^ 
 
 v v 
 
 THE SABBATH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE SUNDAY. 
 
 Part 
 
 t, 
 
 • 
 
 « 
 
 Argument 
 
 Part 
 
 ii, 
 
 
 BY 
 
 Wistory, 
 
 
 Key. 
 
 A. 
 
 H. LEWIS, A. M. 
 
 AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY, 
 ALFRED CENTRE, N. Y. 
 
 A. H. Lewis, (ten'l Agent. 
 
 1870. 
 

 vfr* 
 
 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1870, BY A. H. LEWIS, IN THE OFFICE OF 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 :o:- 
 
 O-Sabbathism has borne a terrible 
 harvest of immorality and infidelity 
 in Europe. The puritan theory of 
 a " change of day" has been tried 
 in America and found wanting. It is dying, 
 as all compromises must die, and the Puritan 
 Sunday is already a thing of the past. Hurried 
 on by the influences which pour in upon them 
 from Europe, the American people are rushing 
 into open No-Sabbathism and Sunday revelry. 
 Sabbath Eeform is, therefore, a vital question 
 in the American Church, and promises to soon 
 become prominent in American politics. 
 Meanwhile the religious leaders persist in 
 holding to dead theories and false interpreta- 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 tions, and plead for the power of civil law to 
 galvanize them into life. Good men, floating 
 amid the wreck, are calling for help ; praying 
 for light. Under such circumstances, the ap- 
 pearing of a book like this needs no explana- 
 tion or apology. It would be criminal to 
 remain silent. 
 
 The tide sets strongly against the plain 
 statement of the Bible, that the Seventh day 
 is the Sabbath of God, and a deadened pub- 
 lic conscience is slow to accept an unpopular 
 truth. Hence the triumph of the Sabbath 
 may be delayed, but it will finally come, for 
 God's promise is under it. The pencils of 
 light are already gliding upward in the east- 
 ern sky, and we trust that the morning is not 
 distant. But if we must wait long hours yet 
 in the slow-coming twilight, there is no doubt, 
 no fear as to the final result. Sunday-keeping, 
 though a gray haired error, is giving way and 
 God's children will accept and reverence that 
 which, more than all else, represents Him in 
 in human life, His Sabbath. We send these 
 pages forth, a plea for that Sabbath as the 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 only ground of true Sabbath Eeform. We 
 plead not in the spirit of narrow formalism, 
 nor for the letter of the law alone; but for 
 that broad, spiritual obedience which is the 
 proof of love, and which recognizes the truth 
 that the letter of a perfect law is but the 
 expression of the spirit of that law. We ask 
 no immunity from just criticism. We wait 
 for coming years to vindicate our cause ; years 
 in which men will have learned the folly of 
 fighting against God. 
 
 Sabbath reform now stands before the 
 American people in a position similar to that 
 which the Anti-Slavery Eeform occupied 
 thirty years ago. The truth is unpopular and 
 the Church supports those false theories which 
 hinder reform. The potentates laughed at 
 the burning words of Garrison when he flung 
 the Anti-Slavery banner to the breeze and 
 said : u lam in earnest Ivrill not equivocate. I 
 will not excuse. I will not retract a single inch, 
 AND I will be heard." But those words 
 were winged with truth, and burned their way 
 like coals from the altar of justice, and po- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 tentates have long since knelt in the dust 
 before them. Under God, we make those 
 words our own and " nail our banner to the 
 mast," over against the false theories of 
 Church and State concerning the Sabbath. 
 
 Many leaders in the Church know the truth, 
 but are unwilling to obey it — u He that Jcnoiveth 
 his master's will and doeth it not shall be beaten 
 with many stripes. 1 '' If the people catch sight 
 of the truth, these leaders quiet them by stig- 
 matizing the " Jewish Saturday" and boasting 
 of the majority who favor Sunday. Such 
 things cannot always be, justice has not lost 
 her sword, and God has not forgotten the 
 world. Our hope is in Him. In His name 
 these pages go forth, while we u labor and 
 wait" for the hour in which He will vindicate 
 the long-neglected Sabbath. 
 
 The original plan of this work included a 
 detailed history of Sunday and " Sunday 
 legislation," in Europe and America. But 
 it was found that such a work would be too 
 bulky for the purposes of this volume, and 
 that matter is reserved for another work. It 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 is also pertinent to say that the author alone, 
 and not the Society under whose auspices this 
 work is published, is responsible for the views 
 set forth in the following pages. 
 
 Alfred Centre, N. Y. A. H. L. 
 
 Sept 1870, 
 
CHAPTEB I 
 Apf^iori Argument. 
 
 HE patterns of all things must exist 
 as pure thoughts in the mind of 
 Jehovah before there can be any 
 outward creation. These pattern 
 thoughts are the laws by which the work of 
 creation is developed, and governed. There- 
 fore "law," in its pure, primary meaning, is 
 but another name for God's ideal. Hence no 
 primary law can be abrogated or changed ; for 
 God's ideas are perfect and absolute. Any 
 change or abrogation of primary laws must 
 destroy the creation or government which has 
 been developed according to those laws, and 
 is governed by them. Abrogate the law of 
 " gravitation," and all physical worlds are at 
 once destroyed. The same is true in moral 
 government. Even the disobedience of a 
 
10 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 member of the government produces discord, 
 and to a certain extent, breaks up the order of 
 the government. If the law-making power 
 shall change or abrogate the laws on which 
 the government rests, the government is 
 changed or destroyed. It is also a self-evident 
 truth that all primary laws must antedate 
 the government which is based upon them, 
 and all perfect laws must meet the necessities 
 which grow out of the relations between the 
 governor and the governed. Obedience on 
 the part of the governed is at once the sign of 
 fealty, and the means of blessing. 
 
 It is befitting to inquire in the light of the 
 foregoing principles, whether the Sabbath 
 Law is a primary law in moral government, 
 or only a temporary enactment made with 
 reference to a primary law. 
 
 The commemorative rest of Jehovah at the 
 close of His creative work is the first ex- 
 pression of the Sabbath idea. This rest follows 
 close upon the completion of the work, as 
 though it were a part of the original pattern. 
 And when it is remembered that the Sabbath 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 11 
 
 Law meets the demands which grow out of 
 our relations to God, which relations existed 
 from the birth of the race, the conclusion is 
 inevitable that the Sabbath Law was a primary 
 structural law in the moral universe, and like 
 all other primary laws, had its origin in the 
 mind of Jehovah "before the world was." 
 
 The idea of God as Creator is the all-embrac- 
 ing idea. His character as Law-giver, and 
 Eedeemer, flows from the idea of Creator. 
 Fealty to God, and our own highest good de- 
 mand that we constantly remember Him and 
 our relations to Him. Hence the Sabbath Law 
 links itself with this all-embracing idea of the 
 true God, the maker of heaven and of earth, 
 and holds it ever before us. A law which 
 thus forms the central thread of communion 
 between the Creator and the creature, which 
 thus meets the universal demands of our 
 nature in its relations to Him, which is God's 
 never-ceasing representative in "time," must 
 be as universal and enduring as the system of 
 which it is a part. 
 
 Man is a social as well as a religious being. 
 
12 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 In this dual nature the highest motive that 
 can enter into our relations to each other is, 
 " Love to man." This unites the race, and 
 linking with, "Love to God," leads us up to 
 Him. The universal expression of love to 
 God is worship. Social worship is, therefore, 
 the natural result of the highest action of 
 man's dual nature. But social worship could 
 never become universal or permanent without 
 a stated and definite time, fixed by the author 
 of man's nature and the object of His worship. 
 Illustration : If a governor orders an election 
 of officers, and appoints no time when the 
 election shall be held, there is not only a want 
 of wisdom in the arrangement, but the election 
 must be a failure. To say that God did not 
 pre-ordain the Sabbath Law, as' a structural 
 law in moral government, is to charge the 
 Perfect One with similar folly. This would 
 be a contradiction of terms, an absurdity. 
 
 Thus it is seen that God's relations to His 
 own work, our relations to Him, and our rela- 
 tions to each other, all combine to show that 
 the Sabbath Law must have been a primary, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 13 
 
 structural law of the moral government under 
 which we exist. Being such it can only be 
 abrogated by the annulling of all these rela- 
 tions, and the destruction of the government. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 The question which arises on the threshold 
 of the Scriptural argument concerning the 
 Sabbath, is this : 
 
 Can the Law of the Sabbath and the Day of 
 the Sabbath be separated? — Two points care- 
 fully examined, will answer this question. 
 
 (a) Why was the seventh day chosen as the 
 Sabbath? 
 
 (b) By virtue of what did it become the 
 Sabbath ? 
 
 (a) God could not commemorate the work of 
 creation until it was completed. It was not 
 completed until the close of the sixth day. 
 Hence no day previous to the seventh could 
 have been chosen as the Sabbath. Previous 
 to the Seventh day creation was only a 
 "becoming." With the opening of the 
 Seventh day it sprang into full being. This 
 
14 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 therefore, was creation's birth-day, and hence 
 the only day that could be chosen to commem- 
 orate the rest of God from the completed work 
 of creation. As one cannot celebrate his 
 birthday on a day earlier or later than that on 
 which his birth occurred, so Jehovah sancti- 
 fied the seventh as the only day which could 
 answer the original idea of the Sabbath Law. 
 Therefore the Sabbath Law and the Sabbath 
 Day designated by its author are inseparable. 
 Applied to any other day the law has no 
 meaning. 
 
 (b) The acts of Jehovah by which the 
 Seventh day was consecrated as the Sabbath. 
 God rested on that day, hence the sacredness 
 arising from His example can pertain to no 
 other day. God blessed the day and hallowed 
 it, because He had rested upon it. Thus the 
 elements of sacredness, and of commemorative- 
 ness are inseparably connected with the day. 
 If the law be applied to another day, it 
 becomes meaningless ; for the law demands a 
 day thus made sacred, and no other day than 
 the seventh could be made sacred for those 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 15 
 
 reasons. Nor can the seventh day cease to be 
 thus sacred, until it shall cease to be a fact 
 that God rested upon that day and blessed it. 
 This can never be. 
 
 Again, no other day than the seventh can 
 meet the demands of our own natures, since 
 no other day can keep God in mind through 
 its commemorative sacredness. Any other 
 day, observed for any reason not mentioned 
 in the law, has another language — speaks of 
 other things, and hence cannot speak to the 
 soul as God designed the Sabbath should 
 speak. Thus it appears that God chose the 
 Seventh day for good and sufficient reasons, 
 reasons which spring from the " eternal fitness 
 of things," and which co-exist with our race. 
 Therefore, if there be any Sabbath, it must be 
 the seventh day. The law centers around 
 the day, and is meaningless when applied to 
 any other. Much is said by certain writers 
 concerning the "Sabbath institution,' 1 as 
 though it were distinct from the Sabbath Law 
 and the Sabbath day. A glance will suffice 
 to show the illogicalness of such a claim. 
 
16 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 An institution is only the outgrowth of or- 
 ganific law. Eefuse or neglect to obey the 
 law and yon destroy the institution. Illustra- 
 tion : During the late "rebellion" the 
 institutions of the United States government 
 ceased to exist, wherever the laws of that 
 government were disobeyed. So he who re- 
 fuses to obey the Sabbath Law destroys, so 
 far as his power extends, the Sabbath 
 institution. 
 
 The second question which naturally 
 arises is this, Was the Sabbath Law knoivn to 
 men before the giving of the Decalogue at Mount 
 Sinai? — All the arguments presented in a, 
 former section to prove that the Sabbath Law 
 is a primary law will apply with equal force 
 to the above question. To these reasons the 
 following may be added. All the primary 
 relations between God and His creatures exist- 
 ed before the giving of the decalogue. All the 
 wants of man's nature existed during that 
 time; hence all laws made to meet these 
 relations and answer these wants must have 
 been co-existent with the relations and 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 17 
 
 demands. There was an especial demand for 
 a knowledge of the Sabbath daring this period, 
 as a safeguard against the prevailing tendency 
 to forget God, and accept heathenism. Be- 
 sides this, God having made the Sabbath 
 sacred at creation, it could have been no less 
 than sin to profane it at any time thereafter, 
 and God does not leave his creatures without 
 the knowledge requisite to obedience. Hence 
 we must conclude that the Sabbath was 
 known before the giving of the Law at Sinai. 
 This conclusion is in harmony with the mas- 
 terly argument of Paul in the epistle to the 
 Bomans,* in which he shows that since sin 
 existed "from Adam to Moses," therefore the 
 Law must have existed, for " Sin is not impu- 
 ted where there is no law." Christ proclaims 
 the same idea when he teaches the eternal 
 nature of the law, and the truth that "the 
 Sabbath was made for man, and not man for 
 the Sabbath."f In this Christ clearly indicates 
 that the Sabbath Law antedated the race and 
 
 * Romans, 5: 12-15 and 4: 15. 
 f Mark, 2: 27. 
 
18 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 was given for the especial benefit of the race. 
 Hence also his right, as " Lord of the Sabbath/ 1 
 to indicate how it ought to be observed, since 
 all things were made by Him. 
 
 The brief Scriptural record concerning the 
 period between the creation and the giving 
 of the Law confirms the foregoing conclu- 
 sions. In the second chapter of Genesis, 
 first to fourth verses, we have the history of 
 the instituting of the Sabbath in the follow- 
 ing words : 
 
 " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and 
 all the host of them." 
 
 " And on the seventh day God ended His work which 
 He had made ; and He rested on the Seventh day from 
 all His work which He had made." 
 
 "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." 
 
 This fact so full of deep meaning, and 
 inseparable from the history of creation could 
 not have been unknown to Adam and the 
 patriarchs who " walked with God," and 
 were taught by Him. Knowing of the exis- 
 tence of the Sabbath, they must have known 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 19 
 
 of its sacredness, and their duty to observe it. 
 The septenary division of time into weeks 
 was well understood during the patriarchal 
 age.* This knowledge necessitates a know- 
 ledge of the Sabbath by which the weeks are 
 separated. But positive testimony is not 
 wanting. The sixteenth chapter of Exodus 
 shows that the Sabbath was known and 
 observed before the giving of the Decalogue 
 at Sinai, and that the first special test of obe- 
 dience which Grod made after the Israelites 
 left Egypt, was concerning its observance. 
 The giving of the manna occurred on the 
 fifteenth day of the second month, and the 
 Hebrews did not reach Sinai until some time 
 daring the third month after their departure 
 from Egypt. In the fourth verse of this 16th 
 of Exodus, it is said that God told Moses : 
 
 " Behold I will rain bread from heaven for yon ; and 
 the people shall go ont and gather a certain rate every 
 day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in 
 My law or no." 
 
 This shows that the test of obedience was 
 to be made in connection with the gathering of 
 the manna according to a certain daily rate. 
 
 * See Genesis 7: 4-8-10-12. 
 
20 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 The next verse gives the test, viz : 
 
 " And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they 
 shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be 
 twice as much as they gather daily." 
 
 It is plain that the test lay in the volun- 
 tary preparations for the Sabbath, on the part 
 of the people; for in the sixteenth verse 
 Moses reveals nothing to the people except 
 the order to gather the stated portion each 
 day ; and when some would not heed this 
 order,* the manna not only became worthless, 
 but Moses testified his displeasure at their dis- 
 obedience. The people were not ordered to 
 gather a double portion on the sixth day, nor 
 were they informed that the manna should 
 not fall upon the Sabbath. They were left 
 wholly ignorant on this point in order that 
 the test of their obedience might be complete. 
 Hence it is said in the twenty-second verse that 
 when the sixth day came, and the people vol- 
 untarily gathered an extra portion for the 
 Sabbath, the rulers came at once and told 
 Moses of their apparent disobedience. Then, 
 for the first time, Moses reveals to them what 
 
 * 20th Verse. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 21 
 
 God had said concerning the test to be made 
 and tells them* that there should be no 
 manna on the Sabbath. Nevertheless some 
 went out to seek for it on the Sabbath, and 
 God rebukes them in a way, and with a 
 severity which is wholly inconsistent with 
 the idea that this was their first offence. He 
 says :f 
 
 " How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and 
 My laws" &c. There is no appearance of any 
 thing new, or the introduction of anything 
 before unknown. The conditions of the test, 
 and the voluntary act of the people in prepar- 
 ing for the Sabbath, show that the law of the 
 Sabbath was well understood by them, and 
 that it had come to them from the patriarchal 
 age, before their bondage in Egypt. 
 GIVING OF THE LAW. 
 A careful study of the history of the organ- 
 ization of the Jewish nation reveals the 
 following important facts : 
 
 1. The decalogue was given first in order of 
 
 * 26th Verse. 
 j 28th Verse. 
 
22 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 time, as the embodiment of all moral law, 
 the foundation of all government 
 
 2. Certain ceremonies were instituted teach- 
 ing physical and spiritual purity, offering for- 
 giveness through faith and obedience, and 
 pointing to a coming Savior. 
 
 3. Civil and Eccle^iastico-civil regulations 
 were made for the organization of the nation, 
 and the enforcement of obedience to the 
 laws of the decalogue, which by its nature, 
 and by the circumstances that attended the 
 giving of it, is shown to be entirely distinct 
 from the ceremonial and civil regulations. 
 That nine of these ten laws are eternal is un- 
 questioned. Some are found who claim that 
 the Sabbath Law embodied in the fourth 
 commandment is ceremonial and not moral. 
 If the claim be true., then God, the eternal in 
 wisdom, placed it where it did not belong, and 
 so deceived, not only the Israelites, but all 
 the world. By such missplacement, too, the 
 ceremonial code was left imperfect, in a very 
 important particular. It is an unquestioned 
 fact that the Jews never deemed the Sabbath 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 23 
 
 Law as ceremonial. God predicates the Sab- 
 bath Law upon His own example, and teaches 
 that it finds its beginning and authority in His 
 acts at the close of the creative work ; while, 
 if the above claim be true, it was not com- 
 memorative of God and His work, but 
 typical of Christ A theory which thus 
 charges God with ignorance or premeditated 
 deception, or with both, sinks at once under 
 the weight of its own inconsistency. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Teachings of Christ, 
 
 HEIST is the central figure in both 
 dispensations. If new expressions of 
 the Father's will are to be made in 
 connection with the work of Christ 
 on earth, they must be made by the "Im- 
 manuel," who is thus " reconciling the world 
 unto himself." It is therefore befitting to 
 inquire whether Christ taught the abrogation 
 of the decalogue of which the Sabbath Law 
 is a part. Let his own words answer : 
 
 " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the 
 prophets. I am not come to destroy, hut to fulfill. For 
 verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one 
 jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, until 
 all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one 
 of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, 
 he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven ; 
 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 25 
 
 but whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called 
 great in the kingdom of heaven."* 
 
 When Christ speaks of the law (Ton Nomon) 
 in these emphathic words, He cannot mean 
 the ceremonial code, for these ceremonies were 
 typical of Him and must pass away with His 
 death. Besides this, the word fulfill (Pleerosai) 
 means the opposite of destruction. (Katalusai) 
 Christ fulfilled the law by perfect obedience to 
 it. He corrected false interpretations, and in- 
 tensified its claims. He taught obedience to 
 it in the spirit as well as the letter, and pred- 
 icated obedience on love rather than fear. 
 Such a work could not have been done in con- 
 nection with the dying ceremonies of the 
 Jewish system. Such a work Christ did do 
 with reference to the decalogue. In connec- 
 tion with the passages above quoted Christ im- 
 mediately refers to two laws from the decalogue, 
 explains and enforces their meaning in a way 
 far more broad and deep than those who listened 
 to Him were wont to conceive of them. 
 
 * Matthew 5: 17-19. 
 
26 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 On another occasion* a certain shrewd 
 lawyer sought to entrap the Savior by asking 
 "which is the greatest commandment in the 
 law." The question has no meaning unless 
 it be applied to the decalogue, and Christ's 
 answer includes all the commandments of the 
 decalogue and thus avoids the trap designed 
 by the questioner who sought to lead Him into 
 some distinction between laws known to be 
 equal in their nature and extent. 
 
 In the sixteenth chapter of Luke,f Christ 
 again affirms in the strongest language, that 
 "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass 
 away than for one jot or one tittle of the law 
 to fail." Language could not be plainer than 
 that which is used in these statements. 
 
 These sentiments accord fully with the 
 practice of Christ relative to the Sabbath. 
 He boldly condemned the unnatural rigidities 
 which the Jews had attached to the observance 
 of it and taught that works of mercy were to 
 be freely done on that day ; that it was made 
 
 * Matthew 22: 35-40. 
 f 17tli verse. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 27 
 
 for man's good, and not his injury. But He 
 never taught that that which was "made for 
 man/' was to be abrogated or unsanctified. 
 Neither did He delegate to His disciples any 
 power to teach the abrogation of the Law or 
 the Sabbath. On the contrary, their repre- 
 sentative writings contain the same clear 
 testimony in favor of the perpetuity of the 
 Law, and show the same practical observance 
 of the Sabbath. Paul, the great reasoner, 
 among the Apostles, after an exhaustive dis- 
 cussion concerning the relations between the 
 Law and the Gospel, concludes the whole 
 matter in these words : 
 
 " Do we then make void the law through faith ? 
 God forbid ! Yea, we establish the law.* 
 
 Again in the same epistlef he presents a 
 
 conclusive argument starting from the axiom 
 
 that " where there is no law there is no sin." 
 
 Showing that since death, which came by sin, 
 
 reigned from Adam to Moses ; therefore the 
 
 law then existed, and, by the same reasoning 
 
 * Romans 3: 31. 
 f Romans 5: 13-14. 
 
•28 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 that if there be no law under the gospel dis- 
 pensation there can be no sin ; if no sin, 
 then no Savior from sin, and Christ died in 
 vain, if by his death he destroyed the law. 
 In another place Paul contrasts the decalogue 
 with the ceremonial code and declares the 
 worthlessness of the one and the binding 
 character of the other, in these words : 
 
 " Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is noth- 
 ing, but the keeping of the Commandments of God."* 
 
 Thus, in a plain and unequivocal way, Paul 
 teaches as his master taught, f 
 
 EXAMPLE. 
 
 The example of Christ and his Apostles is 
 in full harmony with their teachings. During 
 Christ's life, while his disciples were with 
 Him, the Sabbath was always observed' by 
 Him and them. In all His acts there is no 
 hint that the Law was to be annulled. On 
 the contrary, Christ speaks prophetically of 
 
 * Corinthians 7: 19. 
 
 f Passages quoted from Paul's writings, to prove 
 [ ij the abrogation of the law will be fully examined 
 in another place. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 29- 
 
 the Sabbath as an existing institution at the 
 time when Jerusalem should be destroyed, "*" 
 and tells His disciples to pray that their flight 
 might not occur on that day, knowing that 
 this destruction would not come until long 
 after His death. 
 
 Did the Apostles observe the Sabbath ? 
 The book of Acts is the main source of 
 history concerning these men. It tells where 
 they journeyed, what they preached, and 
 what befell them. — The thirteenth chapter f 
 contains the following account : 
 
 " But when they departed from Perga they came to 
 Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on 
 the Sabbath day and sat down." 
 
 Being invited to speak Paul preached to 
 them concerning Christ, and especially 
 conerninp; His death and resurrection; — a 
 significant fact to be carefully noted and more 
 fully examined hereafter. To say that this 
 was done by the Apostles, as Jews, is to 
 charge them with unmanly dessembling. 
 
 * Matthew 24: 20. 
 f 14th Verse 
 
30 SABBATH AND SUNDAY, 
 
 They were christians teaching others to be- 
 come christians. Neither did they seek the 
 synagogue on the Sabbath simply to teach 
 the Jews ; for it is stated in this same chapter, 
 that : 
 
 ■" When the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, 
 the Gentiles besought that these words might be 
 preached to them the next Sabbath day. And the next 
 Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to 
 hear the word of God." * 
 
 Pursuing the history through the next 
 chapter, we find Paul and his companions con- 
 tinuing to travel from place to place, preaching 
 and gathering churches, until the calling of 
 the council at Jerusalem, an account of which 
 is found in the fifteenth chapter. This council 
 and its decisions have a direct bearing upon 
 the question under consideration. The work 
 of the council was to decide how far Gentile 
 converts should be required to conforjn to 
 those ordinances and ceremonies which were 
 peculiarly Jewish. Had the Sabbath been 
 deemed as belonging to this category, some 
 
 * 42d, and 44th Verses. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 31 
 
 reference to it could not have been avoided, 
 since trie Jews deemed it of paramount im- 
 portance, and Paul and his companions had 
 just come from a tour among the Grentiles to 
 whom they had taught its observance. The 
 silence of that council concerning the Sabbath 
 and its decisions relative to minor questions 
 is strong presumptive evidence that the Sab- 
 bath was openly recognized and observed by 
 all, as an universal law of the fourth com- 
 mandment. 
 
 At the conclusion of this council Paul and 
 Silas set out in one direction, and Barnabas 
 and Mark in another, to re-visit those churches 
 already formed, and preach the Word in other 
 fields. The history of this tour shows the 
 same recognition and observance of the Sab- 
 bath. It is said* that they came to Phillippi, 
 "the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and 
 abode there certain days," and, in the words 
 of the historian : 
 
 " On the Sabbath day we went ont of the city by a 
 river side, where prayer was wont to be made ; and we 
 
 * Acts 16: 12-13. 
 
32 SABBATH A^ID SUNDAY. 
 
 sat down and spake unto the women which resorted 
 thither." 
 
 This seems to have been a place for out- 
 door worship in a city which was probably 
 destitute of a synagogue. This was twenty 
 years after the resurrection, and among 
 those who of all others would be most likely 
 to discard the Sabbath. From Phillippi the 
 apostles proceeded to Thesolonica. 
 
 " Where there was a synagogue of the Jews," and 
 " Paul as his manner was, went in unto them, and three 
 Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." 
 
 " Opening and alleging that Christ must needs have 
 suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this 
 Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. 
 
 "And some of them believed, and consorted with 
 Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a great 
 multitude, and of the chief women not a few." 
 
 Passing from thence to Berea, and then to 
 Athens, in both of which places Paul taught 
 in the synagogues, they came to Corinth 
 where Paul remained. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 33 
 
 " A year and six months, and reasoned in the syna- 
 gogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the 
 
 Greeks." *f 
 
 The nineteenth, chapter relates that Paul 
 taught for two years and three months a 
 Ephesus. "So that all they which dwelt in 
 Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both 
 Jews and Greeks." 
 
 Collating all these facts, and summing up 
 the case as regards the example of Christ and 
 His Apostles, it stands as follows : 
 
 1. During the life of Christ the Sabbath was 
 always observed by Him and His followers. 
 He corrected the errors and false ideas which 
 were held concerning it, but gave no hint that 
 it was to be abrogated. 
 
 2. The book of Acts gives a connected 
 history of the recognition and observance of 
 the Sabbath by the Apostles while they were 
 
 * Acts 18: 4-11. 
 
 f It was at this time that Paul organized the church at 
 Corinth, to which he wrote five years later, telling 
 them to lay by their gifts for the poor at Jerusalem, on 
 the first day of the week. See an examination of this 
 passage in the next chapter. 
 
34 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. . 
 
 organizing many of the churches spoken of 
 in the New Testament. These references 
 extend over a period of eight or nine years, 
 the last of them being at least twenty years 
 after the resurrection. 
 
 3. In all the history of the doings and 
 teachings of the Apostles there is not the 
 remotest reference to the abrogation of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 Had there been any change made or begin- 
 ning to be made, or any authority for the 
 abrogation of the Sabbath Law^ the Apostles 
 must have known it. To claim that there 
 was, is therefore to charge them with studi- 
 ously concealing the truth. And also, with 
 recognizing and calling a day the Sabbath 
 which was not the Sabbath. 
 
 Add to these considerations the following 
 facts : 
 
 (a) The last of the Epistles, and the Book 
 of Kevelation, were written about the year 
 ninety-five. In none of these is there any tr&ce 
 of the change of the Sabbath, nor is the abroga- 
 tion of the Sabbath Law taught in them. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 35 
 
 lb) The Sabbath is mentioned in the New 
 Testament sixty times, and always in its 
 appropriate character. 
 
 Thus the, Law and the Grospel are in 
 harmony, and teach that "the sey'enth day is 
 the Sabbath of the Lord thy Grod." 
 
