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A LOGICAL CONCLUSION

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 10, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 2.

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A LOGICAL CONCLUSION.

By G.

THE observance of the Lord’s day [Sunday] is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church.—Catholic Sabbath Manual.
The Baptists claim to base all doctrine on a “Thus saith the Lord,” but they concede the foregoing Catholic statement, as a few quotations will show:
There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath was and is not Sunday. It will, however, be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament—absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution.—Dr. Hiscox, author of the Baptist Manual.
Commenting upon this statement, the Examiner (Baptist) said:
While the positions taken in the essay seem to be incontrovertible, the statements were startling to many who had not carefully examined the question.
Yet the “statements” were made in a ministers’ conference, which adds to the significance of the fact that “there were many who had not carefully examined the question.” That is just where the trouble comes—with both ministers and layman—they take the Sunday institution for granted, without careful examination for themselves, and unwittingly follow in the wake of Rome. So long has this lack of careful examination been rife that men, even those who profess to follow the Word implicitly, have come to the conclusion that, in the matter of Sabbath observance, it makes no difference whether they have a “Thus saith the Lord” or not. It is more popular, hence more convenient, to go with the multitude. On this point another quotation from the Examiner is pertinent:
Some Baptists are fond of demanding a “Thus saith the Lord” for everything, and profess to accept nothing for which explicit authority can not be produced from the Word of God. Probably not a reader of this paragraph would be willing to follow this principle to its legitimate conclusion. It would involve the immediate return to Sabbath worship, the abolition of Sunday-schools, etc.
And the editor himself shows that he is one of the number described in his editorial, tho he is a recognized leader in the denomination. By himself declining to follow the Protestant, and especially Baptist, doctrine “to its legitimate conclusion,” he deliberately chooses to continue in the popular Roman departure from that principle—with his eyes open. Thenwhat may we reasonably expect but that he and those whom he leads will follow the principle of departure “to its logical conclusion”—the lap of Rome? G.