4. As a less definite modification of this last view we may mention, finally, that others have regarded the phrase in question as meaning simply " the day of the Lord," the substantive being merely exchanged for the adjective, as in 1 Cor. xi, 20 : icvptaKov otinvov, "the Lord's Supper," which woidd make it merely synony- mous with the generally expected temporal appearance of Christ on earth : }) y'lfiepa Kvpiov, " the day of the Lord" (1 Thess. v, 2). Such a use of the adjective be- came extremely common in the following ages, as we have repeatedly in the fathers the corresponding ex- pressions Dominicte crucis, " the Lord's cross ;" Domin- ican nativitatis, " the Lord's nativity" (Tertullian, De Idol. p. 5) ; \oyiu)v KvpiaKMV (Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. iii, 9). According to their view, the passage would mean, " In the spirit I was present at the day of the Lord," the word "day" being used for any signal manifestation (possibly in allusion to Joel ii, 31\ as in John viii, 56: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day." The peculiar use of the word I'lfifpa, as referring to a period of ascenden- cy, appears remarkably in 1 Cor. iv, 3, where dvSrpu)- irivriQ I'jp'fpaQ is rendered "man's judgment." Never- theless, this interpretation, besides the objection of its vagueness as a date, is clogged with all the dilHculties that attach to the preceding one.
All other conjectures upon this point maybe permit- ted to confute themselves, but the following cavil is too curious to be omitted. In Scripture the first day of the week is called ?) fiia aaliliaTwv, in post-scriptural writ- ers it is called j) Kypia/cj) 'Ufikpa as well; therefore the Itook of Revelation is not to be ascribed to an apos- tle, or, in other words, is not part of Scripture. The logic of this argument is only surpassed by its boldness. It says, in effect, because post-scriptural writers have these two designations for the first day of the week, thervfore scriptural writers must be confined to one of them. It were surely more reasonable to suppose that the adoption by post-scriptural writers of a phrase so pre-eminently Christian as >) Y^vpiiiK)) 'Hufpa to denote the first day of the week, and a day so especially mark- ed, can be traceable to nothing else than an apostle's use of that phrase in the same meaning.
II. Jun-l^ XoHces of this Christian Observance. — Sup- posing, then, that // Ki'pmKi) 'Hpi-pn of St. John is the Lord's day, as now applied to the first day of the mod- ern week, we have to inquire here, What do we gather from holy Scripture concerning that institution ? How is it s]i()ken of by early writers up to the time of Con- stantine? What change, if any, was brought upon it by the celebrated edict of that emperor, whom some have declared to have been its originator V
1. Scripture says very little concerning it, but that little seems to indicate that tlie divinely-inspired apos- tles, by tiieir practice and by their precepts, marked the first day of the week as a day for meeting together to break bread, for communicating and receiving instruc-
tion, for laying up offerings in store for charitable pur- poses, for occupation in holy thought and prayer. The first day of the week so devoted seems also to have been tlie day of the Lord's resurrection, and therefore to have been especially likely to be chosen for such purposes by those who " preached Jesus and the resurrection."
The Lord rose on the first day of the week (ry fita aajijiuTiov), and appeared, on the very day of bis rising, to his followers on five distmct occasions — to Mary Mag- dalene, to the other women, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to St. Peter separately, to ten apostles collected together. After eight days {jitd' I'lfiipacj oktw'), that is, according to the ordinary reckoning, on the first day of the next week, he appeared to the eleven (John XX, 2G). He does not seem to have appeared in the in- terval— it may be to render that day especially notice- able by the apostles, or it may be for other reasons. But, however this question be settled, on the day of Pen- tecost, which in that year feU on the first day of the week (see Bramhall, Disc, of the Sabbath and Lord's Day, in Works, v, 51, Oxford edition), "they were all with one accord in one place," had spiritual gifts con- ferred on them, and in their turn began to communicate those gifts, as accompaniments of instruction, to others. At Troas (Acts xx, 7), many years after the occurrence at Pentecost, when Christianity had begun to assume something like a settled form, St. Luke records the fol- lowing circumstances : St. Paul and his companions ar- rived there, and " abode seven days, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." From the state- ment that " Paul continued his speech till midnight," it has been inferred by some that the assembly commenced after sunset on the Sabbath, at which hour the first day of the week had commenced, according to the Jewish reckoning ( Jahn's Bibl. A niiq. § 398), which would hard- ly agree with the idea of a commemoration of the res- urrection. But further, the words of this passage, 'Ev Si Ty fiiif Tiov aajijidTOiv, awriy^iivwv tuiv fia^rjriov roi} KXaaai dprov .... have been by some considered to imply that such a weekly observance was then the established custom ; yet it is obvious that the mode of expression would be just as applicable if they had been in the practice of assembling daily. Still the whole aim of the narrative favors the reference to what is now known as Sunday. In 1 Cor. xvi, 1,2, St. Paul -smtes thus : " Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches in Galatia, even so do ye : Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." This direc- tion, it is true, is not connected with any mention of pub- lic worship or assemblies on that day. But this has naturally been inferred; and the regulation has been supposed to have a reference to the tenets of the Jewish converts, who considered it unlawful to touch money oa the Sabbath (Vitringa, De Synagof/d, translat. by Ber- nard, p. 75-167). In consideration for them, therefore, the apostle directs the collection to be made on the fol- lowing day, on which secular business was lawful ; or, as Cocceius observes, they regarded the day "non ut festum, sed ut tpyacriyuoi'" (not as a feast, but as a work- ing day ; Yitringa, p. 77). Again, the phrase pia tCjv aajilSdriov is generally understood to be, according to the Jewish mode of naming the days of the \vcek, the common expression for the first day. Yet it has been differently construed by some, who render it " upon oTie of the days of the week" (I'lacfsfor the Times, ii, 1, 16). In Ileb. X, 25, the correspondents of the writer are de- sired "not to forsake the assembling of themselves to- gether, as the manner of some is, but to exhort one an- other," an injunction which seems to imply that a reg- ular day for such assembling existed, and was well known; for otherwise no rebuke would lie. Lastly, in the passage given above, St. John describes himself as being in the Spirit " on the Lord's day." Taken separately, perhaps, and even all together, these