over and over, and exhibited from innumerable stand-points, so as to
yield the largest amount of evidence possible. Having dwelt at large
upon everything which was said and done at Bethany, he might return with
the solemn procession to the great city. Having done this, he would not
fail to call our attention to the fact that they did not conduct
themselves in a manner such as men might have been expected to do under
the circumstances on a common day, but that, on the contrary, impressed
with the sacredness of the hours which had witnessed the glorious
ascension of the Son of God, they immediately repaired to a place of
assembly, manifestly for the purpose of continued worship. Again,
scrutinizing with polemic eye every syllable of the history, in order to
extract from it all the hidden testimony which it might contain, his
attention would be arrested by these words, “A Sabbath day’s journey.”
Immediately, he inquires, Why employ such an expression as this—one
which occurs nowhere else in the sacred volume? Certainly it cannot be
the result of accident. The Holy Spirit must have designed to signify
_something_ by such a use of the term in the connection under
consideration. A Sabbath day’s journey! What importance could be
attached to the fact that the particular point from which Christ
ascended was no more than a Sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem? The
expression is not sufficiently definite to designate the precise spot,
and must, therefore, have been employed to express some other idea. What
was it? Undeniably, it was introduced into this connection because of
the _nature_ of the _time_ on which the journey occurred. It was a
_Sabbath day_, and, as such, it was important that succeeding
generations should not be left to infer from the account given, that it
was a matter of indifference to the Lord how far travel should be
carried on such an occasion; but, on the contrary, that he was jealous
on this point, and that the expression in question was employed to show
that the procession of Christ’s followers, and Christ, himself, bowed
reverently to the national regulation respecting the distance to which
it was proper for one to depart from his home during the continuance of
holy time.
But this line of argument, though plausible in itself, and superior in
fact to that which is many times used to support the tottering fabric of
first-day observance, would not, we fancy, persuade an intelligent
public to introduce a new Sabbath into their calendar. The verdict which
even those with whom we differ would be compelled to render would be
that which both reason and piety would dictate; namely, that the fatal
defect in the logic was the want of a thus saith the Lord.
Passing now from the first six of the eight texts which relate to the
first day of the week, let us give to 1 Cor. 16:2, and Acts 20:7, a
consideration of sufficient length only to enable us to assign to them
the proper place which they should occupy in this controversy. While it
will be observed that they present the only mention of the first day of
the week after leaving the gospels, and while it is remembered that they
are separated from the occurrences there narrated by the space of
twenty-six years, it is a remarkable fact that the first of them, if not
in itself clearly against the conception of Sunday sanctity, at least,
affords no strength for the argument in its favor. It reads as follows:
“Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in
store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I
come.” 1 Cor. 16:2.
Now, bear in mind that the inference here is, that the gatherings spoken
of were to be made in the assemblies of the Corinthians, the presumption
following that, as they must have been in the habit of convening on the
first day of the week, the apostle took advantage of this fact in order
to secure the desired collections for the saints at Jerusalem. You will
observe, consequently, that the postulate, or assumed point in the
discussion, is that the Corinthians were at the church, or place of
meeting, when the “laying by,” which was ordered above, took place. If,
therefore, this be not true, the whole logical superstructure which
rests upon it necessarily falls to the ground.
Let us inquire after the facts. Does the apostle say, Let every one of
you lay by himself at the church? or, does he command that his pro-rata
donation should be placed in the contribution box of the assembly? We
answer: There is not a word to this effect. Nor is this all; the very
idea of the text is diametrically opposed to this notion. Before the
contrary can be shown to be true, it will be necessary to demonstrate
that which is absurd in itself; namely, the proposition that what an
individual has voluntarily placed beyond his own reach and control by
putting it in a common fund, can, at the same time, be said to be “laid
by him in store.”
