THESEVENTH DAY SABBATH, APERPETUAL SIGN, FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE ENTERING INTO THEGATES OF THE HOLY CITY, ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT. 

BY JOSEPH BATES:

 "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the _beginning_. The old commandment is the WORD which ye have heard from the _beginning_. " _John_ ii: 7. 

 "In the _beginning_ God created the heaven and the earth. " Gen. I: 1. "And God blessed the seventh day, and rested from all his work. " ii: 3. 

 "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and enter in, " &c. _Rev. _ xxii: 14. 

NEW-BEDFORDPRESS OF BENJAMIN LINDSEY1846. 

[1]PREFACE. 

TO THE LITTLE FLOCK. 

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. " "Six days work may be done, but the _seventh_ is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shaltnot do any work. " This commandment I conceive to be as binding now as itever was, and will be to the entering into the "gates of the city. " Rev. Xxii: 14. 

I understand that the _seventh_ day Sabbath is not the _least_ one, among the ALL things that are to be restored before the second advent ofJesus Christ, seeing that the Imperial and Papal power of Rome, sincethe days of the Apostles, have changed the seventh day Sabbath to thefirst day of the week!

Twenty days before God re-enacted and wrote the commandments with hisfinger on tables of stone, he required his people to keep the Sabbath. Exo. Xvi: 27, 30. Here he calls the Sabbath "_my commandments and mylaws_. " Now the SAVIOR has given his comments on the commandments. SeeMatt. Xxii: 35, 40. "On these two (precepts) hang ALL the law and theprophets. " Then it would be impossible for the Sabbath to be left out. Aquestion was asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Says Jesus, "If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments"--xix. Here hequotes five from the tables of stone. If he did not mean all the rest, then he deceived the lawyer in the two first precepts, love to God andlove to man. See also Matt. V: 17, 19, 21, 27, 33. PAUL comments thus. "The law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good. ""Circumcision and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping thecommandments of God. " "All the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shaltlove thy neighbor as thyself. " JOHN says, "the old commandment is theWORD from the beginning. "--2, 7. Gen. Ii: 3. "He carries us from thenceinto the gates of the city. " Rev. Xxii: 14. Here he has particularreference to the Sabbath. JAMES calls it the _perfect_, royal law ofliberty, which we are to be doers of, and be judged by. Take out thefourth commandment and the law is imperfect, and we shall fail in onepoint. 

The uncompromising advocate for present truth, which feeds and nourishesthe little flock in whatever country or place, is the restorer of allthings; one man like John the Baptist, cannot discharge this duty toevery kindred, nation, tongue and people, and still remain in one place. The truth is what we want. 

 _Fairhaven_, August 1846. JOSEPH BATES. 

[3]THE SABBATH. 

FIRST QUESTION IS, WHEN WAS THE SABBATH INSTITUTED?

Those who are in the habit of reading the Scriptures just as they findthem, and of understanding them according to the established rules ofinterpretation, will never be at a loss to understand so plain a passageas the following: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it;because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created andmade. " Gen. Ii: 3. Moses, when referring to it, says to the children ofIsrael, "This is that which the Lord hath _said_, to-morrow is the RESTof _the_ holy Sabbath unto the Lord. " Exod. Xvi: 23. 

Then we understand that God established the seventh day Sabbath inParadise, on the very day when he rested from all his work, and not oneweek, nor one year, nor two thousand five hundred and fourteen yearsafterwards, as some would have it. Is it not plain that the Sabbath wasinstituted to commemorate the stupendous work of creation, and designedby God to be celebrated by his worshipers as a weekly Sabbath, in thesame manner as the Israelites were commanded to celebrate the Passover, from the very night of their deliverance till the resurrection of Jesusfrom the dead; or as we, as a nation, annually celebrate our nationalindependence; or as type answers to antetype, so we believe this mustrun down, to the "keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God" in theimmortal state. 

It is argued by some, that because no mention is made of the Sabbathfrom its institution in Paradise till the falling of the manna in thewilderness, mentioned in Exo. Xvi: 15, that it was therefore _here_instituted for the Jews, but [4]we think there is bible argumentsufficient to sustain the reply of Jesus to the Pharisees, "that theSabbath was made for MAN and not man for the Sabbath. " If it was madefor any one exclusively it must have been for Adam, the father of usall, two thousand years before Abraham (who is claimed as the father ofthe Jews) was born. John says, the old commandment was from thebeginning--1: ii: 7. 

There is pretty strong inference that the antideluvians measured time byweeks from the account given by Noah, when the waters of the delugebegan to subside. He "sent out a dove which soon returned. " At the endof _seven_ days he sent her out again; and at the end of _seven_ daysmore, he sent her out a third time. Now why this preference for thenumber _seven_? why not five or ten days, or any other number? Can it besupposed that his fixing on upon _seven_ was accidental? How much morenatural to conclude that it was in obedience to the authority of God, asexpressed in the 2d chap. Of Gen. A similar division of time isincidentally mentioned in Gen. Xxix:--"fulfill her _week_ and we willgive thee this also; and Jacob did so and fulfilled her _week_. " Now theword _week_ is every where used in Scripture as we use it; it nevermeans more nor less than _seven_ days (except as symbols of years) andone of them was in all other cases the Sabbath. But now suppose therehad been an entire silence on the subject of the Sabbath for thistwenty-five hundred years, would that be sufficient evidence that therewas none. If so, we have the same evidence that there was no Sabbathfrom the reign of Joshua till the reign of David, four hundred and sixyears, as no mention is made of it in the history of that period. Butwho can be persuaded that Samuel and the pious Judges of Israel did notregard the Sabbath. What does God say of Abraham? that he "obeyed myvoice, and kept my charge, my _commandments_, my _statutes_ and my_laws_. " (See what he calls them in Exo. Xvi: 27, 30. ) This, of course, includes the whole. Then Abraham reverenced God's Sabbath. Once more, there is no mention of the circumcision from the days of Joshua till thedays of Jeremiah, a period of more than eight hundred years. Will it bebelieved that Samuel and David, and all those pious worthies with thewhole Jewish nation, neglected that essential seal of the covenant foreight hundred years? It cannot be admitted for a moment. How [5]thencan any one suppose from the alleged silence of the sacred history thatAdam, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, kept no Sabbath, because the fact was notstated? If we turn to Jer. Ix: 25, 26, we find that they had notneglected this right of circumcision, only they had not circumcisedtheir hearts; so that the proof is clear, that silence respecting thekeeping any positive command of God, is no evidence that it is not infull force. 

Again, if the Sabbath was not instituted in Paradise, why did Mosesmention it in connection with the creation of the world? Why not reservethis fact for two or three thousand years in his history, until themanna fell in the wilderness, (see Exo. Xvi: 23) and then state that theseventh day Sabbath commenced, as _some_ will have it? I answer, for thevery best of reasons, that it did not commence there. Let us examine thetext. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice asmuch bread as on any preceding day, and _all the rulers of thecongregation came and told Moses_. And he said unto them this is thatwhich the Lord hath said, _to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath_, bake that which ye will bake, &c. &c. " If this had been the establishingof the holy Sabbath and Moses had said to-morrow _shall be_ the Sabbath, then would it have been clear; but no, he speaks as familiarly about itas we do when we say that to-morrow is the Sabbath, showing conclusivelythat it was known before, or how could the people have known that theymust gather two day's manna on Friday the sixth day, unless they had hadsome previous knowledge of the Sabbath? for Moses had already taughtthem not to "leave any of it until the morning"--v. 19. The 20th verseshows that the Sabbath had not yet come since their receiving the manna, because it spoiled and "bred worms by the next morning;" whereas, on theSabbath morning it was found sweet and eatible--24th v. This was thethirtieth day after leaving Egypt (1st v. ) and twenty days before it wasgiven on Sinai. The weekly Sabbath then was appointed before this orbefore the days of Moses. Where was it then? Answer, in the secondchapter of Genesis and no where else; and the same week on which themanna fell, the weekly Sabbath was revived among or with God's chosenpeople. Grotius tells us "that the memory of the creation's beingperformed in seven days, was preserved not only among the Greeks andItalians, but among the Celts and Indians. " Other [6]writers sayAssyrians, Egyptians, Arabians, Britons and Germans, all of whom dividetheir time into weeks. Philo says "the Sabbath is not peculiar to anyone people or country, but is common to all the world. " Josephus states"that there is no city either of Greeks or barbarians or any _othernation_, where the religion of the Sabbath is not known. " But as they, like the great mass of God's professed people in christendom, paidlittle or no heed to what God had said about the particular day, (exceptthe Jews, and a few others) they (as we are informed in history) adoptedpeculiar days to suit themselves, viz: the christian nations chose toobey the Pope of Rome, who changed the _seventh_ day Sabbath to thefirst day, and call it the holy Sabbath; the Persians selected Monday;the Grecians Tuesday; the Assyrians Wednesday; the Egyptians Thursday;the Turks Friday, and the Jews the seventh day, Saturday, as God hadcommanded. Three standing miracles a week, for about forty yearsannually, ought to perpetuate the Sabbath. 1st, double the quantity ofmanna on the sixth day; 2d, none on the seventh; 3d, did not spoil onthe seventh day. If it does not matter which day you keep holy to theLord, then all these nations are right. Now reflect one moment on this, and then open your bible and read the commandment of the God of allthese nations! "REMEMBER! (what you have been taught before) _theSabbath day to keep it holy_;" (which day is it Lord?) "_the_ SEVENTH_is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that is within thy gates_. "Who is the stranger? (Gentiles. ) Now the reason for it will carry usback again to Paradise. "_For in six days the Lord made heaven andearth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the_ SEVENTH;_wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it_. ""Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the_Sabbath_ throughout their generations for a _perpetual covenant_; it isa SIGN between me and the children of Israel _forever_. " (Why is itLord?) "_For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the_SEVENTH _day he rested and was refreshed_. " Exo. Xx and xxxi. Which daynow will you choose? O, says the reader, the seventh if I knew which ofthe days it was. If you don't know, why are you so sure that the _first_day is right? O, [7]because the history of the world has settled that, and this is the most we can know. Very well then, does not the _seventh_come the day before the eighth? If we have not got the days of the weekright now, it is not likely that we ever shall. God does not require ofus any more than what we know; by that we shall be judged. Luke xxiii:55, 56. 

Once more: think you that the spirit of God ever directed Moses when hewas giving the history of the creation of the world, to write that he(God) "blessed the _seventh_ day and sanctified it, because that in ithe had rested from all his work, " unless he meant it to be dated fromthat very day? Why, this is as clear to the unbiassed mind as it is thatGod created man the sixth day. Would it not be the height of absurdityto attempt to prove that God only intended Adam should be created atsome future period, or that the creation of the heavens and earth wasnot in the beginning, but some twenty-five hundred years afterward? Allthis would be as cogent reasoning as it would be to argue that God didnot intend this day of _rest_ should commence until about twenty-fivehundred years afterwards. (The word Sabbath signifies rest. )

It follows then irresistibly, that the weekly Sabbath was not made forthe Jews only, (but as Jesus says, for 'man') for the Jews had noexistence until more than two thousand years after it was established. President Humphrey in his essays on the Sabbath says, "That he (God)instituted it when he rested from all his work, on the _seventh_ day ofthe first week, and gave it primarily to our first parents, and throughthem to all their posterity; that the observance of it was enjoined uponthe children of Israel soon after they left Egypt, not in the form of anew enactment, but as an ancient institution which was far from beingforgotten, though it had doubtless been greatly neglected under thecruel domination of their heathen masters; that it was reenacted withgreat pomp and solemnity, and written in stone by the finger of God atSinai; that the sacred institution then took the form of a statute, withexplicit prohibitions and requirements, and has never been repealed oraltered since; that it can never expire of itself, because it has nolimitation. "

In Deut. Vii: 6-8, God gives his reasons for selecting the Jews to keephis covenant in preference to any other nation; only seventy atfirst--x: 22. God calls it his [8]"Sabbath, " and refers us right backto the creation for proof. "For in six days the Lord made heaven andearth and sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the _seventh_, "&c. Here then we stand fixed by the immutable law of God, and the wordof Jesus, that "the Sabbath was made for man!" Paul says, "there is norespect of persons with God. " Rom. Ii: 11. Isaiah shows us plainly thatthe Jew is not the only one to be blessed for keeping the Sabbath. Hesays "Blessed is the _man_ (are not the Gentiles men) that keepeth theSabbath from polluting it. " "Also the sons of the stranger, (who arethese if they are not Gentiles?) every one that keepeth the Sabbath frompolluting it, (does he mean me? yes, every Gentile in the universe, orelse he respects persons) even them will I bring to my holy mountain andmake them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called anhouse of prayer for _all_ people. " Isa. Lvi: 2, 6, 7. If this promise isnot to the Gentile as well as the Jew, then "_the_ house of prayer forall people" is no promise to the Gentile. 

