Beecher on Authority for Sunday-keeping.
By A. Weeks
Henry Ward Beecher, in an address advocating the opening of public libraries on Sunday, as reported in the New York Sun of April 24, says some things that should open the eyes of those that think Sunday is sacred time. He speaks as follows:— “I do not think we have received our Lord’s day on the ground of absolute command.”
The natural inquiry, after reading the above, is, Has God never absolutely commanded his people to keep a day holy? The answer we find in Ex. 20: 8–11. The next inquiry is, Has the command of God to keep the seventh day holy ever been revoked? This is answered by our Saviour thus: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” Then it is no wonder that Mr. B. cannot find an “absolute command” for keeping the first day of the week which he is pleased to style the Lord’s day. Mr. Beecher further says: “There is no command in the Testament as to how the Christian Sabbath shall be observed. One thing we know. Among the early Christians it was a day of religious joyfulness—a day of triumph. We have our Lord’s day strained through our Puritan ancestors. They made the day so exclusively one of moral training and self-restraint that it comes down to us with bars and bolts.” H. W. Beecher knows there is no scriptural authority for the change of the Sabbath. Does he think we will all accept the statement that the religious joyfulness of the early Christians upon the first day of the week is sufficient to constitute that day a Sabbath, setting aside the plain command of God? We cannot accept it. We shall try to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works by the word of God; for in that only is there safety. In the light of the above statements, the question should not be, How shall Sunday be observed? but, Which day should we keep? and why should we keep it?