THE LAW FOR SUNDAY-KEEPING.
By R. F. Cottrell
THE law for Sunday-keeping is a most singular law. Its power over the consciences of men may be readily discerned by an examination of the nature of the law. We will look at a few particulars, drawn from the position of its advocates, which will exhibit it in its strength and beauty. 1. There is no command in the Bible for the observance of the first day of the week. All its advocates admit this, who have read the Bible through and tell the truth. But the Bible says, where there is no law there is no transgression. Consequently it is no sin to labor on Sunday. 2. It is impossible to tell which the first day of the week is. If this point could be ascertained, any person that can count seven could tell when the seventh day comes—a thing which the advocates of Sunday-keeping say is impossible. Hence had a command for keeping the first day been given, it could have no force whatever. It would have been a perfect nullity. Thus the law for Sunday-keeping is just as strong without a command, as it possibly could have been had one been given. 3. The day does not begin all around the world at the same moment. Therefore it is impossible to keep the first day all over the world. Hence, had a command been given for Sunday-keeping; and had no time been lost, but we were sure we had the correct numbering of the days of the week; still it would be utterly impossible to keep it. 4. One-seventh part of time, and not any particular day is all that is required to be kept. Hence had there been a command given to keep the first day of the week, so that we could know when Sunday comes; and besides this, did the day begin in all places at the same moment, or had we the privilege to commence its observance when it did commence in each place; still the law for Sunday-keeping would be as really obeyed and as fully satisfied by keeping the second, third, or any other day of the week, the "old Jewish Sabbath" not excepted. Who can but admire the strength and beauty of this law? How well calculated to convict the transgressor of his sin! But enough of irony. If the morality of Sunday-keepers is as loose as the law they advocate, it is loose indeed. It is no wonder that the people are lawless, while their religious teachers give them such expositions of the law of God. Let us imagine a person brought to judgment for violating the law for Sunday-keeping; for if it is the law of God, mankind will be judged by it. Judge. You are accused of laboring on the first day of the week. Prisoner. There was no commandment in the statute book that forbade it. J. Very true; but still you ought to have kept it holy. P. It was impossible to tell which was the first day. And if I could have found the day, it commenced at different times in different places, so that it was utterly impossible for me to keep it. J. You ought to have lived up to the best light you had, and kept the day that had the strongest evidence in its favor—the day that Jews and Christians were all agreed upon as the first day. P. The "ambassadors of Christ," the "called and sent," who made it an important part of their duty to teach the people to keep Sunday holy, declared that one-seventh part of time, or one day in seven, was all that was required, and not any particular day. I have doubtless rested from labor one-seventh part of my time; for I have generally rested more or less every night, and then there were the rainy days, the leisure hours and odd spells, which certainly make up the balance. In fact every day was a holy day with me—I served my God every day. Reader, it is said in reference to the law of God, that every mouth may be stopped; but the law for Sunday-keeping has no power to stop the mouth of any one. If the arguments by which the first day observance is sustained, are good for anything, no one can be condemned for not keeping Sunday. It is Sunday all of the time, any time, or no time, just to suit the convenience of every quibbler. But the law for the keeping of the Sabbath of the Lord, is unlike the law for Sunday-keeping in every particular. It is enjoined by the most explicit commandment, which tells us how to keep it, when to keep it, and why we are to keep one particular day in preference to all others. "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27), man was made to inhabit a revolving globe, and the true reckoning of the week has been preserved. It has needed no miracle to preserve it; but, on the contrary, it could not have been deranged without a miracle. Jesus, when on earth, recognized the Sabbath as then observed by the Jews, and vindicated himself and his disciples from the charge of violating it; and all mankind,—Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans,—are perfectly agreed in the numbering of the days of the week. To suppose that the true reckoning of the week has been lost, is to suppose that all these made an error in counting the days of the week, that they all made the same error, and that they all made it at the same time—a thing utterly impossible, unless God should work a miracle to effect it; and he could have no object in doing so, but to make it impossible for men to keep his holy, just and good law. I say, the law that God has given for the observance of his holy Sabbath, is unlike the law for Sunday-keeping in every particular. Because. 1. It is a law. 2. We know when the day comes. 3. The revolutions of the earth, so far from being an obstacle in the way of keeping the Sabbath, are the very means that the All-wise law-giver has instituted to bring the Sabbath to us regularly, wherever we are. 4. No substitute will answer the demands of the law. It is the seventh day, and not one day in seven and no day in particular, that is to be kept holy. To neglect to keep the seventh day holy, is a sin. And, having the light that all in this land of Bibles may have, to offer to God a substitute, by keeping any other day in its stead, is to add insult to the Majesty of Heaven to disobedience. 5. Consequently, the Sabbath law is capable of judging men, and every mouth of its violaters will be shut, and all of this generation, that reject the light now shining upon the subject from the third angel's message, will be guilty before God. We judge no man; but we preach the revealed truth of God, and leave each individual to the decision of that judgment which is now transpiring before the ark of God's ten commandments in Heaven. Be entreated, dear reader, to choose the way of obedience, that you may be acquitted in the Judgment, through the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ.