The Oregonian on the Sabbath Question

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 28, 1906

The Oregonian on the Sabbath Question

The Portland (Ore.) Oregonian, the leading newspaper of the Northwest, in a recent editorial discussed the demand for the closing of the Jamestown Exposition on Sunday. In considering this question the Oregonian stated some facts concerning the true Sabbath which are coming to be recognized more generally by well-informed writers, both religious and secular. We quote the following paragraph:—

As everybody expected, the question of closing the Jamestown Exposition on Sunday has been raised by the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, of the National Reform Bureau. Mr. Crafts calls the first day of the week “the Sabbath,” either through ignorance or obstinacy, for it is not the Sabbath, and there is absolutely nothing in the Scriptures to sanction its observance. Saturday is the Sabbath, and Mr. Crafts violates the fourth commandment in a shocking manner every week by laboring during its holy hours. Were he to advocate closing the exposition on Saturday, one might suppose that his motive was reverence for the Biblical injunction to keep the seventh day sacred. But he demands that the gates be shut on the first day of the week. Now there is no commandment in the Bible or anywhere else to keep the first day sacred.

The agitation of the Sabbath question will inevitably compel Protestantism to abandon its ground that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is a sufficient rule of faith and practise, and to adopt the Catholic rule that the Bible and tradition are both necessary. When this has been done, the chief obstacle to the reunion of Protestantism and Catholicism will have been removed.