PAUL’S MEETING AT TROAS.
By J. F. Ballinger
Does Paul’s meeting at Troas furnish any evidence that the fourth commandment has been changed? Those who claim that this commandment has been changed, so as to recognize the first day of the week as the Sabbath, urge, as evidence, the apostle’s meeting with the brethren at Troas on the first day of the week, to break bread. The following illustration will show the bearing of this supposed change of the law: The people of the State of Illinois wish to change the time of holding the school election from the first Saturday in April of each year, to the first Monday of the same. They petition to the legislature to make the change. When that body meets, the wishes of the people, as presented in the petition, are taken into consideration. All concur in the change. The time is fixed when the law, as changed, shall take effect. It then becomes the duty of the legislature to furnish the State superintendent of public instruction with a copy of the law. It is his duty to furnish a copy to each county superintendent. It is then the duty of the county superintendents to furnish a copy of the law to the clerk of each school district; and the clerks are obliged to post up notices in three public places in their respective districts ten days before the election, so that all the voters in the district may understand the change in the law. Now, if it is so important that the action of human legislation should be made known, so that all may understand their duty, how much more important is it that the action of divine legislation should be made known, where the penalty for transgression is infinitely greater than that for the violation of human law. In contrast with the fore-mentioned action of the legislature and the executors of the law, we will suppose that when that body met, nothing was said concerning the change of the law. But some time after they adjourn, Mr. Jones, a member of that body, concludes to take a trip to California, and on his way stops at Omaha, Neb. He arrives there on Monday evening, and finds the citizens met for a school election. They invite him to take part in the meeting, and also to make a speech. He does so, and they talk a long while, even until daybreak, when Mr. Jones gets aboard the train, and continues his journey. Now, when the time comes for the people of Illinois to hold their school election, the clerks write their notices for the meetings to be held on the first Monday in April. The people, not knowing of any change in the law, ask the clerks for the reason of their conduct. They reply, Did not Mr. Jones, our representative, meet with the people of Omaha, who were holding a school election, on Monday? Well, say they, what has that to do with changing the time of holding the school elections in Illinois? The clerks reply, Can we not infer from his meeting with the people of Omaha on that occasion that the law is changed, and that now the lawful time to hold our school election is on Monday? Now who would not look upon the action of these clerks as betraying symptoms of insanity? And yet the evidence to justify these men in making the change in the school law is full as good as the evidence drawn from the action of the apostle Paul in the meeting at Troas, for the change of the fourth commandment.