At one time the writer had, for two weeks, his tent home on the summit of the Mount of Olives, with all its hallowed associations, and with its impressive outlook on Jerusalem and its surroundings. The time was just before Easter, when pilgrims were coming from far and near in their annual visit to the holy city, now as of old. To many of these pilgrims the sacred sites were unfamiliar, as it was their first visit there; and, in consequence, they were full of questions as they walked, and as they rested.
As the writer stood, one day, at the entrance of his tent, a party of Syrian Christian pilgrims, from the north, approached him, and one of these asked, earnestly, “Can you tell me where are the footprints of Jesus?” What a question for that place, or for any other place! “Can you tell me where are the footprints of Jesus?” The question took hold of the heart of him of whom it was asked, and that hold it has never lost.
On, or near, the summit of the Mount of Olives, there is an indentation in the limestone rock which is popularly, or ecclesiastically, said to mark the footsteps of Jesus, when He ascended after His resurrection, and it was that point that the Syrian pilgrim was asking to have pointed out. But his question went further than his meaning or thought.
Whoever stands on any eminence in life’s pathway will have pilgrims along that pathway asking him, in spirit, if not in word, “Can you tell me where are the footprints of Jesus?” And every believer who would do his duty, or who would help others to know and to do theirs, must be able and ready to point out the footprints of Jesus, and to say to the inquiring pilgrims, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Are you always ready to answer confidently the question, “Where are the footprints of Jesus?”
The footsteps of Jesus are to be found, and are to be the guide of those who find them. Of this we are assured of God. The first and chiefest apostle says, as to this, to all the believers: “For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps.” And if we are to follow His steps, we must know where His steps are.
We are not to find the steps, or “the footprints,” of Jesus on the limestone cliffs of Olivet, which He clambered while here in the flesh. Nor are we to feel that we are in the steps which we are to follow when we tread the path to and from Jacob’s well, or up and down the hill overlooking Nazareth, where the boy Jesus must have looked out upon the many sites made sacred by the Old Testament record. This is not the way to find, or to follow, the footsteps of Jesus. It is in no such material path, but in the example and spirit of Jesus, that He is to be imitated and followed by those who would be His true disciples.
He said: “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to accomplish His work.” If that was good enough meat for Jesus, it ought to be good enough meat for His disciples. Is it our meat, or every-day food? Again He said: “I seek not mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” If we feel that way about God’s will, we are walking, so far, in the steps of Jesus. And again: “I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Could we have a plainer pattern of the spirit and life of Him whom we are to be like?
In order to walk in the footprints of Jesus, we must have a care as to where our feet go. That is even more important than finding out just where the feet of Jesus went, whether on the Mount of Olives, or at Nazareth, or Bethany.
Practical Hydrotherapy
By GEO. THOMASON, M. D.
Lesson 7—Tonic Effects and the Controlling of Hemorrhage
GEO. THOMASON, M. D.
When considering water as a therapeutic, or a curative, agent, its effects may be divided into two general classes: first, as a stimulant, tonic, or excitant; and second, as a sedative, or quieting, agent.
Permanent tonic effect results from the daily application of cold water, with increasing intensity as relates to the temperature, mode of application, and duration of the treatment. The best means for producing the most powerfully tonic effect is by alternate applications of heat and cold. For example, if it is desired to increase the activity of the liver, large, very hot compresses, or fomentations, are applied to the skin area directly overlying the liver, and continued for three or four minutes; then, over the same area, compresses consisting of either a folded towel or from six to eight thicknesses of cheese cloth, wrung from very cold water, are applied, and continued from three to four minutes. This procedure should be repeated three or four times, and the treatment concluded with the cold application. By this means the most powerfully tonic effects upon the cells of the liver may be produced, exciting them to greatly increased activity. The same principle may be applied to other glandular organs of the body.