Now we ask, if God has ever abrogated the law of the Sabbath? If he hasit can easily be found. We undertake to say without fear ofcontradiction, he has not made any such record in the bible; but to thecontrary, he calls it a perpetual covenant, a "sign between me and thechildren of Israel forever, " for the reason that he rested on theseventh day. Exo. Xxxi: 16, 17. Says one, has not the ceremonial lawbeen annulled and nailed to the cross? Yes, but what of that? Why thenthe Sabbath must be abolished, for Paul says so! Where? Why in Cols. 2dchapter, and xiv. Romans. How can you think that God ever inspired Paulto say that the _seventh_ day Sabbath was made void or nailed to thecross at the crucifixion, when he never intended any such change; if hedid, he certainly would have deceived the inhabitants of Jerusalem, inthe promise which he made them about two thousand four hundred andforty-six years ago! Turn now to Jer. Xvii: 25, and tell me if he didnot promise the inhabitants of Jerusalem that their city should remainforever if they would hallow the Sabbath day. Now suppose theinhabitants of Jerusalem had entered into this agreement, and entailedit upon their posterity (because you see it could not have beenfulfilled unless it had continued from generation to generation, ) tokeep the Sabbath holy, would not God have been bound to let Jerusalemremain forever? You say [9]yes. Well, then, I ask you to shew how hecould have kept that promise inviolate if he intended in less than sixhundred and fifty years to change this seventh day Sabbath, and call thefirst day of the week the Sabbath, or abolish it altogether? I say, therefore, if there has been any change one way or the other in theSabbath, since that promise, it would be impossible to understand anyother promise in the Bible; how much more reasonable to believe God thanman. If men will allow themselves to believe the monstrous absurditythat FOREVER, as in this promise, ended at the resurrection, then theycan easily believe that the Sabbath was changed from the _seventh_ tothe first day of the week. Or if they choose the other extreme, abolished until the people of God should awake to be clothed on withimmortality. Heb. Iv: 9. 

Now does it not appear plain that the Sabbath is from God, and that itis coeval and co-extensive (as is the institution of marriage) with theworld. That it is without limitation; that there is not one thus saiththe Lord that it ever was or ever will be abolished, in time oreternity. --See Exod. Xxxi: 16, 17; and Isa. Lxvi: 22, 24; Heb. Iv: 4, 9. But let us return and look at the subject as we have commenced in thelight of Paul's argument to the Romans and Collossians, for here iswhere all writers on this subject, for the change or the overthrow ofthe _seventh_ day Sabbath attempt to draw their strong arguments. Thesecond question then, is this:

HAS THE SABBATH BEEN ABOLISHED SINCE THE SEVENTH DAY OF CREATION? IF SO, WHEN, AND WHERE IS THE PROOF?

The text already referred to, is in Rom. Xiv: 5, 6. --"One man esteemethone day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every manbe persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth itunto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he dothnot regard it. " Does the apostle here mean to say, that under the new orChristian dispensation it is a matter of indifference which day of theweek is kept as a Sabbath, or whether any Sabbath at all is kept? Wasthat institution which the people of God had been commanded to call adelight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, now to be esteemed of socarnal a nature as to be ranked among [10]the things which Jesus "tookout of the way, nailing it to his cross. " If this be true, then hasJesus, in the same manner, abolished the eight last verses in thefifty-eighth of Isaiah, and the 2d, 6th and 7th verses of the 56thchapter have no reference to the Gentile since the crucifixion. O Lordhelp us rightly to understand and divide thy word. But is it not evidentfrom the four first verses in the same chapter of Romans, that Paul isspeaking of feast days; giving them again in substance the decrees whichhad been given by the Apostles in their first conference, in A. D. 51, held at Jerusalem. See Acts xv: 19. James proposes their letter to theGentiles should be "that they abstain from pollution of Idols, and fromfornication, and from things strangled, and from blood;" to which theconference all agreed. Now please read their unanimous _decrees_ (xvi:4, ) from twenty-three to thirty verses. "For it seemed good to the HolyGhost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessarythings. " "That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which if ye keepyourselves ye shall do well. " Reading along to the 13th of the nextchapter, we find Paul establishing the Churches with these decrees; (see4, 5, ) and at Philippi he holds his meeting, (not in the Jews Synagogue)but at the river's side, on the _Sabbath_ day. A little from this it issaid that Paul is in Thesalonica preaching on the Sabbath days. Lukesays this was his _manner_! What was it? Why, to preach on the Sabbathdays, (not 1st days. ) Observe here was three Sabbaths in succession. Xvii: 2. A little while from this Paul locates himself in Corinth, andthere preaches to the Jews and Greeks (or Gentiles) a year and sixmonths _every Sabbath_. Now this must have been seventy-eight insuccession. Xviii: 4, 11. Does this look like abolishing the Sabbathday? Has anything been said about the 1st day yet? No, we shall speak ofthat by and by. 

Before this he was in Antioch. "And when the Jews were gone out of thesynagogue the GENTILES besought that these words might be preached tothem the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath day came almost the wholecity together to hear the word of God. " xiii: 42, 44. Here is proof thatthe Gentiles kept the Sabbath. Now I wish to place the other strong textwhich is so strangely adhered to for abolishing or changing this[11]Sabbath along side of this, that we may understand his meaning. "Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, whichwas contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to hiscross. "

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of aholy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. " Coll. Ii: 14, 16. Now here is one of the strong arguments adhered to by all those who saythe seventh day Sabbath was abolished at the crucifixion of our Lord;while on the other hand by the great mass of the Christian world, (socalled, ) the seventh day Sabbath ceased here, and in less thanforty-eight hours the change was made to the first day of the week. Nowremember Paul's manner, (before stated) itinerating from city to cityand nation to nation, always preaching to Jews and Gentiles on theseventh day Sabbath, (for there is no other day called the Lord'sSabbath in the Bible. ) Now if the Apostle did mean to include theSabbath of the Lord God with the Jewish feasts and Sabbaths in the text, then the course he took to do so, was the strangest imaginable. His_manner_ always was, as recorded, with the exception of one night, topreach on the very day that he was laboring to abolish. If you will lookat the date in your bibles, you will learn this same apostle had beenlaboring in this way as a special messenger to the Gentiles, betweentwenty and thirty years since (as you say) the Sabbath was changed orabolished, and yet never uttered one word with respect to any other dayin the week to be set apart as a holy day or Sabbath. I understand allthe arguments about his laboring in the Jewish Synagogue on theirSabbath, because they were open for worship on that day, &c. , but he didnot always preach in their Synagogues. He says that he preached theKingdom of God, and labored in his own hired house for two years. Healso established a daily meeting for disputation in the school ofTyranus. Acts xix: 9. Again he says, I have "kept _back_ NOTHING thatwas PROFITABLE _unto you_. (Now if the Sabbath had been changed orabolished, would it not have been _profitable_ to have told them so?)and have taught you publicly, and from house to house. " "For I have notshunned to declare unto you ALL the council of God. "--Acts xx: 20, 27. Then it is clear that he taught them by example that the Sabbath of theLord God was not abolished. Luke says it was the _custom_ (or manner) ofChrist [12]to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Iv: 16, 31. Mark says, "And when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in theirsynagogue. " Mark vi: 2. --Now if Jesus was about to abolish or changethis Sabbath, (which belonged to the first code, the moral law, and notthe ceremonial, the second code, which was to be nailed to his cross, orrather, as said the angel Gabriel to Daniel, ix: 27, "he (Christ) in themidst of the week shall cause the _sacrifice_ and _oblation_ to cease, "meaning that the Jewish sacrifices and offerings would cease at hisdeath. ) Jesus did not attend to any of the ceremonies of the Jews exceptthe passover and the feasts of tabernacles. Why did he say, "Think not Iam come to destroy the _law_ or the prophets? I am not come to destroybut fulfill. One jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the _law_'till all be fulfilled. " "Whosoever therefore shall break one of theseleast commandments" &c. Did he mean the ten commandments? Yes; for heimmediately points out the third, not to take God's name in vain; sixthand seventh, not to kill nor to commit adultery, and styles them the_least_. Then the others, which include the fourth, of course weregreater than these. Matt. V: 17, 19, 21, 27, 23, and were not to bebroken nor pass away. Then the Sabbath stands unchanged. 

Almost every writer which I have read on the subject of abolishing orchanging the seventh day Sabbath, call it the Jewish Sabbath, hencetheir difficulty. How can it be the Jewish Sabbath when it wasestablished two thousand years before there was a Jew on the face of theearth, and certainly twenty-five hundred before it was embodied in thedecalogue, or re-enacted and written in stone by the finger of God atSinai. God called this HIS _Sabbath_, and Jesus says it was made forman, (not particularly for the Jews. )

"Well, " says one, "what is the meaning of the texts which you havequoted, where it speaks of Sabbaths?"--Answer: These are the JewishSabbaths! which belong to them as a nation and are connected with theirfeasts. God by Hosea makes this distinction, and says, "I will alsocause all _her_ mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons and _her_Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. " These then belong to the textquoted, and not God's Sabbath. Do you ask for the proof? See xxiiiLevit. 4. "_These are the_ FEASTS _of the Lord, which ye shall proclaimin their [13]seasons_, EVERY THING UPON HIS DAY"--37th v. (May we notdeviate a little? If you do it will be at your peril. ) Fifteenth andsixteenth verses gives them a fifty day's Sabbath; twenty-fourth versesays: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying in the seventh month inthe first day of the month, shall ye have a _Sabbath_, a memorial ofblowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. "

"Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day ofatonement. It shall be unto you a _Sabbath_ of rest. " 27, 32. 

