The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1886-12-09
THE FIRST OR SEVENTH, WHICH

Adventists, has taken exceptions tC
the sermon of mine published, ant
asks, as though having quite over
thrown its statements and arguments,
and confouned its author, "Who will
respond? While | do not seek a
cheap notoriety through little edify-
ing controversy, shall not withhold
to once forall rebuke the petty hand
ling of a very sacred subject with a
few plain facts.
First, no one maintains that the
words Christian Sabbath" or Jewish
Sabbath are found in the Bible
but the word Sabbath is meaning the
SeventhDay as is also 'The Lord
Day." meaning the first day of the
week.
Secondly, Mr.. Bliss derives from
his peculiar rendering of St. Mark
2:27, "The Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath, -
that it was universally binding.
That our Lord never intended to i'm
ply by these words this truth appear
at first glance. This is merely to
show the gentleman's curious meth
DDS Of exegesis. That the moral bas-
is of the requirement is universal |
do not deny but strongly affirm.
lie says sit was not commemora.
tive of Jewish history unless Adam
was Jew" This is quite an untrue
deduction. Moses, Jew, wrote the
Pentateuch, and he was Israels Law
giyer. That he made it "commemo-
rative of Jewish History" irrespec-
tive of Adams Sabbath keeping, he
has not disproved by calling it
''man's" reasoning" If truth be es-
tablished by mans reasoning, the
truth as truth being divine is not less
so by reason Of the method of its es-
adjustment.
MANS reasoning" is necessary to
understand the words of the Bible ::
and when Moses says (Deut. SID, 15)
"But the Seventh-Day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God; in it, etc. :"
"And remember that thou vast SER
want in the land Of Egypt, and that
the Lord thy God brought thee out
thence through a mighty hand and
by stretched out arm; therefore
(Which means for this cause) the
Lord thy God commanded thee to
keep the Sabbath day." We under
stand that without doubts "man's
reasoning is correct in concluding
that Moses did make this Sabbatical
ordinance commemorative of deliver
ance from Egypt. Certainly words
could not be palmer.
But he cannot maintain that the
three-fold division of ancient law into
moral or universal, civil or national,
and ceremonial or religious, is untrue;
nor that two and even three of these
were not often combined. The above
is an illustration of this.
That the whole law concerning the
observance of the Sabbath in the Old
Testament combined at least two of
these divisions is easily provable.
The law was keep, bless, sanciify the
Sabbath, seventh and rest day, on
the seventh day of the week.
As the Sabbath was made "for
man" it is presumable that as a NOR
al law (else it would not be universal
| ly binding) it is based upon some
inherent necessity in mans nature
Of one seventh of mans whole time
to be devoted and sanctifed to rest.
But could the moral law include the
especial day? No.
The moral law must be universal
in its effect. No quota of hours is
simultaneously the same day in all
parts of the world. The sun does
not rise in China until it has set here.
Is it not fair then to ask, if the Sab
bath law is universal in the particu-
lar Of the seventh day, and God com
mands this day to be observed, and
the law is null and void unless so OBJ
served, whose Seventh Day does He
intend! The Chinaman's or the
American'sy Mr.. Bliss compares
the word therefore" in Deut. SIS,
and declares them identical, | hope
Mr.. Bliss is Greek scholar, and will
compare them in the Greek. The
word in Deut. is translation of ''dia
touto," which means because of, son
this account" or 'ior this cause. "
The word in Lev. is simply t"kai. "
meaning md" His pet idea that
Moses intended to do honor to the
deliverance by making all the com
mandments commemorative, there
fore, is asking too much.
Again he says, "God set apart the
seventhday to commemorate creation.
xxx Now where does the Bible record
such thing of the first day of the
week? The spirit of the great day
having been retained, as indeed were
all the moral laws; the New Test.
and the old being ssthe parts of a
grand whole, whence the need of the
repetition 1t records it of the day