[Sabbath Controversy #2] The Seventh Day Sabbath, A Perpetual Sign (2nd Ed.)

WAS THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH EVER CHANGED? IF SO, WHEN, AND FOR WHAT REASON?

Here we come to a question which has more or less engaged the attention of the whole Christian world, and the greater portion of those who believe in a crucified Saviour say that this change took place, and is dated from his resurrection. Some say subsequently, while a minority insist upon it that there is no proof for the change. Now to obtain the truth and nothing but the truth on this important subject, I propose to present, or quote from standard authors on both sides of the question, and try the whole by the standard of divine truth. 1st. Buck’s Theological Dictionary, to which no doubt thousands of ministers and laymen appeal to sustain their argument for the change, says: “Under the Christian dispensation the Sabbath is altered from the seventh to the first day of the week.” The arguments for the change, are these: 1st. “The seventh day was observed by the Jewish church in memory of the rest of God; so the first day of the week has always been observed by the Christian Church in memory of Christ’s resurrection. 2nd. Christ made repeated visits to his disciples on that day. 3rd. It is called the Lord’s day. Revelation 1:10-4th. On this day the Apostles were assembled, when the Holy Ghost came down so visibly upon them to qualify them for the conversion of the world. 5th. On this day we find Paul at Troas when the disciples came together to break bread. 6th. The directions the Apostles gave to Christians plainly alludes to their assembling on that day. 7th. Pliny bears witness of the first day of the week being kept as a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ.” SC2 83.1

“Numerous have been the days appointed by man for religious services, but these are not binding because of human institution. Not so the Sabbath. It is of divine institution, so it is to be kept holy unto the Lord.” SC2 83.2

Dr. Doddridge, whose ability and piety has seldom or rarely been disputed, comments on some of the above articles thus: (Commentary p. 606.) “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” 1 Corinthians 16:2. “Show that it was to be put into a common stock. The argument drawn from hence for the religious observance of the first day of the week in these primitive churches of Corinth and Galatia is too obvious to need any further illustration, and yet too important to be passed by in entire silence.” Again, p. 904, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” etc. Revelation 1:10. “It is so very unnatural and contrary to the use of the word in all other authors to interpret this of the Jewish Sabbath, as Mr. Baxter justly argues at large, that I cannot but conclude with him and the generality of Christian writers on this subject, that this text strongly infers the extraordinary regard paid to the first day of the week in the Apostle’s time as a day solemnly consecrated to Christ in memory of his resurrection from the dead.” There is much more, but these are his strong arguments. I shall quote some more from the Commentaries by and by. I wish to place by the side of these arguments one from the British Quarterly Theological Review and Ecclesiastical Recorder, of Jan.1830, which I extract from ‘the Institution of the Sabbath day,’ by Wm. Logan Fisher, of Philadelphia, a book in which there is much valuable information on this subject, though I disagree with the writer, because his whole labor is to abolish the Sabbath; yet he gives much light on this subject, from which I take the liberty to make some quotations. But to the Quarterly Review of 1830: SC2 83.3

“It is said that the observance of the seventh day Sabbath is transferred in the Christian Church to the first day of the week. We ask by what authority, and are very much mistaken if an examination of all the texts of the New Testament, in which the first day of the week or Lord’s day is mentioned, does not prove that there is no divine or Apostolic precept enjoining its observance, nor any certain evidence from Scripture that it was, in fact, so observed in the times of the Apostles. Accordingly we search the Scriptures in vain, either for an Apostolic precept, appointing the first day of the week to be observed in the place of the Jewish Sabbath, or for any unequivocal proof that the first Christians so observed it - there are only three or, at most four places of Scripture, in which the first day of the week is mentioned. The next passage is in Acts 20:7 ‘Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.’ All that St.Luke here tells us plainly is, that on a particular occasion the Christians of Troas met together on the first day of the week to celebrate the Eucharist and to hear Paul preach. This is the only place in Scripture in which the first day of the week is in any way connected with any acts of public worship, and he who would certainly infer from this SOLITARY INSTANCE that the first day of every week was consecrated by the Apostles to religious purposes, must be far gone in the art of drawing universal conclusion from particular premises.” SC2 84.1

