de of the death of our blessed
Lord, your arguments or pillars, all fall to the ground. Now, by this
plain rule, we will try the first two no-Sabbath texts: First--1 Rom. xiv:
"One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day
_alike_; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that
regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord." Read the whole chapter;
Paul's whole argument here is against their feasts, and this of course
included their feast days, which some esteemed and others did not.
"Destroy not him with thy _meat_ for whom Christ died," says Paul, 15th
verse. Compare this with the first, third, and last four verses, where he
closes with "He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not
of faith," 23d verse, and then tell me if you can, what other day or days
is here brought to view than feast days, as in Lev. xxiii chapter, which
Hosea said were to cease. This same chapter, 3d and 38th verses,
positively designates and separates the Sabbath of the Lord God from all
these feast Sabbaths, or days; also Num. xxviii: 9. Now as God's Sabbath
was not a feast Sabbath, it was impossible to connect it with these. And
that is not all--it is not even alluded to here--only guessed at from among
the feast days. Once set such a rule as this at work and there is not a
law in christendom that would restrain men. For all will have one day for
a holy, or holiday in the week. Now give them, by your bible rule, their
choice, and I don't believe that Satan himself would bring them to order.
Oh, but we have a law that the first-day shall be regarded as the Sabbath.
Well, that is what you now contend for, and so does almost all
christendom, and still it is an unrighteous and an unscriptural law,
because the first day is not, nor never was, the Sabbath. You have no
right by this rule to fix on any day, and yet every body would be right if
every day was kept. But, you may say, it means we shall have no day for
the Sabbath. It does not read so. It says, "let every man be persuaded in
his own mind," and if that were the case, what kind of order would there
be in God's house. I ask if there be a rational being on earth that for a
moment would believe that God ever intended to give the whole human family
such a choice as this, after he had required them to keep the Sabbath day.
No, he is a God of order, and he sanctified and set apart the seventh day
for man and beast. Does not the beast require rest now