NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS.
By J. W. Morton
[The following experience of J. W. Morton, in relation to the Sabbath, is from a tract published by himself in 1850. The readers of the REVIEW will be interested to learn the manner in which he was treated by his former brethren, simply for taking the Word of God for the man of his counsel, and heeding this plain injunction, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." It shows the weakness of those who oppose the Sabbath of the Lord, and endeavor to establish in its stead, that darling off-spring of Papacy, the Pagan Sunday; and, indeed, the actions of the Synod against him, remind us more of the bigoted proceedings of a Catholic Priesthood, than the deliberations of Christian men, who profess to follow the Bible as their only guide. It shows to what unjust and disgraceful means, Error will resort to save itself.] On the 13th of December, 1847, I landed with my family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the first Foreign Missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States. I began my labors soon afterwards, and continued them, without serious interruption, till the 21st of April, 1849, when a train of circumstances, to which I am about to advert, made it necessary that I should return home. In the latter part of December, 1848, I was unexpectedly called upon to defend the practice of keeping holy the first day of the week, in place of the seventh. I had been taught from my infancy, that the moral law, "summarily comprehended in the ten commandments," is the only rule of moral conduct; and I had supposed, that it required me and everybody else to keep the "Christian Sabbath" on the first day of the week. On examination, however, I was forced to the conclusion, that the fourth commandment enjoins nothing else than the sanctification of the seventh day. Of course, then, I must either renounce this precept, as a part of the rule of my life, or endeavor to keep holy the seventh day of the week. The former I might not dare to do; the latter I knew I might attempt, without offending God, or insulting the majesty of his law. The question then came up, Is there any scripture authority for keeping holy the first day? Does God require it? I knew very well, that if God does not require it, I could not, as a reformed Presbyterian, bind my conscience to it. I took up the Bible, resolved on a prayerful and thorough search. I wished to assure myself of the divine authority of the first day, even after I was satisfied that the claims of the seventh are indisputable. But how was it possible to gain this object? Every text to which I was referred for proof seemed to lack the very thing that I most wanted, a certain testimony to the institution of a Christian Sabbath. I reasoned thus:—The fact that Christ appeared once or twice to his disciples on the first day of the week, and the fact that the disciples met once on that day to break bread, and the fact that Paul commanded the Corinthians and Galatians to 'lay by them in store' on that day, as God had prospered them—these facts, with a few others, might shed light on the institution, if one single text could be found, to prove its existence. But if this can not be found, they do not touch the question at issue. And how I did long for that one text! How I chided with the Apostles for not having made known more clearly what I had determined to be the will of God! Never did Rachel mourn for her children, as I mourned for that one text: but, like her, I could not be comforted, because it was not! I was thus driven to the conclusion, that, should I make conscience of keeping holy the first day of the week, I would offer to God a service that he did not require, and could not accept at my hands. But what was I to do? This was the great practical question. Could I, with my then present views, continue to preach the gospel, as I had done before, in that "land of darkness, and of the shadow of death?" Could I teach the children in the school, as I had taught them before, that God had changed the Sabbath to the first day of the week?—Could I proclaim to the benighted heathen, that they might habitually break the fourth commandment with impunity? Could I, as a Protestant missionary, become the partisan of him who thought "to change times and laws," [I believe that the prophecy in Dan. vii, 25, refers mainly to the change of Sabbath-time, and Sabbath-law. What time, of divine appointment, it may be asked, was ever changed, except the time of the Sabbath?] by assuring his devotees, that his changes had been made by divine authority? Or, on the other hand, could I carry out my convictions of truth and duty, declaring the whole counsel of God, as I then understood it, and retain, at the same time, my connection with my brethren at home? Would they grant me this privilege, and, if they would, could I accept it. A little reflection served to convince me, that all these questions must be answered in the negative. It was no small matter, to resolve upon breaking those bonds of ecclesiastical fellowship that had so sweetly bound me to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. A struggle, painful indeed, but not protracted, ensued. I resolved at once to keep the Sabbath in my family, though I feared it would not be honest to make any public exhibition of my views, while I continued to minister by the authority of the Synod. I knew not what I should have done, had not my change of sentiments brought with it the needed consolations. Whatever were the "vexing thoughts" with which my heart was oppressed, during the first six days of the week, I found invariably, in the quiet retreat of my little family, on the seventh, that "peace of God that passeth all understanding." Yes, Haiti, when the recollection of thy brilliant skies, thy evergreen mountains, and thy sweet clear rivers, shall have ceased to awaken joy in my bosom, the memory of thy Sabbaths shall be "my songs in the house of my pilgrimage!" Convinced as I was, that something must be done immediately to bring the subject of my change to the attention of the rulers of our church, before the next meeting of the Synod, I prepared the following Circular Letter, which I transmitted to more than seventy ministers and elders, in different parts of the United States. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 17th, 1849.
