Joseph Bates. Scriptural Observance Of The Sabbath.
The only safe rule, is according to the commandment; see Exo. xx: 8-11. This is the manner the disciples kept it; Luke xxiii: 56. The great God of heaven instituted the Sabbath, or day of rest, when he ended his six days work of creation, rested himself and sanctified [pg 077] the day, and thereby set the example for man. As there was but one man then, it is evident that it was not made for him alone, nor for any particular nation or people that should afterwards come—for he is said to be “no respecter of persons.” Some think it was made for the Jews alone; but the commandment refers us to the creation, twenty-five hundred years before there was a Jew on earth. It also requires the stranger (the Gentile) to keep it, and God has promised to make him joyful in his house of prayer, by doing so; Isa. lvi: 6, 7. He has also given this day of rest to the beasts of burden, and makes man accountable for causing them to violate his day. They cannot speak for themselves; how important, therefore, that we should not, in any way, allow our beast to labor on that day. But, says the objector, surely there is no harm in using my horse to carry my family three or five miles to meeting on the Sabbath. The word says “obedience is better than sacrifice.” If the meeting cannot be nearer home, and we cannot walk, why, then go before the Sabbath commences and stay until the day has ended. If a general meeting, and all cannot be accommodated, then it would be proper to have it some other day. God has plainly taught us how we shall keep this day: “We are not to do our pleasure on his holy day, but call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words, then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord,” and he will bless thee. See also what to us an unaccountable promise God made to his chosen people, if they would not carry any burdens in nor out of their houses, nor do any work on the Sabbath day: “The city of Jerusalem should stand forever.”—Jer. xvii: 22-25; see also how Nehemiah enforced the sacredness of the day,—xiii: 15-21. Moses also, and many others; shewing clearly that God gave more directions about the fourth commandment, and greater promises, than for all others of his laws, and says “Verily, my Sabbaths ye shall keep that ye may know that I, the Lord, do sanctify you.” And as I think that I have made it plain and positive from the scriptures alone, that the Sabbath was never changed nor abolished, then how simple, plain and safe to follow the example of our Father in heaven. Surely no living person can be condemned [pg 078] for this. Then let us keep the day as the bible teaches us that he did.
The Sabbath, God says, is a sign and covenant between him and the children of Israel forever; see Exo. xxxi: 16, 17; Ezek. xx: 12, 20. Read the curse that followed their violating it—xxii: 8, 25-28. Do you still say this is only for the Jewish dispensation? read in Deut. vii: 9, the promise to them who keep his commandments to a thousand generations. Suppose a generation to be thirty years: then you have 24,000 years yet to come. But allow the scripture rule, seventy years, and then we have not reached that point by at least 64,000 years. Do you think his mercy will cease then, so many ages after immortality? It is not in the power of man to make a figure of this. Some other passages regard generation and generation, without limitation.
Under The Gospel.
Christ, the Son of God, and his Disciples, kept the same Sabbath—(it is folly to speak of any other, the scriptures forbid it.) He was the Lord of the Sabbath, and he said it “was made for man.”—Mark ii: 27, 28. For what man?—[See article, 2d Pillar.] He says he kept his Father's commandments. Paul says they are holy, just and good. John says, they are from the beginning, and points a company who are now keeping them. James tells us we are to keep the whole—surely the Sabbath is here; God himself, says it is.—Exo. xvi: 27, 28, and xx: 8-11.
