THEOLOGICAL LEGERDEMAIN.
By M. C. W.
THE following precious bit of theology illustrates the ridiculous logic to which men are driven to defend error. Men's most powerful weapons become straw, when used against the truth. It is from an editorial entitled, "The crucifixion of Christ," which appeared in the Independent, not long since:— "After the three hours of darkness, came the three days of silence, sanctified by the hiding of the Lord's body in the heart of the earth. The one whole day in which he lay in the tomb (the Jewish Sabbath), seems to have dropped out of the calendar of time, and not to have been counted a day, for from the time of the resurrection the Jewish Sabbath disappears from the Christian's week, and the Lord's day (the day of resurrection) takes its place, the first day coming in to supply the gap in the week made by the blotting out of that seventh day." Here are three days sanctified; but, behold! when we come to look for the most important of the three, it is not there; it "seems to have dropped out of the calendar of time, and not to have been counted a day"! We wonder if the first, or the second, might not have fallen out too. The sacred record expressly mentions the Sabbath at that time, and thereafter repeatedly (Luke 23:56; Acts 13:16; 17:3; 18:1-11), but somehow it seems to have disappeared! Then, again, instead of a week of seven days, which is recognized by all nations and peoples, we only have a week of six days after all! For the "Jewish" Sabbath has "dropped out," "disappeared," "the first day coming in to supply the gap in the week made by the blotting out of that seventh day." Well-a-day! we did not know it before. That William Tell and the Shakespeare authorship were myths, did not trouble us much, but this seems to almost unsettle us. We have heard grave divines talk of "the eighth day of the week;" but now even the seventh is gone, has been gone for 1,800 years, and the Independent has made this wonderful archæological discovery! Perhaps that was its mission to the lands of buried treasures of knowledge and ancient lore. And now our week only numbers six days; it must be so; for the Independent says that one day—and it expressly says, "the seventh day"—has "dropped out," and "the first day" (for that is what the Independent says) comes in "to supply the gap"! That is, it was put back a notch, or was it put forward six? Or, is all this some noted act of prestidigitation, learned from some noted juggler in the East—simply an illusion? It is an illusion; but it is the editor of the Independent who is illuded. But he did the best that he could. He who holds to the Bible needs no such sophistry. M. C. W.