The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-08-18
Lebanon, Fla, Aug. 10, 1911.


AS many are considering the action
81 OF those who are advocating the on.
forcing of Sabbath observance. will
give the readers of the Banner Some
Of the sayings and ideas of a good old
Methodist brother, written long since
y and l endorse every word the good
4 brother says. Brother Pike saws as
Il follows
Of all the instructions designed nv
heavenly mercy to promote the tenn
poral and eternal welfare of mankind
there is no one of such immense i'm.
portance and productive Of such i'm
mense benefits as the Sabbath. Wher-
ever the Sabbath is not observed
there is no worship, no religion; man
forgets God, and God forsakes man
Where the Sabbath is not regarded.
man degenerates into brute, a heath
en-, an infidel or an atheist, and has
tens with a rapid step to a scene
..where he will bear all the character
land all the features of a fiend. Where
the Sabbath is loved, venerated and
improved, peace smiles, hope blooms,
piety natures and ripens, and the
soul hastens onward to the period
when the Sabbath of time shall be ex-
changed for the Sabbath of eternity.
And with respect to the change of
the Sabbath from the seventh day Of
the week to the first, it may be OBJ
served that the Lord Jesus Christ
was Lord of the Sabbath, and conse-
quently possessed authority to altar
the day on which the Sabbath is to be
observed. The Son of Man is Lord of
the Sabbath day, and the scriptures
lead US to believe that he or his di-
yinely inspired apostles did make
such alteration. The first day of the
week was the day on which the Lord
Jesus, after his resurrection, repeat
eddy appeared to his disciples John
20:19, 20). 1t was the day on which
the gospel was first preached, with
the Holy Ghost sent down from hea-
vne, and on which several thousand
were converted, and a wide founda-
ton laid for the Christian church.
And when the day of Pentecost was
fully come they were all, with one ac-
cord, in one place, and they were all
filed with the Holy Ghost, and began
to speak with other tongues, as the
spirit gave them utterance And the
same day there were added unto
them about three thousand sous.
This fact is peculiarly remarkable:
If the Most High had designed the
seventh day to be continued as The
day of public worship, can it, with
any reason, be supposed that the
abundant effusion of the Holy Ghost
which qualified the apostles to preach
for the first time what is stdictly the
gospel, should have been made on the
first day, and that the first day OF
the week should have been the day
honored by the first preaching of the
A gospel and by the conversion OF
thousands? Did not this procedure OF
the Lord God mark out the first day
OF the week as the day on which he
designed the gospel of Jesus to be
most extensively and successfully
preached? The first of the week was
the day on which the disciples united
in that most solemn act of Worship
the Supper of the Lord. "And we
sailed away from Philippi after the
days of unleavened bread and came
unto them at Troas in five days,
where we abode seven days, and up
on the fest day of the week, when
the disciples came together to break
bread. Paul preached unto those
ready to depart on the morrow, and
continued his speech until midnight.
The argument for the first day being
the Lords day, which is furnished in
this verse, is peculiarly forcible in
consequence of it's being expressly
stated that the apostle and his COM
panions abode seven days, or one
week. at Troas. If the seventh day
of the week, in which the apostles ar
rived at Troas had been the day de-
voted to public worship, he was there
, to engage in the sacred exercises, Out
instead of the account stating that
anything of the kind took place on
that day, it passes that day over IN
silence, and records that on the tlrst
!. day of the following week the discl-
pies met for that solemn act OF wor-
ship-the Lords supper-and that
then the apostle preached unto them
The first day of the week was the day
on which the disciples were directed
to make their charitable contribution
for their suffering friends. q. Cor.
1920 There cannot be a reasonable
doubt that the first daV is the day dis