 But some will say, " Christ and His Apostles 
 did all this as Jews, simply." If this be true, 
 then Christ lived and taught simply as a Jew 
 .and not as the Savior of the world. On the 
 contrary He was at war with the false and 
 extravagant notions of Judaism concerning 
 questions of -truth and duty. If Christ 
 were not a "Christian," but a "Jew," what 
 becomes of the system which He taught ? If 
 His first followers who periled all for Him 
 .•and sealed their faith with their blood, were 
 •only Jews, or worse, were dissemblers, doing 
 that which christians ought not to do for sake 
 of policy, where shall christians be found? — 
 The idea dies of its own inconsistency. More 
 than this, Bible history repeatedly states that 
 the Greeks were taught on the Sabbath the 
 same as the Jews, and in those churches where 
 
36 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the Greek element predominated there is no 
 trace of any different teaching or custom on this 
 point. The Jews kept up their national insti- 
 tutions, such as circumcision and the passover, 
 while all christians accepted the Sabbath as a 
 part of the Law of God. Indeed the popular 
 outcry against the Sabbath as u Jewish " savors 
 more of prejudice and ignorance than of con- 
 sistency and charity. Christ was in all respects r 
 as regards nationality, a Jew. So were all 
 the writers of the Old Testament, and all the 
 writers of the New Testament. God has 
 given the world no word of inspiration from 
 Gentile pen, or Gentile lips. Is the Bible 
 therefore " Jewish ?" The Sabbath, if possible, 
 is less Jewish than the Bible. It had its 
 beginning long before a Jew was born. It is 
 God's day marked by His own example, and 
 sanctified by His blessing, for the race of 
 man, beginning when the race began, and can 
 end only when the race shall cease to exist. 
 Christ recognized it under the Gospel as He 
 recognized each of the other eternal laws with 
 which it is associated in the decalogue ; recog- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY, 37 
 
 nized them as the everlasting words of His 
 Father whose law He came to magnify and 
 fulfill. It tells of pitiable weakness, and 
 shameful irreverence to attempt to thrust out 
 and stigmatize any part of Grod's truth as 
 "Jewish" when all of God's promises and all 
 Bible truth have come to us through the 
 Hebrew nation. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Opposing Theories Examined, 
 
 :o: 
 
 NO-SABBATH THEORY. 
 
 Y this is meant the prevalent theory 
 that there is no sacred time under 
 the gospel dispensation. That the 
 Sabbath was only a Jewish insti- 
 tution, which began with the Hebrew nation, 
 and was abrogated at the death of Christ. 
 Against such a theory the following points 
 have already been established. 
 
 1. The Sabbath Law, being a primary law 
 in moral government, is necessarily co-existent 
 with that government. 
 
 2. The Sabbath as God's memorial, His 
 monument in time, came into being when God 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 39 
 
 rested upon the seventh, day, and blessed and 
 sanctified it. 
 
 3. The Sabbath Law grew out of the rela- 
 tions which necessarily exist between the 
 creator and the creature, and meets certain 
 universal demands in human life ; it cannot 
 therefore cease until the relations and demands 
 shall cease. 
 
 4. The Bible history shows that the Sabbath 
 was observed previous to the organization of 
 the Hebrew nation. 
 
 5. AVhen Jehovah gave the eternal laws of 
 His government to the world, in the decalogue, 
 He placed the Sabbath Law in the midst of 
 them. 
 
 6. The Bible nowhere represents the Sabbath 
 as a ceremonial institution. It has nothing in 
 common with those festival days, which, as a 
 part of the ceremonial code, pointed to Christ. 
 
 7. Christ and His Apostles taught the per- 
 petuity of the Law, and always observed the 
 Sabbath. 
 
40 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Such an accumulation of evidence is enough 
 to justify these pages in giving the " No-Sab- 
 bath " theory no further notice. Nevertheless, 
 it were better to examine its leading claims. 
 The following is a representatve passage from 
 the Old Testament : 
 
 " The Lord our God made a covenant with us in 
 Horeb." " The Lord made not this covenant with our 
 fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us alive 
 here this day/'* 
 
 The claim is made that the decalogue was 
 this covenant. A little examination will show 
 that the covenant was not God's Law, but an 
 agreement between Jehovah and His people, 
 by which they were bound to keep that law, 
 and He, upon such obedience, to grant to them 
 certain promised blessings. The case is a very 
 plain one, and needs no further remark. The 
 fifteenth verse reads as follows : 
 
 " And remember that thou wast a servant in the land 
 of Egypt, and that the Lord Thy God brought thee out 
 thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out 
 arm ; therefore the Lord thy Gfod commanded thee to 
 keep the Sabbath day.*' 
 
 * Deut, 5: 2-3-15. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 41 
 
 In the face of the plain statement made by 
 Jehovah in the decalogue, the claim is here 
 made that the deliverance from Egypt was the 
 cause why the Sabbath was instituted. The 
 reader will remember that the goodness of God 
 in delivering the Israelites from bondage is 
 often used as a reason for their obedience to 
 all His commandments.* If, therefore, the 
 claim of the No-Sabbath theory be correct. 
 all the laws of the decalogue were given for 
 that reason. This is absurd. The whole 
 truth is contained in a single sentence, namely : 
 God's goodness to the Israelites is presented as 
 a reason why they should obey Him. In the 
 case quoted, the latter clause of the fourteenth 
 verse shows that the Israelites were there urged 
 to allow their servants the blessing of the 
 Sabbath rest, and they are referred to their 
 own bondage in Egypt, in contrast with their 
 delivered state, to strengthen this appeal to 
 their obedience. But if there were any doubt 
 as to the correctness of this simple explana- 
 tion, the fact that the Jews never understood 
 
 * See Exodus, 20: 2. Lev. 26: 13. Psalm, 81: 9-10, etc. 
 
42 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the Sabbath as commemorative of their deliv- 
 erance from Egypt, settles the question. More 
 than this, the " passover " was given, and is 
 yet observed, to commemorate that deliver- 
 ance. Its whole meaning and language befit 
 such an end, while the rest of the Sabbath is in 
 no way significant of the turmoil and hurry of 
 the exode. Besides all this, the No-Sabbath 
 theory contradicts Grod's plain words, in 
 Genesis, 2: 3, and Exodus, 20: 11. 
 
 Only a few " proof texts " are quoted from 
 the New Testament in support of the No-Sab- 
 bath theory. The following from Paul's letter 
 to the Romans* is deemed a strong one. 
 
 " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to 
 doubtful disputations."! 
 
 " For one beiieveth he may eat all things ; another 
 who is weak, eateth herbs." 
 
 " Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth 
 not ; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that 
 eateth ; for God hath received him." 
 
 "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? 
 To his own master he standeth or falleth ; yea he shall 
 be holden up ; for God is able to make him stand." 
 
 * 14: 1-7. 
 
 f" Not to judge his doubtful thoughts." 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 43: 
 
 " One man esteemeth one day above another ; another 
 esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully 
 persuaded in his own mind." 
 
 " He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the 
 Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he 
 doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord,, 
 for he giveth God thanks ; and he that eateth not, to 
 the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks." 
 
 This passage concerning the observance of 
 clays is thus given with its contexts, that the 
 reader may the more readily see what theme 
 Paul is considering. It will be at once appar- 
 ent that it is the question of receiving into 
 christian fellowship those whose " weak faith " 
 still led them to observe the rules concern- 
 ing clean and unclean food, and the festivals of 
 the ceremonial code. The Sabbath is in no 
 way referred to, and the whole discourse for- 
 bids the idea of applying the language of the- 
 sixth verse to it. The conclusions concerning 
 meats, and the like, in the thirteenth verse and 
 the verses following it, confirm this idea, 
 Paul being his own interpreter, also makes 
 this doubly sure ; for, in the seventh chapter* 
 
 * 12th verse. 
 
 * 
 
44 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 of this same epistle, he speaks of the deca- 
 logue of which the Sabbath 9 Law is a part, in 
 these words. 
 
 " Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment 
 holy, and just, and good." 
 
 A careful study of this seventh chapter of 
 Romans will show that Paul places the high- 
 est importance upon the observance of that 
 law which convicts of sin, and is thus our 
 "schoolmaster," leading us to Christ for for- 
 giveness. And James, speaking of the same 
 law, says :* 
 
 " For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet 
 offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 
 
 Paul could not say in* one breath that such 
 a law was of great importance, and in the next 
 that it was of little or no importance. 
 
 The second chapter of Colossi ansf is often 
 quoted as a clear statement of the No-Sabbath 
 theory. 
 
 * 2: 10. 
 
 f 10 th and 17th verses. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 45 
 
 " Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink/* 
 or in respect of an holy day, f or of the new moon, or 
 of the Sabbath days!' % 
 
 " Which are a shadow of things to come ; but the 
 body is Christ." 
 
 Here, again, we have the exact idea which 
 Paul wrote to the Romans, only in different- 
 words. The passage fully explains itself. It 
 distinctly states that no man is to be judged 
 concerning those meats and drinks, new moons 
 and Sabbaths, which were a shadow of Christ. 
 The seventh day, the Sabbath of God, is in no 
 sense a shadow of Christ, but a commemorator 
 of Jehovah ; hence, the weekly Sabbath cannot 
 be here meant. 
 
 The third chapter of second Corinthians is 
 also impressed to do duty in defence of the No- 
 Sabbath theory. The following passage em- 
 bodies the testimony, so-called : 
 
 "But if the ministration of death written and engrav- 
 en in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel 
 could not steadfastly look upon the face of Moses for 
 
 * Greek, " For eating or drinking." 
 f Greek, " concerning the participating in a holy 
 festival," 
 
 X Greek, " Sabbaths." 
 
46 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 "the glory of liis countenance — which glory was to be 
 done away — how shall not the ministration of the spirit 
 be rather glorious ?" etc. * 
 
 A careful reading will show that the contrast 
 here introduced is between the glory of the 
 Mosaic dispensation as compared with the 
 Christian. It is not the decalogue which is to 
 be "done away," but the "glory" of the former 
 ministration, which must, be lost before 
 the surpassing glory of the latter one. The pas- 
 sage needs no further comment. 
 
 These passages form the stronghold of the 
 No -Sabbath theory in the New Testament. 
 We leave them without further remark, and 
 only pause to call the attention of the reader 
 to the utter ruin which this theory works in 
 the realm of moral obligation. 
 
 > 1. If the decalogue was abolished by the 
 death of Christ, then Christ by His death pre- 
 vented the possibility of sin, to redeem man 
 from which, He died. 
 
 2. "Sin is not imputed where there is no 
 
 * 7th and 8th Verses. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 47 
 
 law/'^hence the consciousness of sin which men 
 feel under the claims of the Gospel, is a mere 
 mockery, and all faith in Christ is but a farce. 
 It only increases the difficulty to say that the 
 law is written in the hearts of believers. If 
 that be true, then : 
 
 3. None but believers in Christ can be con- 
 victed of sin, for no others can know the law 
 which convicts of sin. Therefore those who 
 reject Christ, thereby become, at least nega- 
 tively, righteous by refusing to come where 
 they can be convicted of sin. Thus does the 
 No-Sabbath theory make infidelity better 
 than belief, and rejection of Christ, the only 
 means of salvation. It leads to endless absurd- 
 ities, and the overthrow of all moral govern- 
 ment, It contradicts the plain words of God, 
 and puts darkness for light. It must sink 
 under the weight of its own inconsistencies. 
 Its fruitage in human life has ever been 
 bitterness and ashes. 
 
 "CHANGE OF THE DAY" THEORY. 
 
 The Puritan branch of Protestants claim 
 *Rom. 5: 13. 
 
48 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 that the Sabbath has been changed by divine 
 authority, from the seventh to the first day of 
 the week. This theory is based upon the 
 assumption that the Sabbath institution is a 
 separate thing from the Sabbath day, and 
 hence that the Sabbath Law may be applied 
 to any seventh portion of time. In opposition 
 to this theory it has been shown : 
 
 1. That the Sabbath Law and the Sabbath 
 day are inseparable, and that the Sabbatic 
 institution is the result of obedience to the 
 Sabbath Law, and ceases to exist when that 
 law is broken. 
 
 2. That there could have been no Sabbath 
 if Grod had not rested on a definite clay, for a 
 definite purpose, which no other day could 
 answer. Having rested on a definite day, He 
 blessed and sanctified that day, and thus 
 made it the Sabbath. To say that the Sabbath 
 is only an indefinite seventh part of time, is 
 to say that God rested on an indefinite 
 seventh part of time, and blessed an indefinite 
 seventh part of time, all of which is illogical 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 49 
 
 and absurd. This theory also "begs the 
 question" by adhering to the septenary 
 division of time, and rejecting the definite 
 day. Upon such an illogical assumption the 
 whole theory of a change of the Sabbath is 
 based. Nevertheless, to avoid the charge of 
 unfairness, we shall examine the reasons 
 offered in support of this theory. They are 
 in substance as follows : 
 
 1. Christ rose from the dead on the first 
 day of the week. 
 
 2. The Apostles met on that day for public 
 worship, and to commemorate his resurrection. 
 
 The first reason is usually separated into the 
 following propositions : 
 
 (a) Eedemption is a greater work than 
 creation. 
 
 (b) Eedemption was completed at the resur- 
 rection. 
 
 (c) Christ rose from the dead on the first 
 day of the week. 
 
 Conclusion. Therefore, since the resurrec- 
 
50 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 tion, the Sabbath Law applies to the first day 
 of the week, and not to the seventh. 
 
 It were answer enough to the above theory 
 to suggest that the " conclusion" is not a 
 legitimate deduction from the "premises," 
 Indeed, the premises overthrow the conclu- 
 sion; for, if "redemption" is a greater work 
 than "creation," and different; then that 
 which was only sufficient to commemorate 
 creation, cannot commemorate redemption. 
 Different works must be differently commem- 
 orated, and the greater cannot be commem- 
 orated by that which only measures the less. 
 Again, the seventh day can only cease to be 
 sacred to God, and hence to be the Sabbath, 
 when the causes which made it the Sabbath 
 shall cease to exist. This can never be, since 
 those causes were the words and acts of the 
 infinite Jehovah. 
 
 These propositions are equally unsound 
 when considered separately. The first one, in 
 saying that "Eedemption is a greater work 
 than creation," assumes that finite man can 
 measure the work of "Creation," and compre- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 51 
 
 hend the goodness, power, and wisdom of the 
 infinite as therein displayed. That he can look 
 into and understand the work of Eedemption 
 as the angels desired to, but were not able; 
 comprehending the infinite love and mercy of 
 God as wrought out in that plan, and having 
 thus comprehended and measured two infinite 
 works, can compare one with the other, 
 and decide which of them is the greater infinity. 
 Such presumption and want of logic combine 
 to crush the proposition which contains them. 
 
 The second proposition asserts that u Ee- 
 demption was completed at the resurrection.' 7 
 This is faulty in point of fact. The work of 
 redemption began with the advent of sin. 
 Christ was as a iamb slain from the foundation 
 of the world. * The first sacrifice that smoked 
 on the altars of Eden told of redemption. 
 The work of the Eedeemer will continue 
 until, coming as Judge of men, he shall put 
 all things under His feet, and deliver up the 
 Kingdom unto His Father. Instead of ceas- 
 ing His work at the resurrection, Christ as- 
 
 * Rev. 13: 8. 
 
52 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 cended to the right hand of the Father, to be 
 our intercessor, until, in the fullness of time 
 He shall come again to gather His bretheren, 
 destroy His enemies, triumph over death 
 by resurrecting the saints, and so deliver 
 the redeemed and glorified universe up to 
 God.* If any one point marks the close of 
 the earth-life of Christ as Eedeemer among 
 men, it is the hour of His death, when He 
 cried, " it is finished," and died.f Hence 
 the second proposition fails. 
 
 The third proposition — " Christ rose from 
 the grave on the first day of the week," — has 
 been usually accepted without question. Nei- 
 the fact of the resurrection, nor the time when 
 it occurred, has any logical connection with the 
 Sabbath question, or rightful place in the Sab- 
 bath argument; but since the public mind 
 associates the two questions it is needful to 
 pass this third proposition under a careful 
 review in order that the reader may see on 
 what grounds the popular theory rests ; and 
 
 * 1 Corinthians 15: 24-29. 
 f John 19: 30. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 53 
 
 before taking up the historic accounts by the 
 evangelists, certain outlying facts need to be 
 examined. Christ uttered an important 
 prophecy concerning this matter in the 
 tvjelvth chapter of Matthew,* which reads as 
 follows : 
 
 " Then certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees 
 answered saying : Master, we would see a sign from 
 Thee." 
 
 " But He answered and said unto them, an evil and 
 adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there 
 shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet 
 Jonas." 
 
 " For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the 
 whale's belly ; so shall the Son of man be three days 
 and three nights in the heart of the earth." 
 
 The circumstances forbid all indefiniteness 
 of expression. It is a case in which Christ 
 offers to His enemies a test involving not 
 simply the truthfulness of His words, 
 but the proof that He was the Son of God. 
 In keeping with this thought, the language 
 respecting the time is carefully and exactly 
 worded. 
 
 * 3841st, verses. 
 
54 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 The Greek says 
 
 "Qarcep yap fjv 'lidvag ev ry 'KotA.ia tov kt/tovc rpelg rj/jLEpac, 
 teal rpelg vvnTar; ovrog earcu 6 vlog tov avdptJirov ev rrj Kapdia 
 ttjq yrjr rpelg yjuepac; fcai rpelg vvurag. 
 
 The Latin says : 
 
 " Sicut enim f uit Jonas in ventre ceti tres dies et tres 
 noctes : sic erit Filius liominis in corde terrse tres dies 
 et tres noctes." 
 
 The original account in Jonah* reads as 
 follows ; 
 
 " And Jonah was in tlie belly of the fish three days 
 and three nights." 
 
 The Greek of the Septuagint, says : 
 
 Kal r/v Itdvar hv tt) noikia tov ktJtovz Tpelg rjfiepag aai 
 Tpelg VVKTCIQ. 
 
 The Hebrew is in the same construction 
 and equally definite. 
 
 In this prophecy one point is unmistakably 
 established, namely: the length of the time 
 during which Christ must remain in the grave. 
 This forms an important starting point, or 
 rather, the basis of investigation. 
 
 The time when Christ was entombed is 
 
 * l: 17. 
 
 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 55 
 
 equally clear and definite. Matthew* says : 
 
 " When the even was come, there came a rich man of 
 Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' 
 disciple." 
 
 " He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. 
 Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered." 
 
 " And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped 
 it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb 
 which he had hewn out in the rock ; and he rolled a 
 great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed." 
 
 The Greek of the passage which refers to 
 the time, is : — o^iag 6e yevofihrjg. — which the Bi- 
 ble Union Translation renders literally, by 
 the phrase; "when it was late." John 
 corroborates the words of Matthew and showsf 
 that it was late in the day, just before the 
 setting of the sun, that the body of Christ 
 was laid in the grave. By the words of His 
 own prophecy, then, He must have risen at an 
 hour in the day corresponding to the hour of 
 His entombment. Thus two points are estab- 
 lished, namely : the time of the day when the 
 resurrection must occur, and the length of 
 
 * 27: 57-61. 
 
 f 19: 31, 38, 42. 
 
56 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 time which must intervene between the 
 entombment and the resurrection. We are 
 now prepared to examine the history of the 
 resurrection as given by the evangelists. 
 
 Three of the evangelists speak of the res- 
 urrection only in general terms, giving neither 
 the time when it occurred, nor the circum- 
 stances attending it. John says :* 
 
 " The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene 
 early, when it was yet dark, nnto the sepulchre, and 
 .seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre," etc. 
 
 Luke says :f 
 
 " Now upon the first day of the week, very early in 
 the morning, they came unto the sepulchre bringing the 
 spices which they had prepared, and certain others with 
 them." 
 
 "And they found the stone rolled away from the 
 sepulchre." 
 
 " And they entered in, and found not the body of the 
 Lord Jesus." 
 
 Mark says \% 
 
 " And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene 
 and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome, had bought 
 sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him." 
 
 *20: 1. 
 f24: 1-3. 
 116: 1st, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 57 
 
 " And very early in the morning, the first day of the 
 week they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the 
 sun." 
 
 These accounts teach nothing more than 
 the fact that when the parties mentioned 
 visited the sepulchre, they found it empty. 
 Christ had risen and gone. But Matthew 
 gives an account quite different, and more 
 definite ; one which tells of a visit 'previous to 
 the one spoken of by the other three writers 
 just examined. The following is the account :* 
 
 " In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn 
 toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene, 
 and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." 
 
 " And behold there wasf a great earthquake ; for the 
 angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came 
 and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it." 
 
 " His countenance was like lightning and his raiment 
 white as snow." 
 
 "And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and 
 became as dead men!' 
 
 " And the angel answered and said unto the women, 
 Fear not ye ; for I know that ye seek Jesus which was 
 crucified." 
 
 " He is not here ; for He is risen as He said, come, 
 see the place where the Lord lay," etc. 
 
 * 28 : 1-8. 
 
 f Margin, " had been " Greek, eyei-era. 
 
58 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Here is an account minute in details respect- 
 ing both the time of the resurrection, and the 
 circumstances connected with it. It agrees in 
 all particulars with the requirements of the 
 prophecy of Christ and the time of His en- 
 tombment. The Bible Union translation 
 renders ,the opening clause of the twenty 
 eighth chapter, literally ; — "Late in the Sab- 
 bath."* The Sabbath closed at sunset. " Late 
 in the Sabbath," must have been a little before 
 sunset ; a point of time exactly corresponding 
 to the hour of the entombment. No amount 
 of "surmising " or "supposing" can change 
 this plain statement. If the exegetical argu- 
 ment be sought from the " construction of 
 the Greek" it is equally as plain and strong. 
 o^pe, when constructed with a noun in the 
 genitive case, always means "late." Indeed 
 the possessive idea denoted by- the genitive 
 necessitates that the point of time denoted 
 by oipE be contained within the time denoted 
 by the noun. So here, cafii3aTuv holds dips 
 within its limits. f OipE, when constructed with 
 
 * Orjje 6e Gaj3j3aTuv, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 59 
 
 a verb in the infinitive may sometimes mean 
 "after," in the sense of "too late." when 
 referring to an action. But in the case under 
 consideration it cannot thus mean. No com- 
 mentator has attempted to thus interpret this 
 passage except upon the assumption , or upon 
 the supposition that Matthew meant something 
 which he did not say, and that his account 
 must be forced to agree with the other three 
 and thus give some shadow of support to 
 the popular theory. Nor is the word translated 
 "dawn" opposed to the view here expressed. 
 
 It is emtyuoKovori, from Ennpuonu. It IS USed 
 
 but once, besides this, in the New Testa- 
 ment. That use is by Luke,* where the 
 Passover Sabbath following the crucifixion 
 is said to "draw on." This is a natural and 
 legitimate* translation of the word, and there 
 is no reason why it should not be thus ren- 
 dered in Matthew 28: 1. Such a rendering 
 only agrees with the facts. The Sabbath 
 closed at sunset on the seventh day of the 
 week. At the same hour the first day of 
 * 23: 54. 
 
60 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the week " drew on," " came in sight," "began 
 to appear." Translators of the New Testa- 
 ment have been more truthful to the correct 
 rendering than interpreters have been to the 
 correct exegesis, as the following facts testify : 
 
 The Syriac Peshito version, which being 
 in a cognate language has great claims to 
 accuracy of thought and expression, renders 
 this passage, "In the evening of the Sabbath." 
 The Latin of the Yulgate renders it by the 
 same words. Beza's Latin translation has the 
 same. Tyndale's translation says : " The 
 Sabboth day at even." Coverdale's translation 
 reads : " Upon the evening of the Sabbath 
 holy-day." Cranmer's, the Genevan, and the 
 Bishop's versions, all render it, "In the latter 
 end of the Sabbath day." The Bible Union, 
 as already referred to, renders the Greek 
 literally — "Late in the Sabbath." 
 
 Thus is the weight of past and present 
 scholarship thiown in favor of the explanation 
 here given. This explanation shows that the 
 prophecy of Christ, and the accounts of the 
 entombment, and of the resurrection agree 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 61 
 
 with extreme fidelity. And the accounts of 
 the evangelists agree with each other when 
 the fact is thus recognized that in the opening 
 of the twenty-eighth chapter Matthew speaks 
 of the first visit' to the sepulchre "late in the 
 Sabbath," to which visit the other evangelists 
 do not refer; but to a second visit made early 
 on the following morning. Matthew's account 
 of the first visit evidently closes with the 
 eighth verse, and in the ninth he passes to the 
 scenes of the next morning. Thus the follow- 
 ing conclusions are reached : 
 
 Christ was crucified and entombed on the 
 fourth day of the week, commonly called 
 Wednesday. He lay in the grave "three 
 days and three nights," and rose "late in the 
 Sabbath," at an hour corresponding with the 
 hour of His entombment, at which time two* 
 of the women " came to see the sepulchre." 
 
 There are certain circumstantial evidences, 
 which corroborate these conclusions : 
 
 1. Since Christ gave the length of time He 
 should lie in the grave as a sign of His 
 Mes-siah-ship, any failure in the fulfillment of 
 
62 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 that sign would have been notecj and published 
 by His enemies. The fact that no such charge 
 has ever been made, and only the puerile 
 story of the stealing of the body been invented, 
 is evidence that the prophecy was exactly 
 fulfilled. 
 
 2. On the day following the crucifixion the 
 Jews went to Pilate, besought a guard for the 
 tomb for three days, and attended to the 
 setting of it. This they would not have done 
 on the weekly Sabbath ; but they would not 
 shrink from doing it on the Passover Sabbath 
 which they observed less strictly than the 
 weekly Sabbath. 
 
 3. The guard was evidently set to cover a 
 time three days from the entombment. Until 
 that time expired not even the disciples, much 
 less two lone women, would attempt to reach 
 the tomb to look after the body. Hence the 
 women spoken of in Matthew twenty-eighth, 
 came to the tomb with the evident design of 
 being present the moment the guard should 
 be removed. On the other hand, if the 
 popular theory be correct, Christ was laid in 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 63 
 
 the grave late on the sixth day of the week, 
 the guard was set on the seventh day, and on 
 that same day, scarcely twenty -four hours 
 after the entombment the women are found 
 at the sepulchre, and Christ is risen. Such 
 conclusions contradict the plain statements of 
 the Word, and are out of accord with all the 
 circumstances in the case. A circumstantial 
 " objection " to the explanation here given 
 is made on the claim that the two women 
 would not be likely to make a second visit to 
 the sepulchre on the following morning. The 
 reverse is the most natural conclusion. 
 A second visit seems necessary to confirm 
 the hopes which the strange scenes of the 
 previous evening had awakened. Hence their 
 eagerness ; and taking other witnesses, they 
 hasten " while it was yet dark" to come again 
 to the sacred spot, to see if indeed their Lord 
 had risen. This is farther confirmed by the 
 fact already indicated, that the eighth verse 
 of Matthew twenty-eighth seems to close the 
 account of the first visit ; while from the ninth 
 verse to the close of the chapter we have in 
 
64 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 four separate paragraphs, the whole history of 
 the circumstances of the next morning and of 
 the entire time up to the Ascension of Christ 
 crowded into eleven verses. Thus a second 
 visit is rather a confirmation of the position 
 above taken, than an objection to it. 
 
 It is pertinent to now group together more 
 completely the objections to the popular 
 notion concerning the resurrection. 
 
 1. There is nowhere in the Bible any 
 statement that Christ rose on the first day of 
 the week. 
 
 2. The popular claim contradicts the plain 
 words of Matthew who alone gives the time 
 when the resurrection occurred. 
 
 3. The claim that Christ was entombed 
 late on the sixth day of the week disagrees 
 entirely with the express conditions laid 
 down by Him in His prophetic words con- 
 cerning the time He should lie in the grave ; 
 therefore : 
 
 4. If the popular theory be correct, Christ's 
 prophecy was not fulfilled, and, by his own 
 words, He is proven to have been an impostor. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 65 
 
 All the circumstances connected with the 
 burial and resurrection must also be tortured 
 into unnatural relations and forced harmony. 
 We can therefore only repeat the conclusion 
 that Christ did not rise on the first day of the 
 week. Thus, step by step, the assumptions in 
 favor of a change of the Sabbath based upon 
 the resurrection are swept away. 
 
 The remaining effort at argument is predi- 
 cated upon the claim that Christ and His 
 Apostles authorized a change by their ex- 
 ample in observing the first day of the week. 
 It is hence necessary to examine the passages 
 which are quoted in favor of such observance, 
 in their order and with their contexts. The 
 one first in order reads as follows : 
 
 " When therefore it was evening on that day, the 
 first day of the week, and the doors were shut where 
 the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus 
 came and stood in the midst ; and He says to them,. 
 Peace be to you. And having said this He showed them 
 His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced 
 when they saw the Lord." (Bible Union translation.) 
 
