Installement forty-one.

Dr. Spaulding is now facing tough questions from Mr. Gregory regarding
the truth of the Sabbath.
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Installment Forty-one:

"Mr. Gregory, you are down to the real heart now," was Dr. Spaulding's
reply, "and I'm going to be frank. I am going to tell you what I have never
breathed to a soul before; everything you have said is true. Without any
doubt, Sunday as a day of rest is only a child of apostasy. There is not a
snatch of evidence, in any of the writings of the fathers, to prove that it
has any claim to divine sanction. But I have looked at the matter from
another angle - I have given respectful consideration to the thought that
as Sunday was the day of resurrection, we could properly celebrate that
glorious event by worshiping on that day. I must say, though, that if I
were on my dying bed, I should not want to make any strong claim for
that practice. Certainly God never commanded it."
"Then tell me, Dr. Spaulding," said Mrs. Gregory, "how in the world could
you stand before the people every week and teach something of which you
were not absolutely sure? Don't you believe the Bible?"
"Mrs. Gregory, let me bear my heart a bit further. You have now suggested
the real difficulty of the whole proposition. I believe I have been playing with
the word of God. I recognize that there has come into my life something
which has undermined my old-time confidence. The Bible has ceased to be
a really authoritative divine record. I have treated it, in a measure, as though
it were from men rather than from the Lord; and on that account, I have
argued just to carry my point and not to find the truth."
"I have done the same to some extent," said Mr. Gregory.
"Well, are you both intending to continue that course? asked Mrs. Gregory.
"It seems to me that God is trying very hard today to help us all change."
"And become Sabbatarians, Mrs. Gregory?" Dr. Spaulding questioned.
"I didn't say that, yet maybe that is what any true and complete change
would mean. You know, Dr. Spaulding, that if we do take God's word as an
inspired oracle and as our only guide in living, there is no escaping the fact
that we are under absolute moral obligation to obey the fourth command-
ment. Isn't that so?"
"Certainly." was the answer. "There is not a hint that any other day was
divinely set apart."
"So far as the Bible is concerned, then, the Sabbatarians are correct, are
they not?"
"Yes, without a doubt, but oh the idea of keeping a day different from
the rest! That hurts me. Why, one actually becomes the laughingstock
of society. I myself have called the seventh-day people 'Christ-killers'
and 'fanatics.' "
"You certainly have," said Mr. Gregory. "Those were the terms you
were using yesterday when we were interrupted by the cry 'Woman
Overboard!' "
"Well, I never knew before that ministers of the Gospel were so unwilling
to yield to what they knew to be right. And do you mean to tell me that
there are others in the pulpit who talk one thing and believe another?"
exclaimed Mrs. Gregory.
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To be continued...