Baptist Banner on the Sabbath.
By Editor
THE Baptist Banner is ever welcome to our table. Its columns embrace a wide range of subjects, and its correspondents vigorously discuss questions of vital importance. We would be pleased to have the editor give us a little light on some of his answers to questions. We are anxious to know where he gets his information on some points. We are ever willing to be learners, and to receive instruction from any source. We trust he will gratify our longing desire in this respect. In the Banner of Jan. 8 are the following words:— "The observance of Saturday was first enjoined in the wilderness of Sin between Elim and Sinai. See Exodus 16th chapter. Here is the first command for the observance of Saturday as the Sabbath, to be found in the Bible. And this command was given to the Jews. The keeping of Saturday then is a Jewish ordinance. Who can deny it? No one can find in all the Bible where any one else besides the Jews was made subject to it." Again, in the same article he says:— "When we work on Sunday, unnecessarily, we transgress the fourth commandment of the decalogue. The fourth commandment does not enjoin Saturday as some have thought. 'Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.' The word week is not in it. The seventh day spoken of is not the seventh day of the week necessarily, but the seventh day after labor begins." Now rise up our queries in this wise,— 1. Would the fourth commandment be kept if we worked six days and rested on Wednesday? And if not, why not, if we should begin our weekly labor on Thursday? 2. How may we ascertain that Saturday was the day required to be kept in Ex. 16? 3. How may we learn that the day enjoined in the fourth commandment of Ex. 20, was not the same day which was commanded in Ex. 16. 4. Did God rest upon and bless and sanctify any day of the week upon which we may choose to rest following any six "after labor begins?" 5. Did the Jews keep the day which is enjoined in the fourth commandment of the decalogue, or did they keep some other day? An answer to each of these queries is most respectfully solicited.