On page 178, Mr. Fisher says: SC2 84.2

“I have examined several different translations of the Scriptures, both from the Hebrew and the Septuagint, with notes and annotations more extensive than the texts; have traced as far as my leisure would permit, various ecclesiastical histories, some of them voluminous and of ancient date; have paid considerable attention to the writings of the earliest authors in the Christian era, and to rare works, old and of difficult access, which treat upon this subject; I have read with care many of the publications of sectarians to sustain the institution; I have omitted nothing within my reach, and I have found not one shred of argument, or authority of any kind, that may not be deemed of partial and sectarian character, to support the institution of the fist day of the week as a day of peculiar holiness. But, in the place of argument, I have found opinions without number - volumes filled with idle words that have no truth in them. In the want of texts of Scripture, I have found perversions; in the want of truth, false statements. I have seen it stated that Justin Martyr in his apology, speaks of Sunday as a holy day; that Eusebius, bishop of Cesarea, who lived in the fourth century, establishes the fact of the transfer of the SEVENTH to the first day, by Christ himself. These things are NOT TRUE. These authors say no such thing. I have seen other early authors referred to as establishing the same point, but they are equally false.” SC2 85.1

Here then is the testimony of four authors, two for the change and two against it, from the old and new world. No truth seeking, unbiased mind can hesitate for a moment on which side to decide, after comparing them with the inspired word. SC2 85.2

Doctor JENKS of Boston, author of the Comprehensive Commentary, (purporting to comprehend all other commentators on the bible,) after quoting author after author, on this subject, ventures forth with his unsupported opinion in these words: “Here is a Christian Sabbath observed by the disciples and owned by our Lord. The visit Christ made to his disciples was on the first day of the week, and the fist day of the week is the only day of the week or month or year ever mentioned by numbers in all the New Testament, and that is several times spoken of as a day religiously observed.” Where? Echo answers, where! SC2 85.3

HEMAN HUMPHREY, President of Amherst College, from whose book I have already made some quotations, after devoting some thirty-four pages to the establishment and perpetuation of the seventh day Sabbath, comes to his fourth question, viz. ‘Has the day been changed?’ Singular as this question may appear by the side of what he had already written to establish and perpetuate the seventh day Sabbath from the seventh day of creation down to the resurrection of the just, but as every man feels that it his privilege to justify and explain, when precept and practice does not agree - so is it with President Humphrey, he can now shape the Scriptures to suit every one that has followed in the wake of Pope Gregory for 1225 years. He says, “The fourth commandment is so expressed as to admit of a change in the day,” - thus striking vitally every argument he had before presented. Hear him - he says the seventh day is the Sabbath; it was so at that time, (in the beginning) and for many ages after, but it is not said, that it always shall be - it is the Sabbath day which we are to remember; and so at the close, it is the Sabbath which was hallowed and blessed and not the seventh day. The Sabbath then, the holy rest itself, is one thing. The day on which we are to rest is another.” I ask, in the name of common sense, how we should know how or when to keep the Sabbath if it did not matter which day. If the President could not see the sanctification of the seventh day in the decalogue what did he mean by quoting Genesis 2:3, so often, where it says “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” SC2 85.4

