HOW THE SABBATH WAS CHANGED.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
Since a change of the fourth commandment of the decalogue is, by the admission of Dr. Patton, "one of the hardest things to prove," light upon the modus operandi by which the change was effected must be desirable with those who advocate the change. I have before me a tract entitled, "The Divine Law of the Christian Sabbath," by Orceneth Fisher, of East Texas Annual Conference, in which are some arguments which commend themselves to every mind capable of appreciating the force of an argument, on the origin and perpetuity of the Sabbath instituted in Eden before man fell, its nature and significance as a memorial of creation, from which he justly concludes, that, "As long as creation stands to proclaim a Creator, so long must the Sabbath remain to attest that God made it, and that he made it in six days." But when he comes to speak of the change to the first day, he has something new, and something important too, provided he has truly revealed the manner in which the change was effected. First, however, in speaking of the sufferings and death and resurrection of Christ, he justly concludes that it was "important and necessary that there should be some monument, divinely erected, to keep the world in memory of the fact." He adds, "the sacrament of the Lord's supper, indeed, was appointed to commemorate his death; but this was only half the work." Baptism being changed to sprinkling in our writer's creed, of course he did not think of that as commemorating the burial and resurrection of Christ. Thus one error makes room and creates the necessity for another. He proceeds:— "A fact so vitally connected with, and so fundamental to, the whole cause of Christianity [the resurrection of Christ], could not be too well attested not only to that, but also to all succeeding generations. It was natural that the day of the week, on which this most glorious event transpired, should be held sacred to its memory. "But as two Sabbaths in one week would so abridge the time of man's labor that it would in many instances put it out of his power to support himself and family, and would at once conflict with the law that has said, 'Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,' it was necessary that the Sabbath itself should be moved out of its place to accommodate this matter. The bare setting apart a day from common to sacred purposes, as in the original institution of the Sabbath, would not here answer the purpose. The subject was too august and important to be put upon a level with creation; it stood on far higher ground. When the prodigal son returned to his father's house, things were not allowed to go on in their usual course, but the fatted calf must be killed, and there must be a time of general joy. So when God redeemed the world by the blood of his Son, things were moved out of their regular courses: The sun was darkened without eclipse, the earth shook with strange convulsions, the rocks lost their adhesiveness and rent asunder, the graves opened of their own accord, and the long-sleeping dead were stirred, and the old Sabbath of four thousand years' standing is moved out of its place! and now no longer brings up the rear of days, but stands in front of all the rest, and leads the van in a new era of the world's history, and a new dispensation of the moral government of God!" Much has been attempted in the past to remove the Sabbath from its primitive foundation. But seeing every appeal to the word of God for this purpose has proved abortive, our author invokes the earthquake's power, and, lo! he fancies he sees the Sabbath move! The voice of God once shook the earth, when he spake his "fiery law" from Sinai; and he has promised that once more he will shake the earth and the heavens. Heb. 12:18-29. When this takes place, the false foundations will be discovered, Eze. 13:14, and the things that cannot be shaken will remain. Then it will appear that the Sabbath of the Lord stands firm upon its original foundation, where Jehovah placed it. The latter utterance of God's voice will not contradict the former, but confirm it. But what will then become of such assertions as these of our author following: "Immediately after the resurrection, the first day of the week was kept as a Sabbath, and all Christians from that time onward met on that day for divine service," and that "several times the Saviour met them in their meetings on that day," assertions that have been a hundred times refuted? The Scriptures inform us of but one first-day on which the Saviour met with his disciples—the evening following his resurrection. On this occasion he did not find them "in their meetings," but at home, eating their supper. Mark 16:14. He did not find them celebrating his resurrection, for they did not believe that he was risen. This first-day is "several times" mentioned in the four gospels, but it is all the one that is mentioned at all in them. The assertion of our author puts me in mind of the theological professor who told his class that the Saviour met with his disciples eight or ten successive Sundays after his resurrection; all of which must have occurred during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension! There is but one religious meeting, on the first day, recorded in the New Testament, Acts 20:7, and there, upon the same day in which the apostle preached and broke bread, he started upon a long journey. But our writer says that "immediately after the resurrection, the first day of the week was kept as a Sabbath." The Scriptures say no such thing, and history says no such thing. How, then, do they know it? Sir Wm. Domville says, "Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed as a Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in A. D. 321." Heylyn also says of the term Sabbath in the ancient church:— "The Saturday is called amongst them by no other name than that which it formerly had, the Sabbath. So that whenever, for a thousand years and upwards, we meet with Sabbatum in any writer of what name soever, it must be understood of no day but Saturday." If these and like testimonies can be disproved, let it be done. But I have said more than I intended. It struck me as a curiosity how the earthquake at the crucifixion should shake the Sabbath of the fourth commandment off from the seventh day on to the first, without jostling into pi the other commandments of the decalogue.