CHAPTER IV. “THE SABBATH OF REDEMPTION.”

“The Sabbath of Redemption” composes Part III of “The Abiding Sabbath,” and in it throughout the author still diligently pursues his course of systematic self-contradiction. The first division of this part is “The Testimony of Jesus Christ” upon the subject of the Sabbath, a few sentences of which we quote. He says:—ASLD 33.1

“As already shown, the Sabbath contained moral elements; it belonged not solely to Israel, but was sanctioned by the primitive revelation to the race, being the first article in the law of the beginning; it was a part of that sublime code which by the mouth of the Eternal himself was spoken to his chosen people from the mountain of God; its violation had been surrounded, in the Mosaic legislation and in the prophetic instructions, with penalties, and its observance with blessings, such as could hardly be attached to a simple institution of ritual. The abiding Sabbath, belonging to the moral law is therefore not repealed or canceled by Jesus, but rather confirmed with new uses, loftier meanings, and holier objects.”—P. 159.ASLD 33.2

Then in speaking of the “false strictness” with which the Jews has surrounded and obscured the real intent of the Sabbath, and how Jesus swept this all away, he says:—ASLD 33.3

“There is not in all this any hint of the abolition of the Sabbath, or release from its obligations. The words of Jesus become meaningless when they are applied to anything but the abuses and perversions of its purposes by the Rabbinical schools. Had he desired to abolish it altogether, nothing would have been easier than to do so in terms. His words are everywhere framed with the utmost care, and strictly guarded against any construction which would involve a denial of the real sacredness of the day blessed by the Creator and sanctioned by the moral law.”—P. 163.ASLD 34.1

Now the day blessed by the Creator is the seventh day; for “God bless the seventh day” is the word of God, and “The seventh day is the Sabbath” is the declaration of God in the moral law. Therefore we submit that as Christ’s words are “strictly guarded against any construction which would involve a denial of the real sacredness of the day blessed by the Creator and sanctioned by the moral law,” then the word of Christ binds every man to the observance of the seventh day, and forever debars any application of his teaching to any other than the seventh day; for God never blessed any but the seventh day, and none other than the seventh day is sanctified, as the Sabbath, by the moral law.ASLD 34.2

Again he says:—ASLD 34.3

“Jesus confirms the Sabbath on its spiritual basis. ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.’ ...Thus he at once rid it of all the false restrictions of Judaism, and, establishing it upon its primitive foundations, he brought forth its higher reason in the assertion of its relation to the well-being of man. ‘The Sabbath was made for man;’ not for the Jew only, but for the whole race of mankind; not for one age alone, but for man universally, under every circumstance of time and place.”—P. 165.ASLD 34.4

Then in another place Mr. Elliott says further:—ASLD 35.1

“The declaration in Genesis furnishes the best commentary on the saying of Jesus: ‘The Sabbath was made for man.’”—P. 17.ASLD 35.2

The “declaration in Genesis” is: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” We agree perfectly with Mr. Elliott that that “furnishes the best commentary on the saying of Jesus,” in Mark 2:27. It is the Lord’s own commentary on his own word; it is his own explanation of his own statement. Therefore when, by any statement in any way, Mr. Elliott or any one else attempts to bring the first day of the week into place as the Sabbath, it is simply doing violence to the word of God, and is in direct contradiction to the divine commentary.ASLD 35.3

Now in accordance with his scheme throughout, after having, by every principle of logic, established the obligation of the seventh day as the Sabbath, he proceeds at once to contradict it all. He says:—ASLD 35.4

“‘The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.’ This is an assertion by our Lord of his right to make such modifications in the law of the Sabbath, and give it such new adjustments as should to him seem best for the religious culture of the race. As Lord of the Sabbath, he doubtless had the power to set it entirely aside,—a power which certainly he has nowhere exercised, either by himself or through his apostles. He had the right to change its day and alter or add to its meanings,—a right which he has exercised in giving us the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath, and in making it a monument of redemption as well as of creation and providence. Because he is ‘Lord of the Sabbath,’ we can rightly call the Sabbath the Lord’s day, and the Lord’s day our Sabbath. That which he has asserted that he had the power to do, we have the right to assume he has done, and we have, moreover, the right to infer that the change which came over the Sabbatic institutions in the early Christian centuries was not without his will, but by his authority and in fulfillment of his purpose.”—Pp. 168, 169.ASLD 35.5

Again:—ASLD 36.1

“More subtly than Moses, yet as really as the lawgiver in the wilderness, he was instituting a new Sabbath.”—P. 172.ASLD 36.2

