Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Nov 1, 1853
NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS.
By J. W. Morton
BY J. W. MORTON.
[The following experience of J. W. Morton, in relation to the Sabbath, is from a tract published by himself in 1850. The readers of the REVIEW will be interested to learn the manner in which he was treated by his former brethren, simply for taking the Word of God for the man of his counsel, and heeding this plain injunction, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." It shows the weakness of those who oppose the Sabbath of the Lord, and endeavor to establish in its stead, that darling off-spring of Papacy, the Pagan Sunday; and, indeed, the actions of the Synod against him, remind us more of the bigoted proceedings of a Catholic Priesthood, than the deliberations of Christian men, who profess to follow the Bible as their only guide. It shows to what unjust and disgraceful means, Error will resort to save itself.]
On the 13th of December, 1847, I landed with my family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the first Foreign Missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States. I began my labors soon afterwards, and continued them, without serious interruption, till the 21st of April, 1849, when a train of circumstances, to which I am about to advert, made it necessary that I should return home.
In the latter part of December, 1848, I was unexpectedly called upon to defend the practice of keeping holy the first day of the week, in place of the seventh. I had been taught from my infancy, that the moral law, "summarily comprehended in the ten commandments," is the only rule of moral conduct; and I had supposed, that it required me and everybody else to keep the "Christian Sabbath" on the first day of the week. On examination, however, I was forced to the conclusion, that the fourth commandment enjoins nothing else than the sanctification of the seventh day. Of course, then, I must either renounce this precept, as a part of the rule of my life, or endeavor to keep holy the seventh day of the week. The former I might not dare to do; the latter I knew I might attempt, without offending God, or insulting the majesty of his law.
The question then came up, Is there any scripture authority for keeping holy the first day? Does God require it? I knew very well, that if God does not require it, I could not, as a reformed Presbyterian, bind my conscience to it. I took up the Bible, resolved on a prayerful and thorough search. I wished to assure myself of the divine authority of the first day, even after I was satisfied that the claims of the seventh are indisputable. But how was it possible to gain this object? Every text to which I was referred for proof seemed to lack the very thing that I most wanted, a certain testimony to the institution of a Christian Sabbath. I reasoned thus:—The fact that Christ appeared once or twice to his disciples on the first day of the week, and the fact that the disciples met once on that day to break bread, and the fact that Paul commanded the Corinthians and Galatians to 'lay by them in store' on that day, as God had prospered them—these facts, with a few others, might shed light on the institution, if one single text could be found, to prove its existence. But if this can not be found, they do not touch the question at issue. And how I did long for that one text! How I chided with the Apostles for not having made known more clearly what I had determined to be the will of God! Never did Rachel mourn for her children, as I mourned for that one text: but, like her, I could not be comforted, because it was not!
I was thus driven to the conclusion, that, should I make conscience of keeping holy the first day of the week, I would offer to God a service that he did not require, and could not accept at my hands.
But what was I to do? This was the great practical question. Could I, with my then present views, continue to preach the gospel, as I had done before, in that "land of darkness, and of the shadow of death?" Could I teach the children in the school, as I had taught them before, that God had changed the Sabbath to the first day of the week?—Could I proclaim to the benighted heathen, that they might habitually break the fourth commandment with impunity? Could I, as a Protestant missionary, become the partisan of him who thought "to change times and laws," [I believe that the prophecy in Dan. vii, 25, refers mainly to the change of Sabbath-time, and Sabbath-law. What time, of divine appointment, it may be asked, was ever changed, except the time of the Sabbath?] by assuring his devotees, that his changes had been made by divine authority? Or, on the other hand, could I carry out my convictions of truth and duty, declaring the whole counsel of God, as I then understood it, and retain, at the same time, my connection with my brethren at home? Would they grant me this privilege, and, if they would, could I accept it.