 Tyndale, in his version, published in 1526, renders 
 this passage as follows : The same daye at nyght, which 
 was the morrowe after the Sabboth daye, when the 
 
66 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 dores were shutt, (where the disciples were assembled 
 to gedder for feare of the jews,) cam Jesus and stode 
 in the myddes' and sayde to them, Peace be with yon. 
 And when He had so sayde, He shewed vnto them His 
 handes [and His feate] and His syde. Then were the 
 disciples glad when they sawe the Lorde."* 
 
 This was in the evening after the day on 
 the morning of which the women came to the 
 sepulchre and found it empty. The claim is 
 that this was a meeting of the disciples to 
 commemorate, sabbatically, the resurrection. 
 Observe, first that no such thing is either said 
 or implied in the text. On the contrary, it is 
 distinctly stated that this was a secret assembly 
 " for fear of the Jews." But let us look more 
 fully into the doings of that day. From Luke 
 (24th chapter) we learn that when the women 
 told the circumstances of the morning to the 
 eleven disciples " their words seemed as idle 
 tales, and they believed them not." 
 
 In the same chapter it is relatd that two of 
 the disciples journeyed to Emmaus, seven and 
 one half miles, during that day. Christ joined 
 them on the journey, and at supper revealed 
 
 * John 20: 19. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 67 
 
 himself to them. They, wondering and rejoi- 
 cing, returned to Jerusalem. It must have been 
 late in the evening when they arrived. As they 
 related their story to the other disciples Christ 
 came into the assembly. Even then they 
 would not believe that it was He until He had 
 eaten in their presence, and explained His for- 
 mer words concerning himself. Thus it is clear 
 that they did not believe in His resurrection 
 until late in the evening. They could not 
 celebrate an event in which they did not 
 believe. It was to cure this unbelief, to prove 
 His resurrection and not to celebrate it, 
 that Christ came. The hatred which raged 
 against the disciples necessitated that they 
 should secrete themselves from the fury of the 
 Jews. On the evening in question they were 
 thus assembled, in despondency, sorrow, and 
 doubt. Had this meeting been held for the 
 purpose of instituting so radical a change in a 
 practice so widely affecting Christian life, and 
 based upon a fact not until then believed, it 
 is impossible to suppose that no mention 
 would be made of the fact by the risen Savior 
 
68 v SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 who alone had power to make a change if one 
 were possible. His silence disproves the claim. 
 The next passage is also from John,* and is 
 still more indefinite : 
 
 "And after eight days, again His disciples were 
 within, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors 
 being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be 
 unto you." 
 
 It is claimed that this was the next first 
 day, on the ground that " Sunday and Sunday 
 make eight," and that the meeting was again 
 in honor of the resurrection. But the account 
 does not state that it was upon the eighth 
 day, but "after eight days." Now the English 
 after, the Latin post, and the Greek meta, are 
 among the most positive words in these lan- 
 guages ; and if the time spoken of was exact, 
 then it must have been upon the ninth day 
 at least. If the expression is indefinite, in 
 the sense of the English expression " about 
 eight days after," then the case is so much the 
 worse for the argument. Admitting that it 
 was the next first day, there is no implica- 
 
 * 20: 26. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 69 
 
 tion of any sabbatic character connected with 
 the meeting. The simple fact of the case 
 seems to be this : Thomas being absent from 
 the former meeting would not believe that 
 Christ had risen. At this meeting of Christ 
 with them Thomas is present, and is convinced. 
 The fact that Christ instructed them, proves 
 nothing sabbatic, or celebrative, for His n$xt 
 meeting (see next chapter,) was upon a day 
 when they were fishing, and He then instructed 
 them more fully than at any time before. 
 
 Acts 2 : 1. is next claimed in proof of an 
 especial sanction of the first day. The claim 
 runs after this manner : " The Pentecost fell 
 on the first day of the week ; God poured out 
 His spirit miraculously on that day, thus 
 sanctifying it, or, at least showing it an 
 especial favor." Let us see whether the major 
 premise of this proposition is true, viz : that 
 the Pentecost fell on First-day. It was a yearly 
 feast, falling on the fiftieth day reckoning from 
 the day following the Passover. Thus reck- 
 oning this Pentecost would have fallen on the 
 first day of the week if the Savior had been 
 
70 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 crucifiad on the sixth day, and hence the 
 Passover been held, as is claimed, on the 
 seventh. We have already shown that such 
 was not the case; hence the premise is in- 
 correct in point of fact. But had it fallen 
 upon the first day there was nothing in this 
 demonstration of God's spirit which had refer- 
 ence to the day of the week. It was the 
 Pentecost which they met to celebrate, and 
 while thus celebrating, the miraculous out- 
 pouring came. The reason for choosing the 
 Pentecost as the time at which to manifest 
 thus the power of the Spirit is evident in the 
 fact that thousands of devout men from every 
 land were there, and being convinced of the 
 truth of Christianity, would carry that truth 
 far and wide as they returned home. There 
 is another significant fact which alone w T ould 
 overthrow the popular claim. The writer of 
 the passage says nothing concerning the day 
 of the week. Had it been the first day, just 
 adopted by the Apostles as the Christian Sab- 
 bath, it is not concievable that so marked an 
 occurrence in its favor would have been passed 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 71 
 
 in utter silence. 
 
 These three passages thus indefinite and 
 irrelevant form the entire array of Scripture 
 quoted in favor of the proposition that Christ 
 met with His disciples on Sunday, or that 
 the Holy Spirit showed that day any special 
 favor. The common people are deceived 
 by many speakers and writers who refer to 
 these passages in a general way as though 
 they were but a few from among many that 
 might be quoted. If the reader will carefully 
 examine the Bible on this point he will at 
 once modify or cast aside his faith in the 
 " Change of the Sabbath." 
 
 The history of the doings and teachings of 
 the Apostles is equally devoid of any proof in 
 favor of the popular theory. The book of 
 Acts covers at least thirty years of time after 
 the resurrection of Christ. This is the very 
 period during which it is claimed that the 
 change was going on under the direction of 
 the Apostles and the Holy Spirit. Two stub- 
 born facts oppose this claim. 
 
 1. The resurrection of Christ as the proof 
 
72 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 of His Mes-siah-ship, is a prominent theme in 
 the sermons which the Apostles preached 
 during this period. 
 
 Such preaching could not avoid the discus- 
 sion of the change of the Sabbath, as based upon 
 the resurrection, if it had then been going on. 
 On the contrary the first day of the week is 
 mentioned but once in the entire book. This 
 fact is the more significant since Luke the 
 writer of the book of Acts is especially 
 careful to notice any compliance with existing 
 customs. Notice the following passages from 
 His Gospel : 
 
 " According to the custom of the priest's office, his 
 lot was to burn incense/'f And when the parents 
 brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the cus- 
 tom of the law.":); And he came to Nazareth, where he 
 had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went 
 into the synagogue on. the Sabbath day."§ And he 
 came out and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of 
 Olives."* 
 
 f 1: 9. 
 
 X Chap. 2: 27. 
 § Chap. 4: 16. 
 * Chap. 22: 39. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 73 
 
 In the book of Acts he says. " And on the Sabbath, 
 we went out of the city by the river side, where prayer 
 was wont to be made."* " They came to Thessalonica, 
 where was a synagogue of the Jews ; and Paul, as his 
 manner was, went in unto them."f 
 
 These passages show that it was character- 
 istic of Luke to notice compliance with exist- 
 ing customs, even when no especial interest 
 was attached to the fact. How, then, can we 
 suppose that a compliance with a new custom, 
 so important, and so full of interest to the 
 narrative, would be by him passed over in 
 silence. 
 
 The passage in which a reference is made 
 to the first day of the week, is in the twentieth 
 chapter, sixth and seventh verses. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 " But we sailed away from Phillippi after the days of 
 unleavened bread and came unto them to Troas, in five 
 days, where we abode seven days,'' 
 
 " And upon the first day of the week, we having come 
 together to break bread, Paul discoursed to them, (being 
 about to depart on the morrow,) and continued the dis- 
 
 * 1G: 3. 
 + 17: 1-2. 
 
74 SABBATH AND SUNDAY, 
 
 course until midnight," &c* 
 
 It is claimed that this passage indicates a 
 well understood custom of sabbatizing on the 
 first day of the week. But there are the 
 same difficulties here as in the cases before 
 examined. We have seen that Luke is a 
 careful writer, and seldom fails to speak of 
 established customs. The account in this 
 place is a minute one. In the third verse, and 
 those following it, we are told how Paul dwelt 
 three months in Greece, who accompanied 
 him, and where they were from, who came 
 with him on the voyage toward Troas, certain 
 of whom went before, while Paul and others 
 of the party, Luke included, remained at 
 Phillippi until after the days of unleavened 
 bread and then set out for Troas where they 
 arrived after five days' journey and remained 
 seven days. The evening before they set 
 out for Assos, the inhabitants came in ; and 
 
 * We have followed the translation of the Bible 
 Union in using "We" instead of "disciples/' in the 
 seventh verse as being in accordance with the best 
 Greek copies. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 75 
 
 so follows the minute account of the meeting 
 and its attendant circumstances. Now could 
 a writer so minute in unimportant matters, 
 pass over in silence the fact that they there 
 celebrated the new institution of the resurrec- 
 tion day, had such been the case ; especially 
 when the day itself was mentioned ? This is 
 the more wonderful since he nowhere else even 
 mentions the first day of the week in any 
 manner whatever. This too refers only to the 
 evening after the day. If the day was observed 
 by them as a Sabbath there must have been 
 religious services during the day, and these 
 would naturally be more prominent than the 
 evening service ; why then should so careful 
 and exact a writer pass over the more impor- 
 tant features of the case in silence, and leave 
 the less important features with only a vague 
 reference. Such a claim does great injustice 
 to the scholarship of Luke, saying nothing of 
 his inspiration. 
 
 All this is upon the popular supposition 
 that the meeting was held on what is now 
 called Sunday evening, and that the breaking 
 
76 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 of bread was a " celebration of the Lord's 
 Supper." There are strong reasons for reject- 
 ing both these interpretations. According to 
 the Jewish method of reckoning time, which 
 is everywhere used by the writers of the Bible 
 all of whom were Jews, this meeting must 
 have been on the evening after the Sabbath, on 
 what is now called "Saturday" evening, and 
 hence Paul and his companions traveled all 
 the next day. If to avoid this dilema, the 
 Eoman reckoning be supposed, then the main 
 item of the meeting, viz: the "Breaking of 
 bread^" took place after midnight, and hence 
 on the second day of the week. Either horn 
 of this dilema destroys whatever of inferential 
 evidence this passage might otherwise be sup- 
 posed to afford. 
 
 The phrase, KAaaai aprov, 'which, is translated, 
 "to break bread" is repeatedly used to desig- 
 nate the eating of a common meal. It is thus 
 used by Luke in Acts 2: 46, where the forty- 
 fifth and forty -seventh verses show that these 
 were but ordinary meals. So also in Acts 27: 
 37, the same terms denote the common meal 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 77 
 
 of a company of two-hundred and seventy-six. 
 We have therefore no hesitancy in giving the 
 opinion that the meeting spoken of in Acts 
 twentieth and seventh, was an informal gath- 
 ering of Paul and his traveling companions, 
 with more or less of those who dwelt at Troas,, 
 at the time of the evening meal of the apostolic 
 party, on the evening after the Sabbath. And 
 hence that Paul and his party traveled all day 
 on the first day of the week following. 
 . In conclusion we ask the reader to contrast 
 this one meagre and indefinite reference to the 
 first day of the week in all the history of the 
 doings of the Apostles for thirty years after 
 Christ, with the repeated recognition of the 
 Sabbath as detailed in the preceding chapter,, 
 and to decide in the light of the inspired Word, 
 what the example of the Apostles was concern- 
 ing the Sabbath and the Sunday. 
 
 Turning to the epistles the reader will find 
 the same almost absolute silence concerning 
 the first day of the week. In all the New 
 Testament epistles there is but one reference 
 to it, and this does not refer to it as the Sabbath, 
 
78 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 or as commemorative of the resurrection, or 
 as in any way holy or sacred. Had the change 
 been going on, had the first day been pressed 
 upon the attention of the converts, and de- 
 mands made for its observance, much instruc- 
 tion would have been requisite to bring them 
 — especially the Hebrews, to obedience. It 
 is against all logic and all experience to think 
 that such a change could have been made 
 during such times and nothing be said con- 
 cerning it. Here is the lone passage : 
 
 " Now concerning the collection for the Saints, as I 
 have given order to the churches of Galatia, 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 gathering's when I come."* 
 
 This is claimed as an order for a public 
 collection, and hence indicative of a public 
 meeting on that day. The claim is only a 
 far-fetched inference, and is decided by the 
 expression, "lay by him in store.' 7 This 
 -contains no such inference. It is the work of 
 the theologian who puts such an interpreta- 
 
 * 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 79 
 
 tion on to the passage, and not the work of 
 the scholar who draws it from the passage. 
 In support of this are the following facts : 
 
 The English rendering, "let ever} 7 one of 
 you lay by him in store," clearly indicates a 
 personal work on the part of each man by 
 himself. The Greek is equally plain, and, if 
 possible, stronger. It is as follows : 
 
 Kara /ulav Ga/3i3dro)v eKaaroe vfitiv Trap' eavTG) ridero, 
 Qrjoavpi&v o, rt av evodtirai. 
 
 It would be difficult to frame a sentence 
 which would express the idea of personal 
 action by one's self, more exactly. It is literal 
 ly, " each one of you, by himself, lay away, 
 treasuring up," The Latin is : 
 
 "Per unam Sabbatorum miusquisqe vestrumi apud 
 se reponat recondens, quod bene successerit," etc. 
 
 Literally, "Each one of you at his own 
 house lay up, putting away," etc. 
 
 Tyndale says : " let every one off you put 
 a syde at home and laye uppe." 
 
 The Syriac Peshito, reads as follows: "let 
 every one of yon lay aside and preserve at 
 home." 
 
80 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 To this the following may be added : 
 
 Three French versions read, "At his own house at 
 home?' Luther, "By himself at homer The Dutch 
 version the same. The Italian version, "In his oicn 
 presence at home." The Spanish, "In- his own house." 
 Portuguese " With himself." Sweedish, "Wear himself"' 
 The Douay Bible, "Let every one of you put apart with 
 himself." Mr. Sawyer, "let each one of you lay aside 
 by himself." Beza, "At home." 
 
 By such an array of scholarship the vague 
 inference on which the common notion rests, 
 is at once sunk. The direction given by Paul 
 is that each man should begin the work of the 
 week by putting aside what he was able for 
 the poor saints at Jerusalem, in order that- 
 each having thus decided what he could do, 
 there need be no delay about the matter when 
 he should arrive ; and this order was only 
 temporary, and for a specific purpose. More 
 than this, it was only five years before that 
 Paul organized the Corinthian church while 
 he was observing the Sabbath. Thus does 
 this passage prove too weak to bear up even 
 an inference in favor of a change of the 
 Sabbath. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 81 
 
 One more passage remains — Rev. 1 : 10 — 
 •' I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." The 
 claim is that the " Lord's day" refers to the 
 first day of the week, which presupposes that 
 the day was then observed as a Sabbath, or 
 at least as a day of religious meeting. The 
 only evidence offered is the presumption that 
 it was thus used then, because it is met with 
 (for the first time) in the writings of one of the 
 Christian Fathers about seventy years after, 
 and was afterward used to designate the First 
 day. But the fact that John uses the term 
 nowhere else in all his writtings, and that he 
 uses it here in only an incidental manner, and 
 that the epistle of Clement, written about the 
 same time, makes no mention of it, and that 
 the writings of the other Fathers down to the 
 year 170, of which there are several fragments, 
 make no mention of it, proves conclusive- 
 ly, that in whatever sense John used the 
 term, he did not apply it to any day of the 
 week, much less to one which was being 
 religiously observed. — The history of the use 
 of this term as applied to the First day, will be 
 
82 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 more fully discussed in its proper place. 
 
 We are now prepared to sum up the case 
 as regards the example of Christ and his 
 Apostles in observing the first day of the 
 week. 
 
 Six passages are quoted in favor of such 
 observance. Only three of these passages 
 mention the first day of the week in any 
 manner. Neither of them speaks of it as 
 sabbatic, or as commemorative of any event, 
 or sacred, or to be regarded above other days, 
 and it is only by vague and illogical inferences 
 that either of them is made to produce a 
 shadow of proof for such a change. Concern- 
 ing the other three, it is only supposed by the 
 advocates of the popular theory, that they in 
 some way refer to the First day. To this 
 therefore, does the " argument from example" 
 come, when carefully examined. The New 
 Testament never speaks of or hints at a 
 change of the Sabbath ; it contains no notice 
 of any commemorative or sabbatic observance 
 of Sunday. It does tell of the repeated 
 and continued observance of the Sabbath 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 83 
 
 by Christ and His Apostles. Sunday observ- 
 ance is a myth, as far as the Bible is concerned, 
 and the theory of a " change of the Sabbath 
 by divine authority," had its birth with 
 English Puritanism less than three hundred 
 years ago, as will be shown in a succeeding 
 chapter. 
 
PART IT. 
 
CHAPTEE I 
 
 wlstory of the sabbath, from 
 
 the first to the fourth 
 
 Centui^y. 
 
 NOUGH has been collated from the 
 New Testament in Part First of 
 this work, to show that the Sabbath 
 was observed byall Christians during 
 the life of Christ and of His apostles. The 
 first traces of false doctrines concerning the 
 Sabbath, and of the introduction of other 
 weekly festivals appear about the middle of 
 the second century. They came in as a part 
 of the great apostacy and the development 
 of the "Man of Sin," whose character and 
 work Daniel and Paul had foretold, and who 
 could not be revealed until false philosophy 
 from the heathen schools had crept into the 
 Church, sullied its purity, and weakened its 
 
88 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 power. It is neither possible nor desirable to 
 trace the history of the Sabbath during 
 the first three centuries without noting 
 those other weekly festivals which sprang 
 up about the middle of the second cen- 
 tury, especially since all Church Historians 
 have written more or less in the interest 
 of at least one of these festivals. The reader 
 will readily see that the Sabbath was observed 
 during these centuries and that the manner 
 of its observance was affected in proportion 
 as false philosophy and false festivals gained 
 a place in the Church. In proportion as the 
 Church went away from God, it went away 
 from the true idea and observance of His 
 Sabbath. 
 
 Commencing with Giesler, who stands first 
 v among modern Church Historians, we find 
 the following testimony :* 
 
 " While the Christians of Palestine, who kept the 
 whole Jewish law, celebrated of course all the Jewish 
 festivals, the heathen converts observed only the Sab- 
 bath, and, in remembrance of the closing scenes of our 
 
 *Church History, Apostolic age to A. D. 70. Section 29. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 89 
 
 Saviour's life, the Passover,* though without the Jew- 
 ish superstitions. f Besides these, the Sunday, as the day 
 of our Saviour's resurrection,^: was devoted to religious 
 worship." 
 
 If this be carefully studied, two important 
 facts will appear. 1. There is no indefinite- 
 ness in the statement concerning the fact that 
 all Christians kept the Sabbath. 2. With ref- 
 erence to the keeping of the Sunday, Griesler 
 gives the passages upon which such an idea is 
 founded, thus throwing upon the reader the 
 responsibility of deciding for himself whether 
 the evidence is sufficient to support the claim. 
 We have already examined it, and found it 
 utterly wanting; and it is a significant fact 
 that the learned historian does not commit 
 himself to the popular theory, but leaves 
 each to judge for himself. We again ask 
 the reader to refer the question to the New 
 Testament, and to abide by its decision. 
 
 Neander, in the following passage, also recog- 
 
 * 1 Cor. 5 : 6-8. 
 f Gal. 4 : 10, Col. 2 : 16. 
 
 \ Acts 20 : 7, 1 Cor. 16 : 2, Apocalypse 1 : 10, 7iee Jcuria- 
 kee heemera. 
 
90 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 nizes the observance of the Sabbath by the 
 Church in general, during the first three 
 centuries. 
 
 " In the Western churches, particularly the Roman, 
 where opposition to Judaism was the prevailing ten- 
 dency, this very opposition produced the custom of 
 celebrating the Saturday in particular as a fast day. 
 This difference in customs would of course be striking 
 where members of the Oriental church spent their Sab- 
 bath day in the Western church."* 
 
 Mosh^im makes a bold assertion on this 
 point, much bolder than more reliable men 
 have dared to make, and supports it by a very 
 flimsy attempt at proof, f 
 
 " The seventh day of the week was also observed 
 as a festival, not by Christians in general, but by such 
 churches only as were principally composed of Jewish 
 converts ; nor did the other Christians censure this 
 custom as criminal or unlawful/' 
 
 To support this sweeping declaration, he 
 gives the following foot-note. 
 
 * History of the Christian religion and Church, during 
 the first three centuries, p. 186, Rose's translation. 
 Nearly the same language is used in his general history, 
 vol. 1. p. 298, Torrey's translation. 
 
 f Church History, vol. 1, cent. 1, part 2, sec. 4. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 91 
 
 " It is in vain that many learned men have labored to 
 prove, that, in all the primitive churches, both the first 
 and last days of the week were observed as festivals,, 
 (because) the churches of Bythinia, of which Pliny 
 speaks in his letter to Trajan, had only one stated day 
 for the celebration of public worship, and that was„ 
 undoubtedly, the first day of the week, or what we call 
 the Lord's day." 
 
 Thus does Mosheim assert at wholesale, 
 founding one assertion upon another ; for the 
 statement that the churches in Bythinia had 
 but "one stated day," is purely conjectural, no 
 such fact appearing in the account. But the 
 last clause of his first statement overthrows 
 the whole; for, if the Sabbath had been 
 abolished, and the Bythinians had rejected 
 it, and observed only the First day, they would 
 not have been so lenient as not to censure- 
 " Sabbath keeping" as criminal and unlawful. 
 That which they would not do themselves, 
 because it was wrong, they certainly could not 
 fail to censure in others.* 
 
 * In further proof of the observance of the Sabbath 
 during the first three centuries. See Man ual of Eccle- 
 siastical History, by Rev. E. 8. Foidke, pp. 28 and 65, Ox- 
 ford, 1857, and also, Manual of Church History, by E~ 
 F. Guerick, p. 135, Andover, 1857. 
 
92 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Doctor Charles Hase says :* 
 
 " The Roman Cliurcli regarded Saturday as a fast day 
 in direct opposition to those who regarded it as a 
 Sabbath." 
 
 Rev. James Oragie Robertson, f states that : 
 
 " In memory of our Lord's betrayal and crucifixion 
 the fourth and sixth days of each week were kept as 
 fasts, by abstaining from food until the hour at which 
 He gave up the Ghost, the ninth hour, or 8 P. m. In 
 the manner of observing the Seventh day the Eastern 
 Church differed from the Western. The Orientals, in- 
 fluenced by the neighborhood of the Jews, and by the 
 ideas of Jewish converts, regarded it as a continua- 
 tion of the Mosaic Sabbath, and celebrated it almost in 
 the same manner as the Lord's day; while their brethren 
 in the west — although not until after the time of Ter- 
 tullian, extended to it the fast of the preceding day." 
 
 Rev. Phillip Schaff bears the following tes- 
 timony \\ 
 
 " The observance of the Sabbath among the Jewish 
 christians, gradually ceased. Yet the Eastern Church 
 to this day marks the seventh day of the week, (except- 
 
 * History of the Christian Church, p. 67, paragraph 
 69. N. Y. 1855. 
 
 f History of the Church, p. 158, London, 1854. 
 
 \ History of the Christian Church, p. 372. New York 
 and Edinburg, 1864. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 93 
 
 ing only the Easter 'Sabbath,) by omiting fasting, and by 
 standing in prayer ; while the Latin Church, in direct 
 opposition to Judaism, made Saturday a fast day. The 
 controversy on this point began as early as the end of 
 the second century. Wednesday, and especially Friday , 
 were devoted to the weekly commemoration of the 
 sufferings and death of the Lord, and observed as days 
 of penance, or watch days, with worship and half 
 fasting, till three o'clock in the afternoon." 
 
 William Cave, D. D. in a work entitled 
 Primitive Christianity* testifies as follows : 
 
 " The Sabbath, or Saturday, for so the word Sabbatum 
 is constantly used in the writings of the fathers when 
 speaking of it as it relates to christians, was held by 
 them in great veneration, and especially in the Eastern 
 parts, honored with all the public solemnities of religion. 
 For which we are to know, that the Gospel in those 
 parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews, they being 
 generally the first converts to the Christian faith, they 
 still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaic institu- 
 tions, and especially for the Sabbath, as that which had 
 been appointed by God himself as a memorial of His rest 
 from the work of creation, settled by their great master 
 Moses, and celebrated by their ancestors for so many 
 ages as the solemn day of their public worship, and 
 were therefore very loth that it should be wholly anti- 
 quated and laid aside. * * Hence they usually had 
 most parts of divine service performed upon that day ; 
 they met together for public prayers, for reading the 
 
 * P. 83, Oxford, 1840. 
 
94 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Scriptures, celebration of the Sacraments, and such like 
 duties. This is plain, not only from some passages in 
 Ignatius, and Clemen's Constitutions, but from writers 
 of more unquestionable credit and authority. Athana- 
 sius, bishop of Alexandria tells us that they assemble 
 •on Saturdays, not that they were infected with Judaism, 
 but only to worship Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sab- 
 bath ; and Socrates, speaking of the usual times of their 
 public meeting, calls the Sabbath and the Lord's day, 
 the weekly festivals on which the congregation was 
 wont to meet in the Church for the performance of 
 divine services. Therefore the council of Laodicea 
 amongst other things decreed,* that upon Saturdays 
 the gospels and other scriptures should be read. Upon 
 this day also, as well as upon Sunday, all fasts were 
 severely prohibited, (an infallible argument they 
 •counted it a festival day) one Saturday in the year only 
 excepted, viz : that before Easter day, which was always 
 observed as a solemn fast ; things so commonly known 
 as to need no proof. * * * Thus stood the case in 
 the Eastern Church ; in those in the West we find it 
 somewhat different. Amongst them it was not observed 
 as a religious festival, but kept as a constant fast. The 
 reason whereof, (as it is given by Pope Innocent, in an 
 epistle to the Bishop Eugubium, where he treats of this 
 very case,) seems most probable. ' If (says he) we com- 
 memorate Christ's resurrection, not only at Easter, but 
 every Lord's day, and fast upon Friday, because it was 
 the day of his passion, we ought not to pass by Saturday, 
 which is the middle time between the days of grief and 
 joy; the apostles themselves spending those two days, 
 
 * Can. 16. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 95 
 
 viz : Friday and the Sabbath, in great sorrow and heavi- 
 ness ; and he thinks no doubt ought to be made, but that 
 the apostles fasted upon those two days ; whence the 
 Church had a tradition, that the sacraments were not to 
 be administered on those days, and therefore concludes 
 that every Saturday, or Sabbath, ought to be kept a fast. 
 To the same purpose the council of Illiberis ordained- 
 that a Saturday festival was an error that ought to be 
 reformed, and that men ought to fast on every Sabbath. 
 But, though this seems to have been the general prac- 
 tice, yet it did not obtain in all places of the West alike. 
 In Italy itself, it was otherwise at Milan, where Satur- 
 day was a festival ; and it is said in the life of Saint 
 Ambrose, who was bishop of that See, that he constantly 
 dined as well upon Saturday as upon the Lords' day, 
 and used also upon that day to preach to the people." 
 
 The foregoing extracts cover a period reach- 
 ing to the close of the fourth century and show 
 that the Sabbath was observed until that time, 
 though a part of the Church was much corrup- 
 ted as to the manner of its observance. The 
 earliest Church historians corroborate this idea. 
 Socrates^ says : 
 
 " Such as dwell at Rome, fast three weeks before 
 Easter, except the Saturday and Sunday. * * Again, 
 touching the communion, there are sundry customs, for 
 
 * Can. 36. 
 
 f Ecc. Hist. Liber, 5, Cap. 21. Latin edition of 1570. 
 
96 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 although all the churches throughout the whole world do 
 celebrate and recieve the holy mysteries each returning 
 week upon the Sabbath, yet the people inhabiting Alex- 
 andria and Rome, from an old tradition, refuse thus to 
 do. The Egyptians, who are neighbors to the Alexan- 
 drians, together with the Thebians, celebrate the com- 
 munion on the Sabbath." 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 41 Therefore, when the festivals of each week occurred, 
 namely, the Saturday, and dominical day, in which they 
 (Christians) were wont to assemble in the churches, they 
 (the Arians) congregating in the porches of the gates of 
 the city, sung such songs as were fitted to the opinions 
 of Arius,"* &c. 
 
