Around Old Bethany Part 8

"Now, over and against these statements of Christian Science, let us place the immutable Word of G.o.d.

"1. Man is not matter; he is not brains, blood, or bones.

"The very first word in inspiration contradicts this principle in Christian Science. 'In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1). The creation of man contradicts Christian Science.

Listen--'And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' (Gen. 2:7).

"So there is such a thing as man composed of matter such as body, and blood, and bones.

"2. Man is incapable of sin.

"Let us see what the Bible says of this proposition," continued Robert.

"'For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of G.o.d' (Rom. 3:23).

"'Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures' (1 Cor. 15:3).

"'He shall save his people from their sins' (Matt. 1:21).

"3. Man is incapable of sickness.

"'Is any sick among you' what shall he do?" asked Robert, quoting Jas. 5:14, 15. "Let him deny that he is sick, and claim that he is incapable of being sick? No. 'Let him call for the elders ... and the prayer of faith shall save the sick.'

"David said of the Lord, 'Who healeth all thy diseases' (Psa. 103:3).

"4. Man is incapable of death.

"It seems that no scripture is needed to refute this falsehood. Men of past ages are dead. Mrs. Eddy herself will die, all Christian Scientists die, for 'it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.'"

"My, the Bible is hard on Christian Science doctrine, isn't it,"

said Kate Newby. "I did not think to read and compare Mrs. Eddy's statements with the Bible."

"Indeed it is," said Robert Davis. "The Bible states facts as they are. Man did sin, and all men have sinned. The plan of salvation, in all its vast provisions for men, came about because of man's need, because of man's fall. Man has sinned. Oh, it is all too plain to deny. The bruised and wounded hearts of mothers and wives, the bowed heads of grief-stricken fathers over the sins of their loved ones, prove all too painfully that sin is real."

"I know it is, too," said Jake Newby. "My heart yearns for deliverance from sin right now. Kate, turn from this deception. You see it is not right. It denies facts."

"Now, as a matter of fact," said Robert Davis, "mind has considerable influence over matter, but, after saying that, it is not necessary to go to the absurd extent as to deny that there is matter."

"I see it now," said Kate, "there is a subtle connection between mind and our bodies, but I see that if, because of that, I should deny facts, my state would be no better and probably worse. I give up the whole system as being contrary to reason, sense, and the Scriptures."

A few days after this Robert was called to Kansas City on business, where he remained a week. Now, it so happened that while he was away from home on this business trip, a colporteur of the Seventh-Day Adventists denomination came through the country and sold Mary Davis the book ent.i.tled Daniel and the Revelation, also several tracts, one of which was ent.i.tled "Who Changed the Sabbath?" Mary Davis had never before heard of anything on the Sabbath question, and when the colporteur told her about how the Sabbath had been changed from Sat.u.r.day to Sunday (according to Adventist theories), and how they, the Adventists, were in a great reformation to restore the Sabbath-day, she was considerably interested. Open-hearted for truth, she was peculiarly susceptible at that time to the claims of Adventism.

Mary spent the next few days in reading her newly bought literature.

It seemed plausible to her that if G.o.d gave the Ten Commandments as a perpetual covenant, the seventh day should still be kept. The more she read the more she was convinced. By the time Robert returned she had begun to count herself a seventh-day keeper. Robert Davis was surprised beyond measure when he returned and found his house full of Advent literature.

"Well, Mary dear, what does all this mean?" asked Robert kindly.

"Why, Robert," she said, "while you were gone a colporteur came here with these books. He seemed so earnest and he talked for hours about a reformation and how the Catholics had changed the Sabbath and about how G.o.d had set himself to restore the day to Christendom. I have been reading the books and they make it very plain that we ought to keep Sat.u.r.day."

"Now, come here, dear," said Robert, "let me point out to you the false and unscriptural position which these zealots hold."

Mary felt a little indignant at this, but she complied, willing to know the truth. However, she was secretly determined to keep the Sabbath-day unless very good reasons were shown why she should not.

"First, Mary, let me ask a few questions," said Robert. "Did the colporteur say anything about living holy or nearer to G.o.d?"

"No," said Mary, "he talked almost exclusively about the Sabbath-day."

"Very well," said Robert. "Did he say the Ten Commandments were still in full force?"

"Yes, he did, Robert, and he made it very plain that G.o.d's law could not change," said Mary.

"Did he say the Catholics changed the Sabbath-day from Sat.u.r.day to Sunday?" asked Robert.

"Yes, he did," replied Mary.

