REASONS FOR KEEPING SUNDAY.
By W. N. G.
A correspondent residing in Santa Cruz, Cal., attended a union service of the churches in that city where the subject of Sunday observance was under consideration. He reports that one speaker essayed to give a chain of reasons for keeping Sunday. This speaker began by saying that the Sabbath was given at creation as a memorial of God’s creative work, and was also given to the Jews to commemorate their deliverance from Egyptian bondage; but as we had never been in Egyptian bondage, it was not for us. He further stated that we now have a “more glorious day,” referring to the first day of the week as the Lord’s day. The expression, “We have never been in Egyptian bondage,” sounds familiar. We have its parallel in the eighth chapter of John. Jesus said to the Jews that believed on Him: “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man.” Verses 31–33. Now Egyptian bondage was a type of the bondage of sin, just as Egyptian darkness was a type of all the dark consequences of sin. And the deliverance from Egyptian bondage was a type of redemption from sin. Christ was the actual deliverer of Israel from Egypt, just as He is the redeemer from the thraldom of sin. Then making the Sabbath day a memorial of deliverance from Egypt was making it the memorial of redemption from sin. Making it a memorial of redemption was simply an emphasis of the fact that it is the memorial of creation; for redemption is creation—a re-creation—no more, no less. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17. The earth is to be redeemed also; but how?—By being re-created. The kingdom of Christ will be on the new earth. See 2 Peter 2:10–13; Isa. 65:17,18. But this Sabbath day, which God instituted in Eden as a memorial of His creative power, and reaffirmed to Israel as the memorial of redemption, was not Sunday; it was the seventh day. See Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15. Moreover, it was to be a “sign,” a “perpetual covenant,” between God and the children of Israel forever. See Ex. 31:12–17; Eze. 20:20. And who are the children of Israel that are to be recognized forever? Not the natural seed, but the spiritual. See Rom. 2:28, 29; Gal. 6:15. “Paul tells us in Phil. 3:3 who they are: ‘For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’” Then the true Israel of God—they that “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12)—will remember the sign that God Himself has given them by special formal institution; they will remember His “perpetual covenant,” His own memorial, and will “have no confidence in the flesh,” or in any of its devices. The law of God is “spiritual” (Rom. 7:14), it is not of the flesh. “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Jer. 17:5. There could be no better evidence of departure from God than the setting up of human institutions instead of those which He has planted; and the tendency to do this is to-day a prevalent evil, not only in the world but in the church. “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matt. 15:13. W. N. G.