The Discussion in Portland, Me.
QUESTION. The Seventh-day Sabbath observed by God's people prior to the crucifixion of Christ, is still binding upon mankind. Affirmative, M. E. Cornell. Negative, T. M. Preble. Cornell. Refers to the four questions proposed by Eld. P. in his first speech. Had answered two of them the last evening, by showing that it is the highest presumption for a person to attempt to decide which work is the greater, creation or redemption, in the absence of all revelation upon the subject, and that God's sanctification of the seventh day in the beginning, could not have reference to the seventh day that was then past, but must have reference to the seventh day for time to come, and hence that it was to be kept in regular order from creation onward. On the third question remarks: Christ did not refer to a commandment outside of the ten. Loving God was the principle Christ referred to, and that is the vital principle, and the very essence of the first four commandments. On these two principles of loving God, and loving our neighbors, Christ says all the law hangs. Without these the ten commandments could not exist for a moment. Therefore Christ referred to something which was in the commandments, and the very basis of them, not to something which was outside of them. And he said it in answer to the question, "Which is the great commandment in the law," not outside of it. To the 4th question. Does not the change of penalty involve a change of the law? Bro. C. replies that it does not. The penalty for murder in Michigan was once death. That penalty has been changed to imprisonment for life; but the law against murder exists now as it did then. Again, the penalty of the Sabbath law has not been changed to any greater extent than the penalty of the other nine commandments; and if they exist in this dispensation, the Sabbath does also. But the real penalty of the law has not been changed. Eld. P. affirms that temporal death was the penalty of the law. I deny it. Let him prove it. That death was not the full penalty of the law. The real penalty for sin, the transgression of the law, ever has been, is, and ever will be, the second death; and that will be inflicted in the future on those who die sinners in this dispensation, as well as upon those who thus died in the former. Having answered Eld. P.'s questions, Bro. C. returned the compliment by asking him the following: 1. How do we know that we should observe a day to commemorate redemption? 2. If so, how do we know that we should keep the first day of the week for that purpose? 3. If we are to keep a day, should we not, inasmuch as we have redemption through his blood, keep the day on which he shed his blood? 4. If God sanctified the seventh day after any six of labor, do not the Mahometans, who keep Friday, observe the Sabbath as much as those who keep the first day? [The only answer Eld. P. made to this question, was, I should not have thought my brother would have asked such a question as that.] 5. What law is violated by working on the first day of the week? Refers again to Preble's admission that if it could be shown that every seventh day from creation was sanctified, he would give up, &c., and argues further on the sanctification of the Sabbath. Gives the definition of the word sanctify from Webster, and shows its Bible use from the following texts, Josh. xx, 1; Joel i, 14; ii, 15; 2 Kings x, 20, 21; Ex. xix, 12, 23, showing that to sanctify anything means to set it apart to a special use, by divine appointment, or by giving a commandment how it shall be used. For whose use did God set apart a day in the beginning? Not his own, but man's. What day did he thus set apart? The seventh. Here Bro. C. re-argued the point that the day on which God had rested was past when God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Therefore these acts could not have reference to the day that was past, but must have reference to the seventh day of each week for time to come. The fourth commandment merely gives a history of what God did at creation. In Genesis it says that God sanctified the seventh day. The commandment says he sanctified the Sabbath day; therefore it was the Sabbath day in the beginning when God sanctified it. They are one and the same thing, and no distinction can here be allowed. Refers to Heb. iv, and denies that it has reference to Christ. Eld. P. assumes that. I wait for proof. Eld. P. says Christ purchased redemption on the first day of the week. I say he paid the purchase money on the day he shed his blood, which was not the first day of the week. Redemption was not completed on the first day of the week. The work which Christ came to do here on earth he declared was finished just before his death. John xvii, 4; and if the entering into rest in Heb. iv, refers to Christ, as Eld P. affirms, then he rested not on the first day of the week, but on the seventh while he lay in the grave. Preble. Cannot see the bearing which the last speech of the affirmative has upon the question, therefore has but very little to say concerning it. Eld. C. says the question was concerning a commandment in the law, not outside of it. I did not say outside of the law, but outside of the decalogue. I say so still. I pass over all his denials. I have asked him to give the place where any particular day was sanctified in regular succession for God's people. Eld. P. here turned to Genesis ii, and re-iterated his assertions that God blessed and sanctified only that particular seventh day on which he had rested, and which was past, and no other, and asks, Will you believe the sophistical reasoning which would make anything else of it? In relation to Heb. iv, Eld. C. denies. Let that speak again for itself, and see whether it refers to Christ, or to an indefinite being that no one can tell anything about. The Bible is good yet. Reads verses 5-10, and asks, Who was it that has ceased from his own work as God did from his? I call on him to tell who it is if it is not Christ? I do not know who it can be. Who will he get? I want a little proof of the old Jewish Sabbath. I cannot see enough force in what he says about Christ's shedding his blood to purchase redemption, to spend much time