Brief Reflections and Arguments.
By R. F. Cotterill
MEN refuse to keep the Sabbath of the Lord because the commandment is not repeated in the New Testament; and yet they observe the first day of the week, for which there is no commandment in either the Old or the New. This shows that they are governed by custom, and not by revelation or reason. Those who would have the moral law of God abolished, close their eyes to two important things: 1. That the presumptive evidence is all in favor of the continuance of the moral code of the all-wise and unchangeable God; and 2. That the Lord Jesus, instead of destroying it, affirmed the perpetuity of every jot and tittle of it, “till heaven and earth pass.” Matt. 5: 17, 19. Those who quote Heb. 4: 8,—“For we which have believed do enter into rest,” emphasizing do enter, to make it appear that “the rest referred to is enjoyed by the believer here in this present life,” need to be told that in order to express that idea it should read, “We that have believed have entered into rest.” As it stands, it is in perfect harmony with the exhortation of the apostle in the same chapter:—“Let us [believers] labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall,” or “come short of it.” Paul was converted to the Christian religion some years after all the Jewish sabbaths were nailed to the cross, and consequently were no more. If the weekly Sabbath was included with those, there was no Sabbath during his Christian experience and labors. But the inspired recorder of his travels and labors frequently tells us what Paul did on the Sabbath, without any qualifying term such as old or Jewish. If there was no Sabbath then, this language is well-calculated to mislead the reader; but if there was a Sabbath then, there is one now, unless it has been abolished since the apostle’s labors were put upon record. While Paul was at Corinth, where he continued “a year and six months, teaching the word of God,” it is recorded of him that “he reasoned in the synagogue EVERY SABBATH.” If the first day of the week was the Sabbath at that time, the Jews opened their synagogue every first day of the week, either because they had changed their day of worship to that day, or to accommodate the Christians, who, if tradition be true, had kept the first day during the twenty years that passed between the resurrection of Christ and Paul’s labors at Corinth. But if Paul accommodated himself to the Jews, and these meetings were held on the day they ever had been, and still are in the habit of observing, it follows that the first day of the week was not the Sabbath at that time; for if it were, it would certainly be included in the term “every Sabbath.” Now if the first day of the week was not the Sabbath twenty years after the resurrection of Christ, when did it become the Sabbath? R. F. COTTERILL.