Again, he says; “Redemption is a greater work than Creation, hence the change.” Fifthly, God early consecrated the Christian Sabbath by a most remarkable outpouring of his spirit at the day of Pentecost. And that Jesus has left us his own example by not saying a syllable after his resurrection about keeping the Jewish Sabbath. He also quotes the four passages about Jesus and his disciples keeping the first day of the week. Here, he says, the inference to our minds is irresistible - for keeping the first day of the week instead of the seventh. And further says, it might be proved by innumerable quotations from the writings of the Apostolic Fathers,” etc. All this may be very true in itself, but it all falls to the ground for the want of one single precept from the Bible. If Redemption, because it was greater than Creation, and the remarkable display of God’s power at the Pentecost, and Christ never saying any thing about the Jewish Sabbath after his resurrection are such strong proofs that the perpetual seventh day Sabbath was changed to the first day at that time, and must be believed because learned men say so, what shall we do with the sixth day, on which our blessed Saviour expired on the cross; darkness for three hours had covered the earth, and the vail of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, and there was such an earthquake throughout vast creation that we have only to open our eyes and look at the rent rocks for a clear and perfect demonstration that this whole globe was shaken from centre to circumference, and the graves of the dead were opened. Matthew 27:50, 53 You may answer me that Popery has honored that day by calling it Good Friday, and the next first day following Easter Sunday, etc., but after all, nothing short of Bible argument will satisfy the earnest inquirer after truth. The President had already shown that the Jewish Sabbath was abolished at Christ’s death. What reason then had he to believe that the Saviour would speak of it afterwards. - So also the Pentecost had been a type from the giving the law at Sinai to be kept annually for about 1500 years, consequently it would be solemnized on every day of the week, at each revolving year, as is the case with the 4th of July: three years ago it was on the fourth day and now it comes on the seventh day of the week. Further, see Peter standing amidst the amazed multitude, giving the Scripture reason for this miraculous display of God’s power. He does not give the most distant hint that this was, or was to be, the day of the week for worship, or true Sabbath, neither do any of the Apostles then, or afterwards, for when they kept this day the next year, it must have been the second day of the week. We must have better evidence than what has been adduced, to believe this was the Sabbath, for according to the type, seven Sabbaths were to be complete, (and there was no other way given them to come to the right day,) from the day they kept the first, or from the resurrection. Here then is proof positive that the Sabbath in this year was the day before the Pentecost. See Luke 23:55, 56 If President H. is right, then was there two Sabbaths to be kept in succession in one week. Where is the precept? Nowhere! Well, says the inquirer, I want to see the Bible proof for this “Christian Sabbath observed by the disciples, and owned by our Lord.” W. Jenks. Here it will be necessary for us to understand, first how God has computed time. In Genesis 1. we read, “And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” 14 v. 16 v. says, “the greater light to rule the day,” - from sunrise to sunset. Now there are many modes invented for computing time. We say our day begins at 12 o’clock at night; seamen begin theirs twelve hours sooner, at noon; the Jews commence their days at 6 o’clock in the evening, between the two extremes. Are we all right? No! Who shall settle this question? God! Very well: He called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:5 Then the twenty-four hour day commenced at 6 o’clock in the evening. How is that, says one? Because you cannot regulate the day and night to have what the Saviour calls twelve hours in the day, without establishing the time from the centre of the earth, the equator, where, at the beginning of the sacred year, the sun rises and sets at 6 o’clock. At this time, while the sun is at the summer solstice, the inhabitants of the north pole have no night, while at this same time at the south it is about all night, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have no other right time to commence their twenty-four hour day, than beginning at 6 o’clock in the evening. God said to Moses “from even, unto even, shall you celebrate your Sabbath.” Then of course the next day must begin where the Sabbath ended. History shows that the Jews obeyed and commenced their days at 6 o’clock in the evening. Now then we will try to investigate the main argument by which these authors, and thousands of others say the Sabbath was changed. The first is in John 20:19, “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors where shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews (mark it) came Jesus and stood in their midst, and said peace unto you.” Here we understand this to be the same day of the resurrection. On that same day he travelled with the two disciples to Emmaus, sixty furlongs (7 and a half miles), and they constrained him to abide with them, for it was toward evening and the day was far spent. Luke 24:29 After this the disciples travelled the 7 and a half miles back to Jerusalem and soon after they found the disciples, the Saviour, as above stated, was in their midst. Now it cannot be disputed but what this was the evening after the resurrection, for Jesus rose in the morning, some ten or eleven hours after the first day had commenced. Then the evening of the first day was passing away, and therefore the evening brought to view in the text was the close of the first day or the commencing of the second. McKnight’s translation says “in the evening of that day.” Purver’s translation says, “the evening of that day on the first after the Sabbath.” Further, wherever the phrase first day of the week, occurs in the New Testament, the word day is in italics, showing that it is not the original; but supplied by translators. Again, it is asserted that Jesus met with his disciples the next first day. See 26 v: “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said peace be unto you.” SC2 86.1

Dr. Adam Clark in referring to this 26v, says: “It seems likely that this was precisely on that day se’ night on which Christ had appeared to them before; and from this we may learn that this was the weekly meeting of the Apostles.” Now it appears to me that a little child, with the simple rules of addition and subtraction, could have refuted this man. I feel astonished that men who profess to be ambassadors for God do not expose such downright perversions of Scripture, but it may look clear to those who want to have it so. Not many months since, in conversation with the Second Advent lecturer in New Bedford, I brought up this subject. He told me I did not understand it. See here, says he, I can make it plain, counting his fingers thus: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - doesn’t make eight days after? and because I would not concede, he parted from me as one that was obstinate and self-willed. Afterwards musing on the subject, I said, this must be the way then to understand it: Count Sunday Twice. If any of them were to be paid for eight days labor, they would detect the error in a moment if their employer should attempt to put the first and last days together, and offer them pay but for seven. Eight days after the evening of the first day would stand thus: The second day of the week would certainly be the first of the eight. Then to count eight days of twenty-four hours after, we must begin at the close of the evening of the first, and count to the close of the evening of the second day; to where the Jews (by God’s command) commenced their third day. But suppose we calculate it by our mode of keeping time. Our Lord appears to his disciples the first time at the close of Sunday evening. Now count eight days after, (with your fingers or anything else,) and it will bring you to Monday evening. Now I ask if this looks like Sunday, the first day of the week? SC2 89.1

