The indicator., 1904-08-20
LETTERS AND OPINIONS
The Day We Worship.

ne Day we worship.
The following very interesting
sermon was preached Sunday last
by Rev. a. A. Layton at the Pill
grim Baptist church, and in it the
reverend speaker gave some sue
cinct reasons why the preponder-
ance of Christians everywhere
hold Sunday as the Sabbath day.
He spoke as follows
Last Sunday the pastor spoke
on The Seventh Day, or The
First? Which and Why" He
took for his text Heb. 7.:I2-ro, re
ferring also to such passages as
Rom. 7A-6; and 3;2S; and z Cor.
3:5-7, mo; Col. 2I3-I7; Gal. g.;
IG-2G, etc Among other things
he said; The primary meaning
OF SABBATH is Rest, and has refer
ence to the needs of man, beasts
OF the field and the soil, or land.
and not Day or number. In Gen.
2:2 we find that ION the seventh
day God ended his work." and
man was the last of his creatures
to be created, so he must have FIN
ished him, the seventh day, and on
that day God rested, and it must
have been mans first day, be-
cause he did not begin to make
him till the sixth day. Gen. l.:
26-3I.
Our Seventh day friends wish
TO know where we got our author
ity to change the day OF rest from
the Seventh to the First. Our
authority is the Word OF God, as
taught by Christ and His Apos-
ties, and not as taught by Mrs.
White the apostle OF Scvcnth-day-
ism.
We claim that God can do what
He will with his own, and that
the Law giver is greater than the
law, and that he has not only the
power but the right to modify
and change His law and COM
mandments when it pleaseth Him
The Seventh day friends claim
that the command to keep that
day is the only perpetual COM
mand, but if the law was OF God,
and that is what is claimed, then
the same requirements are made
for the Sabbath, the priesthood,
priests cloths, meat offering, cir
cumcision, etc. See Gen. I7:7-1o;
Ex. 81; 12, 10, "; Ex. 20 g ;4o:I5 |
Ex. 2S;43; Lev. 6:IS. How our
Seventh day people can hold to
but one of these, and dispose OF
all the others is mystery.
If we can dispose OF SO many
points may we not dispose OF the
other One, in the same way, mail
it to the cross and bury it with |
Him who was the end of the
law who came not to destroy !
the law but to fulfill, or finish it,
to do what the law could do.
The Law came by Moses, Grace
and Truth came by Jesus Christ"
This evidently means that Christ
and Grace are superior to Moses
and the Law, or in other words
take up the law and do all it re-
quired, and more, and give to us
something better than a yoke OF
bondage
Our Seventh day friends appeal
to the early Christian writers to
their theories. Ignatius
the disciple OF St. John put in con-
trast the Sabbath keepers with
those who live according to the
Lord. Barnabas 100 A. ID. said:
I'VE celebrate the Sth day with
JOY on which, too, Jesus rose from
the dead" Justin Martyr, I4o A.
ID. says; "On the day called Sun
day is an assembly, of all those
who live in country or city, and
the memory OF the apostles and
the writings OF the prophets are
read. He describes the services
and then assigns the reason for
on that day, they are:
Because it is the First day on
which God dispelled the darkness,
x x and because Jesus Christ
our Savious rose from the dead
upon it
"The command to circumcise
infants on the Sth day was type
OF the true circumcision by which
we are circumcised from error and
through our Lord Je-
sus Christ, who rose from the
dead ON the First day of the week,
it remains the chief and
first OF days" Bardesanes and
Dyonysius 40 A. d. Irenaeus