Earlier text: EditorialTHE SABBATH INVISIBLE.
By Elder William Covert
A THING may be covered over in such a manner as to be invisible to those whose eyesight is good; or it may fail of recognition because the eye is bad. Of course it will be invisible to all whose eyes are closed by sleep. But there is yet another condition which prevents the eye from seeing objects which stand out quite plainly. It is brought about simply by closing or hiding the eyes. It is also effected by turning the face away from an object that is not welcome to the view. It is this condition of vision which makes the Sabbath invisible to many people. The prophet in referring to them said:— "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. 22:26. This is a serious charge, but it is true, for it is the Lord himself who has made it. Those581 who are refusing to see this truth are here charged with violating God's law. The fact is they must know it is there or else they would not hide their eyes to keep from seeing it. Judging from the scripture cited above, there are many who pose before mankind as teachers of God's word who have had their attention called to the Sabbath of the Lord, and have examined the subject far enough to see that the day that God has blessed and made holy is now trampled upon and profaned as a common laboring day by themselves and those who are looking to them for instruction, yet they have chosen the darkness of self-closed eyesight rather than the light of truth, because they do not want to see the Sabbath. In taking this course they have of necessity had to assume various positions to keep from seeing that which they do not love to behold. They must try to defend their course to the best of their ability. But their arguing the prophet calls daubing with untempered mortar. Eze. 22: 28. In chapter 13: 10 he says, "They have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." In verse 5 they are charged with refusing to go into the gaps to make up the hedge, that the house of Israel may stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Again, in chapter 22: 30, the Lord says, "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none." According to this testimony, the Lord cannot get those priests who have hid their eyes from his Sabbaths to go into this gap to repair the breach that has been made in his law. They are too busily engaged in daubing some wall with their untempered mortar. For this reason they will not help repair the breach. But why is it that they are so averse to building up the gap that the Lord wants repaired in his hedge? The reason is because they have hid their eyes from the Sabbath. Should they go into that gap to repair the hedge, they would have to open their eyes and see the Sabbath. Therefore, that they may have some apparent excuse for not repairing the breach that has been made in the hedge that the Lord has built about his people, they keep at work, daubing their fraudulent, papal wall with untempered mortar. Well, then, the thing that they are doing is framing excuses for their Sabbath breaking. But all these excuses are like untempered mortar, which does not harden to stone nor fasten anything together. Their excuses will not support each other, and when the wind of God's wrath blows upon them, they will crumble of their own weakness. Just to show how incompatible these excuses are with themselves we will set before the reader a few of them. Calling upon a neighboring pastor, we ask him to give us his reasons for not keeping the Sabbath as it is commanded in the Scriptures. He tells us, first, that Christ changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. But he soon finds that position untenable because there is no argument, outside of the bare assertion, to sustain it. The next proposition will be that the change was effected by the apostles during their ministry. But the scriptural proof is wanting just as much as with the first proposition. But the second position contradicts the first, and so on clear through. His third line of defense will likely be that any day will do. If this one is the true one, then the first two were incorrect. But, not satisfied with the third proposition, his fourth is that the whole law was abolished at the cross, and his fifth that only the Sabbath commandment was done away. His sixth is that the Sabbath was not abolished, but that it simply ran out by limitation. His seventh line of argument is that time has been lost, and therefore no one can tell which is the true seventh day. Eighth, Sunday is the true seventh day, counting from creation. Ninth, the world is round, and therefore no particular day can be kept. Tenth, the Sabbath is Jewish and should therefore be rejected, while Sunday is Christian, because it has been kept so long and by so many good people that it would be quite improper to begin the observance of the Sabbath at this late date. Although he admits the Scriptures do enjoin the seventh-day Sabbath, and that Christ and the apostles, together with all the churches established by them, did keep it, yet he says, "I cannot see