WHAT A BAPTIST PAPER SAYS.
By Editor
WE have before noticed the ground that was taken in a paper read a short time since at a meeting of the New York Ministers' Conference. The subject was "The Transference of the Sabbath," and the writer was Dr. E. T. Hiscox, an able Baptist minister. The following week there was a large attendance, and the paper was discussed. The Examiner, the leading Baptist paper in America, in its issue of November 16, thus speaks of that meeting:— "The moderator, Rev. R. M. Luther, D.D., was in the chair, and the attendance was large, it including many pastors of the larger churches in New York and Brooklyn. The morning was given to the discussion of the paper by Dr. E. T. Hiscox, on "The Arguments for the Transference of the Sabbath," read at the last Monday's meeting. No hastily written and condensed report could do justice to the accurately written and critical statement made by Dr. Hiscox. While the positions taken in the essay seem to be incontrovertible, the statements were startling to many who had not carefully examined the question. The essayist began by defining the conditions of the question. The appeal is to the word of God, not to tradition or to the custom of the church in any age. When we examine exactly what the New Testament says, one is surprised to find that there is no definite statement on the subject. The first and most common argument for the transfer of the worship day from the seventh to the first day of the week is based upon the supposed fact of the resurrection of our Lord upon the first day of the week. The statement is simply that very early in the morning of the first day of the week the disciples came to the sepulcher and found that he had arisen. . . . When we come to examine the meetings of the apostles, we find that they met naturally on the day succeeding his resurrection. Their next meeting was after eight days—certainly not the first day of the week. The same uncertainty attends the statements made in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse. The much-quoted passage in the Book of Revelation, in which John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, the time is not definite. It may refer simply to an intermediate period, as does the similar phrase, "the day of the Lord." In conclusion, there is no definite and clear statement in Scripture that there was any transfer of the observance of a Sabbath to the first day of the week." Among the speakers who took part in the discussion were Rev. Messrs. E. T. Tomlinson, Ph.D., G. W. Samson, LL.D., Norman Fox, D.D., Walter Rauschenbusch, J. B. Simmons, D.D., Lemuel Moss, D.D., Professor N. Schmidt, of Hamilton, and Dr. D. J. Yerkes, of Plainfield, N. J. "Of this discussion," says the Examiner, "it may be said in a general way that very little new light was thrown upon the subject. The best thing that can be said of it is that it proved to be one of very great interest to the ministry of the churches. The discussion of itself was very unequal." What are our Baptist friends, who have prided themselves on their loyalty to the Bible, going to do with the seemingly "incontrovertible" position of Dr. Hiscox?