OPPOSITION MEETINGS AT PARKVILLE, MICH by John Norton Loughborough

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 8, 1859

OPPOSITION MEETINGS AT PARKVILLE, MICH.

By John Norton Loughborough

We give below a few extracts from the notes of a couple of sermons preached against the truths we had presented in Parkville. Not that there is anything very new and powerful in them, but to show the weakness of some men that oppose us.

The first discourse was by one Eld. Sackett, in which he endeavored to establish the immortality of the soul, as follows:

1. Some deny the immortality of the soul because there is no argument in Scripture to sustain it; but it does not necessarily follow that the soul is not immortal.

2. Eccl. ix, 5. "Dead know not anything." I have not made up my creed from a few Old Testament effusions.

3. Ps. cxv, 16-18. "Dead praise not the Lord." The dead in this text means worshipers of idols.

4. Ps. cxlvi, 4. "In that very day his thoughts perish." This is said of princes. That princes come to naught is clearly inferable.

5. Mal. iv, 1. "Burn them up and leave them neither root nor branch." This is all in symbols. "Burned up," means banished from God's glory. "Root."—"Love of money is the root of all evil." "Branch."—"I am the vine, ye are the branches." They are banished from the presence of the Lord and know no more of his blessings.

6. Eternal life is not eternal being; but it is eternal well-being.

7. "Inward man." It is the hidden man of the heart which Peter declares is not corruptible. It is the soul. It is not corruptible, and therefore is immortal.

8. The good and great of all ages have not received the view of the sleep of the soul &c.; these views have only been held by a few.

9. "It is appointed unto men once to die." Not (as we are told), to die, and be raised from the dead, and die again.

10. The tendency of this doctrine is bad. A young man in Sandusky, Ohio, went into drunkenness because he heard his father preach the doctrine of the non-immortality of the soul.

After the elder had quoted some of the common round of texts to prove the immortality of the soul, elder Duncan arose to make some remarks as follows:

1. Some argue that there must be a resurrection of the body, because the body is responsible for the deeds we do here. If the body is responsible, then all our bodies are responsible. A man that has lived sixty years, according to physiology, has occupied forty-eight different bodies, and these must all be raised in order that the man may be punished.

2. If we are to have literal bodies in the resurrection, then we shall be clothed upon with one of our enemies, for the flesh is an enemy.

3. The reason our courts of justice do not hang idiots who commit murder, is because they consider that the man who has no mind is not responsible for his acts; and therefore the body is not responsible for the deeds of the man.

One of the congregation asked the elder if he believed idiots had souls. His answer was that they had not. He also informed his congregation that he did not believe in the resurrection of the body, but believed that all men went to their reward or punishment at death. We thought truly this Methodist minister is far in advance of Wesley.

The second discourse was from elder Duncan, on the Sabbath question, in which he made the following as some strong points.

1. The Sabbath has been brought up as the seventh day, and one of the principal arguments in its support is that it is ancient. There are other things that are ancient. The Jews kept every seventh year. It is still obligatory upon them and they keep it. If I was a Jew, I would keep the Sabbath.

2. The Lord said the Sabbath was to be an institution between him and his people, and said "This shall be to commemorate my bringing you out of Egypt." He also said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, because I have brought you out of Egypt."

3. When we get along to Num. xxiii, the first day is spoken of as sacred. The feast was to be kept seven days. The first day was a holy convocation, and the eighth day was a holy convocation, which would be the first day of the week again.

4. Christ repudiated the idea of laying so much stress on the Sabbath. The Pharisees upbraided Christ for breaking the Sabbath, and not for taking grain out of another man's field. Is there not danger of our running after the Sabbath and neglecting other duties.

5. If we are to keep the seventh day, when shall we begin to reckon? From the first day of creation, or man's own first day. Man was created on the sixth day, and the seventh day to him would be our Friday. This is the day the Jews scrupulously observed

6. Our seventh day friends have based themselves on the reckoning of the Quakers. The Quakers said calling the days Sunday, Monday, &c., savored of heathenism; so they called Sunday first-day, Monday the second-day &c. Our seventh day friends have taken for granted that their reckoning was right and so call our Saturday the seventh day. So you see that our seventh day friends are based on the Quakers.

7. There has been a great amount of intelligence on the side of Sunday, and that ought to make us respect the institution. Query. In the absence of law (?) what is the rule? Answer, Caution.

8. Didn't your fathers set aside the day, and did not God bless them in keeping it? Will you suffer your fathers to be treated in the manner they have been? I want to know if there is not patriotism enough in Park, to stand up for your fathers?

9. But some one will say, Where is your Bible for keeping Sunday? Where has the Lord said, Ye shall not keep the seventh year? When you will bring testimony to show that we are not to keep the seventh year, I will give you Bible for Sunday-keeping.

10. Don't follow those who say "Lo here is Christ, and lo there." Christ will appear in our hearts. This is the second coming of Christ. But when Christ was asked by his disciples in regard to the time of his coming, he said he knew nothing about it. But our friends at the tent profess to know more than Christ. To how many Christ has made his appearing and found them watching.

After Eld. D. had finished his discourse, Eld. Sackett arose and said: "Man's physical and spiritual wants require a day of rest. I keep the fourth commandment. I labor six days and rest one Christians have always supposed that the man who labored six days and rested one kept the commandment. When man begins to labor, God begins to count." He next told us: "I can see but little that is good in the decalogue. It is too short for the gospel dispensation. I object to it because it tolerates slavery. All the inducement it holds out to children to obey their parents is long life in Palestine. God talks to men according to their ability. If men can comprehend the decalogue, I have no objections to their keeping it." He stated that it had all passed, and those who contended for it ought to have lived about two thousand years ago.

Thus we were carried gradually down the hill. We endeavored to review in a candid manner all that was worth reviewing in the two discourses. It was not without effect. Some who had been waiting, anxious to hear the other side, became settled on the truth and have begun to obey.

J. N. Loughborough.

Battle Creek, Nov. 28th, 1859.