A Letter from D. T. Bourdeaux to his Parents.
By D. T. Bourdeaux
VERY DEAR PARENTS: This is a Sabbath morning; the clock strikes five, and I am roused out of my bed to inform you of my sentiments concerning the Sabbath. First. I believe that Sunday is not the Sabbath of the Lord for the following reasons: 1. I do not find a passage in the whole Bible which authorizes me to keep the first day of the week as sacred time; because on that day Christ rose from the dead, and sent his Holy Spirit to his disciples. 2. I do not have a single instance in the New Testament where it is said that Christ or his disciples considered the first day of the week holier than the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth; and it is still more difficult to find a passage of scripture which tells me that Jesus Christ or his disciples kept the first day of the week as sacred time, instead of the seventh. 3. I am not endowed with faculties subtile enough to discern a single passage of the Bible which foretells a transfer of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. But where is the evidence for Sunday keeping? It is not in the Old Testament. It is not in the New Testament. Nor is it in the Old and New Testaments both. Where then, I repeat it, is the proof? The Roman Catholic Church may answer, but revelation is silent. Now my only alternative is, either to admit the infallibility of the Church of Rome, (and in so doing I am obliged to admit all her infernal doctrines,) or that "the word of God endureth forever," that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord" my God. O, away from me the thought of preferring the traditions of poor, sinful, degraded, mortal men, to the infallible word of God. I will ever appeal "to the law and to the testimony," I will follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He kept the Sabbath, and I will not be condemned if I keep it also. The law that Jesus Christ taught and followed is good enough for me. I will believe that the Sabbath rests on the same ground that God prepared for it; viz., the seventh day of the week. I will, God helping me, "rest on the Sabbath day according to the commandment," and keep the whole law. But stop! I already hear some of my friends say, You are premature, and acting under a mere infatuation. To such I would say, Do not be rash in your judgments. I have not jumped at the foregoing conclusions without examining the premises on which they are predicated. Search the scriptures for yourselves, and you cannot help concluding that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." . . . Protestants here detest plain truths of the Bible. How will they receive the truth that will separate them from the world! O may God help me, is my prayer. Yes, help me, Lord. I this day retrace my steps. I come within the circumference of the Bible. I enlist in the army of the Almighty. O guide thy poor feeble creature. St. Michel, Archange, C. E.