Furthermore, Mr. J. W. Morton, a gentleman who has given the subject
mature reflection and careful investigation, by a comparison of the
different versions and the original, has demonstrated the fact that, if
properly translated, the idea of the passage is simply that, for the
purpose of uniformity of action, and to prevent confusion from secular
matters when the apostle himself should arrive, each person should lay
by himself _at home_ the amount of his charities according to his
ability. We give the following from his pen: “The whole question turns
upon the meaning of the expression, ‘by him;’ and I marvel greatly how
you can imagine that it means, ‘in the collection box of the
congregation.’ Greenfield, in his lexicon, translates the Greek term,
‘by one’s self; _i. e._, at home.’ Two Latin versions—the Vulgate, and
that of Castellio—render it, ‘_apud se_,’ with one’s self, at home.
Three French translations, those of Martin, Osterwald, and De Sacy,
‘_chez soi_,’ at his own house, at home. The German of Luther, ‘_bei
sich selbst_,’ by himself, at home. The Dutch, ‘by hemselven;’ same as
German. The Italian of Diodati, ‘_appressio di se_,’ in his own
presence, at home. The Spanish of Felipe Scio, ‘_en su casa_,’ in his
own house. The Portuguese of Ferrara, ‘_para isso_,’ with himself. The
Swedish, ‘_nær sig sielf_,’ near himself. I know not how much this list
of authorities might be swelled, for I have not examined one translation
that differs from those quoted above.”—_Vindication of the True
Sabbath_, p. 61.
The simple fact is, therefore, that while the text in question yields no
proof that Sunday was then regarded as a day of convocation, it was one
which might he encumbered with matters which would necessarily call
attention to the pecuniary affairs of individual Christians, and so
avoid the necessity of their giving thought to such things when Paul
himself should arrive; thereby preventing delay on his part, and leaving
them free to devote their whole time to the consideration of religious
themes. Thus much for 1 Cor. 16:2.
ARTICLE VI.
Advancing now to the remaining scripture, which is found in Acts 20:7,
we append its words as follows: “And upon the first day of the week,
when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto
them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until
midnight.” By reading that which immediately follows the above, we shall
learn the following facts: First, that here is indeed a record of a
religious meeting upon the first day of the week (verse 7). Second, that
it was held in that portion of the day when the darkness prevailed,
since it was necessary to employ many lights (verse 8). Third, that Paul
preached unto them, and that, while he was speaking, Eutychus fell to
the ground; and Paul, having restored him to life, returned to his labor
(verses 7-11). Fourth, that he broke bread, or administered the Lord’s
supper (verse 11). Fifth, that he preached until break of day (verse
11). Sixth, that Luke, and the other disciples, preceding him, sailed
the vessel to Assos (verse 13). Seventh, that Paul, having preached all
night, until the dawning of the day, crossed the country on foot,
stepped aboard of the vessel, and went on his journey toward Jerusalem
(verses 13, 14). Now let it be borne in mind, that Troas was a city on
the west coast of Asia, located at the base of a peninsula, on the
opposite side of which lay the city of Assos; distant about nineteen and
a half miles in direct line from the former place. Let it also be
remembered that the promontory in question, projecting as it did into
the sea for some miles, made it necessary for a vessel, passing from
Troas to Assos, to traverse a much greater distance, and to consume more
time than one would be compelled to do in passing from one of these
points to the other by the overland route. This explains the reason why
Paul, who was exceedingly anxious to spend all the time he could with
the brethren, consented to perform the journey on foot; thus being
enabled to spend several additional hours with them, while Luke and his
associates were toiling to bring the boat around the headland to the
place of the apostle’s final embarkation.
Returning now to the consideration of the meeting in question, it
becomes important to know just when it was entered upon. Did it answer
to what we would call a Sunday-evening meeting? If so, then Paul resumed
his journey on Monday morning. But, before we give an affirmative
response to this question, would it not be well to inquire in relation
to the system for computing time which ought to be followed in this
case? We moderns have generally adopted that of the Romans. With it,
beginning the day, as it does, at midnight, we would naturally answer
the interrogatory above in the affirmative. Should we do this, however,
we should unquestionably fall into a grievous error. The days of the
Bible commenced invariably with the setting of the sun.
