CHRISTIAN SABBATH

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 4, 1860

"CHRISTIAN SABBATH."

(Continued)

FOLLOWING his introduction, Mr. Lee lays down the following proposition to be proved, viz. :

"The Christian Sabbath, celebrated on the first day of the week, is of divine appointment, and binding upon all Christians."

Those who have studied the Sabbath question will perceive that a task of no small magnitude is laid out in the above. But Mr. L. has given it to the public as his belief, and a proposition which he is able to prove. His reputation, therefore, as a theologian and logician is staked upon its maintenance. "The first day of the week is of divine appointment." For the support of this absolute statement, we have a right to expect absolute proof. We have a right to expect, or rather, demand, that he show us from the word of the Lord that divine appointment which fixes the Christian Sabbath to the first day of the week; and that he show us unqualified authority for his unqualified assertion that it is "binding upon all Christians." If this is not done in the work before us, one of two things will remain for Mr. Lee to do: either to show us something better, or to abandon his position as false and untenable.

Let us now address ourselves to an examination of his proof. His next declaration reads as follows: "1. The observance of the Christian Sabbath was foretold in a very remarkable prophecy, as connected with and following the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ."

What do you suppose, reader, that remarkable prophecy is which is here referred to? You who have read your Bibles from beginning to end a dozen or a score of times, have you ever come across this prophecy in which the "Christian Sabbath was foretold?" If you have never been able to discover it, we will tell you on the authority of Mr. L. what it is? It is that passage (and there is but one which is ever impressed into this service) so invariably referred to, which speaks of Christ's being the head of the corner. It reads as follows: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." Ps. cxviii, 22, 23, 24.

Since this passage is made to fill so large a place, and bear the burden of so important an office, we would invite especial attention to the scripture, and a consideration of the following questions: Does the text say anything about a Sabbath? It does not. Does it say that any particular day is to be made a day of rest? It does not. Does it say that the day there mentioned is to supersede or take the place of, anything else? It does not. Does it tell us whether a day of twenty-four hours is meant, or an indefinite space of time as in Ps. xcv, 7, 8? It does not. If a day of the week is meant, are we told which day? We are not. But all these particulars, it seems to us, should be distinctly specified, if the prophecy contemplates the abolition of the creation Sabbath and the erection of another and particular day in its place. Whenever any change is prophesied of, the change is distinctly named; whenever any particular institution is taken into account in prophecy, the name of the institution is plainly given. There are prophecies in the Old Testament touching the Sabbath; but in those prophecies the Sabbath is named. See Isa. lvi, 1, &c. There is a prophecy also relative to the ceremonial sabbaths of the Jews, in which their cessation is predicted; but the prophecy calls them plainly by name, not leaving us to guess at what is intended. See Hos. ii, 11. But no such specifications are found in the Psalm which is claimed to refer so definitely and remarkably to the first day of the week. Yet, says Mr. Lee, the "text does prophetically refer to the Christian Sabbath;" by the day the Lord hath made "is meant the Christian Sabbath, set apart in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord, which occurred thereon;" "by rejoicing and being glad in it, is meant the joy and gladness of Christian worship." "How any one," he continues, "can fail to see all this in the prophecy, must be very difficult for an unsophisticated mind to understand."

Where a statement rests upon bare assertion, it is nullified by an equally positive and opposite assertion. Mr. Lee asserts that Ps. cxviii, 24, does refer prophetically to the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath. Seeing that the text is destitute of every feature necessary to such an application, we as emphatically and positively assert that it does not; and who can say that the latter is not just as good as the former? But that his statement may not seem to rest wholly upon assertion, he brings up the following considerations:

1. The testimony respecting the head stone of the corner is applied to Christ in the New Testament, as in Matt. xxi, 42. Acts iv, 10, 11. 1 Pet. ii, 7. Granted. But what has that to do with the Christian Sabbath? How does the fact that Christ was the head stone of the corner prove the day there mentioned to be a Sabbath, or the first day of the week? The logical connection between these two points, must, we think, be "very difficult for an unsubstantiated mind to understand." But the fact that that part of the prophecy which relates to Christ, is so definitely applied in the New Testament, instead of leading our friends to multiply their speculations and strengthen their assurance in regard to the day, ought to lead them to be very modest in their application, or else to be silent altogether. One part of the prophecy is directly applied; respecting the other the New Testament maintains an absolute silence. There is a significance in this, which must be apparent to all. Has any sacred writer, in speaking of the first day of the week, ever applied to it the words of the Psalm, "This is the day which the Lord has made?" Not one. Had they done so, it would indeed have proved that the first day of the week was the day intended in the prophecy; but even this would have come far short of proving it to be the Christian Sabbath, or of showing that the day was to be a holy day, or was to take the place of the one at first instituted; for being glad and rejoicing, are emotions which can be exercised upon any day without making a sacred day of it, or a rest-day of it, or proving it to be of weekly recurrence, or transferring to it the obligation of the ancient Sabbath.