 Sozomert, a contemporary of Socrates, writ- 
 ing probably ten or fifteen years later, (about 
 A. D. 460,) has the following : 
 
 " The Sabbath, from the evening forward, for a suita- 
 ble time, is used in vigils and prayers ; and the day 
 following there is a public meeting of all in common, 
 when each partakes of the mysteries."! 
 
 * lb. Liber, 6, Cap. 8. 
 
 f Liber. 7, Cap. 18. 
 
 f The phrase "From the evening forward" shows 
 that these vigils were kept on Sixth-day night, and the 
 meeting on the following day was upon the Sabbath. It 
 cannot mean the evening after the Sabbath, for at sunset 
 the Sabbath closed. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 97 
 
 Again he says :* 
 
 " Likewise some meet both upon the Sabbath and 
 upon the day after the Sabbath, as at Constantinople, 
 and among" almost all others. At Rome and Alexandria 
 they do not. Among- the Egyptians, likewise, in many 
 cities and villages, there is also a sacred custom among 
 all of meeting on the evening after the Sabbath, when 
 the sacred mysteries are partaken of."f 
 
 Thus men living in the fifth century, and 
 having access to all the existing material, bear 
 testimony to the fact that it was the almost 
 universal custom of the Church at that time, 
 to observe the Sabbath. Corresponding with 
 this is the testimony of modern writers.. . 
 
 Lyman Coleman, says :% 
 
 " The observance of the Lord's day, as the first day of 
 the week, was at first introduced as a separate institution. 
 Both this and the Jewish Sabbath, were kept for some 
 time ; finally, the latter passed wholly over into the 
 former, which now took the place of the ancient Sabbath 
 
 * Liber. 7, Cap. 19. 
 
 f The reader will soon see why the Sabbath was not 
 observed at Rome and Alexandria. Sozomen wrote 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years after the passage of 
 the first " Sunday Law " by Constantine, and the subse- 
 quent enactments against the Sabbath. 
 
 \ Chap. 26, sec. 2, Ancient Christianity Exemplified. 
 
98 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 of the Israelites. But their Sabbath, the last day of 
 the week, was strictly kept, in connection with that of 
 the first day, for a long time after the overthrow of the 
 temple and its worship. Down even to the fifth century, 
 the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in 
 the Christian Church, but with a rigor and solemnity 
 gradually diminishing, until it was wholly discontinued. 
 * # * Both were observed in the Christian Church 
 down to the fifth century, with this difference, that in 
 the Eastern Church both days were regarded as joyful 
 occasions ; but in the Western, the Jewish Sabbath was 
 kept as a fast." 
 
 Heylyn,* after giving the words of Ambrose, 
 that he fasted when at Borne on the Sabbath, 
 and when away from Eome did not, adds : 
 
 " Nay, which is more, St. Augustine tells us, that 
 many times in Africa, one and the self-same Church, at 
 least the several Churches in the self-game province, 
 had some that dined upon the Sabbath, and some that 
 fasted. And in this difference it stood a long time 
 together, till, in the end, the Roman Church, obtained 
 the cause, and Saturday became a fast, almost through 
 all parts of the Western world ; and of that alone ; the 
 Eastern Churches being so far from altering their ancient 
 custom, that, in the sixth Council of Constantinople, 
 Anno, 692, they did admonish those of Rome to for- 
 bear fasting on that day, upon pain of censure." 
 
 * History of the Sabbath, part 2, chap. 2, sec. 3. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 99 
 
 King says :* 
 
 " For the Eastern Churches, in compliance with the 
 Jewish converts, who were numerous in those parts, 
 performed on the seventh day the same public religious 
 services that they did on the first day, observing both 
 the one and the other, as a festival. Whence Origen 
 enumerates Saturday as one of the four feasts solemn- 
 ized in his time, though, on the contrary, some of the 
 Western Churches, that they might not seem to Judaize, 
 fasted on Saturday. So that, besides tha Lord's day, 
 Saturday was an usual season whereon many Churches 
 solemnized their religious services." 
 
 An old work on the *' Morality of the Fourth 
 Commandment, ''f by William Twisse, D. D. 
 has the following : 
 
 " Yet, for some hundred years in the primitive 
 Church, not the Lord's day only, but the Seventh day 
 also, was religiously observed, not by Ebion and Cerin- 
 thus only, but by pious Christians also, as Baronius 
 writeth, and Gomarus confesseth, and Bivert also." 
 
 "A Learned Treatise, of the Sabbath":}: by 
 Edward Brerewood, Professor in Gresham 
 College, London, has the following : 
 
 *■" Primitive Church," first published 1691, pp. 126, 
 127. 
 
 f Page 9. London, 1641. 
 % Page 77, London, 1630. 
 
100 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " And especially because it is certain (and little do 
 you know of the ancient condition of the Church if you 
 know it not,) that the ancient Sabbath did remain and 
 was observed (together with the celebration of the 
 Lord's day,) by the Christians of the East Church, above 
 three hundred years after our Saviour's death." 
 
 It is befitting to close this list of quotations 
 with the following from the pen of the learned 
 Joseph Bingham.* 
 
 " We also find in ancient writers frequent mention 
 made of religious assemblies on the Saturday, or Seventh 
 day of the week, which was the Jewish Sabbath. It is 
 not easy to tell the original of this practice, nor the 
 reasons of it, because the writers of the first ages are 
 altogether silent about it. In the Latin Churches, (ex- 
 cepting Milan,) it was kept as a fast ; but in all the 
 Greek Churches, as a festival ; I consider it here only 
 as a day of public divine service. " x * * * Athanasius, 
 who is one of the first that mentions it, says : Thay met 
 on the Sabbath, not Miat they were infected with 
 Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. 
 And Timotheus, one of his successors in the See of 
 Alexandria, says, the communion was administered on 
 this day. * * * Socrates is a little more particular 
 about the service ; for he says : In their assemblies on 
 this day they celebrate the communion; only the 
 Churches of Egypt and Thebias differed in this from 
 
 * Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book 13, chap. 
 9 : Sec. 3. 
 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 101 
 
 the rest of the world, and even from their neighbors at 
 Alexandria, that they had the communion at evening 
 service. In another place, speaking of the Churches 
 of Constantinople, in the time of Chrysostom, he reckons 
 Saturday and Lord's day, the two great weekly festivals, 
 on which they always held Church assemblies. And 
 Cassian, takes notice of the Egyptian Churches, that 
 among them the service of the Lord's day and the Sab- 
 bath, was always the same ; for they had the lessons 
 then read out of the New Testament, only one out of 
 the Gospels ; and the other out of the Epistles or the 
 Acts of the Apostles ; whereas, on other days they had 
 them partly out of the Old Testament, and partly out 
 of the New. In another place he observes that in the 
 monasteries of Egypt and Thebias, they had no public 
 assemblies on other days, besides morning and evening, 
 except upon Saturday and the Lord's day, when they 
 met at (three o'clock,*) that is nine in the morning, to 
 celebrate the Communion." 
 
 Thus appears an unbroken chain of evidence 
 showing that the Sabbath was generally 
 observed by the Christian Church as late as 
 the fifth century. The Western Church 
 had by this time come to regard it as a fast, 
 and under the influence of the new-born 
 Papacy, its true character had been largely set 
 aside. The Eastern Church less corrupted by 
 
 * This should read "third hour". 
 
102 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the Papacy, observed it more nearly in the 
 true Christian spirit, and without extreme 
 pharisaie rigidity. But the reader has not 
 failed to notice that after the opening of the 
 third century, the history of the Sabbath is 
 more or less interwoven with the history of the 
 Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, as weekly 
 festivals or fasts. It is therefore necessary 
 that we inquire when, and for what reasons 
 these days came to be observed. Concerning 
 the time it is only necessary to say that the 
 first traces of their observance appear from 
 the middle to the close of the second century. 
 The reasons for observing Wednesday and 
 Friday have been given sufficiently in the 
 foregoing part of this chapter. It remains to 
 inquire more fully concern/, ng the Sunday. 
 
 No-Sabbathism prepared the way for Sun- 
 day. This false theory originated with those 
 leaders who came into the Church from the 
 Pagan schools, and sought to engraft certain ele- 
 ments of their former religion upon Christianity. 
 The fundamental error sprang from a misap- 
 prehension of the Gospel, which conceived of 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 103 
 
 it as license without law, instead of freedom 
 under law, through forgiveness. Justin Mar- 
 tyr is the representative man of this time. 
 He was born in Samaria, of Greek parents, 
 and studied philosophy in the Platonic 
 Schools. After reaching manhood he adopted 
 (we dare not say was converted to) Christianity, 
 as his religion, though he continued to wear 
 the philosopher's garb, and as his writings 
 show, held to many heathen notions. Neander 
 says of him :* 
 
 "Justin Martyr is remarkable as the first among these 
 apologists whose writings have reached us, and as the 
 first of those better known to us, who became a teacher 
 of the Christian Church, in whom we observe an ap- 
 proximation between Christianity and the Grecian, but 
 especially the Platonic philosophy ; and in this respect 
 he may be considered as the precursor of the Alex- 
 andrian Fathers." 
 
 The following extracts from his works pre- 
 sent a fair view of jSTo-Sabbathism at its birth. 
 Its character shows that it was the offspring 
 of Paganism, and not the offspring of the 
 Bible. In his " Dialogue vriih Trypho" he 
 
 * History of the Church during the first three centu- 
 ries, p. 410, Rose's trans. 
 
104 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 gives utterance to the following :* 
 
 " If we will not acknowledge this, we must necessarily 
 fall into notions that cannot be admitted ; either that 
 there was not the same God in the days of Enoch, and 
 all the rest, who did not practice circumcision according 
 to the flesh and keep the Sabbaths and those other rites 
 and ceremonies which are enjoined by the laws of Moses, 
 or that He did not care that all mankind should always 
 perform the same righteous acts ; which suppositions 
 are absurd and ridiculous. We must therefore confess 
 that it was for the sake of sinful men, that He, who is 
 always the same, commanded the same things to be 
 observed, and can pronounce Him friendly to man, pos- 
 sessed of fore-knowledge needing nothing, just and good. 
 If this be not so, tell me sirs, what are your opinions on 
 the subject ? When none of them made any reply, I 
 continued. I will then repeat to you, Trypho, and to 
 those who wish to become proselytes, that divine doc- 
 trine which I myself heard from the man of whom I 
 spoke. Do you not see that the elements stay not from 
 working, nor do they keep any Sabbaths. Remain as 
 you were born; for, if before Abraham, circumcision 
 was not needful, nor Sabbaths, feasts, nor Sacrifices, 
 before Moses, neither are they so now, when, according 
 to the will of God, Jesus Christ His Son has been born 
 without sin, of the Virgin Mary, who was of the race 
 of Abraham." 
 
 Again he says :f 
 
 * Library of The Fathers, vol. 40, p. 98, Sec. 23, Oxford 
 edition. 
 
 f lb. vol. 40, p. 85, Sec. 12. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 105 
 
 " The new law commands you to keep a perpetual 
 Sabbath, and you rest on one day and think that you 
 are religious, not considering why that commandment 
 was given you. Again, if you eat unleavened bread, 
 you say that you have fulfilled the will of God ; but it 
 is not by such means that the Lord our God is pleased. 
 If any one of you is guilty of perjury or theft, let him 
 sin no more. If any be an adulterer let him repent, and 
 then he will have kept a true and pleasant Sabbath of 
 God." 
 
 Thus spake JSTo-Sabbathism at the hour of 
 its birth. During the same years and from 
 the pen of the same author we have the first 
 authentic account of any observance of the 
 Sunday by Christians. This is found in his 
 First Apology, which was addressed to the 
 Emperor Antonius Pius, about the year one 
 hundred and fifty. This Apology was written 
 as a description of the doctrines and practices 
 of Christians, that their persecutions might 
 thereby be mitigated. In it Justin dwells 
 upon those features which were least objec 
 tionable to the Emperor. Concerning Sunday, 
 he says : 
 
 * Sections 87 to 89, Chevaliers Trans. For the origi- 
 nal, see Giesler's Church History. 
 
106 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " On the day which is called Sunday, there is an 
 assembly in one place of all who dwell either in the 
 towns, or in the country ; and the memoirs of the Apos- 
 tles, or the writings of the prophets are read, as long 
 as the time permits. Then when the reader hath ceased, 
 the President delivers a discourse, in which he reminds 
 and exhorts them to the imitation of all these good things. 
 We then all stand up together and put forth prayers. 
 Then, as we have already said, when we cease from 
 prayer, bread is brought, and wine, and water ; and the 
 President in like manner offers up prayers and praises 
 with his utmost power ; and the people express their 
 assent by saying Amen. The consecrated elements are 
 then distributed and received by every one ; and a por- 
 tion is sent by the deacons to those who are absent." 
 
 " Each of those also who have abundance, and are 
 willing, according to his choice, gives what he thinks 
 fit, and what is collected is deposited with the President y 
 who succors the fatherless and the widows, and those 
 who are in necessity from disease or any other cause ; 
 those also who are in bonds, and the strangers who are 
 sojourning among us ; and, in a word, takes care of all 
 who are in need." 
 
 We all of us assemble together on Sunday, because 
 it is the first day in which God changed darkness and 
 matter, and made the world. On the same day also ? 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour, rose from the dead. For He 
 was crucified on the day before that of Saturn, and on 
 the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the 
 Sun, He appeared to His apostles and disciples and 
 taught them what we now submit to your consideration. 
 
 To judge this record fairly, two things need 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 107 
 
 to be remembered. 
 
 1. This "Apology" was addressed to a 
 Pagan Emperor, and designed to modify his 
 opposition to the Christians. This emperor 
 esteemed the Sunday as a pagan festival. A 
 similar regard for the day on the part of the 
 Christians would lead him to look with greater 
 favor upon them. Hence the care taken by 
 Justin to inform him not only how the day 
 was observed, but also, why. It was Justin's. 
 " strong point,' 1 and he used it well. 
 
 2. The principal reason assigned for its- 
 observance is both unscriptural and fanciful. 
 It shows how Justin's philosophy kept him 
 from the true Christian idea that the Bible 
 alone is authority. He does not even hint at 
 any scriptural authority, or any precedent in 
 the acts of the apostles, or the earlier Christians. 
 Even the resurrection is mentioned inciden- 
 tally as a secondary consideration. The rea- 
 sons are those of a dreamer, not a Bible 
 Christian. Well does Bishop Taylor say : 
 
 " The first of these looks more like an excuse than a 
 
108 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 just reason ; for if any tiling of the creation were made 
 the cause of the Sabbath, it ought to be the end, not 
 the beginning ; it ought to be the rest, not the first part 
 of the work ; it ought to be that which God assigned, 
 not that which man should take by way of after justi- 
 fication."* 
 
 Let it therefore be remembered that this 
 first observance of Sunday was not Sabbatic. 
 The account is too minute to have omitted so 
 important a fact, had it been true that absti- 
 nence from labor formed a part of such 
 observance. On this point Sir William Dom- 
 villef makes the following just criticism. 
 
 " From it" the passage above quoted from Justin " we 
 learn the fact, that in somewhat more than a century 
 after the death of Christ, the Sunday had come to be 
 regarded as a stated day of public prayer and religious 
 instruction ; but that it was observed also as a Sabbath, 
 there is still no trace to be found. All that Justin states 
 of the religious rites of the day is not only compatible 
 with the belief that it was not Sabbatically observed, 
 but authorizes by its silence on that point, a clear in- 
 ference that, except during the time of divine service, 
 the Christians of that period lawfully might, and 
 actually did, follow their worldly pursuits on Sunday. 
 This inference appears irresistable when we further 
 
 *Ductor Dubitantium, part 1, book 2, chap. 2, sec. 45. 
 •f- Examination of the six texts, p. 274, 76. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 109 
 
 consider that Justin, in this part of his apology, is pro- 
 fessedly intending to describe the mode in which Chris- 
 tians observed the Sunday. He accordingly states what 
 it was, which, from a sense of religious duty, they did 
 on the Sunday ; but if there were anything which from 
 a sense of religious duty they did not do on that day, it 
 was equally within his purpose, and equally incumbent 
 upon him, to notice that also ; for it must be quite as 
 essential to the proper observance of the Sunday to 
 omit doing what is unlawful to be done in it, as it is to 
 do that which is required to be done. Yet Justin says 
 not a word of the duty and the practice of abstaining 
 from labor on the Sunday, a conclusive proof that no 
 such duty was then known to Christians, and no such 
 practice in use among them. It would be no sufficient 
 answer to this argument to reply, that it was not likely 
 Justin should enter into such full particulars in a 
 memorial addressed to a heathen emperor. Why should 
 he not ? He evidently intends to give all information 
 requisite to an accurate knowledge of the subject he 
 treats upon. He is even so particular as to tell the 
 emperor why the Sunday was observed ; and he does 
 in fact, specify every active duty belonging to the day, 
 the Scripture reading, the exhortation, the public prayer , 
 the sacrament and the alms-giving : why then should 
 he not also inform the emperor of the one inactive duty 
 of the day ; the duty of abstaining from doing in it any 
 manner of work ? * * * If such was the custom of 
 Christians in Justin's time, his description of their Sun- 
 day duties was essentially defective. It is not however 
 at all probable he would intend to omit noticing so 
 important a characteristic of the day, as the sabbatical 
 
110 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 observance of it, if it was in fact Sabbatically observed. 
 But even were it probable lie sliould intend to omit all 
 mention of it in his apology to the emperor, it would be 
 impossible to imagine any sufficient cause for his re- 
 maining silent on the subject in his Dialogue with Try- 
 pho the Jew; and this, whether the Dialogue was real or 
 imaginary, for if the latter, Justin would still, as Dr. 
 Lardner has observed ' choose to write in character.' " 
 
 " The testimony of Justin therefore proves most 
 clearly two facts of great importance in the Sabbath 
 controversy ; the one, that the Christians in his time 
 observed the Sunday as a prayer day ; the other, that 
 they did not observe it as a Sabbath day." 
 
 The case will be more easily understood 
 when it is remembered that the religious sys- 
 tem of the pagans was burdened with festal 
 days. Gods, Groddeses, heroes and events all 
 had their commemorative times. The heathen 
 converts carried a love for these into their 
 Christian or semi-Christian-life. Sunday was 
 a prominent day under the pagan system. 
 They naturally sought some reason for its 
 observance in connection with the new religion. 
 The tradition concerning the resurrection on 
 that day offered some ground. Philosophy 
 invented the main reasons as given by Justin, 
 and so the Sunday crept into the Church a 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. Ill 
 
 semi-pagan festival, but not a Sabbath. In- 
 deed the influence of the men who, like Justin, 
 had adopted Christianity, but had not been 
 fully converted by it, was opposed to the true 
 spirit of Sabbath observance. These men 
 were the fathers of that baneful no-lawism 
 which cut the Church loose from God and 
 drove her to an unhallowed union with the 
 State. Their errors began to cast up a high- 
 way on which the " man of sin " came into the 
 Church. Hence it is that for a thousand years 
 after the introduction of Sunday, its promi- 
 nence is proportionate to the success of the 
 apostatizing element in the Church. 
 
 During the third century it gradually 
 received a second title, that of Lord's day, the 
 term involving hovever only the general idea 
 of commemoration and not of sacredness. 
 
 Doctor Kitto says :* 
 
 " The earliest authentic instance in which the name 
 of Lord's day is applied [to Sunday] is not till A. D. 200, 
 when Tertullian speaks of it as 'die Dominico resurrex- 
 ionis.' Again, 'Domiiiicum Diem' " 
 
 ^Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, art, Lord's day. 
 
112 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 One or two quotations from the writers of 
 the third century will show the downward 
 course of the new doctrine. First we have 
 Tertullian. In his work entitled, " Adversus 
 Judoeos"* is found the following: 
 
 " It follows therefore, that inasmuch as the abolition 
 of carnal circumcision and of the old law has been 
 proved, so also the observation of the temporal Sabbath 
 has been demonstrated. For the Jews say that God 
 from the beginning, sanctified the Seventh day by rest- 
 ing from all his works ; and that Moses said to the 
 people, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, in 
 it thou shalt do no servile work, but only that work 
 which concerns the soul, by which we know more, 
 namely : that we should always sabbatize from all 
 servile work, not Only on the Seventh day alone, but 
 through all time. And we must now require which 
 Sabbath God wishes us to keep, for the Scriptures speak 
 of an eternal, and of a temporal Sabbath. For Isaiah 
 the prophet says : 1 : 14. ' Your Sabbaths my soul 
 hateth ; and in another place, ' Ye have profaned my 
 Sabbaths ;' from which we learn that the temporal Sab- 
 bath is to be considered human, the eternal Sabbath 
 divine. For this is^foretold through Isaiah 66 : 23. He 
 says : ' From one moon to another, and from one Sab- 
 bath to another shall all flesh come to worship before 
 me saith the Lord ; ' which we understand to have been 
 fulfilled in the time of Christ, when all flesh — that is 
 
 * Liber, 4, Chapter 4. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 113 
 
 all men — came to Jerusalem to adore God the Father 
 through His Son Jesus Christ, as was foretold by the 
 prophet — Isaiah 4 : 9 — ' Behold proselytes shall come to 
 thee through me/ Hence as there was a spiritual 
 before the carnal circumcision, there was also an eternal 
 Sabbath pre-existing, and predicated before the tem- 
 poral Sabbath. So they may say, as we have before 
 said that Adam sabbatized ; or that Abel when he offered 
 the holy sacrifice, pleased God by the observance of the 
 Sabbath ; or that Enoch when he was translated, was 
 an observer of the Sabbath ; or that Noah observed the 
 Sabbath in building the Ark on account of the great 
 deluge ; or that Abraham offered his son Isaac in the 
 observance of the Sabbath; or that Melchisideck re- 
 ceived the law of the Sabbath in his priesthood. But 
 the Jews say that the Sabbath must be observed because 
 it was commanded by Moses." 
 
 " It is therefore clear that the precept was not eternal 
 nor spiritual, but temporal, and might at some time 
 cease. Hence I add that the solemnities of the Sabbath, 
 that is the Seventh day, are not to be celebrated by 
 idleness, as Joshua showed in the time when he destroyed 
 the city of Jericho. A command was given him from 
 God, that he should direct the people to carry the ark 
 of the testimony around the city seven days, and when 
 the seven days were ended the walls would fall of their 
 own accord, and so it happened when the seven days 
 were ended the walls fell. Now it is very evident that 
 the Sabbath occurred on one of these days. For seven 
 days wherever you begin to reckon must include the 
 Sabbath ; upon which day not only the priests worked, 
 but the city was taken at the edge of the sword by the 
 
114 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 whole people of Israel. Also in the time of Maccabes 
 the people fought bravely on the Sabbath ; or in their 
 attack upon Allophyles ; and they thus restored the 
 law to its pristine condition. Nor do I believe that they 
 have defended any law except that which they remem- 
 bered to have been given concerning the Sabbath. 
 Whence it is clear that precepts of this nature were 
 applicable to the necessities of the time, and that God 
 did not give the law to be perpetually observed." 
 
 In another work* he saVs again : 
 
 " The Holy Spirit reproach eth the Jews for their feast 
 days. Your Sabbaths says he, and your new mOons, 
 and your ordinances my soul hateth. And do we, to 
 whom these Sabbaths belong not ; nor the new moons ; 
 nor the feast days once beloved of God, celebrate the 
 feasts of Saturn and of January, and of the winter sol- 
 stice, and the feast of Matron's ? For us shall offerings 
 flow in, presents jingle, sports and feasts roar? Oh 
 truer fealty of the heathen to their own religion which 
 taketh to itself no rite of the Christians ! No Lord's 
 day ; no Pentecost ; even had they have known them, 
 would they have shared with us. For they would be 
 afraid lest they should be thought Christians. We are 
 not afraid lest we be openly declared to be heathen I 
 If thou must needs have some indulgence for the flesh 
 too, thou hast it ; and thou hast not only as many days 
 as they, but even more. For the heathen festival is on 
 but one day in every year, thine upon every eighth day. 
 Gather out the several solemn feasts of the heathen 
 and set them out in order ; they will not be able to make 
 
 * De Idol. Cap. 14. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 115 
 
 up a Pentecost." 
 
 Here we have the native character of the 
 Sunday truly set forth. "If thou must needs 
 have some indulgence to the flesh, thou hast it 
 every eighth day. 11 Such was the legitimate, 
 nay the unavoidable fruitage of this semi-pa- 
 gan festivalism, a fruitage which poisened the 
 Church as fast as it ripened. 
 
 Doctor Hessey* ingeniously states the case 
 as regards the status of the Sunday in the 
 Church at the close of the third century. He 
 saj^s : 
 
 " It was never confounded with the Sabbath, but was 
 carefully distinguished from it as an institution under 
 the law of liberty, observed in a different way and with 
 different feelings, and exempt from the severity of the 
 provisions which were supposed to characterize the 
 Sabbath." 
 
 Robert Cox,f speaking of the reasons which 
 the early writers give for observing Sunday 
 says they were : 
 
 " Fanciful in most cases, and ridiculous in some. The 
 best of them is that on the first day the Savior had arisen 
 
 * Lectures on Sunday, p. 49. 
 
 f Sabbath Literature, vol. 1, p. 358. 
 
116 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 from the dead ; and the others chiefly are — that on the 
 first day God changed darkness and matter, and made 
 the world ; that on Sunday Jesus Christ appeared to, 
 and instructed His disciples ; (Justin) that the command 
 to circumcise children on the eighth day, was a type of 
 the true circumcision, by which we were circumcised 
 from error and wickedness through our Lord, who rose 
 from the dead on the first day of the week, (Justin and 
 Cyprian,) and that manna was first given to the Israe- 
 lites on a Sunday, (Origen.) From which the inevitable 
 inference is, that they neither had found in Scripture 
 any commandment — primeval, Mosaic, or Christian — 
 appointing the Lord's day to be honored or observed , 
 nor knew from any tradition any such commandment 
 delivered by Jesus or His disciples." 
 
 Sir William Domville* says : 
 
 " Centuries of the Christian era passed away before 
 the Sunday was observed by the Christian Church as a 
 Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single 
 proof or indication that it was at any time so observed 
 previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in A. D. 
 321. 
 
 Neanderf has the following : 
 
 " The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals was 
 always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the 
 
 * Examination of the six texts, vol. 1. p. 291. 
 f History of the Christian Church and religion during 
 the first three centuries, p. 186. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 117 
 
 intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command 
 in this respect ; far from them and from the early Apos- 
 tolic Church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to 
 Sunday." 
 
 So far as religious culture and real worship 
 are concerned, Sunday contributed less to them 
 than did Friday and Wednesday, saying noth- 
 ing of the Sabbath. The "fasts" were more 
 religiously observed than the " feasts, and 
 Sunday was the great weekly feast of the 
 Church, at the close of the third century.* 
 
 Standing at the close of the third century 
 the case may be briefly summed up as follows : 
 
 In spite of the opposition which had grown 
 up, because of the false claim that the Sabbath 
 was " Jewish " only ; in spite of the decline in 
 true religion and godliness resulting from the 
 fast growing apostacy, the Sabbath is generally 
 observed by the Christian Church. In the 
 west, about Rome, where No-Sabbathism pre- 
 vailed more largely, it was observed by some 
 as a " fast " in connection with Friday. In 
 
 * See Bingham, Coleman, Neander and others on this 
 point. 
 
118 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the East it retained its true character in a 
 large degree. 
 
 Sunday as a sort of festival in the Church 
 is something more than a century old, and is 
 " a day of indulgence for the flesh" gaining 
 ground in proportion as the Church goes into 
 apostacy. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CONSTANTINE AND THE SaBBATH 
 QuESTIO 
 
 N 
 
 HE fourth century opens a new era in 
 the history of the Church, and of the 
 Sabbath question. In the West, 
 through a union of church and state 
 the Papacy is born and the disastrous 
 work of civil legislation concerning relig- 
 ion begins. Constantine the Great is the 
 representative man during the first quarter of 
 the century. At the death of his father in the 
 year 306, he became an associate ruler in the 
 Roman Empire, and gained full power in the 
 year 323. He died at Constantinople^ A. D., 
 337. Constantine first began to favor Christi- 
 anity as an element of social and political 
 power. He shrewdly seized upon it as the only 
 vigorous element in the decaying Empire. He 
 
120 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 neither appreciated nor loved the truth for its 
 own sake. A modern historian* speaks of him 
 in these words : 
 
 " He reasoned, as Eusebius reports from his own 
 mouth, in the following manner : ' My father served 
 the Christians' Grod, and uniformly prospered, while 
 the emperors who worshiped the heathen gods, died a 
 miserable death ; therefore, that I may enjoy a happy 
 life and reign, I w T ill imitate the example of my father 
 and join myself to the cause of the christians, who are 
 growing daily, while the heathen are diminishing. 
 This low utilitarian consideration weighed heavily in the 
 mind of an ambitious captain, who looked forward to 
 the highest seat of power within the gift of his age." 
 
