The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-02

week and that the Christians allow them
selves to designate their seventh or Sabbath
DAY by the first mineral used in the Jewish
week, signifies as little as when we all speak
OF the sun rising and setting, although
mean and know that it is the earth and not
the sun that moves. The terms that ''the sun
goes up and that "the Christians rest on the
nrst day in the week. are all right for daily
use as long as no one raises dispute
ABOUT them, but where the real facts are
called for one must be ready to explain that
both terms are used by mere habit, and have
no truth in them, except as to the appearance
OF things. The sun appears to move and
the Christians Sabbath day appears to come
on the first day Of the week, because we
compare our week with the Jewish week;
something which we had no business to do,
for the Jewish week has never been proved to
be invented by God-it is a purely Jewish
invention for the Jewish community, except
as to the number of days it contains, and the
Christians have, Of course, the same number
of days The fact that the Lord Jesus did
not interfere with or change the Jewish
Sabbath does not prove in the least that it
was better Sabbath day than the seventh
day that the Christians rest on, for Christ
certainly was not caught in such petty jobs
as to revise the almanacs men had invented;
he had far more important missions to per-
form.
While we are thus without a word in the
Bible calling for Sabbath day handed down
to us on every seventh day from the day the
Lord rested, we have several Scriptural points
indicating strongly that all the Lord asks
in the commandment is work on any six days
and rest on the seventh, that follows after
six. Thus one passage says, Thou shalt
count thee six days." and in all the other
places where the Sabbath is spoken of in
commanding way, the working days read in
work." etc. We never find it ''the SIX days."
etc., which shows there are no certain six
days appointed for work, and consequently
the day following on six days is not fixed
either; it is simply called ''the seventh be-
cause one has counted six ahead of it.
There is no commandment telling man to
rest on Saturday or on Sunday, or even to
rest on the first or seventh day of the week;
but simply to rest on the seventh day after
six working days.
1t is also, from other standpoints viewed
at with their Sabbath cry. They hold that
God did not only sanctify and bless the day
HIS children rest on after six working days
claim that the day itself on which the Lord
rested was blessed and hallowed to its sub
stance, and as such returns every seventh
day, or every seventh revolution of the
earth. The Bible says on this point that
God created the light and called it day
Now. If the day itself, which is eight (sim-
ply called day'0, was blessed and hallowed
or sanctifed, then certainly all the days are
thereby sanctified and blessed as they are
all but the same one light that was blessed
Fact is, the number seven was blessed
and that number is found by counting SIX
working days and resting on the next day
and not by dividing the age of the earth
in days by the number seven, for there is no
",
ton; neither is such division possible as long
as the Jews and Christians have $50 different
results of their calculations of the age Of the
earth. and some of those vary about 600
years. The allegation that the Sabbath day
was changed from the last to the first day in
the week by Caesars and popes is all nom
sense. There was no chance for such author
ties to change a law which never existed
the Jewish alamnac being no authority for
the world. as already shown. The fact that
the authorities settled a childish dispute be-
dino
first or seventh day of the Jewish week for
Sabbath about fifteen years after the death
OF the last one of the apostles, and that in
favor of the majority of the Christians, sim
ply shows that the apostles must have held
no opinion, or been teaching like the Adj
ventists. for if they did, then the majority of
the Christians could not only fifteen years
later carry the vote in favor of SUNDAY as
the Sabbath: so great a change was never
wrought in fifteen years in Christendom The
authorities or government had a perfect right
TO settle the question in favor of the ma
jority OF the Christians, and so has the gov
eminent today. or else any handful of re-
nglous fana0ics might disturb the Sabbath
day under the false pretenses that one dav
is IN itself better than another or that thew
have found Biblical almanac superior to
all others, because mentioned in the RjbIe
Overlooking the fact that the Bible never rec
ognizes the Jewish calendar week except as
to its number Of days..
But not only from a historical standpoint
are the Adventists mistaken: they are equally
inconsistent if tested by logic and practical
reasoning. l have asked many of them
whether day comes back again after we
never!' When then ask them how the day
On which the Lord rested and which He
blessed can come back again for man to rest
on they smile and turn away. They seem to
recognize that If the Lords resting day can
return to man, then also can His working
days return; but, If any day returns, then it
follows that the Lord created everything on
the first day and rested on 1t, too because the
same day came back returned again and
again. But in the sense we here speak of a
day the same day can never return; there
fore, the Bible says clearly that there came
second, third and fourth day, etc., and when
the seventh day was past the eighth and
ninth surely came, and the seventh one never
returned; but If man obey the Lords COM
mandment and take day of rest after six
to that day, and is felt in the rest and in
the worship and in a good conscience, be-
cause one has literally fulfilled the command
ment as far as it goes and as far as anybody
can reach at its meaning.
Another point the Adventists put UP their
tents for is to convert people into the be-
lief that baptism is not proper unless the
entire person Is Immersed in the water Here
again the Scripture is perfectly silent. No
immersion is mentioned in connection with
an inference from the phrase by the Apostle
Paul that 1--WE are buried with Christ through
BAPTISM" but now the Scripture never tells
us that Christ was buried in water or in the
River Jordan, or In baptism that there Is
no reason for believeing that one who is
head into water. 1t seems far more reason
able that the apostle means that those who
are properly baptized to Christ are through
faith regarded as 'crucifled with Christ"
dead with Christ, buried with Christ, etc.;
terms so common for said apostle to use