very insignificant objection to Lord's day sacredness, and equally so as favoring seventh-day observance. Had Paul used the term "crucifixion" when referring to this subject, the matter might have been different. Men ("the princes of this world"), crucified, killed "the Lord of glory;" but his death, including his glorious release therefrom, perfected the act on which the perfect faith and hope in the gospel rests. ' 'It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again." The resurrection of Christ was the act of God; therefore the celebration of the Lord's supper on the Lord's day is rendering sacred homage to God, through Christ. In the "Constitutions," are to be found extensive com- mentaries on the law, including the decalogue. But all references to them go to show that the writers under- stood that whatever degree of morality was found in the law was embraced in the gospel, and that as a religious guide the gospel, therefore, is all sufficient for the dis- ciples of Christ; also that the law was given to the Jews as a nation, and pertained to them as such. On this point we quote: "Thou didst give them the law or deca- logue, which was pronounced by thy voice and written with thy hand. Thou didst enjoin the observation of the sabbath, not affording an occasion of idleness," etc. J3ut of Christ's resurrection, and since, the same writer THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 127 says, ^'on which account we solemnly assemble to cele- brate the feast of the resurrection on the Lord's day." Notice, that the writer says "they," the Jews, received the law; to "them" the Sabbath was given. But of the Christians, — "i^e solemnly assemble" ... "on the Lord's day." By the "Apostolical Constitutions" we are borne out in the position that, during the second and third centuries "the first day of the week" was known as "The Lord's day," and for that reason observed for the solemn celebration of public worship of the Lord. This work shows "the manners and discipline of" the Christians "resident in .Greece and the oriental regions," and therefore the charge that the Bishop of Rome changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, does not hold good. If there was a change of the day at all after the days of the New Testa- ment writers, all the evidence points to the churches of the East, and to the time of John the Revelator; and then, if any change could be shown, at the very utmost it is only in the fact that the divinely inspired name of "the Lord's day" was applied to the day of Christ's resurrec- tion — the first day of the week. John, in lonely exile on Patmos, was keeping "Lord's day," with the seven churches of Asia, and his Lord met with him and opened to him the mysterious vail of the coming ages, giving him a view of the future works of God and men, includ- ing the fortunes of the church, in outline, down to the close of the Millennium, and further. Now, having adduced the testimony of the Ante- Nicene Fathers, also that of Origen, and some of the evidences of the "Apostolical Constitutions," in proof of the indentity of the Lord's day with the first day of the week, showing that it was the universal practice of the Christian churches to assemble on that day for the wor- ship of God, celebrating the Lord's supper on the Lord's 128 THE CI1K16TIAN SABBATH. day, at the same time commemorating the Lord's glori- our resurrection; and having failed to find any evidence, so far, to sustain the assertion that the Sabbath began to pass through a change at the hands of Constantine the Great, a. d. 321, at the Council of Nice, we might now proceed to array the evidence of witnesses later along, including that of Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, in Asia, A. D. 270, and of Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, A. D. 306, with others; but further testimony here is not essential to our proposition, it not being denied since then to the present time that the first day of the week is the Lord's day. But it has been asserted that."Eusebius, the special friend and flatterer of Constantine, was the first man to put forth this doctrine" of the change of the Sabbath. But what does Eusebius say touching this subject of the Sabbath and the Jews? "Wherefore as they rejected it, [the Word, Christ], by the new covenant, translated and transferred the feast o/the sabbath to the morning light, and gave us the symbol of true rest, viz., the saving Lord's day" t. The transfer of "^Ae feast of the sahhath,'' hy Christy in "the new covenant," was simply the repe- tition, in substance, of Paul, as follows: "Purge out there- fore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, [Margin, holy- day] not with old leaven [systems of doctrine, or leaven of the Pharisees] , neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" u. We have already learned that the churches of Corinth, Galatia and Troas, kept the feast of the holy day on the first day of the week, and that, too, by apostolic instruc- t Eupeb. Com. on the Psalms. t* 1 Cor. 5: 7, 8. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 129 tion and divine command v, Eusebius, then, was seek- ing to maintain the sanctity of the Lord's day, as a day of worship under the Christian covenant, and to so impress the public Koman citizenship, and stand by apos- tolic practice. Again, complaint is made by Sabbatarians that the Fathers and other writers of the primitive church do not attach Sabbath sanctity to the resurrection day of our Lord. And, for the very best of reasons, for there is not an iota of evidence that anyone connected with the church in those times, whatever their views may have been regarding the sanctity of other days of the week, ever questioned the sanctity of the Lord's day, or the propriety of assembling for worship on that day. After Jesus religiously washed the disciples' feet, no Christian questioned the sanctity of the ordinance or act. Since Jesus ate the Lord's supper, no