SUNDAY AMONG THE BAPTISTS.
Last week Bro. Cottrell called attention to the need, among Sunday-keepers, of a convention to settle upon some line of argument in defense of their tottering institution. The need of this is made still more apparent by the doings of a Baptist convention which has just held a session in Ceresco, Mich. From an eye and ear witness we give the following, touching a resolution on the Sunday question:— “At their last meeting, among other resolutions was the following, offered by the pastor of the church in Kalamazoo:— “‘Resolved, That we, as a church, try, by our example and preaching, to promote a better observance of Sunday, or the Lord’s day.’” “On the offering of this resolution, Mr. Snashall, of Marshall, immediately arose, and said that he would amend that by putting in ‘Sunday of the fourth commandment,’ instead of ‘Sunday, or Lord’s day.’” “Dr. Dodge, of Ypsilanti, a leading man among them, arose and said he thought they had better take safe grounds; for Sunday could not be proved by the fourth commandment; and there was a class of Adventists who would break their ranks every time on those grounds; and that all they had to prove Sunday from, was the resurrection of Christ, and he thought they had better call it ‘Sunday Lord’s day,’ and let it go.” “Mr. Snashall then said that if it could not be proven by the commandments, the old decalogue, they had better not have any Sunday; for it never could be proved because Christ arose on that day.” “The Baptist minister from Otsego, Mr. Buck, arose and said that it (Sunday) could not be proved from the Bible, and he would defy any Baptist minister to do it; that he could not do it, nor any one else.77 “They were so divided that a compromise was offered and carried.” The foregoing is a fair sample of the condition of the religious world on this vital subject of a day of rest to be devoted to religious uses as the Sabbath of the Lord. If these different views had been proposed by so many different denominations, it might perhaps be attributed to denominational differences. But in this case only one denomination is represented. And here are the religious teachers of the same denomination gathered in convention, not from different quarters of the globe, but from contiguous counties and from neighboring churches, yet taking positions which completely devour one another. How can they expect to impress upon the world any obligation to regard the first day, while they are, in reference to the reasons for its observance, in such confusion among themselves? If on anything the friends of the Bible Sabbath have reason to congratulate themselves, it is that the evidence for it is clear and well defined; the line of argument is plain, straightforward, harmonious and unchanging; and over it all there gleams in beauty and power, that from which there is no appeal, a divine “Thus saith the Lord.”