The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1903-06-13
Sunday Base Ball From Christian Standpoint.
Sermon Preached the Presbyterian Church May 81 by the
Rev. j. W. Primrose D. D.. and Published by Request.

tious convictions would find it diff
cult If not impossible to secure a lu-
crative contract unless he yield to
the pressure Of Sunday games. So
too, in many towns Of our country,
clerks are constrained to work all Of
Sunday lest their places be supplied
by others, and the bread be taken
out of their mouths. Every infraction
of this moral law rivets the letters Of
bondage.
To this it may be retorted that we
are not keeping the Sabbath; that we
have repudiated the Sabbath: that we
do not keep holy the seventh day. 1t
is true that we Christians do not OBJ
serve the seventh day but it is not
true that we do not keep the Sabbath.
We Christians hold that Jehovah has
abrogated the Jewish and substituted
the Lords cay or Sunday. 1t is a
fact that Sunday is never called the
sabbath in the New Testament writ
tings-not once. On the other hand
the observance of the sabbth, i. g.,
the Jewish holy day, is discouraged.
And so we have passages like this in
Col. 2:16, II: "Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, OF of
feast day or new moon or sab
bath day: which are shadow of
things to come, but the body is
Christ s.. - The matter under discus
sion concerns the Levitical institu-
tions wholly. These the Apostle says
have been abrogated, but the moral
law demanding rest of one day in
seven as holy to the Lord is not abro
gated and Sunday has been substituted
as the Christian sabbath or day of
rest.
Before passing on to the proof of
this substitution 1 must call at
tention to an oft quoted saying Of
our Lord to the. effect that "the sab
bath was made for man and not man
for the sabbath. It is argued thence
that our Lord meant to relax the law
so as virtually to seoularize the day /:
make it day for the pursuit of
business and pleasure, and no longer
day holy to the Lord. OF course he
who honestly uses this text must be
presumed to admit that the sabbath
was made for man, i. g., that it is a
divine institution; otherwise he can
not honestly cite it. To do SO were
disingenuous. Now, the passage un-
doubtedly means that the sabbath was
a humane institution designed to pro.
mote mans best interests. But be.
fore any one can cite this saying of
Christ to justify its appropriation TO
pleasure and business only, he must
be prepared to show that mans true
welfare is best promoted not by keep.
ing the sabbath holy unto God but BY
forgetfulness of Him.
The day of the week which by
apostolic precedent was substituted for
the seventh day was that on which
our Lord arose from the dead. On
the seventh day the work of creation
was finished; on the first day the
greater work Of redemption was fin
ished. The Lords day then is q di.
vinely appointed day for celebrating
Christ's resurrection. He who puts
contempt upon it is as he who spits
upon his oountry's flag. Can the
consent to the dissertation?
Let us briefly look at the evidence
of the substitution. The Gospel in
forms us that on the night of our
Lords resurrection all the disciples
except Thomas were assembled and
the Master met them. On the same
day Of the following week He met
chem all again. This could scarceIv
have happened by chance. It must
have been by Christ's own appoint
ment that they all agreed to meet ON
! day not devoted to religions assem-.
Dlies, and with the confident expec-
'ation of again meeting him. The
Day of Pentecost on which we find
hem again assembled was the first
lay of the week. When Sunday, the
he day of Pentacost was fully come
We read in the. second chapter of
he book of Acts, they were together
n one place. Evidently, this day
vas set apart by the early church as
heir day of social Worship.
CONTINUED on last pags.