 Dr. Schaff says again :f 
 
 "He was distinguished by that genuine political wis- 
 dom, which, putting itself at the head of the age, clearly 
 saw that idolatry had outlived itself in the Roman Em- 
 pire, and that Christianity alone could breathe new vigor 
 into it, and furnish it moral support. ' 
 
 " But with the political, he united also a religious mo- 
 tive, not clear and deep indeed, yet honest, and strongly 
 infused with the superstitious disposition to judge a re- 
 ligion by its outward success, and to ascribe a magical 
 virtue to signs and ceremonies. . . .Constantine first 
 
 *Phillip Schaff— Church History, Vol 2, p. 19.— N. Y l 
 1867. 
 
 fib. Id. p. 13. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 121 
 
 adopted Christianity as a superstition, and put it by the 
 side of his heathen superstition, till, finally, in his con- 
 viction, the Christian vanquished the pagan, though 
 without itself developing into a pure and enlightened 
 faith. At first, Constantine, like his father, in the spirit 
 of the Neo-Pl atonic syncretism of dying heathendom, 
 reverenced all the gods as mysterious powers ; especially 
 Apollo, the god of the sun, to whom, in the year 308, he 
 presented munificent gifts. Nay, so late as the year 321 „ 
 he enjoined regular consultations of the soothsayers in 
 public misfortunes, according to ancient heathen usage ; 
 even later, he placed his new residence, Byzantium, un- 
 der the protection of the god of Martyrs, and the hea- 
 then goddess of Fortune ; and down to the end of his 
 life, he retained the title and dignity of pontifex max- 
 
 imus, or high priest of the heathen hierarchy 
 
 With his every victory over his pagan rivals, Galerius, 
 Maxentius, and Licinius, his personal leaning to Chris- 
 tianity, and his confidence in the magic power of the 
 cross increased ; yet he did not formally renounce hea- 
 thenism, and did not receive baptism, until, in 337, he 
 
 was laid upon the bed of death He was far 
 
 from being so pure and so venerable as Eusebius, blinded 
 by his favor of the Church, depicts him in his bombas- 
 tic and almost dishonestly eulogistic biography, with the 
 evident intention of setting him up as a model for all 
 future Christian princes. It must with all regret be 
 conceded, that his progress in the knowledge of Chris- 
 tianity was not a progress in the practice of its virtues. 
 His love of display and his prodigiality, his suspicious- 
 ness and his despotism, increased with his power. The 
 very brightest period of his reign is stained with gross 
 
122 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 crimes, which even the spirit of the age, and the policy 
 of an absolute monarch, cannot excuse. After having 
 reached, upon the bloody path of war, the goal of his am- 
 bition, the sole possession of the Empire ; yea, in the 
 very year in which he summoned the great council of 
 Nicsea, he ordered the execution of his conquered rival 
 and brother-in-law, Licinius, in breach of a solemn prom- 
 ise of mercy, (324.) Not satisfied with this, he caused, 
 soon afterward, on political suspicion, the death of the 
 voting Licinius, his nephew, a boy of hardly eleven 
 years. But the worst of all is the murder of his eldest 
 son, Crispus, in 326, who had incurred suspicion of poli- 
 tical conspiracy, and of adulterous aud incestuous pur- 
 poses toward his step-mother, Fausta, but is generally 
 regarded as innocent." 
 
 " At all events, Christianity did not produce in Con- 
 stantine a thorough moral transformation. He was con- 
 cerned more to advance the outward social position of 
 the Christian religion, than to further its inward mission. 
 He was praised and censured in turn by the Christians 
 and Pagans, the Orthodox and the Arians, as they suc- 
 cessively experienced his favor or dislike. * * * 
 ■" When, at last, on his death-bed he submitted to bap- 
 tism, with the remark, ' Now let us cast away all dupli- 
 city, he honestly admitted the conflict of two antagonis- 
 tic principles which swayed his private character and 
 public life." 
 
 Knowing thus tlie character and antecedents 
 of the man, the reader is better prepared to 
 judge concerning the motives which led to the 
 passage of his " Sunday Edict/' the first act of 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 123 
 
 legislation which directly affected the Sabbath 
 question. The edict runs as follows :* 
 
 Omnes Judices urbanseque plebes, et cunctarum arti- 
 um officia venerabili die Solis quiescant. Ruri tanien 
 positi Agrorum culturae liber licenterque inserviant : 
 quoniam frequenter evenit, ut non aptius alio die fru- 
 menta sulcis, aut vinea? scrobibus mandentur, ne occas- 
 sione momenti pereat commoditus coelesti provision e 
 concessa." 
 
 " Let all judges, and all city people, and all 
 tradesmen, rest upon the venerable day of the 
 Sun, But let those dwelling in the country 
 freely and with fall liberty attend to the cul- 
 ture of their fields ; since it frequently hap- 
 pens, that no other day is so fit for the sowing 
 of grain, or the planting of vines; hence the 
 favorable time should not be allowed to pass, 
 lest the provisions of heaven be lost." 
 
 This was issued on the seventh of March, 
 A. D., 321. In June of the same year it was 
 modified so as to allow the manumission of 
 slaves on the Sunday. The reader will notice 
 that this edict makes no reference to the 
 day as a Sabbath, as the Lord's day, or as in 
 
 *Cod. Justin. III. Tit. 12, L. 3. 
 
124 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 any way connected with Christianity. Neither 
 is it an edict addressed to Christians. JSTor is 
 the idea of any moral obligation or Christian 
 duty found in it. It is merely the edict of a 
 heathen emperor, addressed to all his subjects, 
 Christian and heathen, who dwelt in cities, and 
 were tradesmen, or officers of justice, to refrain 
 from their business on the " venerable day" of 
 the god whom he most adored, and to whom 
 he loved in his pride to be compared. There 
 are three distinct lines of argument which 
 prove that this edict was a pagan, rather than 
 a Christian document. 
 
 1. The language used. It speaks of the day 
 only as the " venerable day of the Sun" & title 
 purely heathen. It does not even hint at any 
 connection between the day and Christianity, 
 or the practices of Christians. 
 
 2. Similar laws concerning many other hea- 
 then festivals were common. Joseph Bing- 
 ham* bears the following testimony, when 
 speaking of the edict under consideration. 
 
 * Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book 20, Chap. 
 2, sec. 2. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 125 
 
 " This was the same respect as the old Roman laws 
 had paid to their ferim, or festivals, in times of idolatry 
 and superstition. * * * Now, as the old Roman 
 laws exempted the festivals of the heathen from all ju- 
 dicial business, and suspended all processes and plead- 
 ings, except in the fore-mentioned cases, so Constantine 
 ordered that the same respect should be paid to the 
 Lord's day, that it should be a day of perfect vacation 
 from all prosecutions, and pleadings, and business of 
 the law, except where any case of great necessity or 
 charity required a juridicial process and public tran- 
 saction." 
 
 Bingham states here clearly the fact, that 
 such prohibitions were made by the Eoman 
 laws in favor of their festivals, but adds, incor- 
 rectly, that Constantine made the same in fa- 
 vor of the Lord's day ; for we have seen that 
 it was not the Lord's day, but the " venerable 
 day of the Sun" which the edict mentions ; and 
 it is impossible to suppose that a law, made by 
 a Christian prince, just converted from heathen- 
 ism, in favor of a Christian institution, should 
 not in any way mention that institution, or 
 hint that the law was designed to apply to it. 
 
 Mill man* corroborates this idea as follows : 
 
 ^History of Christianity, Book 3, Chap. 1. 
 
126 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " The earlier laws of Constantine, though in their ef- 
 fect favorable to Christianity, claimed some deference, 
 as it were, to the ancient religion, in the ambiguity of 
 their language, and the cautious terms in which they 
 interfered with Paganism. The rescript commanding 
 the celebration of the Christian Sabbath, bears no allu- 
 sion to its peculiar sanctity as a Christian institution. 
 It is the day of the sun which is to be observed by the 
 general veneration ; the courts were to be closed, and the 
 noise and tumult of public business and legal litigation 
 were no longer to violate the repose of the sacred day. 
 But the believer in the new Paganism, of which the so- 
 lar worship was the characteristic, might acquiesce 
 without scruple, in the sanctity of the first day of the 
 week." 
 
 In chapter fourth of the same book, Millman 
 
 says : 
 
 " The rescript, indeed, for the religious observance of 
 the Sunday, which enjoined the suspension of all public 
 business and private labor, except that of agriculture, 
 was enacted, according to the apparent terms of the de- 
 cree, for the whole Roman Empire. Yet, unless we had 
 direct proof that the decree set forth the Christian rea- 
 son for the sanctity of the day, it may be doubted 
 whether the act would not be received by the greater 
 part of the empire as merely adding one more festival 
 to the fasti of the empire ; as proceeding from entirely 
 the will of the emperor, or even grounded on his author- 
 ity as supreme pontiff, by which he had the plenary 
 power of appointing holy days. In fact, as we have be- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 127 
 
 fore observed, the day of the Sun would be willingly 
 hallowed by almost all the Pagan world, especially that 
 part which had admitted any tendency toward the ori- 
 ental theology." 
 
 Stronger still is the testimony of an English 
 Barrister, Edward V. Neale* These are his 
 words : 
 
 " That the division of days into juridici, et feriati, ju- 
 dicial and non-judicial, did not arise out of the 
 modes of thought peculiar to the Christian world 
 must be known to every classical scholar. Before the 
 age of Augustus, the number of days upon which, out 
 of reverence to the gods to whom they were consecrated, 
 no trials could take place at Rome, had become a re- 
 source upon which a wealthy criminal could speculate 
 as a means of evading justice; and Suetonius enumer- 
 ates among the praiseworthy acts of that emperor, the 
 cutting off from the number, thirty days, in order that 
 crime might not go unpunished nor business be im- 
 peded. " 
 
 After enumerating certain kinds of business 
 which were allowed under these general laws, 
 Mr. Neale adds, " Such was the state of the 
 laws with respect to judicial proceedings, while 
 the empire was still heathen." Concerning 
 the suspension of labor, we learn from the 
 
 * Feasts and Fasts, p. 6. 
 
128 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 same author*' 
 
 " The practice of abstaining from various sorts of la- 
 bor upon days consecrated by religious observance, like 
 that of suspending at such seasons, judicial proceedings 
 was familiar to the Roman world before the introduc- 
 tion of Christian ideas. Virgil enumerates the rural la- 
 bors, which might on festal days be carried on, without 
 -entrenching upon the prohibitions of religion and right ; 
 .and the enumeration shows that many works were con- 
 sidered as forbidden. Thus it appears that it was per- 
 mitted to clean out the channels of an old water course ; 
 but not to make a new one ; to wash the herd or 'flock, 
 if such washing was needful for their health, but not 
 otherwise ; to guard the crop from injury by setting 
 snares for birds, or fencing in the grain ; and to burn un- 
 productive thorns." 
 
 These facts show how the heathen training^ 
 and belief of -Constantine gave birth to the 
 u Sunday edict." That he was a heathen is 
 also attested by the fact that the edict of the 
 7th of March, 321, in favor of Sunday, was 
 followed by another, published the next day, 
 which is so purely heathen, that no doubt can 
 be entertained as to the character of the man 
 who was the author of both edicts. f The edict 
 
 *Ib. p. 88, et. Seq. 
 
 f See Rosse's Ind. of Dates, p. 380, Gibbon's Decline 
 iind Fall of the Roman Empire, &c. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 120 
 
 of March 8th, commanded that in case of pub- 
 lic calamity, like the striking of the imperial 
 palace or public buildings by lightning, the 
 heathen ceremonies for propitiating the Gods 
 were to be performed, and the meaning of the 
 calamity should be sought from theharuspices. 
 The haruspices were soothsayers, who gave 
 their answers from watching the movements 
 of the entrails of slain beasts, and the smoke 
 from burning certain portions. This was a 
 proceeding purely heathen, and no Christian 
 prince could have made such a law. There is 
 an evident connection between the two edicts, 
 as we shall see when we remember that Apollo, 
 who was honored as the god of the Sun, 
 was the patron deity of these soothsayers. He 
 was also the patron deity of Constantine, and 
 the one to whom he, in his pride, loved to be 
 compared. Thus the Sunday edict, from its 
 associations as well as its language, is shown to 
 be the emanation of a heathen, and not a Chris- 
 tian religion. Eemember, too, that at least 
 nine years later than this, Constantine placed 
 his new residence at Byzantium under the pro- 
 
130 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 tection of the heathen goddess of Fortune 
 that he never gave up the title of high-priest 
 of the heathen hierarchy ; that he did not for- 
 mally embrace Christianity, and submit to bap- 
 tism until he lay upon his death-bed, sixteen 
 years later ; and you cannot fail to see that 
 whatever he did to favor Christianity, and 
 whatever claims he made to conversion, were 
 the outgrowth of a shrewd policy, rather than 
 of a converted heart. And when the impar- 
 tial historian can say of him, " The very bright- 
 est period of his reign is stained with crimes, 
 which even the spirit of the age, and the pol- 
 icy of an absolute monarch, cannot excuse,"* 
 we cannot well claim him as a Christian 
 prince. 
 
 If he made any general laws against heathen- 
 ism, they were never executed ; for it was not 
 suppressed in the empire until A. D. 390-seventy 
 nine years after his Sunday edict, and fifty 
 three years after his death, f The few abuses 
 
 *Schaff. 
 
 fSee vol. 3, chap. 28, Decline and Fall of Roman Em- 
 pire. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 131 
 
 against which he enacted laws, were those 
 which had been condemed before by the laws 
 of the heathen rulers who had preceeded him, 
 such as the obscene midnight orgies, &c. 
 Mill man* speaks as follows on this point : 
 
 "If it be difficult to determine the extent to which 
 Constantine proceeded in the establishment of Christi- 
 anity, it is even more perplexing to estimate how far he 
 exerted the imperial authority in the abolition of pa- 
 ganism. * * * The pagan writers, who are not scru- 
 pulous in their charges against the memory of Constan- 
 tine, and dwell with bitter resentment on all his overt 
 acts of hostility to the ancient religion, do not accuse 
 him of these direct encroachments on paganism. Nei- 
 ther Julian nor Zosimus lay this to his charge. Libanius 
 distinctly asserts that the temples were left open and un- 
 disturbed during his reign, and that paganism remained 
 unchanged. * . * • * Though Constantine advanced 
 many Christians to offices of trust, and no doubt many 
 who were ambitious of such offices conformed to the re- 
 ligion of the emperor, probably most of the high digni- 
 ties of the state were held by the pagans. * * In the 
 capitol there can be but little doubt that sacrifices were 
 offered in the name of the senate and the people of 
 Rome, till a much later period." 
 
 The whole matter is tersely told by a late 
 English writer, who, speaking of the time of 
 the Sunday edict, says : 
 
 *Book 4, Chap. 4. 
 
132 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " At a later period, carried away by the current of 
 opinion, he declared himself a convert to the Church. 
 Christianity then, or what he was pleased to call by 
 that name, became the law of the land, and the edict of 
 A.D. 321, being- unrevoked, was enforced as a Christian or- 
 dinance."* 
 
 The following words of the learned Niebuhr, 
 in his lectures on Roman history, as quoted by 
 Stanley, f are to the same effect. 
 
 " Many judge of Constantine by too severe a standard, 
 because they regard him as a Christian ; but I cannot 
 look at him in that light. The religion which he had 
 in his head, must have been a strange jumble indeed. 
 # * * He was a superstitious man, and mixed up his 
 Christian religion with all kinds of absurd and supersti- 
 tious opinions. When certain oriental writers call him 
 equal to the apostles, they do not know what they are 
 saying ; and to speak of him as a saint is a profanation 
 of the word." 
 
 The testimony concerning Constantine and 
 the Sunday edict, is given at some length in 
 order to show that Sunday gained its promi- 
 nence in the Eoman Empire through civil legis- 
 lation, and also that the legislation was not 
 Christian but pagan. By this adulterous union 
 
 *Sunday and the Mosaic Sabbath, p. 4. 
 fHistory of the Eastern Church, p. 292. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 133 
 
 between heathenism and Christianity, the Pa- 
 pacy was produced, and the Sunday became 
 one of its petted itstitutions. It is not neces- 
 sary to trace its history along the succeeding 
 centuries, under the pall of the i: dark ages," 
 through to the Reformation. It is all expres- 
 sed in one word : downward. The time and 
 the manner of its observance were regulated by 
 the Church in common with her other festivals m 
 Sometimes it was the day merely ; sometimes 
 the sacred time extended from noon on the sev- 
 enth dajf, until sunrise on the second day of the 
 week. But true to its origin and nature, it was 
 always the child of him, who spoke swelling 
 words against the most High and sought to 
 " change times and laws." On the other hand 
 the history of the Sabbath runs through this 
 dark period like a thread of light, showing 
 how Grod cares for His truth and guards it 
 when false theories and open enemies seek to 
 destroy it. Let us follow the golden thread 
 though the truth-crushing reign of Anti-Christ. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Sabbath-Keeping Dissenters 
 in the Western Church 
 
 NTI-CHRIST, as represented in the 
 Papacy, never succeeded in driving 
 the Sabbath wholly from his domains. 
 Dissenters who kept the Sabbath, 
 existed under different names and forms of or- 
 ganization, from the time of the first pope to 
 the Reformation. They were either the de- 
 scendants of those who fled from the heathen 
 persecutions previous to the time of Constan- 
 tine — which is most probable — or else those 
 who, when he began to rule the Church, and 
 force false practices upon it, refused submission 
 and sought seclusion, and freedom to obey God, 
 in the wilderness in and around the Alps. In 
 their earlier history, they were known as Naz- 
 arenes, Cerinthians, and Hypsistarii ; and later, 
 as Vaudois, Cathari, Toulousians, Albigenses, 
 
136 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Petrobrusians, Passagii and Waldenses. We 
 shall speak of them in general, under this lat- 
 ter name. They believed the Eomish Church 
 to be the " Anti-Christ" spoken of in the New 
 Testament. Their doctrines were compara- 
 tively pure and scriptural, and their lives were 
 holy, in contrast with the ecclesiastical corrup- 
 tion which surrounded them. The reigning 
 Church hated, and followed them with its per- 
 secutions. In consequence of this unscrupu- 
 lous opposition, it is difficult to learn all the 
 facts concerning them, since the only available 
 accounts come to us through the hands of their 
 enemies, garbled and distorted. Before the age 
 of printing, their books were few, and from 
 time to time these were destroyed by their per- 
 secutors, so that we have only fragments from 
 their own writers. At the beginning of the 
 twelfth century they had grown in strength and 
 numbers to such an extent as to call forth ear- 
 nest opposition and bloody persecution from 
 the Papal power. This and the increasing fa- 
 cilities for preserving history, have given them 
 a prominent place in the annals of the Church, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 137 
 
 and its reforms since that time. Their enemies 
 have made many unreasonable and false 
 charges concerning their doctrines and prac- 
 tices, but all agree that they rejected the doc- 
 trine of " church authority," and appealed to 
 the Bible as their only rule of faith and prac- 
 tice. They condemned the usurpations, the 
 innovations, the pomp and formality, the world- 
 liness and immorality of the Romish hier- 
 archy. If their close adherence to God's Word 
 sometimes led them to adopt extreme views, 
 it is not wonderful. Even their bitter ene- 
 mies have not denied that which all accord to 
 them, viz. : moral excellence and holiness of 
 life far in advance of their times and surround- 
 ings. 
 
 There are three lines of argument which 
 show that these dissenters, as a class, were Sab- 
 bath-keepers. 
 
 1. Apriori argument, founded upon the fol- 
 lowing statements which are confirmed by the 
 subsequent quotations. They accepted the 
 Bible as their only standard. They were very 
 familiar with the Old Testament, and held it 
 
138 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 in great esteem. They acknowledged no cus- 
 tom or doctrine as binding upon Christians 
 which was not established before the ascension 
 of Christ. Such a people must have rejected 
 those feasts which the Church had appointed, 
 and must have observed the Sabbath. But 
 there is direct testimony showing their anti- 
 quity, their high moral character and piety, 
 and their special character as Sabbath-keepers. 
 It is pertinent to preface these quotations with 
 the following from the pen of Mr. Benedict,* 
 by which it will be seen that it is almost a 
 miracle that any information concerning them 
 has come down to this time. 
 
 "As scarcely any fragment of their history remains, 
 all we know of them is from the accounts of their ene- 
 mies, which were always uttered in a style of censure 
 and complaint ; and without which we shonld not 
 have known that millions of them ever existed. It was 
 the settled policy of Rome to obliterate every vestige of 
 opposition to their decrees and doctrines, everything 
 heretical, whether persons or writings, by which the faith- 
 ful would be liable to be contaminated and led astray. 
 In conformity to this their fixed determination, all books 
 and records of their opposers were hunted up and com- 
 
 * History of the Baptists, p. 50. . . 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 139 
 
 mitted to the flames. Before the art of printing was 
 discovered in the fifteenth century, all books were made 
 with a pen ; the copies, of course, were so few that their 
 concealment was much more difficult than it would be 
 now, and if a few of them escaped the vigilance of the 
 inquisitors, they would be soon worn out and gone. 
 None of them could be admitted and preserved in the 
 public libraries of the Catholics, from the ravages of 
 time, and the hordes of barbarians with which all parts 
 of Europe were at different times overwhelmed." 
 
 Again Mr. Benedict speaks as follows: 
 
 * 
 
 " We have already observed from Claudius Seyssel, 
 the popish archbishop, that one Leo was charged with 
 originating the Waldensian heresy in the valleys, in 
 the days of Constantine the Great. When those severe 
 measures emanated from the Emperor Honorius against 
 re-baptisers, the Baptists left the seat of opulence and 
 power, and sought retreats in the country, and in the val- 
 leys of Piedmont ; which last placa in particular, became 
 their retreat from imperial oppression." 
 
 Dean Waddington bears testimony as fol- 
 lows :f 
 
 " Rainer Sacho, a Dominican, says of the Waldenses : 
 ' There is no sect so dangerous as the Leonists, for three 
 reasons : first, it is the most ancient, some say it is as 
 old as Sylvester,;): others, as the apostles themselves. 
 
 *Ib. p. 23. 
 
 f Church History, chap. 22, sec. 1. 
 
 ^Bishop of Rome under Constantine. 
 
140 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Secondly, it is very generally disseminated ; there is no 
 country where it has not gained some footing. Third 
 while other sects are profane and blasphemous, this re- 
 tains the utmost show of piety ; they live j ustly before 
 men, and believe nothing concerning God which is not 
 good.' " 
 
 This game writer, Sacho, admits that they 
 flourished at least five hundred years before 
 the time of Peter Waldo* Their great anti- 
 quity is also allowed by Gretzer, a Jesuit, who 
 wrote against them. Crantz 1 in his " History 
 of the United Brethren,"f speaks of this class 
 of Christians in the following words : 
 
 " These ancient Christians date their origin from the 
 beginning of the fourth century, when one Leo, at the 
 great revolution in religion under Constantine the Great, 
 opposed the innovations of Sylvester, Bishop of Rome. 
 Nay. Rieger goes further still, taking them for the re- 
 mains of the people of the vallies, who, when the Apostle 
 Paul, as is said, made a journey over the Alps into 
 Spain, were converted to Christ." 
 
 Jortin bears the following testimony 4 
 
 " In the seventh century Christianity was preached in 
 China by the Nestorians and the Valdenses who abhor 
 
 ^Benedict, Bap. Hist. p.p. 21-22. 
 *Latrobe's translation, p. 16 — London, 1780. 
 fEcc. Hist. vol. 2, sec. 38. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 141 
 
 red the papal usurpations, are supposed to have settled 
 themselves in the valleys of the Piedmont."^ 
 
 President Edwards says : 
 
 " Some of the popish writers themselves own that 
 that people never submitted to the Church of Rome. 
 One of the popish writers speaking of the Wal- 
 denses, says : the heresy of the Waldenses is the old- 
 est in the world. It is supposed that this people first 
 betook themselves to this desert, secret place among the 
 mountains to hide themselves from the severity of the 
 heathen persecutions, which were before Constantine the 
 Great, and thus the woman fled into the wilderness 
 from the face of the serpent, Rev. 12:6-14. And the 
 people being settled there, their posterity continued 
 there from age to age afterward ; and being, as it were, 
 by natural walls as well as God's grace, separated 
 from the rest of the world, never partook of the over- 
 flowing corruption." *■*.*«< Theodore Belvedere, 
 a popish monk, says that the heresy had always been in 
 the valleys. In the preface to the French Bible the 
 translators say that they (the Valdenses) have always 
 had the full enjoyment of the heavenly truth contained 
 in the holy Scriptures ever since they were enriched 
 with the same by the apostles, having preserved, in fair 
 mss. the entire Bible in their native tongue from gener- 
 ation to generation." 
 
 Thus history furnishes full and explicit tes- 
 timony concerning the antiquity of these pure 
 
 ^History of Redemption, p. 293, 294. 
 
142 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Christians, showing that their separation be- 
 gan very early, and that they never submitted 
 to the papal power, nor accepted its false teach- 
 ings. Their numbers is a matter of no less in- 
 terest than their antiquity. Jones bears the 
 following testimony:* 
 
 " Even in the twelfth century their numbers abound- 
 ed in the neighborhood of Cologne in Flanders, the south 
 of France, Savoy, and Milan. They were increased, 
 says Egbert, to great multitudes throughout all countries , 
 and although they seem not to have attracted attention 
 in any remarkable degree previous to this period, yet, 
 as it is obvious they could not have sprung up in a day, it 
 is not an unfair inference that they must have long ex- 
 isted as a people wholly distinct from the Catholic 
 Church, though, amidst the political squabbles of the 
 clergy, it was their good fortune to be entirely over- 
 looked." * * * " Towards the middle of the twelfth 
 century, a small society of the Puritans, as they were 
 called by some, or Waldenses as they are termed by 
 others, or Paulicians, as they are denominated by our 
 old monkish historian, William of Newburg, made their 
 appearance in England. This latter writer speaking of 
 them, says : ' They came originally from Gascoyne, 
 where, being as numerous as the sand of the sea, they 
 sorely infested France, Italy, Spain and England." 
 
 ^History of the Waldenses, vol. 1, chap. 4, sec, 3 — 
 London, 1816. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 143 
 
 Benedict says ;* 
 
 " In the thirteenth century, from the accounts of 
 Catholic historians, all of whom speak of the Waldenses 
 in terms of complaint and reproach, they had founded 
 individual Churches, or were spread out in colonies in 
 Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Bohemia, Po- 
 land, Lithuania, Albania, Lombardy, Milan, Romagna 
 Vicenza, Florence, Velepenetine, Constantinople, Phila- 
 delphia, Sclavonia, Bulgaria, Diognitia, Livonia, Sarma- 
 tia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Briton and Piedmont." 
 
 It is not claimed that there was perfect agree- 
 ment in sentiment on all points among all these 
 different sects, in all the different localities. 
 That they agreed on the fundamental point of re- 
 jecting the Romish Hierarchy, and appealing 
 to the Bible as the only standard of faith and 
 practice, is undeniable. The following testi- 
 monies will show what they were in these re- 
 pects. Allix speaks as follows :f 
 
 " They can say a great part of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment by heart. They despise the decretals, and the say 
 ings and expositions of holy men, and only cleave to the 
 
 ^History of the Baptists, p. 31. 
 
 fEcc. Hist, of the Ancient Piedmont Church, p.p. 216 
 217, 209— London, 1690. 
 
144 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 -text Scripture/' * * * " They say that the doctrine of 
 Christ and His apostles is sufficient to salvation, with- 
 out any Church statutes and ordinances. That the tra- 
 ditions of the Church are no better than the traditions 
 of the Pharisees ; and that greater stress is laid on the 
 observation of human traditions than on the keeping of 
 the law of God. — ' Why do you transgress the law of 
 God by your traditions/ They contemn all approved ec- 
 clesiastical customs which they do not read of in the 
 Gospel, as the observation of Candlemas, Palm Sun- 
 day, the reconciliation of penitents, the adoration 
 of the cross on Good Friday. They despise the 
 feast of Easter and all other festivals of Christ and 
 the Saints, because of their being multiplied to that 
 vast number, and say that one day is as good as 
 another, and work upon holy days, where they can do 
 it without being taken notice of/' *.*•*.■« They 
 declare themselves to be the apostles' successors, to have 
 Apostolic authority, and the keys of binding and loosing. 
 They hold the Church of Rome to be the Whore of Baby- 
 lon, and that all who obey her are damned, especially 
 the clergy that are subject to her since the time of Pope 
 Sylvester." * * * " They hold that none of the ordi- 
 nances of the Church that have been introduced since 
 Christ's ascension ought to be observed, being of no 
 worth ; the feasts, fasts, orders, blessings, offices of the 
 •Church and the like, they utterly reject." 
 
