ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The day required. The '• seventh day"' to be determined extranemisly. 



— a sign of weakness to ^' esteem one day above anotlier/' 

 These striking " Scriptural contrasts"' are pregnant with in- 

 struction. But I must hasten to the particular points pre- 

 sented by my friend's elaborate " Reply," 



I. The Day required hy the Sahhath la w. 



In regard to the Proposition that " there is but one Bible 

 Sabbath, and that, the Saturday Sabbath," J. N. B. appears 

 strangely to have misconceived my allegation. He says, 

 " W. B. T., in his defence, has ingeniousli/ [?] dropped the 

 last clause of this complex proposition, though it is the only 

 one I have ever denied/' (^p. 46.) Xow, although it is true 

 that in the statement of the proposition I omitted the word 

 " Saturday," for the sake of brevity, so far was I from drop- 

 ping it "in the defence,'' that I distinctly asserted — and 

 enforced by illustration — " that Saturday is ^ the Sabbath 

 enjoined in the Decalogue,' is as certain as human knowledge 

 can be, even concerning the Bible itself." {p. 21.) 



My friend insists on a distinction between "the seventhday 

 of the Decalogue, and the seventh day of the Jewish week." 

 {p. 59.) And how shall we ever ascertain what is " the 

 seventh day of the Decalogue V Clearly not by itselfl All 

 legal interpretation must ultimately be based on some assump- 

 tion without the statute. Xow, in reference to the day re- 

 quired, J. X. B. admits " that for the Jews it was fixed to the 

 last day of our iceek. G-ranted. But then it was not fixed 

 by the Decalogue." {p. 47.) Truly not I and I reply that this 

 would be a simple impossibility. With all the ingenuity for 

 which I give my friend credit, I challenge him to define by 

 statute a particular day, otherwise than the fourth command- 

 ment does ; — namely, by adopting the universal designation of 

 a well-recognized distinction. Xow the term " Sunday" is not 

 more precisive in o^ir law, than is the term ''ha-shihingi'' in 

 that of the Hebrews. It is applicable to no "seventh day" 

 but Saturday. 