it." He is like the fox that cannot be induced to stand in the open gap in the hedge. These are only a part of the incongruities that enter into the compound that is used in daubing up the Sunday wall. No two positions agree; each one contradicts all the others. We know of no man who holds any one of these positions who does not hold two or more, and therefore no advocate of Sunday sacredness agrees with himself all the time. Many of them advocate five or six of these positions to suit their convenience according to the occasion or the pressure that may be brought to bear upon them. Some there can be found who will advocate them all to the best of their several interests in their success. The Roman Church has built up this wall by assuming the prerogative of God without offering any scriptural reason for building it. To them it is a sign of their infallibility, a badge of their authority, a seal of their divine right to annul a commandment that God has enacted and to create a new thing to take its place. How sad it is that our Protestant brethren will keep daubing away with their contradictions, to try to strengthen this wall of papal creation! But some souls are going to be found who will go into the gap to repair the breach that this papal assumption has made in God's law. Of that class the Lord says, "Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Who shall be called this? The next verse tells us: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words." Isa. 58: 12, 13. The repairers of the breach are a humble, obedient people, who consistently and scripturally keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath that they keep has been trampled underfoot and derided as something unholy and undelightful. In its restoration they are raising up the foundations of many generations, and building up the old waste places, as is seen by reading the connection. These considerations show that the Sabbath here enjoined has been generally and long neglected. The context also speaks of the exceeding joy that the obedient experience because of their Sabbath delights. They find the presence of the Lord in the day. Their eyes have been opened to behold wondrous things in God's law. Reader, if you are trampling upon the Lord's holy day, you are wronging your own soul, and by continued disobedience are withholding from yourself the greatest possible joys. Leave that tottering wall of Roman creation, and identify yourself in Sabbath obedience with Him who gave you life. Soon after I was converted I was plunged into debt by becoming surety for another, and being obliged to pay. I found myself owing over a thousand dollars more than I possessed. I was also in bad health for twelve years. The question of giving soon came up for decision. The minister and other church expenses, the missionary cause, temperance, and other reform causes, the poor, the unfortunate, all these must be sustained by money. I was in debt deeply; my time belonged to my creditors. Could I justly use any of my earnings for benevolent causes? The Lord soon helped me to decide that his claim on me and my earnings was first, and other creditors next. So I gave to all causes which I considered to be the Lord's, and the Lord worked wonderfully for me, and aided me to pay all my debts and to regain my health. Remember the Lord is first and all things in him.—Selected. ONE of the most perilous experiences of a young convert is in dealing with the suggestion that he is not converted. To make the suggestion is one of the favorite modes of attack used by the adversary. If he can succeed in getting a young Christian to listen to it, and to go into an analysis of the case, he is very sure of cooling that convert's zeal, if not of bringing his Christian life to an end. Be on your guard against his whisperings. Instead of looking at yourselves, look at Jesus. Meet the approaches of Satan as Luther did. When the devil said to him, "You are no Christian," he replied, "Well, that's none of your business."—Michigan Advocate. THIS story about Pope Pius IX. is told by the Pall Mall Gazette: He granted an audience to a French lady of high station, who threw herself at his feet and devoutly thanked him for the restoration of her health. "But how have I done it?" inquired the pope. "I procured a stocking that belonged to your Holiness," she replied. "One of my stockings?" "Yes, I put the talisman on my diseased foot, and it has been completely cured." "Madam," replied the pope a little maliciously, "fortune has been very kind to you. You need only put on one of my stockings and your foot is healed, while I put on both my stockings every morning, and I can hardly walk."—Sel. How to Be Miserable.
By Charles Kingsley
Think about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, what people think of you, and then to you nothing will be pure. You will spoil everything you touch; you will make sin and misery for yourself out of everything which God sends you; you will be as wretched as you choose on earth, or in heaven either.—Charles Kingsley. CHRIST'S EXAMPLE IN PRAYER.
