204 ABROOATION OF THE SABBATH. 



A Miracle; and the " explanation." No chauge in the computation. 



of concessioiij and curious to see to wliat his assumptions would 

 conduct him, I said, " Show us however the miracle (fixing 

 another ^seventh day'), and it sufficeth us." (j9. 89.) Says 

 J. N. B., ^' In spite of this sharp irony, that miracle may, in 

 due time, appear.'' (p. 165.) And he afterwards resumes {p. 

 174), " I propose now to show not only the miracle, hut the 

 Divine explanation of the miracle. I bespeak an earnest at- 

 tention. Let it be remembered, then, that the first explicit de- 

 claration of faith in Jesus as the Messiah was made at Cæsa- 

 rea Philippi, about six months before our SaYiour's death. 

 {3Iatt. xvi. 13 — 20.) . . . ' A/ter six days,' says Matthew 

 (xvii. 1), ' ahout eight days,' says Luke (ix. 18, 28), was the 

 Transfiguration. . . . But that miracle was connected by 



some secret tie with the miracle of the Kesurrection 



So much for the Miracle. [!] Now for the Divine explanation 

 of the Miracle, which fixes the first day of the week, or the 

 day of Chrisfs Kesurrection, as the Sabbath of the Christian 

 Dispensation." (p. 175.) This " Divine explanation" is so ab- 

 s truse as to require the remainder of this part of his Beply 

 {pp. 175 — 179) for its development. 



And what have we in all this inexplicable ^' explanation," 

 bearing on the computation of the week? Not the first sylla- 

 ble ! " The Kesurrection," says J. N. B., " we know was on 

 the first day of the weeh ;" and he thinks it " highly probable, 

 to say the least, that the glorious minicle of the Transfigura- 

 tion was on that day." (p. 174.) Therefore — Sunday is '* day 

 Ha-Shihingi?" Is it so ? Have we any intimation, either 

 in the New Testament, or in the whole range of history, that 

 Sunday ever became the seventh day — that it was ever any- 

 thing else but " the first day ?" Not a hint ! How then does 

 the miracle " fix another ' seventh day V " My friend has 

 completely lost his reckoning. 



But he says the Divine explanation of the miracle ^^ fixes 

 the first daij of the week as the Sabbath of the Christian Dis- 

 pensation." Here is a sequitur ! " Kemember the Sabbath 



