(to) Certain False Views Noticed. (a) The Sabbath was constituted solely for the Jews. Christ contradicted this, when he said, "The Sab bath was made for man," the generic man, the whole human race (Mark ii :26). (b) You cannot separate the institution of the Sabbath from the day in which it is commanded to be kept. In the beginning and in the Decalogue, God blessed, sanctified, hallowed "the seventh day" as the Sab bath, not the reasons or the arrangements for observing it. (c) Redemption through Cltri.3t. being greater than the creation, should have a day for its celebration distinct from the Sabbath, the memorial of the latter. In fact, the scheme of the creation embraced the plan of redemption through Christ. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head (Gen. ii :15).
(t t) The Facts Are Historical, that the sev end' day has always been observed as the weekly Sabbath under the Jewish economy ; was so ob served by Christ when on earth, by his apostles also a fter his death, and by the Christian Church for at least the first three centuries of our era. Christ, in his instructions to his followers to flee across the Jordan for protection, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, recognized the fact that they would be keeping the seventh day as the Sabbath nearly forty years after his ascension.
(12 ) As to the Institution of the First Day of the Week as a Sabbath. Undoubtedly, in die second century this day came to be used, not regu larly, to commemorate the resurrection of Christ ; and late afterwards, its services encroached upon the duties and ceremonies of the Sabbath. The
phrase, "the Lord's day," in Revelation, probably points towards such an introduction of the first day. But nowhere did Christ or the apostles authorize the establishment of such a day for this commemoration. On the day in which Christ rose from the grave he journeyed to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. On the evening fol lowing that same day, he met his apostles in the latter place, gathered for fear of the Jews. A week afterwards he met them again, to convince Thomas that he had risen from the dead. No thought of the sacredness of the Sabbath was at tached to these interviews (John xx :19, 26). Paul's preaching at Troas was evidently in the night following the Sabbath and on the succeed ing day he traveled about twenty miles across the country to Assos, to meet the ship which had sailed to this place (Acts xx :6-14). As to Paul's command to the Corinthians respecting "the col lections for the saints," his statements are positive proof that he did not require them to meet for worship, or to greet him as a company "upon the first day of the week." The direction was that every one of them should lay by at home on that day, "as God had prospered him." (1 Cor. xvi 2). It was following a custom of the Jews. who paid on the day immediately after the Sabbath, whatever they had determined to give while in attendance at their synagogues on the Sabbath.