116 



DISCUSSION OX SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



of those Apostles \YOuld have dared to take one of the Ten Com- 

 mandments and aker it. God further marked out the day by 

 raising Jesus Christ, and further still by sending the Holy Spirit 

 on the early Church on that day ; and our Lord, after His resurrec- 

 tion, met His disciples again and again on that same day. 



Mr. W. Hoste : I am so glad that the opener of the discussion 

 based his general arguments on the very strong basis of experience 

 — experience of what is necessary and essential. Xow that is 

 true, but I believe it is weak to base the argument to-day on direct 

 Scriptural teaching — which I fear is not really valid because it 

 is not applicable directly to us. 1 cannot agree with some previous 

 speakers who based their argument on the assertion that the 

 Sabbath dates from Creation; I believe it is a misreading of the 

 Genesis passage. It is nowhere said there that God commanded 

 Adam to keep the Sabbath ; it merely states that God sanctified it 

 for Himself, and He rested on that day. Mark you, those words 

 occur in the text. I am one of those who fii^mly beheve in the 

 inspiration and absolute historical truth of the first chapters of 

 Genesis, and I am thankful to affirm it — but .those words do not 

 occur as part of God's exhortation to Adam. He told him to do 

 some things, but He did not tell him to keep the Sabbath; and 

 were it otherwise it would be very strange that there is not a 

 single occuiTence from Creation to Sinai of any patriarch resting 

 on the Sabbath Day. Surely we should have had some instances 

 of this. 



Mr. Sidney Collett : What about the manna. Mr. Hoste? 

 That was before Sinai. 



Mr. Hoste : That was given on the eve of Sinai. So I do not 

 think it is right to go back to Genesis. In Exodus, Jehovah 

 says, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, 

 Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep ; for it is a sign between Me and 

 you throughout your generations ; that ye may know that I am 

 the Lord that doth sanctify you "; and again in Ezekiel He 

 reminds His people, " Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths 

 to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I 

 am the Lord that sanctified them." So that the Sabbath, to my 

 mind, was clearly given as a sign ; just as the rainbow was given 

 for the Noachian Covenant, and circumcision for the Abrahamic 

 Covenant, so the Sabbath was given for the Sinaitic Covenant. 

 But now, how about the non-observance of the Lord's Day? I 

 think it is a straw that shows where a man is. A man who can 

 neglect God aU through the seven days is a man going, I am 

 afraid, in the wrong direction; and a man needs to repent, and 

 to know that if he does not recognise God he wiW not be recog- 

 nised by God. (Hear, hear.) Just in closinsr, what is this day? 

 I do not think there is any thouorht of it havinsr been changed from 

 the Sabbath, a sort of modified Sabbath. People who talk like 