 This is said of them in Bohemia. (As late 
 as the time of Erasmus these Bohemians con- 
 tinued to keep the Sabbath with Great strict- 
 ness.) 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 145 
 
 In his history of the Waldenses,* Jones 
 gives their " confession of faith," article tenth 
 of which is as follows : 
 
 " Moreover, we have ever regarded all the inventions of 
 men (in affairs of religion) as an unspeakable abomina- 
 tion before God ; such as the festival days and vigils of 
 the saints, and what is called holy water, the abstaining 
 from flesh on certain days, and such like things, but 
 ajpove all, the Masses." 
 
 Iii section four of the same chapter, Jones 
 quotes from Book first, chapter five, of Perrin's 
 History of the Yaudois, as follows : 
 
 " Their heresy excepted, they generally live a purer 
 life than the Christians. They never swear but by com- 
 pulsion, and rarely take the name of God in vain. They 
 fulfill their promises with punctuality, and living for 
 the most part in poverty, they profess to preserve the 
 apostolic life and doctrine. They also profess it to be 
 their desire to overcome only by the simplicity of faith , 
 by purity of conscience, and integrity of life ; not by 
 philosophical niceties, and theological subtleties." And 
 he very candidly admits that — " In their lives and mor- 
 als they are perfect, irreprehensible, and without 
 reproach among men, addicting themselves with all their 
 might to observe the commandments of God. Lielen- 
 stenius a Dominition, speaking of the Waldenses of Bo- 
 hemia, savs : ' I sav that in morals and life thev are £*ood, 
 
 & 
 
 Chap. 5, sec. 3. 
 
 V 
 
146 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 true in words, unanimous in brotherly love, but tlieir 
 faith is incorrigible and vile,as I have shown in 
 my Treatise." * * * " Louis XII, King of France 
 being informed by the enemies of the Waldenses, 
 inhabiting a part of the province of Provence, that 
 several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent 
 the Master of Requests, and a certain doctor ot the Sor- 
 bonne, who was confessor to his majesty, to make in- 
 quiry into this matter. On their return, they reported 
 that they had visited all the parishes where they dwelt, 
 had inspected their places of worship, but that they had 
 found there no images, nor signs of ornaments belong- 
 ing to the Mass, nor any of the ceremonies of the Eom_ 
 ish Church ; much less could they discover any traces of 
 the crimes with which they were charged. On the con- 
 trary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance 
 of baptism, according to the Primitive Church, and in 
 structed their children in the articles of Christian faith, 
 and the commandments of God." 
 
 Eccolampadius, Luther, Beza, Bullinger, De 
 Vignaux, Chassagnon, Milton, and others 
 among modern writers unite in bearing testi- 
 mony to their uprightness and faithful adher- 
 ence to the Word of God. Their observance 
 of the Sabbath is also further attested as fol- 
 lows : Jones says :* 
 
 *IIist. Waldenses, chap. 5, sec. ,1. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 147 
 
 " Because they would not observe saint's days, they 
 were falsely supposed to neglect the Sabbath also, and 
 called Inzabbatati, or Insabbathists." 
 
 Bennedict has the following ;* 
 
 " We find that the Waldenses were sometimes called 
 Insabbathos, that is regardless of Sabbaths. Mr. Milner 
 supposes this name was given to them because they 
 observed not the Eomish festivals, and rested 
 from their ordinary occupations only on Sundays. A 
 Sabbatarian would suppose that it was because they met 
 for worship on the seventh day, and did not regard the 
 first day Sabbath." 
 
 Not only must a "Sabbatarian " thus con- 
 clude, but every thinking man must agree ; 
 since no fact is better established than this, viz; 
 that the Sunday was understood to be purely 
 a Church festival, one of the very things which, 
 they rejected. Blair's history of the Walden- 
 ses gives the following :f 
 
 " Among the documents we have by the same peoples 
 is an explanation of the ten Commandments, dated by 
 Boyer, 1120. It contains a compendium of Christian 
 morality. Supreme love to God is enforced, and re- 
 course to the influence of the planets and to sorcerers 
 
 *Hist. Baptists, vol. 2, p. 412.— Ed. 1831. 
 fVol. 1, p.p. 216, 220.— Edinburg, 1833. 
 
14b SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 is condemned. The evil of worshiping God by images 
 and idols is pointed out. A solemn oath to confirm any- 
 thing doubtful is admitted, but profane swearing is for- 
 bidden. Observation of the Sabbath, by ceasing from 
 worldly labors and from sin, by good works, and by 
 promoting the edification of the soul through prayer 
 and hearing the word is enjoined. Whatever is preached 
 without scripture proof, is accounted no better than 
 fables." 
 
 From a historical work of the early part of 
 the seventeenth century, entitled " Purchase's 
 Pilgrimages,"* a sort of universal history, we 
 learn that the Waldenses, in different localities, 
 
 " Keep Saturday holy, nor esteem Saturday fasts law- 
 ful. But on Easter, even, they have solemn services on 
 Saturdays, eat flesh, and feast it bravely, like the Jews." 
 
 During the twelfth century, they were known 
 in some parts of France and Italy as Passagin- 
 ians. Of these, Mosheim has the following :f 
 
 " Like the other sects already mentioned, they had the 
 utmost aversion, to the dominion and discipline of the 
 Church of Rome ; but they were, at the same time, dis 
 tinguished by two religious tenets which were peculiar 
 to themselves. The first was a notion that the obser- 
 vation of the law of Moses, in everything except the offer- 
 
 *vol. 2, p. 1269.— London, 1625. 
 
 fEccl. Hist, vol, 2, p. 127.— London, 1810. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 149 
 
 ing of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians, in con- 
 sequence of which, they circumcised their followers, ab- 
 stained from those meats, the use of which was prohib- 
 ited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jew- 
 ish Sabbath/' 
 
 The charge of circumcision is made only by 
 their enemies, the Romanists, and is not well 
 sustained ; but if it were true, they were not 
 Jews, but, as even their enemies admit, most 
 blameless and worthy Christians. Concern- 
 
 c/ 
 
 ing this charge, Benedict says : 
 
 " The account of their practicing circumcision is un 
 doubtedly a slanderous story, forged by their enemies, 
 and probably arose in this way : Because they observed 
 the Seventh day, they were called, by way of derision, 
 Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently at this day ; 
 and if they were Jews, they either did, or ought to cir. 
 cumcise their followers. This was probably the reason- 
 ing of their enemies. But that they actually practiced 
 the bloody rite, is altogether improbable."^ 
 
 Another direct and important testimony is 
 found in a ' l Treatise on the Sabbath, "f by 
 Bishop White. Speaking of Sabbath-keep- 
 ing as opposed to the practice of the Church 
 and heretical, he says ; 
 
 ♦Hist. Baptists, vol. 2, p.p. 412-418.— Ed. 1813. 
 fp. 8.— London, 1635. 
 
150 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " It was tlius condemned in the Nazarenes and in the 
 Cerinthians, in the Ebionites and in the Hypsistarii. 
 The ancient Synod of Laodicea made a decree against 
 it, chap. 29 ; also, Gregory the Great affirmed it was Ju- 
 daical. In St. Bernard's days, it was condemned in the 
 Petrobrussians. The same likewise being revived in 
 Luther's time, by Carlstadt, Sterneberg, and by some sec- 
 taries among the Anabaptists, hath both then, and ever 
 since, been condemned as Jewish and heretical." 
 
 The various and slanderous charges of cor- 
 ruption and religious excesses which certain 
 Romish writers have made against the Wal 
 denses, are truthfully and fairly disposed of 
 by Mr. "W. S. Gully, in a work entitled " Val- 
 denscs, &c* 
 
 " We may therefore consider that all the licentious 
 tales which have been told at the expense of Valdo and 
 his disciples, were the inventions of after times. That 
 individuals among them may have broached some ex_ 
 travagant and fanatical dogmas, is not improbable, but 
 we have no contemporary evidence in proof of their hav- 
 ing departed from the strictest rules of moral and relig- 
 ious purity, or of their having been guilty of any other 
 than the unpardonable offence of disobeying a spirit- 
 ual authority which had become as tyranical in the 
 exercise of its powers as it was remiss in the discharge of 
 the sacred trusts committed to it. ' The worst thing 
 
 *p. 57. — Edinburg edition. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 151 
 
 that can be said of them/ said the inquisitor Reiner, 
 whose business it was to accuse and hunt them down, 
 * is that they detest the Romish Church.' " 
 
 Other testimony might be added, but the 
 case does not demand it. It is already clear 
 that when the great apostacy began, which 
 culminated in the establishment of the Papacy, 
 and the union of Church and State, there were 
 those who refused to join with the apostate 
 throng, or recognize its unsciptural doctrines. 
 That they rejected the false dogma of Church 
 infallibility, and adhered to the Bible, Old and 
 New Testaments, as the only Christian author- 
 ity, and rule of Christian living. As a result 
 of this, their lives were holier and purer than 
 those of the apostate Church. Being removed 
 from the central arena of ecclesiastical and civil 
 strife, they increased in strength and numbers 
 until they came to be feared by their enemies, 
 when they were eagerly hunted, relentlessly 
 condemned, and slaughtered without mercy. 
 In common with the other truths of the Bible 
 they obeyed the law of the Fourth command- 
 ment, and kept God's Sabbath. Their history 
 
152 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 forms a strong link in the unbroken chain of 
 Sabbath -keepers which unites the years when 
 the "Lord of the Sabbath " walked upon the 
 earth, with these years in which He is mar- 
 shalling His forces for its final vindication. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EEPING IN THE 
 
 Sabbath K 
 
 Eastern Church. 
 
 AVINGr thus traced the history of 
 the Sabbath through the wilderness 
 of No-Sabbafhism in the Western 
 Church, it is berlting to inquire after 
 the history of the Sabbath in the Eastern 
 Church. Modern research has developed 
 some important facts concerning that part of 
 the Church which has never been subject to 
 the civil control of the Papacy; facts which 
 show that the Sabbath has retained its place 
 in the Church wherever the " civil power " has 
 not driven it out. Eirst comes 
 
 THE ABYSSYNIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The following extract from the pen of Rev. 
 Samuel Gobat,"* is a befitting preface to what 
 
 * Journal of three years residence in Abysssinia, p 
 55. N. Y. 1850. 
 
154 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 may be said concerning this branch of the 
 Church. 
 
 " It is generally admitted that Christianity was first 
 introduced into Abyssinia about the year of our Lord 
 330, at the time when Athanasius was patriarch of Alex, 
 .andria in Egypt. * * * It is from this date that the 
 Abyssinian Church assumes importance in the annals of 
 ecclesiastical history. Through all succeeding ages, 
 from that period to the present, she has received her 
 .superior ecclesiastic, or Abulia (literally our Father,) by 
 the appointment of the Patriarch of Alexandria, and 
 has continued with little interruption to maintain an 
 intimate connection with the Coptic Church of Egypt. " 
 •h- * * « During the seventh century when the 
 Mohammedans of Arabia spurred on by their religious 
 enthusiasm made an irruption into Egypt, and nearly 
 crushed the Church then existing in that country, the 
 strong ties which had hitherto bound together the Eas. 
 tern and Western Churches were almost entirely sun- 
 dered ; and the Abyssinian Church suddenly becoming 
 obscured, retired for several ages from the pages of 
 history. But ere she passed behind the cloud, she 
 encountered a fearful struggle with the Arabians, a 
 circumstance which evinced the reality of her vital 
 energies. The Arabians were a crafty foe ; skillful in 
 device, and unscrupulous as to means, they employed 
 alike strategem and force to induce her to submit to 
 their sway, and to adopt the new religion. But, stead- 
 last in her religious principles, the Abyssinian Church 
 xemained unshaken as a rock amid the dashing billows. 
 Covering her with his shield, God preserved her from 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 155 
 
 the galling yoke of Mohammedan tyrany, and permitted 
 her to keep feebly burning the flame of Christian faith 
 which she had received as a rich inheritance from her 
 fathers." 
 
 From the seventh century to the opening of 
 the sixteenth century, the Church of Abys- 
 sinia was almost entirely shut out from the 
 Church of Europe. During the seventeenth cen- 
 tury repeated and violent attempts were 
 made by the Jesuits, under the patronage of 
 Portugal to convert or subdue it. Artful in- 
 trigue and bloody war were alike unsuccessful, 
 and the Jesuits were finally driven from the 
 field. Touching the Sabbath as an. issue in 
 this straggle, Gobat speaks as follows:* 
 
 " The flame of discord might easily have been extin- 
 guished by the death of the Viceroy and that of the 
 Almna, had not the Emperor, regarding his late success 
 as a decisive victory, issued a decree, forbidding the 
 people longer to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath, which, 
 from time immemorial, they had been accustomed to 
 hallow with the same strictness and solemnity as the 
 Lord's day." 
 
 Against this decree made by the Emperor 
 under the promptings of the Pope's emissaries, 
 
 * Journal &c. p. 83. 
 
156 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the people protested with voice and sword, 
 and the war raged anew. Mr. Gobat decribes 
 it in the following words :* 
 
 " Tliis unhappy war continued to rage with unabated 
 fury, trembling in the balance between alternate suc- 
 cesses and reverses until the Emperor felt the imperious 
 necessity, in consideration of the interest of his throne, 
 and the tranquillity of his subjects, of requesting the 
 patriarch to negotiate a treaty between the Pope and 
 his royal highness, in which it should be stipulated, that 
 the Abyssinian Church might retain their ancient lit- 
 urgy, celebrate the same festival days that they formerly 
 observed, and enjoy the privilege of hallowing not less 
 the Jewish Sabbath than the Lord's day, in agreement 
 with tneir uniform practice previous to the introduction 
 of the Catholic faith." 
 
 But this was not enough. The people 
 " claimed nothing less than the entire re-estab- 
 lishment of the ancient constitution of their 
 Church, and the total expulsion of the stran- 
 gers from the kingdom." The Emperor was 
 too much under the control of the Jesuit 
 emissaries to grant this at once. Another 
 bloody battle took place between his own 
 troops and his insurgent people. Though 
 
 * Journal &c. p. 93. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 157 
 
 temporarily victorious in this encounter, lie 
 finally yielded. 
 
 " An imperial lierald was accordingly sent through the 
 streets of the Capitol, proclaiming, ' Hear ' ! ' Hear ' ! I 
 formerly recommended to your acceptance the Catholic 
 faith, because I believed it to be true ; but as great num- 
 bers of my subjects have sacrificed their lives in defence 
 of the religion of our fathers, I hereby certify that the 
 free exercise of this religion shall be hereafter guaran- 
 teed to all. Your priests are hereby authorized to take 
 possession of their Churches, and worship without mo- 
 lestation the God of their ancestors." 
 
 " It is impossible, adequately to describe the demon- 
 stration of joy, evinced by the gushing tears of gratitude 
 which accompanied this public declaration. Voices 
 echoing the praises of the Emperor floated on every 
 breeze ; the people threw from their houses the rosaries 
 and chaplets of the Jesuits and burnt them in bonfires ; 
 satisfaction and delight were expressed in every coun- 
 tenance, gladness sparkled in every eye."* 
 
 Such strength of character and tenacity of 
 purpose have ever marked this branch of the 
 Church. Incidental remarks scattered through 
 the work of Mr. Grobat, show that the Abys- 
 sinian Church still keeps the Sabbath. Turn- 
 ing to other authority the reader will learn 
 that : 
 
 * lb. Id. p. 97. 
 
158 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " The Abyssinians do liold tlie Scriptures to be the 
 perfect rule of Christian faith ; insomuch that they 
 deny it to be in the power of a general council to oblige 
 the people to believe anything as articles of faith with- 
 out an express warrant from them."* 
 
 " Tran-substantiation and the adoration of the conse- 
 crated bread in the sacrament, were what the Abyssin. 
 ians abhored. They deny purgatory, and know nothing 
 of extreme unction ; they condemn graven images ; they 
 keep both Saturday and Sunday. "f 
 
 This author, Greddes, gives a detailed account 
 of their doctrines and practices as by given 
 one Zaga Zabo, the ambassador, of the king 
 of Ethiopia, at Lisbon, Spain, in 1534, as fol- 
 lows :J 
 
 " We are bound by the Institutions of the Apostles 
 to observe two days, to wit : the Sabbath, and the Lord's 
 day, on which it is not lawful for us to do any work, no, 
 not the least. On the Sabbath day because God, after he 
 had finished the creation of the World, rested thereon ; 
 which day, as God would have it called the Holy of Ho- 
 lies, so the not celebrating thereof with great honor and 
 devotion, seems to be plainly contrary to God's will and 
 precept who will suffer heaven and earth to pass away 
 sooner than His word ; and that especially, since Christ 
 
 * Church History of Ethiopia, by Michael Geddes, p. 
 31, London, 1696. 
 f lb. Id. p. 34, 35. 
 J Church History of Ethiopia. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 1CD 
 
 came not to dissolve the law, but to fulfill it. It is not 
 therefore in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to 
 Christ and His holy Apostles, that we observe that day, 
 the favor that was showed herein to the Jews, being 
 transferred to us, Christians ; so that excepting Lent, 
 we eat flesh every Saturday in the year. But in the 
 kingdoms of Barnagaus, Tigre and Mahon, the Chris- 
 tians according to ancient custom do eat flesh on all 
 Saturdays and Sundays, even in Lent. We do observe 
 the Lord's day after the manner of all other Christians- 
 in memory of Christ's resurrection." 
 
 More intelligent, scriptural, and truly Chris- 
 tian views of the Sabbath, could scarcely be 
 given. Nor is there in all the account any 
 hint of authority for the Sunday, beyond tra- 
 dition. The "History of the Eastern Church, 7 
 by Arthur P. Stanley informs the reader that : 
 
 " The Church of Abyssinia, founded in the fourth 
 century by the Church of Alexandria, furnishes the one 
 example of a nation, savage, yet Christian, showing us, 
 on the one hand, the force of the Christian faith in 
 maintaining its superiority at all against such immense 
 disadvantages, and, on the other hand, the utmost 
 amount of superstition with which a Christian Church 
 can be overlaid without perishing altogether. One 
 lengthened communication it has hitherto received 
 from the West — the mission of the Jesuits. With this 
 exception, it has been left almost entirely to itself. 
 Whatever there is of Jewish, or of old Egyptian ritual 
 
100 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 preserved in .the Coptic Church, is carried to excess in 
 the Abyssinian. The likeness of the sacred ark, called 
 the ark of Zion, is the centre of Abyssinian devotion. 
 To it gifts and prayers are offered. On it the sanctity 
 of the whole Church depends. Circumcision is not only 
 practiced, as in the Coptic Church, but is regarded as of 
 equal necessity with baptism. There alone the Jewish 
 Sabbath is still observed as well as the Christian Sun- 
 day. They (with the exception of a small sect of the 
 Seventh-day Baptists) are the only true Sabbatarians in 
 Christendom. "* 
 
 Thus has the Abyssinian Church stood firm 
 on the fundamental truth of God's Word, and 
 clung to His Sabbath through all the vicissi- 
 tudes and cruel opposition of fifteen hundred 
 years ; as Christians too, and not as Judaizers, 
 their own words being witness. It is not won - 
 derful if they are to-day below the higher 
 Christian standards of practical religious life ; 
 it is rather wonderful that they have not been 
 wholly corrupted and overrun. When we re- 
 member the fierce attacts of Mohammedanism ; 
 the craft and cruelties of Eomanism, and the 
 continued encroachments of surrounding Pa- 
 ganism, their present purity in doctrines and 
 
 * p. 96, N. Y. 1862. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 161 
 
 in life seems almost miraculous. Grobat testi- 
 fies that though, he had " sometimes overheard 
 conversation of a very improper and indeed de- 
 basing character," nevertheless he had "never 
 witnessed so much lewdness or indecency of 
 conduct in the Capitol of Abyssinia, as is 
 sometimes witnessed in the Capitols of Egypt, 
 France, or England."* 
 
 The time is not distant when this branch of 
 the Church will spring to new life and become 
 under God instrumental in converting the 
 nations around it to Him, and to His Sab- 
 bath. 
 
 THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Here is another example similar to the one 
 just presented. According to Stanley, this 
 Church was founded A. D. 302. It was the 
 central Christian influence in Asia, and during 
 its early history pushed its missionary enter- 
 prises even to China. In the fifth century a 
 translation of the Bible was made into the 
 Armenian tongue, which is so perfect as to 
 
 * Journal &c. p. 459. 
 
162 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 have been called the "queen of versions.' 7 
 Their general character at the present time is 
 described by Mr. Stanley as follows :* 
 
 " The Armenians are by far the most powerful, and 
 the most widely diffused, in the group of purely Orien- 
 tal Churches, of which we are now speaking, and as 
 such exercise a general influence over all of them. Their 
 home is in the mountain tract that encircles Ararat. 
 But, though distinct from the surrounding nations, they 
 are yet scattered far and wide through the whole Levant, 
 extending their episcopate, and carrying on at the same 
 time the chief trade of Asia. A race, a church, of mer- 
 chant princes, they are in quietness, in wealth, in steadi- 
 ness, the ' Quakers ' of the East, the ' Jews,' if one may 
 so call them, of the Oriental Church." 
 
 Rev. Lyman Coleman speaks of the observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath among the Armenians in 
 the following casual manner: 
 
 " There are at least fourteen great feast-days in the 
 coarse of the year, on which all ordinary labor is sus- 
 pended, and the day is observed more strictly than the 
 Sabbath."t 
 
 J. W. Mossie,^: as quoted by Andrews, § thus 
 describes them : 
 
 * Hist. Eastern Church, p. 92. 
 
 f Ancient Christianity exemplified, p. p. 561, 562 — 
 Phila. 1852. 
 
 J Continental India, vol. 2, p. p. 116, 117, 120. 
 § Sab. Hist, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 163 
 
 •' The creed which these representatives of an ancient 
 line of Christians cherished was not in conformity with 
 Papal decrees, and has with difficulty heen squared 
 with the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican Episco- 
 pacy. Separated from the World for one thousand 
 years, they were naturally ignorant of many novelties 
 introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran ; 
 and their conformity with the faith and practices of the 
 first ages, laid them open to the unpardonable guilt of 
 heresy and schism, as estimated by the Church of Rome. 
 *We are Christians, and not idolators,' was their expres- 
 sive reply, when required to do homage to the image of 
 the Virgin Mary." * * * " La Croze states them 
 at fifteen hundred Churches, and as many towns and 
 villages. They refused to recognize the pope, and de- 
 clared they had never heard of him ; they asserted the 
 purity and primitive truth of their faith, since they 
 came, and their bishops had for thirteen hundred years 
 been sent from the place where the followers of Jesus 
 were first called Christians." * * " Remote from the 
 busy haunts of commerce, or the populous seats of 
 manufacturing industry, they may be regarded as the 
 Eastern Piedmontes, the Vallois of Hindoostan, the 
 witnesses prophecying in sack cloth through revolving 
 centuries though indeed their bodies lay as dead in the 
 streets of the city they had once peopled." 
 
 Yeates informs us that Saturday " amongst 
 them is a festival day agreeable to the ancient 
 practice of the Church, "f 
 
 f East India Church history, p. 134 — quoted by An- 
 drews, Sab. Hist, p. 314. 
 
164 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 But the following testimony from the pen 
 of Eev. Claudius Buchannan* presents the 
 case still more clearly. He says : 
 
 " Next to the Jews, the Armenians will form the most 
 generally useful body of Christian Missionaries. They 
 are found in every principle city of Asia ; they are the 
 general merchants of the East, and are in a state of con- 
 stant motion from Canton to Constantinople. Their 
 general character is that of a wealthy, industrious, and 
 enterprising people. They are settled in all the princi- 
 pal places of India, where they arrived many centuries 
 before the English. Wherever they colonize, they build 
 Churches, and observe the solemnities of the Christian 
 Religion in a decorous manner." * * * " The his- 
 tory of the Armenian Church is very interesting. Of 
 all the Christians in Central Asia, they have preserved 
 themselves most free from Mahomedan and Papal cor- 
 ruptions. The Pope assailed them for a time with great 
 violence, but with little effect. The Churches in lesser 
 Armenia indeed consented to a union, which did not 
 long continue ; but those in Persian Armenia maintained 
 their independence, and they retain their ancient Scrip- 
 tures, doctrines, and worship to this day. * * The 
 Bible was translated into the Armenian language in the 
 fifth century, under very auspicious circumstances, the 
 history of which has come down to us. It has been 
 allowed, by competent judges of the language, to be a 
 most faithful translation. La Croze calls it the ' Queen 
 of Versions.' This Bible has ever remained in the pos- 
 
 * Researches in Asia, p. 206. seq — Boston, 1811. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 165 
 
 session of the Armenian people, and many illustrious 
 instances of genuine and enlightened piety occur in 
 their history. * * * The Armenians in Hindoostan 
 are our own subjects. They acknowledge our govern- 
 ment in India, as they do that of Sophi in Persia, and 
 they are entitled to our regard. They have preserved 
 the Bible in its purity, and their doctrines are, as far as 
 the author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides, 
 they maintain the solemn obssrvance of Christian wor- 
 ship throughout our empire on the seventh day ; and 
 they have as many spires pointing to heaven among the 
 Hindoos as ourselves. Are such a people then entitled 
 to no acknowledgement on our part, as fellow Chris- 
 tians ? Are they forever to be ranked by us with Jews, 
 Mohammedans, and Hindoos?"* 
 
 NESTORIAN OR CHALDEAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Stanley states that : 
 
 The Chaldean Christians, called by their opponents, 
 Nestorians, are the most remote of these old 'Separatists/ 
 Only the first two councils, those of Nicaea and Constan- 
 tinople, have weight with them. The third — of Eplie- 
 
 * The above is from a Boston edition of 1811. It will 
 not be found in some, if any, of the later editions, from 
 which it has been expunged, i e. the passage relative to 
 their observance of the Sabbath. A similar instance of 
 corrupting the text of history is found in a late edition 
 of " Grant's History of the Nestorians," in which the 
 word " Christian " is often thrown in before " Sabbath," 
 thus leading the reader to suppose that Sunday is ob- 
 served by the Nestorians, instead of the Sabbath. 
 
166 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 sus — already presents the stumbling block of the decree 
 which condemned Nestorius. Living in the fastnesses 
 of Kurdistan, they represent the persecuted remnant of 
 the ancient Church of Central Asia. They trace their 
 descent from the earliest of all Christian missions — the 
 mission of Thaddaeus to Abgarus. * * * In their 
 earlier days they sent forth missions on a scale exceed- 
 ing those of any western Church, except the See of 
 Rome in the sixth and sixteenth centuries, and for the 
 time redeeming the Eastern Church from the usual 
 reproach of its negligence in propagating the Grospel. 
 Their chief assumed the splendid title of Patriarch of 
 Babylon, and their Missionaries traversed the whole of 
 Asia, as far eastward as China, and as far southward as 
 Ceylon.* 
 
 Coleman speaks of their Sabbath-keeping 
 doctrines and practices as follows, quoting 
 from their authorities : 
 
 " These eight festivals of our Lord we observe, and 
 we have many holy days and the Sabbath day, on which 
 we do not labor. * * * The Sabbath day we reckon 
 far — far above the others." * . * * The worship of 
 the Sabbath does not differ materially from that of other 
 days, except that an extra service for preaching the 
 Gospel is now extensively introduced under the influence 
 of the Missionaries." * * * " Incense is burned in 
 the Churches of the Nestorians on the Sabbath and on 
 feast-days. "f 
 
 * Hist. Eastern Church, p. 91. 
 
 f Ancient Christianity exemplified, p. 573. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 167 
 
 Doctor Hessey quotes from Grant's History 
 of the Nestor ians, as follows :* 
 
 " The Sabbath, he says is regarded with a sacredness 
 among the mountain tribes, which I have seen among 
 no other Christians in the East. I have repeatedly been 
 told by Nestorians of the plain that their brethren in 
 the mountains would immediately kill a man for travel 
 ing or laboring on the Sabbath ; and there is abundant 
 reason to believe that this was formerly done, though 
 it has ceased since the people have become acquainted 
 with the practice of Christendom on this subject. 
 While in the mountains, I made repeated inquiries con- 
 cerning the observance of that remarkable statute of 
 the Jews, which required that ' whosoever doeth any 
 work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to 
 death'; and I was everywhere told that this statute had 
 formerly been literally executed. Nor does there appear 
 to be any motive for deception, since the practice is now 
 disapproved by all. There are said to be Nestorians 
 now in Tiyary who will not kindle a fire on the Sabbath 
 to cook their food ; but their cold winters oblige them 
 to do it for necessary warmth. "f 
 
 * Lectures on Sunday, p. 309. 
 
 fMr. Hessey evidently consulted a corrupted edition 
 of Grant's History, for he says that he " gathers from 
 the language " that this Sabbath was observed on Sun- 
 day instead of Saturday. The word " Christian " which 
 is thrown before the word Sabbath in the later editions 
 of Grant's work, would thus mislead. But when we 
 remember that no such use of the term Sabbath was 
 known in the early Church, when all authorities agree 
 that the term was always applied to the Seventh day, 
 and to that only, until the rise of Puritanism, the cor- 
 ruptness of the text is at once apparent. Such corrup- 
 tions are too common in modern Sabbath literature. 
 
