THE SABBATH IN TROUBLE IN THE DAYS OF JOSHUA.
A BROTHER has placed in our hands a communication from his friends, containing two objections to the Sabbath, which, perhaps, for their novelty, if for no other reason, deserve a word of reply. 1. The first is, that the Sabbath was changed to the first day of the week in the days of Joshua, as the sun stood still a whole day, which would bring the next Sabbath on the first day of the week. Admitting that this was so, the Jews, from Joshua to Christ, were keeping the first day of the week. But the author of this objection believes that the Sabbath was changed in the days of Christ, to the day subsequent to the day which the Jews kept, so that Christians should now be keeping the second day instead of the first. But he keeps the first; so, on his own argument, he is not keeping the right day. But if the Jews from Joshua to Christ kept the first day of the week, and the first day of the week is the day we ought to keep, then we should keep the day the Jews kept; but that would correspond to our Saturday. But Joshua does not say that two days were put into one; but one day was protracted to about the length of two days. “So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it.” Here the record speaks of it as a single day, not as two days. That week was a week of seven days, just like any other week, only one of its days was a long day. It did not bring the Sabbath upon any other day at all. Suppose the day on which we write, Monday, May 4, should be miraculously extended to the length of two days; the next day would be Tuesday, the third day of the week, not Wednesday, the fourth day, and the Sabbath would come upon the seventh day as in any other week. 2. The next objection is, that Joshua was a type of Christ, and the first work he did after entering Canaan was to break the old Jewish Sabbath by marching around Jericho, seven days in succession. We reply, Joshua broke every day as much as the seventh day, that is, he broke all the Sabbath there was, if he broke any; and if this indicated a similar work on the part of Christ, as the antitype, then he should have abolished all Sabbaths. But this will not do; for the objector himself believes that Christ instituted the first day of the week. Again, Joshua did not break the Sabbath till after he had entered Canaan; so Christ, as the antitype, should not abolish the Sabbath, till after we enter the heavenly Canaan, which is yet future, and which consequently cannot affect our practice now. But how could Joshua break the Sabbath, and go unpunished, at a time when, by especial appointment of God, any violation of it was punishable with death? No; neither Joshua nor Israel broke the Sabbath, in marching around Jericho. What the commandment forbids, is our own work, not any work which God may appoint us to do. The Sabbath is not the old Jewish Sabbath, nor the Christian Sabbath. There are no such terms in the Bible. It is the Sabbath of the Lord always and everywhere. It was instituted in Eden, and is an inseparable portion of God's great moral law, from Paradise lost to Paradise restored. And the prophet Isaiah assures us that as long as the new heavens and new earth shall endure, the hosts of the redeemed shall joyfully assemble from Sabbath to Sabbath at the New Jerusalem, to worship before the Lord of hosts. Be it ours to have a right to enter in through the gates into the city, and share in those heavenly meetings, by a willingness to walk humbly in the way of the commandments of God, in these days of our probation. Rev. xxii, 14.