Father Miller also gives his reasons for the change, in his lecture on the great Sabbath: “One is Christ’s resurrection and his often meeting with his disciples afterwards on that day. This, with the example of the Apostles, is strong evidence that the proper creation Sabbath to man, came on the first day of the week.” His proof is this: “Adam must have rested on the first day of his life, and thus you will see that to Adam it was the first day of the week, for it would not be reasonable to suppose that Adam began to reckon time before he was created. He certainly could not be able to work six days before the first Sabbath. And thus with the second Adam; the first day of the week he arose and lived. And we find by the Bible and by history, that the first day of the week “was ever afterwards observed as a day of worship.” Now I say there is no more truth in these assertions, than there is in those I have already quoted. There is not one passage in the Bible to show that Christ met with his disciples on the first day of the week after the day of his resurrection, not that the first day of the week was ever afterwards observed as a day of worship; save only in one instance, and that shall be noticed in its place. And it seems to me if Adam could not reckon time only from his creation then by the same rule no other man could reckon time before his birth, and by this showing Christ could not reckon his time until after his resurrection. It is painful to me to expose the errors of one whom I have so long venerated, and still love for the flood of light he has given the world in respect to the Second Advent of our Saviour; but God’s word must be vindicated if we have to cut off a right arm, “there is nothing true but truth!” I pray God to forgive him in joining the great multitude of Advent believers, to sound the retreat back beyond the tarrying time, just when the virgins had gained a glorious victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil! Go back from this to the slumbering quarters now; nothing but treachery to our Master’s cause ever dictated such a course! I never can be made to believe that our glorious Commander designed that we should leave our sacrifices smoking on the altar of God, in the midst of the enemies’ land, but rather that we should be pushing onward from victory to victory, until we are established in the Capital of His kingdom. Would it have been expedient or a mark of courage in General Taylor, after he had conquered the Mexican army on the 9th May last, to have retreated back to the capital of the U. States, to place himself and army on the broad platform of liberty, and commence to travel the ground over again for the purpose of pursuing and overcoming his vanquished foe? No! Every person of common sense knows that such a course would have overwhelmed him and all his followers with unutterable disgrace, no matter how unrighteous the contest. Not so with this, for our cause is one of the most glorious, tho’ it be the most trying that ever the sun shone upon since God placed it in the heavens. Onward and victory, then, are our watchwords, and no retreating back to, or beyond the cry at Midnight! But to the subject. Did our Saviour ever meet with his disciples on the first day of the week after the evening of the day of his resurrection? The 21 ch. John says “they went a fishing, and while there Jesus appeared unto them.” In the 14th v. he says, “This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead.” Now turn to 1 Corinthians 15:4-7; Paul’s testimony is, “that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, after that of above five hundred brethren at once, and then of James, then of all the Apostles.” These are all that are specified, up to his going into heaven. Now pray tell me if you can, where these men got their information respecting the frequent meetings on the first day of the week. The Bible says no such thing. But let us pursue the subject and look at the third text, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Now please turn back to Dr. Doddridge’s authority, he says the argument is too obvious to need any illustration, that the money was put into common stock, and that this was the religions observance of the first day of the week. Now whoever will read the first six verses of this chapter, and compare them with Romans 15:26-33, will see that Paul’s design was to collect some money for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and their laying it by them in store until he came that way; for it plainly implies that they were at home, for no one could understand that you had money lying by you in store, if it was in common stock or in other hands. Again, see Acts 18:4, 11. Paul preaching every Sabbath day, at this very time, for eighteen months, to these very same Corinthians, bids them farewell, to go up to the feast at Jerusalem. 21 v. By reading to 21 ch. 17 v. you have his history until he arrives there. Now I ask, if Dr. Doddridge’s clear illustration can or will be relied on, when Luke clearly teaches that Paul’s manner was, and that he did always preach to them on the Sabbath, which, of course, was the Seventh day, and not the first day of the week. Fourth text, John says: I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. Here Dr. D. concludes with the generality of Christian writers on this subject that this strongly infers the extraordinary regard paid to the first day of the week, as solemnly consecrated to Christ, etc. If the scripture any where called this the Lord’s day, there might be some reason to believe their statements, but the seventh day Sabbath is called the Lord’s day. See Exodus 20:10. SC2 89.2

Mr. Fisher, in speaking of the late Harrisburg convention of 1844 - 45, says, “The most spirited debate that occurred at the assembly was to fix a proper name for the first day of the week, whether it should be called Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s day. The reason for this dispute was, that there was no authority for calling the first day of the week by either one of these names. To pretend that that command was fixed and unchangeable, and yet to alter it to please the fancy of man, is in itself ridiculous. It is hardly possible in the nature of man, that a class of society should be receiving pay for their services and not be influenced thereby; - in the nature of things they will avoid such doctrines as are repugnant to them that give them bread.” SC2 91.1

