A Word for The Sabbath

05 APOSTOLIC EXAMPLE

ONE class there is, wide spread throughout the land,
Who claim no need that any plain command,
Explicit and direct, should e’er be given,
That we should keep the first day of the seven.
On other ground their theories they rest,
Ground which they fondly think will stand the test. WFS 33.1

‘Tis claimed that Christ, who for our sin has died,
In all things our example and our guide,
The perfect pattern of the Church below,
Who trod the way he wished his saints to go,
By his example, plainly took away
The obligation of the seventh day.
Then further down the stream of time we’re brought,
And told that the apostles plainly taught,
Taught by their actions, which the loudest speak,
That we must keep the first day of the week;
That they observed it as the day of rest,
And they, of course, did only what was best.
And oft, upon that day, they met, ‘tis said,
For public worship, and for breaking bread;
And thus most clearly showed, as all may see, What day the Christian Sabbath hence should be. WFS 33.2

Christ, as our perfect pattern, we will own,
Teacher and guide in all that he has done.
We will acknowledge that th’ apostles knew,
And showed by practice, what was right to do.
And actions loudest speak-all this we admit,
But on our side we claim the advantage yet;
For, that our Lord, in any shape or way,
Relaxed the law that guards the Sabbath day,
That so his followers ever understood,
Which, if it was the case, they surely would,
Or that the apostles owned, or e’er confessed,
The first day of the week, a day of rest-
These, though asserted with assurance high,
Plainly and fearlessly, we do deny.
To save all long debate and words about it,
With those who still may feel disposed to doubt it,
We will submit to facts: they shall decide;
And by their verdict we will then abide. WFS 34.1

All will admit this fact: that to the cross,
The ten commands were full in binding force;
The fourth, with all, bore undisputed sway,
And held mankind in duty to obey.
If Christ then disregarded these commands,
Or only that on which the Sabbath stands,
Then he transgressed God’s law; which bound men yet;
Then he committed sin! all must admit; For herein, says the apostle, sin is shown,
When we transgress the law to us made known.
Those, then, who claim that Christ the Sabbath broke
Make him a sinner! as the word hath spoke.
Ye, in whose breasts such views, blasphemous, start,
Give them no lodging-place within your heart! WFS 34.2

But on that day when Christ rose from the dead,
His followers were assembled; and ‘t is said,
They met to celebrate the day when so
Our Saviour triumphed over man’s last foe;
So that must be the day henceforth to stand
The Christian Sabbath in each Christian land. WFS 35.1

Pitiful reasoning! if each word were true,
And e’en the resurrection were in view,
To what would it amount? Why, nothing more
Than a mere inference, and at that most poor!
Would those who reason thus some foresight take,
Such false assertions they might cease to make;
For they would find the saints assembled there
Partaking of their evening’s frugal fare;
For in that room, as Luke hath plainly showed,
The twelve disciples all as one abode. ¹
‘T was not to keep the day that Christ arose
As one then hallowed to divine repose;
For they did not believe he yet had risen;
But thought the grave was still his gloomy prison. ²
Forever, then, this claim is at an end; On this ‘t is folly longer to contend. WFS 35.2

But still, that Jesus sanctioned it, they say,
By meeting his disciples on that day.
If such an act, then, will suffice to make
A Sabbath day, one instance more we’ll take;
‘T is where he met them, as it chanced to be
While fishing on the sea of Galilee.
And sanctioned what they did all heart could wish,
By furnishing a nice repast of fish.
So if this rule we follow, either way,
It makes the Sabbath but a fishing-day. WFS 36.1

Failing in this, we hear them yet again,
Their darling theory striving to maintain,
Claim that the apostles in all they did and said,
And by their frequent acts of breaking bread,
Gave to the Christian world abundant ground
On which their first-day theory they should found.
Does breaking bread a Sabbath make? if so,
Then every day’s a Sabbath; as we know,
Because a certain space, as may be read,
The apostles daily practiced breaking bread. ¹ WFS 36.2

How with the teachings of the sacred word
Do such unfounded theories accord?
May there we learn that such a simple act
Would make a Sabbath? There is no such fact.
Does it assert, if, on a certain day,
The saints, perchance, were met to sing and pray, That we that day henceforth should understand
Usurped the Sabbath of the fourth command?
That that day then should take a higher place
Than that which God first hallowed for our race?
On which his blessing he did first dispense,
And placed the seal of his omnipotence?
There’s no such teaching! so it is most true
That on their bare assertion rests this view.
It is a theory of men’s invention:
In words of Holy Writ it has no mention. WFS 36.3

But other facts there are, pointed and stern,
And which some classes would do well to learn:
The Lord himself affirmed that he obeyed
All the commandments which his Father made.
And as the apostles’ custom was, they say,
We find them preaching on the Sabbath day,
And nowhere in God’s word (we safely speak),
Is Sabbath used for first day of the week.
‘T is true a term of “Lord’s day” once is used,
And ‘t is a term most grossly, too, abused,
For first-day sticklers, as may oft be seen,
Claim that ‘t is Sunday that of course must mean.
We think not so; for God did never own
A day as his except the seventh alone.
We will acknowledge, then, that day the Lord’s,
Which with his own demands thus well accords.
Nor can we think, whatever pains men take, They will oblige him by the change they make. WFS 37.1

‘T is true there’s been a change; the world now say
That Sunday is the Christian Sabbath day.
And so they practice; but by whom, and how,
Was this change made which men acknowledge now?
God did not do it, nor his Son from Heaven;
Nor was this work unto the apostles given;
For their example, and their teaching, too,
Show this was not the work they came to do.
But there was one, whom, in the unfolding plan,
Which the Arch-Fiend had plotted against man,
Time in his onward flight would soon reveal,
O’er God exalted, and his holy will.
Perdition’s son! child of iniquity,
The man of sin, the wicked papacy! ¹
Aye, he it was, who was to magnify
Himself against the power of God, most high.
And think his laws to change, his fixed decrees,
Usurp his power, and rule as he might please.
As prophets had foretold, so, plainly, he
Has done his daring work of blasphemy.
‘T is he has raised a sacrilegious hand
Against the Sabbath of the fourth command;
Has robbed it of its glory and its grace,
And reared the pagan Sunday in its place. WFS 38.1

Ye Sunday followers, then, if ye would know
Where you for your authority must go, You have no need to wander far from home,
For you receive it from the pope of Rome.
And also ye, who claim that Christ now stands
The giver of the law for Christian lands,
Who is your advocate? Ah, here’s your hope,
You have an advocate with Christ-the pope!! WFS 38.2

All ye who then so zealously confide
In apostolic practice for your guide,
Know that so long as Sunday creeds you own,
You follow papacy! and that alone! WFS 39.1

If’t is, indeed, your honest, firm intent
To tread the way the first apostles went,
Do as they did; heed not the creeds of men,
But keep the Sabbath as they kept it then. WFS 39.2