Reverence for the First day.
By Editor
It is often the case, that after we have shown, that there is no divine authority for the observance of the first day of the week, and have presented the claims of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, that the reply is, "I am not ready to give up the first-day Sabbath in which I have so long been blest." To such we would say, "Come now, and let us reason together." Have you not been blest on other days besides the first day of the week? You certainly have on all seven days of the week, and you will not urge this as a reason why you should observe them all as Sabbaths. Perhaps it was on the second, third, or seventh day of the week that you first found the Saviour precious, and tasted of his pardoning love; and you have never thought of keeping either of these days as a Sabbath on this account. In times of revivals, during protracted meetings of days and weeks, you have enjoyed uninterrupted blessing each day, and no more on the first day, than on other days of the week. You have been blest in the Conference room on the seventh day, or the Class room on other days of the week, quite as abundantly as on the first day of the week. God has blest you on any day of the week when you have come before him in humble worship. There are sufficient reasons why you have been blest on the first day of the week, without supposing it to be a divinely appointed Sabbath. Those who have conscientiously observed the first day, have, on that day, thrown off worldly cares, which pressed upon them the other six days, and have sought for a devotional frame of mind. Rest from toil, freed from worldly cares, the mind turned to the Bible, to God and heaven, attending worship, and having the gospel preached on the first day of the week, are abundant reasons why you have been blest on that day, without supposing that God had blessed the day and made it a Sabbath. Has God blessed one of the seven days of the week? He has. Which one of them? The seventh. [Gen. ii, 2, 3; Ex. xx, 11; Isa. lviii, 13.] Has he thus blessed the first day of the week? Never. Ah! had our fathers observed the sanctified Rest-day of the Lord, they would have shared all the blessing they have enjoyed on the first day of the week, and, also, they would have shared in addition, the hallowed influence of that Holy Day that Jehovah sanctified at the close of the first week of time. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made." Gen. ii, 3. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." Ex. xx, 11. We inquire: Is there the least divine authority for observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath? If not, then we ask: Is mere human authority sufficient to set aside Jehovah's hallowed Rest-day, and reverence as a holy day of rest, that day in which he commenced the work of creation, and which he never blest? Should not those who would reverence God, reverence the Word, and obey his commandments, rather than the traditions of men? "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." Eccl. xii, 13.