A little reflection served to convince me, that all these questions must be answered in the negative. It was no small matter, to resolve upon breaking those bonds of ecclesiastical fellowship that had so sweetly bound me to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. A struggle, painful indeed, but not protracted, ensued. I resolved at once to keep the Sabbath in my family, though I feared it would not be honest to make any public exhibition of my views, while I continued to minister by the authority of the Synod. I knew not what I should have done, had not my change of sentiments brought with it the needed consolations. Whatever were the "vexing thoughts" with which my heart was oppressed, during the first six days of the week, I found invariably, in the quiet retreat of my little family, on the seventh, that "peace of God that passeth all understanding." Yes, Haiti, when the recollection of thy brilliant skies, thy evergreen mountains, and thy sweet clear rivers, shall have ceased to awaken joy in my bosom, the memory of thy Sabbaths shall be "my songs in the house of my pilgrimage!"
Convinced as I was, that something must be done immediately to bring the subject of my change to the attention of the rulers of our church, before the next meeting of the Synod, I prepared the following Circular Letter, which I transmitted to more than seventy ministers and elders, in different parts of the United States.
CIRCULAR.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 17th, 1849.
MY DEAR BROTHER,—The mutual relation existing between us, as members of the same Synod, the glory of our common Lord, the interests of our Mission, and a sacred regard for personal character, all require, that the following statement be transmitted to you and my other co-presbyters, with as little delay as possible. If I am not actuated herein by a desire to promote God's glory and the salvation of men, may the Lord rebuke and forgive me, and "let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness!" May the Head of the Church grant to you, and to all the other members of Synod, a disposition to hear, with patience and candor, a narration of my recent experience, in which perhaps you may find things both "new and old."
My sentiments in relation to the "Sabbath of the Lord our God," have undergone an important change; to which I now wish to call your attention. Our Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Testimony, all teach that the first day of the week is, and has been ever since the resurrection of Christ, the Christian Sabbath. This doctrine alone, of all those contained in our Standards, though I did believe it till lately, I can no longer receive.—As to the manner of sanctifying the Sabbath, I believe all that you and I have always contended for; but, for the present, I am constrained to believe that the seventh day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath that God has ever appointed.
My attention was first called to this subject by Rev. W. M. Jones, Missionary of the Baptist Church, who has recently abandoned his earlier views and practice in regard to the Sabbath. He not only argued the question with me at length, but gave me some publications of the American Sabbath Tract Society, which, as they seemed to breathe a spirit of ardent piety and zeal for God's law, I read with attention. Both in my discussion with him, and in the reading of those tracts, I struggled with all my might to convince myself, from the Scriptures, of the divine appointment of the first-day, or Christian Sabbath. But though I did not then doubt it, I was astonished to find how hard it is to prove it.
I searched all the books I could find, bearing on this question, and discovered, what I had never noticed before, that the early French and Genevan Reformers, with Calvin at their head, had taught the abrogation of the fourth commandment, as a ceremonial institution; and that they contended for a Sabbath, or stated day of worship, under the gospel, only as a wise and necessary human arrangement. I found that even Turretin, at a later period, had130taught that the fourth commandment is partly ceremonial, and that it was necessary to change the Sabbath from the seventh day, in order to put a difference between Jews and Christians. I found also, in my books, quotations containing similar sentiments, from the celebrated Augsburg Confession. The only authors I could find who had attempted to prove, from the Scriptures, that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, by divine authority, were, Turretin and the framers of our Standards. These authors appeared to depend mainly for proof upon three texts of Scripture:—Acts xx, 7; I Cor. xvi, 1, 2; and Rev. i, 10. When I came to examine these texts, I was surprised and mortified to find that they contain neither the word “Sabbath,” nor any other synonymous with it. True, I had always thought that the “Lord’s day,” [Rev. i, 10,] was the first day of the week; but my opponents contended that the terms refer more properly to the seventh, which God styles “my holy day,” [Isa. lviii, 13,] and when I remembered “his challenging a special propriety in the seventh,” I could not well not deny it. Moreover, I could not find a single passage asserting that the first is holier than any other day of the week, or that Christians were, in the Apostles’ days, in the habit of holding religious meetings regularly on that day.—Neither could I discover that Christ or his Apostles had ever spoken, directly or indirectly, of keeping a day holy in honor of his resurrection; nor that that event, which is always held up as the occasion of the change of the Sabbath, is even once mentioned in connection with the first day, unless where it is recorded as a historical fact. On the other hand, I observed that Christ and his Apostles were accustomed to enter into the synagogue on the seventh day, or Sabbath, for public worship.—Luke iv, 16; Acts xvii, 2, and elsewhere.
