The Assembly of God. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IIIMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Assembly of God. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. III
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
But it will be said, "We are not under the Mosaic law; we are the
subjects of the Christian economy." Granted; most fully, freely and
thankfully granted. All true Christians are, according to the teaching
of Romans vii. and viii. and Galatians iii. and iv., the happy and
privileged subjects of the Christian dispensation. But if so, what is
the day which specially characterizes that dispensation? Not "the
seventh day," but "the first day of the week"--"THE LORD'S DAY." This is
pre-eminently the Christian's day. Let him observe this day with all the
sanctity, the sacred reverence, the hallowed retirement, the elevated
tone, of which his new nature is capable. We believe the Christian's
retirement from all secular things cannot possibly be too profound on
the Lord's day. The idea of any one, calling himself a Christian, making
the Lord's day a season of what is popularly called recreation,
unnecessary traveling, personal convenience, or profit in temporal
things, is perfectly shocking. We are of opinion that such acting could
not be too severely censured. We can safely assert that we never yet
came in contact with a godly, intelligent, right-minded Christian person
who did not love and reverence the Lord's day; nor could we have any
sympathy with any one who could deliberately desecrate that holy and
happy day.
We are aware, alas, that some persons have through ignorance or
misguided feelings said things in reference to the Lord's day which we
utterly repudiate, and that they have done things on the Lord's day of
which we wholly disapprove. We believe that there is a body of New
Testament teaching on the important subject of the Lord's day quite
sufficient to give that day its proper place in every well-regulated
mind. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on that day (Matt, xxviii. I-6;
Mark xvi. I, 2; Luke xxiv. I; John xx. I). He met His disciples once and
again on that day (John xx. 19, 26). The early disciples met to break
bread on that day (Acts xx. 7). The apostle, by the Holy Ghost, directs
the Corinthians to lay by their contributions for the poor on that day
(I Cor. xvi. 2). And finally, the exiled apostle was in the Spirit and
received visions of the future on that day (Rev. i. 10). The above
scriptures are conclusive. They prove that the Lord's day occupies a
place quite unique, quite heavenly, quite divine. But they as fully
prove the entire distinctness of the Jewish sabbath and the Lord's day.
The two days are spoken of throughout the New Testament with fully as
much distinctness as we speak of Saturday and Sunday. The only
difference is that the latter are heathen titles, and the former divine.
(Comp. Matt. xxviii. I; Acts xiii. 14, xvii. 2, xx. 7; Col. ii. 16).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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