The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian StatesmanLittlejohn, Wolcott H.
Religion
The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian Statesman
Littlejohn, Wolcott H.
Sabbath; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works; Sunday; Sunday legislation -- United States
But, again, is it not really from an induction on their own part, by
which they have themselves discovered the fitness of making the day of
resurrection also that of worship? Listen a moment. Hear their excited
remarks as, at this juncture, they are joined by the two. Do you catch
these words, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon”?
(Luke 24:34.) Does not this establish the fact of their confidence in
the previous report? Unfortunately, the historian adds, “Neither
believed they them.” Here they are, then, manifestly still doubting the
very fact which some have thought they were convened to celebrate.
But, again, what is the _place_ of their convocation? Unquestionably,
neither the temple nor the synagogue. The record states that where they
were assembled, “the doors were closed for fear of the Jews.” Evidently,
they were in some place of retirement and comparative safety, hiding
away from the fury of a people who, in their madness and cruel hate, had
crucified even the Lord of glory. We ask again, Where were they? Let
Mark explain. Certainly he is competent to the task. When describing the
very transaction we are considering, he says: “Afterward he appeared to
the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him
after he was risen.” Mark 16:14. Here, then, is the clue to the whole
matter. It was not a religious meeting, because they were in a frame of
mind to be censured, rather than applauded, because of unbelief. It was
merely the body of the apostles, gathered in their own quarters for the
purpose of partaking of an evening meal, where they were in the habit of
eating, and drinking, and sleeping—and where, at this time, they kept
particularly close, because of the perils which surrounded them on every
hand. That this is true, is further sustained by two additional
considerations.
First; it was a place where Christ expected to find meat, and where he
requested such for his own use, and was supplied from their bounty with
broiled fish and an honeycomb, which, the record states, “he took and
did eat before them.” (Luke 24:41-43.)
Secondly; that they were in possession of just such a rendezvous, is
clearly stated in John 20:10, where, speaking of Peter and John when
going from the sepulcher, it says, “They went away unto their own home.”
A few days later, Luke declares (Acts 1:13,) that when they came in from
the ascension, they “went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter,
and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas; Bartholomew, and
Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the
brother of James.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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