COLONEL SHEPARD ON THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT by Dudley Marvin Canright

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

COLONEL SHEPARD ON THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

COL. ELLIOTT F. SHEPARD, of the American Sabbath Union, so-called, discusses the law of the Sabbath as follows:—

"It is summarized, though not first instituted, by the fourth commandment, which God gave at Mount Sinai: 'Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.' The very first word shows that it was not any new thing. God rested upon the accomplishment of his work of creation: and his seventh day was man's first day. Now we keep the Sabbath as the day of the resurrection of the blessed Master, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We observe the first day, and for aught that is known to the contrary it may be the very hebdomadal of the day that Adam observed. The Sabbath was his first day, and he was prepared by this first day of rest for six days of labor."

Mr. Shepard's assumption that the first day of the week is really the seventh is purely gratis. He offers no proof of his assertion, for the very good reason that it is susceptible of none. Of all the assumptions made in behalf of Sunday sacredness, this seems to us to be the most groundless. The statement that Adam's first day was God's seventh day is utter nonsense. Man was created upon the sixth day, but, according to the record in Genesis, it must have been early on the sixth day, for after his creation God brought to him all the beasts which had been formed before man was created, and he named them; but among them all was there not found a helpmate for man. Then God caused the man,—Adam,—to fall into a deep sleep, "and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." This was the institution of marriage. So that not only was Adam created on the sixth day, but he named all the animals upon that day, fell into a deep sleep while this miracle was performed, and received his wife, and yet we are solemnly assured by Sunday advocates that the following day was his first day!

There is, however, another reason for utterly repudiating this idea that Sunday is the original Sabbath. The fourth commandment specifies expressly that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And this for the reason "that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." It may be said that the children of Israel could not have known which was the seventh day from creation, but God knew, and pointed it out to them. It was expressly stated that "to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath," and then this day was pointed out every week for forty years by the absence of manna upon that day, whereas manna fell upon every other day.

Then again, we have mention made of the Sabbath in the New Testament in a manner which forbids the idea that the day then observed was any other than the one specified in the commandment. We read of the women who witnessed the crucifixion that after the crucifixion "they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment."

No one will pretend to deny that the day upon which these women rested was the day specified in the commandment, and that it was also the day generally observed by the Jewish people, and of course they could not keep, according to the commandment, a day other than the one specified in the commandment. And according to the commandment the day to be observed is the day upon which God rested.

But it may be urged that the day has been lost, or changed in some way, since the crucifixion. It is enough, however, to say that it would have been impossible for a whole nation, to say nothing of the whole world, to lose track of the days of the week, and that forty years after the crucifixion Jerusalem was absolutely destroyed and the Jews scattered among all nations; and they have remained a separate people ever since, and yet we now find them in all parts of the world keeping the day which we call Saturday, the day which, according to the numbering of all nations, is the seventh day. Moreover, in all the ancient languages the seventh day, the day commonly called Saturday, bears some name meaning the Sabbath, or rest, so that we have the united testimony of Jews and heathen to the fact that the day commonly called Saturday is the seventh day specified in the commandment.

But Mr. Shepard says that "it was not the seventh day which God blessed, but the rest-day." In this he squarely contradicts the word of God. The fourth commandment expressly says, "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day." But it may be asked, Which is the Sabbath-day? Let the commandment itself answer: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." The Bible says that the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and Mr. Shepard says that God did not bless the seventh day. Whose testimony shall we receive? Only a weak case requires such subterfuges as that resorted to by the president of the so-called American Sabbath Union to sustain the claim of Sunday sanctity.

C. P. B.