Sunday not in the New Covenant.
By J. M. McLellan
BRO. SMITH:—There are some in this place that believe that the Son of God abolished the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and taught the observance of Sunday in the place of it. If Sunday is now a part of God's holy law, and the Son of God has thus "honored" it in his teachings, I have nothing to say against it. But this cannot be, for various reasons. The first reason why I do not believe that Sunday, the first day of the week, has taken the place of God's holy Rest-day, the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, and has been thus particularly honored by the Son of God in his teachings will be found in Ps. xl, 8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea thy law is within my heart." By reading verses 6 and 7, it will be seen that the Psalmist is speaking of the Son of God; "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened; burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea thy law is within my heart." By turning to the New Testament, in the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, [chap. x, 6-9.] we will find that Paul quoted these very words of David, and applied them also to the Son of God. "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure; then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God." Says David, in speaking of the same illustrious personage, The law of his God is within his heart. Now as God never had any other law by which he governed the world, than the one which he himself spake and wrote upon two tables of stone, [Deut. v. 22; Ex. xxiv. 12; xxxii, 15, 16,] David must certainly have had reference to the written law of God, the ten commandments, which law David in another psalm, [xix. 7.] calls "PERFECT." And as the days were drawing near when God would make a new covenant, [Jer. xxxi, 31,] with his people in which he would write his Law in their hearts, [verse 33; Heb. viii. 10; 2 Cor. iii. 3,] might we not reasonably expect that he who was to confirm this covenant, [Dan. ix, 27.] "for one week," with the houses of Israel and Judah, would have the law in his heart that when he should be engaged in the work of ratifying the covenant with his people, he might firmly plant in their minds the eternal perpetuity of the law of God; for, says he, "from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;" and in his sermon on the mount, [Matt. v, 17-19] in fulfillment of Isa. xlii, 21, we find him magnifying the law and making it honorable, and teaching its eternal perpetuity; for "till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." O when will men "cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" When will they forsake the commandments and traditions of men, [Mark vii, 7, 8.] for the Commandments of God? When will they cease to catch at straws? When will they leave off building upon a sandy foundation, [Matt. vii, 26, 27.] and begin to build on the rock foundation, "Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," that they may not suffer loss, but receive a reward, an eternal inheritance in the city and kingdom of God. Rev. xxii, 14; Matt. xix, 16, 17. Hastings, Mich., March 9th, 1856.