"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when ye shall havegathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lordseven days. On the first shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shallbe a Sabbath. 39v. And Moses _declared_ unto the children of Israel theFEASTS of the Lord. " 44v. Now here we have FOUR kinds of _Jewish_Sabbaths, also _called_ "FEASTS _of the Lord_, " to be kept annually. Thefirst fifty days or seven weeks Sabbath ends the third month, seventh. In three months and twenty-four days more commences the second Sabbath, seventh month, first; the next, the tenth; the last the fifteenth of themonth. Between the first two Sabbaths there is an interval of onehundred and twelve days; the next two, ten days, and the next, fivedays. Now it can be seen at a glance, that neither of these Sabbathscould be on the seventh day any oftener than other annual feast couldcome on that day. These then are what Hosea calls HER Sabbaths. Paulcalls them HOLY DAYS, _new moons, and Sabbaths_; and this is what theyare stated to be. The first day of the seventh month is a _new moon_SABBATH, the tenth is a Sabbath of rest and Holy convocation, a day ofatonement, and the fifteenth a feast of Sabbaths. Do you ask for anymore evidence that these are the Jewish Sabbaths, and that God's Sabbathis separate from them? Read then what God directed Moses to write in thethird verse: "Six days shall work be done, but the _seventh_ day is theSabbath of rest, an holy convocation, ye shall do no work therein, it isthe Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. " Now Moses has heredeclared from the mouth of the Lord, that these are ALL the feast of theLord, (there is no more nor less) and every thing is to be upon _hisday_, and he has clearly and definitely separated his Sabbath from theother four. And in the 28th and 29th chapters of Numbers the sacrifices[14]and offerings for each of these days are made so plain, beginningwith the Sabbath, 9v, that we have only to read the following tounderstand. 26. Xxix: 1. First day, seventh month, (new moon;) 7v, 10thday Sabbath; 12v; 15th day Sabbath, and 35v, 23d day Sabbath. And in thedays of Nehemiah when Ezra had read the law to the people, viii (morethan one thousand years after they were promulgated, ) they boundthemselves under an oath "to walk in God's law which was given _by thehand of Moses_, the servant of God. " "And to observe and _do all thecommandments_ of the Lord, our Lord. " x: 29. And that there might be nomisunderstanding about the kind of Sabbaths, they say, "If the peoplebring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would notbuy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy day, " (31v. ) but they would"charge themselves yearly with a third part of a shekel" (to pay for)"the burnt _offerings_ of the _Sabbaths_, of the _new moons_, for the_set feasts_, " &c. (33v. ) for the house of God, including what hasalready been set forth in Leviticus and Numbers. Now as their feast dayscommenced and ended with a Sabbath, so when their feasts ceased to bebinding on them these Sabbaths must also, and all were "nailed to thecross. " Now I ask if there is one particle of proof that the Sabbath ofthe Lord is included in these Sabbaths and feast days? Who then darejoin them together or contradict the Most High God, and call HIS the_Jewish_ Sabbath. _Theirs_ was nailed to the cross when Jesus died, while the Lord's is an _everlasting_ sign a _perpetual covenant_. TheJews, as a nation, broke their covenant. Jesus and his disciples wereone week (the last of the seventy) that is seven years, confirming thenew covenant for another people, the Gentiles. Now I ask if thischanging the subjects from Jew to Gentile made void the commandments andlaw of God, or in other words, abolished the fourth commandment; if so, the other nine are not binding. It cannot be that God ever intended tomislead his subjects. Let us illustrate this. Suppose that the Congressof these United States in their present emergency, should promulgate twoseparate codes of laws, one to be perpetual, the other temporary, to beabolished when peace was proclaimed between this country and Mexico. Thetime _comes_, the temporary laws are abolished; but strange to hear, alarge portion of the people are now insisting upon it that because peaceis proclaimed that both [15]these codes of laws are forever abolished;while another class are _strenuously_ insisting that it is only the_fourth_ law in the perpetual code that's now abolished, with thetemporary and all the rest is still binding. Opposed to all these is athird class, headed by the ministers and scribes of the nation, who arewriting and preaching from Maine to Florida, insisting upon it withoutfear of contradiction, that when peace was proclaimed this fourth law inthe perpetual code was to change its date to another day; gradually, (while some of them say immediately) and thenceforward become perpetual, and the other code abolished; and yet not one of these are able to showfrom the proceedings of Congress that the least alteration had ever beenmade in the perpetual code. Thus, to me, the case stands clear thatneither of the laws or ten commandments in the first code, ever has orever can be annulled or changed while mortality is stamped on man, forthe very reason that God's moral law has no limitation. Jesus thenbrought in a new covenant, which continued the Sabbath by writing hislaw upon their hearts. Paul says "written not with ink, but with thespirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tablesof the heart. " 2 Cor. Iii: 3. And when writing to the Romans he shews_how_ the Gentiles are a law unto themselves. He says, they "shew thework of the law written in their hearts, their consciences alwaysbearing them witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or elseexcusing one another, " (when will this be Paul) "in the day when Godshall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. "ii: 15, 16. How plain that this is all the change. The Jews by naturehad the law given them on tables of stone, while the Gentiles had thelaw of commandments written on their hearts. Paul tells the Ephesiansthat it was "the law of commandments contained in ordinances, " (ii: 15)not on tables that were nailed to the cross. If the ten commandments, first written by the finger of God on stone, and then at the secondcovenant on fleshy tables of the heart, are shadows, can any one tellwhere we shall find the substance? We are answered, in Christ. Well, hear Isaiah. He says, "that he (Christ) will magnify the law and make ithonorable. " lxii: 21. Again, I ask, where was the necessity and of whatuse were the ten commandments written on our hearts, if it was not torender perfect obedience to them. If we do not keep the day God hassanctified, then [16]we break not the least, but one of the greatest ofhis commandments. Still, there are many other texts relating to the law, presented by the opposite view, to show that the law respecting theSabbath is abolished. Let us look at some of them. But it will benecessary in the first place, to make a clear distinction between whatis commonly called the

MORAL AND CEREMONIAL LAW. 

Bro. S. S. Snow, in writing on this subject about one year ago, in theJubilee Standard, asks "by what authority this distinction is made. " Hesays "neither our Lord or his apostles made any such distinction. Whenspeaking of the law they never used the terms moral or ceremonial, butalways spake of it as a _whole_, calling it _the_ law, " and furthersays, "we must have a thus saith the Lord to satisfy us. " So I say! Ihave no doubt but thousands have stopped here; indeed, it has been to methe most difficult point to settle in this whole question. Now let uscome to it fairly, and we shall see that the old and new testamentwriters have ever kept up the distinction, although it may in some partsseem to be one code of laws. 

From the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where the law of the Sabbath wasre-enacted, and onward, we find two distinct codes of laws. The firstwas written on two tables of stone with the _finger_ of God; the_second_ was taken down from his mouth and recorded by the hand of Mosesin a book. Paul calls the latter carnal commandments and ordinances, (rites or _ceremonies_) which come under two heads, religious andpolitical, and are Moses's. The first code is God's. For proof see Exo. Xvi: 28, 30. "How long refuse ye to keep _my_ commandments and _my_laws: see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath; and so thepeople rested on the Sabbath day. " Also in the book of Leviticus, wherethe law of ceremonies is given to the levites or priests, Moses closeswith these words: "_These_ are the commandments which the Lord commandedMoses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai;" in Heb. Vii: 16, 18, called carnal commandments. 

Again, "the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into the Mount, and bethere: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandmentswhich I have written. " Exo. Xxiv: 12. Further he calls them the ten[17]commandments--xxxiv: 28. And Moses puts them "into the ark"--xl:20. _Now for the second code of laws. _ See Deut. Xxxi: 9, 10; and xxiv:26. "And when Moses had finished writing the law, he commanded them toput _this book_ of the LAW (of ceremonies) in the side of the ark of thecovenant, to be read at the end of every seven years. " This is not thesong of deliverance by Moses in the forty-fourth verse of thethirty-second chapter. For, eight hundred and sixty-seven years afterthis, in the reign of Josiah, king of Israel, the high priest found thisbook in "the Temple, " (2 Chron. Xxxiv: 14, 15) which moved all Israel. One hundred and seventy-nine years further onward, Ezra was from morningtill noon reading out of this book. Neh. Viii: 3; Heb. Ix: 19. Paul'scomments. 

Bro. Snow says in regard to the commandments, "The principles of moralconduct embraced in the law, was binding before the law was given, (meaning that one of course at Mt. Sinai) and is binding _now_; it isimmutable and eternal! It is comprehended in one word, LOVE. " If hemeant, as we believe he did, to comprehend what Jesus did in the xix. And xxii. Chap. Matt. 37-40, and Paul, and James, and John after him, then we ask how it is possible for him to reject from that code of laws, the only one, _the seventh day rest_, that was promulgated at the_beginning_, while at the same time the other nine, that were notwritten until about three thousand years afterwards, were eternallybinding; without doubt, the whole ten commandments are co-eval andco-extensive with sin. Again, he says, "We readily admit, that if whatis called the decalogue or ten commandments be binding on us, _we ought_to observe the seventh day, for that was appointed by the Lord as theSabbath day. " Let us see if Jesus and his apostles do not make itbinding. _First then, the distinction of the two codes by Jesus. _

The Pharisees ask the Saviour why his disciples transgress the traditionof the elders? His answer is, "Why do ye transgress the commandment ofGod?" and he immediately cites them to the fifth commandment, Matt. Xv:25. Again, "The law and the prophets were until John; since that timethe kingdom of God is preached, " &c. Luke xvi: 16. Jesus was three yearsafter this introducing the gospel of the kingdom, unwaveringly holdinghis meetings on the Sabbath days, (which our opponents say were nowabout to be _abolished_; others say changed, ) and never uttering asyllable to show to the contrary, but that this was [18]and alwayswould be the holy day for worship. Mark says when the Sabbath (theSeventh day, for there was no other, ) was come, he began to teach in theSynagogue, vi: 2. Luke says, "as his _custom_ was, he went into theSynagogue and taught on the Sabbath day. " iv: 16, 31. Will it be said ofhim as it is of Paul on like occasions, some thirty years afterwards, that he uniformly held his meetings on the Sabbath because he had nowhere else to preach, or that this day was the only one in the week inwhich the people would come out to hear him? Every bible reader knowsbetter; witness the five thousand and the seven thousand, and themultitudes that thronged him in the streets, in the citys and townswhere they listened to him; besides, he was now establishing a newdispensation, while theirs was passing away. Then he did not follow anyof their customs or rites or ceremonies which he had come to abolish. 

I have already quoted Matt. V: 17, 18, where Jesus said he had come tofulfil the law, and immediately begins by showing them that they are notto violate one of the least of the commandments, and cites them tosome--see vi: 19, 21, 27, 33. Again, he is tauntingly asked "which isthe great commandment in the law: Jesus said unto him, thou shalt lovethe Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with allthy mind. This is the _first_ and great commandment. And the second islike unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these twocommandments hang all the law and the prophets. " xxii: 36, 40. HereJesus has divided the ten commandments into two parts, or as it iswritten on two tables of stone. The first four on the first table treatof those duties which we owe to God--the other six refers to those whichwe owe to man, requiring perfect obedience. 

Once more, "One came and said unto him, good master what good thingshall I do that I may have eternal life? He said, If thou wilt enterinto life keep the commandments. Then he asked him which? He cited himto the last part of what he called the second, loving his neighbor ashimself. " If he had cited him to the first table, as in the xxii, quotedabove, he could not have replied "_all_ these have I kept from my youthup. " Why? Because he would have already been perfect, for Jesus in replyto his question, what he should do to inherit eternal life, said he must"keep the commandments. " Matt. Xix: 16-20. Is not the Sabbath includedin these commandments? Surely [19]it is! Then how absurd to believethat Jesus, just at the close of his ministry, should teach that theway, the only way, to enter into life, was to keep the commandments, oneof which was to be abolished in a few months from that time, without theleast intimation from him or his Father that it was to take place. I sayagain, if the Sabbath is abolished, we ask those who teach it to cite usto the chapter and verse, not to the law of rites and ceremonies whichare abolished, for we have already shown that the Sabbath was institutedmore than twenty-five hundred years before Moses wrote the carnalordinances or ceremonies. God said, "Abraham kept _my_ charge, _my_commandments, _my_ statutes, and _my_ laws. " Gen. Xxvi: 5. This mustinclude the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was the first law given, thereforeif Abraham did not keep the Sabbath, I cannot understand whatcommandments, statutes and laws mean in this chapter. Jesus says, "As Ihave kept my Father's commandments, " John xv: 10. Did he keep thecommandments? Yes. Mark and Luke, before quoted--(but more of this inanother place. )

In John vii: 19, Jesus speaks of "Moses law, " "_your law_. " x: 34. Again, "_their law_. " xv: 25. Here then we show that Jesus kept up aclear distinction between what God calls _my_ law and commandments andMoses law, "_their_ law, " "_your_ law. " Let us now look at the argumentof the Apostles. Paul preaching at Antioc taught the Brethren that byJesus Christ all who believed in him "are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the _Law of Moses_. " Acts xiii:39. 

The Pharisees said "that it was needful to circumcise them and commendthem to keep the _Law of Moses_. " xv: 5. 

