In regard to the obligation resulting from apostolic example, it appears to us that you have fallen into some errors. We are not convinced that the example of the apostles can be justly pleaded for any thing else than the order and arrangement of the _church_. However proper it may be to imitate them in other respects--in the duties of the moral law, for instance--yet, if it were not known to be proper, independent of their example, we cannot suppose their example would make it so. We must first ascertain, by some settled and infallible rule, whether their practice is worthy of imitation. In regard to the ordering of _church affairs_, there can be no doubt, for they were sent upon this very errand, with the promise of the Holy Spirit to qualify them for the work. But the Sabbath is not a _church ordinance_. It is not an institution for the church _as such_, but for _all mankind_. All reasoning with reference to it, from apostolic example, must therefore be very inconclusive. Even if we should admit that the _church_ is bound by such example to regard the first day of the week, yet this is the utmost extent to which our admissions can go. We cannot see how the institution becomes binding upon the world at large. Consequently, we are compelled to maintain, that an institution which was originally given for all mankind, remains unaltered. We are willing that the example and practice of the apostles should regulate the _church_ as to its ordinances and government, and herein we claim to follow them as strictly as you do; but when they are pleaded for any thing more, we want first to know whether they conform to the express law of God. Otherwise we must consider them as no more binding than an apostle's quarrel with Barnabas. Acts 15:39. If this argument is well founded, we are led to a very satisfactory disposal of a question often proposed, viz., Why do we never read in the New Testament of Christian assemblies being convened _as such_ on the Sabbath? For if the Sabbath be not a _church ordinance_, but an institution for mankind at large, it can be of no importance for us to know what Christian assemblies _as such_ did with regard to it. All that is of real importance for us to know, is the precise bearing of the institution upon man _as_ man--upon man _as_ a rational and accountable creature. On this point the information is clear and decisive.