Now we come to the fifth and last, and only one spoken of in all the New Testament, for a meeting on the first day of the week. Luke says, “Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow: and continued his speech until midnight.” Acts 20:7 Now by following the scripture mode of computing time, from 6 o’clock in the evening to 6 o’clock in the morning, as has been shown, Paul to commence on the beginning of the first day would begin on what we call Saturday evening at 6 o’clock, and preach till midnight. After that he restores to life the young man, then breaks bread and talked till the break of day, which would be Sunday morning. Then he commenced his journey for Jerusalem and travelled and sailed all day Sunday, the first day of the week, and two other days in succession. 20:11-15 Now it seems to me, if Paul did teach or keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath or a holy day, he violated the sanctity of it to all intents and purposes, without giving one single reason for it; all the proof presented here is a night meeting. Please see the quotation from the British Quarterly Review. But let us look at it the way in which we compute time: I think it will be fair to premise, that about midnight was the middle of Paul’s meeting; at any rate there is but one midnight to a twenty-four hour day. We say that Sunday, the first day of the week, does not commence until 12 o’clock Saturday night. Then it is very clear, if he is preaching on the first day till midnight, according to our reckoning it must be on Sunday night, and his celebrating the Lord’s supper after midnight would make it that he broke bread on Monday, the second day, and that the day time on Sunday is not included, unless he had continued his speech through the day till midnight. Now the text says that on the first day of the week they came together to break bread. To prove that they did break bread on that day, we must take the mode in which the Jews computed time, and allow the first day of the week to begin at 6 o’clock on Saturday evening, and after daylight, but to travel, etc. If our mode of time is taken, they broke bread on the second day, and that would destroy the meaning of the text. Here then, in this text, is the only argument that can be adduced in the Scriptures of divine truth, for a change of the perpetual seventh day Sabbath of the Lord our God to the first day of the week. SC2 92.1

Now I’ll venture the assertion, that there is no law or commandment recorded in the Bible, that God had held so sacred among men, as the keeping of His Sabbath. Where then, I ask, is the living man that dare stand before God and declare that here is the change for the church of God to keep the first instead of the seventh day of the week for the Sabbath. If it could be proved that Paul preached here all of the first day, the only inference that could be drawn, would be, to break bread on that day! SC2 93.1

There is one more point worthy of our attention, that is, the teaching and example of Jesus. I have been told by one that is looked up to as a strong believer in the second coming of the Lord this fall, that Jesus broke the Sabbath. Jesus says, I have kept my Father’s commandments. It is said that he “broke the Sabbath,” because he allowed his disciples to pluck the corn and eat it on that day, and the Pharisees condemned them. He says, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” Then they were not guilty. See Deuteronomy 23:25 He immediately cites them to David and his men, shewing that it was lawful and right when hungry, even to eat the shew bread that belonged only to the priests, and told them that he was Lord of the Sabbath day. Here he shows too, that he was with his disciples passing to the synagogue to teach; they ask him if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. He asks them if they had a sheep fall into the ditch on the Sabbath, if they would not haul him out? How much better then is a man than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days; and immediately healed the man with a withered hand. Matthew 12:1-13 On another Sabbath day, while he was teaching, he healed a woman that had been bound of Satan eighteen years, and when the ruler of the synagogue began to find fault, he called him a hypocrite, and said “doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering; and all his adversaries were ashamed.” Luke 13:10-17, The 14 chapter of Luke is quoted to prove that he broke the Sabbath because he went into the Pharisees house with many others on the Sabbath day to eat bread. Here he saw a man with the dropsy and he asked them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. ‘And they held their peace and he took him and healed him,’ and asked them ‘which of them having an ox or an ass fall into the pit, would not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day; and they could not answer him again.’ 1-6 v. And ‘he continued to teach them, by showing them when they made a feast, to call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and then they should be blessed.’ Read the chapter, and you will readily see that he took this occasion, as the most befitting, to teach them by parables, what their duty was at weddings and feasts, in the same manner as he taught them in their synagogues. SC2 93.2