Again, when Paul had come to Jerusalem the second time, (fourteen yearsfrom the time he met the Apostles in conference where they establishedthe decrees for the churches. See Acts xx: 19; Gal. Ii: 1, ) the Apostlesshewed him how many thousands of Jews there were which believed and werezealous of the _law_: "And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest_all_ the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake _Moses_ and the_customs_. " xxi: 20, 21. Any person who will carefully read the eightchapters here included, must be thoroughly convinced that the Apostle'stroubles were about the law of ceremonies written and given by Moses, and nothing to do with the ten commandments. For you see a little beforehe comes to Jerusalem, he had been preaching at Corinth every[20]Sabbath for eighteen months. Xxiii: 4, 11. And this, be itremembered, was more than twenty years after the Jewish Sabbaths andceremonies were nailed to the cross. --And you see that Paul was the manabove all the Apostles to be persecuted on account of the abolition ofthe Jews' law of ceremonies, for he was the "_great_ Apostle to theGentiles:" and if the "Sabbath of the Lord our God" was to have beenabolished when the Saviour died, Paul was the very man selected for thatpurpose. It is clear, therefore, that he did not abolish the seventh daySabbath among the Gentiles. This same Apostle tells the Romans "thatChrist is the end of the law for righteousness to every one thatbelieveth. " x: 4. Again, that "sin shall not have dominion over you, forye are not under the _law_ but under grace. " vi: 14. Once more: He saysthe Gentiles having not the _law_, are a _law_ unto themselves. Why?Because, he says in the next verse, it shows the _law_ written on theirhearts. The law of ceremonies? No; that which was on tables of stone. Ii: 14-16. We might quote much more which looks like embracing the wholelaw. Let us now look at a few texts in the same letter, which will drawa distinguishing line between the two codes of laws. Paul, in the viich. 9-13v. Brings to view the carnal commandment, and the one unto life, and sums up his argument in these words: "Wherefore the _law_ is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. " In the 7v he quotes fromthe decalogue. Again, he that loveth another hath fulfilled the _law_. How? Why thou shalt not steal, nor commit adultery, nor bear falsewitness, nor covet, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Therefore_love_ is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. Xiii: 8, 10. --This then iswhat the Saviour taught the young man to do to secure "eternal life. "Matt. Once more, in concluding a long argument on the law in Rom. Iii:31, he closes with this language: "Do we then make void the law throughfaith? God forbid ye, _we establish_ the _law_. "--What _law_ is hereestablished? not the law of rites and ceremonies. What then, for Paulmeans some _law_. It can be no other than what he calls the law of"life, " of "love, " the ten commandments. How could even that beestablished twenty-nine years after the crucifixion, if one of the_greatest_ commandments had been abolished out of the code, that is theSabbath. 

Paul's letter to the Corinthians teaches that "circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing but the _keeping_ [21]of the commandmentsof God. " vii: 19. Again, in his epistle to the Galatians, hisphraseology is somewhat changed, but the argument is to the same point, although some passages read as though every vestage of _law_ was sweptby the board when Jesus hung upon the cross. For instance, such as thefollowing: "But that no man is justified by the _law_ in the sight ofGod it is evident, for the just shall live by faith, and the LAW is notof faith, but the man that doeth them shall live by them. " "Christ hathredeemed us from the curse of the _law_, being made a curse for us. ""But before faith came we were kept under the _law_, shut up unto thefaith which should afterwards be revealed. " "Wherefore the law was ourschoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified byfaith, but after that faith has come we are no longer under aschoolmaster. " Gal. Iii: 11-13, 23-25. Again: "For as many as are of theworks of the _law_ are under the curse. " 10v. Now are we to understandfrom these texts that whosoever continueth in the _law_ is cursed, andthat the law, _the whole law_, was abolished when Christ came as ourschoolmaster, he being the "end of the law?" Rom. X: 4. If so, how is itpossible for any man, even Paul himself, to be saved. But we do notbelieve that Paul taught these brethren any different doctrine than whathas already been shown in the Acts, Romans, and Corinthians, and alsothe Eph. , Phil. , Col. , and Heb. If he did not mean the law written bythe hand of Moses, distinguishing it from the _law_ of the tencommandments, written by the finger of God on tables of stone, then praytell me if you can, what he means (in the closing of this argument, ) bysaying, "For _all_ the LAW is FULFILLED in one word, even this: Thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself. " v: 14. Surely he is quoting theSaviour's words in Matt. Xxii: 39, relative to the commandment of theLord our God. To his son Timothy he says: "Now the end of thecommandment is charity, " (love) meaning of course the _last_ part of theten commandments. In vi: 2, he says: "Bear ye one anothers burdens andso fulfil the _law_ of Christ. " Does this differ from the _law_ God?Yes, a little, for it is the new commandment, (some say the eleventh. )See John xiii: 34. "A new commandment I give unto you, (what is it, Lord?) that ye love one another. " And also xx: 12. The other is to loveour neighbor as ourself. John says: "And this commandment have we fromhim (Christ, ) that he who loveth God loveth his brother [22]also. " Johniv: 21, and ii: 8-11. In his letter to the Ephesians he says: "Havingabolished in his flesh the _enmity_ even the law of commandmentscontained in ordinances. " ii: 15. See the reverse. Vi: 2. To theColossians he asks, "Why as though living in the world, are ye subjectto ordinances where all are to perish with their using?" And says:"Touch not, taste not, handle not. " (Does Paul here teach us to forsakethe ordinances of God, instituted by the Saviour--Baptism and the Lord'sSupper? Yes, just as clearly as he does to forsake the whole law. )

When writing to the Hebrews more than thirty years after thecrucifixion, he calls these ordinances _carnal_, imposed on them (theJews) until Christ our High Priest should come. Ix: 10, 11. He alsocalls the law of commandments _carnal_, too, and says: "For there isverily a disannulling of the commandments going before, for the law madenothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. " vii: 16, 18-19. "For when Moses had spoken _every precept_ to all the peopleaccording to the _law_ he took the blood of calves and of goats, withwater, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the BOOK and allthe people. " ix: 19. Now we see clearly that the book of the law ofMoses from which Paul has been quoting through the whole beforementioned epistles, is as distinctly separate from the tables of stone(or fleshly table of the heart, ) as they were when deposited in the Arkthirty-three hundred years ago. Therefore we think that here is clearproof that he has kept up the distinction between the "handwriting ofordinances" (meaning Moses' own handwriting in his book, ) and the "tencommandments written by the finger of God. "

Let us now turn to the Epistle of James, said to be written more thantwenty-five years after the law of ceremonies were nailed to the cross, and see if he does not teach us distinctly, that we are bound to keepthe commandments given on tables of stone. He says, "the man that shallbe a DOER of the _perfect law_ of liberty shall be blessed in his deed. "i: 25. "If ye fulfill the royal _law_ according to the scripture, thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. " Why? Because theSaviour in quoting from the commandments, in answer to the Ruler, whathe should do to inherit eternal life, taught the same doctrine. Matt. Xix: 19. Further: "For whosoever shall keep the whole _law_ and yetoffend in one point, shall be guilty of _all_. " In the next verse hequotes from the [23]ten commandments again, namely, Adultery andMurder, (what the Saviour in the fifth chapter of Matt. Calls the least, that is the smallest commandment, ) and says if we commit them we becometransgressors of the _law_. Of what _law_? Next verse says the _law_ of_liberty_ by which we are to be "judged. " ii: 8, 11. 

Now will it not be admitted by every reasonable person that James hasincluded the whole of the ten commandments, by calling them the perfectlaw of liberty. 2d, "The royal _law_ according to the scripture, " and3d, "the _law of liberty_ by which we are to be judged. " (Royal relatesto imperial and kingly. ) Perfect means COMPLETE, _entire_, the WHOLE. Then I understand James thus: This _law_ emanated from the king, theSupreme Ruler of the universe, and to be perfect must be just what itwas when it came from his hand, and that no _change_ had, or could takeplace, (and remember now, this is more than twenty-five years since theceremonies with the Jewish Sabbaths were nailed to the cross, ) for thevery best of reasons, until the judgment, because he shows that we areto be judged by _that law_. Then I ask by what parity of reasoning anyone can make the law of the ten commandments perfect, while they at thesame time assert that the fourth one is abolished? and that on no betterevidence than calling it the JEWISH Sabbath. Now let us look at theApostle John's testimony. 

"And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Hethat saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a LIAR, andthe truth is not in him. " Now no man, more especially one who professesto abide by the whole truth, feels entirely easy if he is called a_liar_. Now John please explain yourself. Hear him: "Brethren, I writeno new commandment unto you but an _old_ commandment which ye had fromthe beginning. The old commandment is the _word_ which ye have heardfrom the BEGINNING. " What do you mean by _beginning_? Turn to my Gospel, 1st ch. "In the _beginning_ was the word, "--"the same was in the_beginning_ with God. " 1, 2. See Gen. I ch. : "In the _beginning_ Godcreated the heavens and the earth. " Then you are pointing us to theseventh day of creation, in which God instituted the seventh day Sabbathof rest, for the _old_ commandment in the _beginning_. Ii: 3. Certainlythere is no other place to point to. Does not Jesus point us to the sameplace for the _beginning_ when marriage was first instituted. Matt. Xix:4. [24]In my second letter to the church, I have taught the samedoctrine: viz. "This is the commandment that as ye have heard from the_beginning ye should walk in it_. " (practice it. ) ii: 5, 6. "A _new_commandment I write unto you. " 7th v. This is the one that Jesus gave uson that memorable night in which he was betrayed, after he hadinstituted the sacrament and washed our feet. He said "By this shall allmen know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another. " xiii:34, 35. The first then teaches us, Love to God, 2d, to Love our neighboras ourself; "on these two commandments (says Jesus) hang all the law andthe prophets. " Then we understand this is the essence of the tencommandments, and if we do not keep the Sabbath we do not love God. Jesus says, "If ye love me ye will keep my commandments. " We arerepeatedly told that the Sabbath was changed or forever abolished, atthe crucifiction of our Lord, and it is stated by the most competentauthorities that John wrote this epistle about sixty years afterwards, and that about six years after this our blessed Lord revealed to him thestate of the Church down to the judgment of the great day. In the xivch. Rev. 6-11, he saw three angels following each other in succession:first one preaching the everlasting gospel (second advent doctrine); 2d, announcing the fall of Babylon; 3d, calling God's people out of her byshowing the awful destruction that awaited all such as did not obey. Hesees the separation and cries out, "Here is the patients of the Saints, here are they that keep the _commandments_ of God and the faith ofJesus. " And this picture was so deeply impressed on his mind, that whenthe Saviour said to him "Behold I come quickly and my reward is withme, " he seemed to understand this, saying--"Blessed are they that _do_his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and mayenter in through the gates into the city. " xxii: 14. Now it seems to methat the seventh day Sabbath is more clearly included in thesecommandments, than thou shalt not steal, nor kill, nor commit adultery, for it is the only one that was written at the creation or in the_beginning_. He allows no stopping place this side of the gates of thecity. Then, if we do not keep that day, John has made out his case, thatwe are all _liars_. We say in every other case the type must becontinued until it is superseded by the antitype, as in the case of thepassover, until our Lord was crucified. So then, as Paul tells us, "there remaineth a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God, " andthat we believe will be in the Milenium, [25]the seven thousandth year, so that the seventh day Sabbath and no other will answer for the type, and those who keep the first or the eighth day Sabbath cannotconsistently look for the antitype of rest or the great Sabbath, shortof one thousand years in the future. 

Again: Isaiah says: "To the law and to the testimony if they speak notaccording to this word, it is because there is no light in them. " viii:20. Now if the Gentiles are under no law, as 'is asserted, ' pray tell mewhat right, as Gentiles, have we to appeal to the law and testimony, orto this text. 