professed follower of Christ, except the most extreme spiritualizer of God's word, pretends to call in question the sanctity of the Lord's supper. During the time of ''The Fathers," the question in controversy was urged only by heretics^ and about the seventh-day sanctity. This is the fact. In looking for the time and place where the alleged change of the Sabbath was finally effected and com- pleted, the Council of Laodicea, held in a. d. 364, was when and where the change was wrought. The Council of Laodicea, in Asia, was not a Catholic-general-council. It was a council composed of about ''thirty-two bishops" . . . "from different provinces in Asia" w. It was rather a local council. Leberius, bishop of Rome, at this date was deposed and exiled. And that he might be released from degradation, he "wrote in a most submissive and cringing style to the eastern bishops" x. He was not t>Acte20: 1-7; 1 Cor. 16: 1,2; 14: 37. w McClintock & 8Uon«'i Cyclopodia. » Bower's Hist, of the Popes. 130 THE CHRISTIAN SABDATil. represented at that council, either personally or by proxy. How this bishop, under these circumstances, could change the Sabbath, is a mystery. Surely, if he did, the days of miracles had not yet ended! This council is barely noticed by some historians, and by some not mentioned at all, as reference to them at this date will abundantly show. But what did this little council do? It simply took measures to meet the encroachments of the judaizing heretics who were becom- ing somewhat aggressive in the vicinities of Laodicea and maintaining that the Sabbath of the law was equally prominent with the Lord's day. I have failed to find any evidence that the church of Rome had anything, whatever, to do with the Council of Laodicea. More- over, at this time (a. d. 364), the bishops of Rome had no jurisdiction over other bishops, nor were superior to them. In the very nature of the case, then, the Sabbath could not have been changed by the church of Rome or its bishop at the Council of Laodicea. Anatolius was bishop of the church of Laodicea, in a. d. 270, as we have seen. In one of his canons (also cited by Elder J. N. Andrews), he says: "The solemn festival of the resurrec- tion of the Lord can be celebrated only on the Lord' s day' y. The Laodicean church was one of the ' 'seven churches of Asia," beloved of God at the time of the writing of John's Revelation, and the subject of God's counsel and severe chastisement through John z. It was known to, and perhaps founded by, the apostle Paul a, and, like the churches of Corinth and Galatia, no doubt, was taught to observe "the first day of the week" as a day of wor- ship and celebration of the Lord's supper. And having the writings of John, it could not have failed to learn of y Complete Testimony, p. 94, lOLh Canon. z Rey. 3: 19. « Col. 4:16. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 131 him that that day was ''the Lord's day." In this church was aline of succession tracing "the Lord's day" direct to John the Kevelator, who first gave that inspired name to the day of Christ's resurrection, and, for the Council of Laodicea to pass resolutions in honor of, and to express a determination to continue its observance, as a day of sacred worship to God through Christ, who was raised from the dead on that day, was reasonable, but it was not to change the Sabbath. Therefore, as no time and place has yet been found where the Pope of Rome, or the Catholic Church, changed the Sabbath; and since there was no Pope known in the world in A. D. 364, the claim that he changed the Sabbath, at any time, is baseless. From the days of the apostles, and during the times of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, the periods of the councils herein referred to, and, in fact, all along the ages since to the present time, there has been sabbatizing, hereti- cal sects, and their reasons for Sabbath observance have been substantially the arguments urged for it by Sabba- tarians at the present. Says Elder Andrews, "In 1607, an English first-day writer, John Sprint, gave the views of the Sabbath-keepers of that time, which in truth have been substantially the same in all ages" 6. CONCLUSION. Paul, the great apostle of Jesus to the Gentiles, with the Gentile churches of his time, kept holy the first day of the week, the day of Christ's resurrection, esteeming it as the proper day for celebrating the Lord's supper, the day called by John afterward "the Lord's day." Paul honored it as by divine appointment for solemn assembly, for preaching the word of God, for prayer, for the breaking of bread, for charity and for the reinem- tHiet. of the Sab., p. 480. 132 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. brance of the poor c. And then this apostle and faith- ful witness of Christ wrote to the Corinthians, and to '^all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ," saying, "Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ" d. And Christ, as we have seen, met with his disciples, when the new covenant became of force, on the day when he, ^^ according to the Scriptures,''' arose from the dead, "the third day" from the crucifixion day, the first day of the week, and also on the eighth day from the day of his resurrection. Yes; Jesus set the example after- ward followed by the apostles, disciples, and Paul. He assembled with his disciples the evening of the same day of his glorious resurrection from the dark, mysteri- ous land of death, and renewed the hope of life in their hearts. And though they "shut the door for fear of the Jews," they nevertheless assembled' that day, when they might, with greater safety, have waited till the Sabbath. But they omitted to assemble the Sabbath following, because Jesus had evidently arranged to meet with them again on the following first day of the week, to strengthen their faith, and instruct them in the things of "the kingdom of God" e. Meetings, after this, were in Galilee, as previously arranged and ' 