Justin Edwards vs. Sabbath Manual.
By James White
It is interesting to trace out the contradictory positions taken by our opponents on the subject of the Sabbath. And, occasionally, as if dissatisfied with the tedious work of contradicting one another, they take to contradicting themselves. The following from the writings of Dr. Justin Edwards is a notable instance. In his Sabbath Manual, page 116, speaking of the Apostle’s order in 1 Cor. xvi, 2, he says:— "This laying by in store was not laying by AT HOME; for that would not prevent gatherings when he should come. This could be done only by putting it into one common stock that it might be ready on his arrival." In his notes on the New Testament, on the same passage, he says:— "Lay by him in store; AT HOME. That there be no gatherings; that their gifts might be ready when the Apostle should come." Here is a direct contradiction; and why is it? In the first he speaks as a theorist, having a certain point to make, and the popular view must be sustained at all hazards; but as a critical writer he had a reputation to sustain, and therefore in his notes gives the true idea. If we err in this supposition, and any one will give us the true reason for this contradiction, we shall be happy to make the correction. J. H. W.