That must be a desperate cause indeed which compels its advocates to such a resort to make out their case. Nevertheless, if the conception has accomplished nothing more, it has furnished us a key by which we have been able to unlock the secret conviction of the writer, and by that means, we learn that he does not himself believe either that Christ _told_ his disciples on the day of the resurrection that that was holy time; or that they had decided _in their own minds_ that his visit necessarily pointed out this fact; or that the meeting of a Christian church on a secular day proves that they regarded that day as sacred; or that it is necessary to suppose that any church _disregarded the Sabbath_, simply because there is no _historic mention_ of their observance of it. This being true, we hope from this time forward that we shall see a line of argument pursued which will be consistent with the admissions inadvertently made above. Finally—as we have the concession of the writer, that the mention of the term, “first day of the week,” in the texts under consideration, accorded with the use of language as employed twenty years after the crucifixion—let us glance at his proof-texts for ourselves. In doing so, the reader will bear in mind that these texts furnish all the gospel testimony in reference to the supposed repudiation of God’s ancient Sabbath and the substitution of a new one in its place, and also that the terms employed, as stated above, were used with reference to their meaning at the time they were penned. The first is found in Matt. 28:1-6. In Matt. 28:1, the apostle says: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” Now which day, in the parlance of the disciples of our Lord, twenty years after his death, was styled the Sabbath? Which was mentioned by the use of a secular title, whereas, custom, reason, and religion, all warranted and would have seemed to demand the application to it of a religious title, such as Sabbath, or Lord’s day? We leave the reader to answer. The next scripture is found in Mark 16:1, 2. Here, again, the same distinction is preserved between the holy and the profane. “When the Sabbath was past,” the women who had bought sweet spices came to the sepulcher very early in the morning, the first day of the week. The next passage is in verse 9 of the same chapter, where it is barely stated that Jesus, having risen on the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Did the historian, Mark, ruthlessly wound the feelings of his Christian brethren, by neglecting two splendid opportunities for settling the matter of a change of days for all future generations, or did he not believe in such a change? Which view is the more consistent, under the circumstances, with the manner in which he speaks?