MY DEAR BROTHER,--The mutual relation existing between us, as members
of the same Synod, the glory of our common Lord, the interests of our
Mission, and a sacred regard for personal character, all require,
that the following statement be transmitted to you and my other
co-presbyters, with as little delay as possible. If I am not actuated
herein by a desire to promote God's glory and the salvation of men,
may the Lord rebuke and forgive me, and "let the righteous smite me,
it shall be a kindness!" May the Head of the Church grant to you, and
to all the other members of Synod, a disposition to hear, with
patience and candor, a narration of my recent experience, in which
perhaps you _may_ find things both "new and old."
My sentiments in relation to the "Sabbath of the Lord our God," have
undergone an important change; to which I now wish to call your
attention. Our Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Testimony, all
teach that the first day of the week is, and has been ever since the
resurrection of Christ, the Christian Sabbath. This doctrine _alone_,
of all those contained in our Standards, though I did believe it till
lately, I can no longer receive. As to the _manner_ of sanctifying
the Sabbath, I believe all that you and I have always contended for;
but, for the present, I am constrained to believe, that the seventh
day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath that God has ever
appointed.
My attention was first called to this subject by Rev. W. M. Jones,
Missionary of the Baptist Church, who has recently abandoned his
earlier views and practice in regard to the Sabbath. He not only
argued the question with me at length, but gave me some publications
of the American Sabbath Tract Society, which, as they seemed to
breathe a spirit of ardent piety and zeal for God's law, I read with
attention. Both in my discussion with him, and in the reading of
those tracts, I struggled with all my might to convince myself, from
the Scriptures, of the divine appointment of the first-day, or
Christian Sabbath. But though I did not then doubt it, I was
astonished to find how hard it is to prove it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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