| Show TIlE CHRISTIAN SABBATH The Seventhday Adventists of the United States ought to read the article on The Lords Day by Gladstone the grand old man of Great Britain which Is published In McClures magazine maga-zine for March It gives some excellent excel-lent reasons why the change was made from the seventh day Sabbath of ancient an-cient Judaism to the Lords Day as the day of rest and worship among the primitive Christians Although the learned writer does not affirm that this is under a direct precept pre-cept of scripture yet he maintains that there is a Biblical record of facts all supplied by St John which go far toward showing that among the Apostles themselves and therefore from Apostolic times the practice of divine worship on the Lords Day has been continuously and firmly established estab-lished He declares the Christian community took upon itself to alter the form of the Jewish ordinance but this was with a view to giving larger effect to its spiritual purpose He cites a number of scripture passages in support sup-port of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath and advances avery a-very taking theory to the effect that as the seventh day appropriately commemorated com-memorated the old creation so the first or Lords day commemorates the new and the rest of the Savior from the painful part of his work of redemption re-demption as the seventh day was a rest from the labors that brought Into existence the visible world The distinguished English statesman contends for a whole day of rest and worship not a partial Sabbath devoting devot-ing a portion to its observance and the rest to secular things He regards the celebration of the resurrection day of the Nazarene as the unsealing of a fountainhead a removal of the grave clothes from the man found to be alive the opening of a life spontaneous and continuous The whole article is worth perusal as showing the devotional nature of the man who has made so great a mark upon the history and politics of hIs country and as an argument in favor of the Christian Sabbath from a higher standpoint than is usually taken The legal aspect of the matter is not viewed in his article It is that however how-ever which chiefly affects the Adven tIstSi who claim the right to work on Sunday while the law forbids It As i they claim to be Christians par excellence excel-lence it would be well for them to remember re-member that obedience to the secular law was one of the early Christian precepts pre-cepts and submission to the powers that lie a positive Injunction of the Scripture which they affect to revere Apart from any religious view of the question one days rest from ordinary labor in a week appears to be a physical phy-sical requirement That the law which protects the citizen in this right is founded on a natural principle few attempt at-tempt to dispute And while the liberty lib-erty of citizens who have no particular particu-lar regard for religious rules ought not to be infringed at the same time reasonable rea-sonable Sunday laws which protect those who are religious in their rights and privileges are on the whole conducive con-ducive to the general welfare and ought to be respected |