Jesus, then, is our example. Surely we shall not err if we follow him. Respecting working, cooking, making fires, &c. &c., please see my reply to Barnabas. Jesus always preached on the Sabbath, and healed, and wrought miracles, and blessed his honest followers. And I know for one that he blesses them still, who worship on that day; see Mark vi: 2, “And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in their synagogues,” “as his custom was.” Luke iv: 16, 31, he asked “if it was lawful to do well on the Sabbath days?” If we can do good in like manner, we shall be perfectly safe; if better, try it. Just read in the following passages, how and what he did. His being judged by primitive and modern professors, [pg 079] is no rule for us, “What is that to thee, follow thou me.”—Matt. xii: 1-15. He shows that his disciples were “guiltless for eating,” 7th v. They were soon into their meeting; see, he's at work immediately, 13th v.; see Luke xiii: 11-17, healing the woman; how withering his reply to his enemies, 14th v. I would that his adversaries were as much ashamed now; 17th v. See xiv. chapter, 1-6, and 7-14; here he went in to eat bread on the Sabbath day; 1st v., here he cures the dropsy and teaches them how to treat the poor, &c. See also John v: 1-20, and vii: 21-24, he shows that all of this is not (servile work) but works of mercy and necessity. He even instructed his disciples, Jew and Gentile, respecting the sanctity of THE Sabbath, thirty-six years after his death, Matt. xxiv: 20. In chapter v, he shows that the keeping of the law, &c., will make us great in the kingdom of heaven, 17-19. Then in 38-48 verses, shows us that under the Gospel, we are to follow his teachings and that we are now about to make the change from the ministration of Moses to that of his own, in the Gospel. Do see how John puts it together, Rev. xii: 17; xiv: 12, explained to be the spirit of prophecy, in xix: 10. Now every law with respect to the keeping the commandments and of course the Sabbath, is embraced in the testimony of Jesus. The special messenger of the Lord to the Gentiles, to teach them the abolition of Moses's ministration in the law, observed the Sabbath in obedience to his master; see Acts xvii: 2: xiii: 42-44, preaching to the Gentiles, 42 v.; xvi: 13, by the water side; xviii: 4, every Sabbath; 11 v. seventy-eight in succession. Luke records these, many years after the law of Moses was abolished. John had his vision on the Lord's day. Jesus never claimed any day for his, but the seventh-day Sabbath, Mark ii: 28; neither did his Father, Exo. xx: 10. Therefore, in following the authority and example of God, Jesus Christ, and the holy Apostles, we shall meet our glorious king with clear consciences. We never need to fear of keeping the holy and sanctified Sabbath day too strict. We cannot keep it holy, nor acceptable, if we employ men or beasts to labor for us on that day, neither printers, postmasters, nor carriers. The day is not ours, it is the Lord's: follow the Scripture rule, and the Sabbath will be a delight to us, and God will sanctify and save.
The Beginning Of The Sabbath.
Here, also, we cannot be too particular; God claims every moment of his day. Out of one hundred and sixty-eight hours in the week he claims twenty-four, and gives man the balance, one hundred and forty-four, to do his servile work. According to the record of Moses, in Gen. i: 2, God commenced the motion of this Planet from a chaotic state of darkness, and sent it flying round the sun at the rate of about fifty-eight thousand miles per hour. He “divided the light from the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day,”—4, 5. God “made the sun and the moon; the sun to rule the day, and the moon the night, to divide the light from darkness.”
Jesus says “are there not twelve hours in the day?” Well, then, there must be twelve hours in the night, to make a twenty-four hour day, and it must be equally divided, for us to keep the weeks correct. For example—say now the first of Jan., the inhabitants of the north pole have no sun, while those at the south have the sun all the twenty-four hours; now as we approximate to the centre or middle of the globe from the south pole, we shorten the days, but from the north we shorten the nights; when arrived at the centre, or under the sun, (the great time piece for the inhabitants of all the earth, Deut. iv: 19,) we find the days and nights are equal. At the beginning of the sacred year, for the passover, the sun rises at 6 A. M. and sets at 5 P. M., and there is not an inhabitant on any part of this globe that can regulate the time for day, or night without admitting the polar distance into his calculation, which is 90° from the centre. This at once shows that all the way we can calculate time is by calculating from the centre of the earth, and also bringing the sun there, if his declination be north or south. Therefore by the same rule (and no other,) we regulate the weeks, and must of necessity begin the scripture day at 6 P. M., or else being in one place, we never have two Sabbaths begin at one time. Says the objector we might begin at sunset. If so, no two persons could keep the same time except they were directly north or south of each other. But can they keep the [pg 081] same time all over the globe if they begin at six P. M.? Yes, certainly. For example.