Untitled article by M. E. Williams

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, February 4, 1868

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 8

Comments on Romans xiv, 5, 6.

By M. E. Williams

Wm. Patton, D. D., in the Cottage Polyglott Testament, says: “Verse 5. Another esteemeth.] The apostle is here speaking of the Jewish fasts and festivals; and of course his observations do not regard the Sabbath which was instituted at the creation; and which, being a type of ‘the rest that remaineth for the people of God,’ must continue in force, as all types do, till the antitype, or thing signified, takes place; that is, till the consummation of all things.”

Had I ceased to read here, I should have concluded the writer was an observer of the Sabbath, of course; for though he calls the Sabbath a type, instead of a memorial, yet, as it was to last till the consummation of all things, he is under obligation to keep it until that time. But lo! his comment on verse 6 reads thus “ ‘To the Lord he doth not regard it.’ Perhaps the English idiom, and the true sense of the words would be better preserved by rendering, ‘He that disregardeth the day, to the Lord he disregardeth it.’ This, we apprehend, refers only to the Judaic holidays, and especially to the seventh-day Sabbath, to which the Gentiles, having adopted the first day of the week instead, might reasonably refuse conformity.”

Surely, thought I, this D. D. has crept out of a very small hole, so small that I cannot perceive it.

Worse than the fox of the desert with his seven holes, which, if you stop up one, speedily makes his way out at another, this man shuts up his only one, and in a moment you find him out on the other side. It reminds me of the man of whom the poet sang, who had a long and beautiful cue, which hung behind him, but which he desired should hang before, that he might with greater ease admire its beauties; who imagined if he turned him about he should accomplish his desire. So he turned round and round, but all in vain; the cue would still persist in hanging behind him. Only, it seems that this man in turning about imagines he has accomplished his object. For one moment he tells us the Sabbath must continue in force till the end of all things; the next, it is of no consequence, and we may disregard it. One moment, it is not a Jewish festival; the next, it is nothing else. If he had only explained to my dull comprehension how he got there, it would have been a satisfaction.

I would like to ask what right the Gentiles had to adopt the first day of the week, instead of a day which was to continue till the consummation of all things?

M. E. WILLIAMS.

Randolph, N. Y.