By Ellen G. White
WHEN Christians complain of being in darkness, when they dwell upon their trials and discouragements, and murmur against God, they virtually say that they are not following the example of Christ in offering to God humble, fervent prayer for grace and strength that they may be fortified for trials and strengthened for duty. Christ's professed followers may be strong in the Lord if they avail themselves of the provisions made for them through the merits of Jesus. God has not closed the heavens against the humble prayers of repenting, humble, believing souls. The humble, simple, earnest, persevering prayer of the faithful one will now penetrate heaven, as surely as did the prayer of Christ. Heaven opened to his prayer, and this shows us that we may be reconciled to God, and that communication is established between God and man through the righteousness of our Lord and Saviour. Christ took upon him humanity, and yet he was in close, intimate relationship with God. He linked humanity with his divine nature, making it possible for men also to become partakers of the divine nature, and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. Christ is our example in all things. In response to his prayer to his Father, heaven was opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon him. The Holy Spirit of God is to communicate with man, and to abide in the hearts of the obedient and faithful. Light and strength will come to those who earnestly seek it in order that they may have wisdom to resist Satan, and to overcome in times of temptation. We are to overcome even as Christ overcame. Jesus opened his public mission with fervent prayer, and his example makes manifest the fact that prayer is necessary in order to lead a successful Christian life. He was constantly in communion with his Father, and his life presents to us a perfect pattern which we are to imitate. He appreciated the privilege of prayer, and his work showed the results of communion with God. Examining the record of his life, we find that upon all important occasions he retired to the grove, or to the solitude of the mountains, and offered earnest, persevering prayer to God. He frequently devoted the entire night to prayer just before he was called upon to work some mighty miracle. During these nightly seasons of prayer, after the labors of the day, he compassionately dismissed his disciples, that they might return to their homes for rest and sleep, while with strong crying and tears he poured forth earnest petitions to God in behalf of humanity. Jesus was braced for duty and fortified for trial through the grace of God that came to him in answer to prayer. We are dependent upon God for success in living the Christian life, and Christ's example opens before us the path by which we may come to a never-failing source of strength, from which we may draw grace and power to resist the enemy and to come off victorious. On the banks of Jordan Christ offered prayer as the representative of humanity, and the opening heaven and the voice of approval assures us that God accepts humanity through the merits of his Son. Christ was the Son of the Most High God, yet throughout his life he did not seek to magnify or exalt himself by any of his works, but sought simply to proclaim the glory of the Father. For thirty years he seemed to be unhonored and unknown, and yet he lived a diligent, faithful life. As individuals we also are not to seek to glorify ourselves, but to keep our souls open to the cheering beams of the Sun of Righteousness, that we may show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. The injunction to each one of us is, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." The ardent desire of the apostles was to know God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Jesus lives; he is before the Father in the heavenly courts, making intercession for those who are still upon the earth in the turmoil and strife of life; for the church militant is not yet the church triumphant. By communion with God we may constantly have a cultivation in mind and heart and character that will elevate us and direct our thoughts heavenward, that we may become partakers of the divine nature. We are to be human agents that will coöperate with divine intelligences. We are to be quickened under the influence of divine power, that will not only strengthen us, but attract our minds from the dust and rubbish of earth, that will set us free from the polluting, deceiving influences of the world, so that we may contemplate heavenly things. Through this influence our hearts are to be purified, our affections sanctified, and set not upon earthly things but upon heavenly things. The treasure of earth will soon pass away, and "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The soul is capable of purification and sanctification, capable of attaining, through the offering of Christ, the heavenly treasure, even the gift of life that shall measure with the life of Jehovah. WHAT SPIRIT HAVE YOU?
By Eliza H. Morton
WHAT spirit have you, my brother?
What spirit have you, my friend?
The Spirit of Christ your Saviour?
The Spirit he promised to send? A Spirit that giveth comfort?
A Spirit that leads to prayer?
A Spirit that seeks communion
With Jesus everywhere? A Spirit that maketh humble?
A Spirit of love and power?
A Spirit that feels for others
Each moment, each day, each hour? There is a spirit of evil
Abroad in the land to-day.