Thus, my dear brother, I saw at this critical moment all Scripture evidence forsaking me, while every inch of ground on which I could set my feet was trembling. It seemed as if the thunders of Sinai were uttering anew their awful threatenings, while the “still small voice” of “Him that dwelt in the bush” was whispering in my ears, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God!” Ex. xx, 10. “I am Jehovah, I change not.” Mal. iii, 6. “Verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. v, 18. Still I hesitated. For a moment I thought of “going down to Egypt for help.” The Fathers, thought I, have fixed the interpretation of these texts in favor of the observance of the first day. But immediately I heard a voice within me, saying, “Would you then observe a holy-day, whose appointment cannot be proved from the Bible, without the aid of human tradition? Could you admit the ‘testimony of the Fathers,’ to set aside one of the plainest injunctions of the moral law, that law that was written upon tables of stone, ‘by the finger of God,’ and styled, by way of preeminence, ‘the Testimony?’” No! I replied, with an involuntary shudder; and another flood of Scriptures came rushing in, like “deep waters,” to the very soul.—“The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. xix, 7.—“Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” Ps. cxix, 89. “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Ps. cxix, 142. “All his commandments are sure; they stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. cxi, 7, 8. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. v, 17. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. iii, 31. O my brother, “the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any wo-edged sword.”
You have now my reasons for embracing a doctrine which is confessedly at variance with our Standards. What I entreat of you is, that you will once more examine this subject for yourself, and see whether those Standards are consistent, on this point, either with the Scriptures, or with themselves.
You perhaps think that I have forsaken the “footsteps of the flock,” and that testimony which has been sealed with the blood of martyrs. But tell me candidly, was there ever a martyr who died in defense of the first-day Sabbath? Or, could you, my brother, collect from the Scriptures evidence of its divine appointment, clear enough to solace your soul in the midst of the flames? From my inmost soul I pity that Covenanter who may be called to testify, at the stake, to the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Remember, too, that I am now in the path that was trodden by the saints for more than four thousand years; and it is for you to show that that path was ever stopped up, unless by the presumption and inexcusable neglect of man. Truly, I am “compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses.” I would follow the example of Jehovah himself, who, “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” and by whom “the Sabbath was made for man;” the example of Adam, Enoch, and Noah; of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve patriarchs; of Moses, Aaron and those millions of Pilgrim Covenanters who united in its observance in the wilderness; the example of Samuel, David and a host of other prophets; of Jesus Christ, our Divine Mediator, and “Lord of the Sabbath;” and of the Apostles of our Lord, together with the churches established and watered by them;—in one word, the example of all the saints, from Adam to the last Apostle; all of whom kept and honored the seventh day as “the Sabbath of the Lord their God.”
I intend, if the Lord will, to be present at the next meeting of our Synod, and meet my brethren face to face. I expect, of course, nothing less than to be excluded from the privileges of the church; but I rejoice that I have learned to respect the discipline of the Lord’s house. I desire, therefore, with a willing heart to approach the altar, and, if the Head of the Church require it, to be “offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,” that God may be glorified in my salvation, and not in my destruction. God forbid, that either prejudice, willful ignorance, passion, or personal resentment, should fan the flames of that altar!
In conclusion, rest assured of my continued and unabated attachment to the cause of the Reformation, in general, and to the interests of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in particular; and allow me to repeat what I have already intimated, that with every other doctrine contained in our Standards, I am, so far as I understand my profession, entirely satisfied; nor have I abandoned this one, but from a firm conviction that it is not taught in God’s Word. I know well, that trials sore and many await me. God doth know, that my heart delighteth not in contention; but, my brother, have we not all “entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God.” Neh. x, 29.