MY DEAR BROTHER,—The mutual relation existing between us, as members of the same Synod, the glory of our common Lord, the interests of our Mission, and a sacred regard for personal character, all require, that the following statement be transmitted to you and my other co-presbyters, with as little delay as possible. If I am not actuated herein by a desire to promote God's glory and the salvation of men, may the Lord rebuke and forgive me, and "let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness!" May the Head of the Church grant to you, and to all the other members of Synod, a disposition to hear, with patience and candor, a narration of my recent experience, in which perhaps you may find things both "new and old." My sentiments in relation to the "Sabbath of the Lord our God," have undergone an important change; to which I now wish to call your attention. Our Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Testimony, all teach that the first day of the week is, and has been ever since the resurrection of Christ, the Christian Sabbath. This doctrine alone, of all those contained in our Standards, though I did believe it till lately, I can no longer receive.—As to the manner of sanctifying the Sabbath, I believe all that you and I have always contended for; but, for the present, I am constrained to believe that the seventh day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath that God has ever appointed. My attention was first called to this subject by Rev. W. M. Jones, Missionary of the Baptist Church, who has recently abandoned his earlier views and practice in regard to the Sabbath. He not only argued the question with me at length, but gave me some publications of the American Sabbath Tract Society, which, as they seemed to breathe a spirit of ardent piety and zeal for God's law, I read with attention. Both in my discussion with him, and in the reading of those tracts, I struggled with all my might to convince myself, from the Scriptures, of the divine appointment of the first-day, or Christian Sabbath. But though I did not then doubt it, I was astonished to find how hard it is to prove it. I searched all the books I could find, bearing on this question, and discovered, what I had never noticed before, that the early French and Genevan Reformers, with Calvin at their head, had taught the abrogation of the fourth commandment, as a ceremonial institution; and that they contended for a Sabbath, or stated day of worship, under the gospel, only as a wise and necessary human arrangement. I found that even Turretin, at a later period, had130taught that the fourth commandment is partly ceremonial, and that it was necessary to change the Sabbath from the seventh day, in order to put a difference between Jews and Christians. I found also, in my books, quotations containing similar sentiments, from the celebrated Augsburg Confession. The only authors I could find who had attempted to prove, from the Scriptures, that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, by divine authority, were, Turretin and the framers of our Standards. These authors appeared to depend mainly for proof upon three texts of Scripture:—Acts xx, 7; I Cor. xvi, 1, 2; and Rev. i, 10. When I came to examine these texts, I was surprised and mortified to find that they contain neither the word “Sabbath,” nor any other synonymous with it. True, I had always thought that the “Lord’s day,” [Rev. i, 10,] was the first day of the week; but my opponents contended that the terms refer more properly to the seventh, which God styles “my holy day,” [Isa. lviii, 13,] and when I remembered “his challenging a special propriety in the seventh,” I could not well not deny it. Moreover, I could not find a single passage asserting that the first is holier than any other day of the week, or that Christians were, in the Apostles’ days, in the habit of holding religious meetings regularly on that day.—Neither could I discover that Christ or his Apostles had ever spoken, directly or indirectly, of keeping a day holy in honor of his resurrection; nor that that event, which is always held up as the occasion of the change of the Sabbath, is even once mentioned in connection with the first day, unless where it is recorded as a historical fact. On the other hand, I observed that Christ and his Apostles were accustomed to enter into the synagogue on the seventh day, or Sabbath, for public worship.