It is impossible from your letter to conjecture what may be your view of the ordinance of the Lord’s-day. You have indeed told us in another place, in sufficiently general terms, that “without that ordinance, indeed, without that weekly memento, visible in all things around us, of realities unseen but eternal, no other memorial of God’s love could, in a world like ours, find room and scope for its operations.” [11] But this does not supply the want. I cannot conjecture whether you look upon the observance of that day as enforced by command, or instituted as a privilege, or appointed as a type, or a mere human institution. I reject the latter supposition as impossible, for I cannot suspect a minister of our church of the base hypocrisy of using her services while he holds the Lord’s-day to be merely of man. You therefore think that, in one way or other, it has a Divine sanction, and is a part of the Divine purpose. The Word of the Spirit appears to give great latitude upon the subject, when we read, “One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.” But we must read on, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Yes, Sir, we have surely a right to expect from a teacher of Divine Truth a clear expression of the full persuasion of his own mind, when he publicly treats on such a subject.
There is nothing which irritates an earnest, intelligent mind more than a weak exhibition of moral duties upon untenable grounds, or by unsound arguments. It is possible that a vague outcry upon the subject of the Post Office desecration of the Lord’s-day may have provoked you to make and print the inconsiderate reply, which is now before me. And all who esteem your reputation will regret that any outcry, however vague and unreasonable, should have drawn from an instructed mind a reply without one single definite statement of truth, or of duty. You must pardon me, therefore, if I state for you a few positions, which you certainly do hold in common with myself.
You will not hesitate to assert,
I. That no combination of circumstances can possibly make it right to do that which is evil in the sight of God.
The contrary supposition necessarily asserts imperfection in His mind, or His government.
II. That our obedience to His will is no obedience, unless it be in spirit and in truth, without even a desire for evasion.
III. That each human being shall exist to eternity, in the blessedness of the kingdom of Christ, or in the misery of the damned.
IV. That they shall perish eternally who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
V. That God has mysteriously connected deliverance from eternal death with the hearing of the Gospel.
VI. That He has likewise connected obedience to His will, and His own glory in His people, with the knowledge of His word.