Cold water produces its tonic or stimulant effect upon the body in a perfectly natural way. Many so-called tonics or stimulants are simply a mortgage placed upon the body, and while they produce their effect, it is only temporary in character, and for every particle of energy they abstract from the body, a corresponding depression is the sure result. A natural stimulant excites those processes which restore to the various cells of the body the energy that they are called upon to expend. An artificial stimulant may well be compared to a whip which is applied to a tired horse. The whip persuades the animal to put forth more strenuous exertions, but it imparts no strength. A tired and exhausted nerve may be stimulated by artificial means to expend further energy, but as no means is provided in the application for the restoration of the vital forces, the nerve is so much the more depleted. Cold water applied to the body day after day excites to greater activity the processes of digestion and assimilation, thus affording greatly increased nourishment to the various cells of the body, and restoring the energy which the body is called upon to expend. The cold also hastens the destruction and elimination of the waste matters and poisonous substances resulting from the bodily activities.
There is no better illustration of the tonic influence of cold water than the delightful exhilaration which one experiences following a cold plunge, or immersion, in the morning, immediately upon rising, or the restful feeling which follows the bathing of the face, neck, and hands in cold water after vigorous exertion and exposure in the hot sun on a summer day.
One of the most practical therapeutic, or curative, results obtained from hydriatic applications is that of checking hemorrhage. For this purpose, either very cold or very hot water may be used. If hot water is used, it must be at a sufficiently high temperature to produce pain. For the purpose of checking hemorrhage, water may be applied either directly to the bleeding surface, or it may control the bleeding indirectly through the mechanism of the nervous system, when, the hemorrhage being internal, it is impossible to make the application direct to the bleeding area.
In checking nosebleed, both the direct and the indirect method may be used. For example, very hot or very cold water may be applied to the nostril in the form of a douche, or ice may be placed in the nostril, while at the same time a very cold compress is applied to the back of the neck or the hands immersed in very cold water. The familiar method of stopping nosebleed by placing a key down the back is based upon the principle of the reflex connection between the skin of the neck and upper part of the back with the lining membrane of the nose. The cold metal coming in contact with the skin produces a reflex contraction of the blood vessels in the nose, thus aiding in checking the hemorrhage. There is, of course, no foundation for the notion that there is any specific virtue in the key.
Hemorrhage from the stomach may be checked also by direct and reflex applications. Swallowing bits of ice, and at the same time applying an ice bag, or a compress wrung from very cold water, to the skin overlying the stomach and to the spine opposite, will generally effectually check hemorrhage from this organ.
Hemorrhage from the lungs may be controlled by applying a large compress wrung from ice water to the whole area of the chest in front, and at the same time applying a very hot compress, or fomentation, between the shoulders. The cold compress should be changed before it has had an opportunity to become warm, and the fomentation renewed every three or four minutes. To obviate the necessity for the frequent change of the hot application, a rubber bag may be filled with hot water, wrapped in a flannel covering, and placed between the shoulders. Great care should be taken in combating hemorrhage from any of the organs mentioned to maintain active congestion of the extremities by means of a hot leg pack, or by wrapping the extremities in dry flannel blankets, and surrounding them with hot water bottles.
When the blood finds exit through the mouth, it is sometimes rather difficult to determine whether the hemorrhage is from the stomach or the lungs. Blood from the stomach is usually dark, clotted, and mixed with particles of food, while hemorrhage from the lungs is bright in color, frothy from the mixture of air, and frequently accompanies or follows a fit of coughing.
Good Building Material
By John Harvey Kellogg
J. H. KELLOGG
A lesson of vital importance which civilized men and women are only just beginning to learn, is that food was not, in the divine order, intended to be merely a source of pleasure to the body, a tickle to the palate, or even a satisfaction to the stomach, but that its prime object and essential purpose is to furnish a store of energy necessary to enable the bodily engine to do its work; in other words, to maintain the vital stream which perpetually flows in and out of the body as a river flows between its banks.
Probably the majority of people eat what is convenient to the hand or pleasing to the palate. The savage builds his home on the same principle,—of sod, mud, straw, twigs,—whatever material he finds most convenient. When the savage becomes civilized, he builds his hut with greater care. Having ceased to wander about, he requires a more enduring habitat, so he gathers together the best material he can afford,—granite from the mountains, iron from the mines, and hard wood from the forest. He fits these expensive materials together with the greatest care, so that the wind, the rain, and the snow may not wear out and demolish his dwelling place before it has served its purpose; in other words, he so constructs his house that it shall be able to resist the ravages of time and weather for as long a period as possible. The sort of house he builds is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the civilized man as opposed to the savage man.
