[213:5] and as the primeval
Sabbath commemorated the rest of the Creator, the Christian Sabbath
reminds us of the completion of the work of the Redeemer. "There
remaineth, therefore, the keeping of a Sabbath [213:6] to the people of
God, for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, as God did from his." [213:7]

As many of the converts from Judaism urged the circumcision of their
Gentile brethren, they were likewise disposed to insist on their
observance of the Hebrew festivals. The apostles, at least for a
considerable time, did not deem it expedient positively to forbid the
keeping of such days; but they required that, in matters of this nature,
every one should be left to his own discretion. "One man," says Paul,
"esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." [213:8] It is obvious
that the Lord's day is not included in this compromise; for from the
morning of the resurrection there appears to have been no dispute as to
its claims, and its very title attests the general recognition of its
authority. The apostle can refer only to days which were typical and
ceremonial. Hence he says elsewhere--"Let no man judge you in meat, or
in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the
Sabbath days--_which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of
Christ_." [214:1]

Though the New Testament furnishes no full and circumstantial
description of the worship of the Christian Church, it makes such
incidental allusions to its various parts, as enable us to form a pretty
accurate idea of its general character. Like the worship of the
synagogue [214:2] it consisted of prayer, singing, reading the
Scriptures, and expounding or preaching. Those who joined the Church,
for several years after it was first organized, were almost exclusively
converts from Judaism, and when they embraced the Christian faith, they
retained the order of religious service to which they had been hitherto
accustomed; but by the recognition of Jesus Christ as the Messiah of
whom the law and the prophets testified, their old forms were inspired
with new life and significance. At first the heathen did not challenge
the distinction between the worship of the synagogue and the Church; and
thus it was, as has already been intimated, that for a considerable
portion of the first century, the Christians and the Jews were
frequently confound