WHY SHOULD NOT THE SABBATH BE OBSERVED ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK?
By T. E. Bowen
THIS is the question appearing in the daily Utica Press, under date of June 16, 1904, written by S. C. Maxson, M.D., one of Utica's able physicians. Dr. Maxson says:— To the editor of the Utica Press: I want to say that the dissipation which characterizes Sunday amusements is very distressing to me; and I would not by word or deed encourage it. The Protestant church is very weak on the Sabbath question, for the simple reason that it has departed from the Word of God in teaching and practise in this matter. No honest man can read the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, with a desire to reach the truth on this question, and then say that Christ or His apostles changed the day of the week. We know that Christ from His youth to his death, obeyed God, His Father, in this as well as in all the rest of the law. There is no record in all that follows in the lives of Christ's apostles to prove that they did not follow Christ in this particular. On the other hand, with all the fault found with them by the Jews, never were they accused of observing the first day of the week as a Sabbath, which we know the Jews would have been quick to do had that been true of the apostles. Again, Christ said, when speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, which did not occur until about fifty years after His resurrection, “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” In this He certainly did not mean the first day of the week. Now, if Christ recognized the validity of the Sabbath and the day of its observance fifty or more years after His resurrection, I don't see how Protestant churches, which claim to take the Word of God as their rule of faith and practise, can do less than teach and observe the seventh day of the week as holy time. If we can come to men declaring “Thus saith the Lord God,” we may press this home to their consciences. Without this we have lost our power. Again, the Sabbath was not instituted to commemorate Christ's resurrection. It is a memorial of the fact that God created this beautiful world in which we live. To use it as a memorial of any other, is to pervert its meaning, and will destroy the institution. Many will say, It does not matter which day we keep. I feel a sweet rest and comfort in standing on God's side of this question, with Christ and His apostles. I would not dare say it does not matter. Utica, N. Y., June 16, 1904. It might also be added that Christ not only taught Sabbath observance by keeping it, but went further; He endured persecution from the Jews, not only to maintain the special day for observance, but the manner of keeping it as well. He used the day in performing wonderful miracles of healing, and relieving of physical suffering among His fellows—common humanity with which He had clothed His divinity—and because of His beneficence He was persecuted by the Jews who claimed He was not properly keeping the Sabbath. Thus He not only pointed out the correct day, as is so forcibly and sensibly shown in the quotation above from Dr. Maxson, but He makes very plain also how the day should be kept—none of which can be applied to the first day of the week, for that is not the Sabbath.