168 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Thus it is ■ evident that these branches of 
 the Church which have never been subject to 
 the " man of sin " who has u changed times 
 and laws,"' have never ceased to observe the 
 Sabbath. It is also shown by their own words 
 that they do this as a Christian duty, after 
 the example of Him who was '• Lord of the 
 Sabbath." These branches of the Church 
 continue to do according to the words of 
 Athanasius, when he said : " We meet upon 
 the Sabbath, not because we are affected with 
 Judaism, but to worship Christ, the Lord of 
 the Sabbath," for they were colonized about 
 the time he wrote those words. Thus is another 
 link added to the chain of proof in favor of 
 the observance of the Sabbath as a Christian 
 institution, by the early Church. 
 
 There are distinct traces of Sabbath-keeping 
 Christians in the north of Europe — within the 
 bounds of the Greek Church, but we have not 
 yet been able to collate the references in such 
 a manner as to introduce them here. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 S a bbath- Observance Tn 
 
 Europe Since the 
 
 Reformation. 
 
 HE history of the Sabbath during the 
 early years of the Reformation is ne- 
 cessarily meager. The descendants of 
 the Waldenses in Bohemia, Holland, 
 and other parts of Northern Europe, seem 
 to have formed the material for Sabbath - 
 keeping Churches which came to light 
 when the rays of Reformation began to 
 illumine the long-continued night of Papal 
 apostacy. These Sabbath-keepers were Bap- 
 tists, and hence were classed with the despised 
 ik Anabaptists," who were made still more odi- 
 ous by the fanaticism of a few at Munster 
 during the early part of the sixteenth century. 
 Most writers have therefore passed over the 
 history of these years by saying of Sabbath 
 
170 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 observance, that it was " revived by some 
 sectaries among the Anabaptists;" or words to 
 this effect. When Sabbath-keepers were per- 
 sons of prominence, more definite notice is ta- 
 ken of them. Enough can be gathered, how- 
 ever, to show that Sabbath-keepers were not 
 uncommon on the continent of Europe, from 
 the opening of the sixteenth century forward. 
 An old German historian, John Sleidan, speak- 
 ing of a sect in Bohemia called " Picards," 
 savs :* 
 
 " Tliey admit of nothing but the Bible. They choose 
 their own priests and bishops ; deny no man marriage, 
 perform no offices for the dead, and have but very few 
 holy days and ceremonies." 
 
 These are the same people to whom Eras- 
 mus refers, representing them as extremely 
 strict in observing the Sabbath. Robert Cox 
 in his " Sabbath Literature, "f quotes from Eras- 
 mus and comments as follows : 
 
 u With reference to the origin of this sect, (Seventh- 
 day Baptists,) I find a passage in Erasmus, that at the 
 early period of the Reformation when he wrote, there 
 
 *Hi story of the Reformation, &c. p. 53. — London, 1689. 
 fVol. 2, p.p. 201, 202. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 171 
 
 were Sabbatarians in Bohemia, who not only kept the 
 seventh day, but were said to be so scrupulous in rest. 
 ing on it, that if anything went into their eyes they 
 would not remove it till the morrow. He says : ' Nunc 
 audimus apud Bohemos exoriri novum Judaeorum genus 
 Sabbatarios appellant, qui tanta superstitione servant 
 Sabbatum, ut si quid eo die incident in oculum, nolint 
 eximere ; quasi no sufficiat eis pro Sabbato Dies Do- 
 minicus qui Apostolis etiam erat sacer, aut quasi Chris- 
 tus no satis expresserit quantum tribuendum sit Sab- 
 bati/ "* 
 
 " Hospinian of Zurich in his treatise De F'estis Juda- 
 orum et Ethnicorwm Cap. iii, (Tiguri. — 1592,) replies to 
 the arguments of these Sabbatarians." 
 
 The story concerning their extreme strictness 
 on the Sabbath is doubtless a forgery. But 
 inasmuch as they accepted the Bible as their 
 only guide, it is not wonderful that they re- 
 fused to place the " Dies Dominicus before the 
 Sabbath," since the Bible giyes no authority 
 for such a course. Doctor Hesseyf refers to 
 these same Sabbatarians as the origin of the 
 present Seventh-day Baptists. A voluminous 
 work by Alexander Ross, speaking of these 
 
 *De Amabili Ecclesiae Concordia, Op. torn. V. p. 506; 
 Lugd. Bat, 1704." 
 
 f Lectures on Sunday, p. 374. — Note. 
 
172 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 people at the beginning of the Reformation, 
 says :* 
 
 " Some only will observe the Lord's Day ; some only the 
 Sabbath ; some both, and some neither." 
 
 Bishop White, speaking of Sabbath observ- 
 ance bears this testimony :f 
 
 " The same likewise being revived in Luther's time 
 by Carlstadius and Sternebergius, and by some sectaries 
 among the Anabaptists, hath both then and ever since, 
 been censured as Jewish and Heretical." 
 
 Eoss,J above quoted, bears concurrent tes- 
 timony to the Sabbatarianism of Sterneberg. 
 Carlstadt it will be remembered was an inti- 
 mate friend of Luther, between whom and him- 
 self a separation was initiated because of Oarl- 
 stadt's extreme radicalism in his plans of Ref- 
 ormation. 
 
 Mr. Gilfillan§ quotes a writer of the year 
 1585, one John Stoekwood, who states that in 
 those times there were u manifold disputations 
 
 *A View of All Religions in the World,&c, p. 237.— 
 London, 1658, 
 
 •(•Treatise of the Sabbath Day, p. 8. 
 ^View of All Religions, p. 235. 
 ^Sabbath, p. 60. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 173 
 
 among the learned/' and " a great diversity 
 of opinion among the vulgar people, and sim- 
 ple sort, concerning the Sabbath day, and the 
 right use of the same, some maintaining the 
 changed and unchangeable obligations of the 
 Seventh-day Sabbath, &c. v 
 
 Chambers' Cyclopedia refers to the Bohe- 
 mian Sabbath -keepers, and others as follows :* 
 
 " Accordingly, in the reign of Elizabeth, it occurred 
 to many conscientious and independent thinkers, (as it 
 had previously done to some protestants in Bohemia,) 
 that the Fourth Commandment required of them, the 
 observance, not of the first, but of the specified Seventh 
 day of the week, and a strict bodily rest, as a service 
 then due to God. They became numerous enough to 
 make a considerable figure for more than a century in 
 England, under the title of ' Sabbatarians ' — a word now 
 exchanged for the less ambiguous appellation of ' Sev- 
 enth-day Baptists.' * * * They have nearly disappeared 
 in England, though in the seventeenth century so nu- 
 merous and active as to have called forth replies from 
 Bishop White, Warner, Baxter, Bunyan, Wallis, and 
 others." 
 
 Thus it is seen that there were Protestantf 
 Sabbath -keeping Baptists in Bohemia, Holland 
 and England, as early as the beginning of the 
 
 -Article, Sabbath, vol. 8.— London, 1866. 
 
174 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 sixteenth century. This link unites the past 
 with the present, and gives an unbroken chain 
 of Sabbath-keepers from the days of Christ, 
 the Lord of the Sabbath, to the present hour. 
 The Church has never been without witnesses 
 for the truth concerning Grod's Holy day. 
 
 The completer development and organization 
 of the Seventh-clay Baptists in England, is ea- 
 sily traced. In these pages this will be done 
 first, by noting the authors and martyrs, among 
 them whose names appear in history, and sec- 
 ond by giving a brief history of their organized 
 Churches. 
 
 Among the first who taught the truth rela- 
 tive to the Sabbath, and suffered for it, was 
 John Trask-spelled also Trasque, and Thraske. 
 — Ephraim Paggitt, in his " Church Herisiog- 
 raphy," devotes more than fifty pages to the 
 history of Trask, his wife, and his followers. 
 From this it appears that he first began to ob- 
 serve the Sunday accordmg to the law of the 
 Fourth Commandment. One of his comrades, 
 Lackson, (Hessey says Jackson,) carrying the 
 question on to its legitimate results, taught 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 175 
 
 that the day mentioned in the law must be ob- 
 served. Trask accepted this and many more 
 with him. Paggitt mentions William Hillyard, 
 Christopher Sands, Mrs. Mary Chester, who 
 was afterwards imprisoned, Key. Mr. Wright, 
 and his wife. He also mentions in the same 
 connection, " One Mr. Hebden, a prisoner in 
 the new prison, that lay there for holding Sat- 
 urday Sabbath." Mrs. Chester was kept in 
 prison for some time, but was finally released 
 on her apparent conversion to the Church. 
 But her tendency to the truth w T as too strong, 
 and " twelve months after she was set at lib- 
 erty, she relapsed into her former errors." 
 Paggitt charges Trask and his followers with 
 Judaical opinions concerning Christ, but the 
 charge seems to have grown out of the fact 
 that they observed the Sabbath, and no " offi- 
 cial " charge of this kind is made against them 
 on their trials. 
 
 Mrs. Trask, before her imprisonment kept a 
 private school for children, having one assist- 
 ant teacher who was also a Sabbath-keeper. 
 Attention was drawn to her Sabbatarian prin- 
 
176 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 ciples, from the fact that she would not teach 
 upon the Sabbath, and on trial she was con- 
 demned to imprisonment* Concerning that 
 imprisonment Paggitt speaks as follows :f 
 
 " His wife, Mistress Trask, lay for fifteen or sixteen 
 years a prisoner for her opinions about the Saturday- 
 Sabbath ; in all which time she would receive no relief 
 from anybody, notwithstanding she wanted much, al- 
 ledging that it is written, ' it's a more blessed thing to 
 give than to receive.' Neither would she borrow. She 
 deemed it a dishonor to her head, Christ, either to beg 
 or borrow. Her diet for the most part of her imprison 
 ment, that is till a little before her death, was bread and 
 water, roots and herbs. No flesh, nor wine, nor brewed 
 -drink. * * * She charged the keeper of the prison 
 not to bury her in Church or Church-yard, but in the 
 fields only ; which accordingly was so done. So there 
 was an end to her sect in less than half a generation. 
 'Tis true it begins of late to be revived again ; but yet 
 faintly. The progress it makes is not observed to be 
 much ; so that of all gangrenes of Spirit, with which the 
 times are troubled, as yet it spreads little ; and therefore 
 it is hoped a short Caveat (such as this is) may suffice 
 against it.":f 
 
 Trask was brought before the infamous 
 u Star Chamber " in 1618, and tried upon the 
 
 *See Paggitt, p. 209. 
 fp. 196. 
 
 JThis was written in 1661, forty years after the trial 
 of Trask, and about the time of Brabourne. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 177 
 
 following charges, which appear in the speech 
 of Bishop Andrews against him.* The Bishop 
 states that his fault consisted in trying to make 
 u Christian men the people of God, His Maj- 
 esty's subjects, little better than Jews. This 
 he doth in two points, and when he takes it in 
 his head, he may do it in two and two, and 
 
 two more." * * * These are the specifi- 
 cation s : 
 
 1. " One is, Christians are bound to abstain from those 
 meats which the Jews were forbidden in Leviticus. 
 
 2. " The other, that they are bound to observe the Jew- 
 ish Sabbath." 
 
 Bishop Andrews labors in a lengthy speech 
 to prove both these positions heretical. T here 
 is no argument of importance adduced in the 
 speech. It does however contain that some- 
 what noted passage, " Dominicum Servasti" 
 Ac, which leaves no shadow of doubt that 
 he was the author of it, and shows also that 
 he gives no authority for it. This trial resulted 
 in the following sentence, which was executed 
 upon Trask : 
 
 *See Paggitt, p. 199. 
 
178 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " Set upon the Pillory in Westminister, and from 
 thence to be whipped to the fleet, there to remain prisoner." 
 
 He afterwards made a recantation and was 
 
 released, whereupon he wrote a book in 1620, 
 
 as evidence of his conversion, entitled, 
 
 " A Treatise of Liberty from Judaism, or ax 
 Acknowledgment of True Christian Liberty. 
 Indited and Published by John Trask, of late 
 Stumbling, now Happily Running in the Race of 
 Christianity."* 
 
 Thus did the hand of persecution suppress 
 the first prominent development of Sabbath 
 truth in England. The suppression was, how- 
 ever, neither complete nor of long duration. 
 Eight years later Theophtlus Brabourne, 
 of Norfolk published his first book, entitled 
 
 A Discourse on the SABBATH-DAY ; Wherein are 
 handled these particulars ensuing : 1. That the Lord's- 
 Day is not Sabbath-day by Divine institution. 2. An 
 exposition of the 4th Commandment, so far forth as may 
 give light unto the ensuing Discourse ; and particularly 
 here it is shown at what time the Sabbath Day should be~~ 
 gin and end, for the satisfaction of those who are doubtful 
 on this point. 3. That the Seventh day is not abolished. 
 4. That the Seventh-day Sabbath is now still in force. 5. 
 The author s exhortion and reasons, that nevertheless, 
 
 *See Heylyn Hist. Sab., part 2, chap. 8, sec. 10 ; Cox 
 Sabbath Literature, vol. 1, p. 153, &c. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 179 
 
 there be no Rent from our Church as touching practice. 
 —1682, 18mo, p.p, 238/'* 
 
 Cox says : 
 
 " Brabourne is a much abler writer than Trask, and 
 may be regarded as tlie founder in England of the sect 
 fi rst known as Sabbatarians, but now calling themselves 
 Seventh-day Baptists. * * * Towards the conclu- 
 sion of the treatise, he thus appeals to the prudence of 
 his readers : ' And now let me propound to your choice 
 these two days : the Sabbath-day on Saturday, or the 
 Lord's Day on Sunday ; and keep whether of the twain 
 you shall in conscience find more safe. If you keep the 
 Lord's Day, but profane the Sabbath-day, you walk in 
 great danger and peril (to say the least) of transgressing 
 one of God's eternal and inviolable laws, the Fourth 
 Commandment ; but on the other side, if you keep the 
 Sabbath-day, though you profane the Lord's Day, you 
 are out of all gunshot and danger, for so you transgress 
 no law at all, since Christ nor His Apostles did ever 
 leave any law for itVf 
 
 Two years later Brabourne issued a more 
 exhaustive work, the first edition of which was 
 published in 1630, and the second in 1632. 
 A copy of the first edition is before us, want- 
 ing only the title page, which we copy from 
 
 *Cox Sab. Lit. vol. 1, p. 157. 
 flb.p. 220. 
 
180 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Cox's notice of the second edition. It is as 
 follows :* 
 
 " A defence of the most ancient and sacred Ordinance 
 of God's, the Sabbath Day. * * * Undertaken against 
 all Anti-Sabbatarians, both of Protestants, Papists, Av- 
 timonians, and Anabaptists ; and by name and especially 
 against these ten Ministers : M. Greenwood, M. Hutchin- 
 son, M. Furnace, M. Benton, M. Gall<*rd, M. Yates, M. 
 Chappel, M. Stinnet, M. Johnson, and 31. Warded 
 
 We have not space, nor is it necessary to 
 quote from the book to show the strength and 
 soundness of the work, and its necessary influ- 
 ence on the public mind. Through this book 
 the name of Brabourne has become insepa- 
 rably connected with the true Sabbatarianism 
 of those times. The character and influence 
 of the work is also shown in the fact that 
 Bishop Francis White, by order of the King, 
 prepared ari answer to it, entitled " A Treatise 
 on the Sabbath Day, Containing a Defence of the 
 Orthodoxal Doctrine of the Church of England, 
 against Sabbatarian Novelty.' 1 — London, 1685. 
 In his dedication to Archbishop Laud, White 
 speaks of Brabourne as follows : 
 
 *Sabbath Literature, vol. 1, p. 162. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 181 
 
 " A certain Minister of JSforthfolk, where I myself of 
 late years was Bishop, published a Tractate of the 
 Sabbath ; and, proceeding after the rule of Presbyterian 
 principles, among which, this was principal : That all 
 religious observations and actions, and among the rest, 
 the ordaining and keeping of Holy Days, must have a 
 special warrant and commandment in Holy Scripture, 
 otherwise the same is superstitious ; concluded from 
 thence, by necessary inference, that the seventh day of 
 every week, to wit, Saturday, having an express com- 
 mand in the Decalogue, by a precept simply and perpet- 
 ually moral , (as the Sabbatarians teach) and the Sunday 
 or Lord's Day being not commanded, either in the Law 
 or in the Gospel ' the Saturday must be the Christians- 
 weekly Sabbath, and the Sunday ought to be the working 
 day'." 
 
 " Now because his Treatise of the Sabbath was dedi- 
 cated to his Royal Majesty, and the principles upon 
 which he grounded all his arguments, (being commonly 
 preached, printed, and believed, throughout the king- 
 dom,) might have poisoned and infected many people, 
 either with this Sabbatarian error, or with some other 
 of like quality ; it was the King, our gracious Master, 
 his will and pleasure, that a treatise should be set forth 
 to prevent future mischief, and to settle his good sub- 
 jects, (who have long time been distracted about Sabba- 
 tarian questions) in the old and good way of the ancient 
 and Orthodoxal Catholic Church." 
 
 Bishop White was well qualified to write, 
 and produced a work which., except the u His- 
 tory of the Sabbath" by Peter Heylyn, was 
 
182 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 stronger than any of the books put forth by 
 the churchmen of those times. Brabourne was 
 summoned before the " High Commission, 
 whose well tempered severity herein so pre- 
 vailed upon him, that, submitting himself to a 
 private conference, and perceiving the unsound- 
 ness of his principles, he became a convert, 
 conforming himself quietly to the Church of 
 England. "* 
 
 This u quiet conformity to the Church of 
 England," on the part of Brabourne was evi- 
 dently only a temporary wavering, for he 
 " wrote afterwards, and a composition of his 
 against Cawdrey which came out in 1654, 
 gives no evidence of the sincerity of his retrac- 
 tion, "f 
 
 It is evident that he was for the moment 
 overborne, rather than permanently changed, 
 since his " preface" contained a candid and 
 calm discussion of the causes which impelled 
 
 *See Fuller's Church History, Book 10, century XVII, 
 section 32; also, Brook's Lives of Puritans, vol. 1, p. 
 362, and White, p. 305. 
 
 fliessey Lectures on Sunday, p.p. 373-4, note 47D. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 188 
 
 him to write and of the consequences which 
 might follow. On this very point he says : 
 
 " Tlie soundness and clearness of this my cause, givetli 
 me good hope that God will enlighten them (the magis- 
 trates) with it, and so incline their hearts unto mercy. 
 But if not, since I verily believe and know it to be a 
 truth, and my duty not to smother it, and suffer it to die 
 with me, I have adventured to publish it and defend it, 
 saying with Queen Esther, ' If I perish, I perish ;' and 
 with the Apostle Paul ; ' neither is my life dear unto 
 me, so that I may fulfill my course with joy.' What a 
 corrosive would it prove to my conscience, on my 
 death-bed, to call to mind how I knew these things full 
 well, but would not reveal them. How could I say 
 with Saint Paul, that I had revealed the whole counsel 
 of God, had kept nothing back which was profitable ? 
 What hope could I then conceive that God would open 
 His gate of Mercy to me, who, while I lived, would not 
 open my mouth for him."* 
 
 This " Introduction," comprising an address 
 to the king, to the prelates, and to the reader, 
 is far from being the language of a mere 
 enthusiast. If his strength failed and his 
 bewildered judgment wavered for a moment 
 under the pressure which was brought to 
 bear upon him, it is not wonderful, nor more 
 
 *The " Introduction " is not paged. This passage is 
 from his address to the reader. 
 
184 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 than many good and true men have done 
 under similar circumstances. There is still 
 further evidence that he " soon relapsed into 
 his former errors," for Mr. Cox* notices 
 another book from his pen in reply to two 
 books against the Sabbath, one by Ives and 
 the other by Warner. This last work by 
 Brabourne was an 8mo book, published at 
 London in 1659. It thus appears that he 
 published four books in favor of the Sabbath. 
 Next upon the list stands the name of James 
 Ockford, a follower of Brabourne, who issued 
 a work in 1612, entitled u The Doctrine of the 
 Fourth Commandment" Something concern- 
 ing its character and history may be gleaned 
 from a work in favor of Sunday by Cawdrey 
 and Palmer, published in 1652. In part Third, 
 section thirty-three, is found the following :f 
 
 " But before we conclude this chapter, we shall take 
 a brief survey of what a later Sabbatarian hath written , 
 being it seems, unsatisfied (as well he might) with all 
 that hath been said by the Bishop,;): and others in his 
 
 *Sabbath Literature, vol. 2, p. 6. 
 
 fp. 446. 
 
 ^Referring to Bishop White's answer to Brabourne. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 185 
 
 way, in answer to the Sabbatarian arguments. One Jam es 
 Ockford (as we hinted above) hath revived the quarrel,, 
 and makes use of his adversaries' weapons to beat them- 
 selves withal. There hath been a sharp confutation of 
 his book by fire, it being commanded to be burnt, as 
 perhaps it well deserved. Yet least he should complain 
 of harsh dealing, no answer being given him, for his 
 satisfaction, though all his arguments are already con- 
 futed in this present discourse, we shall give him a brief 
 account of our judgment concerning his whole book :: 
 we think to a full satisfaction." 
 
 Gawdrey and Palmer were members of the 
 " Assembly of Divines/' and wrote from the 
 Puritan stand point. Their review of Ockford's 
 book, and the book itself, show that his argu- 
 ments were well sustained. About ten years 
 later, Edward Fisher published a book in favor 
 of the Sabbath, entitled "A Christian Caveat,'' 
 &c. This work passed through at least live 
 editions. Cox speaks of it* as u A pithy, clever 
 treatise directed against the opinions held by 
 the Puritans, of whom he affirms that, because 
 they are neither able to produce direct Scrip- 
 ture nor solid reason for what they say, they 
 labor to support their conceits by fallacies, fal- 
 
 *Sabbath Literature, vol. 1, p. 237. 
 
186 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 sities, and wresting of God's Holy Word, as 
 upon sea nning, their proofs will_ be manifest 
 to the meanest capacity." 
 
 The name of Edward Slennet stands next 
 upon the list ; his first work in favor of the 
 Sabbath was entitled, 
 
 " THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR ; OR, 
 Some brief Grounds serving to prove that the Ten Com- 
 mandments are yet in full force, and shall so remain till 
 Heaven and Earth pass away,dkc." 
 
 By a Lover of Peace with Truth, Edward Stennet. 
 "" They that forsake the Law praise the wicked, but such 
 
 as keep the Law contend with them." Prov. 28 : 4. 
 " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, Fear 
 
 God and keep His Commandments, for this is the 
 
 whole duty of man." Ecc. 12 : 13. 
 ■" The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the 
 
 Sabbath ; therefore the Son of man is Lord even of 
 
 the Sabbath." Mark 2 : 27, 28. 
 " Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all 
 
 Thy Commandments." Ps. 119 : 6. 
 London, 1658. 
 
 This work has been republished by the 
 American Sabbath Tract Society, from the 
 preface to whose edition we extract the follow- 
 ing notice concerning the author : 
 
 i " The friends of the Sabbath will doubtless receive this 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 187 
 
 little volume as a valuable relic of the past — as a word 
 from one of the tried and faithful friends of the truth, 
 one who not only loved the day of God's weekly rest, but 
 greatly delighted in the promise of a future and glo- 
 rious Sabbatism with the people of God. Edward Sten- 
 net, the author, was the first of a series of Sabbatarian 
 minister of that name, who for four generations contin- 
 ued to be among the foremost of the Dissenters in Eng- 
 land, and whose praise is still in all the Churches. He 
 was an able and devoted minister, but dissenting from 
 the Established Church, he was deprived of the means 
 of support ; and, his family being large, he applied him- 
 self to the study of medicine, by the practice of which 
 he was enabled to give his sons a liberal education. He 
 suffered much of the persecution ivhich the Dissenters 
 were exposed to at that time, and more especially for 
 his faithful adherence to the cause of the Sabbath. For 
 this truth, he experienced tribulation, not only from 
 those in power, by whom he was kept a long time in 
 prison, but also much distress from unfriendly dissent- 
 ing brethren, who strove to destroy his influence, and 
 ruin his cause. He wrote several treatises upon the 
 cause of the Sabbath besides this, but they are very rare, 
 and perhaps cannot be found in a perfect state of preser- 
 vation It would be well, no doubt, to revive all of them, 
 and, if practicable, republish them in the same form as 
 this, that they might be bound together, and placed as 
 they deserve to be, in every Sabbath-keeper's library. 
 They all breathe the genuine spirit of Christianity, and 
 in their day were greatly conducive to the prosperity 
 of the Sabbath-keeping Churches. 
 
 Another work from his pen, entitled " The 
 
188 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord" and pub- 
 lished in 1664, is before us. It is an able re- 
 ply to a book by one Mr. Eussel, entitled u No 
 Seventh-day Sabbath Recommended by Jesus 
 ChrisC 
 
 Next conies a book by William Sellers, pub- 
 lished in 1671, the title of which runs as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " An examination of the late book published by Doctor 
 Owen, concerning a Sacred Day of Best. Many Truths 
 Therein, as to the morality of a Christian Sabbath, as- 
 sented to. With a Brief Inquiry into his Beasons for the 
 Change of it from the Seventh day to the first, by way of 
 denial. As also the consent of Doctor Heylyn find others, 
 touching the time and manner of the change. With an 
 Inquiry into the nature of the assertions about the first 
 and second covenant." 
 
 Next in order is the name of an author whose 
 works were prominently associated with the 
 history of the Seventh-day Baptists in England 
 during the last half of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, Francis Bampfield. He wrote at least 
 two works upon the Sabbath, besides others 
 of a scientific and literary character. The first 
 work on the Sabbath is entitled, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 189 
 
 " The Judgment of Mr. Francis Bampfield, late 
 
 Minister of Sherbourne in Dorsetshire, for the Observa- 
 tion of the Jewish or Seventh-day Sabbath ; with the Rea- 
 sons and Scripture for the same. Sent in a letter to Mr. 
 Dorchester. Together with Mr. Ben's sober Answer to the 
 Same, and a Vindication of the Christian Sabbath against 
 the Jewish. Published for the Satisfaction of divers friends 
 in the West of England. London, 1672, 12mo,p.p. 86. 
 
 His second work bears the following title : 
 
 k '2(i/33aTiK7] 'H/zepa 'Hjuepa Jl^pco, Septima Dies, Dies De- 
 side rabilis, Sabbatum Jehovce.The Seventh-dag Sabbath the 
 desirable dag, the closing, completing Dag of the first cre- 
 ated Week, which was, is, and will be, the first measure of 
 all succeeding weeks in their successive courses, both far 
 working in the six foregoing dags, and for rest in the Sev- 
 enth, which is the last day, by an unchanged law of well 
 established order, both in the ret ceded Word and in crea- 
 ted Nature." 
 
 The character of this man and his sufferings 
 in behalf of the truth, are shown in the work 
 of an English author of later time, Edmund 
 Calamy, who gives the following account of 
 him :* 
 
 " He was descended from an ancient and honorable 
 family in Devonshire, and being designed for the minie - 
 
 *Non-Conformists Memorial, vol. 2, p. 149, seq. 
 
190 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 try from his birth, was educated accordingly ; his own 
 inclination concurring with the design of his pious pa- 
 rents. When he left the university (where he contin- 
 ued seven or eight years) he was ordained a Deacon 
 of the Church of England by Bp. Hall ; afterwards Pres- 
 byter by Bp. Skinner, and was soon after prefered to a 
 living in Dorsetshire, of about one hundred pounds per 
 annum, where he took great pains to instruct his peo- 
 ple, and promote true religion among them. Having- 
 an annuity of eighty pounds a year settled upon him for 
 life, he spent all the income of his place in acts of char- 
 ity among his parishioners, in giving them Bibles and 
 other good books, setting the poor to work, and reliev- 
 ing the necessities of those that were disabled ; not suf- 
 fering a beggar, knowingly, to be in his parish. While 
 he was here, he began to see that in many ways the 
 Church of England needed reformation, in regard to doc- 
 trine, worship, and discipline ; and therefore, as became 
 a faithful minister, he heartily set about it, making the 
 laws of Christ his only rule. But herein he met great 
 opposition and trouble." 
 
