Doctor Munhall on the Sabbath.
By W.
THE Doctor seemed nettled because some reporters and doctors had pooled at a statement by him that man is built on a seventh-day plan, so that the Sabbath rest is a demand of his physical nature. We are willing to accept that statement. “The Sabbath was made for man,” and we believe that the Lord made no mistake in the amount of time which he allotted to man for rest. But this is not given in the Bible as a reason for Sabbath observance. The Sabbath was given to man that he might remember God; and the fact that God commanded its observance is sufficient reason why we should keep it. Notice this fact: Nobody ever heard a Sabbath-keeper urge man’s physical necessity as a reason for Sabbath observance; with a Sabbath-keeper, the commandment of God suffices. But the fact that man needs a rest one day in seven is the most prominent reason given for Sunday observance by the advocates of that day. It is the only thing they can urge; but as a Sunday argument it is useless from the fact that God has said nothing about it, and it is applicable to any other day of the week. In behalf of Sunday as a Sabbath, the Doctor simply read Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; and Rev. 1:10, without comment. Since the last mentioned text makes no mention of the first day of the week, and since concerning the other two the Doctor said, “The fact that the disciples met to break bread on the first day of the week is no authority for the sanctification of Sunday,” we may safely say that he does not believe that the Bible anywhere authorizes Sunday observance. In fact, we know that he does not, for he said: “The resurrection of Jesus Christ had no more to do with the sanctification of Sunday than did his crucifixion on Friday. Some people think that it did, but there is no ‘Thus saith the Lord’ for it.” Again he said: “There is no ‘Thus saith the Lord’ for keeping the first day of the week, and there is no use in saying there is when there isn’t. The seventh day was hallowed by the Lord, and there has been no transfer.” We would that Doctor Munhall’s hearers would311remember these words, and then follow his exhortation to “obey God.” But some one may be anxious to know why he keeps Sunday, holding the views that he does. Well, here is his “reason:” “We find evidence that the disciples did keep the first day, and therefore we keep it; though why they kept it I do not know, for they gave no reason, and there is no ‘Thus saith the Lord’ for it.” The “evidence” that the disciples kept the first day is all found in Acts 20:7, and 1 Cor. 16:2, which is just no evidence at all. But allowing the Doctor’s claim that the disciples did keep Sunday, what then? Why, we have them doing something for which they have given no reason, and for which no reason could be given. One of these same disciples charges us to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” How can we do this if we keep Sunday, since the apostles themselves gave no reason for it, and the Lord never commanded it? The fact that the Lord never commanded Sunday observance, and that the apostles, while exhorting Christians to be able to give a reason for their faith and practice, gave no reason for Sunday observance, should convince anybody that the apostles never kept Sunday. In closing, the Doctor said: “I know that I can’t observe the law of the Sabbath on the seventh day.” Well, then, in the name of common sense, how can the law of the Sabbath be observed? That law enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week, and no other. This law Doctor Munhall proposes to observe by keeping Sunday! And by the same token we propose to celebrate next Fourth of July the first of August. It will be just as easy for us to rest on the Fourth of July on the first of August, as it is for Doctor Munhall to observe the law of the Sabbath on the first day of the week. But why cannot the Doctor “observe the law of the Sabbath” on the seventh day, the day which the law of the Sabbath designates? Because “as things are in the world,” it is inconvenient! Is this the same man who half an hour before said: “You have no business to forget; you must not think that every desire is to be gratified at the expense of God’s commandment. If your business will suffer if you keep the Sabbath, let it suffer. Obey God. That is all you have to do. The man who lives up to an honest conviction and does right, must expect to suffer inconvenience”? Yes, it is the very same man who now says that “as things are in this world” he cannot keep the Sabbath. And then in the next breath he urges his hearers “to have conscience in this matter”! In Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” we read of one Mr. By-ends, one of whose kinsmen was Mr. Facing-both-ways, and who earned his money as a waterman, “looking one way and rowing another.” The Saviour described the same class of men when he said: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not.” It was not by accident that Bunyan made Mr. By-ends a relative of Mr. Facing-both-ways; for when a man acknowledges a certain obligation, and then says that circumstances will not allow him to regard it, he faces both ways, and advertises himself as a man who has ends of his own to serve. We might sum up Doctor Munhall’s discourse as follows:—- The law of the Sabbath was given at creation, and simply reaffirmed at Sinai.
- The seventh day of the week, and no other, is the Sabbath.
- The Sabbath is a memorial of creation, and was given that men might remember God.
- Those people and nations that disregard the Sabbath will have to suffer disastrous consequences.
- No man has any business to forget the Sabbath, or to allow business or pleasure to interfere with his observance of it. God requires us to obey him whether it is convenient or not.
- The first day of the week is not the Sabbath, and there is no use in saying that it is. God rested upon and sanctified only the seventh day, and no transfer has ever been made. There is no “Thus saith the Lord” for the observance of Sunday. God never required it.
This is good Bible doctrine; whenever the Doctor preaches such doctrine, we shall be glad to assist him in his work by giving it wide circulation. And in connection with the above, we hope no one will fail to remember Doctor Munhall’s only “reason” for keeping Sunday. It is this:— “I believe that the apostles kept Sunday, though I don’t know of any reason why they did so. The seventh day of the week is the Sabbath, but it isn’t convenient to keep it.” In conclusion, we would urge our readers to heed the Doctor’s exhortation to “have a conscience in this matter.”