Your Brother in Gospel bonds.
J. W. MORTON.
Missionary of the Ref. Presb. Church.
JOY COMETH!
By Annie R. Smith
BY ANNIE R. SMITH.
Weeping may endure for a night; but joy cometh in the morning.Ps. xxx, 5.
Weeping endures but for a night,
Joy cometh with the morning light;
Joy cometh of celestial birth,
Unsullied by the blight of earth
Joy comes each faithful heart to thrill,
That fears of change no more will chill;
Transporting joy that fills the soul,
While everlasting ages roll.
Then, mourning pilgrim, upward gaze,
Beyond this dark and thorny maze
A joy for every tear is found,
A healing balm for every wound.
No sorrow there shall dim the eye,
No wintry winds or storms are nigh,
No sighs borne on the fragrant air;
But all shall in the glory share.
Let hope thy bosom cheer, forlorn,
To boldly breast each rising storm;
For whatsoe'er thy grief may be,
The morning bringeth joy to thee.
Awake! for lo, not distant far,
The rising of the Morning Star;
O watch to catch the new-born ray,
That ushers in a cloudless day.
Hail! glorious morn! whose radiant light,
Shall bid the darkness take its flight
Shall chase the shades of gloom away
And night be turned to endless day.
EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF SYNOD
By J. W. Morton
After some discussion, the above Libel was decided to be relevant, and the Clerk was directed to serve a copy on me, with citation to appear for trial the next day, after noon.
I went to my lodgings that evening with a heavy heart. I was convinced, from the spirit of determined opposition that had been manifested by many of the brethren, when the Libel was under consideration, that the majority had already determined that I should not be permitted to “speak for myself.” True, I knew very well that the Apostle Paul had once enjoyed this liberty, through the cool civility of a Roman Governor, and afterwards, through that of a Roman King; but I knew just as well, that Felix and Agrippa were heathens, while my brethren are Christians; and that the dignity of a court, composed of “worms of the dust,” has been much better understood, since the famous “Diet of Worms,” than ever before.
Still, I could not forbear asking myself, Why is there now such bitter opposition to an Institution that was once the delight of both God and man? Why do men hate with such perfect hatred, what Jehovah made, and blessed, and sanctified, before sin had entered into the world? Why should this daughter of Innocence be spurned from every door, and loaded with the damning reproach of Judaism, while her twin sister, Marriage, sucks the breasts, and is dandled upon the knees of Orthodoxy?—Why should I be ranked with thieves and murderers, for believing that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God?” Bitter were the tears that flowed; and more bitter still was the reflection, that “when I wept, that was to my reproach.”
I was hedged in round about, and what could I do? I could only exclaim with the “sweet Singer of Israel,” “Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord131God of Hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” Never shall I forget the sensation experienced while the last sentence was passing through my mind. “And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” I know not how often, during that night, I repeated these words and compared them with the exhortation of the Apostle: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” These were the comforts that, “in the multitude of my thoughts within me,” then delighted my soul. I was about to go forth “without the camp,” and indeed it was refreshing, in that hour of trial, to believe, that I was bearing a portion of the same burden that once bowed down the “Man of sorrow.”
My trial came on after noon, May 25th. The following extract from the published Minutes of Synod is, I believe, a correct, and sufficiently full, account of the final issue; only it makes no mention of the fact that I protested against the proceedings, and appealed to the head of the Church, for reasons to be given in afterwards. Why this fact was not recorded, I have not been able to ascertain.
EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF SYNOD.
Order of the day; viz., the case of Mr. Morton, called for. The libel was then read by the Clerk; when Mr. Morton having, in reply to the Moderator, answered that he was prepared for trial, the substance of the libel was again stated in his hearing. Mr. Morton was then called upon, according to the rule provided for in such cases, either to confess the charge or put himself upon his trial. Mr. Morton in return acknowledged that he had denied that the day commonly called the Christian Sabbath is so by Divine appointment, and then proceeded to plead the irrelevancy of the charge by endeavoring to prove the perpetuity of the law for the observance of the seventh day. While so doing, he was arrested by the Moderator, who informed him that the charge contained in the libel was such that Mr. Morton could only prove its irrelevancy to censure by proving that the appropriation of the first day of the week, known as the Christian Sabbath, to secular employments, or teaching so to do, is not relevant to censure, which attempt the Moderator would consider disorderly, and would not allow.
