A REMARKABLE ADMISSION.
By K. C. Russell
It has long been a query how ministers of the Gospel can conscientiously base their argument for Sunday observance upon the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue. It will be a source of interest to many to read the following remarkable admission made by Rev. Lichliter, at Olean, N. Y., in a sermon delivered before the Epworth League on the subject of Sabbath observance, and reported in the Rochester Herald of May 20. Here is what he says: "This matter of Sabbath observance is a practical question, and must be treated in a practical manner. Our ministers have been basing their arguments for Sunday observance upon the Fourth Commandment. What is the use? What good does it do to base our arguments upon a thing which technically is not binding, which the Jewish rabbis and Socialist organizations know is not, and laugh to scorn any arguments upon that ground. We must base our arguments upon something besides the Fourth Commandment, for they know that that is Jewish in spirit and temper, and laugh us to scorn for quoting a commandment which we do not obey and will not." While all lovers of truth should be thankful for this admission so frankly made, yet it would have been more satisfactory had the admission embraced the whole Bible as being an unwarranted basis for Sunday observance. It is to be regretted, however, that the Rev. Lichliter has associated with such a noble admission the statement that the Fourth Commandment is Jewish in spirit; for there is no more foundation for such a statement than there is for its being a basis for Sunday observance. Jesus Christ is the one who gave the law, as can be proven from the Scriptures. In Heb. 12:26 we read of Christ: "Whose voice then [at the time the law was given] shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven." Also in Isa. 33:22 the same truth is emphasized, "For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us." The apostle Paul, in Rom. 7:14, says, "We know that the law is spiritual." These and many other scriptures plainly indicate that the law of God is not possessed of a Jewish spirit, but the Holy Spirit, and Christ is its author; therefore it is His law.