To Whom Was the Seventh Day Sabbath given of Which We Read in Exodus xx, 8, and Genesis ii, 2?

God created the heavens and the earth and all things which they contain in six days and rested from all His work on the seventh. Man, who was in this creation, was not required to observe the Sabbath when first created, and we may account for this fact when we remember that God did not require toil at the hands of man before he had fallen by disobedience. [Genesis iii, 19.] Then it was said to him that he he should live by the sweat of his face.

If Adam, Cain, Abel, or any other man, before the day in which God delivered the Jewish nation from Egyptian bondage, was commanded to keep the seventh or Sabbath day, the Bible is as silent on it as it is as to which railroad Cain rode on out to the Land of Nod. [Genesis iv, 16.] God, in that age, had no written ten-commandment law, as He afterward gave to Moses at Horeb. [Deuteronomy iv, 12, 13.] If God had such a covenant, then Cain could not have taken the L. & N. Railway to the Land of Nod, for the reason that the undertakers would have had him in a glass wagon before the railroad could have been founded. It is true God has always commanded man to keep a moral law, but not after the manner of Moses' ten-commandment law, which required the death of all who violated it.

Cain killed Abel in violation of the moral law, which was not then written, but neither man nor the devil killed Cain; how, then, could he have been under the law of Moses? The fact that Cain was not killed at the hands of anyone shows clearly to all thinking 00044men that God has the right to change his laws and covenants as he wills to suit changing conditions of the children of men.

The law governing Noah was not the law controlling Abram nor Jacob. God gave Moses a ten-commandment law with a different relation to the Jewish nation than any other law ever given by Him, before or since, to any other man or nation. [Ex.xx; Deut. iv, 12, 13.] This law is called by Paul [II Corinthians iii] the ministration of death written and engraven in stone, and was the letter which killed those who violated it. Cain, not being under this law, was permitted to live after killing his own dear brother without a just cause. Cain could not violate the Sabbath for the simple reason it was not given to him. [Deuteronomy v, 3, 4.]

Since we take the position that the Sabbath was not given to Cain, nor any other man or nation before Moses led the Jews to Horeb, it is our duty to say when and to whom God gave the Sabbath, or ministration of death written and engraven on tables of stone. The reader will please turn to Deuteronomy v, 1; we read that Moses called Israel and said unto them: "Hear, O Israel, the statues and judgments which I speak in your ears this day that ye may learn and keep and do them!" The Lord made a a covenant with us at Horeb. Us who; Abram and Jacob? No, it was the Jewish nation under Moses.

We know that we are right in our position, for Deuteronomy v, 3, tells us that God made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us who are all of us here alive this day. All of the fathers were dead at the time of the making of the covenant of the Sabbath, hence it was not binding on them. In Deuteronomy v, 15, we are informed why God gave this Sabbath to the Jews. The Sabbath was a sign between God and the children of Israel, not a sign between us of this age and God, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. [John i, 17.] If the Sabbath was a sign between God and the children of Israel throughout their generation, it can not be a sign between God and any other nation, since God gave the Sabbath to no other nation. [Exodus xxxi, 12, 13, 16, 17.] The Sabbath became a part of God's law with the penalties of death at Horeb, not before. The Sabbath and the relation which the law of Moses held to the 00055Jews was abrogated and removed when the first covenant was taken out of the way. [Jeremiah xxxi, 31, 35; Hebrews viii, 7, 10.] If the earthly penalties of death for violating the Sabbath have been removed, the given at the same time, has been removed also. The Sabbath never was a moral statute, but a positive command like circumcision. [Genesis xvii, 12, 14.] Under the Sabbath law no man was permitted to kindle a fire in his own habitation on the Sabbath. [Exodus xxxv, 3.] Abide ye every man his place on the Sabbath. Let no man go out of his place. [Exodus xvi, 16, 29.]

