The Washington herald., 1921-05-26
Precedents for Sabbath.


Feeling that a letter published on
May 10 in the open Court" columns
of your paper under the title 'Op-
pose Blue Laws" tends to misrep-
resent me and to do me an injus-
tice. l feel that it would be neces-
sary under these circumstances
(even were / disinclined to do SO
otherwise) to request space in your
columns for a reply.
l would like to ask this writer,
who has undertaken to pass upon
the fairness of laws, IL he thinks
it is quite fair to quote part OF
sentence contained in my former
letter (omitting the clause which
qualities the statement made there
in). when by so doing and by ignor-
| ing the remarks which followed, he
causes my attitude to appear quite
different from what 1t really is and
what believe a proper reading
and presentation OF my former let
ter would show 1t to be. II he In
tentionally or otherwise so quotes
and misinterprets me, is there not
some slight chance, at least. that
he may incorrectly quote and mis-
interpret others-yes, even the
Bible itself? Indeed, We have a
somewhat similar instance in his
letter in which a Bible quotation
| Is concerned. In two places he
quotes "the Sabbath according TO
/ the comma ndment." With the i'm
mediate context. the passage in the
King James version reads, and
rested the Sabbath day according
to the commandment" That the
clause. according to the COM
mandment." in reality modihes the
word rested" and not the words
the Sabbath day." is clearly
brought out by the revised version.
which reads: And on the Sabbath
they rested according to the COM
mandment.~
As to the writer's statement that
Bible students everywhere are
agreed" that the seventh day of
the week is the Sabbath" IL he
means that some here and some
there are agreed as to this, admit
it, II he means to infer that all
Bible students are agreed, perhae Y
he is guilty of exaggeration. Be>
sides. there are three things which
might be worthy of some consid-
Grafton in this connection: Cd Tne
majority of Bible students are not
I think. agreed that Saturday is the
correct day on which Christians
should worship. (2) When Bible
students have reached the point
where all of their interpretations
are infallible there will hardly be
further need for Bible students, as
such. (3) That certain Bible stu
dents have no monopoly in the mat
ter of obtaining truths necessary to
salvation from the Bible, and that
the truths concerning the mysteries
of God do not necessarily fnd their
source through men of note are
evidenced by Christ's expression or
thanks to the Father for having
"hid these things from the wise and
prudent" and for having revealed
them unto babes"
Referring to the time Of the cru
cifixion and the resurrection the
writer states that "a blind man can
see" that the Sabbath of the fourth
comma ndment must of necessity
have been the seventh day of the
week at that period of Jewish mrs
tory" By reading Alright the ques-
tion relative thereto in my former
letter he may find that this was
exactly the thing that l was ready
to concede. Special emphasis was
intended in my question on the
words sis" and was" AS con-
trast between the situation imme-
diately preceding and that imme-
diately following the resurrection,
followed this question with the
statement that "Christ's, disciples
came together on Sunday for their
religious meetings following the
resurrection" I might have stated
also that while they continued TO
preach to the Jews in the syna-
gogues on Saturday after resur-
rection. for some reason" their
own religious meetings, as recorded,
were always held on Sunday follow
ing the resurrection. Whether. un-
der these circumstances, their rea-
son for so doing was to commemo-
rate the resurrection and at the
same time to preserve the spirit
tyes, perhaps, even the letter) OF
the fourth commandment (keeping
the seventh day holy) is for those
interested to decide. In this same
connection, perhaps some can con-
ceive that Christ's disciples rested
on Saturday while Christ was in
the tomb, and then worked steadily
and vigorously on the, glorious day
Of His resurrection. must con-
fess that I cannot.
Finally. concerning the change of
the Sabbath by the papacy II seems
somewhat queer and unnatural that
in an effort to arrive at q proof OF
this. secular rather than Biblical
encyclopedias should be resorted to