The Seventh Day Sabbath | Page 9

Still, there are many other texts relating to the law,
presented by the opposite view, to show that the law respecting the
Sabbath is abolished. Let us look at some of them. But it will be
necessary in the first place, to make a clear distinction between what is
commonly called the
MORAL AND CEREMONIAL LAW.
Bro. S. S. Snow, in writing on this subject about one year ago, in the
Jubilee Standard, asks "by what authority this distinction is made." He
says "neither our Lord or his apostles made any such distinction. When
speaking of the law they never used the terms moral or ceremonial, but

always spake of it as a whole, calling it the law," and further says, "we
must have a thus saith the Lord to satisfy us." So I say! I have no doubt
but thousands have stopped here; indeed, it has been to me the most
difficult point to settle in this whole question. Now let us come to it
fairly, and we shall see that the old and new testament writers have ever
kept up the distinction, although it may in some parts seem to be one
code of laws.
From the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where the law of the Sabbath
was re-enacted, and onward, we find two distinct codes of laws. The
first was written on two tables of stone with the finger of God; the
second was taken down from his mouth and recorded by the hand of
Moses in a book. Paul calls the latter carnal commandments and
ordinances, (rites or ceremonies) which come under two heads,
religious and political, and are Moses's. The first code is God's. For
proof see Exo. xvi: 28, 30. "How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws: see for that the Lord hath given you the
Sabbath; and so the people rested on the Sabbath day." Also in the book
of Leviticus, where the law of ceremonies is given to the levites or
priests, Moses closes with these words: "These are the commandments
which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount
Sinai;" in Heb. vii: 16, 18, called carnal commandments.
Again, "the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into the Mount, and
be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and
commandments which I have written." Exo. xxiv: 12. Further he calls
them the ten [17]commandments--xxxiv: 28. And Moses puts them
"into the ark"--xl: 20. Now for the second code of laws. See Deut. xxxi:
9, 10; and xxiv: 26. "And when Moses had finished writing the law, he
commanded them to put this book of the LAW (of ceremonies) in the
side of the ark of the covenant, to be read at the end of every seven
years." This is not the song of deliverance by Moses in the forty-fourth
verse of the thirty-second chapter. For, eight hundred and sixty-seven
years after this, in the reign of Josiah, king of Israel, the high priest
found this book in "the Temple," (2 Chron. xxxiv: 14, 15) which moved
all Israel. One hundred and seventy-nine years further onward, Ezra
was from morning till noon reading out of this book. Neh. viii: 3; Heb.

ix: 19. Paul's comments.
Bro. Snow says in regard to the commandments, "The principles of
moral conduct embraced in the law, was binding before the law was
given, (meaning that one of course at Mt. Sinai) and is binding now; it
is immutable and eternal! It is comprehended in one word, LOVE." If
he meant, as we believe he did, to comprehend what Jesus did in the
xix. and xxii. chap. Matt. 37-40, and Paul, and James, and John after
him, then we ask how it is possible for him to reject from that code of
laws, the only one, the seventh day rest, that was promulgated at the
beginning, while at the same time the other nine, that were not written
until about three thousand years afterwards, were eternally binding;
without doubt, the whole ten commandments are co-eval and
co-extensive with sin. Again, he says, "We readily admit, that if what is
called the decalogue or ten commandments be binding on us, we ought
to observe the seventh day, for that was appointed by the Lord as the
Sabbath day." Let us see if Jesus and his apostles do not make it
binding. First then, the distinction of the two codes by Jesus.
The Pharisees ask the Saviour why his disciples transgress the tradition
of the elders? His answer is, "Why do ye transgress the commandment
of God?" and he immediately cites them to the fifth commandment,
Matt. xv: 25. Again, "The law and the prophets were until John; since
that time the kingdom of God is preached,"