with it. I propose now to introduce some things mentioned last evening. Eld. C. says he never claimed Eld. Preble, and yet reads from a certain book, that Eld. Preble first called the attention of Adventists to the Sabbath question, &c. My brother has introduced a witness, but does not tell us what book he quoted from. He makes a serious charge against me that I am trying to do away the ancient Sabbath. I am not trying to do it away. It is holy to the end of the world; but God may change the day on which it is to be observed. It is still esteemed by God's people as honorable, and is a delight to them now. The idea of the Sabbath as an institution being different from the day on which it is holden, is not new with me. The apostles held the same idea. The reason it is so good is because it is so old. Eld. C. denies that redemption is greater than creation. In the first place he denied the idea of Christ's having redeemed the world. Luke i, 68. "Hath visited and redeemed his people." Gal. iii, 13. The work is accomplished, it is done. 1 Pet. i, 18; Heb. ix, 12 were also referred to. Eld. P. here produced his strong argument to show that redemption is greater than creation, as follows: Let us remember that God the Father created the world at the beginning, called in the Hebrew, tehvehl. Ps. xc, 2; Jer. x, 12. But the Lord is going to burn up or melt this world as we learn from Nahum i, 5; 2 Pet. iii, 7, 12. Thus we see that this present world, this kosmos, created by the Father, is under the curse, and is doomed to pass away by fire. Therefore if it is not redeemed it must be lost. What would it be worth then? The Hebrew word meaning world, is in the New Testament kosmos; and this is to be redeemed or saved by Christ. John iii, 16. "For God so loved the world," &c. Chap. iv, 42. "The Saviour of the world;" the Saviour of the kosmos. What does this kosmos embrace? Matt. xiii, 38. The field is the world. Dan. vii, 27. The kingdom under the whole heaven. Matt. xxv, 34. Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, kosmos. Jesus redeems this and saves it from its lost state. But he did not come merely to redeem the globe but the race upon it. 1 Tim. i, 15. Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Not only the37whole globe is lost without redemption, but the people of God are lost also. Our race is lost unless redeemed by Christ. Has my brother lost any friends by death? Which then would be the most to him, the fact that they were once created, or the fact that they are going to be redeemed? Cornell. Admits the truthfulness of most of the negative's last speech. Believes with him in the redemption of the kosmos, but wants to know what that has to do with the question. We can have no memorial of an event not yet completed. The whole argument is in my favor. Denies that there is any divine law except what is written, and calls upon the negative for a little Bible for Sunday. He asks me to show who is meant, if not Christ, in Heb. iv. He says it is Christ, I deny. It is not my business to prove a negative. Let him show that it is Christ. To return to the question. If another day is to take the place of the one for which we have a divine command, we must have the most unequivocal testimony for it. That is the course pursued by all law-makers. No power can change a law, but the one that made it. Calls for a record of the change, and denies the fact of the alleged change, because no record of it is to be found. Bro. C. called upon the negative to show one single reason or fact, necessary to make a Sabbath, that belonged to the first day of the week, or to show that God had ever performed one act in reference to the first day, that he did to the seventh, to make it a Sabbath. The rest of this speech was occupied in re-arguing some of the main points already presented, and in endeavoring to stir up the negative in some way to meet the argument. Preble. Claims that he has proved by four texts that the work of redemption is completed. Endeavors to make a distinction between redemption and the work of redemption. Admits that redemption is not yet completed, but the work of redemption is finished. Eld. C. denies that Heb. iv, refers to Christ, so I shall have to read. Goes back to the third chapter and reads to the 10th verse of chapter iv, and re-iterates his assertion that it must be Christ who enters into his rest; as no other one could be referred to. [Bro. C. subsequently answered this by showing that the entering into rest refers to the believer, and that we enter in by faith.] Says that Eld. C. has not answered what he said about Paul's preaching at Troas. Hopes he wont deny that. Hopes he wont talk about his stealing the sanctity of the Sabbath to make a memorial for redemption. Thinks he knows what is meant by the remarks thrown out about Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, &c., that is, that Sunday rests upon no better ground than these, because the Papacy has tampered with it. Then prayer, that Lord's supper, the seventh day, &c. &c., are all gone by the board, because it has tampered with them all. Hopes the affirmative will not take any special pains to rouse him up; for I may, said he, overreach myself, I have a little of the blood of old Commodore Preble running in my veins. [That some of the audience should be reminded by this language of the significant caution given by Mrs. Davis to the captors of Jeff. was not strange. They were very pardonable. Eld. C. afterward explained that he did not wish to rouse him up in the sense of getting him excited, but to stir him up to the proof of his position, and provoke him, if possible, to bring forward some evidence for his side of the question. So the matter was got along with, and nobody hurt.] Before answering the questions proposed by Bro. C. he wanted a little time for reflection. Claimed that God must have sanctioned the keeping of the first day of the week, though he admitted that there was no precept for it. Asks the affirmative to show where any other apostle has first observed the seventh day, and claims that he observed it because of the Jews, just as he circumcised Timothy and Titus. Promises to show that Paul held meetings on the first day of the week.