NEHEMIAH'S REGARD FOR SUNDAY.
In the “Picture Lesson Paper” of Feb. 9, 1879, issued by the great Methodist publishers, Nelson & Phillips, N. Y., and Hitchcock and Walden, Cincinnati, we find the following instance of unaccountable thoughtlessness or unpardonable dishonesty. One page of said paper is called the “Berean Leaflet.” It is devoted to studies in the “Old Testament.” Its title is, “The Keeping of the Sabbath; or, The Holy Day.” Its “golden text” is, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Ex. 20:8.” It has a picture of Nehemiah standing up and protesting against the course of those who are bearing wheat, grapes, and oil into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. After presenting these texts and facts, which belong to the true Sabbath and to that alone, the paper launches out in behalf of the pagan and papal Sunday in the following style:— “1. Which day of the week is called God’s day?—Sunday.
“2. What is it for?—For rest and worship.
“3. Rest from what?—From labor.
“4. Whom are we to worship?—God.
“5. What is the fourth commandment?—‘Remember the Sabbath-day,’ etc.
“6. What is said about work?—Thou shalt do no work.
“7. Who came to Jerusalem?—Nehemiah.
“8. What did he find?—People working on Sunday.
“9. What law were they breaking?—God’s law.
“10. What did Nehemiah tell them?—That they were doing wrong.
“11. What did he do?—Stopped it.
“12. What is wrong doing?—Sin.
“13. To what does it lead?—Suffering.
“14. What is the only safe way?—To keep God’s word.” In the foregoing quotation we have put two of the answers in italics. In the original all the answers are in bold-face type, which makes them more prominent still. Now if the writer of the questions and answers given above had any knowledge whatever of his subject, he knew that Sunday is never called “God’s day” in all the Bible. He knew that the Sabbath day of the fourth commandment is not Sunday, and that the fourth commandment has nothing to do with Sunday as a day of rest, and cannot be made to sustain it, till it is changed so as to read “first day” instead of “seventh day.” And he knew that Nehemiah cared nothing about people working on Sunday. He worked himself that day. It was the sin of working on the Sabbath, against which he protested. This is just parallel to a statement by Dr. Justin Edwards. In his Sabbath Manual, p. 216, respecting Pompey, he says:— “Pompey, the Roman general, . . . when besieging Jerusalem, would not attack them on the Sabbath; but spent the day in constructing his works, and preparing to attack them on Monday.” Thus he would have us think that Sunday was the Sabbath in the time of Pompey, 63 years before Christ. Is it possible that men can be educated into such ignorance of God’s word? And what do theologians think to accomplish by such reckless statements? Do they not know that even the dullest scholars will in time discover the fraud, and then a reaction is sure to follow? We see plainly enough that the assertions which these men make are just the evidence that Sunday needs. That is, if Sunday is to be sustained as the Sabbath, it must be called somewhere in the Bible, God’s day; there must be some law for it; and it must appear that some honor has been paid to it by those who have been commissioned of God to write his word. But none of these proofs exist in reference to Sunday; and to pretend that they do, is both a futile attempt, and a confession of weakness.