WHY DIDN’T HE? by J. W. Raymond

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 4, 1862

WHY DIDN’T HE?

By J. W. Raymond

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order in the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” 1 Cor. xvi, 1, 2.

It is claimed by first day observers that the above words of the apostle Paul constitute irrefragable evidence in justification of the practice of keeping the first day of the week as a day of religious rest; that they were designed to make obligatory the practice of a public convocation of the saints on the first day of the week. Such is the claim. But is the phraseology of the above scripture such as to warrant the above-named position as a logical deduction? We think not.

Had it been the intention of Paul to inculcate what first-day observers claim of the passage under consideration, we think he would have omitted the word, for, and used the word of; so that the passage, instead of reading, “Now concerning the collection for the saints,” &c., would have read, Now concerning the collection (or assembling) of the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you assemble together, and keep the Christian Sabbath, and lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. Similar to this should the language read in order to constitute a basis for first-day observance. But alas for first-day advocates, it does not.

Now concerning the collection of the saints—why didn’t Paul say so? Simply because his object was not to enjoin an assembling of the saints at Corinth; he wished to enjoin upon them their duty to lay by in store of their temporal blessings as God had prospered them, for the benefit of the poor saints at Jerusalem. That’s all.

But, says one, don’t the apostle say something about gatherings? Yes; he says, “That there be no gatherings when I come.” Now the word, gathering, has reference to one of two things: it either refers to the congregating of those addressed, or to the act of laying by in store; for it is evident that the words, collection, and gatherings, have reference to the same thing. If it has reference to the former, then it follows that Paul ordered the Corinthian church to have their gatherings prior to his coming among them, so that on his visiting them they could be dispensed with. And in the sixth verse he expresses his intention to spend the winter with them; so that it turns out in the sequel, from your version of the subject, that Paul wished to spend a kind of meaningless winter with his brethren at Corinth. But the preposition for, in the first verse, and the phrase, by him, in the second, form an insuperable barrier to the inference which our first-day friends would fain draw from the scripture above referred to.

Akin, in point of imbecility, to the inference drawn from 1 Cor. xvi, 1, 2, by first-day observers, is every inference drawn from the Bible in justification of Sunday-keeping: there is not the least vestige of evidence with which to screen the nudity of that traditionary theory and practice which first-day advocates seek to clothe with divine authority.

Well may Catholics retort, speaking of those texts used by first-day observers in proof of their practice, “Have they not spun a fair thread in quoting these places? If we should produce no better for purgatory and prayers for the dead, invocation of the saints, and the like, they might have good cause indeed to laugh us to scorn.” The simple fact that God has nowhere commanded us to keep the first day of the week, should set every mind to thinking; thinking till thought lead to a scriptural sentiment, and sentiment to practice.

We may safely challenge an intelligent world to produce a divine command for the observance of the first day of the week as a day of sacred rest. And truly, if this cannot be done, how are you going to prove that we are morally bound to observe it? On the other hand, if God has nowhere prohibited our laboring on the first day of the week, how are you going to prove that we are morally bound to refrain from our secular vocations on that day? Echo asks, and we press the question, How?

We would in conclusion solicit you to a careful and serious consideration of the subject of the Sabbath; and may your deliberations be such that you will decide to “so speak, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” See James ii, 8-12.

J. W. RAYMOND.