—Jerusalem being about 90°, or fifty-four hundred geographical miles east of us, makes a difference of six hours; it is six P. M. with them when it is noon day with us; their Sabbath closes then, six hours before it does with us—but it is at six o'clock P. M. there. And so when the Sabbath closes here, although it is precisely the same hour of the day, viz. six P. M., and in like manner all round the globe. Hence the necessity of beginning the twenty-four hour day at sun set from the centre of the earth. We are told that we cannot keep time right, because men, who circumnavigate the globe, make a difference of twenty-four hours in time. Well, suppose men could girt the globe with their magnetic wires, so that half of the inhabitants of the United States could pass clear round ten times a day, what odds would that make to the motion of the globe. This looks like another snare of Satan. The change from old to new style, they say, if eleven days are taken from the calender then that certainly has changed the seventh day, but some how or other it does not affect the first day, Sunday. How is it done? say some two hundred members in the British Parliament on Thursday, at six P. M. the first day of Jan. pass a unanimous vote by uplifted hands that we drop eleven days from the calendar. Now all the change here, is, it is now a few minutes past six P. M. on the same Thursday night called the eleventh of Jan. God never stopped the earth's motion one moment to listen to them. This certainly did not effect the day of the week, any more than the sun's standing still a whole day, that being true also, at 4 P. M., did not prevent them from counting Friday when it came. If he stood still for twenty-four hours, then no time would be lost to us, for Friday could not come until six, P. M., two hours after he started again. If it had been less than twenty-four hours then must it be regulated. The shadow going back ten degrees or forty minutes on the dial of Ahas, (“not ten hours,”) was another miracle, but it remains to be proved that the sun went back. If any thing could possibly affect the time before the christian era, Jesus certainly had the correct time, the Sabbath before he was crucified. Astronomers can find no change since. If the christian era was four years out of date, it does not [pg 082] follow that the day of the week has changed since God instituted the Sabbath in Paradise. Gen. first chapter teaches when the sun is up it is day or morning; when he is down it is night, or evening. God reckoned the first six days from evening to morning; but further on, in the history of the world, he says “from even to even shall you celebrate your Sabbath,” or rest. This proves that every day in the week began at evening; so it must continue while we have day and night. Surely God has done all things well, but man has sought out many inventions. God help the little flock to follow the truth, and “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Amen.
The Last Experiment On Definite Time; The Prolonging Of The Days All Failed.
In 1843, the Herald and Midnight Cry for many months stated that all the signs preparatory to the second coming of Christ, were in the past. Soon after the passing of the time in 1844, they changed their minds and told us that we had but “just entered upon the ground of disputed chronology and that we should be justified in looking with more and more confidence to the extreme boundary of 1847, the extreme point of time in dispute.”—See Advent Harbinger, Sept. 28th, 1847. On the strength of this, A. Hale came out with his definite time—LAST EXPERIMENT.
Well, we have now come to Jan. 1848, and all has failed. What is the matter? Answer—the disputed time was properly named; there is no truth in it. It is all a perfect failure; hence all their boasting ends with it. We say the cry at midnight, was right, and the appointed time did end in the fall of 1844, as shown in the Way Marks. We will now try some further proof, and still farther that their confessions and reorganization have fairly led them into the Laodocean state of the Church. They say that Christ may come any time; this is the teaching of all three of the Editors, and some of them talk loudly about the ending of the 2300 days, at that point [pg 083] of time. How vain to assert that the 2300 days will end here, the first of January. It is well known that the spring, or fall is the only place ever fixed for their ending.
Those who believe that Christ was crucified any where but in the middle of the week are teaching, as H. H. Gross, that his advent will be in the spring. Those who still believe in the types, and that Christ was crucified in the midst or half of the week can see no place for the ending of the 2300 days or the advent of Jesus, but in the seventh month. Neither can the 6000 years end any where but in the seventh month; the proof is clear in Gen. i: 11, 12, and 29, that the seed and fruit was ripe for the harvest when God finished his six days; proof, Adam and Eve partook of it. It is also perfectly clear that God changed the beginning of the year from thence to the first month, to commence the feasts of the Lord and the types to which we have, and still may, refer; see Exo. xii: 2; xiii: 3, 4; xxxiv: 18; Deut. xvi: 1. This was the beginning of months and the beginning of the year, the passover month.
Now we say here, according to the scriptures, Christ was crucified on the 14th day of Abib, or April, in the midst (or middle) of the week, meaning the last week of the seventy. This is just 486-½ years; then the balance eighteen hundred and thirteen and a half years more, would just make the 2300 days, or years. Now carry the half year from the Passover to the fall of the seventh month, then you will have just 1813 full years to come. Then, of course, every full year unto the last, must end here; and it is not in the power of man to make them end any where else, but in the seventh month. Neither is it in the power of any adventist, who says he believes in the speedy coming of Christ, to show any thing about their ending, since Oct. 1844, because we never have, and it is not likely we ever shall know of any other place or point, for their ending. If the beating of the air, three years, has proved a failure, and made the subject gross darkness, what can be expected from a farther experiment. If any one disputes this point, he will confer a great favor by showing where they do end.