May we not reasonably inquire, Why should not the civilized man exercise the same incessant care in selecting the material out of which to build the living temple which we call the body, as in building the temporary shelter which he calls his house? It may be replied that the civilized man certainly does exercise great solicitude, and spends enormous sums in the procuring of food to supply his table. But the greater part of his solicitude, unfortunately, is exercised from a wrong standpoint. The question with the average man is not, What is good? but rather, What tastes good? What will please the palate? One might just as well build his house out of materials pleasing to the eye, but without reference to its durability, as to build his body out of materials pleasing to his palate without reference to their qualities as body-builders and energy-producers.
It is probable that the majority of men and women who dwell in houses of their own, have given far more thought and attention to the question of house building than they have ever given to the infinitely more important question of body building. “A short life, and a merry one,” is a popular modern adage which contains in itself the confession of the recognition of the relation between a merry life, or rather, a life of self-gratification, and brevity of years. If one would live long, he must eat well, he must live high in the true sense; that is, he must live in harmony with high principle, in accordance with the divine order; he must recognize the fact that the stomach is the fountain head of energy to the body, and that an unhealthy stomach may become likewise the fountain head of disease of every kind and in every tissue.
The Duty to Preserve Health
By David Paulson
DAVID PAULSON
ALL classes of society are vying with one another as to the surest and most rapid method of securing physical decay. Disease has become so frequent that as we meet our friends, the question naturally arises in reference to health, and we almost expect the answer to be, “I am not feeling very well.” Everywhere are faded cheeks marked for the tomb, upon which ought to be seen instead the freshness of youth and the glow of health. Men who should be in the years of youthful activity have grown prematurely old. Providence never intended such a condition; for the word plainly declares, “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
Health is not a matter of luck, or chance, but is maintained in the same way that the student secures his education,—by a process of constant cultivation along lines which are in themselves perfectly simple, if they are faithfully followed. As intelligent Christians, should we not seek in every way to bring our habits into conformity with the requirements of our systems?
When we grasp the truth in 1 Cor. 6: 20,—“Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body,”—we shall see that we are in duty bound to glorify God physically the same as spiritually, and we shall appreciate the force of the principle that “the health should be as sacredly guarded as the character.” There are few who argue that a sickly religious experience is as acceptable in God’s sight as a healthy and active one; and the same is equally true of the condition of our bodies. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. 12: 1. In this passage is conveyed the idea that we are to present our bodies in a living, active condition; yet there are many who think that they can glorify God just as well with their bodies in a sickly and miserable state, and that God will accept this service equally as well as that done in health; in fact, many of the Sunday-school books make the idea very prominent that sickness and saintliness go hand in hand.
Let us remember that when God speaks to us by His Spirit He does not pour it directly through the skull, but He uses the very avenues that He himself pronounced very good at creation. He appeals to sight, hearing, taste, smell, and feeling; but just in proportion as man chloroforms his nerves by wrong habits of eating and drinking, by indulgence of lust in any form, in just that same proportion he is dwarfing his ability to hear the voice of God, and to appreciate even what he does hear. But God wants to come to His temple, the body, and sit there as a refiner and purifier of the temple, so that man may offer an offering in righteousness. He desires to touch these minds of ours, and to produce most beautiful and harmonious music in our uplifting words and inspiring actions. However, if our senses are so blunted as a result of what Satan has tempted us to do in our daily lives that we do not respond to the sacred touch of the divine Spirit of God, we must be laid aside, and perhaps some who have had far less opportunities will be rewarded by having God walk with them and dwell in them, because they have allowed Him to cleanse them of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.
