What he has said in the connection is very pretty. Yes, pretty is the word which precisely expresses it. How handsomely he alludes to the analogy between the natural harvest and the in-gathering of souls. But who does not know that such analogies are cheap things, and that one gifted with a prolific fancy can multiply them indefinitely? What was expected, and what we had a right to demand, was something which partook of the nature of certainty. How great was our disappointment at learning that the writer did not even pretend to have any authority from the Lord, so far as written statements are concerned. The whole thing he thought was fairly deducible from the coincidence of days, since nothing ever merely “happens” to occur in the providence of God.
What has been gained, then? Manifestly, simply the point that God had some object in view in having the Pentecost fall on the first day of the week in the year of our Lord 30, or thereabout. The next question to be decided is, What was that object? Right here is where we need help. God could have given it to us, had he seen fit so to do. He has not done so, therefore it is safe to conclude that it was not important that we should know what his purpose was.
But if any gentleman can be found who is wise above what is written, and who is able to decide with unerring certainty as to the motives of God at all times, and under all circumstances, we should like to propound a few questions to him. First, what did God mean when, in his providence, he allowed the Pentecost to fall upon Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday? It is said that God had a purpose in it; but can any one tell us what that purpose was? When he has answered this, then we have a list of similar interrogatories, to the solution of which his wisdom will be invited. In the meantime, we shall adopt the suggestions of men in regard to plans of Deity with great caution, for, if it should fall out in the day of Judgment that we had followed their fallacious inferences, to the disregard of a positive, written law of God, we know not what defense could be made for our course of conduct, since we had been previously informed that “his judgments are unsearchable,” “and his ways past finding out.”
Now let us look at the proposition concerning the outpouring of the Spirit. It is agreed on all hands that the manifestation occurred as written. It is inferred by the writer in question that it was done with reference especially to the honoring as sacred of the day of the resurrection. Here, again, is the assumption of knowledge which has never been imparted by divine authority. God has never said that he meant any such thing. Not only so, but it cannot even be fairly inferred that such was his purpose. First. Because he does not so much as mention, in the record, the first day of the week by name, an omission which can never be explained satisfactorily by those who insist that the events which occurred on the day of Pentecost transpired with especial reference to the honoring above all others, on the part of Jehovah, of the first day of the week. Secondly. Because, were we to judge at all in the matter, as he passed over six first-days, waiting for the arrival of the Pentecost, we must conclude that there was something in connection with that feast which induced him to act when he did, and as he did. Thirdly. Because the Pentecost furnished an opportunity for the display of the power of the ascended Christ before thousands of Jews and proselytes from all parts of the habitable globe, more advantageously than could be done at any other time; thus rendering it unnecessary that any other reason should be sought in explanation of its selection from among the other days of the year for the great outpouring of the Spirit. Fourthly. Because, in apostolic times, it was not an uncommon thing for the Holy Ghost to fall upon men on all days of the week; thus proving that God is not restricted in the outpouring of his Spirit to holy times and places, and that it is not safe to conclude that any display of his power in this direction was made at any one time because of a special regard for the particular hours on which it took place.
In conclusion, as the fabric of Sunday sanctity, in so far as it is based upon the transactions of the day of Pentecost, is seen to rest, purely upon the opinions of men, and since those who observe the day are divided in sentiment as to whether the Pentecost did indeed really fall upon it at all, we close this article, as we did the last, by stating that we have a positive commandment which is admitted to be binding, and which, as given in the Bible, says that the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” Also, that our advice to those who are weary with threading the interminable labyrinth of conjecture and hypothesis is, Place your feet upon the rock of the written word; there, and there only, you are safe. Should any one seek to lure you from this position by the assertion that the law upon which you have planted yourself has been amended, it will be safe to follow them only when they are able to tell you when and where the commandment, as given in Exodus, was changed, and exactly how it reads since the change has occurred.
STATESMAN’S REPLY.
ARTICLE FIVE.
THE FIRST-DAY SABBATH AT TROAS.
The day on which the Saviour rose from the dead, the day which the risen Saviour singled out and blessed repeatedly with his presence, the day on which the Holy Ghost was given to the church,—this honored day certainly could not pass without stated observance by the disciples of the risen and ascended Lord. It is but reasonable to expect that the day which Christ and the Holy Spirit honored would be honored by the early church.
Passing on in the sacred narrative, we come to the account of first-day Sabbath observance some twenty-six or twenty-eight years after the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit. In just such a matter-of-course way as that in which a well known and established custom would be noted, is the observance of the first day at Troas mentioned in Acts 20:6, 7: “We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came ... to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.” Several important points should here be noted:—
1. Paul and his companions remained at Troas seven days—from the third day of one week until the second day of the next week.
2. At this time, there was at Troas a company or church of Christian disciples, who would, of course, hold regular religious services.