Blakeslee in "The Pacific" on the Sabbath.
By Editor
IT is impossible to give our readers a just idea of the true spirit of the Pacific's correspondent, or of his singular method of reasoning, without giving quite a lengthy extract from his article. We therefore quote as follows:— "Another falsehood is that the Bible commands us to keep Saturday (he calls it the seventh day) as the Sabbath. Now in the whole Bible there is not a single command to us to keep the Saturday, or the seventh day of the week. This is a sectarian addition to the words of the Bible, and is a direct violation of three different passages in the word of God, which forbid any addition or taking away of the words of the Scripture. The Old Testament locates the Sabbath in only one place, Ex. 16, by saying, 'to-morrow is the Sabbath;' then in the New Testament is the statement that the Jews kept the seventh day of the week. But God tells us explicitly what day to keep though the Saturday Adventists will not take it as God gives it. "The fourth commandment says in exact words: 'Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.' The Bible does not tell us on what day of the week to begin to reckon the six work days, the seventh to be the Sabbath. Since Christ's resurrection Christians have begun Monday morning, worked six days, and kept the seventh as the Lord commanded; and this seventh reckoned as God commands us is the Sunday. Thus, this editor asserts a falsehood in saving the Bible commands to keep the seventh day of the week. Again, he asserts an intellectual falsehood by saving God began creation on Sunday, or the first day of the week, meaning week as we reckon it. It is an intellectual falsehood because the Bible never says God began on the first day of the week. It only tells us what God did on the first day of his week, but on what day of our week this was is only a human and often sectarian inference. "Again he says: 'We Adventists keep the seventh day: others keep the first day.' This, in his sense of the word 'day,' is a sophistical falsehood, for Christians, not Adventists, keep the seventh day of the week, exact to the letter of the fourth commandment. In his assertion, by sophistry, he used for himself the first day of the week to deny that we keep the seventh day of command. We do keep the seventh day of the week according to the fourth commandment; and in denying this is his falsehood. Another great error is that he uses the word Sabbath in the Old Testament as the name of the seventh day of the week, the same as it is in the New Testament. This is false to the Bible." In our former article we disproved every assertion and inference of Mr. Blakeslee as far as considered. But what a medley of absurdities we have presented to us in the above extract! A constant ringing of the word "falsehood," without a truthful statement in the whole three paragraphs. The only issue contained in this quotation is in regard to this question: Is our Saturday the seventh day of the week, and the day enjoined in the fourth commandment? Mr. Blakeslee says it is not—that Sunday is the real seventh day of the commandment. To prove this he says that the Old Testament does not designate the day of the week for the Sabbath. He thus intimates that the seventh day of the commandment is not the seventh day of the week. Now we have against this, 1. The fact that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was instituted when God created the heavens and the earth, and was the seventh or last day of the first week of time. No other reckoning but that of the week could there be given, for no other cycle had yet elapsed. Reference to this same cycle and these same facts is made in Ex. 16 and 20. The seventh day of the commandment is not that of an indefinite cycle of seven without regard to its place in the week, even as the sixth day of Ex. 16 is not that of an indefinite cycle of six without regard to the day of the week. According to his method, "the seventh day" is any day after six days preceding, falling anywhere in the week. If that is so, then "the sixth day" in the same scripture must be any day after five days preceding, without regard to its place in the week. This must be so, or his method of counting is false. But if that were so, the sixth day would come every six days even as the seventh day came every seven days, and without regard to their relation to each other. But let it be remembered that at the time when the commandment was given the days of the week had no names; they were known only by numbering. Therefore in speaking of the sixth day and the seventh day, the sixth and seventh days of the week were always understood unless explanation was made, as was always the case when the days of the month were meant. 2. All authorities recognize the well-known fact that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seventh day of the week. Thus Gesenius, the first of Hebrew lexicographers, says, under the Hebrew word Shab-bath: "A Sabbath, a day of rest; the seventh day of each week." Perhaps Mr. B. would designate this a lexicographical falsehood! Chamber's Encyclopedia says: "Sabbath, Heb. Shabbath, from Shaboth, to rest, designates the seventh day of the week, set aside in the Old Testament as a period of cessation from work." And this, according to Mr. Blakeslee, must be an encyclopedian falsehood! Webster says of Sabbath, a day of rest the observance of which was enjoined upon the Jews in the decalogue, "and has been continued by the Christian church with a transference of the day observed from the last to the first day of the week." Thus, according to Webster, it was given to the Jews in the decalogue on the last day of the week—not the first. And Worcester is still more explicit. He says it was "enjoined upon, and observed by, the Jews on the seventh day of the week, because in six days God created the heavens and the earth, and rested on the seventh day, . . . but among Christians observed on the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ." But the resurrection of Christ is not referred to in the commandment. That refers to God's rest-day, and was so given to the Jews, on the seventh day of the week. What appellation would Mr. Blakeslee give to these "falsehoods" of Webster and Worcester? McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia says: "This was the seventh day of the Hebrew week, extending from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday." Dr. Wm. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, says on the Sabbath: "The seventh day of the week, the strict observance of which is enforced, not merely in the general Mosaic code, but in the decalogue itself." Horne's Introduction says: "Seven nights and days constituted a week; six of these were appropriated to labor and the ordinary purposes of life, and the seventh day or Sabbath was appointed by God to be observed as a day of rest, because that on it he rested from all his work which God created and made." And Dr. Barnes says: "The Jews observed the seventh day of the week." The Sunday-school Union Bible Dictionary says: "Sunday was a name given by the heathen to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshiped the sun." Like evidence can be given to any extent, but more is not needed. Nor is this much needed to intelligent and reasonable people. We give it, however, hoping that it may possibly open the eyes of Mr. Blakeslee to a well-known truth. But if he is not able to appreciate these evidences, then we advise him to get an Almanac and begin his studies there to find out where the week commences. 3. The New Testament explicitly proves the same thing. In Luke 23:56 it is said they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment; and the next verse says that early on the first day of the week they came to the sepulcher. The Sabbath of the commandment was passed when the first day of the week commenced. And other evangelists verify this statement. Mark says: "And when the Sabbath was past, . . . very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher." The commandment says "the seventh day is the Sabbath;" and this seventh day is the seventh day of the week, because it is immediately followed by the first day of the week following. But is there no evidence on the other side? Yes; the assertion of the very celebrated and very reliable Mr. Blakeslee in the Pacific! And he over and over accuses us of "falsehood" because we say what all these authorities—all authorities—and the Scriptures also plainly declare. We repeat, that we do not ask Mr. B. to excuse us on the score of ignorance. We know whereof we speak on the question of the Sabbath and the Sunday. His assertion that they who keep Sunday keep the seventh day of the week, and that Adventists do not, is not worthy of notice. All who keep Sunday profess to keep it in honor of the resurrection of Christ (for which they have no Scripture requirement), as Worcester says in his Dictionary: "Among Christians observed on the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ." We might fill our columns with evidences from every source proving that Sunday is the first day of the week. And everybody—except Mr. Blakeslee—knows it. We must except him, as we have already cleared him of "intellectual falsehood!" We ask pardon of our readers for noticing one more point. Mr. Blakeslee turns critic and gives us his rendering of the terms of the fourth commandment. He says:— "The word Sabbath is an adjective meaning rest, quiet, relief from labor, etc. Hence, by translating the word, the fourth command reads: Remember the resting day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, but the seventh is the resting day." This last "revised version" contains nothing material to the issue, for it still leaves the seventh day in the commandment, and Sunday is the first day. But as Mr. Blakeslee is supposed to be perfectly honest in all his statements, and as he professes to be competent to decide questions involving Hebrew criticism, we must at least catechise him a little. Are you sure, Mr. B., that the word Sabbath in the commandment is an adjective? Are you certain that the Hebrew word yôm is not in "the construct," and that the word Sabbath is not therefore a substantive? Can you give a reason why the following—Remember the day of the rest—is not a literal and allowable rendering of the Hebrew expression Zah-cor eth-yom hash-shab-bath? Were we to grant your assertion thus far, we ask, Is "resting" the form of the adjective in your grammar or lexicon? Will you tell us why you consider "resting" an adjective and not a participle? Can the Hebrew word Shabbath be translated into an English participle? Do you know that the participial form of this word (Sho-vvith) is not in the commandment? And finally, can you give us any evidence that you know anything about it? You certainly have not given any evidence to that effect yet, but quite the reverse. Every one, after reading the quotation first herein given, and marking the uncourteous, un-Christian, and ungentlemanly language of Mr. Blakeslee, will admit that we have not treated him with severity in this article. He really placed himself outside the pale of a courteous and considerate reply. But we notice him. (1) Because his article appeared in a respectable religious paper of San Francisco. Though we must confess that it will show itself more worthy of this designation if it refuses to publish articles which accuse a brother editor of falsehood a half a score of times, without the shadow of a reason for the accusation. (2) We have been requested to notice the article for the benefit of some who had not had the opportunity of instruction on this question, and who supposed that there was some ground for Mr. Blakeslee's assertions. We have seldom seen an article so unworthy of notice, in every respect. But as "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," are the burden of our message, "the present truth" for this time, we are always willing to do anything which will expose error and advance the truth in regard to God's commandments and his down-trodden Sabbath. Our prayer to the Lord of the Sabbath is,— "May sinners be again made thine,
Though once with vengeance curst;
And may the holy Sabbath shine,
As glorious as at first."