Thus, it is not merely an inconvenience to be sick, but it becomes a religious duty to be well; and so, “knowledge must be gained how to eat, drink, and dress so as to preserve health.” He has laid the responsibility upon us by asking us to fulfill certain conditions, so that He can consistently grant us the blessings of health and strength. “God is greatly dishonored by the way man treats his organs, and He will not work a miracle to counteract a perverse violation of the laws of health and life.” This same thought is conveyed in Prov. 28: 9: “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
The divine principles of God’s plans for us, both spiritual and physical, must be recognized, and carried out in the life. This will necessitate a return to the simple habits of our forefathers, and then these misused bodies will feel the spring of a new life, which is untrammeled with vicious and health-destroying habits. The eyes of the people must be directed toward the Man of Calvary, and then they will receive such an endowment of self-control as will enable them to become the master of the soul-and-body-destroying habits that are now imprisoning them with bands of iron. Altogether too many regard the body as a harp of a thousand strings upon which they may play for their own pleasure; whereas the real object should be to use it to produce sweet melody for others, and the man who is the most thoroughly engaged in helping others is touching the right chord.
THE FORWARD MOVEMENT
A Revival of the Study and Practical Application of the Physical Side of Spiritual Truth in its Relation to the Second Advent of Our Lord.
“PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD.”
Strong and Courageous in the Lord
By W. W. P.
We need strength and courage for our work now. There is a great work to be done. The experiences recorded in the book of Joshua are prophetic object lessons. They are to be reproduced in miniature in the experience of each individual, as well as in the experience of this people as a whole. What the Lord has already promised to us we must go up and take possession of. We must set our feet upon the land which He has given to us. We must reveal the victories which He has wrought for us and offered to us. And the command of the Lord to us is, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. . . . For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places.” This warfare is very real, and we have come to the time when Satan is beginning to work “with all power and signs and lying wonders.” And yet we are abundantly able to go up and possess the land. We simply need to be strong and of a good courage, and to go forward to the work in the name of the Lord. Remember Abraham and the slaughter of the kings. Remember Gideon’s army and the Midianites. Remember Elisha and the host of the king of Syria. Remember Hezekiah and Sennacherib’s great army. “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
“Stand up! stand up for Jesus! The trumpet call
obey;
Forth to the mighty conflict, in this His glorious day:
Ye that are men, now serve Him, against unnumbered foes;
Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.”
“We must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason.” “Be strong, and of a good courage.” W. W. P.
The “Higher Criticism” Tested
By L. A. S.
The “higher criticism” professes to test the reliability of the claim of the Bible to be the word of God, and to discover many instances in which its statements are misleading and erroneous; but how fares the “higher criticism” itself when its own reliability is put to the test? On this point the following illustrations are given by the Rev. T. T. Eaton, editor of the Western Recorder (Baptist), who is a stanch upholder of the conception of Bible infallibility that prevailed before the “higher critics” arose:—
At the Baptist congress in Detroit (1894), Dr. Howard Osgood, the greatest Hebrew scholar in America, in the presence of men who were well informed on the subject, and who were quite favorable to the alleged “results of higher criticism,” stated what those “results” are as told by their advocates. He asked to be corrected if in any particular he erred; but no correction was offered. From slips of paper he read statements of these “results,” and when all present had assented to the correctness of the presentation, Dr. Osgood startled them by saying that all his quotations were from Thomas Morgan, a deist of the early part of the eighteenth century, and from Tom Paine, the well-known infidel of the latter part of that century.
This shows the character of “higher criticism” as revealed by its fruits; and the following illustration touches the point of its accuracy:—
Not long ago two leading ministers in the North united in writing an account of a great religious gathering, and they sent their combined article to a number of “higher critics,” requesting that they separate it into the two documents, giving to each of the two authors his portion. Their failures were most egregious, and no two of them agreed, because they worked independently. And yet these men, utterly unable to resolve an article, avowedly written by two men, in plain English, and written in their own time and country, into its original documents,—these men are sure they can correctly divide a book written in Hebrew thousands of years ago, with no evidence of composite authorship, so as to give each supposed author his exact portion! And they claim to do this so accurately that they divide a single sentence among three authors, with perfect confidence!
