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-#8 SHE LEADER. [No. 317, Saturday
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THE WHOLE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE SABBATARI...
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NEW EDITIONS. Robert Blake, Admiral and ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Omar Pacha's Campaign. The Jtrans-Oaucas...
yovfifhave farnished . Lord Clarendon with the power of demanding from tfcat Empire more than an equivalent for Tier recent success . After remarking that no explanation of the motives of the Generals in itiiMuig Omar Pacha his troops are not explained , Mr . Oliphant seems to * dmit that they musk have been right ; we say aeems , for these are his words , * nd we cannot decide whether they are ironical or not : " When , however , we remember ( he serious consequences which this refiisal involved , and the high military authorities from whom it emanated , we can scarcely allow ourselves to doubt the correctness of the decision at which they arrived . "
-#8 She Leader. [No. 317, Saturday
- # 8 SHE LEADER . [ No . 317 , Saturday
The Whole Argument Against The Sabbatari...
THE WHOLE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE SABBATARIANS . The Sunday and the Sabbath . Translated from the French of Louis Victor Mellet , Pastor of Yvorne . Trutmer . We have here the result of a conscientious inquiry on the part of a minister of the Gospel , to ascertain how far the New Testament warrants the observance of the Jewish sabbath as a day " of rest . The conclusion he arrives at , after a patient and thoughtful investigation , is that no day of rest h as been divinely ordained for Christians . It is long since we have met with a clearer or more logical exposition of a difficult thesis . M . Mellet has approached his task with the heroism of a great mind determined to search out the truth , cost what it would ; and , when he had found it , fearlessly to publish it . " I remember the time when I was a blind Sabbatist , and dared
not allow myself between my duties , sufficiently numerous , a walk for recreation , or the perusal of a newspaper . I was incessantly haunted by Moses armed with the scourge of the law . " Let not the reader imagine , however , that M . Mellet is a scoffer or an apostate . " I love , I honour the Sunday ; 1 think it indispensable , " he writes , " I desire with all my heart that it may be generally employed according to the spirit off its institu-< £ ott . With ; these prefatory remarks , we address ourselves to the argument . ; Mi Mellet adduces five arguments to prove that , to a Christian people , the Sabbath is abolished . Firstly , he shows that it is a ceremonial ordinance ; seeoridly , that it was given specially tothe Children of Israel ; thirdly , that it is abolished with the Decalogue of which it constituted a part ; fourthly , that in . the New Testament not a single passage speaks of a day of rest ; that not
Qn . e exists which contains the least threat against those who should not observe it , or w & icb inakes the smallest allusion to this duty j and , fifthly , that the Gospel expressly declares the ancient Sabbath abolished . It would be impossible to go through iall the quotations and passages brought forward in support of each positidir . The reader must be satisfied with the principal atid most coijvinciBLg . With regard to the Sabbath being a ceremonial ordii ^ ce , and given specially to the Jews , it is clearly proved in Exodus , where < 2 rQd is rep ' orted to say , " It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel jfofrever } " and that it was as a ceremony inferior to the rite of circumcision is clearly manifest from the passage in the New Testament wherein it is stated that , if the eighth day , the day for circumcising a child , fall on the Sabbath , the Sabbath should be violated rather than the rite should lie
neglected : * Mf then a man receive circumcision on the Sabbath day that fKe law of Moses should not he broken , Sfc . " If then the superior rite—and lyere-not both established as signs of a covenant?—be abolished , and no one disputes that it is with respect to Christians , why may not the inferior ordinance also cease ? "To suppose that the Law and the Prophets have passed away , andthat the tiecalogue remains in force , is essentially irrational . Wherever the law isr alluded to in the New Testament , it is as something greater than the Ten . Commandments ; this might easily be shown by substituting the word Decalogue in its place . It may be objected , that if the Decalogue be abolished , what becomes of the moral precepts it enjoins ? To this it is easily answered that , of the Ten Commandments , nine are repeated , though not in the same language , several times in the New Testament ; it is only the fourth which is not .
