WANTED by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 10, 1879

WANTED

By C. W. Stone

A MORAL nervine for men who are clinging to a false hope; a theological sedative for minds that desire to rest where they are, but find it difficult; a Biblical counter-irritant that will remove mental inflammation by a transfer thereof to another’s mind; a Scriptural alternative that will gently alter the forlorn circumstances of anybody who desperately desires to prove something, yet has nothing with which to prove it. Every theological doctor in the country is satisfied as to just what the needed remedy is, as these doctors are in most cases as subject to these internal agitations as are the patients for whom they prescribe; but, alas! like those ancient alchemists who grew gray and died in their fruitless endeavors to discover the “Elixir of Life,” these moderns, who have now sought diligently for more than thirty years, without a ray of light to cheer their anxious search, are likely to fade away, and expire before this universal panacea may be found.

The thing so much desired is a text which says, The first day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; or, Sunday is the Christian Sabbath; or, The first day of the week is the Lord’s day.

Such a text is in so great demand that, could it be found by the doctors, the sound of their horses’ feet would not die away till every hamlet in the land had received the prescription. It would be neatly wrought in a silken banner, and raised upon a sanctified flag-staff in every little village. Yea; it would grace the walls of every church, be written upon the door-posts of the houses and shops, and engraved upon the bells of the horses. But, alack-a-day for the D. D.’s! that text non est.

Therefore, as is the practice in all schools, no specific having been agreed upon, each doctor takes the liberty to experiment. One recommends the fluid extract of the “Seventh-part-of-time,” to be taken, of course, when the patient feels like it. This remedy does not prove universal, as it does not necessarily fall on the first day of the week, but is as liable to select Tuesday as any other day. Moreover, it seems to produce no effect at all upon the seventh-day people, for they long ago agreed that a seventh part of time is sufficient, provided it come upon the day that God appointed,—“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8–11.

For these patients the doctors recommend a Hebrew emetic. It is labeled thus: “The seventh day is an old Jewish Sabbath.” They hope first to make the patients sick of the institution, when they hope they will throw it up. This medicine is to be swallowed in a solution of ridicule, and administered with a sneer. The doctors are very careful not to swallow any of this poison themselves; for they well know that it would cause them to throw up their faith in the Bible, for that was all written by Jews, excepting Job perhaps. Away would go the promises, and even Christ must be cast out, for he was a Jew. Rom. 9:4, 5. And as “salvation is of the Jews,” that must be ejected also. John 4:22. But the seventh-day people do not take this medicine at all; for they see that unless the Jews made the world in the six days, it could not have been the Jews that rested on the seventh. God made the world; God rested. That day became God’s rest-day. It was instituted about two thousand years before ever a Jew was born. For these reasons it is plain that the Sabbath is not Jewish, but the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”

Many of the doctors give the third trituration of extracts from the “fathers” in homeopathic doses. It is well known by all physicians who study their books that the solid extract will spoil

any man’s theology. Dr. Adam Clarke says of the “fathers,” “There is not a truth in the most orthodox creed that cannot be proved by their authority; nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church that may not challenge them as its abettors. In points of doctrine their authority is with me nothing.”—Comments on Prov. 8. In his Autobiography, p. 134, he says, “We should take heed how we quote the fathers in proof of the doctrines of the gospel; because he who knows them best, knows that on many of those subjects they blow hot and cold.” Thus this eminent physician condemns the use of this medicine. Besides, it is well known that much of it is very badly adulterated. For instance, there is one kind which bears this trade-mark: “The Epistle of Barnabas.” This is universally acknowledged by the chemists to be spurious. The doctors ought not to use it, but they do. It is too bad to be forced to buy our drugs of the fathers of a backsliding church, some of whom were prophesied of by Paul as “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29), and then to take them so badly adulterated.

But the last remedy generally prescribed by the theological school of physicians, as a sort of croton oil to be given when all other cathartics fail, is a large pill called “The Round World.” It is said that the world is round, and therefore it is impossible to keep the seventh day anywhere. This pill must be swallowed whole. It is said that the effect is very wonderful. It acts chiefly upon the eyesight, making the world appear round on Saturday, but quite flat on Sunday. This pill is kept by nearly every practitioner, and we wonder why it is not administered at the first appearance of this mental trouble, since its effect is such as to render every other drug unnecessary. It should be used like the first reason of a certain lawyer: “May it please your honor, there are three reasons why my client is not present to-day. First, he is dead. Second,”—“No matter about the other reasons,” said the learned judge, “your first is quite sufficient.” But the real reason why this pill is not thus used is probably on account of its enormous size. It is not often that a person is found who is capable of swallowing it. It is thought by those who have examined the matter that the effect which this pill has upon the eyesight is not due to any medicinal property which it contains, but is simply a mechanical injury caused by over-exertion in swallowing.

In conclusion, let me suggest the propriety of taking a simple hygienic treatment for a few days. All that will be found necessary to correct this difficulty effectually is the good old family Bible well studied. There I read, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8–11. Then in Matt. 28:1 and Mark 16:1, 2, I find that the Sabbath comes the day before the first day of the week. That was this side of the crucifixion. The disciples kept the “Sabbath day according to the commandment” after the crucifixion. Luke 23:56. Luke, while recording those facts nearly thirty years after the crucifixion, still calls that day the Sabbath, and shows that the day following it was the first day of the week. Chap. 24:1.

In answer to the troublesome question, “Shall we keep Saturday or Sunday?” I reply, If you follow the Bible, you will keep the seventh day; if you follow the fathers, you will partly observe both days or no day; if you follow the “doctors,” you will keep Sunday till you find that “you cannot do it because the world is round”?

C. W. STONE.