Sunday Sabbath Contradictions
By Editor
Why Do They Do It? and Why Do They Not Do It? — These questions have reference to two different things. The California Christian Advocate of January 24 says in its first editorial note: "The church in this city needs a revival. It is the only possible hope of good order and prosperity. There is no spiritual prosperity except in the salvation of the people from sin. We may live in communion with God. Reading the Holy Bible is the way to learn the perfect will of God." The same paper in its third editorial note appeals to Christian people who contemplate making exhibits at the Midwinter Exposition to reserve the right to cover their exhibits on Sunday. It says that the management show no regard for the "Christian sabbath" nor for the "Christian sentiment of this country." "It becomes, therefore, all the more important for Christians to stand firm and solid on the FOURTH COMMANDMENT, and avoid the very appearance of evil." To this last we say, Amen. But the fourth commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day [the rest day] to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath [the rest] of the Lord thy God." Why will our Methodist brethren, and, for the matter of that, brethren of the other denominations, pervert the above to mean the first day. The Sabbath is the day just before the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2), and is, therefore, the seventh day of the week. Why will they contend, in the face of the plain declaration of the Bible, in reading which, the Advocate says, "is the way to learn the perfect will of God"—why will they contend that the seventh day is the first day of the week? Why do they do it? And, on the other hand, when the Bible is so plain, when it says naught about the Sunday, or the first day of the week, as a holy day, when it does say in the fourth commandment and many other places that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, why do they not take their stand "firm and solid on the fourth commandment," and keep the Sabbath of the Lord? Why do they not do it?