'appointed'' by the Lord/. In fact, all the circumstances connected with these first-day meetings of Christ with his disciples appear to favor the idea that they were all held in accordance with previous appointment. Had the Savior washed the disciples' feet as often as he met with his disciples for worship on the first day of the week, after his resurrection, who, among the followers of Christ, would not have accepted it as of perpetual obligation, and as a divine institution? Especially since, during a • 1 Cor. 14:37; 16:1,2; Act».»0: 1-7. rfl Cor. 11:1. «AcUl:3; John 30: 36. / Matt. 98: 7, 16. THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 133 forty-days sojourn with them, not a seventh-day meeting was held, so far as the record shows. With all this array of evidence, including the example of Christ and the apostles and the church during the days of her ancient glory and inspiration, with the divine teachings of the authorized ministry of our Lord, all honoring the great day of the resurrection of our Lord, ^Hhe Lord's day^'' that day that brings to the mind of all nations once every seven days wherever the gospel is proclaimed the Savior, not only as the ' 'Everlasting Father," the Creator of all things ^'visible and invisible," but as a Savior, Redeemer and Lord of the redeemed and glorified through the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, may we not with all confidence conclude that the notable day of Christ's resurrection, "the Lord's day," is "the Christian Sabbath, or weekly rest- day," in deed and in truth! Observation. — I have followed the lead of Elder J. N. Andrews in examination of some of the evidences cited or used by him in the second division of the subject, because he is considered by many, to be one of the ablest, if not the very ablest Sabbath advocate in the United States at the present tim©. 0. Scott. 134 CHAPTER XV. ' THE ORIGINAL WORDS. As a fitting conclusion to the foregoing work, we now produce undeniable proof that, after the crucifixion of Christ, the first day of the week was known and denom- inated by the Chrstians of those times as their Sabbath — a day of rest and worship. The first proof-texts we present are from ''Young's Bible Translation," a work claiming to be ''a strictly literal and idiomatic render- ing of the Original Hebrew and Greek Texts." The scholarship of this translator is above question, for he stands endorsed by the leading Hebrew and Greek scholars of our times. His Analytical Concordance of the Bible, his Hebrew and Greek Lexicons^ and his other popu- lar works, as well as his Bible Translation^ place him in the very front rank of Hebrew and Greek scholars. The following is his literal rendering of Matthew 28: 1, from the original text as penned by its author: "And on the eve of the Sabbaths, at the dawn, toward the first of the Sabbaths, came Mary the Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre." Mark 16: 1 and 9 he renders thus: "And the Sabbath [Jewish Sabbath. — Ed.] having past, Mary the Magda- lene, and Mar}^ of James, and Salome, bought spices, that having come, they may anoint him, and early in the morning of the first of the Sabbaths [under the New Covenant dispensation. — Ed.], they come unto the sepul- chre, at the rising of the sun. . . . And he, having risen in the morning of the first of the Sabbaths, did appear 134 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 135 first to Mary the Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons." Luke 24: 1 he gives in these words: "And on the first of the Sabbaths, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bearing the spices they made ready, and certain others with them." John 20:1 he gives as follows : ' 'And on the first of the Sabbaths, Mary the Magdalene doth come early (there being yet darkness) to the tomb." And verse 19 thus: "It being, therefore, evening, on that day, the first of the Sabbaths, and the doors having been shut where the disciples were assembled, through fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith to them, 'Peace to you;' and this having said, he showed them his hands and side; the disciples, therefore, rejoiced, having seen the Lord." Mark it well, — these texts are from the original Greek, being transferred into the English language after an exact, literal manner. Now by these testimonies we learn that the first Christian writers, and the first apos- tles, held and taught that, after the crucifixion of our Lord, the first day of the week was, and was to be, the Christians' Sabbath — their appointed day for rest and worship. The phrase, "The first of the Sabbaths," may be readily understood as meaning the first of the Sahhaths under the New Covenant order, that order which was fully estab- lished by the death and resurrection of the Christ. In- deed, it seems quite impossible for the phrase to have any other meaning. That Young's translation of the foregoing texts is the exactly correct one, may be seen by consulting the same texts in the Greek as found in Wilson's or Griesbach's Emphatic Diaglott, or in any Greek New Testament, for there we find that the Greek word Sahhaton is the 136 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. same as the Englirh word Sabbath, and that it occurs as in the texts quoted from Young's Translation as before shown. In the German New Testament, Matt. 28: 1 (trans- lated literally from the Greek), when rendered in the English, reads, — ^'First holy day of the Sabbaths;" Mark 16: 9 reads,— ''first day of the Sabbaths;" Luke 24: 1 reads, — "one of the Sabbaths;" John 20: 1 reads, — ''one of the Sabbaths," and verse 19 reads, — "in the evening of the same Sabbath," while Acts 20: 7 reads, "upon one of the Sabbaths," and 1 Cor. 16: 2 reads, — ^'on each of the Sabbaths." By these texts we see that this German translation is in essential harmony with the translations before quoted and cited, all proving that, in the original Greek texts, what is rendered "the first day of the week," in the Authorized Version, and similar versions, is there rendered "the first of the Sabbaths," etc., etc. Jesus, after his resurrection, commanded his apostles and said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to ohserve all things whatsoever I have commanded youf and he had also said to them, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth;" therefore we conclude that, whatever the apostles observed, and by their writings and examples taught others to observe, these are among the "all things" which Jesus commanded them. Conse- quently, when we find the apostles and the primitive Christians writing of the first day of the week, after the resurrection of Christ, and calling it "the first of the Sabbaths" and also observing that day, particularly, as their day of rest and worship, it is evident that Christ had so instructed and commanded them. We further add that, there is not one text in the New THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 137 Testament, after the cross, commanding in any way the Saints to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. There is not one text in it forbidding labor on that day after the cru- cifixion and resurrection of Christ; neither is there one text commanding that day as a day of public worship. There is not one text in it that proves the seventh day to have been set apart for the church, as such, for rest and public worship. There is not a text in it proving that the Christians did not abstain from labor on the first day of the week. There is not one text in it com- manding that, after the resurrection of Christ, the min- istry were to teach or preach the law given at Sinai, nor the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. There is not one text in the Bible proving that the seventh day was ever commanded of God, or kept by man, from tLe cre- ation to the exodus from Egypt. There is not one text in the Bible, nor one item of history, proving that any other than the first day of the week is called the "Lord's day." There is not one conclusive item in ancient church history proving that the Church of Christ, as such, abstained from labor on the seventh day, and observed that day as a day of worship. Nor is there conclusive proof in such history that Christ's Church, as such, ever observed any other day as a day of public worship or weekly Sabbath except the first day of the week. Neither is there valid historic proof that Christ's Church per- formed common labor on the first day of the week and did not hold their regular weekly assemblies for worship on that day. Now in view of all the facts hereinbefore presented, it is clear that the seventh day was first set apart for rest and public worship at Sinai, and pertained alone to Israel and Israelitish proselytes, and, by the will of G-od and the teachings of Christ and his apostles, terminated at the cross. And it is further evident that, from the 138 THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. resurrection of our Lord, the first day of the week, by the will and commandment of God through Christ, was ordained and set apart to and for his people for rest and public worship and as the memorial day of the new cove- nant and new creation in Christ Jesus. Schaff, "History Christian Church," pp. 478-9, says: "The first day was already in the apostolic age honor- ably designated as 'the Lord's Day.' On that day Paul met with the disciples at Troas and preached till mid- night. On that day he ordered the Galatian and Corin- thian Christians to make, no doubt in connection with divine service, their weekly contributions to charitable objects according to their ability. It appears, therefore, from the New Testament itself, that Sunday was observed as a day of worship, and in special commemo- ration of the resurrection, whereby the work of redemp- tion was finished. "The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can only be explained by the fact that it had root in apostolic practice. Such observance is the more to be appreciated as it had no support in civil legislation before the age of Constantine [a. d. 306- 337. — Ed.], and must have been connected with many inconveniences, considering the lowly social condition of the majority of Christians and their dependence upon their heathen masters and employers. . . . Besides the Christian Sunday, the Jewish Christians observed their ancient Sabbath also, till Jerusalem was destroyed. After that event, the Jewish habit continued only among the Ebionites and Naza- renes." In Fisher's "History Christian Church," p. 64, we find the following: "The Jewish Christians, who were fol- lowed by the oriental churches, not only observed Sun- THE CHRISTIAN SABBATPI. 439 day but Saturday also. The Roman Christians, on the contrary, fasted on Saturday." We close with the following from Smith's Dictionary, Bible, Article Lord's Day: "The results of our examin- ation of the principal writers of the two centu- ries after the death of St. John are as follows: The Lord's Day (a name which has now come out more prominently, and is connected more explicitly with our Lord's resurrection than before) existed during these two centuries as a part and parcel of apostolical and so of Scriptural Christianity. It was never defended; for it was never impugned, or at least only impugned as other things received from the apostles were. It was never confounded with the Sabbath, but carefully distinguished from it. . . . It was not a day of severe Sabbatical character, but a day of joy and cheer- fulness, rather encouraging than forbidding relaxation. Religiously regarded, it was a day of solemn meeting for the Holy Eucharist, for united prayer, for instruc- tion, for alms-giving." In this book is presented an amount of evidence that is simply overwhelming, and such kinds of proof as are quite irrefutable, and as such we commit the work to the candid judgment of all who will examine its pages. W. W. Blair. 1