A “Practical” Proposition.
By Editor
The Independent of September 9 contains the following note:— “We have sometimes said that one way of settling practically the difference between those who keep Saturday and those who keep Sunday as their real day, would be for the adherents of the seventh day of the week to begin their week on Monday, which would bring Sunday to be the seventh day. That this would not be impracticable we can learn from the Sunday School Times, which has already adopted the week as beginning on Monday. It has a series of ‘Daily Home Readings’ of Scripture, to be read in connection with the Sunday-school lesson. The days and readings are arranged to put Monday as the first day, and Sunday as the seventh in the week. In the Sunday-school calendar Sunday is then the seventh day of the week. Here is an example that might well be followed for the great Christian end of unity.” We did not suppose that it was possible for the editor of the Independent to make so silly a proposition. Just as though the Sabbath question could be settled by simply calling Sunday the seventh day of the week. We are reminded of a catch question that used to be popular among children. One would ask, “How many legs has a calf, if you call his tail a leg?” The unwary person would answer, “Five,” when the questioner would reply, “No; he has just four; calling a calf’s tail a leg doesn’t make it one,” and any child could see the truth of this. But the wise Independent, in its zeal for Sunday, has fallen below the wisdom of childhood; for calling Sunday the seventh day of the week doesn’t make it so. Sunday is the first day of the week; the day commonly called Saturday is the seventh day of the week; and no man can make them any other by calling them by other numbers, any more than he can make the moon green cheese by simply calling it green cheese. This being a fact, we must fall back on those words that were thundered from Sinai: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in IT thou shalt not do any work.” Here is a point for the serious consideration of those who incline to the opinion that there is possibly some divine authority for Sunday-keeping. If the Bible gave any countenance whatever to the claims of Sunday as a sabbath, would learned men resort to such transparent puerilities in support of Sunday?