THE DAY OF REST.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18531, 13 July 1922, Page 7

THE DAY OF REST.

(To the Editor). Sir, —To many of your readers it wilr doubtless seem 4 presumptuous thing for a mere “layman” as the term goes, to call in question what comes from the pulpit, ex cathedra, as some would put it, but, with your kind permission I will essay the task ' of challenging the Rev. gentleman I who according to yout\ report ap-1 hearing in last Wednesday's “Chron- [ icle,” defended “the keeping of the Sabbath Day.” But at the outset alj low me to state that my practice has 1 always been to rest on one day in I seven or as much as possible without i neglecting the necessary duties that I will not bear putting off. and I am s satisfied that it has been beneficial ; to me and my family. But having ! said that I have no hesitation in declaring that the. Rev. gentleman 1 is altogether in error in the way in ’ which he mixes up things that are different. I refer to the common er- ; ror of confusing the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord’s Day, or the Day of Rest, or whatever one may term it. The term “Christian Sabbath” is altogether wrong so far as the Scriptures are concerned, and there is no reference therein to any such day. The way in which the preacher mixed up the “Sabbath Day,” Sunday, or the “Lord’s Day” and the “4th Commandment” is truly astonishing, and frotii a would-be leader of the people is painful reading, and accounts for much of the aversion (so common to-day) to attendance on public worship. In the Book of Deuteronomy al Chap. 5, we read that I i Moses called all Israel before him, ; | and said unto them, “Hear, O Israel i . - . the Lord our God made a coven- ■ 1 ant with us in Horeb. the Lord made • not this covenant with our father;;, i but with us, even us, who are all | of us here alive this day,” and then i he proceeds to recite the covenant i which is commonly known as the “Ten Commandments” vv.. 12, 13, I and 14, contain the 4th Command- | ment, “That thy man-servant and I thy maid-servant may rest as well ni j as thou. And remember that thou Jt| ’ wast a servant in the land of Egypt, n| | and that the Lord thy God brought “* 1 thee out thence through a mighty j hand and by a stretched out arm; < : therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Salbbath “ Day. Now Sir, if the above means : ' anything it means that the institu- • ; tion of the Sabbath Day was doubt- | 1 less primarily to ensure a day of : 1 rest from the ordinary labour of life, j but equally does it mean that it was

for the purpose of reminding the I Israelites of their bondage in Egypc. | therefore, I for this reason) Go7l I commanded them to observe the Sab- ■ bath Day, but no one else. 1 presume that the preacher admits that all we know of God’)s will and the teaching of the Master is contained in the New Testament, and that of all those who have written outside of it, those who wrote nearest to the times of Our Lord himself are the most likely to be correct and reliable. ; Admitting this I will give what a I man who lived in the early part of I the second century wrote upon this subject, viz: - Justin Martyr, died about 165 AD. “But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having made a change in the darkness and matter. made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.’’ . . . "having appeared to His apostles and discipies. He taught them these things.” 1 submit that the preacher was in error in asserting that the Christian Church claimed* for Sunday that they observed it in accordance with the moral principle of the 4th Commandment. The simi pie fact is that by the Law of Moses | as given by God to the Jewish people, the coming of a great Messiah was clearly foreshadowed, promised, and until He came the law held good for the people to whom it was given, viz., the Jews, but when He had come, and, as He declared just before He died, “It is finished.” then the whole fabric of the Law was swept away and the new order came in. Of course Jesus being a Jew and during His lifetime the law being still in force He obeyed it as it was for that purpose He came, to honour a broken law. The question as to I the relationship of the Christian to • the law as "given by Moses,” is | answered by Paul, “We are not under the law but under grace.” How can it be otherwise, “For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth.” As He said. "A new law I give unto you, that ye love one another.” As one who has been, on the road for many years perhaps 1 may be pardoned if I suggest to the I preacher to revise his creed by the I light of the New Testament, and to | all hearers of the Word, to imitate i the conduct of the Bereans who ■ they received the Word with j all readiness of mind, yet though! it I well to prove the accuracy of the new teachers by examining the Scrip- , tures daily to see whether these ’ things were so or not. Having col- | lided with the S D.A. brethren some years ago 1 ahi aware of their 1 ods and doctrine, but without admirI ation on either side. To sum up the matter, let me give my opinion for i what it is worth, that while we are quite free from any restriction, on i the part of God as to how we spend I either the first or any day of the ■ week, yet any man not being a fool ; to his best interests will hesitate as Ito spending it otherwise than in an i entire change of thought and action i from the rest of the week, and so to . all I say, if in doubt, abstain.—l am, i eu. N. T. MAUNDER.