[8]. Instead of selecting a wealthy person, able to contribute ten dollars per week, as has been done above, let an individual be chosen from the poorer classes of Corinthians—say from among these who would be able to donate only twenty-five cents per week—and the reader will be more forcibly impressed with the unreasonableness of that construction which makes it necessary that so small a pittance should first be placed or devoted at home, and then carried to the church, and there deposited in the general collection.
[9]. Not a few eminent writers, such as Dwight, and Wilson, of Calcutta, who are followed by many lesser authors, quote Ignatius, as saying: “Let us no more Sabbatize, but keep the Lord’s day.” From the literal rendering of the original above given, it will be seen that these writers take an unwarrantable liberty with their author. The words of Ignatius are, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν κυριακὴν ζωὴν ζῶντες. To separate the noun ζωὴν from the preceding adjective, and connect it with the following participle, so as to read, “Living a life according to the Lord’s day,” is an unnatural separation of the words of the original. To drop out the word ζωὴν is unwarranted. If this word were spurious, then the rendering would be, “Living according to the Lord’s day,” the adjective κυριακη without the noun for “day” being expressed occurring frequently for “the Lord’s day.” But there is no ground for rejecting the word “life.” To color the language of an author for the sake of giving it point in favor of one side of a question is unworthy of a seeker after truth. In the present case there is really nothing gained by departing from the precise language of the writer. Another passage, often quoted as from Ignatius, is part of the spurious epistle to the Galatians. It is as follows: “During the Sabbath, Christ continued under the earth, in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathea had laid him. At the dawning of the lord’s day, he arose from the dead. The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Lord’s day contains the resurrection.” This certainly has some weight as the testimony of comparatively early writer, but it must not be ascribed to Ignatius.
[10]. Did it not appear to be indispensable to the enlightening of the reader, as to the consummate folly of the author of the epistle of Barnabas, we should not append, as we do, his language in the following note, since it is hardly worthy of a place in a chaste and dignified discussion. For its citation we hold those, responsible who have made this action necessary, and who value the testimony of a man so utterly devoid of common-sense: “Neither shalt thou eat of the hyena; that is, again, be not an adulterer; nor a corrupter of others; neither be like to such. And wherefore so? Because that creature every year changes its kind, and is sometimes male and sometimes female.” Chap. 9:8.
[11]. Since, writing the above, the following interesting item in the Christian Union, for Feb. 19, has been brought to my notice, and will serve to show that continued investigation on the part of scholars is rendering the authenticity of the writings of Justin Martyr more and more doubtful:—“Dr. Franz Overbeck has lately examined, with great care, the ‘epistle to Diognetus,’ which has been regarded as one of the most precious relics of the age succeeding that of the apostles. He urges several reasons for coming to the conclusion that the work was written later than the era of Constantine, and was intended by its author to pass as a work Justin Martyr’s. Critics had already proved it no genuine work of Justin, and if Dr. Overbeck is right, it can no longer be assigned to the age of Justin.”
[12]. The culpable carelessness of Dwight, Wilson, and other authors, in citing from the early fathers, is nowhere more noticeable than in the case of Irenæus. These writers quote him as saying: “On the Lord’s day, every one of us Christians, keeps the Sabbath, meditating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God.” There is no reference given to the writings of Irenæus. And for good reason. After a most careful examination, we are persuaded no such passage is to be found in his writings. The mistake was probably first made by President Dwight, whose weakness of sight compelled him to depend upon an amanuensis. “For twenty years of his presidency,” we are informed by his biographer, “he was rarely able to read as much as a single chapter in the Bible in the twenty-four hours.” (Dwight’s Theology, London, 1821, vol. i. pp. 91, 95.) Others followed this high authority.
In order to guard our readers against injuring the cause they would advance, we must mention another important instance of considerable negligence. In a number of works on the Sabbath, Dr. Justin Edwards’ “Sabbath Manual,” for example, we find not only the blunders already noticed, but another quite as bad. The language—“Both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honor the Lord’s day, seeing on that day it was that our Lord Jesus completed his resurrection from the dead,” is ascribed to Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, about A. D. 162. The words quoted are in reality those of another Theophilus, who was bishop of Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century. We hand over these criticisms upon advocates of the first-day Sabbath to our seventh-day Sabbatarian friends, trusting to their honor and fairness not to separate them from the rest of this discussion. For our own part, whether it may be pleasant to the advocates of the seventh-day Sabbath, we desire to have for ourselves, and to aid others to have, the whole truth. It was in this spirit that we gave room in our columns for a full presentation of the arguments on the other side of this question.
[13]. As a matter of independent interest and importance, we would ask all who are interested in the question of the posture in prayer of worshipers in the early church, to compare with Tertullian’s statement, that of Peter, bishop of Alexandria, A. D. 300, who says: “We keep the Lord’s day as a day of joy, because of Him who rose on that day, on which we have learned not to bow the knee.” (Bibl. Patrum, apud Gallard, vol. iv., p. 107.) To the same effect is the decision of the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, requiring, as there were certain ones who bent the knee on the Lord’s day, that it should be the uniform practice to give thanks to God, standing. (Canon, xx.)
[14]. The attempt to attribute the change of day to Constantine’s decree is hardly worth noticing. It is enough to remember that it was issued in the beginning of the fourth century. No one who knows anything of the writings of Tertullian and Origen dating back more than a century before Constantine, to say nothing of still earlier writers, will venture to ascribe the change to Roman Emperor’s decree. Besides, the language of the very decree referred to recognizes the honorable diameter of the first day of the week. It recognizes that day as already “venerable.”—The Christian.
[15]. For the extracts given in this connection, the reader is referred to “Sabbath and Sunday,” by A. H. Lewis, and to “The History of the Sabbath,” by J. N. Andrews.
[16]. The commandments as given above are supposed to be repeated by the individual Romanist in response to the injunction, “Say the ten commandments of God.”