That this is so, the following quotation from the American Tract
Society’s Bible Dictionary is sufficient to demonstrate: “The civil day
is that, the beginning and end of which are determined by the custom of
any nation. The Hebrews began their day in the evening (Lev. 23:32); the
Babylonians at sunrise, and we begin at midnight.” Art. Day, p. 114.
Reasoning, therefore, upon this hypothesis, the bearing of the text is
immediately reversed. As the meeting was held in that portion of the
first day of the week in which it was necessary that lamps should be
lighted, it follows that it commenced with the setting of the sun on
Saturday evening, and continued until daylight on what we call Sunday
morning. It is consequently clear that we have at last found one first
day in the Scriptures, the first half of which was observed in a manner
compatible with the idea of its being regarded as a Sabbath. But, as a
Sabbath day is twenty-four, and not merely twelve, hours long, it is
indispensable that those who seek to avail themselves of the record
before us, should be able to establish the point that there is nothing
in it which would go to show that the remaining portion of the day was
devoted to purposes, and employed in a manner, irreconcilable with the
hypothesis of its sanctity. Can they do this? Let us see. Would it be
legitimate for believers at the present time to traverse on foot a
distance of nineteen and a half miles between the rising and the setting
of the sun, on the first day of the week, in order to pursue a journey
toward a point of destination hundreds of miles in the distance? Would
it be admissible for others, prosecuting the same journey, to weigh
anchor and hoist sail in a friendly port, and coast along the shore for
a much greater distance?
Who, among the friends of Sunday observance at the present time, would
venture to answer these questions in the affirmative, without putting on
the record some qualifying or explanatory clause? We hazard the
assertion that few of them, conscientious as we believe many of them
are, would be willing, by such a response, to place themselves on the
category of those who, to say the least, may have very lax views in
regard to what may be done upon holy time. And yet this is precisely the
situation in which Luke has left Paul, himself, and his associates,
before the generations of Christians who were to follow them.
We ask, therefore, again, Can it be true that the great apostle to the
Gentiles, standing as a representative man in the great work of
transferring the religious world from the observance of the seventh, to
that of the first, day of the week, and this not by positive precept,
but, as it is claimed, simply by precedent and example, should have
allowed himself to throw that example, as in the case before us, against
the very work which he was seeking to accomplish? In other words, is not
the obvious import of the text such that the average reader, with no
favorite theory to make out, and a mind unbiased by the effect of
education and early training, would naturally come to the conclusion
that Paul and the disciples with him, and those from whom he parted at
Troas, looked upon the day of that departure as but a common one?
We believe that if any other meaning can be drawn from the history
before us, it will be reached through constraint, and not through the
easy process of obvious reason. It is useless to talk about inability to
control the vessel, and the urgent necessity of occupying every hour in
order to reach Jerusalem in time for the feast. So far as the first of
these points is concerned, if it were well taken, is it not to be
presumed that, for the vindication of the course pursued, and for the
benefit of posterity, it would have found a place in the sacred record?
And as to the matter of limited time, the question of twelve hours
longer or shorter, was immaterial in a journey of the length of the one
under consideration. Besides, upon following the account as given, we
have from Luke himself that, before they reached their destination, they
stopped at Tyre for seven days (chap. 21:4), and at Cesarea, many days
(chap. 21:10), and yet had ample time to accomplish their object in
reaching Jerusalem before the feast.
