THE SABBATH IS THE LORD'S DAY.
By Editor
IN our last two issues we have noticed an article in the Christian Evangelist by a Mr. Martin on the Sabbath question. His arguments on the abrogation of the Sabbath we showed to be unscriptural by the plainest and most positive declaration of Holy Writ, that the entire law of God is forever binding on his creatures, as it will be the rule in the judgment. We might go further and show that the very texts he uses to prove the abrogation of the Sabbath of the Lord, prove that there is no sacred day whatever in the Christian dispensation. But Mr. Martin does not believe this, and endeavors to prove Sunday sacredness in a strange way indeed for a man who belongs to a denomination which boasts of its loyalty to the Bible; he attempts to prove it by Scripture inference and quotations from the Fathers, by whom every error in the Roman Catholic Church can be proved, from infant baptism to purgatory. But let us notice some of his Scripture proof. He says:— "Our Saviour kept the last Jewish Sabbath binding on mankind by lying in the grave from evening to evening. He at once and forever hallowed the first day of the week by coming from the grave in glorious triumph. Here, at Christ's resurrection, the Sabbath has ended, and the sweetness, and light, and liberty of the Lord's day is ushered in (Matt. 27:11). Hence, the first day of the week is 'the queen and the chief' of the days; and the Christian church has ever celebrated it in honor of the resurrection. The grandest events connected with the rise and early growth of the church transpired on the Lord's day, and so filled it forever with sweet and tender memories, with lofty and inspiring motives, which lend a charm to its worship and make its observance a joy and delight.
"1. On this day Christ rose from the dead. Matt. 28:1.
"2. On this day occurred some of Christ's most interesting appearances to his disciples. John 20:19-29.
"3. On this day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the waiting disciples to qualify them for the gospel ministry. Acts 2:1-4.
"4. On this day the church of Christ began. Acts 11:15.
"5. On this day the early church of Christ was worship. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 1:1.
"Can anyone ask for the church to do this, then these facts furnish of the church of the Lord's-day observance?" Let the reader be informed of the statement, or rhetorical, that the word of God. In the first place, Mr. M. could not positively prove that Christ rose on the first day. Matt. 28:1 simply states that he had risen. 2. But one meeting is recorded as having taken place on that day, and that at the very close of the day. His disciples had met at their common abode (Acts 1:13), and Jesus met with them and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen him (Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36, 37). His next meeting with his disciples was not on the first day, for it was "after eight days" from that Sunday-evening meeting. This would be the next week, not earlier than Monday, and probably Tuesday or Wednesday. The next meeting, the third and last mentioned in the Gospels, might have been on the first day of the week, but it does not argue favorably for Sunday observance, for it was on a fishing occasion, and Jesus blessed them by giving them success. John 20:1-14. Thus much the Scriptures reveal of the meetings with Jesus on the first day. 3. The Spirit of God was poured out on the anti-type of the pentecostal feast, held by some great first-day divines to have occurred in that year on the Sabbath, or seventh day. It was not the day of the week honored, or it would have been mentioned. But Jesus passes over at least one first day after his ascension before he gives the Holy Spirit. Why?—Until "the Pentecost was fully come." Acts 2:1. 4. This statement is sheer assumption. The church began when Christ chose his disciples. The pouring out of the Spirit was not the beginning of the church; it was the first-fruits of the church, the result of the faith of that little company which had before formed the church. 5. We have the record of but one religious meeting on the first day of the week in all the New Testament, and that is the text cited by Mr. M. above, Acts 20:7. But, unfortunately for Sunday adherents, the context shows this, that if the meeting occurred on the evening of the first day, our Saturday night, Paul's long journey was also taken on the light part of that same first day, while Luke and the other Christians accompanying him spent the time in sailing the boat round the headland from Troas to Assos. Acts 20 proves that the first day was a secular day. The meeting would probably not have been recorded if it had not been for the notable miracle which there occurred, the raising of Eutychus to life. 1 Cor. 16:1, 2 proves the same thing as the passage above considered, namely, that Sunday was a secular day. There is nothing in the text which indicates that meetings were held; in fact, the very opposite is indicated. After the week was over, the Christians were told every one to lay him in store. Some versions render, "lay by at home," "lay up with himself," etc. Every one gives the same idea of laying up by oneself. These are the proofs. Where can there an honest inference be drawn for first-day observance? There is "sanction" in God's word for "Lord's-day observance." This term, Lord's day, occurs once in the New Testament, in Rev. 1:10, but that text does not tell which is the Lord's day; but Ex. 20:11; Mark 2:27, and Isa. 58:13 prove conclusively that it is the seventh-day Sabbath. God has thrown around that day the sanction of eternal and immutable law, and woe be to him who despises God's word. And after the Bible what?—Nothing, says the true Protestant. The Bible to him is the ne plus ultra of faith. What is not written therein or taught thereby is not to be received by any man as an article of faith. The Bible, and the Bible alone, is the rule, and he who turns from the Bible to tradition, as Dowling has said, passes over the line from Protestantism to Popery, and can give no valid reason. He should not accept the entire103Catholic faith. It will matter not to the true Protestant Christian if the very ones who listened to the apostles taught first-day sacredness; it does not make the day sacred. They belong with the apostasy. The mystery of iniquity worked in Paul's day, and he foretold the apostasy to come, as also did Peter. 2 Thess. 2:7; Acts 20:28, 29; 2 Peter 2:1; Dan. 7:25. We will, however, refer to the testimony of the Fathers in the future. We have answered in these articles Mr. Martin's Scripture arguments, not because they were of themselves worthy of so much notice, but because his arguments and alleged proofs have force with honest Christians. While we have not answered every point raised, to save space and time, we have noticed all of importance, and have shown them to be built upon the foundations of misinterpretation, tradition, and assumption. The Christian indeed will ask: What said my Lord? What day did he keep? How may I walk in his steps? He who would follow Christ will heed the eternal and unchangeable commandment: "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy; . . . the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." This word, not the tradition of men, will judge all in the last great day.
M. C. W.