One more test is made by Mr. Eaton; he calls upon the “higher critics” to furnish the world with an up-to-date Bible. In view of the statements they put forth that “God has by no means confined His inspiration to those who wrote the Bible,” but has “inspired men in all ages as truly as He inspired the prophets and apostles,” and that the old Bible, while of great spiritual value, is to a great extent invalidated by the defects of the thinking and beliefs of the men of the times in which it was produced, Mr. Eaton says:—
If these things be true, it necessarily follows that we ought not to be dependent for our Bible on men that lived between 800 B. C. and 100 A. D. In all these eighteen hundred years, with the wonderful progress man has made along all lines, with the correction of so many crude and erroneous ideas held in the long ago, surely a better Bible can be gathered from the words of great leaders about the problems of religion, during the past eighteen hundred years, than was gathered for the nine hundred years previous. To admit that the thoughts of the leaders in regard to religion between B. C. 800 and A. D. 100 are superior to the thoughts of the leaders in these last days is to surrender the whole case of this modern school of theologians. And just as editors and redactors gathered (according to this modern theory) the good things about religion in the literature of their times, so as to give the world our Bible, so let this modern school furnish some editors and redactors who will gather the good things about religion in modern literature, and give us a bible that shall be up to date. This new bible ought to be as much better than the one we now use, as our times are more enlightened than the times of the prophets and apostles.
This is sound logic, and those to whom it is applied should have the consistency to hold their peace until they have produced at least some portion of the better up-to-date bible. L. A. S.
A Mission to the Vatican
By L. A. S.
THE unsettled question of the disposition to be made of the lands of the Philippine friars, has finally resulted in bringing about a mission from the United States to the Vatican. The governor-general of the Philippines, Mr. Taft, has been selected for this undertaking. He is shortly to proceed to Rome, accompanied by Bishop O'Gorman, formerly of the Catholic university at Washington, who is described as being “thoroughly acquainted not only with Vatican etiquette, but with all the machinery by which the Vatican rules the Catholic world,” Judge Smith, of San Francisco, is also named as an associate. With these assistants, Mr. Taft is to conduct negotiations for the settlement of this problem199of the friars, with the chief Roman Catholic authority, this being considered the best way to arrive at definite results. There is no fault to be found with the logic by which the government has arrived at this conclusion. It is the natural outcome of the first step by which the government became entangled in the web of papal diplomacy.
This mission is, by its nature, a temporary one; but a temporary mission is a natural stopping-stone to the establishment of one that will be permanent. We are not surprised at the announcement from Rome that the pope expresses “great satisfaction at the decision.” The same dispatch says it is likely that Mgr. Sbaretti will have an interview with President Roosevelt with regard to “the laying of the foundation for a concordat between the Vatican and Washington about the Philippines.” A concordat is “an agreement made between the pope and a sovereign or government for the regulation of ecclesiastical matters with which both are concerned.”
Will not this “concordat,” when set up, call for the establishment of permanent diplomatic relations between Rome and the United States, with a papal nuncio at Washington and an American representative at the Vatican, in order that its business may be conducted in an effective way?
This is the first envoy ever sent by the United States to transact business with the Vatican. Some Protestant journals are assuring us that it means nothing; but such a step, considered in its relation to American history and principles of government, speaks for itself. The government has no intention of establishing permanent relations with the Vatican, doubtless; but the question is, What are the intentions of the Vatican in the matter? and what will the Vatican, through its political wisdom and cunning, be able to make out of its present advantage? Full well does Rome know how to take advantage of every opportunity.
Mr. Taft will doubtless, while in Rome, have an interview with Pope Leo. He will be there as the representative of the United States. Will he then kneel before the “sovereign pontiff,” as all are expected to do at a Vatican audience? This would be no more than papal claims require, but it would be contrary to every principle of Protestant and republican government. For the perpetuity of such principles, so far as the United States is concerned, this mission to Rome portends no good.
L. A. S.
A Rebuke from Those in Peril
By W. W. P.
THE story of Jonah needs to be read frequently. There are lessons for us just now in his experience. It was written for our learning.