We say again, therefore, that these considerations, in the absence of
any allusions to them in the context, are simply gratuitous, or, at
least, are far-fetched. The narrative still remains. The great fact that
Paul and his followers did travel upon the first day of the week is made
conspicuous, and the only legitimate conclusion to be drawn therefrom is
that which alone harmonizes with the consistency of Paul’s life and that
of his brethren, as well as the wisdom and beneficence of the great God,
namely: That he did so because of his conviction that it was a day which
might properly be devoted to labor and travel. With this understanding,
the story is relieved of all embarrassment, and becomes a simple and
highly interesting account of a meeting convened on the first day of the
week, because of the approaching departure of a beloved brother and
apostle, and rendered also worthy of record by the miracle which was
performed upon Eutychus. But with such a decision, our labor is ended,
and with it the whole theory in regard to the Sabbatic character of
Sunday is exploded; for, not only does the scripture which we have been
investigating fail to yield the doctrine which it was supposed to
contain, but, on the contrary, it presents Paul as standing emphatically
against it. This being true, it belongs to a faith which he never
proclaimed, and which, consequently, was associated in his mind with
that which should not be received, though it were “preached by an angel
from Heaven.”
Nevertheless, that we may not appear to have overlooked the two
remaining texts, which are generally quoted as affording additional
proof of the distinguished regard in which the first day of the week was
held, we turn our attention for a moment to Acts 2:1, and Rev. 1:10.
As it regards the first of these scriptures, the claim is, that the
outpouring of the Spirit occurred with reference to a divine disposition
to honor the day of the resurrection. To this we reply, first, that if
this were so, it is a remarkable fact that there is nothing in the
connection to show it. The name of the day, even, is not so much as
mentioned. The inspired annalist, were this supposition true, would most
assuredly have given prominence to an idea which, it is claimed, was the
governing one in the mind of the Spirit, in order to enable succeeding
generations to extract from the facts narrated the true moral which they
were intended to convey. But mark his words. Is the declaration, “When
the first day of the week was fully come”? If so, we might say that this
day was foremost in his own mind, and in that of the Spirit.
But such was not his language. On the contrary, his statement is, “When
the day of Pentecost was fully come.” Hence, it was the day of
Pentecost, or the great Jewish feast, which is here made to stand out
conspicuously upon the sacred page. If, therefore, we are to decide that
the transaction in question was intended to hallow any particular
twenty-four hours, undeniably they were those within which the Pentecost
fell. But those did not occur regularly upon the first day of the week,
nor was the institution one of weekly recurrence. It was annual in its
return, transpiring one year upon the first, and perhaps the next year
upon the second, and so on, through every day of the week. To reason,
consequently, that, because it happened to take place at this time upon
Sunday, the fact is necessarily significant of a change in the character
of the day, is altogether inconclusive.
That were a cheap logic indeed, which would argue that the Pentecost,
which was mentioned expressly, and the return of which was waited for
with patience, was in no-wise affected, illustrated, or perpetuated, by
the outpouring of the Spirit upon it, whereas, a septenary division of
time—not thought worthy of mention by its peculiar title—was thenceforth
rendered glorious. Stand together, however, they cannot; for, if it were
the Pentecost which was to be handed down in this way to those who
should come after, then it would, of necessity, be celebrated annually,
and not each week; but, if it were the first day of the week which alone
was made the object of divine favor, then why wait until the arrival of
the great annual Sabbath at the end of the fifty days? Why was not some
other first day taken—say one of the six which had already occurred
between the resurrection and that time—in this manner avoiding the
possibility of confusion as to which event was thus honored?
Should it be replied that the Spirit could not be poured out until the
great antitype of the fifty-day feast had been met in Heaven, we answer:
Then it was _this_ event, and not the resurrection, which furnishes the
occasion for the remarkable demonstrations which were manifested before
the people. We repeat again, therefore, that from whatever stand-point
we look at the text, it is the _Pentecost_, and not the first day of the
week, to which, if to anything, it attaches special importance. This is
further demonstrated by the fact that it is to this hour a matter of
grave discussion between theologians whether the day of Pentecost, at
the time under consideration, did really fall upon the first day of the
week or upon some other. Leaving to them, therefore, the delicate and
arduous task of adjusting questions of this nature—which are neither
important in themselves, nor easy of decision—we hasten to glance at
Rev. 1:10. It reads as follows: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,
and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.”
