Bible Readings for the Home Circle—1914 - A New You Ministry

BIBLE READINGS
His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and
stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. “I have kept My Father’s commandments.”
John 15:10.
12. Did Christ’s followers keep the Sabbath after His death
“And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the
Sabbath day according to the commandments. Luke 23:56. {453
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13. Did they observe it after His resurrection
“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath
days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.” Acts 17:2. See also Acts
13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 18:1–4, 11.
14. On what day does John say he was in the Spirit
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Rev. 1:10.
15. What day does the commandment say is the Lord’s
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Ex. 20:10.
16. By whose Spirit did the prophets write
“The Spirit of Christ which was in them.” 1 Peter 1:11.
17. What does the prophet Isaiah, speaking for God through this
Spirit of Christ, call the seventh-day Sabbath
“My holy day.” Isa. 58:13.
18. Does Christ anywhere in the Scriptures ever claim any other day
of the week than the seventh as His
He does not.
NOTE .— We do not need to speculate as to what day is the Lord’s, if
we will but take the Word of God for our guide, for loyalty to which
John was banished to the isle of Patmos. See Rev. 1:9.
19. If John, therefore, referred to a day of the week, on what day
must he have been in the Spirit
The seventh day.
NOTE .— No other day of the week in all the Bible is claimed by God as
His day. During the second, third, and fourth centuries of the Christian
era, when apostasy came in like a flood, men, without any warrant or
command of Scripture, thinking to do honor to Christ and despite to
the Jews who crucified Christ, began to neglect the Sabbath of the
fourth commandment, and to honor the day of the week on which
Christ rose from the dead, the first day, as “the Lord’s day,” until
finally the Sabbath was almost wholly lost sight of, and the Sunday
quite generally took its place. But there was no more warrant for this
change in the divine and unchangeable law of God than there was for
other errors and changes which crept into the professed Christian
church during this same time, such as abstaining from meat on Friday
THE LORD’S DAY
in honor of the crucifixion; Mariolatry, or the worship of the Virgin
Mary; the mass; purgatory; indulgences; prayers for the dead; saintworship;
and the human vicarship of Christ. There was no more divine
authority for one than for the others. All came in through apostasy.
The Bible knows but one true and living God, one Lawgiver, one Mediator
between God and man, one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, one
body, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one Sabbath.
See Jer. 10:10–12; Rev. 14:6, 7; 1 Tim. 2:5; Eph. 4:4–6; Ex. 20:8–11.
WALKING AS HE WALKED
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1. THE way of the Christian life was set for us by Jesus Himself.
“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as
He walked.” 1 John 2:6. “Leaving us an example, that ye should follow His
steps.” 1 Peter 2:21.
2. The footprints that Jesus set for us to follow, lead unvaryingly
along the way of God’s commandments.
“I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” John
15:10. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 1
John 5:3.
3. The pathway is the same today as when Jesus walked in Judea.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Heb. 13:8.
4. When it is shown that Jesus kept the seventh day holy as our
example, many ask, “Why have not scholars and churchmen found
out that there is no Bible authority for first-day sacredness {455
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The answer is, They have found it so, and have freely declared the
fact.
TESTIMONY OF EMINENT MEN
5. The extracts that follow are from noted clergymen, scholars, and
eminent writers, all of whom doubtless kept the Sunday as a matter
of church custom. But they nevertheless bear witness that there is
no Bible command for it.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND WRITERS
Archdeacon Farrar: “The Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day of the
week.” “The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious
transference of the one day to the other.” “The Voice From Sinai,”
pages 163, 167.
Canon Eyton (of Westminster): “There is no word, no hint, in the New
Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday.” “The observance of Ash