Bear no burden on the Sabbath, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath. [Jeremiah xvii, 21, 22.] From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. [Leviticus xxiii, 32.] Whoever doeth any work on the Sabbath shall surely be put to death. [Exodus xxxi, 14, 15.] The man found picking up sticks on the Sabbath is stoned to death. [Numbers xv, 32, 36.] The idea of having no fire kindled on the Sabbath ought to be enough to close the mouths of all Sabbath keepers wherever we have a cold climate like Kentucky. The man who thinks that he is keeping the Sabbath law deceiveth himself.

Christ was Lord even of the Sabbath Day, and after he became the greatest teacher earth ever had the disciples were commanded to hear him, not Moses. [Matthew xvii,5.] Christ is the prophet that Moses said God would raise up and we must hear him. Christ never did say while on earth to any of his disciples, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," in a Mosaic sense. He being Lord of the Sabbath day did not remain inside of city, or in the house of any disciple, but went through the cornfields and healed the sick on that day regardless of what the Sabbath day keepers said or taught.

His disciples plucked the ears of corn under the rebuke of the Sabbath keepers but not rebuked by the Lord of the Sabbath day. Christ was greater than Moses or the Sabbath day and had the right to do as he did, and gave his disciples the right to do what they did, for they went with him through the cornfields which Moses forbid anyone doing before Christ became the great teacher with 00066higher laws of mercy and truth. [John i, 7; Matthew xii, 1, 14; Mark ii, 23.]

Christ knew his business and in his teaching he let the woman found in the act of adultery go free on the condition of her repentance and with the command, "Go and sin no more." [John viii, 11.] The would-be keepers of Moses law would have her stoned, which was right when Moses' law held its deathly relations to the Jews, but since Jesus is come with grace and truth the poor woman was allowed to repent and live on. Christ fulfilled the law and took it out of the way in his death. [II Corinthians iii, 1, 11, 15.]

Now, Paul says let no man judge you in regard to a Sabbath day, etc. [Colossians ii, 14, 17.] As to days, Paul says let every man be persuaded in his own mind; for some men, he said, regarded every day alike and there is no rebuke on account thereof. Some men regard one day above another and he did not find fault with the man that did so. [Romans xiv, 5, 8.]

Many of Christ's disciples observed the Sabbath day before and after his resurrection but not because of any special command from him. They were Jews, and as such many of them worshipped and offered sacrifices as required by the law of Moses and not by the law of Christ. [Acts xxi, 26, 30.] Paul often met with the Jews on the Sabbath in order to reach them with grace and truth, but his meeting with them was simply an opportunity to preach the gospel to them and not a command to keep the Sabbath day. [Acts xiii, xiv xv, xvi.]

After Christ rose from the dead, so far as we know, he did not command his followers to keep any day holy. He did not sanctify any day as God did the Sabbath. But as Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week it is but natural that the day of his resurrection to life would he regarded by his followers as greater, so far as they were concerned, than any other day. In Acts xx, 7, we have the example of Paul and the disciples at Troas for worship and celebrating the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week; also the church at Corinth was required in their worship on first day of the week to lay by in store as God had prospered them for the help of the poor. [I Corinthians xvi, 1, 3.] This shows that the Lord's day, or first day of the week was the day of their worship and not 00077the seventh or Sabbath day. It can not be shown after the resurrection of Christ from the dead where a body of disciples or church of Christ alone met for worship on the Sabbath day.

In none of the epistles to the churches of Christ do we find such a command as keeping the Sabbath day. Paul informed the Collosian brethren that no man should judge them in matters of eating, drinking, new moons, holy days, or a Sabbath day, which things were done away with in Christ. [Colossians ii, 14, 18, and Ephesians ii, 14, 21.] Under the law of liberty, which is the law of Christ not Moses, we are not commanded to keep any day holy, as under Moses; and we do not know of any body of Christians, who believe in Christ, that are keeping any day holy as the Jews kept the Sabbath day. I know of persons who make such claims but they are witnesses against their own teaching. We may obey the laws of our country if they do not conflict with God's laws, and in this way we may not work on Sunday as other days. But the holy days are not found in the new and better covenant of grace.