In the xxiv. Of Matt. Our Saviour says to his disciples, in answer totheir questions, When shall these things be? and what shall be the signof thy coming, and the end of the world? "When ye therefore shall seethe abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand inthe holy place, " &c. 15v. "Pray ye that your flight be not in thewinter, neither on the Sabbath day. " 20v. The first question is, at whatage of the world is this, where our Lord recognizes the Sabbath? 1st. Itis agreed on all hands that this time to which he here refers, nevertranspired until the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, about fortyyears after his crucifiction. 2d. Some others say, down to the secondAdvent! The first mentioned is safe ground and sufficient for ourpurpose; nor need we stop to inquire why our Lord gave these directions, it is forever settled that he directed the minds of his followers toTHE, not _a_ Sabbath. Keep it in remembrance, that he told the Phariseesthat he was Lord, not of _a_, but of THE Sabbath, meaning that one whichof course had already been established. The 2d question is, did our Lordever trifle with, or mislead his disciples? The response is No! Then itis clear that if he taught them to pray at all, it must be in faith, andhe of course would hear them and mediate with the Father to change theday of their flight. I ask what kind of a prayer and with what kind offaith would his disciples have asked to have this day changed, if as weare told, it was abolished some forty years before, and they had, contrary to the will of God, persisted in keeping up this seventh daySabbath. Any one who has confidence in God's word, knows that such aprayer never would be answered. What if you do say the Jews always keptthat Sabbath, and it was the same seventh day Sabbath which they keptwhen he was teaching them in their synagogues? I, say so too! (and thatfact will be presented by and by, in its place. ) This does not touch thepoint. Jesus was here giving instructions to his [26]followers, bothJew and Gentile, respecting _the_ Sabbath which they would have to dowith. It is immaterial what kind of sophistry is presented to overthrowthe point, nothing can touch it short of proving it a mistranslation. Jesus did here recognize the perpetuity of the _seventh day Sabbath_. And John will continue to make all men liars that say they know him andrefuse the light presented and disregard this commandment. If Godinstituted the Sabbath in Paradise and has not abolished it here, thenmust it be _perpetual_? If Paul's argument in iii. Rom. That the law isestablished through faith, is correct then is it _perpetual_. If James'royal _perfect law_ of liberty, which we are to be doers of, and judgedby, means the commandments, then is the Sabbath _perpetual_. If theApostle John has made out a clear case, by citing us back to the_beginning_ of creation, and by _walking_ in and doing thesecommandments, we shall have right to the tree of life and enter in bythe gates into the city; then it _must be perpetual_. If the earthlySabbath is typical of the heavenly, then must it be _perpetual_. If notone jot or one tittle can ever pass from the law, then must it be_perpetual_. If the Saviour, in answer to the young man who asked himwhat he should do to inherit _eternal life_, gave a safe direction forGentiles to follow, viz: "If thou wilt enter into _life_ keep thecommandments (and these included those commandments which his Father hadgiven), then, without _contradiction_ the Sabbath is _perpetual_, andall the arguments which ever can be presented against the fourthcommandment being observed before God wrote it on tables of stone toprove that it is not binding on Gentiles, falls powerless before thisone sentence: _If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. _ Isay the proof is positive that the Sabbath was a constituent part of thecommandments, and Jesus says the Sabbath 'was made for man. ' The Jewswere only a _fragment of creation_. 

"The principle is settled in all governments that there are but two waysin which any law can cease to be binding upon the people. It may expireby its own limitations, or it may be repealed by the same authoritywhich enacted it; and in the latter case the repealing act must be asexplicit as that by which the obligation was originally imposed. " Now wehave it in proof that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise, the_first_ of all laws without any limitation, and no enactment by God toabolish it, unless what we have already referred to can be consideredproof. One more passage which I have not alluded to will show that itwas not [27]abolished at the crucifiction, for his disciples kept theSabbath while he was resting in his tomb. See Luke xxiii: 55, 56. Let usnow pass to another part of the subject. The third question:

WAS THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH EVER CHANGED? IF SO, WHEN, AND FOR WHATREASON?

Here we come to a question which has more or less engaged the attentionof the whole christian world, and the greater portion of those whobelieve in a crucified Saviour say that this change took place, and isdated from his resurrection. Some say subsequently, while a minorityinsist upon it that there is no proof for the change. Now to obtain thetruth and nothing but the truth on this important subject, I propose topresent, or quote from standard authors on both sides of the question, and try the whole by the standard of divine truth. 1st. Buck'sTheological Dictionary, to which no doubt thousands of ministers andlaymen appeal to sustain their argument for the change, says: "Under thechristian dispensation the Sabbath is _altered_ from the _seventh_ tothe _first day_ of the week. " The arguments for the change, are these:1st. "The _seventh_ day was observed by the Jewish church in memory ofthe rest of God; so the _first_ day of the week has always been observedby the christian church in memory of _Christ's resurrection_. 2d. Christmade repeated visits to his disciples on that day. 3d. It is called theLord's day. Rev. I: 10. 4th. On this day the Apostles were assembled, when the Holy Ghost came down so visibly upon them to qualify them forthe conversion of the world. 5th. On this day we find Paul at Troas whenthe disciples came together to break bread. 6th. The directions theApostles gave to Christians plainly alludes to their assembling on thatday. 7th. Pliny bears witness of the first day of the week being kept asa festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. "

"Numerous have been the days appointed by man for religious services, but these are not binding because of _human_ institution. Not so theSabbath. It is of _divine_ institution, so it is to be kept holy untothe Lord. "

Doct. Dodridge, whose ability and piety has seldom or rarely beendisputed, comments on some of the above articles thus: (Commentary p. 606. ) "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him instore, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when Icome. " 1 Cor. Xvi: 2. "Show that it was to be put into a [28]commonstock. The argument drawn from hence for the religious observance of thefirst day of the week in these primitive churches of Corinth and Galaciais too _obvious_ to need any further illustration, and yet too importantto be passed by in entire silence. " Again, p. 904, "I was in the spiriton the Lord's day, " &c. Rev. I: 10. "It is so very unnatural andcontrary to the use of the word in all other authors to interpret thisof the Jewish Sabbath, as Mr. Baxter justly argues at large, that Icannot but conclude with him and the generality of Christian writers onthis subject, that this text _strongly_ infers the extraordinary regardpaid to the first day of the week in the Apostle's time as a daysolemnly consecrated to Christ in memory of his resurrection from thedead. " There is much more, but these are his strong arguments. I shallquote some more from the Commentaries by and by. I wish to place by theside of these arguments one from the British Quarterly TheologicalReview and Ecclesiastical Recorder, of Jan. 1830, which I extract from'the _Institution of the Sabbath day_, ' by Wm. Logan Fisher, ofPhiladelphia, a book in which there is much valuable information on thissubject, though I disagree with the writer, because his whole labor isto abolish the Sabbath; yet he gives much light on this subject, fromwhich I take the liberty to make some quotations. 

But to the Quarterly Review of 1830: "It is said that the observance ofthe seventh day Sabbath is transferred in the Christian church to thefirst day of the week. We ask by what authority, and are very muchmistaken if an examination of all the texts of the New Testament, inwhich the first day of the week or Lord's day is mentioned, does notprove that there is no divine or Apostolic precept enjoining itsobservance, nor any certain evidence from scripture that it was, infact, so observed in the times of the Apostles. Accordingly we searchthe scriptures in vain, either for an Apostolic precept, appointing thefirst day of the week to be observed in the place of the Jewish Sabbath, or for any unequivocal proof that the first christians so observedit--there are only three or, at most four places of scripture, in whichthe first day of the week is mentioned. The next passage is in Acts xx:7. 'Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together tobreak bread, Paul preached unto them. ' All that St. Luke here tells usplainly is, that on a particular occasion the christians of Troas mettogether on the first day of the week to celebrate the Eucharist and tohear Paul preach. This is the only place in [29]scripture, in which thefirst day of the week is in any way connected with any acts of publicworship, and he who would certainly infer from this _solitary instance_that the first day of every week was consecrated by the Apostles toreligious purposes, must be far gone in the art of drawing universalconclusion from particular premises. "

On page 178, Mr. Fisher says, "I have examined several differenttranslations of the scriptures, both from the Hebrew and the Septuagint, with notes and anotations more extensive than the texts; have traced asfar as my leisure would permit, various ecclesiastical histories, someof them voluminous and of ancient date; have paid considerable attentionto the writings of the earliest authors in the christian era, and torare works, old and of difficult access, which treat upon this subject;I have read with care many of the publications of sectarians to sustainthe institution; I have omitted nothing within my reach, and I havefound not one shred of argument, or authority of any kind, that may notbe deemed of partial and sectarian character, to support the institutionof the first day of the week as a day of peculiar holiness. But, in theplace of argument, I have found opinions without number--volumes filledwith idle words that have no truth in them. In the want of texts ofscripture, I have found perversions; in the want of truth, falsestatements. I have seen it stated that Justin Marter in his apology, speaks of Sunday as a holy day; that Eusebius, bishop of Cesarea, wholived in the fourth century, establishes the fact of the transfer of the_seventh_ to the first day, by Christ himself. These things are _nottrue_. These authors say no such thing. I have seen other early authorsreferred to as establishing the same point, but they are equally false. "

Here then is the testimony of four authors, two for the change and twoagainst it, from the old and new world. No truth seeking, unbiased mindcan hesitate for a moment on which side to decide, after comparing themwith the inspired word. 

Doctor JENKS of Boston, author of the Comprehensive Commentary, (purporting to comprehend _all_ other commentators on the bible, ) afterquoting author after author, on this subject, ventures forth with _his_unsupported opinion in these words: "Here is a Christian Sabbathobserved by the disciples and _owned_ by _our Lord_. The visit Christmade to his disciples was on the first day of the week, and the firstday of the week is the only day of the week or month or year evermentioned by numbers in all the New [30]Testament, and that is severaltimes spoken of as a day _religiously_ observed. " Where? Echo answers, where!

HEMAN HUMPHREY, President of Amherst College, from whose book I havealready made some quotations, after devoting some thirty-four pages tothe establishment and perpetuation of the seventh day Sabbath, comes tohis fourth question, viz. 'Has the day been changed?' Singular as thisquestion may appear by the side of what he had already written toestablish and perpetuate the seventh day Sabbath from the seventh day ofcreation down to the resurrection of the just, but as every man feelsthat it his privilege to justify and explain, when precept and practicedoes not agree--so is it with President Humphrey, he can now shape thescriptures to suit every one that has followed in the wake of PopeGregory for 1225 years. He says, "The fourth commandment is so expressedas to admit of a change in the day, "--thus striking vitally everyargument he had before presented. Hear him--he says the seventh day isthe Sabbath; "it was so at that time, (in the beginning) and for manyages after, but it is not said, that it always _shall be_--it is the_Sabbath_ day which we are to remember; and so at the close, it is the_Sabbath_ which was hallowed and blessed and not the _seventh_ day. TheSabbath then, the holy rest itself, is one thing. The day on which weare to rest is another. " I ask, in the name of common sense, how weshould know how or when to keep the Sabbath if it did not matter whichday. If the President could not see the sanctification of the seventhday in the decalogue what did he mean by quoting Gen. Ii: 3, so often, where it says "_God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. _"

