New York by Chas. B. Reynolds.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 14, 1871

New York.

By Chas. B. Reynolds.

COMMENCED meetings at South Newstead, Erie Co., New York, Wednesday evening, Oct. 9. Attendance and interest have been steadily increasing. Wednesday evening, the 25th, left for East Elma in compliance with the urgent solicitation of friends there, to discuss the Sabbath question. Active and persistent endeavors have been made by the Disciples to uproot the truth, they affiliating with previous antagonists for the purpose of effectually opposing the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord. Finding they met but ill success, they secured the services of Eld. Oliphant, assistant editor of the Christian Record, declared to be one of their most able messengers. Eld. O. commenced meetings at East Elma week before last, avowing the abolition of the Sabbath, the sanctity of the first day, and defying disapproval of his assertions, declaring himself like the Scotchman who could play a charge but never a retreat. The following among the many positions he assumed may be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW:

Eld. O. claimed that the ten commandments were part and parcel of the old covenant; that they were now all done away, rolled up and abolished; that we are now under the new covenant and only bound by the new law-giver; that the Almighty Father had now stepped aside, resigned all authority, and his Son, the new law-giver, was sole and supreme authority, at once our law-giver, mediator, and judge, having alone the power to forgive sins, giving laws alike to angels in Heaven and to mortals.

We read from the Bible, in answer to these assertions, Jer. 31: 32, 33; Heb. 8: 8, 10, proving both covenants made by God the Father alone; that those under the new covenant must have God's law in their hearts, not any new law by a new law-giver. God himself was to put his law “into their minds and write it in their hearts.” I will do it, said he, the same I who made the first covenant. Therefore those having any other law than the holy, just, and good law (Rom. 7: 12), the law of THE LORD, perfect, converting the soul, (Ps. 19: 7), could not be under the new covenant. The promise is not given to any such. They are not God’s people, and have no claim or rights or promises as being of the Israel of God.

Eld. O.’s second position was an original one: That we should keep the first day of the week to commemorate creation; that is, the new and better creation by the new law-giver, the regeneration, when man became dead to sin, truly converted; that was the second or new creation, and he thus came under the new covenant of the new law-giver, and should ever keep the first day as a memorial of that event.

We called his attention to the difficulty—that if the law of God is done away and a new law by the new law-giver only had effect at conversion, the unconverted were not under any law, could not be transgressors, not being sinners, and had no need of conversion. To become converted was then an unmixed evil; for thus coming under law they were liable to break it and thus become sinners; also that if the day of conversion must be observed as a memorial of this new creation, to keep his first-day theory, all must be converted on Sunday. If any should be converted on the Sabbath, they would be obliged, according to his own teaching, to keep the very objectionable seventh day.

Eld. O. declared that the new covenant, the new law by the new Lawgiver, was opened up and fully declared at the time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost. On our insisting on his reading the new code by the new law-giver, after much hesitation he complied by reading Acts 2: 38. Doubtless many will be as surprised and pleased as myself to learn the whereabouts of this much talked of, much inferred, but never before found, new, better, and more perfect law.

Finally, Eld. O. admitted that the seventh day was the Sabbath of the Lord, and never had, and never could be, changed; that the seventh day was a memorial day and could no more be changed than the fourth of July could be changed and still be a memorial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; that the Sabbath was binding for forty centuries, and that he expected and believed it would be kept after the resurrection in accordance with Isa. 66: 23; that it was twenty-five hundred years older than the Jewish law; that to change the Sabbath was impossible; that there never can or could be two Sabbaths, a Sabbath day and a first day; and, that we read in the papers about the Christian Sabbath, but there is no such thing as a Christian Sabbath. Then he spoiled this good confession by adding, The first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath, should now be kept under the new covenant by the new law of the new Lawgiver as proclaimed by the apostles, for that Jesus Christ had hallowed, and sanctified, and blessed it. He declared that it was true as the Bible—what he had proved that Jesus taught the observance of each and every one of the ten commandments, but said that was because Jesus was under the old covenant, and so obeyed the old law, but we must obey the new law as given by the apostles; but if one passage could be found, after the pouring out of the Spirit on the apostles (Acts 2), where a single precept of the old law was given as such, he would yield.

We read Rom. 7: 7; Eph. 6: 2; James 1: 22–25; 2: 8–12, calling particular attention to James 2: 8: “If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well;” and to verse eleven, “For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill,” &c.

At the close of the discussion, the very man most active among the Disciples, who had himself brought Eld. O. as their champion to East Elma, started up and began a dissertation in which he struggled to raise their fallen theory by denying positions conceded, and arguments advanced, by Eld. O., thus virtually acknowledging the utter defeat they had met with and the triumph of the truth.

I left with a heart full of humble gratitude and praise to God, returning here with increased zeal and confidence to resume my labors. I found a crowded house awaiting me, and despite the sense of fatigue (the morning session of the debate having lasted over three hours, immediately after which we had a ride of thirteen miles here) the Lord blessed me with freedom in showing forth the glorious and heavenly truths of the sanctuary.

May the Lord bless every effort of his children for the advancement of his cause and truth. Dear brethren and sisters, pray for me that I may have humility, wisdom, grace, and strength to so proclaim the message that I shall be enabled to earn the “well and faithfully done,” and share with you the joys of the earth made new.

CHAS. B. REYNOLDS. South Newstead, Erie Co., N. Y.