From this decision J. M. Wilson appealed, when the Moderator’s decision was unanimously sustained. Upon this, Mr. Morton declined the authority of the court.
Resolved, That Mr. Morton’s appointment as missionary to Haiti be revoked.
Resolved, That inasmuch as Mr. Morton has now publicly declined the authority of this court, he be suspended from the exercise of the Christian ministry, and from the privileges of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
The Moderator then publicly pronounced the sentence of suspension on Mr. Morton, agreeably to the above resolution.
Not long afterwards I presented to the Moderator the following Reasons of Protest and Appeal, with a request that he would allow them to be laid before the court, which he utterly refused to do.
REASONS OF PROTEST AND APPEAL.
I do respectfully protest against the action of Synod in my case, on the 24th of the present month, and appeal therefrom to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King and Head of the Church, for the following reasons:—
1st. Because I was not allowed to prove the irrelevancy of the charge made against me, by an appeal to the Bible, “the only rule of faith and manners.”
2d. Because I believe that the statements, on the subject of the Sabbath, set forth in our subordinate standards, are inconsistent with one another, and in part contrary to the Word of God: yet it was by these unscriptural portions, that I was tried and condemned.
Brethren, I entertain no hard feelings towards you. My daily prayer to God is, that you may be saved and led into all truth. I did hope that you would hear and consider the claims of the Lord’s holy Sabbath, when presented in a mild and affectionate manner. But either I have failed to present the question with sufficient tenderness, or you have determined to avoid all discussion in regard to it.
It grieves me to the soul to bid you farewell.—Both God and man will bear witness, in the day of final reckoning, that you have trampled down, by the resistless force of an overwhelming majority, one who was endeavoring with both hands to hold up the standard of the great Covenant God of our fathers. But though for the present cast down, I am not dismayed. The Sabbath of the Lord God is a richer treasure than the richest you can either give or take away. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.”
Brethren, I shall meet you before the judgment seat of Christ, on that day when he shall come “with ten thousand of his saints.” “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.—Even so, amen.”
J. W. MORTON.
Philadelphia, May 29th, 1849.
LIBEL PREFERRED AGAINST J. W. MORTON
By J. W. Morton
On the 21st of April, 1849, I set sail, with my family, from Port-au-Prince, bidding farewell to Haiti and her children, whom perhaps we shall never see again in this vale of tears. We arrived at Boston, all in good health, on the first Sabbath in May.
On the evening of Tuesday, May 22, the Synod was convened in Philadelphia; and the next morning I appeared and took my seat with the other members.
After noon, the same day, Rev. David Scott stated to Synod, that I had made known a change of views in relation to the Sabbath, and moved that a committee of three be appointed to confer with me, and report what farther action should be taken in the case.
While this motion was pending, I stated, in substance, that, as I was alone in a Synod of more than sixty members, without a single man to plead my cause, I thought I had a right to demand that the proceedings should be instituted in strict accordance with the letter of the law. I was here interrupted by the Moderator, who, having informed me that I had no right to dictate to the Court the method of proceeding with its own business, peremptorily ordered me to take my seat. I obeyed, of course, though I could not see what dictation there was in demanding a legal trial, according to the printed rules of Synod. The motion was carried, and the committee appointed.
Next morning, May 24, I had a conference of half an hour with this committee, and at noon another, that lasted about the same time. Their principal object seemed to be, to ascertain whether I was ready to recant, and submit to censure for my past errors. I assured them, that while I had not the slightest wish to withdraw from the communion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, I adhered to every word in my Circular, and must continue to do so, till convinced of error by the infallible scriptures. The committee quoted several texts, and advised me to read several authors, after which our conference was closed.