Again, he says "Redemption is a greater work than creation, hence thechange. " Fifthly, God early consecrated the Christian Sabbath by a mostremarkable outpouring of his spirit at the day of Pentecost. And thatJesus has left us his own example by not saying a syllable after hisresurrection about keeping the _Jewish Sabbath_. He also quotes the fourpassages about Jesus and his disciples keeping the first day of theweek. Here, he says, the inference to our minds is _irresistible_--forkeeping the first day of the week instead of the _seventh_. And furthersays, "it might be proved by innumerable quotations from the writings ofthe Apostolic Fathers, " &c. All this may be very true in itself, but itall falls to the ground for the want of one single precept from thebible. If Redemption, because it was greater than Creation, and theremarkable display of God's power at the [31]Pentecost, and Christnever saying any thing about the _Jewish Sabbath_ after his resurrectionare such _strong_ proofs that the perpetual seventh day Sabbath waschanged to the first day at that time, and must be believed becauselearned men say so, what shall we do with the sixth day, on which ourblessed Saviour expired on the cross; darkness for three hours hadcovered the earth, and the vail of the Temple was rent from top to thebottom, and there was such an earthquake throughout vast creation thatwe have only to open our eyes and look at the rent rocks for a clear andperfect demonstration that this whole globe was shaken from centre tocircumference, and the graves of the dead were opened. Matt. Xxvii: 50, 53. You may answer me that Popery has honored that day by calling itgood Friday, and the next first day following Easter Sunday, &c. , butafter all, nothing short of bible argument will satisfy the earnestinquirer after truth. The President had already shown that the _Jewish_Sabbath was abolished at Christ's death. What reason then had he tobelieve that the Saviour would speak of it afterwards. So also thePentecost had been a type from the giving the law at Sinai to be keptannually for about 1500 years, consequently it would be solemnized onevery day of the week, at each revolving year, as is the case with the4th of July: three years ago it was on the fourth day and now it comeson the seventh day of the week. Further, see Peter standing amidst theamazed multitude, giving the scripture reason for this miraculousdisplay of God's power. He does not give the most distant hint that thiswas, or was to be, the day of the week for worship, or the true Sabbath, neither do any of the Apostles then, or afterwards, for when they keptthis day the next year, it must have been the second day of the week. Wemust have better evidence than what has been adduced, to believe thiswas the Sabbath, for according to the type, seven Sabbaths were to becomplete, (and there was no other way given them to come to the rightday, ) from the day they kept the first, or from the resurrection. Herethen is proof positive that the Sabbath in this year was the day beforethe Pentecost. See Luke xxiii: 55, 56. If President H. Is right, thenwas there two Sabbaths to be kept in succession in one week. Where isthe precept? No where! Well, says the inquirer, I want to see the bibleproof for this '_Christian Sabbath observed by the disciples, and ownedby our Lord_. ' W. Jenks. Here it will be necessary for us to understand, first how God has computed time. In Gen. I. We read, "And [32]God saidlet there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the dayfrom the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for daysand years. " 14 v. 16 v. Says, "the greater light to rule the day, "--fromsunrise to sunset. Now there are many modes invented for computing time. We say our day begins at 12 o'clock at night; seamen begin theirs twelvehours sooner, at noon; the Jews commence their days at 6 o'clock in theevening, between the two extremes. Are we _all_ right? No! Who shallsettle this question? God! Very well: He called the light day, and thedarkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the firstday. Gen. I: 5. Then the twenty-four hour day commenced at 6 o'clock inthe evening. How is that, says one? Because you cannot regulate the dayand night to have what the Saviour calls twelve hours in the day, without establishing the time from the centre of the earth, the equator, where, at the beginning of the sacred year, the sun rises and sets at 6o'clock. At _this_ time, while the sun is at the summer solstice, theinhabitants of the north pole have no night, while at this same time atthe south it is about all night, therefore the inhabitants of the earthhave no other right time to commence their twenty-four hour day, thanbeginning at 6 o'clock in the evening. God said to Moses '_from even, unto even, shall you celebrate your Sabbath_. ' Then of course the nextday must begin where the Sabbath ended. History shows that the Jewsobeyed and commenced their days at 6 o'clock in the evening. Now then wewill try to investigate the main argument by which these authors, andthousands of others say the Sabbath was changed. The first is in Johnxx: 19, "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the weekwhen the doors where shut where the disciples were assembled _for fearof the Jews_ (mark it) came Jesus and stood in their midst, and saidpeace be unto you. " Here we understand this to be the same day of theresurrection. On that same day he travelled with the two disciples toEmans, sixty furlongs (7-1/2 miles), and they constrained him to abidewith them, for it was toward evening and the _day was far spent_. Lukexxiv: 29. After this the disciples travelled the 7-1/2 miles back toJerusalem and soon after they found the disciples, the Saviour, as abovestated, was in their midst. Now it cannot be disputed but what this wasthe evening after the resurrection, for Jesus rose in the morning, someten or eleven hours after the first day had commenced. Then the eveningof the first day was passing away, and therefore the evening brought toview in [33]the text was the close of the first day or the commencingof the second. McKnight's translation says, "in the evening of thatday. " Purver's translation says, "the evening of that day on the firstafter the Sabbath. " Further, wherever the phrase first day of the week, occurs in the New Testament, the word day is in _italics_, showing thatit is not the original; but supplied by translators. Again, it isasserted that Jesus met with his disciples the next first day. See 26v:"And _after_ eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas withthem, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, andsaid peace be unto you. " Dr. Adam Clark in referring to this 26v, says:"It seems likely that this was precisely on that day se'night on whichChrist had appeared to them before; and from this we may learn that thiswas the weekly meeting of the Apostles. " Now it appears to me that alittle child, with the simple rules of addition and subtraction, couldhave refuted this man. I feel astonished that men who profess to beambassadors for God do not expose such downright perversion ofscripture, but it may look clear to those who want to have it so. Notmany months since, in conversation with the Second Advent lecturer inNew Bedford, I brought up this subject. He told me I did not understandit. See here, says he. I can make it plain, counting his fingers thus:Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday--does'nt that make eight days after? and because I would notconcede, he parted from me as one that was obstinate and self-willed. Afterwards musing on the subject, I said, this must be the way then tounderstand it: _Count Sunday Twice. _ If any of them were to be paid foreight days labor, they would detect the error in a moment if theiremployer should attempt to put the first and last days together, andoffer them pay but for seven. Eight days _after_ the evening of thefirst day would stand thus: The second day of the week would certainlybe the first of the eight. Then to count eight days of twenty-four hours_after_, we must begin at the close of the evening of the first, andcount to the close of the evening of the second day; to where the Jews(by God's command) commenced their third day. But suppose we calculateit by our mode of keeping time. Our Lord appears to his disciples thefirst time at the close of Sunday evening. Now count eight days _after_, (with your fingers or anything else, ) and it will bring you to Mondayevening. Now I ask if this looks like Sunday, the first day of the week?

[34]Father Miller also gives his reasons for the change, in his lectureon the great Sabbath: "One is Christ's resurrection and his oftenmeeting with his disciples _afterwards_ on that day. This, with theexample of the Apostles, is strong evidence that the proper creationSabbath to man, came on the first day of the week. " His proof is this:"Adam must have rested on the first day of his life, and thus you willsee that to Adam it was the first day of the week, for it would not bereasonable to suppose that Adam began to reckon time before he wascreated. " He certainly could not be able to work six days before thefirst Sabbath. And thus with the second Adam; the first day of the weekhe arose and lived. And we find by the _bible_ and by history, that thefirst day of the week "_was ever afterwards observed as a day ofworship_. " Now I say there is no more truth in these assertions, thanthere is in those I have already quoted. There is not one passage in thebible to show that Christ met with his disciples on the first day of theweek after the day of his resurrection, nor that the first day of theweek was _ever afterwards_ observed as a day of worship; save only inone instance, and that shall be noticed in its place. And it seems to meif Adam could not reckon time only from his creation then by the samerule no other man could reckon time before his birth, and by thisshowing Christ could not reckon his time until after his resurrection. It is painful to me to expose the errors of one whom I have so longvenerated, and still love for the flood of light he has given the worldin respect to the Second Advent of our Saviour; but God's word must bevindicated if we have to cut off a right arm, "there is nothing true buttruth!" I pray God to forgive him in joining the great multitude ofAdvent believers, to sound the retreat back beyond the _tarrying_ time, just when the virgins had gained a glorious victory over the world, theflesh, and the devil! Go back from this to the slumbering quarters now;nothing but treachery to our Master's cause ever dictated such a course!I never can be made to believe that our glorious Commander designed thatwe should leave our sacrifices smoking on the altar of God, in the midstof the enemies' land, but rather that we should be pushing onward fromvictory to victory, until we are established in the Capital of _His_kingdom. Would it have been expedient or a mark of courage in GeneralTaylor, after he had conquered the Mexican army on the 9th May last, tohave retreated back to the capital of the U. States, to place himselfand army on the _broad platform_ of liberty, and [35]commence to travelthe ground over again for the purpose of pursuing and overcoming hisvanquished foe? No! Every person of common sense knows that such acourse would have overwhelmed him and all his followers with unutterabledisgrace, no matter how unrighteous the contest. Not so with this, forour cause is one of the most glorious, tho' it be the most trying thatever the sun shone upon since God placed it in the heavens. Onward andvictory, then, are our watchwords, and no retreating back to, or beyondthe cry at _Midnight_! But to the subject. Did our Saviour ever meetwith his disciples on the first day of the week after the evening of theday of his resurrection? The xxi. Ch. John says "they went a fishing, and while there Jesus appeared unto them. " In the 14th v. He says, "Thisis now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples afterthat he was risen from the dead. " Now turn to 1 Cor. Xv: 4-7: Paul'stestimony is, 'that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, afterthat of above five hundred brethren at once, and then of James, then ofall the Apostles. ' These are all that are specified, up to his goinginto heaven. Now pray tell me if you can, where these men got theirinformation respecting the frequent meetings on the first day of theweek. The bible says no such thing. But let us pursue the subject andlook at the third text, "Upon the first day of the week let every one ofyou lay by him in _store_, as God has prospered him, that there be nogatherings when I come. " Now please turn back to Dr. Dodridge'sauthority, he says the argument is too obvious to need any illustration, that the money was put into common stock, and that this was thereligious observance of the first day of the week. Now whoever will readthe first six verses of this chapter, and compare them with Rom. Xv:26-33, will see that Paul's design was to collect some money for thepoor saints at Jerusalem, and their laying it by them in store until hecame that way; for it plainly implies that they were at home, for no onecould understand that you had money lying by you in store, if it was incommon stock or in other hands. Again, see Acts xviii: 4, 11. Paulpreaching every Sabbath day, at this very time, for eighteen months, tothese very same Corinthians, bids them farewell, to go up to the feastat Jerusalem, 21 v. By reading to xxi. Ch. 17 v. You have his historyuntil he arrives there. Now I ask, if Dr. Dodridge's clear illustrationcan or will be relied on, when Luke clearly teaches that Paul's _manner_was, and that he did always preach to them on the Sabbath, which, ofcourse, [36]was the Seventh day, and not the first day of the week. Fourth text, John says: I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Here Dr. D. Concludes with the generality of christian writers on this subjectthat this strongly infers the extraordinary regard paid to the first dayof the week, as solemnly consecrated to Christ, &c. If the scripture anywhere called this the Lord's day, there might be some reason to believetheir statements, but the seventh day Sabbath is called the Lord's day. See Exod. Xx: 10. 

Mr. Fisher, in speaking of the late Harrisburg convention of 1844-45, says, "The most spirited debate that occurred at the assembly was to fixa proper name for the first day of the week, whether it should be called_Sabbath_, the _Christian_ Sabbath or _Lord's_ day. The reason for thisdispute was, that there was no authority for calling the first day ofthe week by either one of these names. To pretend that that command wasfixed and unchangeable, and yet to alter it to please the fancy of man, is in itself ridiculous. It is hardly possible in the nature of man, that a class of society should be receiving pay for their services andnot be influenced thereby:--in the nature of things they will avoid suchdoctrines as are repugnant to them that give them bread. "

Now we come to the fifth and last, and only one spoken of in all the NewTestament, for a meeting on the first day of the week. Luke says, "Uponthe first day of the week when the disciples came together to breakbread, Paul preached unto them, _ready to depart on the morrow_: andcontinued his speech until midnight. " Acts xx: 7. Now by following thescripture mode of computing time, from 6 o'clock in the evening to 6o'clock in the morning, as has been shown, Paul to commence on thebeginning of the first day would begin on what we call Saturday eveningat 6 o'clock, and preach till midnight. After that he restores to lifethe young man, then breaks bread and talked till the break of day, whichwould be Sunday morning. Then he commenced his journey for Jerusalem andtravelled and sailed all day Sunday, the first day of the week, and twoother days in succession. Xx: 11-15. Now it seems to me, if Paul didteach or keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath or a holy day, he violated the sanctity of it to all intents and purposes, withoutgiving one single reason for it; all the proof presented here is a nightmeeting. Please see the quotation from the British Quarterly Review. Butlet us look at it the way in which _we_ compute time: I think it will befair to premise, that about midnight was the middle of [37]Paul'smeeting; at any rate there is but one midnight to a twenty-four hourday. We say that Sunday, the first day of the week, does not commenceuntil 12 o'clock Saturday night. Then it is very clear, if he ispreaching on the first day till midnight, according to our reckoning itmust be on Sunday night, and his celebrating the Lord's supper aftermidnight would make it that he broke bread on _Monday, the second day_, and that the day time on Sunday is not included, unless he had continuedhis speech through the day till midnight. Now the text says that on thefirst day of the week they came together to break bread. To _prove thatthey did break bread on that day_, we must take the mode in which theJews computed time, and allow the first day of the week to begin at 6o'clock on Saturday evening, and to follow Paul's example, pay no regardto the first day, after daylight, but to travel, &c. If _our_ mode oftime is taken, they broke bread on the second day, and that woulddestroy the meaning of the text. Here then, in this text, is the _only_argument that can be adduced in the scriptures of divine truth, for a_change of the perpetual seventh day_ Sabbath of the Lord our God to thefirst day of the week. 

Now I'll venture the assertion, that there is no law or commandmentrecorded in the bible, that God has held so sacred among men, as thekeeping of His Sabbath. Where then, I ask, is the living man that darestand before God and declare that here is the change for the church ofGod to keep the first instead of the seventh day of the week for theSabbath. If it could be proved that Paul preached here all of the firstday, the only inference that could be drawn, would be, to break bread onthat day!

