288 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Constant reprobation of -'lioiy days."' A juJicious selection of time. 



Nay, yet to traoscend the marvel, the apostle does now and 

 tlien say a thing or two, wliicli laborious ingenuity has vainly 

 endeavored to reconcile with that precious "legacy," a lioJi/ 

 doyl So that, *^ according to the views of [J. N. B,] Paul, at 

 the same time, as it were in the same breath, designates this 

 day, and destroys it,-^abrogates, and honors it !" (p. 187.) 

 Most unfortunate of theorists ! {^Gal. ii. 18.) 



"It is worthy of attention," says he (p. 187), '^ that a few 

 months before -writing his Epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote 

 his jBrst to the Corinthians, in which (xvi. l^=-4) he gives order 

 for the observance of the first day of the week as the day 

 sacred to Christian Charity !" It will not answer. Corinthian 

 Paul will not abate one jot of Roman Paul. In Corinth, " the 

 observance of the first day of the week,'^ so far as the text 

 shows, was Ixacffos rta^' lavT-w — -"«^ liome." In Rome, 'Met 

 every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" whether he 

 will "esteem one day above another,^^ or "every day alike !" 

 " This is PauFs true doctrine, here and everyicliere. It is identi- 

 cal with that of Christ. Perish the sophistry that would at- 

 tempt to set them at variancel'^ (p. 173.) 



But why should Paul have selected this particular time ? 

 Why direct these charitable contributions to be made on "the- 

 first day of the week?" The answer is obvious: because no 

 other time could be so proper for the object. Will the last day 

 of the week be suggested ? It would have favored neither Jew 

 nor Gentile. To the Jewish believer the occupation of casting 

 up accounts, considering gains, and appropriating funds, would 

 not have seemed the most literal requirement of the fourth com- 

 mandment, "Christian Charity" though it were; and to him 

 who observed not the Sabbath it would have been no less 

 inopportune, since his labors for the week would not have yet 

 been over. The Christian communities to whom these appeals 

 for the mother Church were made were composed chiefly of the 

 poorer classes, — of those least likely and least able to exercise 

 a judicious providence. How natural, then, the thoughtful 