What spirit, my friend, is ruling
And guiding your mind, oh, say? Yes, Satan with all his angels
Is working in hearts below,
To lead them far from God's glory
Deep down to the depths of woe. 'Tis faith that will bring the Spirit
Of God to your soul and mine.
Arise, then, and grasp the promise,
Arise and your light will shine. The Strong Mind’s Highest Tides
A WEAK mind sinks under prosperity as well as adversity. A strong and deep mind has two highest tides, when the moon is at the full and when there is no moon.—Anon. WHO IS TO BLAME?
By T. S. Parmelee
THE blame for all the uproar about opening or closing the gates of the World's Fair on Sunday lies somewhere. Those who acknowledged that it is a religious question ought to know that the blame rests upon those who have departed from the standard of true religion, which is the Bible. A Methodist pastor of Chicago has acknowledged that the church has departed from the Bible. The Chicago Herald of May 22 quotes Rev. James Miller, pastor of the Marshfield Avenue Methodist Church, as preaching the following words to his Methodist congregation the day before:— "Then, again, if this ancient Sabbath law is still in force, it is still good for the day as well as for the manner of its observance; but we Christians have changed the day and have decreed that the first and not the seventh day shall be observed as the Sabbath, and we have done this without any pretense of authority from either the Old or New Testament except that which is strained and forced to meet the emergency of an argument." In this Mr. Miller has told the exact truth; and in a standard work on theology, in the Methodist Church, Binney's "Theological Compend," the author plainly states that, as there is no positive command for infant baptism, neither is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. These admissions are significant when they are connected with the fact that no church is more forward than the Methodist Church to force people to keep Sunday on the ground that it is a sin to do ordinary work on the first day of the week. They are significant because the Bible, the standard of true religion, says, "Where no law is there is no transgression." Who cannot see that, instead of knowing the righteousness of God, they are going about to establish their own righteousness? They admit that there is no divine law for keeping Sunday, yet they are determined to have laws of their own to force men to keep Sunday. But it may be asked, "Do not Methodists attempt to show that the Bible requires Sunday keeping?" They do; but as Mr. Miller candidly confesses, all their arguments are strained and forced to meet the emergency. A divine law against making Sunday a common day, without which there can be no transgression, never has been found, and never will be found. Dr. Potts, the editor of the Michigan Christian Advocate, undertook to prove that God requires Sunday keeping, and he wrote a good-sized tract on the subject, entitled "The Lord's Day, Our Sabbath." In this tract he too admits that a demand for such a law cannot be met, when he says, "Such a demand is absurd." The commandments of God are his righteousness. His righteousness is revealed in the gospel of Christ; this is the reason why the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation; and this is why the apostle Paul was not ashamed of it. A gospel that men go about to establish, because it reveals their own righteousness, cannot be the same as the gospel of Christ, even though it may be called by the same name. THE OTHER SIDE OF IT.