There are some who , taking an inferior position with respect to the obligations of this day , imagine that the divine Founder of Christianity , so far ftoin abolishing , has modified , the Sabbath : this is nowhere shown in his acts or his declarations . He has not modified it in his declaration that they imght do good on . the Sabbath-day j for the strictest Pharisee led his ox and his ass , to water ; or drew them out of the pit into which they might have fallen , yvhen he assess , The $ on qfcMan is Lord even of the Sablath , he only declares his authority to allow hia disciples to violate the Sabbath , and the words are not addressed to them , but to the cavilling Pharisees . Again , The SabbatJi was made for man , and not man for the Sabbath , receives , according to M- Mellefc , a very different interpretation to that sriven to it bv scholastic divine * . Th « lntt ^
think that Christ , by saying for man and not for Jew , wished to show that the Sabbath was instituted for man in general—for all mankind . Now , as the object of Jesus in these words is evidently to justify in the eyes of the Pharisees his granting this liberty to his disciples , we cause h ' ( by the above interpretation ) to make this singular reasoning : It is became the Sabbath is imposed on all men , on the whole of mankind , that I now authorise my ; disciples to violate it . The real meaning of the text is evidently that man , wha > was created a living soul in the image of God , was , in the order of beings , far more important than the Sabbath , a transient institution which w > s only founded for the good of nian . Now Christ having said Man instead of Jew , proves absolutely nothing for the thesis of the Sabbatists ; for * ° ou K ™> Sabbath was only given to the Jew , it is not hia quality of Jew , it is his quality of a human creature , which is regarded in the reasoning of thisj passage of the Bible . o-Aflptker important question connected with this subject is , whether the Obligation tO r > hsfi 1 PVfi t-. hn -fil'nt- Antr r \ P f-l-in urnnlt 1 * 0 < < inr > < l / wl /^* -lw ... .. „ . _•
tundv or apostolic authority- The Sabbntists assert that " the first dny of wheels ; being called in the Apocalypse the Lord ' s-dny , it belongs to Jcaus aB ^ ttae * Sabbath belongs to God , and that , consequently , the ordinance of a « oroi ? test upon fh <* seventh , was transferred for Christians to this day . " ! " 1 S'S only * supposition , and aa such cmn be of little weight in a question ltttrojviftg the sct * ptiwal ordination of the Sunday . It may further be « jBaerv < sd , that the term "the Lord Vday" occurs only once in the New Testament * , pi * . wojfk professedly dating nearly a century after the
commencement of our era , and may welt have been employed-by St . John as a phrase m common acceptance at the time ,, as months , towns , countries , are del signated by names given to them by men . But granted that the apostles called it the LordVday , where is a Test appointed by God ? It is further alleged , that Christ having appeared twice to his disciples on this day , it must have been consecrated to him , and become a day of rest . But this absohitelv proves nothing , and is still further weakened by the fact that the ascension did not take place on a Sunday , but on a Thursday , according even to the orthodox chronologies of the event ; and as to the third appearance related m John xxi ., if any one , observes M . Mellet , pretends that it took place on the * first day , all our discussion will be teiminated , for the apostles went a fishing on that day .
