Installment seventeen

Our previous installment was dedicated entirely to a
discussion between Mr. Anderson and Mr. Spaulding
about the merits of Sabbath keeping. A rematch was
scheduled for the following day.
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Installment Seventeen:

Human nature enjoys a fray; and as the word was passed
around among the passengers that Dr. Spaulding intended
to take the theological warpath, a buzz of excitement was
at once created, and here and there little groups could be
seen discussing what might happen the next day.
Captain Mann wore a smiling face and maintained a
strictly neutral air, but inwardly he was sharing the
spirit of intensity which seemed to have taken possession
of the passengers.
Dr. Spaulding, immediately after his conversation with Mr.
Anderson, in which he had felt his position rudely shaken,
sought out his fellow ministers and invited them to his room
for a consultation.
When Mr. Mitchell learned the purpose of the meeting, he
devoutedly wished himself elsewhere. He distinctly saw
that his brother minister had made a mistake, and that
unless much care and wisdom were exercised, great
embarrassment was sure to follow.
What distressed them most in their planning was that they
seemed utterly unable to agree among themselves. Dr.
Spaulding believed that the Sabbath had been abolished at
the cross. Mr. Mitchell held that it had been changed by the
early church; while Mr. Gregory was bound to teach that
the seventh-day of the fourth commandment should be
observed, but Sunday was the true seventh day.
Seeing the hopelessness of reconciling these divergent and
conflicting views, Mr. Mitchell finally ventured to repeat the
advice he had given captain Mann; namely, that the wise
course to take would be to ignore the question and to
emphasize such points as God's love and the spreading of
the Gospel, so as to make the ordinary inquirer to forget
about the seventh-day issue.
"But, Mitchell, I cannot do that," interposed Dr. Spaulding.
"I have put myself on record and have openly announced
that at two o'clock I will meet all who are interested. I have
to do something."
"Yet, you will find, brother, that if you attempt to show that
the moral law has been abolished, you have brought the
whole question into a tremendous tangle. Why, you can see
that as soon as you claim the abolition of the whole law, just
to get rid of the Sabbath, you have really taken from us the
only standard of righteous living ever given to the world,"
said Mr. Gregory.
"oh no, brother! For we now have the new law, and are under
its jurisdiction," said Dr. Spaulding.
"Well, I have heard that argument over and over," replied Mr.
Gregory, "but always to be convinced more fully of its weakness,
if not of its absurdity. Did not Jesus Christ clearly teach, all
through the Sermon of the Mount, the inviolability of the law?
Just read Matthew 5:17, 18 and onward and you'll see. And did
not Paul, by inspiration, make the decisive statement that faith
establishes the law? See Romans 3:31. Then listen to James,
who actually quotes the sixth and seveth commandments and
shows what law means and, in close connection, directly calls
it 'the Royal Law, ' 'The Law of Liberty,' the law by which men
are finally to be judged. James 2:8-12. Brother, the 'new law' of
which you speak is only the Decalogue made new by the life and
power of Jesus Christ. And that law made new includes the
Sabbath, and no one can escape it. Can't you see that?"

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To be continued.....