DISCUSSION ON SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. 



117 



tha.t make the Sabbath what they hke. I never heard one of 

 these friends say, " I won't take milk in; I won t hght a hre." 

 I think it is a wrong apphcation. In the early days the Sabbath 

 and the first day of the week, I believe, went on together. A 

 great deal more light Vv'as given, and the Christians were shown 

 that they were not on Jewish ground at all. With reference to 

 what Mr. Collett said about the Sabbath, I would point tliis out. 

 All the other Commandments are reiterated m the New Testament 

 — in the Epistles — and the only one which is not reiterated is the 

 fourth; and the only occasion in which it is mentioned, besides 

 the spiritual one in Hebrews, is in the second of Colossians, where 

 v/e are warned specially against it. " Don't put yourself under 

 the Sabbath law " is the principal for all Christians. If it is 

 not the Jews' day, as the Sabbath was, is it my day? No, even 

 less. It is the Lord's Day, the day set apart by the resurrection 

 of Christ, in which I may specially turn my mind to Him whose 

 day it is; and that is the only principle I know for the Lord's 

 people. It is not a legal principle, but is a great privilege for 

 them to recognise that it is the Lord's Day. 



Mr. Theodore Roberts : Dr. Schofield, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

 1 do not find myself altogether in agreement with many of the 

 speakers. I cannot myself see that there is any command to man- 

 kind generally to observe the Sabbath Day, and I think that in 

 seeking to make it out people have strained the text of Scripture. 

 I think we must agree with what Mr. Hoste has brought before 

 us, that it was distinctly a Jewish ordinance. But, then, I would 

 put it in this way, the Jews were taken up by God as His special 

 people, to be the recipients of a most wonderful communication 

 of His mind, and thus what He said to them may be very well 

 taken as a mo<:lel for mankind generally; not in the letter of it, 

 but in the spirit of it ; and if He found in His wisdom that His 

 particular people required one day in seven for rest, we may be 

 quite sure that mankind everywhere requires one day in seven. 

 Might I recall an incident of a friend of mine, a banker, who was 

 travelling by train, w^hen some sportsmen got into the carriage and 

 filled it up. They were young men of wealth who were spending 

 the whole of their time in going from one race meeting or athletic 

 meeting to another; and, talking of their engagements that were 

 crowding on them in the week to come, one of them said to the 

 other, " What a mercv that Sunday does come once in the week." 

 They were making a business of pleasure and were oflad to have 

 one day's rest from the business of their pleasure. (Hear, hear.) 

 The change from Saturday to Sunday, brou^^^ht about as it was by 

 Christian practice, and nothinor else, is one of the most convincing 

 proofs of th^ historical fact of the resurrection of Christ that can 

 be found. For if He did not rise on the first day of the week, 

 how came it that a Christian community should take that dav 



