The Sabbath and Sunday Communion

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 12, 1906

The Sabbath and Sunday Communion

In opposing the tendency to hold the communion service on Sunday evening, instead of on Sunday morning, the Church Times (London) tells some truth concerning the Sabbath which is not always admitted by advocates of Sunday observance. It says:—

In a pamphlet put out a few weeks ago by the National Protestant Church Union it is asserted that the disciples came together to break bread at Troas “on the Sunday evening,” . . . The meeting at Troas “on the first day of the week,” which was continued “till break of day,” most probably began, according to our reckoning, on Saturday evening. The writers of the pamphlet quote passages from Socrates and Sozomen about the gatherings of Egyptians and inhabitants of the Thebaid “on Sabbath evenings,” as though “Sabbath” evening meant in those “historians’” mouths Sunday instead of Saturday.

And indeed, if it were now proposed to revive the seventh-day Sabbath—which undoubtedly the first Christians observed—this would not be a greater breach of the spirit of Christianity than the postponement of the eucharistic celebration of the risen Christ till well-nigh into Monday morning. Such Sabbatizing might be supported by much stronger arguments; and we can imagine its advocates pointing to the fourth commandment and to the practise of our Lord and his apostles, and contrasting this with the merely traditionary and ecclesiastical sanctions of Sunday observance.

In some pertinent comments upon these significant admissions the Present Truth (London), to which we are indebted for these quotations, says:—

Notice the statements made concerning the seventh-day Sabbath. First, it was undoubtedly observed by the early Christians. Second, God’s commandment, and the example of Christ and of his apostles, all support the Sabbath, and not the first day of the week. Third, only tradition and church custom can be quoted for Sunday observance. Perhaps the publication of these facts by the Church Times will lead some to see that, whether evening communion be right or wrong, a very much more serious question is whether the church has any right to break the commandment of God, and ignore the example of Christ and his apostles for the sake of a tradition.