PICNICS ON SUNDAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22832, 17 March 1936, Page 5

PICNICS ON SUNDAY

TO THE EDITOR. , Sir, —In your issue of the 13th instant a correspondent who signs himself " Lover of Truth ” has entered the arena on the Sabbath question. It is quite obvious that he is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church or in sympathy with that particular body, ae can be gleaned from a perusal of the letter. Personally, I am a firm advocate of the perpetuity of the law of God. When we come to weigh up what I« implied by the term “ truth ” we find that many customs and traditions pass for “ truth.” In our quest after truth it is very necessary to understand fully what the term implies. This being so, I, therefore, quote the highest recognised authority on the signification of words, namely, Webster’s International Dictionary, which defines “ truth ” as under:- —Fidelity, faithfulness, conformity to fact or reality, etc., etc. If “Lover of Truth ” is a real truth-seeker I would like to meet him, as I find so very few. Generally when their truthfulness is put to the test it ends up by being quite obvious that they are sold to a church, creed or tradition. I issue a challenge to “ Lover of Truth ” to prove the “ truth ” as implied by him that Saturday is really the seventh day of the week in this part of the world, and therefore the Bible Sabbath. I further appeal to “ Lover of the Truth ” to prove his truthfulness by coming right out from hiding under a pseudonymity by signing his own name in his reply to my challenge. Let “Lover of Truth” fully realise that real “ truth ” never fears the light_ and so requires no smoke screen to hide behind. It is only error “ in the guise of truth ” that fears the light. This will prove the truthfulness of otherwise of your correspondent. In connection with this dis-

mission several of your correspondents have tried to prove the sanctity of the first day of the week by stating that Christ rose from the dead on that particular day. Now, Sir, in going very fully into an exhaustive and critical textual analysis of Scriptures relative thereto, I find this teaching to be built on tradition and not soundly Scriptural, and so, therefore, not truth. I have gathered together a good deal of real evidence of a scientific nature, being based on astronomical calculations connected with Jewish leasts. As these calculations emanated from Greenwich Observatory and were later verified as correct by an American observatory, they can be relied upon as being scientifically correct, so therefore irrefutably true.—l am, etc,, W. Gardner, Associate Otago Astronomical Society. I6la George street, March 10