After noon they presented their report, recommending that the following Libel be preferred against me by Synod:—
LIBEL PREFERRED AGAINST J. W. MORTON.
Whereas, denying that the first day of the week is the day on which the Christian Sabbath should be kept, is a heinous sin and scandal, contrary to the Word of God, and the Profession of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, founded thereon,—Acts xx, 7, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,” &c.; Shorter Catechism, “From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath, and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.”
Yet true it is, that you, Rev. J. W. Morton, are guilty of the scandal above stated, in so far as you, the said J. W. Morton, at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 17th January, 1849, did publish a Circular, in which you impugned and denied that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, which being found relevant, and proved against you, you ought to be proceeded against by the censures of the Lord’s House.
A true copy, By order of the Synod. [Signed] JOHN WALLACE, Ass’t Clerk.
REFLECTIONS.
I did believe, and believe yet, that, had I been sustained by twenty ministers and as many congregations, I should have had leave to defend myself to my heart's content. But it was very evident to the Synod, that I stood alone. They knew that I could do them no harm, by fomenting discord; and—may I not add?—they knew that I was not the man to be found employed in such a work. The only loss they could sustain, in cutting me off, with all my adherents, was that of two adults and as many little children. Indeed, many of the members seemed to regret the trouble far more than the necessity of executing the law; and one aged father has remarked to me since, that till then he never witnessed a trial, before a church court, in which there was not one atom of mercy.
Now, is there not a reason for all this? Unquestionably there is. The loose and unpresbyterial doctrine, that a majority has a right to determine what is, and what is not truth, and that the greater the majority in favor of any dogma, the more firmly its truth is established, has leavened, sadly and extensively, even the Reformed Presbyterian Church. This is the reason why one who represents a lean minority cannot be heard, even in defense of ecclesiastical life. The majority have said, that the first day is the Sabbath, and who dare call in question the assertion? A man may be denounced as a covenant-breaker; yet, because he belongs to a small minority, he may not attempt to prove his innocence to the crime. Thus the right of the minority to vindicate themselves from the Scriptures, in defense of which many of the old Covenanters bled, is practically denied by their descendants. "O Lord, how long!"
Brethren, are you really so wedded to this majority principle? Know, then, that God is a majority; and that those who are with me are more than those that are with you. God's testimony is worth more than that of all men. What though millions have affirmed, that the seventh day is NOT the Sabbath? He hath left us this imperishable testimony: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And this is the testimony of the greatest majority that ever gave utterance to truth. But God hath not left himself without other witnesses. Where are those myriads of angels who were present when "the Sabbath was made for man?" Where are those "morning stars" who "sang together," and those "sons of God" who "shouted for joy," when our Father "laid the foundations of the earth?" They are not now present with us, 'tis true, to bear their testimony; but they will be present, when you and I shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to bear the decision of this controversy. And do you think that you will then dare, on the authority of what is said in Acts xx, 7, to lift up your hands, and swear "by Him that liveth forever and ever," that the Sabbath has been "changed into the first day of the week"—and that, too, in presence of those who saw the foundations of the ancient Sabbath, like those of the earth itself, laid and balanced upon God's eternal decree, and inwrought with the very stones of "the everlasting hills!"—No! No!! The Sabbath was one of those pillars of the ancient earth, which Christ, the Mediator, seized with the hand of his omnipotence, and bare up, when "the earth and all its inhabitants" were sinking into nothing. I repeat it—and who dare gainsay it!—the Lord of Hosts is an overwhelming majority!
But this is not all. There is, indeed, no greater witness than these; but there is other witness.—Look into your own hearts, ye children of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and you will find recorded there: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." "For this is the covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Here there is not the least hint of any exception. The same moral law that was written "with the finger of God," on tables of stone, is now written "by the Spirit of the living God," on the fleshly tables of your hearts. Yes, brethren, turn your eyes inward, and you will read, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." If you say, We have sought this law, but find it not—O brethren, you have not "sought it carefully with tears." It is hidden among the rubbish, and you will never find it, till that be removed. But I speak what I do know, when I assure you, that it is recorded there. O Lord, "open thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law."