NEW POSITION ON THE SABBATH.
By J. BARTLETT
One of the leading men in the Mormon church, recently took the following position on the Sabbath question at Onawa, Iowa. He claimed that the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the year, and the first day of the week, or Sunday. They came into the wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the second month; on the 16th day the manna fell for the first time. He counted thirty-one days for a month; thirty-one and fifteen make forty-six days, or six weeks and four days, so the manna commenced to fall on Thursday. On the sixth day from the time it commenced to fall, twice as much fell as on any other day, so the next day, which was Wednesday, was the Sabbath. He claimed that the Sabbath came on Wednesday, because it is said that the manna fell in the morning, and it must have been the morning of the 16th day of the second month. The Jews counted time from the falling of the manna, six days; the seventh day was the Sabbath. If this position is true, the quails must have come in the evening before, Ex. 16:8, so the quails came before the manna. This cannot be true; for they murmured because they had nothing to eat but manna (see Num. 11:6-31); so the Lord sent the quails. Oh, how foolish is the wisdom of man when compared with the wisdom of God! I had liberty in replying to him before a large audience. He said that I misrepresented him by saying he taught the ten commandments were abolished, when he never claimed that they were done away.111I asked him what he meant by quoting Col. 2:14—something was blotted out, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross. He said this scripture referred to the ten commandments. I asked him how I misrepresented him after he had made this statement; for if the law of God was blotted out, we are under no obligation to keep it. Truth is mighty. One of the ministers of the Mormon church, with his wife, received the message. May the Lord bless them! The truth of God looks plain.