ELDER CORNELL’S EIGHTH SPEECH

I am called upon to show how a penalty can be abolished and the law remain in force. That is easy. Bro. Grant has given us a rule for it. He admits the nine commands are brought over without change. But several of those commands had the stoning penalty. Now, if he will think how he brought over the nine without the penalty, his difficulty in regard to the fourth will be solved.DSQ63 40.1

He thinks I had no right to quote Prof. Hudson, because he does not keep the seventh day. But that is the very reason I did quote. All the better for us if his own men testify against him.DSQ63 40.2

My argument on Matthew 5:17, is answered by asserting that Christ fulfilled it, i. e., he finished up the old form and remodeled it; that it has become Christ’s now; for he has given us new constitution. I will now test his new constitution by his own definition of the word “fulfill.” Galatians 6:2. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.DSQ63 40.3

The Galatian brethren did fulfill the law of Christ, i. e., says Bro. Grant’s rule, They finished it up and remodeled it!!DSQ63 40.4

The word fulfill signifies to keep, to perform, to obey. “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15.DSQ63 40.5

My friend now finds that his position that all ten of the commands were abolished will not hold, so he takes it back and says the nine commands never were abolished; that these existed before the covenant was made on Sinai, and hence they art still binding. Now if I can show that the Sabbath existed before the Sinaitic covenant, he has lost the question again.DSQ63 40.6

When the people were in the wilderness of sin, between Elam and Sinai, about thirty days before the law was given on Sinai, they were reproved for breaking the Sabbath. Exodus 16:28, 29. “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”DSQ63 41.1

Now, if Bro. Grant’s argument is good, that the nine precepts are binding now because they existed before Sinai, then the Sabbath is now binding for the same reason.DSQ63 41.2

But he has overthrown his position that the nine commands existed before given to Israel, by his quotation in Deuteronomy 5:2, 3. “The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,” etc., and remarks, If it was not made before, it wan not binding before. But he admits the nine were binding before, therefore his argument on Deuteronomy 5:2, is null and void.DSQ63 41.3

My friend in bin last speech, says that 2 Corinthians 3:7, shows what was abolished, even the law written on stone. So he now has all ten abolished again! They are abolished and they are not abolished, just as occasion requires. How difficult it is to get rid of that troublesome Sabbath.DSQ63 41.4

“O, fourth command, what trouble hast thou been,
Source of vexation to the sons of men!DSQ63 41.5

How have they tugged and toiled, with various plans,
To break thy power, and shirk thy just demands!”DSQ63 42.1

Our argument on the reason for the Sabbath is yet unanswered. Why keep the seventh day? Because God rested upon it and hallowed it. If this was a sufficient reason at Sinai, it was from creation, and it is sufficient still. I will now show that a commandment, or that which was equivalent, was given at creation for keeping the Sabbath. Genesis 2:3. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”DSQ63 42.2

The Lord “sanctified it.” What is the meaning of the word sanctify? Webster says, to sanctify is “to separate, set apart, or appoint to a holy, sacred or religious use.” “Sanctify a fast.” i. e., appoint a fast, call the people to observe a fast. God set apart the Sabbath by proclamation, that it should be kept holy.DSQ63 42.3