Installment twelve

On our previous entry we left Captain Mann searching for the right texts
to show Harold that Sunday is the correct day of rest.
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Installment Twelve:

It had been several years since the question of the Sabbath had troubled
Captain Mann. Never, in fact, had he attempted to locate the passages in
which the word "Sunday" occurred. He felt quite certain, though, that
they were in the Gospels and in the story of the resurrection. But after
much careful searching, he did not find what he was after.
"I have probably forgotten the connections," he said to himself as he
turned to his concordance. But even the reference pages, for some reason,
had overlooked the Sunday passages. To be sure, the reference pages did
not profess to give every word in the Bible.
"Sunday. S-u-n-d-a-y. where did I see it?" he said. "The young man will
think it very strange in me to call him in here to do something I cannot do."
Then a happy thought occurred to him. "There is Mr. Mitchell, an old
Orthodox minister. I will ask him, and also get other helpful information."
Mr. Mitchell welcomed the captain to his stateroom, pleased to be honored
by a call from the now famous captain.
"Pardon me, Mr. Mitchell," the captain said, "but I am here to ask a personal
favor. As you may know, we have on board, as a member of my crew, a young
man who has just experienced a remarkable conversion. You may have heard
him mentioned as 'the man with the marked Bible.' He has an interesting
history. We also have aboard, as a passenger, a certain Mr. Anderson, of the
seventh-day people, who seems to have this young man under his influence.
He will sooner or later seek to trouble him over the Sabbath matter. So I am
taking an interest in the case. I have asked the young man to call on me this
evening, and I have promised to show him that Sunday is the true day of
worship. Now, what I wish you to do is to put me in touch with all the texts
in which Sunday is mentioned."
Was it a smile, a frown, or a look of disappointment and chagrin that stole
over Mr. Mitchell's face as he heard the captain's request? Whatever it was,
it did not express pleasure.
"Captain," said he, "there are no such texts. You will have to acknowledge
that the word Sunday is not between the two lids of the Book of God."
"But, Mr. Mitchell, I could almost take an oath that I have seen it and
read it."
"Not in the Bible, captain. You will find mention a few times of the first
day of the week, but not of Sunday; and even the first day of the week
is not spoken of as being sacred. You have undertaken a difficult task in
attempting to show reasons for Sunday keeping from the Scriptures."
Though he had lived sixty years, Captain Mann had never heard even
a hint of this which Mr. Mitchell had now so boldly asserted. He was
shocked, if not almost stunned. It could not be true, he reasoned. Was
he himself the deluded one? He hesitated.
Mr. Mitchell was a man of brilliant intellect. For more than thirty years
he had stood before the public, and he was known in both Occident and
Orient as a fearless defender of the church and its work. With infidel,
with atheist, with foe in and out of the church, he had never feared to
battle, and he had not failed to win laurels. However, he had always and
consistently refused to enter into argument with th Sabbatarians, for
he knew the impossibility of making good his case. It was only logical,
therefore, that he addressed the captain as he did and bluntly stated
the truth he knew.
Seeing that the captain had been greatly perturbed by his plain, matter
-of-fact statement, he proceeded to explain why, without a "thus saith
the Lord" he still observed the first day of the week.
"Captain," he continued, "any reliable student of church history will
tell you that there is only one foundation for our practice of Sunday
worship, and that is the custom of the early church. Both Christ and
his apostles, and those immediately associated with them, believed
in and practiced the observance of the seventh-day; the Sabbath of
the Fourth Commandment. Not for several hudred years after Christ
was there any such thing as a sacred regard for Sunday. The change
was brought about gradually, through the influence of churchmen;
but we must not suppose that they had divine sanction for it. It was
simply the outgrowth of a change in the spirit of the times. Over and
over again I have had to tell my friends in private what I have said
to you. And I have said to them what I must now say to you also -
that though the change came about in a way with which we might
not really agree, yet it came, and the only reasonable course for us
is to endorse it and go ahead with God's great church to evangelize
the world. It is too late now to attempt a reformation. And now a
bit of advice: Give the matter a wide berth. The agitation of the
question only creates many embarrassing situations, and gives the
few who still believe in the absolute requirements of the moral law
an opportunity to advance their arguments; which are practically
unanswerable. I think you will readily see my point. Deftly turn the
young man aside with the thought that God is love, that He has led
His church throughout the ages and still leads it. While we may not
be able to explain all, we may safely go ahead with the great work
of preaching Christ, and wait another time to have some of our
queries removed. This usually satisfies, and undoubtedly will in
this case."
"Thank you, doctor," was the captain's response as he politely
withdrew and returned to his stateroom.
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To be continued....