"Now, Mary, get your Bible, please," said Robert. "Turn to 2 Cor. 3, and begin reading with verse 7."

"'But if the ministration of death, written and engraven with stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:'" read Mary.

"You need not read the rest of the chapter now," said Robert, "but this verse and the verses following show beyond all question or argument that the Ten Commandments were a 'ministration of death' and were abolished in Christ. That law was glorious, but that glory was eclipsed by the greater glory of the New Testament law. Now turn to Gal. 4:21-31. Read verse 24 first."

"'Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar,'"

read Mary.

"This pa.s.sage proves," said Robert, "that Paul was showing by Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, Isaac by Sarah, and Ishmael by Hagar, that the covenant at Sinai was to be cast out, just as Hagar and Ishmael were cast out of Abraham's home. The verse you read declares that the Ten Commandments, covenant, law, and all from Sinai correspond with Hagar. What happened to her? She was cast out. So the old Ten-Commandment law is cast out in favor of a better one. Now turn to Hebrews 8 and read the last verse."

"'In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.'"

"Plain enough, isn't it, Mary?" asked Robert. "G.o.d found fault with the old covenant (see verse 7) and so he took it away."

"But, Robert," said Mary, "does this mean that it is right to lie, or steal, or kill? If the Ten Commandments are done away with, how will these sins be condemned?" And Mary was really puzzled about it.

"Why, Mary," said Robert, "the Ten Commandments did not make it wrong to lie and steal. It was always wrong to lie and steal even before there were any Ten Commandments. Wrong is wrong. Now in Christ's law every possible wrong is condemned. Do you see the point? Now, the Sabbath-day law is the Fourth Commandment of the Ten. But that Sabbath law was given to the Jews only. They could keep it where they lived, but everybody can't keep it now at the same time even if they should want to."

"You see we live on a round earth," continued Robert, "and the sun shines somewhere all the time. Now Israel could keep the seventh day all right in Palestine, but suppose that they had been scattered over all the earth? Then a Jew in Australia would be keeping his Sabbath about eighteen hours before his brother in California. The day begins out in the Pacific Ocean, not because it really begins there, but because for the sake of convenience it was fixed to begin there. The whole arrangement is artificial. Now, would G.o.d put so much emphasis on keeping a certain day under such circ.u.mstances? Adventists think it is very wrong to work on the Sabbath-day, yet some of them work as much as twelve hours while their brethren on the other side of the earth are keeping their Sabbath. It is impossible for all the earth to keep the Sabbath at the same time."

"Well, I never thought of that before," said Mary, as her Adventism began to leave her about as quickly as it came.

"Now the fact is, too, Mary," said Robert, "that the Catholics did not change the Sabbath-day. They may claim to have done so and the Adventists accept the claim, it appears, but the early Christians kept the first day of the week Sunday, long before there was any Roman Catholic Church or any pope at Rome. Adventists twist history here just like they twist the Scriptures."

"Listen here, dear," continued Robert. "'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day' (Rev. 1:10). What day was the Lord's Day? It was not Sat.u.r.day, the Sabbath. Pentecost, that grand birthday of the church, was on Sunday (Acts 2:1-4). The disciples met to break bread on the first day of the week--Sunday (Acts 20:6, 7). The laying-by of the collection for the saints was made on the first day of the week--Sunday (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). On the Sabbath-day Jesus lay cold in death in the borrowed tomb while the sad and disconsolate disciples mourned the death of the Prince of Israel, their Savior. But on Sunday morning Christ arose triumphant (John 20:1) and in memory of it Christians began early to observe Sunday as a day of worship."

"Mary, you were just about to be entangled with a yoke of bondage, a yoke of man's making," said Robert. "This Sabbath doctrine of the Adventists is utterly man-made. In their writings the apostles did not teach the keeping of it; so why go away back to bleak and smoking Sinai for a law to keep when Jesus offers us a new covenant? Why those Adventists are trying to prop up a law that was old, and decayed, and ready to vanish away in Paul's time."

"Did Constantine make a Sunday law, Robert?" asked Mary.

"Yes, he did. In A.D. 321, Constantine legalized the day of worship that the Christians already were using," said Robert. "The Adventists claim that Constantine changed the day, but he did not. There is no history at all to support their theory. He was the first Christian emperor of Rome and simply gave legal sanction to a day already set apart for worship, which was Sunday. This was long before there was any pope."

"Well, I am very glad you came home when you did," said Mary. "It was a providence. I see the snare set for me, and I shall fly out from it, by G.o.d's grace."