By M. Wood
IN a recent issue of the Worcester, Mass., Spy, I noticed a sermon by the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, under the imposing title of "Sabbath Observance;" with your permission I would like to say a word or two on the other side of the question through the columns of your good paper. Mr. Crafts takes that much abused text of Scripture, Rev. 1:10, as a foundation stone, upon which to rivet the imagination of his attentive hearers, and builds thereon by assumed divine authority the "great American sabbath." The gentleman was rather unfortunate in the selection of his text, which reads, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Every Bible student knows, who cares to know, that it is just as easy to prove that A is B and B is A as to prove from this scripture (or any other portion of God's word) that the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, is the Lord's day. Notwithstanding the great army of evidence, both sacred and profane, against this delusive theory that Sunday is the Lord's day, Mr. C. is as earnest, and as zealous in supporting this usurper, as Saul of Tarsus was in persecuting the church of Jesus Christ eighteen hundred years ago. And all Mr. Crafts and the organization which he represents (Sunday Protective League) lack is power to resurrect and give life to the old blue laws of Connecticut and establish an American Inquisition for the punishment of those who choose to obey God rather than man. Says M. C.:— "More than ever before, we should see to it that neither ourselves nor others cause any Sunday work, except of necessity or mercy." That is, we must see to it that the American sabbath is not desecrated by ourselves, and especially by our neighbor. No matter what his religious connections may be, he must believe, or appear to believe, the religion of the American Sabbath Union. We must see to it that this wicked thing is done. Even so, but such teaching is worthy of a place in the Dark Ages, and in full accord with the sayings of the father of the Catholic Church, Saint Augustine. He said:— "It is indeed better that men should be brought to serve God by instruction than by fear of punishment or by pain, but because the former means are better, the latter must not therefore be neglected. Many must often be brought back to their Lord like wicked servants, by the rod of temporal suffering, before they attain the highest grade of religious development." Don't you see, dear reader, that this is simply spiritual despotism. And of this infamous theory, the author who of all the church historians has best expressed the evil workings of this false theocracy, justly observes:— "It was by Augustine, then, that a theory was proposed and founded, which contained the germ of that whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance and persecution, which ended in the tribunals of the Inquisition."—Neander. Anciently the church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends. And that is just exactly what the churches are seeking for in this enlightened nineteenth century. Can it be possible that a master in Israel, and a champion of the Sabbath (Sunday) Reform movement, is ignorant of these facts? Does he not know that the Sunday worship and Sunday observance are of heathen origin, and that the very first edict issued for Sunday observance in any manner whatever, was issued by an idolater, a sun worshiper? The historian writing upon this subject says:— "Not any ecclesiastical writer for the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or his apostles. . . . Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed as the Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine, A. D. 321."—Domville. "The observance of the Lord's day [Sunday] was ordered while yet the Sabbath of the Jews was continued, nor was the latter superseded until the former had acquired the same solemnity and importance which belonged at first to that great day which God originally ordained and blessed. But in time after the Lord's day was fully established, the observance of the Sabbath of the Jews was gradually discontinued, and was finally denounced as heretical."—Coleman. "Take which you will, either the fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord's day instituted by any apostolic mandate, no Sabbath set on foot by them on the first day of the week."—Heylyn. "The observance of the Lord's day is founded, not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church."—Augsburg Confession. One more testimony, and frank admission of one well qualified to speak on the question. From "Plain Talks for Protestants," a well-known Roman Catholic work, p. 213, we quote the following significant words:— "The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay in spite of themselves to the authority of the [Catholic] church." God says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:2. Neither locks, nor bars, nor bolts, chain gangs, thumbscrews, nor racks are employed by the good Shepherd to compel men to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. He holds out every inducement that is possible for a God of love to employ, to draw men unto himself, but never resorts to heathen and barbarous methods to make Christians. If Mr. A or B chooses to keep a day for which there is no scriptural authority, he has a perfect right to do so as far as man is concerned. And while we acknowledge the right of another to rest from labor upon any day he may choose, we do at the same time deny the right of any man, or men, to enact laws binding the consciences of others. In short, such measures are antichristian. Again we quote from Mr. Crafts' sayings: "The Sunday worker like the swearer serves the devil for nothing and boards himself." I doubt not but what there are scores, yes hundreds and thousands, who are led captive at his will, and are serving his Satanic majesty for naught, and think they are doing God service. But to take a position that he who works upon the first day of the week is a servant of the devil, is to charge God and Jesus Christ as being subject to the devil, for God commanded the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, permitting work on the first day, one of the "six working days" (Eze. 46:1), and prophets and apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath according to the commandment. Shall we follow his example? Shall we not do it? THE DUNKARDS ON THE SABBATH.
