DISCUSSION ON SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



113 



the very strength of their daily Ufe. I now ask you to give by 

 acclamation your support of the paper we have heard. 



The Eev. J. B. Coles : It is a very happy thing, as Dr. Schofield 

 has just said, when we see that we agree, and that this authority 

 comes from God. I would ask you then, just for a moment or two, 

 to think of the past, the present and the future of this question. 

 It was appomted by God for man. As to the present time we are 

 pretty well agreed, I trust, from the very able arguments used by 

 the lecturer; but now as to the future. It is of great interest 

 to us, that remarkable passage, which some have applied rightly 

 but perhaps not interpreted as clearly. There remaineth therefore 

 a rest, a. Sabbath keeping, for the people of God. It is to be for 

 the people hereafter on this earth. In the future. The Hebrew 

 prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel, show very explicitly that there will 

 be this keeping of this Sabbath, in connection, of course, with 

 Israel's return to the land and the righteous law which shall go 

 forth throughout the world. So that in the past we have the 

 covenant, the patriarchal enjoyment, and here we should perhaps 

 be wise in disentangling the argument about Sunday from its more 

 Jewish or Mosaic aspect. It was before the law, just as the Lord 

 himself said, it was not of Moses but of the fathers, the 

 patriarchs. So, of course, the institution of Sunday was. In the 

 case of the covenant of Noah, it is well to remember that one of 

 our most important enactments, which is not derived from the 

 Mosaic law, is capital punishment — Whoso sheddeth man's 

 blood, by man shall his blood be shed. That goes back to the 

 covenant of Noah. Are not the people, quite apart from what 

 their religious feeling may be nowadays — are not they indebted to 

 God for His mercy at the time of which we are reminded by the 

 rainbow? The seasons as they come and go, is it not in God's 

 long-suffering goodness that this Noachian covenant persists to 

 this day? It affects, therefore, all the people, whether they are 

 Christians or not. I venture to think it takes a wider view of the 

 matter. If we take past, present and future we see that Scrip- 

 ture in every way upholds the wise and very alert and careful 

 arguments of our able lecturer. 



Lt.-Col. Biddulph, D.S.O. : Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle- 

 men, there are just one or two little remarks which I wish to 

 make — for I heartily endorse all that Dr. Horton has said this 

 afternoon — and to take two or three little every-day axioms which 

 may bring it home to the man in the street, so to speak. Take 

 the first, the human element; people training for any great 

 event in athletics, and so on, if they don't rest from time to time 

 they get what is called stale." That is, the whole system needs 

 readjustment. Secondly, here is an example from the animal 

 kingdom. We know that when the omnibuses were horsed, as 

 they were a few years ago, the omnibus companies were very par- 



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