think it will be
fair to premise, that about midnight was the middle of [37]Paul's
meeting; at any rate there is but one midnight to a twenty-four hour
day. We say that Sunday, the first day of the week, does not commence
until 12 o'clock Saturday night. Then it is very clear, if he is
preaching on the first day till midnight, according to our reckoning it
must be on Sunday night, and his celebrating the Lord's supper after
midnight would make it that he broke bread on _Monday, the second day_,
and that the day time on Sunday is not included, unless he had continued
his speech through the day till midnight. Now the text says that on the
first day of the week they came together to break bread. To _prove that
they did break bread on that day_, we must take the mode in which the
Jews computed time, and allow the first day of the week to begin at 6
o'clock on Saturday evening, and to follow Paul's example, pay no regard
to the first day, after daylight, but to travel, &c. If _our_ mode of
time is taken, they broke bread on the second day, and that would
destroy the meaning of the text. Here then, in this text, is the _only_
argument that can be adduced in the scriptures of divine truth, for a
_change of the perpetual seventh day_ Sabbath of the Lord our God to the
first day of the week.

Now I'll venture the assertion, that there is no law or commandment
recorded in the bible, that God has held so sacred among men, as the
keeping of His Sabbath. Where then, I ask, is the living man that dare
stand before God and declare that here is the change for the church of
God to keep the first instead of the seventh day of the week for the
Sabbath. If it could be proved that Paul preached here all of the first
day, the only inference that could be drawn, would be, to break bread on
that day!

There is one more point worthy of our attention, that is, the teaching
and example of Jesus. I have been told by one that is looked up to as a
strong believer in the second coming of the Lord this fall, that Jesus
broke the Sabbath. Jesus says, I have kept my Father's commandments. It
is said that he 'broke the Sabbath,' because he allowed his disciples to
pluck the corn and eat it on that day, and the Pharisees condemned them.
He says, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the _guiltless_." Then they were
not _guilty_. See Deut. xxiii: 25. He immediately cites them to David
and his