Downey, Los Angeles County.
By E. A. Briggs
SINCE my last report, eleven more have signed the covenant; making forty-five in all who have recently embraced the truth in this place. This success of the truth seems to be largely owing to an attack just made upon the Sabbath of the Lord, by a resident minister, and the reply thereto. Two of his best arguments were, in substance, as follows:— “The patriarchs evidently kept Sunday as the Sabbath; so we should do so. That they kept Sunday is manifest from the fact that they circumcised their children on the eighth day; and the eighth day is Sunday. 2. Jesus plucked and ate corn on the seventh day; by which he evidently meant to abolish the seventh-day Sabbath, and institute Sunday. Our divine Lord could certainly have fasted that day, for on another occasion he fasted forty days. So he must have plucked the corn to show that the Sabbath was changed.” The first of these arguments might have weight with those who think that there are eight days in a week, and that all babies are born on Sunday! Gen. 17:12; 21:4; the second might be respected by those who can learn from the Scripture that Jesus plucked corn on the seventh day. Mark 2:23. Praise the Lord for the plainness of his truth, and the prosperity of the Third Angel's Message.