The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-10-06

the oil Of joy for mourning, and the
garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviDess. The power Of an end
less life" thrills the despairing heart
with new joy, and divine strength
uplifts the hopeless to heavenly
hopes and kingly ambitions. grand
and pure. and lofty as the heaven o.
heavens. Jesus is risen--maD is
immortal =
Shall this not be concentrated
Shallthe sorrows of the. cross, and
The joys of the resurrection remain
uncelebrated: Shall we sing of
earthly heroes, and keep feast.days
in honor of earthly deliverances, and
shall there be no festive song to the
risen Jesus ?-shall earth tremble to
no anthem of triumph from ransom.
ed souls, to celebrate the deepest
sorrow and the highest Joy-the
M iracle of Love that led the spot
less Sufferer to the bitter cross, the
Miracle of Power, that brought again
our Lord Jesus from the dead2
Surely, forever, ia the annals Of
time and of eternity, This day will
be marked as ''the day which the
Lord hath made" Creations glo-
ries, as well as Israeps deliverance,
fade away before the splendor of the
resurrection. 1t needs no law, like
that of Sinai, to establish this as a
day of religious observance.
III..-THE HISTORY.
From the first the disciples as
sembled on this day and assigned to
it the significance to which it was
entitled. (See John Xxx, 10, 27)
This was the day on which Jesus
made himself manifest to them.
1t is,perhaps, incapable Of positive
proof that the day Of Pentecost
came on tho first day of the week ;
but that is the strong probability 4;
and it is, We believe, generally al
] lowed that on this day the first
church was established. Acts H., AZ,
that this church continued stead
fastly- in the apostles teaching, and
the fellowship, and in breaking OF
bread, and in the prayers" They
had, then, under apostolic guidance,
a regular worship, in which they
"steadfastly" continued. How Of
ten they met, for the purpose men,
toned, we are not, in this chapter,
Informed. We would infer, from
the previous assembling of the dis
ciples on the first day of the week,
that this would be the day. but we
have no intimation Of the fact until
we come to the twentieth chapter of
Acts, where we are informed, verse
Z. that upon the first day Of the
week, when the disciples came to-
gether to break bread, Paul preach
ed to them;'' and for this meeting
Paul had tarried seven days. Yer. G..
Observe. they did not come together
to hear Paul preach, for any other
earlier day would have answered as
we'll for this. Nor was this spec
ial breaking of bread, arranged for
| Paurs benefit; for this, if one day
we're as suitable as another, and 1t
were a special feast in honor of their
guest, could also have been arrang~
ed at an earlier day. He waited for
that which could not properly come
sooner, but which then was sure to
come-the breaking Of bread on the
Lords day, in commemoration of
the Lords death. This gives US in
sight into the report of "steadfast-
ly'' in Acts IT,, AZ. From l Cor. XII,
we learn that the Church frequently
| and regularly came together to eat
the Lords Supper; but we are not
told when, nor how often. But from
another portion of this epistle, xvi.
1, g., we learn that their money con.
tributions were to be made on ''the
first day of the week." evidently
when they ''came together into enc
place" as mentioned-xi., 20. And
that this was not peculiar to the
Corinthians, is most evident from
the fact that Paul had given similar
directions 10 the Churches of Gala
tia.-xvi., l.
It is clear, therefore. that under
apostolic guidance, the primitive
churches were taught to assemble on
the first day of the week for religious
purposes that they continued stead.
Easily in the apostles teaching and
fellowship, in breaking of bread and
in prayers; and that this was mark
ed out alike by the types, by the
completion Of redemption work, and
by the teaching Of the Holy Spirit.
as ''the Lords day" 0
A Plant that Kills by its Sting.
One Of the best points about our