There is still another passage, and I believe the only one, to which reference has been made, (except where he opened the eyes of a man that was born blind,) for proof that he broke the Sabbath. It is recorded in John 5:5-17 Here Jesus found a man that had been sick thirty-eight years, by the pool of Bethesda, ‘he saith unto him rise, take up thy bed and walk, - therefore did they persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.’ 16v. ‘But Jesus answered them, my Father worketh hitherto and I work.’ If they did not work every hour and moment of time, it would be impossible for man to exist: Here undoubtedly he had reference to these and other acts of necessity and mercy; but the great sin for which professors in this enlightened age charge the Saviour with in this transaction is, in directing the man to take up his bed, contrary to law. It is clear the people were forbidden to carry burdens on the Sabbath day, as in Jeremiah 17:21, 22, but by reading the 24th v. in connection with Nehemiah 13:15-22, we learn that this prohibition related to what was lawful for them to do on the other six days of the week, viz. merchandise and trading. See proof, Nehemiah 10:31: also unlawful, as in Amos 8:5 We need not, nor we cannot misunderstand the fourth commandment, taken in connection with the other nine, they were simple and pure written by the finger of God; but in the days of our Saviour it had become heavily laden with Jewish traditions, hence when Jesus appeals to them whether it is lawful to do good and to heal on the Sabbath days, their mouths are closed because they cannot contradict him from the law nor the prophets. The Saviour nowhere interferes with them in their most rigid observance of the day; but when they find fault with him for performing his miracles of mercy on that day, he tells them they have broken the law; and in another place, “If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision without breaking the law of Moses, are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?” He then says, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” 7:23, 24 Did he break the Sabbath? Now the law requires that the beasts shall rest; but what is the practice of many of those who are the most strict in keeping Sunday for the Sabbath. Sick, or well, ministers or laymen, do they not ride back and forth to meeting? Again, it is right and lawful to carry forth our dead on the Sabbath? or carry the communion service back and forth. The Apostle says, ‘believe and be baptized.’ Suppose this should be on the Sabbath and we were some distance from the water, would any one interfere with us if we carried our change of apparel with us and back again, or have we in so doing transgressed the law; if we have, it is high time we made a full stop. Jesus undoubtedly had good reasons for directing the sick man to take up his bed and walk, but I cannot learn that he justified any one else in carrying their bed on the Sabbath, unless in a case of necessity and mercy, such as he cited them to, as watering their cattle, and pulling them out of the ditch, and eating when hungry, and being healed when sick. Be it also remembered that when the Sanhedrin tried him they did not condemn him, as in the other cases cited; so in this, they failed for want of Scripture testimony. He was the Lord of the Sabbath, and the law of ceremonies were now about to cease forever, the ten commandments with the keeping of the Sabbath therefore were to be stripped of these ceremonies and all of their traditions, and left as pure to be written on the hearts of the Gentiles as when first written on tables of stone, therefore Jesus taught that it was right to do good on the Sabbath day, and whoever follows his example and teaching will keep the seventh day Sabbath holy and acceptable to God. They will also judge righteous judgement, and not according to appearance. SC2 94.1

There is but one Christian Sabbath named, or established in the Bible, and that individual, whoever he is, that undertakes to abolish or change it, is the real Sabbath breaker. Remember that the keeping the commandments is the only safe guide through the gates into the city. SC2 95.1

My friends and neighbors, and especially my family, know that I have for more than twenty years, strictly endeavored to keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath, and I can say that I did it in all good conscience before God, on the ocean, and in foreign countries as well as any own, until about sixteen months since I read an article published in the Hope of Israel, by a worthy brother, T.M. Preble, of Nashua, which when I read and compared with the Bible, convinced me that there never had been any change. Therefore the seventh day was the Sabbath, and God required me as well as him to keep it holy. Many things now troubled my mind as to how I could make this great change, family, friends, and brethren and, but this one passage of Scripture was, and always will be as clear as a sunbeam. “What is that to thee: follow thou me”. In a few days my mind was made up to begin to keep the fourth commandment, and I bless God for the clear light he has shed upon my mind in answer to prayer and a thorough examination of the scriptures on this great subject. Contrary views did, after a little, shake my position some, but I feel now that there is no argument nor sophistry that can becloud my mind again this side of the gates of the Holy City. Brother Marsh, who no doubt thinks, and perhaps thousands besides, that his paper is what it purports to be, THE VOICE OF TRUTH, takes the ground with the infidel that there is not Sabbath. Brother S.S. Snow, of New York, late editor of the Jubilee Standard, publishes to the world that he is the Elijah, preceding the advent of our Saviour, restoring all things: (the seventh day Sabbath must be one of all things,) and yet he takes the same ground with Br. Marsh, that the Sabbath is forever abolished. As the seventh day Sabbath is a real prophecy, a picture (and not a shadow like the Jewish Sabbaths,) of the thing typified which is to come, I cannot see how those who believe in the change or abolition of the type, can have any confidence to look to God for the great antitype, the Sabbath of rest, to come to them. SC2 96.1

