The Perpetuity of the Seventh-day Sabbath

NINTH SPEECH

Mr. Waggoner in the Affirmative.—If I was strictly a logician, perhaps I might pursue a different course but whatever progress we may make in this discussion, I feel prompted to call your attention to the fact that my opponent is continually digressing. PSDS 37.4

I deny that there is any distinction to be made between the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and the Lord’s Sabbath. He has been laboring so long, apparently with no object in view except to fill up his half hour. I wish he would read the fourth commandment once or twice and see if the Sabbath is not there enjoined agreeably to both our ideas. The Lord’s Sabbath was made at creation, and until he can show that there is a different Sabbath from the Lord’s Sabbath, in the fourth commandment, I shall consider my position safe. The only Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment is the Sabbath of the Lord, and that Sabbath was made at creation. Now, grant his reasoning, (that the only reason why the children of Israel were commanded to observe the seventh day was because they had been brought out of the land of Egypt,) and that was the Sabbath upon which the Lord rested after making the heavens and the earth. I believe the congregation sees that this talk of my opponent about the “two reasons” has no bearing upon the question. The Sabbath of creation which was the Lord’s Sabbath, and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment are the same; and nobody of thoughtful mind who has listened attentively to this discussion thus far, can fail to see that a large share of what my opponent has said, has been a mere play upon words. Let him continue this course if he chooses, he is welcome to all the advantage he gains by it. PSDS 37.5

I do not know that I need to refer to it, but I will remark that I hardly know how we can prove Brigham Young guilty of violating the ten commandments in having a number of wives. My opponent says, further, that drunkenness can be indulged without violating the law of the ten commandments. Now why does he claim the absolute sense of the ten commandments? Dare he say that this is inferrable from a fair construction of the word of God? I think not. PSDS 38.1

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the Lord’s Sabbath, and that day did exist from the creation. Could not the God of Abram exist before Abram existed? Could not the Sabbath of the fourth commandment exist before the commandment was proclaimed? It is clear that there is no difficulty whatever in the case. I declare it is tedious to notice such equivocations so often. PSDS 38.2

My opponent says he read the 15th verse: I read the 14th. It was the Divine precept that I read, and it was to show that the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment was the Sabbath of the Lord and therefore existed from the creation. PSDS 38.3

It seems that all my scripture references to show that sin existed and was punished before the law was promulgated, are of little consequence to my opponent. But other circumstances may impart a knowledge of right and wrong as surely as a proclamation of the law itself. That obligation to observe the principles contained in the precepts of the ten commandments existed before they were proclaimed from Mount Sinai is clearly proved, by implication, as the existence of the law itself at any subsequent period. PSDS 38.4

A general reason could not be general and yet be local, but a general and local reason could both exist together. Every one must admit this. PSDS 39.1

I am very anxious to progress, but not faster than we can and get the light before the people. PSDS 39.2

It is true that the Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment was not the identical twenty-four hours on which the Lord rested after the creation. The Lord did not enjoin it as that day, but as a day answerable to that. But you could not get the idea that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and the Lord’s Sabbath or Sabbath of creation are the same, more clearly if the Bible had said that the Lord did really rest upon every seventh day of the week. “The seventh day is the Sabbath (or rest-day) of the Lord, and in it thou shalt not do any work.” Are we not satisfied to take the Lord’s own word in this matter? I am willing to do it, and also to rest this point with this people. PSDS 39.3

Matthew 12 ch. (to which I suppose my opponent made reference, though he did not cite the passage,) is the same as Mark 2 ch., only it does not go so far. It is by no means an explanation in the sense Elder Stephenson would wish you to understand it, and I am willing that it should rest as it is before this people. PSDS 39.4

We have not only separate commands, but we have a declaration that God had a covenant which He called a law before the giving of the ten commandments at Mount Sinai. I will quote Deuteronomy 4:12, 13, to show that God’s law was the ten commandments, and also that His law existed and was obligatory anterior to the bringing of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 1 Chronicles 16:15, 18, quote the whole—“to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” Here you have got both the law and the promise. PSDS 39.5

Genesis 26:5 v. Here we have a recognition of a promise, commandments, and laws before the ten were given upon Mount Sinai. 1 Chronicles 16:15, 16, 17 verses. From this we see that a promise is a covenant, and that a commandment is a covenant. The Lord wrote the ten commandments upon two tables of stone, but here we find that they existed before they were confirmed to the people at Mount Sinai. We have something at stake in this. God’s law not only existed at the beginning of the Jewish dispensation, but originated beyond it. PSDS 39.6

In reference to the Sabbath, which we have shown existed at the creation, we wish to see if we cannot find it in the New Testament dispensation. We shall claim an acknowledgment of it in the New Testament record in the same terms as in the Old Testament, without the abrogation of a single condition for its observance. The Sabbath was placed upon the seventh day because the Lord rested upon that day, before the Jewish nation existed, and before any nation existed, or any part of the human race. And now when we have seen this, we find that when the Lord brought His people out of the land of Egypt he established a basis for the promulgation of the ten commandments as we find them written upon the tables of stone. We must consider that the sanctity continues after that, as we see no reason for supposing that it has ceased. Do the scriptures teach that there was any sanctity placed upon the seventh day when the people were brought out of the land of Egypt that did not exist before? We have not seen that they do. But they do teach as we have shown, that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment existed from the creation. PSDS 40.1

Well, we will now proceed to identify the Sabbath of the fourth commandment with the Sabbath of the New Testament, by reference to Luke 22, 24 chs., commencing at the 54th v. of the former. I will read the 1st v. of the 24th ch. also. The fourth commandment has reference to the Lord’s Sabbath, and here we find both the Sabbath and the commandment mentioned in the same connection; hence we would ask if the two Sabbath are not the same, even though one was observed after the crucifixion? They are both the Sabbath of the Lord and both the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. PSDS 40.2

I would call your attention to the fact that this is the testimony of Luke the evangelist. Some of our friends will perhaps say that nothing applies to us till we get to the book of Acts. But this record was made for those living under the new dispensation, and it must have been written for their instruction. What is here stated is for us. Now the question is, did Luke mean what he wrote? We think no one will deny that he did. Luke recognized the Sabbath and the commandment enjoining the Sabbath, and we claim that the Sabbath so recognized is none other than this one of the fourth commandment. We also have the testimony of the Apostle Daniel to the same effect. [No passage noted in my M. S.—Reporter]——15th ch. [Book not noted—Reporter.] James is giving his opinion at a conference in Jerusalem. They had been preaching but they were now at the place where they were empowered to preach, and they were the first who were thus empowered, so it is presumed they would understand all about the Sabbath and the commandments. [Reads the passage above referred to—Reporter.] Thus we see another inspired apostle recognizing the Sabbath in the same way without ever once claiming that the sanctity had ceased or in any sense departed from it. PSDS 40.3