94 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The texts all irrelcTaiit. 



from the Acts, is tliat the disciples 7net togcther on Sunday \^ 

 and if tbis establishes a Sabbath, then have we superabundant 

 evidence that Saturday is the true Sabbath after all !f (see Acts 

 xvii. 2 ; xviii. 4 3 ix. 2 ; xiii. 5, 14, 42, 44 ; xvi. 13, &c. &c.) 

 The truth is, the primitive Christians met on all days for 

 social worship, and for "breaking bread." (^Acts i. 14; ii. 

 42; 46, 47.) 3d. The utmost we can glean from the Epistle 

 to the Corinthians is that, in the middle of the first century, 

 Sunday assembliesX were probably more common — at least in 

 Galatia and Corinth (though at Jerusalem such teas not the 

 case — Acts xxi. 17 — 21), than those of other days. But the 

 text rather disiproYes a " Sabbath" than other wise. 4th. 

 The quotation from Eev. i. teaches nothing ! 



Such then is the sum of my friend's Scripture testimony 

 for a new Sabbath day. We ask for a single explicit command 

 establishing a Christian Sabbath, and we are pointed to a 



* Paul necessarily travelled on Simday, either to reacli — or to leave 

 • — Troas. (^Acts xx. 6, 7.) It is almost certain, as "tlie first day of 

 the week" commenced at sunset on Saturday evening, that Paurs mid- 

 night sermon was on Saturday night, preparatory to his departure on 

 Suuday morning. (See verse 11.) The time of holding religions 

 assemblies among the primitive Christians — as Mosheim informs us — 

 *' was generally in the evening after sunset, or in die morning before 

 dawn." (Eccles. Rist. Book I. Cent. II. Part II. ch. iv. sec. 8.) It 

 is scarcely possible that the apostle's discourse could have extended 

 six or eight hours into the second day. 



f " It is very possible," says Jonathax Edwards — (a warra Sunday 

 Sabbatarian) — "that the apostles themselves, at first, might not have 

 this change of the day of the Sabbath fully revealcd to theml" (Ser- 

 mons, ser. xxvi. On the Sabbath.) A remarkably shrewd conjecture. 



J I ara willing to give my friend the benefit of the most liberal con- 

 cession he can claira. But it is at least debatable whethcr the expres- 

 sion "lay by him" (wa^' kavreo) does not simply import a. private rescr- 

 vation, on Satui-day evening (the first of the vreek), of a portion of 

 the past week's earnings. (1 Cor. xvi. 2.) The language is striking: 

 ÉKits-Toi: — Snravji^fwv, — ^^ each one treasuring up!" Not a word is said 

 about the coUcction being "upon the first day of the week." 



