REMARKS SUGGESTED BY THE FOREGOING.
By F. A. Buzzell
Baptists, why not reason in the above style in regard to the observance of the Sabbath? Rev. H. F. Lane in a paper before the New York Pastoral Conference (Baptist) read, “We deem our isolation our glory; for of all the denominations of Christendom, we alone stand upon the impregnable platform, The Bible alone the rule of faith and practice.” Our purpose in commenting upon the foregoing article on Baptism is to attempt to show to Baptists who may read this, that if they were consistent they would try other points besides baptism, by a course of reasoning similar to the above. By accepting the fact that the seventh day is the Sabbath forever, the same mode of reasoning, many of the same texts, the same logical conclusions, and the final appeal given in the preceding article will apply; and a Baptist who loves truth and earnestly seeks for it, need not remain in a “papal error,” while he attempts to discover to his orthodox brethren or Spanish converts that they are while holding to infant baptism. Let us look at the questions and answers of “Views on Baptism,” and see if what we affirm is true. Commencing with question 6, we substitute, Is it lawful to change the Sabbath? Is not the answer as embraced in Deut. 12:32, and Matt. 5:19, intensely to the point, especially when the idea is entertained that the apostles or early Christians changed the Sabbath? Who gave the apostles, much less the early Christians, authority to change God’s holy law? But supposing we answer further in the language of Matt. 5:17, 18. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Ratify or establish. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Has one jot (letter) or one tittle (part of a letter) been erased from God’s law? How does it read in Exodus 20? The seventh day, doesn’t it? Who keeps the first day and assumes that it is holy time, let Rev. H. F. Lane answer by the rule he claims to have faith in and practice by. Have heaven and earth passed away? Are the prophecies all fulfilled? Then why has the jot and tittle passed away from the law? Question 8. “Is there no command for it?” Q. 9. “Is there not one example for it?” Q. 10. (Substituting.) Did the apostles never observe the first day as holy time? A. “No mention is made of it.” In every example of the apostles in reference to holy time, they observed the seventh day. They spoke of the seventh day as the Sabbath. Q. 12. (Substituting.) Then is not the observance of the first day of the week in opposition to the word of God? A. If God has said in his word that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and has sanctified and hallowed the seventh day, and has said that man should labor on the first day, then why should we not obey? In the entire absence of any proof that it is God’s will that any other day should be commemorated or kept as holy, or that any change has been made, why not keep the same day that our Saviour kept if he is “our example”? Pray tell us, Baptists, you who claim to wrap all your doctrinal points in Bible sheets. Rev. Mr. Gardner, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, said in a sermon not long since, upon the “Christian Sabbath,” that it was the “Gibraltar of our religion.” If so, it should have a good, solid foundation, a Bible foundation. We think Sunday-keeping is only a “Gibraltar” of sand. Sabbath-keeping is founded upon a rock, beautifully engraved with the finger of God. Sunday-keeping can boast no higher origin than pagan and papal hands. “We entreat you observe the Sabbath as commanded, otherwise you may possibly have cause to cry, ‘The Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.’ 1 Chron. 15:13. Indeed we have been disobedient in practicing Sabbath observance, otherwise than it was written.” And, oh! that the following words were before your eyes every sixth day when the setting sun ushers in the eve of God’s holy Sabbath, that they were in your dreams by night—and meet your waking eyes clothed with the brightness and glory of the rising sun, that these words might be heeded by you as the words of an angel of mercy and truth:— “The very words of God himself teach you his will respecting the observance of the Sabbath. Follow neither custom, nor the multitude, nor the traditions of men, saying, I will conform to what my fathers did; but follow Christ. Yes, follow him, our divine example. Take the Bible as your only guide, and rest upon it as upon a rock.” “He who doubts whether the observance of the first day is right, is condemned if he observe it. Either the observance of the seventh day, or of the first—one of the two is wrong.” “No man can serve two masters.” “Whom will ye serve?” God, or pagan and pope? “Think of this. Let us pray one for another; and may God in his infinite grace guide us to the true knowledge of his will, and to obedience to it, that we may have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.”