There is one more point worthy of our attention, that is, the teachingand example of Jesus. I have been told by one that is looked up to as astrong believer in the second coming of the Lord this fall, that Jesusbroke the Sabbath. Jesus says, I have kept my Father's commandments. Itis said that he 'broke the Sabbath, ' because he allowed his disciples topluck the corn and eat it on that day, and the Pharisees condemned them. He says, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and notsacrifice, ye would not have condemned the _guiltless_. " Then they werenot _guilty_. See Deut. Xxiii: 25. He immediately cites them to Davidand his men, shewing that it was lawful and right when hungry, even toeat the shoe bread that belonged only to the priests, and told them thathe was Lord of the Sabbath day. Here he shows too, that he was with his[38]disciples passing to the synagogue to teach; they ask him if it waslawful to heal on the Sabbath day. He asks them if they had a sheep fallinto the ditch on the Sabbath, if they would not haul him out? How muchbetter then is a man than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well onthe Sabbath days; and immediately healed the man with a withered hand. Matt. Xii: 1-13. On another Sabbath day, while he was teaching, hehealed a woman that had been bound of satan eighteen years, and when theruler of the synagogue began to find fault, he called him a hypocrite, and said "doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox orhis ass from the stall and lead him away to watering; and all hisadversaries were _ashamed_. " Luke xiii: 10-17. The xiv. Chapter of Lukeis quoted to prove that he broke the Sabbath because he went into thePharisees house with many others on the Sabbath day to eat bread. Herehe saw a man with the dropsy and he asked them if it was lawful to healon the Sabbath day. 'And they held their peace and he took him andhealed him, ' and asked them 'which of them having an ox or an ass fallinto the pit, would not straitway pull him out on the Sabbath day; andthey could not answer him again. ' 1-6 v. And 'he continued to teachthem, by showing them when they made a feast to call the poor, themaimed, the lame, the blind, and then they should be blessed. ' Read thechapter, and you will readily see that he took this occasion, as themost befitting, to teach them by parables, what their duty was atweddings and feasts, in the same manner as he taught them in theirsynagogues. 

There is still another passage, and I believe the only one, to whichreference has been made, (except where he opened the eyes of a man thatwas born blind, ) for proof that he broke the Sabbath. It is recorded inJohn v: 5-17. Here Jesus found a man that had been sick thirty-eightyears, by the pool of Bethesda, 'he saith unto him rise, take up thy bedand walk, --therefore did they persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. ' 16 v. 'But Jesusanswered them, my Father worketh hitherto and I work. ' If they did notwork every hour and moment of time, it would be impossible for man toexist: Here undoubtedly he had reference to these and other acts ofnecessity and mercy; but the great sin for which professors in thisenlightened age charge the Saviour with in this transaction, is, indirecting the man to take up his bed, contrary to law. It is clear thepeople [39]were forbidden to carry burthens on the Sabbath day, as inJer. Xvii: 21, 22, but by reading the 24th v. In connection with Neh. Xiii: 15-22, we learn that this prohibition related to what was lawfulfor them to do on the other six days of the week, viz. Merchandise andtrading. See proof, Neh. X: 31: also unlawful, as in Amos viii: 5. Weneed not, nor we cannot misunderstand the fourth commandment, taken inconnection with the other nine, they were simple and pure written by thefinger of God; but in the days of our Saviour it had become heavilyladen with Jewish traditions, hence when Jesus appeals to them whetherit is lawful to do good and to heal on the Sabbath days, their mouthsare closed because they cannot contradict him from the law nor theprophets. The Saviour no where interferes with them in their most rigidobservance of the day; but when they find fault with him for performinghis miracles of mercy on that day, he tells them they have broken thelaw; and in another place, "If a man on the Sabbath day receivecircumcision without breaking the law of Moses, are ye angry at mebecause I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" He thensays, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteousjudgment. " vii: 23, 24. Did he break the Sabbath? Now the law requiresthat the beasts shall rest; but what is the practice of many of thosewho are the most strict in keeping Sunday for the Sabbath. Sick, orwell, ministers or laymen, do they not ride back and forth to meeting?Again, is it right and lawful to carry forth our dead on the Sabbath? orcarry the communion service back and forth. The Apostle says, 'believeand be baptized. ' Suppose this should be on the Sabbath and we were somedistance from the water, would any one interfere with us if we carriedour change of apparel with us and back again, or have we in so doingtransgressed the law; if we have, it is high time we made a full stop. Jesus undoubtedly had good reasons for directing the sick man to take uphis bed and walk, but I cannot learn that he justified any one else incarrying their bed on the Sabbath, unless in a case of necessity andmercy, such as he cited them to, as watering their cattle, and pullingthem out of the ditch, and eating when hungry, and being healed whensick. Be it also remembered that when the Sanhedrim tried him they didnot condemn him, as in the other cases cited; so in this, they failedfor want of scripture testimony. He was the Lord of the Sabbath, and thelaw of ceremonies were now about [40]to cease forever, the tencommandments with the keeping of the Sabbath therefore were to bestripped of these ceremonies and all of their traditions, and left aspure to be written on the hearts of the Gentiles as when first writtenon tables of stone, therefore Jesus taught that it was right to do goodon the Sabbath day, and whoever follows his example and teaching willkeep the seventh day Sabbath holy and acceptable to God. They will alsojudge righteous judgement, and not according to appearance. 

There is but one Christian Sabbath named, or established in the bible, and that individual, whoever he is, that undertakes to abolish or changeit, is the _real Sabbath breaker_. Remember that the keeping thecommandments is the only safe guide through the gates into the city. 

My friends and neighbors, and especially my family, know that I have formore than twenty years, strictly endeavored to keep the first day of theweek for the Sabbath, and I can say that I did it in all good consciencebefore God, on the ocean, and in foreign countries as well as my own, until about sixteen months since I read an article published in the Hopeof Israel, by a worthy brother, T. M. Preble, of Nashua, which when Iread and compared with the bible, convinced me that there never had beenany change. Therefore the seventh day was the Sabbath, and God requiredme as well as him to keep it holy. Many things now troubled my mind asto how I could make this great change, family, friends, and brethrenand, but this one passage of Scripture was, and always will be as clearas a sunbeam. "_What is that to thee: follow thou me. _" In a few days mymind was made up to begin to keep the fourth commandment, and I blessGod for the clear light he has shed upon my mind in answer to prayer anda thorough examination of the scriptures on this great subject. Contraryviews did, after a little, shake my position some, but I feel now thatthere is no argument nor sophistry that can becloud my mind again thisside of the gates of the Holy City. Brother Marsh, who no doubt thinks, and perhaps thousands besides, that his paper is what it purports to be, THE VOICE OF TRUTH, takes the ground with the infidel that there is noSabbath. Brother S. S. Snow, of New York, late editor of the JubileeStandard, publishes to the world that he is the Elijah, preceding theadvent of our Saviour, restoring all things: (the seventh day Sabbathmust be one of the all things, ) and yet he takes the same ground withBr. Marsh, that the Sabbath [41]is forever abolished. As the seventhday Sabbath is a real prophecy, a picture (and not a shadow like theJewish Sabbaths, ) of the thing typified which is to come, I cannot seehow those who believe in the change or abolition of the type, can haveany confidence to look to God for the great antetype, the Sabbath ofrest, to come to them. 

Brother J. B. Cook has written a short piece in his excellent paper, theADVENT TESTIMONY. It was pointed and good, but too short; and as brotherPreble's Tract now before me, did not embrace the arguments which havebeen presented since he published it, it appeared to me that somethingwas called for in this time of falling back from this great subject. Itherefore present this book, hoping at least, that it will help tostrengthen and save all honest souls seeking after truth. 

A WORD RESPECTING THE HISTORY. At the close of the first century acontroversy arose, whether both days should be kept or only one, whichcontinued until the reign of Constantine the Great. By his laws, made inA. D. 321, it was decreed for the future that Sunday should be kept aday of rest in all the cities and towns; but he allowed the countrypeople to follow husbandry. History further informs us that Constantinemurdered his two sisters husbands and son, and his own familiar friend, that same year, and the year before boiled his wife in a cauldron ofoil. --The controversy still continued down to A. D. 603, when PopeGregory passed a law abolishing the seventh day Sabbath, andestablishing the first day of the week. See Baronius Councils, 603. Barnfield's Eng. Page 116, states that the Parliament of England met onSundays till the time of Richard II. The first law of England made forkeeping of Sunday, was in the time of Edward IV. About 1470. As thesetwo books are not within my reach, I have extracted from T. M. Preble'stract on the Sabbath. Mr. Fisher says, it was Dr. Bound one of the rigidpuritans, who applied the name _Sabbath_ to the first day of the week, about the year 1795. "The word Sunday is not found in the bible, " itderived its name from the heathen nations of the North, because the daywas dedicated to the sun. Neither is the Sabbath applied to the firstday any more than it is to the sixth day of the week. While Danielbeheld the little horn, (popery) he said, among other things, he would_think_ to change times and laws. Now this could not mean of men, because it ever has been the prerogative of absolute rulers likehimself, to change [42]manmade laws. Then to make the prophecyharmonize with the scripture, he must have meant times and lawsestablished by God, because he might think and pass decrees as he hasdone, but he, nor all the universe could ever change God's times andlaws. Jesus says that "times and seasons were in the power of thefather. " The Sabbath is the most important law which God everinstituted. "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments, and my laws, see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. " Exod. Xvi: 28, 29. Then it's clear from the history, that this is in part what Danielmeant. Now the second advent believers have professed all confidence inhis visions: why then doubt this. Whoever feels disposed to defend andsustain the decrees of that "blasphemous" power, and especially PopeGregory and the great Constantine, the murderer, shown to be the _moral_reformer in this work of changing the Sabbath, are welcome to theirprinciples and feelings. I detest these acts, in common with all otherswhich have emanated from these ten and one horned powers. TheRevelations show us clearly that they were originated by the devil. Ifyou say this history is not true then you are bound to refute it. If youcannot, you are as much in duty bound to believe it as any otherhistory, even, that George Washington died in 1799! If the bibleargument, and testimony from history are to be relied on as evidence, then it is as clear as a sunbeam that the seventh day Sabbath is aperpetual sign, and is as binding upon man as it ever was. But we aretold we must keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath as anordinance to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. I for one had ratherbelieve Paul. See Rom. Vi: 3-5; Gal. Iii: 27; Col. Ii: 12. 

A word more respecting time. See 31st page. Here I have shown that thesun in the centre, regulates all time for the earth--fifty-two weeks tothe year, one hundred and sixty-eight hours to the week, the seventh ofwhich is twenty-four hours. Jesus says there are but twelve hours in theday, (from sunrise to sunset. ) Then twelve hours night to make atwenty-four hour day, you see, must always begin at a certain period oftime. No matter then whether the sun sets with us at eight in summer or4 o'clk in winter. Now by this, and this is the scripture rule, days andweeks can, and most probably are, kept at the North and South polarregions. What an absurdity to believe that God does exonerate ourfathers and brothers from [43]keeping his Sabbath while they are inthese polar regions, fishing for seals and whales, should it be withthem either all day or all night. If they have lost their reckoning ofdays and weeks, because there was, or was not any sun six months of thetime, how could they learn what day of the week it was when they see thesun setting at 6 o'clock on the equator, if bound home from the South?By referring to Luke, xxiii ch. 55, 56, and xxiv: 1, we see that thepeople in Palestine had kept the days and weeks right from the creation;since which time, astronomers teach us that not even fifteen minuteshave been lost. God does not require us to be any more exact in keepingtime, than what we may or have learned from the above rules, but I amtold there is a difference in time of twenty-four hours to the marinerthat circumnavigates the globe. That, being true, is known to them, butit alters no time on the earth or sea. 

