230 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Assemblies of the early Christians. Paul'? departure — on Simday. 



Fortunately for the cause of truth, we have an extraneous 

 evidence strongly corroborating the literal and obvious inter- 

 pretation of this passage. The earliest Christian writers more 

 than once refer to the cvening meetings of the primitive disci- 

 ples; and I have already quoted the unexceptionable testimony 

 of MosHEiM (compiled from these sources), that the first 

 Christians assembled on different days of the week, and ^^ ge- 

 nerally in the evening after sunset/' (p. 145, — note.^ If Paul 

 met with the disciples at the close of the Sabbath, *^ in the 

 evening after sunset/' on the first day of the week,* and dis- 

 coursed till midnight, is it not simply 2^^epostero2is to " sup- 

 pose/' for the especial benefit of J. N. B., that this " protracted 

 meeting" continued for twenty-four hours longer? — nay, not 

 only to the midnight of " the second day/' but to the day- 

 break of Monday ? My friend's magisterial " supposition" 

 finds no support from the narrative : it is fairly contradicted 

 hy it! "x\ more gratuitous and glariug perversion of a plain 

 text," will not often be met with. 



But Paul discoursed — " ready to depart on the morrow.'' 

 *^ Ay, theres the rub ! — There's the respect" that makes my 

 friend so indignantly reject the literal reading! To think 

 " that Paul had so little regard to the first day of the week, as 

 to propose recommencing his journey on that day I" (p. 187.) 

 And ^' why not f —to use a familiar question. There is no- 

 thing in the world in PauFs way, but the modem exhalation 

 of a most unsubstantial tlieory. Not long before this, " Paul 

 had so little regard" for dai/s, that, writing to the Romans in 

 conciliation of their disputes on the question of " esteeming 



* An able English writei*, discussing this passage, remarks : "It ia 

 not at all probable, and it cannot be assuraed, that the meeting took 

 place sooncr than in the evening, and if not till the evening, then not 

 till the working hours of the day were over." [An Examinalion of Ute 

 Six Texts, &c., chap. ii., London, 1849.) The writer is attempting 

 (very unneccssarily) to show that the text is in no scnsc Sahhatarian ; 

 and, in doing so, misses its more vital bearing. 



