WHAT DO OUR GREAT MEN SAY?
By Elder J. M. Cole
THE opinions of our learned men are often urged as arguments that the first day of the week is the Sabbath, and many cling to the observance of Sunday, "because," say they, "if there is no evidence in the Bible for it, our great men would surely know it." The God who knows the hearts of all men tells us plainly in his word that "great men are not always wise" (Job 32: 9), "but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (1 Cor. 1:27). Again, it is said to those who have followed the say so of men, "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity [sin]; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men." Hosea 10:13. Listen to a few of the frank confessions from the lips of those who are themselves Sunday keepers. Dr. William Smith, LL.D., after examining all the texts supposed to have reference to Sunday keeping, says:— Taken separately, perhaps, or even all together, these passages seem scarcely adequate to prove that the dedication of the first day of the week to the purpose afore mentioned was a matter of apostolic institution, or even of apostolic practice.—Dictionary of the Bible, art. Lord's Day. The "Encyclopedia Britannica," after calling attention to the usual scriptural arguments, says:— Still it must be owned that these passages are not sufficient to prove the apostolic institution of the Lord's day, or even the actual observance of it.—Art. Sabbath. "Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," by B. B. Edwards, article "Sabbath," says:— There is not on record any divine command issued to the apostles to change the Sabbath from the day on which it was held by the Jews, to the first day of the week. Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., in the Christian Union of Jan. 19, 1882, plainly states:— The current notion that Christ and his apostles authoritatively substituted the first day of the week for the seventh, is absolutely without authority in the New Testament. Now hear the Rev. Dr. Barnes: "No precept for it [Sunday keeping] is found in the New Testament." Rom. 4:15. Buck's "Theological Dictionary," page 403, after presenting all the first-day arguments, says:— These arguments, however, are not satisfactory to some; and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day. The Protestant Episcopal Church in "Explanation of its Catechism" says:— The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day; . . . but as we meet with NO SCRIPTURAL DIRECTION for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church. Richard Watson, in his "Theological Dictionary," says:— Now there is not on record any divine command to the apostles to change the Sabbath from the day on which it was held by the Jews to the first day of the week. The New Testament is silent about a change of days. The apostles doubtless observed the same Sabbath before and after the resurrection of our Lord, as would be very natural. Binney's "Theological Compend Improved" (Methodist), designed for Bible classes, theological students, and young preachers, admits that "it is true there is no positive command for infant baptism, . . . nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week."—Page 181. And again, on page 171 of the same work, it reads:— Jesus, after his resurrection, changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week; when Jesus gave instructions for this change we are not told, but very likely during the time when he spake to his disciples of things pertaining to his kingdom. Acts 1:3. This is probably one of the many unrecorded things which Jesus did. Now let another of the D.D.'s hit the mark. Dr. Chas. H. Parkhurst, in the Christian Union of January 24, 1886, says on the "Lord's day" of Rev. 1:10:— The case is a difficult one to state justly. That is one reason that the pulpit has so little to say concerning it, and one reason so much written upon it misses the mark. It is a hard mark to hit. One reason of this is the target is so obscure, and another that so many arrows are flying through the air at all angles that it becomes difficult to gain a clear, sure, and steady aim. It is certainly wise to confess the difficulties. If Christ had himself made some definite utterance in regard to observing holy time, matters would be simplified. Opportunities occurred frequently when he might have said something very definite, and that was exactly what the people wanted him to say; but he dealt with the matter only generally. Paul, likewise, handles the question in much the same way. We never hear Paul telling them to observe Sunday, and never discover him sketching any plan for Sunday observance. No one who wants an itemized scheme of Sunday keeping can obtain any such thing either from Paul or the Lord. No one has yet made any careful study of the New Testament if he does not discover clear evidence of intentional indefiniteness. Alexander Campbell, in a lecture in Bethany College, 1848, quoted in Proclamation and Reformer, Cincinnati, says:— Was the first day of the week set apart by public authority in the apostolic age? No. By whom was it set apart, and when? By Constantine, who lived about the beginning of the fourth century. "National Encyclopedia," article "Sabbath," says:— It has been held by many eminent divines that there is not sufficient evidence in the New Testament for such an institution; that the change of the day from the seventh to the first day of the week is an insuperable difficulty.—Art. Sabbath. E. A. Waffle, M.A., professor of rhetoric and English literature in Lewisburg University, Lewisburg, Pa., in his book called "The Lord's Day," on page 186 says:— Up to the time of Christ's death no change had been made in the day. The authority must be sought in the words or in the example of the inspired apostles. On the next page (187) he farther states:— So far as the record shows, they [the apostles] did not, however, give any explicit command enjoining the abandonment of the seventh-day Sabbath, and its observance on the first day of the week. Rev. E. B. Hatch, pastor of the Baptist Church, Salinas, Cal., in the August number, 1892, of Pacific Coast Sabbath Union Monthly, writes:— The religious observance of the first day of the week is not directly commanded in the New Testament. We frankly concede all the Sabbatarian claims on this point, and the absence of any such command in the New Testament concerning the "Lord's day" is a stumbling block to the mere superficial reader. Rev. John Snyder, in an article in the St. Louis Globe Democrat of April 3, 1887, said:— Every instructed man knows that there is no New Testament authority for the change of the day of rest from the seventh to the first day of the week. Every instructed man knows that the Catholic Church gave to the Christian world the Sunday, and determined the manner in which it should be used. And when Protestantism threw off the authority of the Catholic Church, it abandoned the only ecclesiastical foundation upon which Sunday can logically rest.