By Wm. Penniman
“The Sabbath of the Lord not in force. The gospel perfect, the law imperfect. The gospel the Christian’s only rule of faith.” Such is a part of the title-page of a small pamphlet published by the Dunkards. If the Sabbath of the Lord is not in force, what one is? It must be the Sabbath of man or of the adversary that is in force; but the writer means, no doubt, the old so-called “Jewish Sabbath.” What can be more false than to plainly contradict God’s word in pronouncing the law imperfect, when it is plainly said (Ps. 19:7), “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Hear then the conclusion of the whole matter: “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13. If the keeping of God’s commandments is the whole duty of man, then certainly it must be a perfect law which enforces these commandments. Again, the commandments of this law “stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. 111:8. A law, then, that is as enduring as the throne of God must be a perfect law. No doubt some in the Psalmist’s day pronounced the law imperfect, for he says, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law.” Ps. 119:126. There are many now who are trying to make void the law by calling it imperfect, and they try to do this through the faith of the gospel which confirms it. Hear Paul (Rom. 3:31): “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law [through faith].” The plain sense of this text seems to be that the law is established through the faith of the gospel instead of being done away or made imperfect by it. But why multiply proof to prove that which is so evident? The position that what they call the gospel is the Christian’s only rule of faith is very absurd. “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. Isa. 42:21. The teachings of Christ prove this, as he said, “One jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:18. That “fulfill” means to carry out or obey. Christ further teaches, in enjoining the precepts of this law (Matt. 5:19), “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments [of this law], and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Certainly, then, the Sabbath, in the center of the law, is not the least, and even if it is the least it should not be broken. Abundance of evidence can be given on this point, but this is sufficient. To prove the gospel perfect, and that the “Jewish Sabbath” is done away, the writer quotes Col. 2:13, 14, but this text only refers to feast days, as Barnes and all good commentators testify. He next apparently introduces a new phase of argumentation by a series of questions on the law, as follows: “We now come to those parts of the first covenant that were transferred into the gospel entire, or else in a changed condition,”—the fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother,” and the sixth, “Thou shalt not kill,”—and asks: “Was ‘Thou shalt not kill’ a part of the law?—It was. Is ‘Thou shalt not kill’ one of the conditions of the gospel?—Certainly. Why was this put584 in the gospel?—Because God and our Saviour want it in. It was not put in the gospel to look at, but for the whole world to believe and obey.” “Was the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day,’ put in the gospel or in Christ’s sermon on the mount?—It was not. Why was it not put there?—Because God and our Saviour did not want it there.” This catechism certainly throws the Westminster in the shade. We will ask this catechiser one question, Can he cite one text of Scripture anywhere in the gospel, or in the Bible, in proof that the first day of the week is the Sabbath, or that the Sabbath has been rightly changed to it? Since Christ did not mention the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” is it any proof that this commandment is not in force? And as he did not mention the second, is it any proof that it is now done away, and that it is now right to make graven images, and fall down and worship them? We would like to know what kind of a transposition a commandment has to undergo to be admitted into the gospel entire. He does not attempt to mention a change in any one of them except the Sabbath. It is to get rid of the Sabbath that all of this warfare against the law is waged. It is not enough to have the example of Christ, the disciples and apostles, for keeping the Sabbath, but this people must have a positive commandment in the gospel for it. But there is a positive commandment for it in the gospel, as can be shown by the following text (we will read it to favor the first day, supposing that the disciples visited the sepulcher on the Sabbath): “And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the first day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:55, 56. How jubilant Sunday keepers would be over this text if it read in this way! Certainly they would call this a law for Sunday keeping, and would want no better proof for its observance. In another pamphlet of 64 pages, entitled “The Law and Sabbath; the Gospel and Lord’s Day,” by E. Hopkins, a Dunkard, we find he says, “The fourth commandment is not a moral precept.” This is another false and untenable proposition, and contradicts all good writers on moral philosophy. God said, “Remember the Sabbath day,” but forgetful man says, “You need not remember it, for it is not a moral precept.” Yet this same author no doubt will admit that the law against stealing is a moral precept. But some are so willfully blind that they pretend not to see that it is just as immoral to steal from God as from man, for the seventh day, or Sabbath, is his. Ex. 20:8-11.