p. 3 | J. D. RICE by J. D. Rice

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 5, 1882

J. D. RICE

By J. D. Rice

Another Argument for Sunday Keeping.

I SAY "another," I can hardly call it new, for it is similar to those of the dark ages—a time when the papacy reigned in the height of its glory, and superstition controlled the masses, and pretended miracles, etc., were wrought to sustain the sacredness of the Sunday festival, and "ill luck" and reputed judgments of God followed those who would not keep Sunday. Many yet sit, at least in the border of this darkness, as the following will show:—

Conversing recently with a man upon the Sabbath question he readily admitted that the Bible said the seventh day was the Sabbath, and that it did not call any other day the Sabbath, nor was there any command for any other day, and that if we did just what the Bible said, we would have to keep Saturday. But, says he, "My wife taught me to keep Sunday." She said that I would have no luck hunting on Sunday, and I never could kill a deer on that day, but I have on Saturday; therefore I feel satisfied I ought to keep Sunday and not Saturday! I asked him if his luck should change if he would change. No sir, says he. Why not, says I, it is a poor rule that will not work both ways. To which he could give no answer, but evaded it by saying his forefathers had kept it, and if it was good enough for them it was good enough for him. To which we made answer, If our forefathers were idolaters, as were Abraham's (Josh. 24:2, 14), would we be justified in following their course, especially when it was clearly shown to be contrary to the expressed will of God, as is now shown concerning Sunday-keeping? Then I told him that his luck did not prove anything one way or the other. That others have had as good luck hunting on that day as on any other. But moral duties were not to be decided by such "old wives' fables" (1 Tim. 4:7), but by the word of God. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. See also Ps. 119:105, 130: Jno. 12:48, etc. But it is thus that men are fast leaving the word of God to ascertain their duty, and conjure up something for an excuse to justify them in doing just as they please. They "love to have it so," and so they "hide their eyes from God's Sabbath" (Eze. 22:26), even under the coverings of the "dark ages."

J. D. RICE

Lakeport, Cal., Dec. 19, 1881.