Acts 14:1—"And it came to pass in Iconium, that they (Paul and Barnabas) went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude, both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks, believed."
Acts 16:23—"And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither."
Acts 17:2—"And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures."
Acts 18:4—"And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."
Brethren, if you produce one solitary apostolic example of unnecessary labor performed on the seventh day, I will at once give up the argument in its favor.
3. Neither Christ nor his Apostles intimated that the seventh day would cease to be the Sabbath.
This being a negative assertion, I am not bound to prove it, of course. If you assert that they did, I demand the proof of it.
4. Christ has very plainly intimated the contrary.
Matthew 24:20—"But pray ye that your flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath-day."
The "flight" here spoken of was to take place about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; and the Saviour admonishes his disciples to pray that it might not happen on the Sabbath-day. Now, if he knew that the Sabbath-day would be changed into the "Lord's day," forty years before the event he had just alluded to, why did he speak of it as a thing that would be then in existence? Many are the efforts that have been made to evade the force of the argument from this text; but they are all unavailing.