190 OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Human opinions, of no account. Words not " vital," — but things. 



But I live now for Truth and Right. I would not be 

 deceived even by illustrious names. All the great men he 

 quotes have erred, as my friend will concede, on such points 

 as Infant Baptism, and the Union of Church and State. 

 They may then have erred as to this point. It is a practtcal 

 quesfion. Vast eonsequences, individual and social, hang on the 

 decision. For our personal judgment and its practical influ- 

 ence, on this very subject, I am admonished, both by Christ 

 and his Apostle, that '^ every one of us shall give account of 

 himself to Grod." {Matt. v. 19 ; liom. xiv. 12.) Human opinions 

 really decide nothing here. Names equally illustrious, if not 

 more numerous, are found arrayed on the other side — that is, 

 in favor of the moral and perpetual ohligation of the Sabbath. 

 EusEBius and Athanasius among the ancients : among the 

 moderns, Knox, Beza, even Calvin himself, the Westmin- 

 ster di vines, Owen, Bunyan, Watts, Doddridge, Edwards, 

 Pearson, Horsley, Wilson, Chalmers, Wardlaw, Wood, 

 DwiGHT, Alexander, Beecher, Kitto, Wayland. 



Leaving then human authorities, let us look all the real 

 evidence calmly in the face. I ask, then, What is the real 

 force of the objections urged by my friend ? 



1. Is there anything ^' vital'' in the icord ^^ Sabbath," 

 that its absence should decide the question? True vitality 

 belougs to things, not icords. If we find the thing — the weekly 

 day of religions rest and convocation, established by Divine 

 Authority in the Christian Church on "the first day of the 

 week" — is it not the merest verbal trifling to dispute about 

 the na)ne ? If my friend prefers, with the Apostle, to call it 

 " the Lord's day," and as such admits its obligation, I will be 

 the last man to quarrel with him. If he refuses to do this, I 

 must class him with the Jesuit, who, in a debate with me, de- 

 nied the suffioiency of the Scriptures, because the ii:ord was 

 wanting in 2 Tim. iii. 15 — 17. But I am persuaded better 

 things of my friend than this Jesuitic quibbling. • He is at 