2. The second consideration which Mr. L. brings forward to show that the first day of the week is the day intended, is this: "The text cannot be applied to any other event of sufficient importance to entitle it to occupy so lofty a note in the song of the prophet." We have the writer's authority for this; but whether we have anything more we are not told. Our reply is at hand; namely, The text can be applied to some other time, and more appropriately too, since it will be according to Scripture. The "day" is again brought to view in Heb. iii, 7, and iv, 7. And what day is this? Ans. The gospel day, or the new dispensation. In Heb. iii, the dispensation introduced by Moses, and that introduced by Christ, are contrasted. The commencement of the former is spoken of as the provocation, the day of temptation in the wilderness; the latter opens with the cheering proclamation, "To-day," in this gospel day, this new dispensation, this better covenant, "if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." And well may the Lord be said to have made, or created, this day, since it comes by virtue of his mission, his death and resurrection; and well may we, needy probationers, be glad and rejoice therein.

We close our argument on this division of the subject by introducing a few pointed quotations from eminent writers. W. B. Taylor, in a discussion on the Sabbath with J. N. Brown, D. D., in which the latter takes the same ground with Mr. Lee, in reply says: "The first text urged to indicate a change of day is from Ps. cxviii, 24: 'This is the day which the Lord has made; we will be glad and rejoice in it.' Upon which J. N. B. remarks: 'How "made?" This word can have no distinct meaning, unless it signifies here, "made sacred," and to agree with the foregoing verse, it must mean, "made sacred to Christ," in honor of his exaltation as the "head of the corner." And that this sacredness is to be recognized by the Church is clear from the following words: "We will rejoice and be glad in it."' Ergo, 'Thou shalt not do any work on Sunday: ergo, the Jewish Sabbath has been 'transferred.'' Quite an imposing hypothetical sorites. If "made" signifies here 'made sacred,' and if this signifies 'made sacred to Christ,' and if this signifies 'made sacred from labor,' why then it is not impossible that a 'Sabbath' may here be intended. And, in the second place, if the word 'day' signifies here a time of weekly recurrence, and if that time is Sunday, and if 'to be glad in it' means to worship on it, and if to worship on it means to 'rest' on it, why then perhaps Sunday is a 'Sabbath.' To blow upon this paper building would be a superfluous effort of breath; and were I to assist my friend in supporting his tottering pile, it would really benefit him nothing. 'The thing' required, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, is just as foreign to the text as is its 'name.' But it is too clear for illustration, that 'the day' here spoken of by the Psalmist, is distinguished as the glorious dawning 'not of a week, but of a dispensation.' It has no more relation to an hebdomadal period, than it has to a monthly, or yearly, or a centennial one."

"Dr. Gill, the commentator, after stating the various applications of the word 'day' here, to 'Resurrection-day,' 'Lord's day,' &c., thinks it is 'rather the whole gospel dispensation, made a bright day by the Sun of righteousness, and which is the now present day of salvation.' Commentary in loco."

"Prof. J. A. Alexander, of Princeton, remarks upon the passage, 'By the "day" we are here to understand the happier times which Israel through God's grace, was permitted to enjoy. This day he is said as the author of this blessed revolution, to have made—created. Some understand by day the festival or celebration at which the psalm was intended to be sung. The day, in this sense, God is said to have made or instituted, not so much by positive appointment as by having providentially afforded the occasion for it. In a still higher sense the words may be applied to the new dispensation, as a glorious change in the condition of the church, compared with which the restoration from captivity was nothing, except as a preliminary to it, and a preparation for it. There is no allusion to the weekly Sabbath, except so far as it was meant to be a type of the rest of the church from the heavy burdens of the old dispensation. The Psalms translated and explained: in loco."

One commentator applies the psalm to a particular day, but it is a far different day from Sunday. This commentator is Bishop Horne, who in his remarks upon the passage observes: "Easter day is in a peculiar manner consecrated to Him who by his resurrection triumphed over death and hell. On that day, through faith, we triumph with him; we rejoice and are glad in his salvation."

So much for the day mentioned in Ps. cxviii, 24. So much for the remarkable prophecy of the first day of the week. We trust that the idea that it has any reference whatever to a "Christian Sabbath" has been, ere this, in the mind of the reader dispelled into thin air. If the considerations and authorities we have produced will not do this, nothing could. One prop then of the first-day structure falls to the ground. But though we discover no star of prophecy to guide us to the spot where we may find the new-born Sabbath, justice to truth demands that we search carefully to see if it comes to light among the events and institutions that usher in the Christian era.

(To be continued.)