p. 344 | Santa Rosa, Cal

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 14, 1878

Santa Rosa, Cal.

THE work here is moving steadily onward, and a goodly number of those who have signed the covenant are trying to be overcomers, giving up tobacco and other bad habits. Yesterday seven were baptized. Last night we reviewed a sermon preached in the morning by the pastor of the Presbyterian church of this place. He claimed that the law of God never was and never could be abrogated—not one jot or tittle could pass from the law. This was followed by telling us that the Sabbath day had been changed. Then he said the fourth commandment never enjoined the keeping of the seventh day, and he read Exodus 20:8; "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "There," said he, "thousands of people haven't discernment enough to see that the seventh day is not commanded;" and again, "God never blessed the seventh day, but only the Sabbath institution."

Could it be possible that the man thought he had given all of the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8? Verses 9 and 10 read, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;" &c. Could it be possible he never read Gen. 2:3, "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it?" He admitted he could not find any place in the New Testament that said the Sabbath had been changed, but claimed examples to prove it, and of course failed to find them. But about as strong evidence as he had was, "the fact that the first day is so universally observed shows there must be a divine appointment for it." Would not that kind of an argument prove a divine appointment for lying, for it is a fact that it is quite universal? We need not dwell further upon such a mass of contradictions. May the Spirit of God help to open the eyes of the blind, that they may see his truth in all its beauty. Our church was filled to hear the review. May God bless the word spoken.

W. M. HEALEY, J. D. RICE. November 11, 1878.