But, says one, I should like to keep the Sabbath in _time_, just asJesus did. Then you must live in Palestine, where their day begins sevenhours earlier than ours; and yet it is at 6 o'clock in the evening thesame period, though not the same by the sun, in which we begin our day. Let me illustrate: our earth, something in the form of an orange, iswhirling over every twenty-four hours. It measures three hundred andsixty degrees, or about twenty-one thousand six hundred miles round, inthe manner you would pass a string round an orange. Now divide thisthree hundred and sixty degrees by the twenty-four hour day, and theresult is fifteen degrees, or nine hundred miles. Then every fifteendegrees we travel or sail eastward, the sun rises and sets one hourearlier in the period of the twenty-four hours: therefore those who livein Palestine, one hundred and seven degrees east of us, begins andcloses the day seven hours earlier, so in proportion all the way roundthe globe, the sun always stationary! Then the Sabbath begins preciselyat 6 o'clock on Friday evening, every where on this globe, and ends atthe same period on what we call Saturday evening. God says 'every thingon its day, ' 'from even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath;' 'theevening and the morning was the first day. ' He is an exact time keeper!I say then, in the name of all that is holy, heavenly and true, and asimmortality is above all price, let us see to it that we are foundfearing God and keeping his COMMANDMENTS, for this, we are taught, 'isthe whole duty of man. ' The proof is positive that the seventh daySabbath is included in the commandments. 

[44]Bro. Marsh says, "Keeping the Sabbath is embraced in this covenant. Deut. V: 1-6, made with the children of Israel at Horeb. It was not madewith their Fathers (the Patriarchs) but with us, even us, who are all ofUS HERE ALIVE THIS DAY. V. 3. This testimony first _negative_, he madeit not with our Fathers, and then _positive_ with _us_, is conclusive. Not a single proof can be presented from either the old or newtestament, that it was instituted for any other people or nation. " Nowit is clear and positive that if the Sabbath is not binding on any otherpeople than the Jews, by the same rule not one of the commandments isbinding on any other people, who dare take such infidel ground? Was notthe second covenant written on the hearts of the Gentile, even the lawof Commandments? which Paul says 'is Holy, just and good. ' Thirty yearsafter the crucifixion he directs the Ephesians to the keeping the fifthcommandment, that they may live long on the _earth_ not the land ofCanaan. Vi: 2, 3. Did not God say that Abraham kept his commandments, statutes, and laws? This embraced the Sabbath for circumcision, and theSabbath were then the only laws, or statutes, or commandments written. The fourth commandment was given two thousand years before Abraham wasborn! Is not the stranger and all within their gates included in thecovenant to keep the Sabbath? See Exod. Xx: 10. And did not God requirethem to keep THE Sabbath before he made this covenant with them inHoreb? See Exod. Xvi: 27-30. Does not Isaiah say that God will bless the_man_, and the _son_ of _man_, and the _sons_ of the _stranger_, thatkeep THE Sabbath? These certainly mean the Gentiles. Lvi: 2-3, 6-7. Also, in the lviii. Ch. 13, 14, the promise is to all that keep theSabbath. To what people did _the_ Sabbath belong at the destruction ofJerusalem, nearly forty years after the crucifixion? Matt. Xxiv: 20. TheGentiles certainly were embraced in the covenant by this time! Why wasit Paul's manner always to preach on the seventh day Sabbath to Jews andGentiles?

By what authority do you call the seventh day Sabbath, the JewishSabbath? The bible says it is the Sabbath of the _Lord our God_! AndJesus said that he was the 'Lord of the Sabbath day. ' He moreover toldthe Jews that the Sabbath was made for MAN! Where do you draw thedistinguishing line, to show which is and which is not MAN between the_natural seed of Abraham_ and the Gentiles? "Is he the God of the Jewsonly? Is he not also of the [45]Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also!"Then Paul says 'there is no difference, ' and that 'there is no respectof persons with God. ' Is it not clear, then, that the Sabbath was madefor Adam and his posterity, the whole family of _man_? How very fearfulyou are that God's people should keep the bible Sabbath! You say, 'letus be cautious, lest we disinherit ourselves by seeking the inheritanceunder the wrong covenant. ' Your meaning is, not to seek to keep theSabbath covenant, but the one made to Abraham. If you can tell us whatprecept there is in the Abrahamic covenant that we must now keep to be_saved_, that is not embraced in the one given at Mount Sinai, then wewill endeavor to keep that too, with the Sabbath of the Lord our God. Ifthe Sabbath, as you say, is abolished, why do you, JOSEPH MARSH, continue to call the first day of the week the Sabbath. See V. T. , 15thJuly. If you profess to utter the VOICE OF TRUTH from the bible, do beconsistent, and also willing that _other papers_, besides yours and theAdvent Herald, should give the present truth to the flock of God. I saylet it go with lightning speed, every way, as does the political news bythe electric telegraph. If the whole law and the prophets hang on thecommandments, and by keeping them we enter into life, how will you, orI, enter in if we do not 'keep the commandments. ' See Exod. Xvi: 28-30. Jesus says, "therefore whosoever shall break one of these leastcommandments and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in thekingdom, " &c. "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the wholeduty of man. " Amen!

In the xxxi. Ch. Of Exod. , God says, "Wherefore the children of ISRAELshall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout theirgenerations for a _perpetual_ covenant; it is a _sign_ between me andthe children of ISRAEL _forever_. " 16, 17 v. _Who are the trueIsraelites?_ Answer, God's people. Hear Paul: "Is he the God of the Jewsonly? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also; fromuncircumcision through _faith_. " Rom. Iii: 29, 30. God gave hisre-enacted commandment or covenant to the natural Jew in B. C. 1491. They broke this covenant, as he told Moses they would, for which Godpartially destroyed and dispersed them; God then brought in a newcovenant which continued the sign of the Sabbath, which was confirmed byJesus and his Apostle about 1525 years from the first. See Heb. Viii: 8, 10, 13; Rom. Ii: 13. Their breaking the first covenant never could[46]destroy the commandments of God. Therefore this new, or secondcovenant, made with the house of ISRAEL, Heb. Viii: 10 v. (not thenatural Jew only, ) is indelibly written upon the heart. Now every childtakes the name of his parents. Let us see what the angel Gabriel says toMary concerning her son: "The Lord God will give him the throne of David_his_ Father, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. " Lukei: 31, 33. 

Now the prophecy: "There shall come a star out of _Jacob_ and a sceptreshall rise out of _Israel_. " Num. Now 1735 years before Jesus was born, God changed Jacob's name to _Israel_, because he prevailed with him. This then is the family name for all who overcome, or prevail. God gavethis name to his spiritual child, namely, _Israel_. Then Jesus will'reign over the house of _Israel_ forever. ' This must include all thatare saved in the everlasting kingdom. Further, Joseph was the naturalson of Jacob or _Israel_. In his prophetic view and dying testimony tohis children, he says, Joseph is a fruitful bough, from _thence is theshepherd_ the stone of _Israel_. Gen. Xlix: 22-34. Then this Shepherd(Jesus) is a descendant, and is of the house of _Israel_. Does he notsay that he is the Shepherd of the Sheep, --what, of the Jews only? No, but also of the Gentile, 'for the promise is not through the law (ofceremonies) but thro' the righteousness of _faith_. ' Rom. Iv: 13. Micahsays, 'They shall smite the Judge of _Israel_, that IS to BE the RULERin ISRAEL. V: 1, 2. Now Jesus never was a _Judge_ nor _Ruler_ in_Israel_. This, then, is a prophecy in the future, that he will judge, and be the Ruler over the whole house of _Israel_. All the family, bothnatural Jew and Gentile, will assume the family name, the _whole Israel_of God. The angel Gabriel's message, then, is clear; David is the Fatherof Jesus, according to the flesh, and Jacob, or rather Israel hisFather, and Jesus reigns over the house of Israel forever. Paul says, 'He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is oneinwardly. ' Rom. Ii. 'There is no difference between the Jew and theGreek, (or Gentile) for they are not all _Israel_ which are of _Israel_, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. 'Why? Because the children of the promise, of Isaac (is the true seed. )ix. And x. Ch. To the Gallatinns he says, 'Now to Abraham (theGrandfather of Israel) and his seed were the promises made; not to many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is CHRIST--then says, there isneither Jew nor Greek--but one in Christ Jesus, and if [47]ye be Christthen are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. ' iii. 'And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, andmercy, and upon the ISRAEL of God. ' vi. This, then, is the name of thewhole family in heaven; Christ is God's only Son and lawful heir; nonebut the true seed can be joint heirs with Christ in the covenant madewith Abraham. Ezekiel's prophecy in xxxvii. Chapter, God says 'he willbring up out of their _graves_ the WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, ' 'and I'll putmy spirit in you and ye shall _live_. ' 12-14. If God here means anyother than the spiritual _Israel_, then Universalism is true--for the_whole_ house of natural Israel did not die in faith; if the wicked Jewsare to be raised and live before God, then will _all_ the wicked! ForGod is no respecter of persons: 'And the heathen shall know that I theLord do sanctify _Israel_ when my sanctuary shall be in the midst ofthem forever more. ' 28 v. Here, then, we prove, that the dead and livingsaints are the whole _Israel_ of God, and the Covenant and Sign isbinding on them into the gates of the holy city. Rev. Xx: 14. 

[48]RECAPITULATION

Page 3. _When was the Sabbath instituted?_ Here we have endeavored toshow when, and how it continued until its re-enactment on Mount Sinai. 

Page 9. _Has the Sabbath been abolished since the seventh day ofcreation? If so, when, and where is the proof?_ Here we believe we haveadduced incontestible proof from the scriptures; from the two separatecodes of laws given, viz: the first on tables of stone, called by Godprophets, Jesus, and his Apostle. 3. The commandments of God. 2d code, the Book of Moses, as written from the mouth of God, the book ofceremonies, combining ecclesiastical and civil law, which Paul shows wasnailed to the cross with all _their Sabbaths_ as _carnal commandments_, because their feasts commenced and ended with a Sabbath. See Lev. Xxiii. 

Please read from 16th page onward, how Jesus and the Apostle make thedistinction. 

Page 27. _Was the seventh day Sabbath ever changed? If so, when, and forwhat reason?_ Here we find, by examining the proofs set forth by thosewho favor and insist upon the change, that there is not one passage ofscripture in the bible to sustain it, but to the contrary, that Jesuskept it and gave directions about it at the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul also, and other Apostles taught how we were to keep thecommandments. 

 Page 42. 4th, The History which is uncontroverted. 5th, The time when the Sabbath commences. 6th, Who are true Israel. 

Transcriber's Notes

Page numbers from the original have been retained and enclosed in []square brackets. Page 2 was blank in the original. 

This is an old text. As such, spelling is often inconsistent. Spellinghas been left as in the original with one exception. The followingtypographical error has been corrected:

 page 30: so is[original has ts] it with President Humphrey

The following puntuation corrections have been made to the text. 

 page 1: but the keeping the commandments of God. "[ending quotation mark missing in scan]

 page 4: my _commandments_, my _statutes_ and my _laws_. "[ending quotation mark missing in scan]

 page 6: children of Israel _forever_. "[ending quotation mark missing in scan]

 page 10: [quotation mark missing in original]"For it seemed good

 page 11: school of Tyranus. [original has extraneous quotation mark]

 page 14: third part of a shekel"[quotation mark missing in original] (to pay for) "the burnt _offerings_

 page 16: children of Israel in Mount Sinai;"[quotation mark missing in original]

 page 20: not under the _law_ but under grace. [period missing in original]"

 page 21: the commandment is charity, "[quotation mark missing in original]

 page 22: "Touch not, taste not, handle not. [original has comma]"

 page 22: a better hope did. "[quotation mark missing in original]

 page 30: argument he had before presented. [period missing in original]

 page 30: "[quotation mark missing in original]it was so at that time

 page 30: "[quotation mark missing in original]it might be proved

 page 34: before he was created. "[quotation mark missing in original]

 page 38: Luke xiii: 10-17. [original has comma]

 page 41: the ADVENT TESTIMONY. [original has comma]

 page 42: [original has extraneous quotation mark]Jesus says there are but twelve hours

 page 44: [original has extraneous quotation mark]This testimony first _negative_

 page 45: under the wrong covenant. '[quotation mark missing in original]

 page 46: nor _Ruler_ in _Israel_. [period missing in original]

 page 46: ix. [original has comma] and x. Ch. 

 page 46: Rom. Ii. [original has Rom, ii. ]