—Luke iv, 16; Acts xvii, 2, and elsewhere. Thus, my dear brother, I saw at this critical moment all Scripture evidence forsaking me, while every inch of ground on which I could set my feet was trembling. It seemed as if the thunders of Sinai were uttering anew their awful threatenings, while the “still small voice” of “Him that dwelt in the bush” was whispering in my ears, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God!” Ex. xx, 10. “I am Jehovah, I change not.” Mal. iii, 6. “Verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. v, 18. Still I hesitated. For a moment I thought of “going down to Egypt for help.” The Fathers, thought I, have fixed the interpretation of these texts in favor of the observance of the first day. But immediately I heard a voice within me, saying, “Would you then observe a holy-day, whose appointment cannot be proved from the Bible, without the aid of human tradition? Could you admit the ‘testimony of the Fathers,’ to set aside one of the plainest injunctions of the moral law, that law that was written upon tables of stone, ‘by the finger of God,’ and styled, by way of preeminence, ‘the Testimony?’” No! I replied, with an involuntary shudder; and another flood of Scriptures came rushing in, like “deep waters,” to the very soul.—“The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. xix, 7.—“Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” Ps. cxix, 89. “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Ps. cxix, 142. “All his commandments are sure; they stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. cxi, 7, 8. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. v, 17. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. iii, 31. O my brother, “the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any wo-edged sword.” You have now my reasons for embracing a doctrine which is confessedly at variance with our Standards. What I entreat of you is, that you will once more examine this subject for yourself, and see whether those Standards are consistent, on this point, either with the Scriptures, or with themselves. You perhaps think that I have forsaken the “footsteps of the flock,” and that testimony which has been sealed with the blood of martyrs. But tell me candidly, was there ever a martyr who died in defense of the first-day Sabbath? Or, could you, my brother, collect from the Scriptures evidence of its divine appointment, clear enough to solace your soul in the midst of the flames? From my inmost soul I pity that Covenanter who may be called to testify, at the stake, to the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Remember, too, that I am now in the path that was trodden by the saints for more than four thousand years; and it is for you to show that that path was ever stopped up, unless by the presumption and inexcusable neglect of man. Truly, I am “compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses.” I would follow the example of Jehovah himself, who, “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” and by whom “the Sabbath was made for man;” the example of Adam, Enoch, and Noah; of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve patriarchs; of Moses, Aaron and those millions of Pilgrim Covenanters who united in its observance in the wilderness; the example of Samuel, David and a host of other prophets; of Jesus Christ, our Divine Mediator, and “Lord of the Sabbath;” and of the Apostles of our Lord, together with the churches established and watered by them;—in one word, the example of all the saints, from Adam to the last Apostle; all of whom kept and honored the seventh day as “the Sabbath of the Lord their God.” I intend, if the Lord will, to be present at the next meeting of our Synod, and meet my brethren face to face. I expect, of course, nothing less than to be excluded from the privileges of the church; but I rejoice that I have learned to respect the discipline of the Lord’s house. I desire, therefore, with a willing heart to approach the altar, and, if the Head of the Church require it, to be “offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,” that God may be glorified in my salvation, and not in my destruction. God forbid, that either prejudice, willful ignorance, passion, or personal resentment, should fan the flames of that altar! In conclusion, rest assured of my continued and unabated attachment to the cause of the Reformation, in general, and to the interests of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in particular; and allow me to repeat what I have already intimated, that with every other doctrine contained in our Standards, I am, so far as I understand my profession, entirely satisfied; nor have I abandoned this one, but from a firm conviction that it is not taught in God’s Word. I know well, that trials sore and many await me. God doth know, that my heart delighteth not in contention; but, my brother, have we not all “entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God.” Neh. x, 29. Your Brother in Gospel bonds.
J. W. MORTON.
Missionary of the Ref. Presb. Church.