In his attempt “to flee . . . from the presence of the Lord,” Jonah took passage on “a ship going to Tarshish.” A great storm arose, and the whole ship’s company, including Jonah himself, was in the greatest peril. “But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.” Then came the call of the shipmaster unto him, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” Think of it! The man who had been commissioned to carry a message of warning to those in danger of perishing, through his neglect of duty became an occasion of threatening destruction to his heathen companions on the ship, and yet in the very time of greatest danger he was fast asleep! And it required the call of the heathen shipmaster to rouse him to a sense of his own peril and that of his companions. “What meanest thou, O sleeper?”
The application of this lesson is so obvious that it hardly needs to be put into words. We have a commission from God to sound the message of warning throughout the world, a warning of threatening peril, a warning of destruction which will come upon every unprepared soul, ourselves as well as others, but we have settled down in a self-complacent way right in the face of the danger, instead of throwing every consecrated energy into the work of sending forth the warning message and rescuing souls. We have been lukewarm when we should have been burning with zeal for the establishment of the Lord’s kingdom and for hastening His coming. Now the cry of those in peril seems to be heard rebuking our slothfulness, and saying, “What meanest thou, O sleeper?” The Macedonian call is coming from many an unentered field. The word comes to us to “preach in the regions beyond.” And we are thankful that the minds of many are being stirred concerning this situation, and that there is hope of a new order of things.
W. W. P.
Stay Firm
“STAY firm. Let not the future,
Though dim and drear,
Fill thee with dread foreboding
And anxious fear.
’Tis only thine to follow
Where He shall lead;
Thy Shepherd King provideth
For every need.”
Be Strong and of Good Courage
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Be Strong and of Good Courage
After the death of Moses, Joshua was called to take his place, and it was his privilege to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. As a part of the instruction imparted to him in preparation for the work committed to him, he was repeatedly charged to “be strong and of a good courage,” and the basis of this strength and courage was found in the assurance of the presence of the Lord with him.
The Lord Is My Strength and Song
So also when Jesus was about to leave His disciples, He commissioned them to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” encouraging them with the statement, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and making the definite promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The true basis for strength and courage on the part of each worker for the Lord is in the personal assurance of the presence of the Master with each one of His servants. “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song.”
The Command to Be Strong
The Lord did not simply encourage Joshua to be strong, but He commanded him to be strong. “Have not I commanded thee?” It was just as much the duty of Joshua to obey this commandment of the Lord as any other, and in obeying it he would be strong. There is all the strength of the Lord’s own life in His commandment. Jesus proved this in His experience, and so He said, “I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” Daniel proved this, and his testimony is, “Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.” The command to be strong was the means of imparting strength. Obeying the command was the receiving of strength.
Easter and Sunday
By L. A. S.
EASTER, as a professedly Christian institution, owes its observance to the fact of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is celebrated as the anniversary of that event. As an anniversary day it must necessarily, like Christmas, fall successively upon different days of the week. It cannot fall successively on any particular week day; with such a day it can coincide only once in about seven years. Only about one seventh of all Easter days can coincide with Sunday. Hence, if Easter were observed each year on the true day of its recurrence, the Sunday-observing portion of the religious world would almost annually exhibit the strange self-contradiction of celebrating the resurrection day on two different days of the same week. In such an instance, supposing for example that Easter fell on Tuesday, the people would first observe Sunday as being the day of the resurrection; and the following Tuesday being Easter, they would next observe Tuesday for the same reason, the one reason in both cases being that it was the day on which Christ rose from the dead; which would be to say that Christ rose from the dead on two different occasions! The only way to avoid this fatal dilemma is to set aside mathematical truth, and bring in a manifest absurdity by decreeing that Easter day and Sunday shall always coincide; and this is what the Sunday-keeping world has done. They solemnly countenance an absurdity, rather than acknowledge that the fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week is no valid reason for Sunday observance. Such is the hollow and worthless foundation on which Sunday observance rests.
Christianity rests always upon solid truth; and the solid truth as regards Sabbath observance is stated in the fourth commandment, which declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and that it is to be observed because “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Thus the Sabbath day was indissolubly bound up with the week, and must occur in every week. The Sabbath is the memorial of creation; it can be nothing else than this, and only in this truth can be found the reason for its observance.