WHO ARE THE MORE CULPABLE?
MUCH has been said of late about the "breach of trust," the "violation of contract," the "disgrace of the nation," etc., etc., ad infinitum, concerning the opening of the World's Fair by the directors. The Chattanooga Methodist Advocate says in its wrath:— Better, far better, that a cyclone should come out of the West and sweep the whole thing into Lake Michigan, than that this stupendous triumph of all that is great in man should be the occasion of giving a national insult to the Christian's God. Not the almighty dollar, but the Almighty Lord, must be supreme. The Christian Statesman says in substance that if the claim as to jurisdiction and the action of the directors is sustained by the Federal Court, "it will be, not only a national disgrace, but, also, national repudiation of truth in business ventures." "To open the gates of the Fair on the first day of the week will be to, practically, deny this fact [the influence of the American sabbath in this country] and substitute for it that infidelity and not Christianity has been our chief inspiration." "The opening of the gates of the Fair on the Lord's day is the rejection of Jesus Christ as the nation's king." The above are sufficient. Many more characteristic utterances in the same line might be quoted. Many of the religious papers emphatically declare the open gates of the Fair on Sunday to be a transgression of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. Now we wish to inquire, Who are the more culpable—these worldly directors at Chicago, admitting they have violated a contract as claimed, or the greater part of the professed Christian church, who claim God's word as the standard of truth and morals, and that all are obligated to observe the requirements of the Decalogue? The fourth precept of the Decalogue declares expressly and unequivocally that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." It shows the day to be not any one day in seven, but the seventh of the seven, on which the Creator, Christ, rested, and which he hallowed and blessed. That his people might make no mistake in the numbering of the days of the week, God pointed it out by a threefold weekly miracle for forty years. (See Exodus 16.) That no mistake may be made regarding New Testament times, he shows by three different accounts of his life and labors that the Sabbath came the very day before the first day of the week. (See Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 23:56; 24:1.) All men of education know that there has been no change in the numbering of the days of the week since that time. The Jews scattered all over the world are a demonstration of this. Moreover, Christ positively shows in his teaching that he came not to change the law even to one jot or tittle (Matt. 5:17-19; Luke 16:17), and his own shining example in observing the seventh day is left us on record. Yet in the face of all this here is the greater part of professed Christianity declaring that the law of God is of no account in this respect. "Oh, yes, the law is obligatory," they tell us, "but the seventh day means first day," a day on which God never rested, which he never blessed or set apart. Thousands of honest souls approach their teachers in pulpit and press every year with questions concerning the Sabbath like the following: "Why," they ask, "do we not observe the seventh day as God commanded?" "What Scripture warrant have we for observing the first day of the week instead of the seventh day, as commanded by God?" And thousands of times they are turned away with a sneer, a falsehood, a sophistical answer, anything to cover up the simple explicit command of God. The replies to these honest questions are as varied as falsehood always is. Once in a while a teacher is honest enough in theory, false though he may be in practice, to admit that Sunday as a holy day has no scriptural warrant, and that the seventh day is the only Bible Sabbath. Many of these inquirers follow the quest to the light of truth in theory and practice. Many, many more ease their conscience with the falsehood, sophistry, or ridicule of their teachers, and go on as before. But what has been the effect on their life and conscience? It has nullified the Bible, it has made God to them one like unto themselves, it has broken down moral restraint everywhere, and society and the world are reaping the fruit. Who are the more culpable, the professed church or the world? Well did the prophet say: "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." "Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." Eze. 22:26; 13:22. God pity those who are blinded by the false shepherds; God pity the shepherds.