Weakness of the Opposition.
By Wm. S. Ingraham
Bro. White: As I have been looking over some of the notes of my discussions, I find the following notes I took in my debate with Elder Hiram Hitchcock in Monroe, Wis. His position on the Sabbath question is in harmony with the future-age people generally. He dwelt largely on the great unit law system, asserting that God never introduced but one law before the Christian dispensation, and that was nailed to the cross and taken out of the way by the death of Christ. This theory he demolished completely by his many contradictions. I will notice a part of them as they stand in my notes, also my reply, as he has misrepresented the above debate. ELD. H. God has given us several dispensations and has had laws adapted to the wants of the people living in those different periods of time. REPLY. This position he contradicts by contending that there has been but one law. ELD. H. Neh. ix, 13, 14. If God made known the Sabbath on Mount Sinai he never made it known before. REPLY. This he contradicts by admitting that the people kept the Sabbath thirty days before, in the wilderness of Sin. ELD. H. The law was a shadow of good things to come. REPLY. This he contradicts by saying that he did not make any of the ten commandments shadows but the Sabbath, whereas he declares that the term law embraces the whole. ELD. H. There was a law given before the ten commandments were given on Mount Sinai. REPLY. This he contradicts by his one law only. ELD. H. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers. (This was to cut off the obligation of the Sabbath until that point.) REPLY. This he contradicts by admitting that the Sabbath was kept before by divine authority. ELD. H. To fulfill don't mean to abolish, but to accomplish; and this was the end of it. REPLY. This he contradicts by applying Eph, ii, 15, to the same law which Paul says was fulfilled. ELD. H. not only contradicted himself, but contradicted the Bible a large number of times. I will notice only a few of them. ELD. H. The Sabbath was a memorial of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. REPLY. The feast of unleavened bread on the fifteenth day of the first month was given to celebrate that event, Ex. xii, 17, 18, 40-42; and Deut. v, 15, was only an appeal to their gratitude for bringing them out of bondage where they could keep the Sabbath. ELD. H. Christ nailed to his cross and blotted out and abolished the ten commandments, ceremonial law and all. REPLY. Jesus says that he did not come to destroy the law. Matt. v, 17. ELD. H. The ten commandments never reached the heart. A man could have murder and adultery in his heart and not be condemned by the ten commandments. REPLY. Psa. xix, 4. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Psa. i, 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord: and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psa. xl, 8. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea thy law is within my heart. The tenth45commandment forbids covetousness which takes root in the heart and leads into almost every crime. The errors above referred to, are only a part of the many Eld. H. ran into during the debate. Being hard pushed he acknowledged that some of his positions were contradictory, but assigned as a reason that he had a severe headache at the commencement of the debate. If this reason was a valid one, I am sure his head grew worse, and continued to the close of the discussion. In how many ways people try to get away from the claims of God's holy law! How much better it would be to heed the injunction of the apostle, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty!" James ii, 12.