The Sunday preceding our arrival at Rutledge, where we are now laboring, Eld. Olds, Presbyterian, preached against the Sabbath in general and us in particular, giving the usual seven reasons for Sunday-keeping, and forbidding any of his congregation coming to the tent. His chief argument for Sunday-keeping was on the Greek of Matt. 28: 1, eis mian sabbaton. Having created an impression that he is a profound scholar, his very positive and repeated assertion that here the old Sabbaths ended and the new series of first-day Sabbaths began, deceived quite a number. On learning this we procured two yards of black cambric, to be used as a black-board, and printed with a chalk crayon a brief criticism on the text, and kept it facing the congregation. This forced him to confess his error. We then wiped out the authorities we had quoted to sustain our criticism, and in their place printed his admission, that he was led into the error by the Rev. Byron Sunderland; and we propose to keep it before the people.
The way was thus opened for us, and so on our very first Sunday here we presented the Sabbath question. In the morning we spoke on the Law and the Sabbath. In the afternoon, Eld. Olds, contrary to his own advice to others, was present. We spoke on “Sunday” and took occasion to review him. We then offered him the use of our tent any time except Sunday to present his evidence for the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath. There was a large attendance at each meeting. Eld. Olds waited on us to obtain the use of the tent for Sunday afternoon. It was unfairly taxing our generosity; but we granted his request, and took every pains thoroughly to advertise him. Our attendance and interest during the whole week were excellent.
Sunday afternoon, June 24, at 2 P. M., Eld. Olds was on hand, and so were the people. They came from every village for ten miles around. There were between six and seven hundred attentive listeners. Eld. Olds angrily pointed to our sign, admitted he was in error, but declared he knew quite as well as we did that mian was a feminine adjective, and could not agree with sabbaton, a neuter noun; but he got it from a work recently published by Rev. Byron Sunderland. He denounced us most fiercely for trying to make people believe, because he had said what he had about Matt. 28: 1, that he was not a Greek scholar.
He admitted John 20: 19 was not evidence for Sunday-keeping, and declared the passage could not be tortured into conveying any such idea as that the apostles were at that time assembled to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath. No one had ever claimed this, no one could believe it, and we knew it, etc. Then he claimed that in John 20: 26, the expression “after eight days,” did mean Sunday, because the Jews counted parts of days for whole days. He denied that it was on the first day that Jesus met with his disciples when they were fishing, and then declared that Jesus met with his disciples eleven times between his resurrection and his ascension, always—every time—on the first day of the week. He gave the “seven reasons,” and then fell back on the testimony of the fathers, positively denying there was any passage in Barnabas relating to the hyena changing its kind, and wound up with scurrilous personalities and denunciations, terminating with the declaration that we were “sheep in wolves’ clothing.”
We had good liberty in replying to him. As the result a number decided to keep the Sabbath. CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.