188 OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Positive proof. Paul, and John. " The Lord's day"— a Divine ordinance. j 



brethren on their '^stated day'' of worship, and this day is ex- 

 pressly designated as ^^the first day of the week.'' Why 

 was this day so observed by the church, if not appointed by 

 her Head ? All '^ will-worship/' all subjection to " ordinances 

 after the commandments and doctrines of men/' was sternly 

 denounced by Paul. (^Col. ii. 20 — 22.) His practice, then, at 

 Troas, is positive proof that he regarded the first day of the 

 week as the Christian Sabbath. But if Paul thus practically 

 turns against W. B. T., our friend's whole foundation sinks 

 under him, for on Paul he has (in fancy) been building his 

 entire argument. 



But if Paul is against W. B. T., still more explicitly is 

 " the disciple whom Jesus loved." For in the very last book 

 of the New Testament, John assures us, " I was in the 

 Spirit on the Lordh day.'^ This text, says W. B. T., per- 

 fectly confounded, " proves — nothing at all !" {p. 94.) Just 

 so, once at Damascus, dazzled by a glory too bright for his 

 weak vision, an enemy of Christ, for a season, was struck 

 blind. What can be meant by ^^the Lord's day," here, but 

 a day dedicafed to the Lord, and that too h(/ His own author- 

 ity? What is meant by ^^the Lord's supper" (1 Cor. xi. 

 20) but the Supper observed in the Christian church, by His 

 own authority, in memory of Him ? No mortal ever doubted 

 the meaning of the latter phrase of designation. Equally 

 clear and certain is the former. The ^' Lord's day" cannot 

 here mean the day of judgment. Neither can it mean the 

 Jewish Sabbath ; for that, as "W. B. T. him seif contends, was 

 abrogated, and of course could be '^the Lord's day" no long- 

 er. But here is "the Lord's day" in the Christian church, 

 at the close of the Apostolic age, as such, too well known to 

 need explanation, sanctioned by the last of the Apostles of 

 Christ, and by Christ himself, indeed, with the last vision of 

 His glory accorded to man on earth. If no one (the " Friends'* 

 excepted) pretends to doubt that the " Lord's table," " the 

 Lord's cup," and " the Lord's Supper" (1 Cor. xi.) prove the 