Brother J.B. Cook has written a short piece in his excellent paper, the ADVENT TESTIMONY, It was pointed and good, but too short; and as brother Preble’s Tract now before me, did not embrace the arguments which have been presented since he published it, it appeared to me that something was called for in this time of falling back from this great subject. I therefore present this book, hoping at least, that it will help to strengthen and save all honest souls seeking after truth. SC2 96.2

A WORD RESPECTING THE HISTORY. At the close of the first century a controversy arose, whether both days should be kept or only one, which continued until the reign of Constantine the Great. By his laws, made in A.D. 321, it was decreed for the future that Sunday should be kept a day of rest in all the cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow husbandry. History further informs us that Constantine murdered his two sisters husbands and son, and his own familiar friend, that same year, and the year before boiled his wife in a cauldron of oil. - The controversy still continued down to A.D. 603, when Pope Gregory passed a law abolishing the seventh day Sabbath, and establishing the first day of the week. See Baronius Councils, 603. Barnfield’s Eng. page 116, states that the Parliament of England met on Sundays till the time of Richard II. The first law of England made for keeping of Sunday, was in the time of Edward IV. about 1470. As these two books are not within my reach, I have extracted from T.M. Preble’s tract on the Sabbath. Mr. Fisher says, it was Dr. Bound one of the rigid Puritans, who applied the name Sabbath to the first day of the week, about the year 1795. “The word Sunday is not found in the bible,” it derived its name from the heathen nations of the North, because the day was dedicated to the sun. Neither is the Sabbath applied to the first day any more than it is to the sixth day of the week. While Daniel beheld the little horn, (popery) he said, among other things, he would think to change times and laws. Now this could not mean of men, because it ever has been the prerogative of absolute rulers like himself, to change manmade-laws. Then to make the prophecy harmonize with the Scripture, he must have meant times and laws established by God, because he might think and pass decrees as he has done, but he, nor all the universe could ever change God’s times and laws. Jesus says that “times and seasons were in the power of the father.” The Sabbath is the most important law which God ever instituted. “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments, and my laws, see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Exodus 16:28, 29 Then it’s clear from the history, that this is in part what Daniel meant. Now the second advent believers have professed all confidence in his visions; why then doubt this. Whoever feels disposed to defend and sustain the decrees of that “blasphemous” power, and especially Pope Gregory and the great Constantine, the murderer, shown to be the moral reformer in this work of changing the Sabbath, are welcome to their principles and feeling. I detest these acts, in common with all others which have emanated from these ten and one horned powers. The Revelations show us clearly that they were originated by the devil. If you say this history is not true then you are bound to refute it. If you cannot, you are as much in duty bound to believe it as any other history, even that George Washington died in 1799! If the Bible argument, and testimony from history are to be relied on as evidence, then it is as clear as a sunbeam that the seventh day Sabbath is a perpetual sign, and is as binding upon man as it ever was. But we are told we must keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath as an ordinance to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. I for one had rather believe Paul. See Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12 SC2 97.1

A word more respecting time. See 31st page. Here I have shown that the sun in the centre, regardless all time for the earth - fifty two weeks to the year, one hundred and sixty-eight hours to the week, the seventh of which is twenty-four hours. “Jesus says there are but twelve hours in the day, (from sunrise to sunset.) Then twelve hours night to make a twenty-four hour day, you see, must always begin at a certain period of time. No matter then whether the sun sets with us at eight in summer or 4 o’clock in winter. Now by this, and this is the Scripture rule, days and weeks can, and most probably are, kept at the North and South polar regions. What an absurdity to believe that God does exonerate our fathers and brothers from keeping his Sabbath while they are in these polar regions fishing for seals and whales, should it be with them either all day or all night. If they have lost their reckoning of days and weeks, because there was, or was not any sun six months of the time, how could they learn what day of the week it was when they see the sun setting at 6 o’clock on the equator, if bound home from the South? By referring to Luke 23:55, 56, and 24:1, we see that the people in Palestine had kept the days and weeks right from the creation; since which time, astronomers teach us that not even fifteen minutes have been lost. God does not require us to be any more exact in keeping time, than what we may or have learned from the above rules, but I am told there is a difference in time of twenty-four hours to the mariner that circumnavigates the globe. That, being true, is known to them, but it alters no time on the earth or sea. SC2 98.1

