all other parts of the Bible as the
Sabbath 1s the seventh day of
the week. Many Christians observe an-
other day, giving various reasons for doing
so. Let us examine a few of these reasons,
and see whether there is really any ground
for keeping another day.
“Time lost” is an argument that has
confused the minds of some. Is Saturday
really the seventh day, and Sunday the
first?
mistake in the count of the days? Is it
possible for us to know?
In considering the lost-time problem, we
need not fear that there were any mistakes
in the former dispensation that would
affect us: for, first, nowhere do we read of
any question arising between Jesus and the
rabbis as to the identity of the day; and
secondly, “the Sabbath day according to
the commandment” 1s definitely located
between the day on which Jesus was cruci-
fied and the day on which Ie rose from the
dead. (Luke 23: 54-56; 24:1.) Hence no
time was lost prior to the days of the
apostles,
Christianity had its beginning in Pales-
tine, a small but populous country. And
right here let it be noted that in the book
of Acts thereis no record of any controversy
between the apostles and the Jews about
the Sabbath. There 1s not even an accusa-
tion that the apostles were desecrating the
day: and there surely would have been
controversy had the apostles either de-
liberately set aside the seventh-day Sab-
bath or made a mistake in the reckoning of
their time. During the lives of the apostles
the gospel was carried to all the then-
known world, and strong churches were
raised up in many widely separated cities
and communities. It occasionally happens
that a lone individual, a family, or (very
rarely) a small, isolated community will
lose its reckoning of the days of the week;
but is it at all possible that scores,—yvea,
hundreds, of widely separated Christian
communities, and thousands of Jews
scattered over all the known world, to-
gether with many historians and astrono-
mers, could all simultaneously make one
and the same mistake in the reckoning of
their time? Such an idea 1s unthinkable;
and surely God is not so unreasonable as to
command us to keep the seventh day and
then allow it to be lost.
®
When other arguments fail, some say
that it makes no difference which day we
keep so long as we keep one day each week.
But how would such an idea work if tried
in common, everyday life, or in matters of
civil law?
Suppose that at a Fourth-of-July picnic
someone is seen hoisting a piece of blue
shirting on the flagpole, and shouting,
“Three cheers for Old Glory!” Would that
kindle any patriotic enthusiasm? And if
the same person were seen putting the Stars
and Stripes to common uses,—to repair
Page TWELVE
Or has there been at some time a
VICTORIES and MUNUMENTS
(CONCLUDED)
By Clyde Hosser
torn garments, or to wipe dust off the furni-
ture,—would loyal citizens of the United
States be unconcerned about that? Would
the argument that the Nation's flag differs
in no way from any other piece of cioth be
accepted as a reasonable plea for insulting
1t? How then can we say that it makes no
difference whether we devote to common
labor the day that God has blessed and
sanctified, provided we put in its place
ome other day—some common workday—
on which He has placed no blessing?
And how would the idea work in the
ordinary walks of life?
“Johnnie,” says mother, “please get me
an armful of wood.”
Johnnie assents and goes to the wood-
pile. But Johnnie would rather do any
other chore than carry in wood, so he splits
a little kindling, gathers the eggs, and
waters the rosebushes, all the time trying
to ease an accusing conscience with the
thought that anyhow, he is helping his
mother. And the poor, tired mother has to
oct her own wood to finish cooking the
evening meal.
Johnnie finds out that 1t really «oes
matter,—when a piece of dry bread is sub-
stituted tor a fresh cookie!
“Thomas,” says the teacher, “name all
the «tates that border on the Gulf of
Mexico.”
“Florida touches both the Gulf of Mexico
and the Atlantic Ocean,” he begins; —but
instead of going on with the assignment he
proceeds to tell all he has learned about
Florida.
“Charles, you name them,” says the
teacher; and then Thomas realizes that
it really makes a difference how he answers
his teacher.
“Samuel,” says the farmer to his hired
man, “I want the vegetable garden plowed
today.”
Samuel goes out with the team and plow,
and his employer goes to town on business.
“Now,” says Samuel to himself, as he leans
on the plow handles, “that stubble field
is to be plowed, too; and I might just as
well plow right across both pieces of ground.
It doesn’t matter which way I do, seeing
it is all to be done anyway.”
Samuel's employer comes home expect-
ing to find the garden ready for the seed he
has just bought. Instead he finds a narrow
strip plowed across the garden and another
field that did not need to be plowed for a
month. When Samuel receives his honor-
able (?) discharge (and new jobs are not
always easy to find), he finds that his “It
doesn't matter” policy does not work so
well after all.
Now if in human affairs it makes so much
difference, 1s it reasonable to suppose that
to the Ruler of the universe it matters not
whether we obev Him or give Him some
man-made substitute for obedience? Nadab
and Abihu may have said, “ Fire is fire, and
1t makes no difference whether we take fire
from the altar or from the campfires by our
tents.” But it did make a difference—
the difference between life and death.
(See Numbers 26: 61.) King Saul reasoned
that if he offered the cattle and sheep of the
Amalekites to the Lord, and thus saved
those belonging to Israel, his substitute
service would be accepted instead of strict
obedience to the command of God to spare
nothing; but it meant the loss of his king-
dom. (1 Samuel 15.)
®
The inspired record savs plamly, “God
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.”
Genesis 2:3. He did not bless all the days
and then tell us to take our choice; nor did
He ever transfer Is blessing from the
seventh day to any other. So when a man
knowingly keeps a common workday,
which he cannot keep holy because 1t wus
never made holy, and works on God’s holy
rest day, he 1s doing like the man who says
that his country’s flag 1s but a piece of
common cloth, and that any piece of cloth
will do for a flag. Of such the Lord says:
“Her priests have violated My law, and
have profaned Mine holy things: they have
put no difference between the holy and pro-
fane, . and have hid their eyes from
My Sabbaths, and IT am profaned among
them.” (Ezekiel 22: 206.)
While Protestants attempt to prove that
Sunday-keeping is in harmony with the
Bible, Catholics freely admit that the New
Testament furnishes no authority for Sun-
day sacredness. They say that the church
has authority to make such changes, and
that Sunday-keeping is an act of obedience
to the church. This claim they base on
Matthew 16:19, which reads: “And I
will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven.”
Let us now consider this matter of having
keys. A certain man who lives in the city
and follows a professional line of work,
owns a farm some miles away, and hires
men to clear land and care for the place.
One of these men carries the key of a cer-
tain building on the property in which are
kept the owner's tools and a supply of
dynamite for blowing stumps. Now sup-
pose that employee should say, “I have the
key to that house; I can make any use of
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