MR. TAYLOR' S THIRD REPLY. 227 



The day of the week, not even mentioned. 



speaking in previously unknown languages, we may plausibly 

 conjecture tliat this day either was, or (å priori) ^'oughf to 

 have been a ''Sabbatb." And if we grant this, by a very 

 slight extension of the presumption, we may infer that no other 

 day could possibly be the one required by the fourth com- 

 mandment ! 



We read that the apostles "were all with one accord in one 

 place.'' Now, "why not on the Jewish Sabbath?'^ asks J. N. 

 B., with his accustomed pungency. (^. 186.) Well, why not? 

 It is very probable they were. Why not on Ascension-day, or 

 Thursday? Why not on Crucifixion-day, or Friday? Why 

 not on any day, or all days ? All that a rational criticism can 

 gather from the text is, that the apostles were together on this 

 occasion because it was Pentecost-da2/, not because it was 

 Ascension-day, or Crucifixion-day, or Sabbath-day, or Resur- 

 rection-day. This was no part of the essence of the narrative. 

 It was so utterly indifferent, in the estimation of the evangelist, 

 that he has not even tåken the trouble to notice the day of the 

 week on which Pentecost fell that year, and we can only infer 

 it by calculation ! Now, admitting that the day was Sunday, 

 where can lie concealed a prop for my friend's theory of a 

 ^Hransfer" of the day of rest? After the "closest study,^' I 

 cannot discover it. What hint is there of the Christian duty, 

 or of the apostolic intention, of making this day a Sahhath? 



ei 



^'The tldng" is not liev 



Whatever be the fact, it was not ^^ the first day of the week" 

 that was thus distinguished " by the rich harvest of regenerated 

 souls" {p. 186) ', it was '^ the day of Fentecost:' J. N. B. has 

 here, as usual, very illogically mistaken the accident for the 

 essence. Whatever sanction he imagines he can here find for 

 celebrating in any manner a particular day, it can have no force 

 in sustaining any weeMy festival : it can only encourage the 

 observance of Pentecost /* 



* In the opinion of some learned expositors, the text will not eA^en 

 warraut this. Geotius remarks on the passage, that the Syriac and 



