Facts about the Sabbath and First Day in the New Testament.
By S. N. Haskell
To investigate the Sabbath question in the New Testament does not require that amount of learning and talent one might suppose. The perplexity that hangs over the subject to many minds is not in the Bible testimony, but in the condition of the human heart. Doubt and darkness and unbelief are natural productions of the carnal mind. Error and unbelief are like weeds in the garden—they grow themselves, while truth and righteousness must be cultivated. A few facts concerning the Sabbath and first day, clearly illustrate this:— 2. Three times repeated we are taught that the Sabbath comes the day before it: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2; Luke 23:53-56 and 24:1. Thus showing, 1st. That the Sabbath is not the first day; and 2d. That the Sabbath always comes the day before the first day. 3. The remaining two instances of its mention are merely incidental. The one in 1 Cor. 16:1, 2, refers to a business transaction performed at their own houses. Justin Edwards in his notes on the New Testament translates the original, "Lay by him in store," "Lay by him in store at home," thus contradicting his exposition in the Sabbath Manual. See page 116. 4. The other, and last instance of its occurrence, refers to an evening meeting. Acts 20:7. This is shown by there being lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. Verse 8. The Sabbath is not even mentioned in all this connection. 5. The Saviour acknowledges a law for the Sabbath in the expression, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-day." Matt. 12:12. 6. He instructs the disciples to remember the Sabbath-day in all their prayers, as late as the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. Matt. 24:24. 7. On the Sabbath-day in A. D. 53, the disciples went out by the river-side where prayer was wont to be made, showing it to be their custom. 8. But no custom is spoken of concerning the first day. No instance of its ever being observed as a Sabbath, but expressly it is said that "when the Sabbath was past," "very early in the morning the first day of the week." Yet in view of all these facts, the majority of people believe that the first day is the Christian Sabbath, and that the Bible teaches it. It would seem that men love darkness rather than light. S. N. HASKELL.