not been that this unhappy change was brought about by man, without divine authority, I presume we should never have been harrassed with such kind of bull-beggars as these; but all would have been peace and harmony, on this subject at least; but since it is so, we are reduced to the necessity of meeting and exposing all sorts of objections and windings that the wit of man can invent; and many of them too, have no connection at all with the question so long in dispute. But you think, however, we ought to do it with patience and candor. As to our candor, you will of course judge for yourself: but as it respects patience, I confess for myself, I am sometimes rather put to it to hold out. But now, I suppose, I must patiently talk a little about 15 degrees east and 15 degrees west, which, you say, makes the day begin an hour later one way, and an hour earlier the other. This, no doubt, is true: and I knew it before as well as I do since you have told of it. But pray, what has that to do with the case? Was not Saint Paul a Jew, and as conscientious in keeping the Sabbath as yourself; and did not he travel eastward and westward much more than all that; and what difficulty did he ever meet with, about keeping the seventh day in its regular return? What if it did begin two or three hours later? it was nevertheless the seventh day exactly; and if he had travelled from the land of Uz in Africa, to the Rocky Mountains in America, and back again, it would not have interrupted him at all, about keeping the seventh day of the week. What has ever interrupted the Jews? tered even to the ends of the earth, they seventh day approaches them; and when they all return to Palestine, as is believed they will from the prophecies, will they be at all at a loss about the Sabbath? Surely not. Then what does all your argument of east and west amount to, but mere evasion? But again, you say you cannot change the day to conform to the few, without violating the Sabbath law. Supposing then, that we should admit this proposition to be correct; so neither could Christ and the Apostles change the day, (as you and others say they did), without violating the Sabbatic law; and that sufficiently proves that they never did change it; for if Christ ever did violate his Father's law, he would have been a sinner, and could not have been a Savior. Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience. He came not to violate the law, but to keep or fulfil it in every part and particle, to a punctilio. He magnified the Although they are scatalways know when the law, and made it honorable. Although he was Lord of the Sabbath, he was not at liberty to violate it, for he came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father that sent him. You seem to be well aware that he nor the Apostles could change it, without violating the Sabbatic law, and if he had changed the name from week to series, as you have done, it would not have altered the case, unless it would have made it so much the more aggravating. But your case is very different from his, because you are following the practice of those who have violated the law by the change; and length of time can never wear out the iniquity, for he visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the childran, unto the third and fourth generation of them that continue the same practice; and it is my candid opinion, that you had better take my friendly advice and abandon that iniquitous practice as soon as possible; not for the sake of conforming to the few, nor in anywise to please me or any body of men. whatever, but for your own safety, and to please God; for "blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter through the gates into the city." You need not fear introducing disorder, as you seem to think you would by such a change, for that was introduced when the change was first made; and the world has been glutted with it ever since. And one of my neighbors, a first-day keeeper, and of an irreligious character, once said to me, "the practice of keeping two days in this village, was the ruination of the children; for, said he, it learns them to pay no respect to any Sabbath at all." And I said amen: and there is no doubt that it has that same effect on a large portion of the christian world at large, nor do I think you need to be troubled about violating the law by making the change, for that is just what you now do every time you secularize the seventh day of the week. I would not wrangle with you for keeping the first day, if you would obey God by keeping the seventh day holy. But you say 66 'many cases of doubt will arise on account of the spherical form of the earth, about which you say it will be impossible to answer the question." But this appears to me to be no better than a whimsical assertion, without evidence or reason; for although the gospel has been preached nearly if not quite all round the globe, and the missionaries have never hesitated to inculcate the Sabbatic institution; and I suppose the greatest part of them have taught people that the Sabbath was changed by Christ and the Apos tles from the seventh to the first day of the week; yet it does not appear that any doubt or difficulty has ever occurred in any part of the globe, about which is the first day of the week. Although we are often told by the winders,that we do not know which the seventh day of the week is, yet they are never at a loss to know which is the first day of the week, on which they say. Christ rose from the dead. And inasmuch as all nations, both christian and heathen, east, west, north and south, always have been and still are agreed as to which is the first day of the week, in what part of the world soever they live, we have not the very least reason to believe that the true reckoning was ever lost or ever will be, so long as man can count seven; all the windings and suggestions of men about impossibilities to the contrary, notwithstanding. Again, you say 66 you take the commandment to include no more than is expressed." This, sir, is just what we contend for, and nothing ever was more clearly expressed in any command, or more easily understood, than in this is expressed, that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; and yet after all you seem to be trying with all the wits in your brains, to make it out that that same command allows you to keep the first intead of the seventh, or any one else of the seven, if you had only labored just six days before it, unless the time is fixed by the laws of men. But stop, are my ears mates? Do let us hear that all over again The fourth commandment, you say, that requires us to keep the seventh day is still binding on all men; yet, however, it is so constructed that it allows us to keep the first or any one of the seven, if we have only labored just six days before it, unless the time is fixed by the laws of men. That is to say, the law of God that tells us to keep the seventh day, binds us to no particular day of the week; but if the laws of men tell us to keep the first, then we are bound snug enough to keep the first day of the week. Now is it not amazing strange that the laws of men should be so much more particularly binding than the law of God? But then again I have to remember that you have given us your very plain reason for that great difference, which is this. You suppose that the law of God that tells us to keep the seventh day was made some fifteen or more degrees east of where we now live, which makes the days begin three hours earlier than they do here, and consequently we cannot keep exactly the same time that was commanded to be kept there, wherefore it becomes My obligation to fulfil, Do unto all as I would see Each in their turn should do to me. Let life or death or come what may. When Christ on earth shall come to reign. TO MRS. DE BONNEVILLE. These lines, dear Madame, I have penned I've done it all at your request, Although you see they're none the best. No more than that shall be my charge; |