" I conclude from these remarks , " continues the pastor of Yvorne , " that the appearances of the Lord , very far from manifesting the intention of making Sunday a day of rest , do not even manifest that of making it a day of worship . But I go further , and say that these appearances are favourable to my thesis . Observe that the first took place in the eveningand it is most likely that this was also the case with the second , since John observes that then the doors were shut as at the first time . It is not probable , though possible no doubt , that they were shut in during the day . On the other side , the two other appearances took place in the morning , and the other certainly in the day time . Now , if it is only on Sunday that the Lord appeared in the evening to his disciples , this , far from indicating a day of rest , seems rather to indicate a day . of labour . " But is it clear that Christ appeared to
his disciples on the first day of the week ? Of this there seems a doubt . The expression , the same day at evening ; in the evening of the Sabbath ,-according to the context in the New Testament does not leave this infallibly decided—the day , according to the Jewish calendar , commencing at sunset , and not as with us at midnight . However , the limits of our space forbid us from more than throwing out this objection for the consideration of scholars . , Two other favourite quotations of the Sabbatists we must briefly notice , the one relating to an assembly held by St . Paul at Troas on this day ; the other , to his injunction to the Corinthians to lay by in store the first day of the week according as they were able . Supposing the allegations of the Sabbatists to be correct , the meeting on that day might be attributed to Paul ' s having to depart on the morrow ; and that the faithful were to lay by in
store on the . first day of the week , does not explain that they attended any public meeting on that day ; whereas the interpretation of the passage allowed by such eminent men as Osterwald and Martin , admits the introduction of the words ' * at home , " lay by ' * at home . " The greater number of the disciples at Corinth probably lived from hand to modth , and the only means they had of forming a collection was by amassing gradually the mites of their earnings . The last point , that the Sabbath is expressly abolished ia the New Testament , we must still more summarily dispose of . It will be difficult for the Sabbatists to explain away satisfactorily the following passage from St . Paul ' s Epistle to the Corinthians : Jesus blotted out tie
handwriting of ordinances that was against us . .... Let no man , therefore , judge you in meat or in drink , or in respect of a holy-day , or of the new moon , or of SabbatJis , whicji are a shadow of the things to come . " The Sabbath is here expressly inserted , and named amongst the Levitieal ordinances abolished j all the Jesuitry of dogmatism cannot except or restore it . The subject may well be closed by asking the simple question , if so much importance is to be attached to this subject , why is not scripture more explicit , more clear , more indubitable in its declarations ? It is only "by distorting passages and inverting their obvious meaning , that the Sabbatists can maintain their ground .
JNot content with establishing his position , M . Mellet proceeds to probe two general assertions made by the Sabbatists—namely , that the Sabbath was celebrated from the creation of the world to the time of Jesus Christ ; and , secondly , that it has likewise been so from the apostles to cur day . Is it true that the Sabbath was celebrated before Moses by the patriarchs ? The frequent explanations which Moses is obliged to make to the Israelites with regard to this ordinance militate directly against the supposition ; and the idea of Adam ' s resting before the fall is preposterous , for if labour -was imposed on him as a punishment for his disobedience , lie could previously have had no need of rest : nor is it easily understood why , if a positive commandment on the point of the Sabbath had been given him , a second should be enjoined . But granting that Adam and the Patriarchs observed the Sabbath , the idea of our obligation to do so is a mere
assumption ; and that they did so is an idea founded on a series of valueless conjectures . The second assertion—namely , that Sunday has been celebrated as a day of rest from the time of the apostles , is equall y well answered and disproved from the writings of the early Fathers . It is clearly shown that they have no passages directly to the point to show that a day of rest was observed ; and it is not till the last quarter of the fourth century that a decided Sabbatist is to be met with . Why , then , it may be asked , do we , who threw olF " the yoke of tradition at the Reformation , still allow ourselves to be bound by such a poor rag of it ? Into the merits of the institution , as a human institution we have not entered ; we have only attempted to show that there is no divine authority for a special day of rest . The fair deduction , then , is that those Christians who , thinking the Scriptures support them , add this new burden uppn the conscience of themselves and others , are acting in violation of the law of liberty whioh they profess to enjoy .
New Editions. Robert Blake, Admiral And ...
NEW EDITIONS . Robert Blake , Admiral and General at Sea . Based on Family nnd State Papers . By Hepworth Dixon . A new Edition . ( Chapman and Hall ) . — Mksbks . Chai'man and IIaix have commenced the publication of a " Select Library of Biography and General Litorntnro , " and a new edition of Mr . Hepworth Dixon ' a Life of Admiral Blake leads off the series . The paper , the typography , the bright , elegant , substantial cover , we commend as an example to those publishers who send us soft volumes of dingy paper , dimly printed * in covers thnt crack and loosen within half-an-hour . The new preface is the only part of this volume offered to criticism . In it Mr . Dixon discusses the question of the relative power of ships nnd land battc-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 19, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19041856/page/18/
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