DECLARATIONS ARE NOT PROOFS.
IN the Sunday Reform Leaflets for August, the organ of the Sunday League of America, is an article which attempts to prove the change of the Sabbath by divine authority from the instructions found in Eze. 43:27, which reads:— "And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace-offerings, and I will accept you, saith the Lord God." We showed in our last, what every reader may know for himself if he will candidly read the chapter in which the above occurs, that "the eighth day" has reference to the eighth day of the cleansing of the altar. The seven days previous were days of special ceremony to purify the altar and consecrate the priests, and on the eighth day after that ceremony, and every day to follow, the altar would be ready for the regular offerings. There is no reference to any weekly day or weekly Sabbath, or any other sabbath. It might be well, however, to point out the fact that "the Sabbath," a term everywhere applied to the seventh day, and nowhere to the first, is recognized in the prophecy in contradistinction to "the six working days" of which the first day of the week was one. (See Eze. 41:6.) The article concludes with the following declarations:— "1. We have a plain prophecy [Eze. 43:27] concerning the change of the worship from Saturday to Sunday.
"2. We find its fulfilment under the sanction of Christ and his apostles in the New Testament.
"3. We have apostolical authority to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath. Paul observed it. See Acts 20:7.
"4. Christ Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, approved of it in commemoration of his triumph over death, hades, and the grave.
"5. The Triune God sanctioned the change by the descension of the Holy Spirit, and by the blessings which rested upon its ordinances." 1. But the context shows that the prophecy has no reference whatever to any day of the week, or weekly Sabbath. 2. We find no sanction of any first-day Sabbath by Christ or his apostles. The whole word of God, from Genesis to Revelation inclusive, mentions no first-day sabbath, or first-day holy day. And, as we have shown many times, this is acknowledged by eminent first-day observers. 3. If the reader will turn to Acts 20:4-14, he will see that a farewell meeting was held by the apostles on the evening of the first day of the week (answering, according to Bible reckoning, to our Saturday night); that at that time a notable miracle was performed, even the raising of the dead; that that meeting held till Sunday morning; and that that Sunday the apostle spent in the hard labor of journeying nineteen miles to Assos, while Luke and his companions went around the promontory by boat. That is the way the apostle Paul kept Sunday. 4. Inspiration has not given us a syllable which shows that Christ approved of the Sunday sabbath. He kept and taught the Decalogue, and sealed his holiness by his death on the cross. Who has a right to add to his will? 5. The "descension of the Holy Spirit" on Pentecost was to honor the antitype of that feast and not the day of the week on which Pentecost fell. This is shown by the fact that Pentecost is mentioned while the day of the week is not referred to, some arguing it to be Saturday. Declarations are not proofs. The Bible knows but one weekly Sabbath, namely, the seventh day, the day instituted and kept by Jesus Christ.