Here are several points, upon each of which we wish to dwell for a moment. We take the last one first: “More subtly than Moses, yet as really .. he was instituting a new Sabbath.” How subtly did Moses institute a new Sabbath? Why not at all, subtly or otherwise. Moses instituted no weekly Sabbath, either new or old. God spoke the word from Heaven: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work;” as Mr. Elliott himself says, “Not by the mouth of angel or prophet came this sublimest code of morals: but the words were formed in air by the power of the Eternal himself” (p. 117). But go back even beyond Sinai, to the Wilderness of Sin, at the falling of the manna, nor yet there was it left to Moses to mark the day that was the Sabbath, much less was it given to him to institute the Sabbath. Here, again, Mr. Elliott states the case precisely: “God himself provided the feast in the wilderness which marked for them the weekly recurrence of the holy day.... The connection of the miraculous supply of food with the seventh day was certainly calculated to strongly impress the Sabbath upon the thoughts and imaginations of the people, and thus was laid the sure foundation for the Sinaitic legislation” (p.110).ASLD 36.3

That seventh day which was singled out for Israel by the miracle of the manna in the Wilderness of Sin, and which was so kept before them for forty years, that was the identical seventh day which the word “formed in air by the power of the Eternal himself” declared to be the Sabbath of the Lord. And that was the very seventh day which that same word declared was the one on which God rested from creation, the day which he, at creation, blessed and sanctified. That was the only weekly Sabbath that was ever known to Moses or to Israel; and with its institution Moses had nothing whatever to do, either subtly or otherwise. And when Mr. Elliott brings in Christ as, “more subtly than Moses, yet as really ...instituting a new Sabbath,” it is simply saying, as a matter of fact, that Christ really instituted no new Sabbath at all. And that is the truth.ASLD 37.1

“That which he has asserted he had the power to do, we have the right to assume he has done,” says Mr. Elliott. Is, then, the authority of the “Christian Sabbath” to rest upon assumption? Is the first day of the week to be brought in by an inference? The day that has received “the highest and strongest sanction possible even to Deity;” the day which has been specified in the word “formed in air by the power of the Eternal himself;” the day that was pointed out by weekly miracles for forty continuous years,—that is to be supplanted by one that is brought in merely upon the assumption that what the Lord has asserted that he had the power to do, he has done! But any such assumption is wholly illegitimate. And we shall prove by Mr. Elliott’s own words that this, his assumption, is simply willful.ASLD 38.1

Christ said, “The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” Now in that declaration there is just as much of an assertion of his power to entirely set aside the Sabbath, as there is of his power to change it. Therefore, upon Mr. Elliott’s proposition, there is just as much “right to assume” that Christ abolished the Sabbath, as there is to assume that he changed it. Mr. Elliott says: “As Lord of the Sabbath, he doubtless had the power to set it entirely aside.” Therefore, if his assertion of his power to do a thing gives right to the assumption that he has done it, why is it not right to assume that he has set it entirely aside? But no; Mr. Elliott will not at all allow that. But in the very next sentence he says: “He had the right to change its day,” and, “That which he has asserted he had the power to do, we have the right to assume he has done,” therefore the inference is that whatever change has come over it, was “by his authority and in fulfillment of his purpose.”ASLD 38.2

We repeat, and this Mr. Elliott’s argument allows, that in Christ’s quoted words there is just as much assertion of the power to set the Sabbath “entirely aside,” or do with it any imaginable thing, as there is to “change its day;” and Mr. Elliott’s argument is just as sound a basis for the assumption that the Sabbath has been abolished, or that any other wild scheme has been accomplished with it, as it is for his assumption that it has been changed. And when Mr. Elliott lays down this proposition, which equally allows any assumption that the imagination might frame, it depends simply upon the wishes of the individual as to what shall be assumed, and therefore the assumption is wholly willful. Christ has asserted his power to call from their graves, all the dead; by Mr. Elliott’s proposition we have the right to assume that he has done it. Christ has asserted his power to destroy death; under this novel proposition we have the right to assume that he has done it. Everybody knows, however, that such assumptions would be absolutely false; but they would be no more so than is Mr. Elliott’s assumption that Christ changed the Sabbath. Mr. Elliott’s proposition is simply absurd. The fact is that we have no right to assume anything in the premises.ASLD 39.1

Christ said: “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.” Luke 17:10. No man can do more than his duty. But when we have done all that is commanded, we have but done our duty. Therefore nothing can be duty that is not commanded. No man ever yet cited a commandment of God for keeping the first day of the week; there is no such commandment. Therefore until a commandment of God can be produced which enjoins the observance of the first day of the week, there can be no duty in that direction, Mr. Elliott’s five-hundred-dollar-prize assumptions to the contrary, notwithstanding.ASLD 40.1