But, says one, I should like to keep the Sabbath in time, just as Jesus did. Then you must live in Palestine, where their day begins seven hours earlier than ours; and yet it is at 6 o’clock in the evening the same period, though not the same by the sun, in which we begin our day. Let me illustrate: our earth, something in the form of an orange, is whirling over every twenty-four hours. It measures three hundred and sixty degrees, or about twenty-one thousand six hundred miles round, in the manner you would pass a string round an orange. Now divide this three hundred and sixty degrees by the twenty-four hour day, and the result is fifteen degrees, or nine hundred miles. Then every fifteen degrees we travel or sail eastward, the sun rises and sets one hour earlier in the period of the twenty-four hours: therefore those who live in Palestine, one hundred and seven degrees east of us, begin and close the day seven hours earlier, so in proportion all the way round the globe, the sun always stationary! Then the Sabbath begins precisely at 6 o’clock on Friday evening, every where on this globe, and ends at the same period on what we call Saturday evening. God says ‘everything on its day,’ ‘from even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath;’ ‘the evening and the morning was the first day.’ He is an exact time keeper! I say then, in the name of all that is holy, heavenly and true, and as immortality is above all price, let us see to it that we are found fearing God and keeping his COMMANDMENTS, for this, we are taught, ‘is the whole duty of man.’ The proof is positive that the seventh day Sabbath is included in the commandments. SC2 99.1

Bro. Marsh says, “Keeping the Sabbath is embraced in this covenant. Deuteronomy 5:1-6, made with the children of Israel at Horeb. It was not made with their Fathers (the Patriarchs) but with us, even us, who are all of us HERE ALIVE THIS DAY. 5:3 ‘This testimony first negative, he made it not with our Fathers, and then positive with us, is conclusive. Not a single proof can be presented from either the old or new testament, that it was instituted for any other people or nation.” Now it is clear and positive that if the Sabbath is not binding on any other people than the Jews, by the same rule not one of the commandments is binding on any other people, who dare take such infidel ground? Was not the second covenant written on the hearts of the Gentile, even the law of Commandments? which Paul says ‘is Holy, just and good.’ Thirty years after the crucifixion he directs the Ephesians to the keeping the fifth commandment, that they may live long on the earth not the land of Canaan. 6:2, 3 Did not God say that Abraham kept his commandments, statutes, and laws? This embraced the Sabbath for circumcision, and the Sabbath were then the only laws, or statutes, or commandments written. The fourth commandment was given two thousand years before Abraham was born! Is not the stranger and all within their gates included in the covenant to keep the Sabbath? See Exodus 20:10 And did not God require them to keep THE Sabbath before he made this covenant with them in Horeb? See Exodus 16:27-30 Does not Isaiah say that God will bless the man, and the son of man, and the sons of the stranger, that keep THE Sabbath? These certainly mean the Gentiles. 56:2-3, 6-7 Also, in the 58 ch.13,14, the promise is to all that keep the Sabbath. To what people did the Sabbath belong at the destruction of Jerusalem, nearly forty years after the crucifixion? Matthew 24:20 The Gentiles certainly were embraced in the covenant by this time! Why was it Paul’s manner always to preach on the seventh day Sabbath to Jews and Gentiles? SC2 99.2

By what authority do you call the seventh day Sabbath, the Jewish Sabbath? The Bible says it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God! And Jesus said that he was the ‘Lord of the Sabbath day.’ He moreover told the Jews that the Sabbath was made for MAN! Where do you draw the distinguishing line, to show which is and which is not MAN between the natural seed of Abraham and the Gentiles? “Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also!” Then Paul says ‘there is no difference,’ and that ‘there is no respect of persons with God.’ Is it not clear, then, that the Sabbath was made for Adam and his posterity, the whole family of man? How very fearful you are that God’s people should keep the Bible Sabbath! You say, ‘let us be cautious, lest we disinherit ourselves by seeking the inheritance under the wrong covenant. Your meaning is, not to seek to keep the Sabbath covenant, but the one made to Abraham. SC2 100.1

If you can tell us what precept there is in the Abrahamic covenant that we must now keep to be saved, that is not embraced in the one given at Mount Sinai, then we will endeavor to keep that too, with the Sabbath of the Lord our God. If the Sabbath, as you say, is abolished, why do you, JOSEPH MARSH, continue to call the first day of the week the Sabbath. See V.T., 15th July. If you profess to utter the VOICE OF TRUTH from the bible, do be consistent, and also willing that other papers, besides yours and the Advent Herald, should give the present truth to the flock of God. I say let it go with lightning speed; every way, as does the political news by the electric telegraph. If the whole law and the prophets hang on the commandments, and by keeping them we enter into life, how will you, or I, enter in if we do not ‘keep the commandments.’ See Exodus 16:28-30 Jesus says, “therefore whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom,” etc. “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Amen! SC2 101.1