Here is something which certainly has a bearing upon the subject. The
language employed is of thrilling interest. Says the apostle, “I was in
the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” This being uttered about A. D. 95,
determines the point that God has a day in this dispensation, and also
proves that he has but one; since the language would be very indefinite
were there two or more days of such a nature. But by what system of
reasoning is the conclusion reached that this must of necessity be the
first day of the week? Assuredly, it can only be by inference. If it can
first be proved that the day of the resurrection has, by divine
authority, been anywhere styled the “Lord’s day,” then the point is
unquestionably gained. When those words were penned, more than sixty
years had passed since it is claimed that Sunday had been clothed with
divine honor. The whole canon of the New Testament, save the gospel of
John, had been written within that time. Ample opportunity had been
afforded for the work of placing upon record the sacred appellation
which was to be given to that period of time, which, having been
separated from everything of a secular nature, had been elevated to the
dignity of a holy rest. But had this ever occurred? The facts are
briefly these: The first day of the week, as we have seen, being
mentioned eight times in the New Testament, is always spoken of as plain
first day of the week; John himself, writing his gospel after the
appearance of the Apocalypse, everywhere applies to it this unpretending
title. Whenever the term Sabbath is used, on the other hand—as we have
seen that it is fifty-six times in the New Testament—it is applied, with
one exception, to the Sabbath of the commandment, or the seventh day of
the week.
In view of these facts, take a common man, without bias or predilection,
one, if you please, who has never heard of the controversy in question,
place in his hands the Bible without note or comment, let him read the
following texts which confessedly refer to the seventh day of the week,
and we think the verdict which he would render would be decidedly in
favor of the venerable Sabbath of the Lord; of which it is true, as it
is of no other day, that he has again and again claimed it as his own.
The italics are our own. “If thou turn away thy foot from the _Sabbath_,
from doing thy pleasure on _my holy day_; and call the Sabbath a
delight, the _holy of the Lord_, honorable; and shalt honor him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine
own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isa. 58:13, 14.
“But the seventh day is the _Sabbath of the Lord thy God_: in it thou
shalt not do any work:” “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore
the Lord _blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it_.” Ex. 20:10, 11.
“And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark
2:27, 28.
If such a decision be a just one, however, where are we in the matter
under examination? What has become of the modern Sabbath reform for
which we have been seeking justification in the word of God? First, we
sought to place it upon the commandment; this, we found to be out of the
question. Second, we investigated the claim of an amended law; that, we
discovered to be entirely without authority, and against even the
conviction and practice of the very men who urged it. Third, we turn, as
a last resort, to the precedents of Bible history; these, we found, so
far as they affect the question at all, to be overwhelmingly against a
movement which, while it claims to be in the interest of the God of
Heaven, is confronted by the following astounding facts: First, the day
whose observance it seeks to enforce by statute law is one, the keeping
of which, God has never commanded. Second, Christ has never commanded
it. Third, no inspired man has ever commanded it. Fourth, God himself
never rested upon it. Fifth, Christ never rested upon it. Sixth, there
is no record that either prophets or apostles ever rested upon it.
Seventh, it is one upon which God himself worked. Eighth, it is one
which, during his lifetime, Christ always treated as a day of labor.
Ninth, it is one upon which, after his resurrection, he countenanced, by
his own personal example, travel upon the highway. Tenth, it is one upon
which the two disciples, in going to and returning from Emmaus, traveled
a distance of fifteen miles. Eleventh, it was on that day that Paul
walked from Troas to Assos, a distance of nineteen and one-half miles.
Twelfth, it was on that day that Luke and his associates passed from one
to the other of these places by a longer route, working their vessel
round the promontory.