There is one more point; that is, God's people are now in their trial foretold by prophets and apostles; and in their every day experience. If they deny this, then they [pg 084] cannot look for Jesus, because that trial must take place here in time; and according to the type, it must be while Jesus our great high priest is cleansing the sanctuary—for by turning to Lev. xxiii: 27-32 verses, we see the type of affliction was always on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement, and it continued all the time that the high priest was in the most holy place, cleansing the sanctuary. The reason for this is obvious; if we turn to Lev. xvi: 15—“And he shall make an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins,” &c.; see also 29-34 verses, particularly the 30th verse. Then the true meaning of the cleansing of the sanctuary is, Christ our high priest in the sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man; Heb. xiii: 2, that is, the new Jerusalem in the heavens, making atonement, or blotting out the sins of his true waiting people; and while he is doing this, they are in their trial. “Here is the patience of the Saints,” as it was in the type referred to, with this difference—their day and trial and atonement was “from even to even,” just twenty-four hours, whereas ours is to be from the tenth “day of the seventh month, until God roars out of Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem,” then Jerusalem will be holy, the atonement will be finished.—Joel iii: 16, 17—God's people be cleansed, sealed, and the captivity of Zion turned. This will be the shaking of the Heavens and the earth, the sea and all nations. Matt. xxiv: 29; Amos i: 2; Hagg. ii: 6-7; Jer. xxv: 30, 31; Heb. xii: 26; Eze. xiii: 25, 28. According to the signs given by Jesus, the next after this will be the sign of the son of man in heaven; “And then the son of man.”—Matt. xxiv: 30. But as the world is to be taken by surprise, “crying peace and safety,” they will not long be troubled with the shaking of the heavens and earth, it will pass from the mind, most likely, as has the cry at mid-night, so that after this, Christ will “come as a thief.” But I do not design now to take up the argument, but merely refer to these points to show our position. For further reference, see Way Marks. I now propose to show the certain failure and confusion of all those Adventists who have denied the past, and the ending of the 2300 days. As I have already shown, they have prolonged, or, as in Prov. x: 27, “added to the [pg 085] days.” The 2300 days, all the time from where they ended, Oct. 1844, to the extreme end of 1847, which would be three and a half years. Hosea calls this removing the bounds; well, we see they have finally moved them 1260 days. But God calls to Ezekiel and says: “What is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth. Tell them therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel, but say unto them the days are at hand and the effect of every vision, for there shall be no more any vain vision, nor faltering devination within the house of Israel; For I am the Lord, I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; It shall be no more prolonged, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God” xii: 22-25. Three things here we notice; first, that the effect of every vision is to fail with the rebellious house of Israel. This, then, most certainly includes the effect of Daniel's vision on the second advent believers, it is the effect of every vision. The effect of John's vision fails with this. Now we actually know that the effect of Daniel's vision since 1842, has caused the whole world to tremble. We have no account in history that any vision, or all the visions of the prophets together, ever began, as it were, to have such an effect as was produced down to Oct. 1844. From that time the effect began to cease. Second, here at the end of the prolonging of the days then, of this vision, God is to speak. It is well known that he never has spoken to the world since these prophets were born; therefore this is in the future, and right here at this point of time, and after this effect, and before the coming of Jesus. Third, then these days spoken of here are no other than the days of Daniel's vision, to measure time, for Ezekiel's vision nor any other vision given to the prophets, have chronological time to mark their fulfillment, save Daniel's and John's. Respecting the rebellious house of Israel, the prophets plainly and emphatically describe them to be in these last days, according to the texts above. The 27th and 28th verses of this xii chapter of Ezekiel, is more emphatic still: “They of the house of Israel (same rebellious house,) say the vision that he seeth is for many days to come, (yes, it is already advocated that [pg 086] it is thirty years, in the future,) he prophesieth of the times that are far off.” God says “there shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done saith the Lord God.” Here, then, if we will believe God, no man after the prolonging of the days shall do it any more; that is, after the effect of the vision. What is the sign? Answer—God says, He will SPEAK. This, then, will end all the controversy. Now our history fully proves that the prolonging of the 2300 days with the effect of the vision, is claimed, to the end of the Jewish year of 1847, this spring. Now mark this! The rebellious house continue to say that these days, say Daniel's 2300, will not end until the coming of Christ, and he may come any time. I think I have proved conclusively that the 2300 days cannot end any where but in the seventh month; and the above scriptures and our history do clearly show that they have ended, and the time has been prolonged to the end of 1847. Now the seventh month 1847, is past, and this was the last point in their land marks, where the types, or seventy weeks shows they could end. It is impossible for any man to show their ending in the coming spring; and they have by their own showing forever shut themselves out for saying it will be in the fall of 1848, because this spring is the very extreme point to which the days are, or can be, prolonged. Here then, I say, according to the heading of this article, their last experiment fails, and fails them forever; they have no point to guide them to now, it is all gross darkness. Now if this is what the Bible Advocate calls “following the word of God and sound reason,” I am glad that the shut door and Sabbath believers, are on the other side of the gulf, with “light in all of their dwellings.”