The question may be asked by the reader, if man may not steal, kill, and do any immoral act, since the law of Moses has passed away. No, it was wrong to do any immoral act before Moses lived and it is still wrong for man not to obey moral precepts; but these precepts are found in the new covenant, but not after the manner of the law of Moses. [Acts xiii, 38, 39; Galatians iii, 24, 25; Galatians v, 19.]

We have some of the principles of the laws of England and France in the United States Government, but this is neither an English nor a French government. By the law of Christ having some of the principles of the law of Moses in it does not give us the law of Moses any more than having some of the English principles in our laws gives us an English government.

Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them, and it is always understood when any prophecy concerning him was fulfilled it was completed or finished. Matthew xxvii, 35; John xix, 28, writings relative to him were fulfilled, or completed, and of course were no longer in force; only as they serve us as examples to encourage us to suffer for his sake as he 00088suffered for us. [I Peter, iv, 1.] Christ is the end or purpose of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth. [Romans x.] When the law had served its end or purpose in leading this world to a Redeemer it was then its mission began to close, so that the perfect means of grace and truth might be written on the minds and hearts of the people as foretold by Jeremiah and all of the old prophets. [Jeremiah xxxi, 31, 35; Hebrews viii.]

God took away the first covenant that he might establish the second and better covenant. In the first covenant given at Horeb God commanded the Jews to keep ten commandments which were written not in their hearts, but upon tables of stone. [Deuteronomy iv, 12, 13.] It was death to the man who failed to keep this covenant. Christ has no such covenant after grace and truth is established in the hearts of men. [John i, 17.] This ten-commandment covenant given to Moses at Horeb is the covenant which required the keeping of the Sabbath day on pain of death, and this is the covenant which Jeremiah and Paul declare was removed so that a better one might take its place. [Hebrews viii, 7, 13.] It was being removed by Jesus so soon as he became a teacher on earth and was fully taken out of the way in his death. [Colossians ii, 14, 18; II Corinthians iii, 7, 10, 14; Ephesians ii, 14, 17.] Why then should we serve the law? It was added because of transgression till the seed should came to whom the promise was made. Christ is the seed, and the law served as schoolmaster to bring us to him that we might be saved [Galatians iii, 19, 24]--the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ, not the law of Moses which was weak and not able to save or redeem the trangressors under it.

The Holy Spirit was sent to the apostles to guide them into all truth under the new and better covenant of grace, and as the Spirit did not guide them to keep the Jewish Sabbath day we may know that the Sabbath is not a part of the truth. The Spirit came to the apostles to bring afresh into their minds the teachings of their Master during three and a half years of his personal ministry, if in his personal ministry he enjoined the Sabbath as one, his saying the Spirit must bring that afresh into their minds. [John xvi, 12, 13B.] Now since being delivered from the law by the death 00099of Christ we are at liberty to get a new husband. [Romans vii.] This new covenant in its state of preparation began with John the Baptist. The law and the old prophets were until John. Since that time the Kingdom of Heaven has been preached.

Jesus came unto those prepared by John for him. [Acts i, 20, 22.; John i, 10, 13.] Out of these persons prepared for him he made choice of his apostles and teachers, with whom he begins the work of making, and arranging for the making, a new covenant. [Matthew iii, iv, v, vi, vii, x.] After completing his life's work he is put to death on the cross to fulfill the law and the prophets [Luke xxiv, 44] and to redeem mankind from sin and the curse of the broken law. When Jesus died all laws of the past ages lost their former relations to mankind and must be held only as principles, if held at all, until enacted into law by the King who is Jesus Christ.

Sound and good timber taken from an old building which has been thrown down may be so shaped that it may become a part of the new building which is to be erected, but any timber which the housebuilder may leave out of the new building is no part of the new house by reason of the fact it was in the old building.

All persons who believed in Christ became dead to law by the body of Christ; therefore, my brethren, ye became dead to the law through the body of Christ that ye should be joined to another even him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. [Romans vii, 4.] For when we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were by the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death; but now, being discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held, so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter. [Romans vii, 5, 6.]

The above is a clear statement of Paul relative to the law of the decalogue, for in it adultery is forbidden as well as covetousness, and mankind was held bound by that in all of its forms until discharged by the death and body of Christ, to whom they were married, since becoming dead to the former husband, which was the law whereby they were held before being released. This is so plain that it needs no comment. The law was good and holy but man 001010being lustful and failing to obey the law that pointed out sins he found an occasion to sin through disobedience to the law. Man having trangressed the moral laws of covetousness and adultery was condemned by those laws before God; and the offering of the blood of bulls and goats could not discharge nor release man from that state of sins and condemnation into which he had fallen.

Therefore, Christ died for man, and he alone with his own blood has redeemed us from the sins against the law, and from the law also; that we might be married to him who is the head of the church, the first-born from the dead. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body thou didst prepare for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifice for sins thou hast no pleasure. Then said: I, lo, I come! In the roll of the Book it is written of me to do thy will, O God! He taketh away the first that he may establish the may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ for all. [Hebrews x, 49.]

In the above statement of Paul we find that something which existed first was taken away. What was it? Also, we find that something which came second was established. What was it? Also, we find that something which came second was established. What was it? We read Hebrews viii, v, and find that that which was taken away was covenant, and we also find that that that which was established secondly to it was covenant. This being true, no part of the first covenant is left binding as a covenant so far as as God was concerned. At the time referred to He had no covenant that was binding on the children of men. There could be no established covenant or law by which man was covenanted to God until another was given. That one was in a state of preparation is not denied. That man could be saved by faith in God's promises to complete the covenant is also not denied.

But what we do deny is that any part of the first covenant remained binding as a covenant after it was taken out of the way, or when the second covenant was established. That some principles which of themselves were necessary and must exist were enacted into the new covenant from the old is not denied. Such principles are not binding as perpetuity of the old law, or covenant, but as a 001111re-enactment; and, therefore, a part of the new covenant and binding on us because of the authority of Christ and not Moses. These principles hold a new relation to us other than that which they held to the Jewish nation, for we are now under grace and truth.

Sabbath day keepers make a big fuss about keeping the commandments, and with them the Sabbath is always one of the commandments which Jesus said keep. They forget the fact that Jesus told the young man who came to him which of the commandments he enjoined upon him. [Matthew xix, 16, 27.] Jesus told the young man which ones he enjoined upon him, and some other things in addition to them without which the young man could not be saved. [Mark xii, 28, 34.]

The bed is too short and the covering too narrow. You cannot prove your Sabbath, therefore, let us all come and worship the King in Zion on the day of his resurrection from the dead, which is the first day after the Sabbath is past. [Luke xxiii, 1; Mark xvi, 1; Matthew xxviii, 1.] We should worship on this day, since the day after which Christ slept in the tomb on which he restores mankind from death is greater than the day on which God rested after He had created the material world. To restore mankind in redemption and in the resurrection is much greater work than creating a material world.

On the first day of the week the Holy Spirit descended from a high and came even to the apostles to guide and give them the best laws for the better covenant of grace and truth. [Acts ii.] On this day all history of the Apostolic Church tells us that the disciples of Christ met on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord's death. On this day Paul commanded all the churches of Galatia and Corinth to lay by in store, as God had prospered them, for help of the poor saints. [1 Corinthians xvi, 1 2.] On this day Paul met with the disciples to break bread at Traos. [Acts xx, 7.] On this day John, while on the lonely island of Patmos, was in the Spirit. [Revelations i, 10.] We should all be in the Spirit on day and worship God in spirit and in truth.