Exposing Its Weakness by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 19, 1906

Exposing Its Weakness

By L. A. S.

A CAMPAIGN for better Sunday observance was recently begun in Ossining, N. Y., by a religious federation of the churches and other religious organizations of that place. The Sunday following the inauguration of the campaign all the clergymen of the place preached on the subject in their churches, and reports of the sermons were published in the Ossining Daily Citizen. As always happens when such efforts are made, the inherent weakness of the Sunday cause was clearly exposed.

A great many assertions were made in behalf of Sunday as being the Lord’s day and binding upon Christian people, etc., but there was an entire absence of accompanying Scripture proof. A cause which rests only on the assertions of men is too weak to serve as the foundation of Christian faith. The Christian may be sure that true Sabbath observance rests on a solid foundation of Scripture.

The assertions of the speakers, as quoted in the Citizen, revealed a lack of familiarity on their part with plain Scripture teaching. Thus, the pastor of the First Presbyterian church is quoted as saying:—

The fourth commandment is important as far as it goes, and lays the foundation for the spiritual worship. So when the Lord’s day comes on in the fulness of time with the direct appeal to the higher worship of man, and looks to the resurrection, a man may keep the fourth commandment and yet be an utter stranger to the spirit of the Lord’s day.

The psalmist said: “The law of the Lord is perfect,” and “thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Ps. 19:7; 119:96. The fourth commandment leaves nothing incomplete in the matter of Sabbath observance. He who keeps it will observe the “Sabbath of the Lord”—the Lord’s day — both in the letter and in the spirit.

Another speaker said:—

The Jewish sabbath commemorates the creation. The first day of the week, Sunday, commemorates the resurrection. The first was the commencement of the race, the second the religious life of the race.

This is equivalent to saying there was no religious life in the race prior to the resurrection of Christ, and that God created Adam with no religious life. Only in behalf of a bad cause would one be driven to make such statements. The same speaker said further:—

The fourth commandment does not make any suggestion about religious worship, nor prior to the captivity did the Jews even have any religious worship.

Evidently he had never read Lev. 23:3: “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” (Italics ours.)

Another speaker, the pastor of the M. E. church, is reported as follows on the subject of opposition to Sunday as the Christian sabbath:—

Mr. Finch said that one of the most potent and powerful influences working against the Christian Sunday was the efforts of the Sabbatarian Legalists or Seventh-day people. It might seem strange that he should make such an assertion, as these people were so few; but the fact that they were so earnest in their efforts and really believed down deep in their hearts that they were absolutely right, even to the extent that they would welcome burning at the stake as a proof of their loyalty, made them a power.

The second powerful influence working against the observance of the Christian Sunday is the prevailing spirit of irreverence. Thousands of people looked upon Sunday as a day to be spent in pleasure and dissipation. These people spent the Sunday in all sorts of pleasurable occupations instead of making it a day of rest and recuperation. It was mostly a careless disregard for the Lord’s day.

Mr. Finch overlooks a very important fact. All the earnestness of these few seventh-day people in a bad cause would accomplish little. It is not their earnestness that produces the results, but the fact that they are on the side of Scripture truth. It is God’s truth that is so powerful. The power of the Almighty is in his Word. The few seventh-day people are a power because they go to the people armed with that Word, the “sword of the spirit.”

And further: the “prevailing spirit” of disregard for Sunday is very largely due, beyond doubt, to the absence of Scripture proof in its support. Clergymen may convince themselves and some few others that Sunday observance rests upon a Scripture basis, but the mass of the people, who have heard the subject discussed and have weighed the evidence for both the first and the seventh day, know that the Sunday cause is fatally weak in Scripture argument. They know that the Bible does not support Sunday observance. Those who are determined to revive Sunday observance must reckon with this fact. The cause of the strength of the few seventh-day observers is that God’s Word is with them; and the weakness of the Sunday cause is due to the lack of that Word in its support. They can not hope to change or to prevail against the Word of God.

L. A. S.