American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-08-17

out thence by a mighty hand and by
a stretched out arm: therefore the
Lord thy God commanded thee 10 keep
the Sabbath day" Deut. s: Is.
Thus the special Significance 10 the
Jew was It's commentator OF his
emancipation from Egyptian slav-
rye.
But 10 the Christian the Sabbath
commentaries no such thing. This
IS the reason why the early Chris
ians did not keep the Jewish Sabbath.
The Sabbath rest" remained to them,
but not the Jewish day.
Paul said. FOR we which have be-
lieved do enter into hat rest" They
kept the resurrection day, the first
day OF the week. as their Sabbath.
Paul gave this holy and memoir
able day his approval. In Troas up
on the first day Of the week. when
the disciples had gathered together
10 break bread. Paul preached unto
them" Sunday had become a day Of
religious worship even then. Early
historians conform this Biblical truth.
Peter Of Alexandria. A. d. 300.
wrote; we keep the Lords day as a
day Of joy"
Eusebius about the same time said
"On this day we assemble after an
Interval OF six days and celebrate
holy and spiritual Sabbath. All
things which It was the duty to do on
the Sabbath we have transferred to
the Lords day"
Cyprian A. d. $50. speaks OF the
Lords day as being widely known and
observed.
Tertullian. A. ID. 200, write: ION
the Lords day everyone Of us Chris
tians keeps the Sabbath, meditating
in the law, and rejoicing in the works
OF God"
Melito. A. d. 40, spoke of the
Lords day as being properly obser-
we'd and Irenaeus declared the Jewish
Sabbath abolished.
Justin Martyr. 40 A. D., mentions
the first day of the week as being the
chief and first of days, and on that
day we held IN assembly in which the
writings Of the prophets and letters
of the apostles were read. This was
recorded within seventy-hve years of
the days of Paul and the other apos-
ties.
Resurrection Sunday was establish
ed as the Sabbath of Christianity two
hundred and fifty years before Con
stantine issued his edict concerning
the Sabbath and five hundred and
twenty-five years before the bishop
Of Rome was designated as pope.
Constantine by his edict simply leg
allied the Christian Sabbath in the
Roman empire. The Romish popes
had nothing to do with founding the
Sunday Sabbath of Christianity. The
founding was done by the apostles
themselves.
And what the apostles did the larg-
or part of the Christian world is now
doing. il Is keeping its Sabbath on the
first day of the modern week. II VIII
take more than a handful of Advent
lists to turn the Christian world back
to Judaism. No sect has ever yet
greatly flourished by trying to read a
divine command into a man-made
custom.
The various arguments for a Sunday
Sabbath are two numerous and eX-
tended to crowd into a brief article,
but there are some simple facts bear
ing upon this question which any
body can keep in mind and be helped
by them.
L. No one can prove that when
Moses said 70 the people. Tomorrow
is the Sabbath" he had reference to
the seventh day of the week as reck-
oned from the creation.
?. No one can prove that the Israel
ties during the 400 years of captivity
always computed time correctly so as
to keep a seventh day weekly Sab
bath. They made their computations
by moon phases. not by modern cal
endars like ours.
3. No one can prove that a seventh
day of exactly t%wenty-four hours is
applicable to all people on earth alike
for no one ear show the correspond
ence betwixt a day in this latitude and
a day in Greenland or Spitzbergen,
where. in reality. there is but one
solar day in the calendar year. How
can people keep one day in seven when
the day Is a year long2
The truth is that these Seventh
Day Adventists are people born out OF
due time. they have picked up our
modern methods OF reckoning time,
jumped at the conclusion that these
methods have always and every
where been in vogue. and then try TO
to make people believe that the impos-
sible and the unknowable are verified
facts and bounden duties.
As for the hrst-day SABBATH we re
mark:
l.. II rests ON the same authority
as that which sanctioned the so-called
seyenth-day Sabbath.
THE authority in each case was
divine example. The great Am
finished His work IN six periods and
...s.f H.. .LA.nrfh -. INrtuf huNtnu
finished His vivarious sufferings on
the cross on the sixth day. aud His
humiliation ia the tomb on the seventh
day rose from the dead on the first
day and opened up a new promise OF
the resurrection from the dead and
consecrated the first day-the day of