Sunday Advocates Quote the Fourth Commandment
A friend has placed in our hands a copy of the International Sabbath Association Recorder, published by the International Sabbath Association of the United States and Canada. Being an Association and a paper devoted to the interests of Sunday observance, we are not a little surprised at the following motto, standing upon its first page:— “God’s living and perpetual commandment, and his unanswerable comment on it.” Under this bold headline, it then quotes, first, the fourth commandment, Ex. 20:8-11, and, secondly, the words of the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 58:13, 14: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,” etc. We have no fault to find with this. We believe that the fourth commandment is one of God’s perpetual commandments, and that Isa. 58:13 does utter an unanswerable comment on the same; but what all this has to do with Sunday-keeping is more than we can see and more, we think, than they will be able to tell, if they are pressed upon the point. We find another motto standing over its editorial page, which is of considerable significance at the present time; namely, “The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, independently of its claim to divine authority.—Adam Smith.” The office of this Association is at 19 So. Twelfth St., Philadelphia.