SUNDAY-KEEPING NOT COMMANDED.
By A. SMITH
IN the Gospel commission, what were the disciples required to teach?—"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Matt. 28 : 20. Had Christ commanded them to keep Sunday as the sabbath instead of the seventh-day Sabbath?—We have no record that He did. If He has given no command to keep the first day as the sabbath, by what authority can any one teach it?—By the authority, or command, of man. Will such authority be accepted?—"In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matt. 15 : 9. Were the apostles faithful in carrying out Christ's instruction in the Gospel commission? —Paul says: "I kept back nothing that was4profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house." "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Acts 20 : 20, 27. Sunday-keeping, therefore, was not profitable, and was not in the counsel of God, or Paul would not have failed to declare it; for he did declare all the counsel of God. It was the custom of the Jewish people to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, and had the apostles disregarded that custom, a great excitement would have been created against them on that ground; but the New Testament is silent on the subject, except that Paul says to the Jews, "Tho I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans." Acts 28 : 17.