ELDER CORNELL’S THIRD SPEECH

My friend thinks we cannot keep the Sabbath here because we need fires. But we are talking of the fourth commandment Sabbath. The command says not a word about kindling fires. This was a mere arrangement for Israel while they were in the warm climate of Arabia, where no fires were needed, unless to cook manna, or for burnt offerings. They were to cook their manna on the sixth day. They should not kindle fires to cook manna. But they were commanded to offer burnt offerings on the Sabbath day, and of course had to kindle fires for that purpose. Numbers 28:9, 10. “And on the Sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering.” When they came to Palestine they seeded fires to keep from freezing, as it was very cold there in the winter. Did God ever require man to suffer on the Sabbath for want of fire to make him comfortable?!DSQ63 15.2

He enquires whether the stoning penalty is still in force? I answer it is not. The old death ministration is done away. But this does not affect the obligation of the Sabbath any more than it does the other nine commandments. The death penalty was attached to most of the other command, which he admits are still binding. The penalty may be changed, and not affect the binding obligation of the law in the least. In several of the States they have changed the penalty for murder from hanging till dead to imprisonment for life, but the law against killing has been in force every moment since it was first enacted.DSQ63 15.3

I now come to the charge against my Saviour, that he broke the Sabbath, and justified himself in it. “He violated the fourth command, which forbids bearing burdens!” Wonder if my friend has ever read the fourth commandment? There is not a word about “bearing burdens” in it. But I repel the charge that my Lord was a Sabbath-breaker. This charge was first made by the wicked Pharisees. My friend is found in bad company on this point. None will deny that the Sabbath was binding up to the cross. If, then, Christ did not keep it, he must bate sinned against God, but the Scripture saith that “In him is no sin,” and he was “without sin.” He, himself, declared that what he did on the Sabbath was “lawful;” and before he left the world he said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” John 15:10.DSQ63 15.4

The Elder thinks that if the ten commandments existed before Sinai, there was no need of commanding them over again. He has forgotten his argument that none of them are now binding unless they are commanded over again. If they existed before Christ, why command them over again? Israel had been in slavery and had lost the knowledge of God to a great extent. When they were brought out of Egypt, Nehemiah says, “Thou madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, etc.” Nehemiah 9:14. If this proves that the Sabbath did not exist before, then Ezekiel 20:5. “And made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt,” would prove that God himself did not exist before! That which proves too much proves nothing.DSQ63 16.1

He will have it that the Sabbath is a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt. But in this he greatly errs, for memorials must have in them a fitness to the thing commemorated. There is a fitness in baptism to the Lord’s resurrection; also, of the bread and wine to the crucifixion. Now, we enquire, how did they come out of Egypt? The first-burn of the Egyptians were slain, and there wan great excitement; the king of Egypt arose up in the night told the people to be gone. Exodus 12:33 “And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them of out of the land in haste: for they said, we be all dead men.” Thus they came out of Egypt with their cattle and their luggage, at midnight, with one grant rush. Now does the rest and quiet of the Sabbath fitly represent it. A rest to commemorate a rush!!!DSQ63 16.2

2 Corinthians 3:7, is brought forward to prove the ten commandments abolished. But when closely examined, we find it only shows that the glory of the old ministration of the law is done away. If it proves the Sabbath abolished, it equally proves the abolition of the other nine commands. Did Christ abolish “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not steal”? “O, no! these are needed still.” Yes! and so is the Sabbath. Man’s physical, mental and moral nature demands a day for rest and worship. Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Why abolish that which, was made for man?DSQ63 17.1

My friend says the ten commandments referred only to outward acts. Does “Thou shalt not covet,” refer to outward acts?!DSQ63 17.2

In our first speech we made an argument on the acts and reasons on which the Sabbath institution is based. That the seventh day became the Sabbath by the net of God in resting upon it; that he sanctified it because that in it he had rested, and that he required man to keep it, because he made it holy. My friend has passed this by. Is he afraid to grapple with it?DSQ63 17.3

I will now show that the ten commandments. Sabbath not excepted, were in existence before the Sinaitic covenant was made, and if I prove that the Sabbath existed, and was binding by law, five minutes before the Sinaitic covenant was made, the doing away of that covenant will not affect the Sabbath in the least. If the Sabbath did not originate with the old covenant, there it no necessity that ft should end with it. I will refer to the commands in their order. 1. Jacob required his household to “Put away their strange gods.” Genesis 35:2, 3. 2. “Images” were understood to be “gods.” Genesis 31:19, 30. 3. Israel was forbidden to “Profane the name of their God,” for the land had been defiled on account of such abominations and the Lord abhorred the nations because of their sins Leviticus 18:3, 21, 23, 27. “Sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Romans 5:13. This shows that the law existed before Israel received it at Sinai. 4. “And he said unto them, this in that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord,” etc. Exodus 16:23. By comparing Exodus 16:1, with Exodus 19:1, we learn that this was spoken at least thirty days before they came to Mt. Sinai. 5. The son of Noah was “cursed” for dishonoring his father. Genesis 9:24, 25. 6. When the king of Egypt commanded the midwives to kill all the male children, they refused because they “feared God,” Exodus 1:16, 17. 7. Joseph refused the request of his mistress, and said, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9. 8. The sons of Jacob said, “How, then, should we steal out of thy lord’s house silver or gold?” Genesis 44:8. 9. When Joseph was wickedly imprisoned by false witness, the Lord greatly blessed him. Genesis 39:7-20. 10. They understood stealing to be a sin, and covetousness is included in the breaking of the eighth command.DSQ63 17.4

I will show that there was a law for the Sabbath before the people came to Mt. Sinai: “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, etc.” This proves that the keeping of God’s commandments included the Sabbath, in the patriarchal age. Genesis 26. “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws.” The Sabbath being a part of God’s commandments and laws, we see that Abraham must have kept it.DSQ63 18.1

I will next offer proof that the law of the ten commandments, as a whole, is brought over into this dispensation. In Romans 2:7-23, Paul is reproving the Jew for violating the law. He quotes three of the ten commandments to prove that they had not kept the law. In chap 3:1, he refers to the “oracles of God” committed to the Jews at Mt. Sinai. This shows that us he is talking of the old code of ten commandments. In verse 9, Paul says that he has “Proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin,” which shows that the law was blinding on Gentiles as well as JewsDSQ63 18.2

In verse 19, the apostle comes to an important conclusion: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them mouth them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” We now enquire: 1. If the law died at the cross, how could it prove the world guilty in a. d. 60, the date of Paul’s letter to the Romans? 2. If it was binding only on the Jews, how could Paul use it to prove “all the world guilty?”DSQ63 19.1