Brethren, it has been proved, in the first chapter of this treatise,
that the fourth commandment requires simply the observance of the
seventh day of the week. I will not repeat what is there said. I now
ask you, as candid inquirers after truth, to place this commandment
and our Saviour's declarations, quoted above, side by side, and see if
_your_ conduct is not at war with both. You neglect the only day that
God's law requires you to remember, while Christ assures you, in the
most solemn manner, that "one jot or one tittle" shall in no wise pass
from the law, "till heaven and earth pass," or till time shall be no
more.
There is a little commandment in that law that says, "The seventh day
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work."
Christ says, that whosoever doeth and teacheth this commandment "shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But this hath been my only
crime. God knows, and you know, that the only thing I have done to
offend you is, that I endeavor to refrain from doing work on the
seventh day, and to "teach men so." Yet for this I am declared to be
the "least in the kingdom of heaven," and no longer worthy of a seat
at the table of Him who said, that "one jot or one tittle" should _in
no wise_ pass from the law.
Blessed be God! it is a light thing to be judged of man's judgment.
But I confess that sometimes my blood runs cold, when I think of this
solemn declaration of the same "Lord of the Sabbath," (John 12:48,)
"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that
judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in
the last day." "Never man spake like this man." O, brethren, are you
ready for that awful judgment day? Nothing but God's _word_ will avail
you there. If you are determined to go on, appropriating the seventh
day to secular purposes, and "teaching men so," I cannot help it; but
I call heaven and earth to witness, that, in regard to every reader of
these pages, my skirts are henceforth clear. On your own souls will
rest the responsibility of rejecting these solemn words of Christ. And
you who are ministers--how will you answer for the wanderings of those
lambs of Christ's fold, whom you are leading into strange pastures?
CHAPTER IV.
_Fourth Reason._
My fourth reason for believing this proposition is, That God has never
blessed and sanctified any day of the week but the seventh.
In sustaining this reason, as I occupy negative ground, I shall simply
defend it against your usual scripture arguments in defense of your
favorite doctrine, that God blessed and sanctified the first day of
the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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