THE SABBATH QUESTION.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2573, 17 May 1871, Page 2

THE SABBATH QUESTION.

To the Editor. Sir,—Whether viewed as a local or re* ligious institution, the Sabbath, as a day of rest, is necessary to the existence of society, and the brute beasts, if they could speak, would vociferate loudly in its behalf. To this extent Mr Sutherland is correct—-its desecration, by the opening up of public works, would be a sin of very great magnitude against society. ° But he is wholly wrong in attempting to argue this question, by quoting a verse of bcripture.as he does. As a scholar, conveisaut with ancient history, he must know that King James’s version of Scripture was copied from copies copied from other copies, and so on, backwards to the original MSS, which, at the date of reliable transcribing, wore in the first place various and different; and in the second, in many respects defaced, worn out, and illegible. On these ancient MSS.’s of Hebrew and Greek, a speck, even like fly dirt, would turn singular into plural, and plural into singular, and so comp;etely alter the sense. This being undeniable, the best critics admit that there are some 1500 known errors, more or less important, in the authorised version, and others suspected, but which, by reason of large holes and blanks in the old parchment ”, never can be known about; aud to correct as many of them as possible, the British Government have authorised a thorough revision. Upwards of 1000 standard works have issued from the Press this century, denying dogmas founded upon such scraps of ” capture by an ignorant priesthood, and some 50,000 papers for the people are said to be issued iu England every week, having a similar tendency. Until these matters are settled, the true faith must remain an open question, and dogmatising upon the Sabbath or o’.her questions is out of the question. My na ne is Horv.vl.