Now let Zachariah, the prophet, finish this subject. In his peculiar view of the wonderful things to take place in the last days from the tenth to the fourteenth chapter inclusive, he says, “And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name and I will hear them, I WILL SAY IT IS MY PEOPLE; and they shall say THE LORD IS MY GOD.”—xiii: 8, 9. Here then, is [pg 087] clearly pointed out the believers in the coming of Christ; a cry at mid-night shows first, but two parts; but before Christ comes Zachariah shows three parts. Now for the development of the history. The first is already described, by prolonging the days and denying the past. The three papers Advent Herald, Advent Harbinger and Bible Advocate, are still advocating their views, and as I have shown, cut themselves off. Second, class or part, are the spiritualizers; a large majority of which have joined the Shakers, whose faith is, that Christ came the second time in Ann Lee, more than seventy years ago, thus forever cutting themselves off from even looking for his personal appearing; John calls them anti-christ—thus, “Little children it is the last time, and as ye have heard that anti-christ shall come, even now are there many anti-christs (i. e. don't believe in any Christ—he is God, and God is love, &c.) whereby we know it is the last time: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out that they be made manifest that they were not all of us. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-christ that denieth the Father and Son.”—1st John ii: 18-22 verses. John classes all such with liars, and they are barred from the kingdom of heaven. In the 19th verse he says, “they were not all of us.” This I think shows that some would see their error and repent. John here embraces all such believers from his day to the last. Here, then it is clearly manifest that this second part have cut themselves off! The third part are now in the fire (or fiery trial.); they are to be refined as silver, and tried as gold; they shall call on God, and they will be his people. They have nothing to boast of, they have got to overcome “by their perseverance.”—[Camp. trans. of Luke xxi: 19.] Jesus also distinguishes them from the other parts: “They have a little strength (nothing to boast of,) and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name.” Which one? New name—King of Kings and Lord of Lords.—Rev. iii: 8, 12. The first and second classes have denied his name. The first say he is the Mediator, and therefore cannot have received his kingdom; the second class have dissolved his name into vapor. Ninth verse shows they have got to bow to his third part, because they have kept the word of [pg 088] his patience: Where is it shown that they do this? Answer—in Rev. xiv: 12th verse, “Here is the patience of the Saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Yes! here are they who are denounced as “door shutters” and “great sticklers for the seventh day Sabbath, in and out of almost every door but the right one, following any thing but the word of God and sound reason!” triumphed at last. How amazing these things appear; not more so perhaps than to the prophets when looking down into our history and beholding this first class composed of the leading messengers and about all of the shepherds, after leading the whole flock out into the most dangerous part of their journey, desert, denounce, and betray them; and then go and form themselves into a confederacy and positively disregard the message which God pressed upon them, viz. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God,” &c. I rejoice in my soul and praise the living God, who is seated upon this Great White Throne in the height of his Sanctuary in the heaven of heavens, that I am still numbered in this third part. Call me what you please, my feet are planted on the Rock. I had rather suffer affliction with the Outcasts, than enjoy the pleasures of sin with all other people. Praise the Lord! if faithful, we shall soon enter the everlasting kingdom. Amen.