 When the act of uniformity was passed, in 
 1662, being unable to conform to its require- 
 ments, Mr. Bampfield gave up his place, and 
 though he was strictly loyal in all the political 
 troubles of those times, he nevertheless suf- 
 fered much on account of his non-conformity. 
 " Soon after his ejectment he was imprisoned 
 for worshiping God in his own family." Not 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 191 
 
 a little injustice and cruelty was shown him 
 in these minor imprisonments. But he was 
 doomed to much greater trials and sufferings, 
 for we learn from Calamy* that, 
 
 " Mr Bampfield afterward suffered eight years impris- 
 onment in Dorchester jail, which he bore with great 
 courage and patience, being filled with the comfort 
 of the Holy Ghost. He also preached in the prison, al- 
 most every day, and gathered a Church there. Upon 
 his discharge in 1675, he went about ru-eaching the Gos- 
 pel in several counties. But he was soon taken up again 
 for it in Wiltshire, and imprisoned at Salisbury ; where, 
 on account of a fine, he continued eighteen Aveeks. Dur- 
 ing this time he wrote a letter which was printed, giv- 
 ing an account of his imprisonment, and the joy he had 
 in his sufferings for Christ. Upon his release he came 
 to London, where he preached privately several years ^ 
 with great success, and gathered a people ; who, being 
 baptized by immersion, (Mr. Bampfield having become 
 a Baptist) formed themselves into a Church, and met at 
 Pinner's Hall, which being so public, soon exposed 
 them to the rage of their persecutors." 
 
 " On Feb. 17, 1G82, a constable and several men with 
 halberts, rushed into the assembly when Mr. Bampfield 
 was in the pulpit. The constable ordered him in the 
 king's name to come down. He answered that he was 
 discharging his office in the name of the King of kings. 
 The constable telling him he had a warrant from the 
 Lord Mayor, Mr. Bampfield replied : ' I have a warrant 
 
 *p. 151, vol 2d. 
 
192 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 from Christ who is Lord Maximas, to go on/ and so 
 proceeded in his discourse. The constable then bid one 
 of the officers pull him down ; when he repeated his 
 text ; Isa, 63d. ' The day of vengeance is in his heart, 
 and the year of his redeemed ones is come / adding, 
 * He will pull down his enemies.' They then seized him, 
 and took him with six others, before the Lord Mayor, 
 who fined several of them 10£, and bid Mr. Bampfield 
 begone. In the afternoon they assembled at the same 
 place again, where they met with a fresh disturbance ; 
 and an officer, though not without trembling, took Mr. 
 Bampfield and led him into the street ; but the consta- 
 ble having no warrant, they let him go, so he went, 
 with a great company, to his own house, and there fin- 
 ished the service. ' 
 
 " On the 24th of the same month, he met his congre- 
 gation again at Pinner's Hall, and was again pulled out 
 of the pulpit, and led through the streets with his Bible 
 in his hand, and great multitudes after him ; some re- 
 proaching him, and others speaking in his favor ; one 
 of whom said, ' See how he walks with his Bible in his 
 hand, like one of the old martyrs.' Being brought to 
 the sessions where the Lord Mayor attended, he and 
 three more were sent to prison. The next day they 
 were brought to the bar, and being examined were re- 
 mitted to Newgate. On March 17, 1683, he and some 
 others, who were committed for not taking the oaths of 
 -allegiance and supremacy, were brought to the Old-Bai- 
 ley, indicted, tried, and by the jury (directed by the 
 Judge) brought in guilty. On March 28. being brought 
 again to the sessions to receive their sentence, the re- 
 corder, after odiously aggravating their offence, and re- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 193 
 
 fleeting on scrupulous consciences, read their sentence, 
 which was : ' That they were out of the protection of the 
 King's Majesty ; that all their goods and chattels were 
 forfeited, and they were to remain in jail during their 
 lives, or during the king's pleasure.' Upon this Mr. 
 Bampfield would have spoken, but there was a great 
 cry — ' Away with them, we will not hear them, &c./ and 
 so they were thrust away; when Mr. Bampfield said 
 ' The righteous Lord loveth righteousness ; the Lord 
 be judge in this case/ They were then returned to 
 Newgate, where Mr. Bampfield (who was of a tender 
 constitution) soon after died in consequence of the 
 hardships he suffered, much lamented by his fellow 
 prisoners, as well as by his friends in general. Notwith- 
 standing his peculiar sentiments, all who knew him 
 acknowledged that he was a man of serious piety, and 
 deserved a different treatment from what he met with 
 from an unkind world. He was one of the most cele- 
 brated preachers in the West of England, and extremely 
 admired by his hearers, till he fell into the Sabbatariaii 
 notion, of which he was a zealous asserter." 
 
 Thus even the enemies oi the Sabbath bear 
 highest testimony in favor of this noble mar- 
 tyr for the truth. 
 
 In 1692, there appeared a work from Thomas 
 Bampfield, a brother of the man mentioned 
 above. It's- title runs as follows : 
 
 " An enquiry whether the Lord Jesus Christ made the 
 world, and be Jehovah, and gave the Moral law f and 
 whether the Fourth Commandment be repealed or not:' 
 
194 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 This work was answered by John Wallis, 
 D.D., Professor of Geometry in the University 
 of Oxford, which elicited a second book in re- 
 ply by Mr. Bampfield, entitled, 
 
 " A Reply to Br. Wallis, his Discourse concerning 
 the Christian Sabbath." — London, 1683. 
 
 An examination of these works shows that 
 he was a writer of no mean ability. He was 
 a Barrister and being less connected with the 
 Church and theological matters than his brother, 
 does not appear as prominently in history. He 
 is however noticed by both Calamy and Cox. 
 Wallis wrote a second book in reply to Thos. 
 Bampfield's second work, which was published 
 in 1694. Passing into the next century, 
 another book comes before the public in 1724, 
 from the pen of George Carlow, entitled, " Truth 
 defended, or Observations on Mr. Ward's exposi- 
 tory discourses from the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th 
 verses of the 20th chapter of Exodus, concerning 
 the Sabbath" This work was reprinted in 
 America, at Stonington, Conn, in 1802, and 
 again by the American Sabbath Tract Society; in 
 New York. The following historic notice of 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 195 
 
 the author is taken from the American edition 
 of 1847 : 
 
 Of the personal history of George Carlow, 
 but little is known. He was a member of the 
 Sabbath-keeping Church which once flourished 
 at Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng. Having visited 
 London, probably for purposes connected with 
 the publication of his book, he was recom- 
 mended to the fellowship of the Church of 
 Mill Yard, in Goodman's Fields. Hence his 
 name appears upon the records of that Church 
 as a Transient Member. He was evidently a 
 man of plain parts, not schooled in the rules 
 of logic, but learned in the Scriptures. 
 From that Fountain of true wisdom, the 
 Word of * God, he had imbibed a spirit 
 which gives a pungency and heart- searching 
 character to his writings not often found in 
 books of controversy. The argumentative 
 part of the subject is not perhaps so well man- 
 aged in this book as in some more modern 
 publications. But as the author was well read 
 in the controversies concerning the Sabbath, 
 the historical information which he presents 
 
196 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 is very valuable. The whole work is charac- 
 terized by a spirit of evangelical piety and 
 earnestness which must make its influence 
 powerful and salutary wherever read. We 
 commend it to the dilligent perusal of every 
 Christian. 
 
 A pastor of the L ' Mill Yard Seventh-day 
 Baptist Church" in London. Robert Corn- 
 thwaite published five books upon the Sabbath 
 question. The first was published about 1733, 
 and the last in 1740. These are their titles in 
 order : 
 
 1. " Be flections on Dr. Wright's Treatise on the Relig- 
 ious observation of the Lord's Day, according to the 
 express words of the Fourth Commandment, showing the 
 inconclusiveness of the Doctors reasoning on that subject, 
 and the impossibility of grounding the First day Sabbath 
 on the Fourth Commandment, or any other text of 
 Scriptures produced by him for that purpose." 
 
 2. " The Seventh Day of the 'week the Christiam Sabbath. 
 London, 1735." 
 
 8. " The Seventh-day Sabbath farther Vindicated , or a 
 Defense of some Reflections on Dr. Wrighfs Treatise on 
 the Religious observation of the Lord's Day, according to 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 197 
 
 the express words of the Fourth Commandment ; as, also, 
 of the Seventh-day of the Week, the Christian Sabbath, 
 against the exceptions of Mr. Caleb Flemming."* 
 London, 1736. 
 
 4. " A Second Defence of some Reflections on Dr. 
 Wright's ' Treatise on the Religious observation of the 
 Lord's Day, &e. against the exceptions of Mr. Caleb 
 Flemming, in which Ins application of Gen. ii: 2, 3, is 
 considered, and shown to be as inconsistent as the Doctors 
 Explication of the Fourth Commandment ; and the 
 Seventh-day Sabbath is proved to oblige all Christians on 
 Protestant Principles.— London, about 1737, 
 
 o. "An Essay on the Sabbath, or a. modest attempt 
 towards a plain, scriptural resolution. 1. Whether the 
 Seventh-day Sabbath teas given to Adam in Paradise. 
 2. Whether the same now obliges Christians, occasioned 
 by the following pieces lately wrote upon the subject, viz : 
 Mr. Hallett's Discourse on the Lord's Day ; Mr. Jeph- 
 son's Discourse concerning the Religious Observation of 
 the Lord's Day, dr. Mr. Chubb' s Dissertation concern- 
 ing the Time of Keeping a Sabbath. Mr. KillingicortJv $ 
 Appendix to his Supplement to the sermon preached at 
 Salters Hall, against Popery ; Mr. Dobels Seventh-day 
 Sabbath not obligatory on Christians, aud his Appendix; 
 and Dr. Watt's Holiness of Times, Places and Peoples. 
 In which everything judged material, offered by any of 
 these gentlemen on the negative side of either of the above 
 mentioned questions, is impartially considered." Lon don , 
 1740. 
 
 An Unitarian minister whose work was published 
 the same year. 
 
198 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Eobert Cox* quotes largely from this work, 
 and says : 
 
 " Mr. Cornthwaite is one of the ablest defenders of the 
 positions taken up by the Seventh-day Baptists. 
 
 It will be seen by the titles that Mr. 
 Cornthwaite's books were mostly controversial. 
 They were widely circulated, and the replies 
 to them were written by some of • the most 
 eminent men of those times. Notices of other 
 Sabbatarian authors will be found in the next 
 chapter, in connection with the history of 
 Churches. 
 
 *Sabbath Literature, vol. 2, p. 198. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Seventh- Day 
 |3aptist Churches in England. 
 
 HE Seventh-day Baptists were the 
 most radical reformers, and the most 
 fearless dissenters that took part in 
 the English Reformation. Every 
 influence opposed the organization of such 
 men into Churches ; even their public meetings 
 were prohibited at times by law. Hence no 
 Churches were regularly organized until about 
 1650. Between that time and the close of 
 the century at least eleven Churches were 
 organized, and there were man} 7 unorganized 
 Sabbath-keepers scattered through the king- 
 dom. These Churches were located at Brain - 
 tree, in Essex, Chersey, Norweston, Salisbury, 
 in Wiltshire, Sherbourne, in Buckinghamshire, 
 Tewksbury, or Natton, in Gloucestershire, 
 Wallmgford, Berkshire, Woodbridge, in Suf- 
 
200 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 folk ; and three in London, viz : the Mill-yard 
 Church, the Cripplegate Church, and the Pin- 
 ners Hall Church. The history of these 
 Churches is found most complete in the 
 " Manual of Seventh-day Baptists" by Rev. 
 George B. Utter. The material for their 
 history was " collected on the ground," and 
 is both minute and reliable. The follow- 
 ing pages are taken largely from that work, 
 which was published in 1858. On page 20 
 Mr. Utter speaks as follows : 
 
 " Eight of these Churches are now extinct, and no 
 complete account of them is known to exist. Of the 
 three which remain, the following is a brief sketch : 
 
 "THE MILL-YARD CHURCH." 
 
 " The Mill- Yard Church is located in the eastern part 
 of London. At what time it was organized is not cer- 
 tainly known. . The Book of Records now in possession 
 of the Church reaches back only to 1673 ; but as it 
 contains no account of the organization, and refers to 
 another book which had been previously used, it is 
 probable that the Church dates from a period consid- 
 erably earlier. Indeed there can be but little doubt 
 from its. location and doctrinal views, that this Church 
 is a perpetuation of the Society gathered by John James, 
 the martyr, which originally met in Bull Steak Alley, 
 Whitechapel. It is probably safe therefore, to put down 
 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 201 
 
 John James as the first pastor of the Mill- Yard Church . 
 On the 19th day of October, 1661, while Mr. James was 
 preaching, an officer entered the place of worship, pulled 
 him down from the pulpit, and led him away to the 
 court under a strong guard. About thirty members of 
 his congregation were taken before a bench of justices, 
 then sitting at a tavern in the vicinity, where the oath 
 of allegiance was tendered to each, and those who re- 
 fused it were committed to Newgate Prison. Mr. James 
 himself was examined and committed to Newgate r 
 on the testimony of several profligate witnesses, who 
 accused him of speaking treasonable words against the 
 King. His trial took place about a month afterward, at 
 which he conducted himself in such a manner as to 
 create much sympathy. He was, however, sentenced 
 to be ' hanged, drawn, and quartered.' This awful 
 sentence did not dismay him in the least. He calmly 
 said, ' Blessed be God, whom man condemneth, God 
 justifieth.' While he lay in prison, under sentence of 
 death, many persons of distinction visited him, who 
 were greatly affected by his piety and resignation, and 
 offered to exert themselves to secure his pardon. But 
 he seems to have had little hope of their success. Mrs 
 James, by advice of her friends, twice presented peti- 
 tions to the King, setting forth the innocence of her 
 husband, the character of the witnesses against him r 
 and entreating His Majesty to grant a pardon. In both 
 instances she was repulsed with scoffs and ridicule. At 
 the scaffold, on the day of his execution, Mr. James 
 addressed the assembly in a very noble and affecting 
 manner. Having finished his address, and kneeling 
 down, he thanked God for covenant mercies and for 
 
202 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 •conscious innocence ; lie prayed for the witnesses against 
 him, for the executioner, for the people of God, for the 
 removal of divisions, for the coming of Christ, for the 
 spectators and for himself, that he might enjoy a sense 
 of God's favor and presence, and an entrance into glory. 
 When he had ended, the executioner said, ' The Lord 
 receive your soul,' to which Mr. James replied, ' I thank 
 thee.' A friend observing to him, ' This is a happy 
 day,' he answered, ' I bless God it is.' Then, having 
 thanked the Sheriff for his courtesy, he said, ' Father* 
 into Thy hands I commit my Spirit'; and was immedi- 
 ately launched into eternity. After he was dead, his 
 heart was taken out, and burned, his quarters were 
 affixed to the gates of the city, and his head was set up 
 in Whitechapel on a pole opposite the Alley in which 
 his meeting-house stood." 
 
 " William Sellers was pastor of the Mill-Yard Church, 
 at the time when the present Records begin, 1673. The 
 Church was then in a prosperous condition, the mem- 
 bers were quite numerous, and strict discipline was 
 maintained. Mr. Sellers was probably the author of a 
 work on the Sabbath, in review of Dr. Owen* which 
 appeared in 1671. He is supposed to have continued 
 his ministry until 1678. 
 
 " Henry Soursby succeeded Mr. Sellers. He was a 
 man of considerable controversial talent, which he ex- 
 ercised in defense of the Sabbath. The Church Records 
 allude to a book upon the subject prepared by him. He 
 
 * Dr. Hessey, p. 374, mentions Sellers, as one who 
 wrote against Dr. Owen. He also mentions Soursby as 
 a Sabbatarian author. Also one Smiths, of whom we 
 have been able to find no farther account. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 208 
 
 ministered to the Church until 1710." 
 
 " Two persons named Slater about this time preached 
 occasionally. But as there is no notice of their having 
 become elders, it is quite likely that they were only 
 * preaching brethren ' — a class of persons always much 
 encouraged in this Church." 
 
 " In 1711, Mr. Savage became pastor of the Church. 
 He had for an assistant, or co-pastor, the venerable Mr. 
 John Maul-den, who had long been the pastor of a 
 Baptist Church in Goodman's Fields, which he left be- 
 cause he had embraced Sabbatarian principles." 
 
 "After the death of Mr. Maulden and Mr. Savage 
 there was a vacancy in the pastoral office, the preaching 
 brethren officiating on the Sabbath, in an order pre- 
 scribed at the business meetings of the Church. It was 
 daring this vacancy in 1720, that Dr. Joseph Stennett 
 was invited to take the pastoral care of the Church, 
 which after considerable delay he declined." 
 
 " In 1726, Robert Cornthwaite joined himself to 
 this Church. He was originally connected with the 
 Established Church ; but becoming convinced that the 
 Gospel did not prescribe any religious establishment, he 
 identified himself with the dissenters, and commenced 
 preaching among the Baptists. When the Sabbath 
 question came before him, he decided to keep the 
 Seventh day, and was chosen pastor of the Mill-Yard 
 Church, which position he continued to occupy until his 
 death in 1754. Mr. Cornthwaite was a man of much 
 mental vigor, and great tenacity for whatever he deemed 
 true and scriptural. He published six works relating 
 to the Sabbath, which contributed much to draw atten- 
 tion to the subject, and to improve the condition of the 
 Church." 
 
204 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 " Daniel Noble, the successor of Mr. Cornthwaite, 
 descended from a Sabbatarian family. He became pi- 
 ous at an early age, and entered upon preparation for 
 the ministry. His studies were pursued first in London, 
 then under Dr. Rotheram at Kendall, and afterward 
 at the Glasgow University. He commenced preaching 
 occasionally at Mill- Yard in 1752, and took the oversight 
 of the Church when the pastoral office became vacant. 
 His ministry continued until his death in 1783." 
 
 " About that time, William Slater, a member of 
 the Church, was invited to conduct the services. He 
 was afterward ordained as a preacher, became the pas- 
 tor, and discharged the duties of the office until he died 
 in 1819." 
 
 " For many years after the death of Mr. Slater, the 
 Church was without a pastor, the pulpit being supplied 
 by several ministers of other denominations, until the 
 election of the present elder and pastor, William 
 Henry Black, in 1840 * 
 
 " The Mill-Yard Church is indebted to one of its early 
 members for a very liberal endowment. Mr. Joseph 
 Davis was probably a member of the Church at the 
 time that John James suffered martyrdom. Being a 
 man of considerable influence, aud very bold in the 
 advocacy of his opinions, he became obnoxious to the 
 dominant party, and was exposed to severe persecutions. 
 He was a prisoner in Oxford Castle for nearly ten years, 
 from which he was released in 1673 by order of the 
 
 * Mr. Black is still pastor of the Mill- Yard Church. 
 Notices of him may be found in Mr. Gilfillans work on 
 the Sabbath ; and in the 2d vol. of Cox's Sabbath Lit- 
 erature. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 205 
 
 King. Soon after being set free, he entered into business 
 in London ; and notwithstanding the interruption of his 
 business occasioned by a strict observance of the Sab- 
 bath, he prospered beyond his highest expectations. 
 He soon found himself at ease, surrounded by a happy 
 family, and enjoying the confidence of a large circle of 
 friends. Near the close of his life, Mr. Davis says his 
 heart was drawn forth to do something for the pure 
 worship of his Lord and Saviour, and to manifest that 
 outward blessings had not been bestowed upon him in 
 vain. He felt that ' The Lord had sent him as a Joseph 
 to do something for the cause of religion.' Under the 
 influence of this impression, he purchased in 1691 the 
 grounds adjoining the present meeting-house, erected a 
 place of worship, and thus provided for the permanence 
 of the society with which he was connected. This 
 property was conveyed to Trustees duly appointed by 
 the Church in the year 1700. In 1706, just before his 
 death, Mr. Davis bequeathed the bulk of his property 
 to his son, subject to an annual rent-charge in favor of 
 the Mill- Yard Church, together with seven other Sabba- 
 tarian Churches in England. He likewise made a con- 
 ditional provision in favor of the Church, by virtue of 
 which it afterward came into possession of the principal 
 part of his estate." 
 
 THE CRIPPLEGATE CHURCH. 
 
 " The congregation of Sabbatarians in London com- 
 monly known as the Cripplegate or Devonshire Square 
 Church, was gathered in the reign of King Charles II. 
 by the learned Mr. Francis Bampfield, who descended 
 from an honorable family in Devonshire, and was 
 
206 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 brother to Thomas Bampfield, Speaker in one of Mr. 
 Cromwell's Parliaments." 
 
 The history of Mr. Bampfield has been no- 
 ticed in the preceding chapter. The Records 
 of this Church show it to have been organized 
 March 5th, 1676. Mr. Bampfield was pastor 
 of it at the time of his final imprisonment and 
 death in 1684. We learn from Mr. Utter that : 
 
 " After the imprisonment of Mr. Bampfield, the 
 Church was dispersed for a season. But the times be- 
 coming more favorable, they re-united in Church fellow- 
 ship on the 14th day of October, 1686, and invited Mr. 
 Edward Stennett, of Wallingford, to take the over- 
 sight of them. He acceded to their wishes in part, and 
 came to London at stated periods to preach and admin- 
 ister the ordinances. He still retained his connection 
 with the people at Wallingford. however ; and finding 
 it difficult also to serve the Church in London as he de- 
 sired, he resigned the pastoral care of them in 1689. 
 and recommended the appointment of some one to fill 
 his place. Mr. Stennett is described as ' a Minister of 
 note and learning in those times.' He is distinguished 
 as being the ancestor of the famous Stennett family, 
 who all kept the Seventh day, and were for several 
 generations an ornament to religion, and to the cause of 
 Protestant Dissent. The part which he took in the 
 civil wars, being on the side of Parliament, exposed him 
 to the neglect of his relatives, and many other difficul- 
 ties. His dissent from the Established Church deprived 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 207 
 
 him of the means of maintaing his family, although he 
 was a faithful and laborious minister. He therefore 
 applied himself to the study of medicine, by the practice 
 of which he was enabled to provide for his children, 
 and to give them a liberal education. He bore a con- 
 siderable share in the persecutions which fell upon the 
 Dissenters of his time. Several instances are recorded 
 in which his escape seems altogether miraculous, and 
 affords a striking evidence of Divine interposition." 
 
 " In 1690, Joseph Stennett, the second son of Edward 
 Stennett, was ordained pastor of this Church. With a 
 view to usefulness in the ministry, he early devoted 
 himself to study, mastered the French and Italian lan- 
 guages, became a critic in the Hebrew, and made con- 
 siderable progress in philosophy and the liberal sciences. 
 He came to London in 1685, and was employed for a 
 time in the education of youth. He was at length pre- 
 vailed upon by the earnest solicitations of his friends., 
 to appear in the pulpit w T here his efforts led to his being- 
 called to succeed his father. His ministry was emi- 
 nently evangelical and faithful. His labors were not 
 confined to his own people ; but while he served there 
 on the Seventh day, he preached frequently to other 
 congregations on the first day. Among the Dissenters 
 of England he maintained a high standing and exerted 
 a wide influence. In the reign of King William he was 
 chosen by the Baptists to draw up and present their 
 Address to His Majesty on his deliverance from the 
 assassination plot. On another occasion he was appoin- 
 ted by the dissenting ministers of London to prepare 
 an Address to Queen Anne, which was presented in 
 1706. He also prepared a paper of advice, which was 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 208 
 
 presented by the citizens of London to their representa- 
 tives in Parliament, in 1708. When David Kussen pub- 
 lished his book, ''Fundamentals without a Foundation 
 or a True Picture of the Anabaptists" Mr. Stennett was 
 prevailed on to answer it, which he did so successfully 
 that his antagonist never thought best to reply. The 
 popularity which he gained by this work, led to many 
 solicitations from his friends to prepare a complete His- 
 tory of Baptism. This he intended to have done, and 
 he was several years engaged in collecting materials for 
 it. But the feeble state of his health prevented his 
 carrying out the plan. Early in the year 1713, he began 
 to decline more rapidly, and on the 11th day of July he 
 fell asleep, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the 
 twenty-third of his ministry/' 
 
 " For fourteen years after the death of Mr. Stennett, 
 the Church was without a pastor, during which time 
 the pulpit was supplied by ministers of other denomi- 
 nations, or the meetings on the Sabbath were held with 
 the Mill-Yard Church. But on the 3d of December, 
 1727, aacording to the Record, ' the Church gave them- 
 selves up to Mr. Edmund Townsend,' who continued 
 to serve them as pastor until his death in 1763. Although 
 not an educated man, Mr. Townsend was a faithful and 
 useful minister, and was much esteemed among his own 
 people and others with whom he associated. He appears 
 to have come to London as a Messenger from the Church 
 at Natton. For a while he preached to both of the Lon- 
 don Churches, in the Mill- Yard meeting house, until 
 invited to take the pastoral care of the Cripplegate 
 Church. 
 
 Cl After the death of Mr. Townsend, the Church was 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 209 
 
 for four years supplied with preaching by various Bap- 
 tist Ministers, until Mr. Thomas Whitewood was cho- 
 sen pastor, in June, 1767. His race, however, was short, 
 for after having preached three times, and administering 
 the Lord's Supper once, he was laid aside by severe ill- 
 ness, of which he died in October of the same year." 
 
 " At that time Samuel Stennett, D. D., a great 
 grandson of Edward Stennett, and son of Joseph Sten- 
 nett, D. D., was pastor of the Baptist Church in Little 
 Wild Street, London. As his principles and practice 
 corresponded with those of the Cripplegate Church, — 
 * his judgment as is well known, being for the observance 
 of the Seventh day, which he strictly regarded in his- 
 own family' — he was solicited to accept the pastoral 
 office. There is no record, however, of his having done 
 so, although he performed the duties of a pastor, admin- 
 istered the Lord's Supper, and preached for them regu- 
 larly on the Sabbath morning. The afternoon service/ 
 was conducted by four Baptist ministers in rotation, 
 among whom were Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Bippon. 
 
 " This order of things continued for nearly twenty 
 years, until, in 1785, Robert Burnside was chosen pas- 
 tor of the Church. Mr. Burnside belonged to a Sabbath- 
 keeping family, was received into the Church in 1776, 
 and was afterward educated for the ministry at the 
 Marischal College, Aberdeen. He sustained the pasto- 
 ral relation to the Church forty-one years. Meanwhile 
 a large portion of his time was occupied in giving in- 
 struction in . families of distinction, and in preparing 
 several works for the press, among which were a volume 
 
210 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 on the subject of the Sabbath,* and two volumes on the 
 Religion of mankind. Mr. Burnside died in 1826." 
 
 " John Brittain Shenstone succeeded Mr. Burnside. 
 During the early part of his public life, Mr. Shenstone 
 labored as a minister among the Baptists. For more 
 than forty years he was connected with the Board of 
 Baptist Ministers in London, and as the senior member 
 was pleasantly called the father of the Board. Having 
 become convinced of the claims of the Seventh day, he 
 commenced observing it as the Sabbath in 1825. Soon 
 after Mr. Burnside's death, he was called to the pastoral 
 care of the Church, and he continued to fill the office 
 until his own death, on the 12th day of May, 1844. 
 
 " Since the death of Mr. Shenstone, the Church has 
 been without a pastor, but has enjoyed the ministerial 
 labors of several Baptist preachers." 
 
 "THE NATTON CHURCH." 
 
 . " The Natton Church is located in Tewkesbury, in the 
 west of England, about ninety miles from London, and 
 fifteen from Gloucester. The precise date of its organi 
 zation is not known. It is certain, however, that the 
 Church was in existence as early as 1660 ; and it is 
 quite probable that there were Sabbath-keepers in that 
 region as early as 1640, who were pr evented from form- 
 
 *Mr. Burnside's work on the Sabbath is a very able 
 one. It was republished in America by Joseph Stillman 
 in 1827, and is entitled, " Remarks on the different sen- 
 timents entertained in Christendom, relative to the 
 weekly Sabbath." The American reprint is not now in 
 market. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 211 
 
 ing a regular Church, by the unsettled state of the 
 country and their exposure to persecution." 
 
 " The first pastor of the Natton Church, of whom any 
 reliable account can be given, was Mr. John Purser. 
 He is spoken of as a very worthy man, who suffered 
 much persecution for conscience sake, between 1660 
 and 1690. He descended from an honorable family, and 
 was heir to a considerable estate, of which his father 
 disinherited him because he persisted in keeping the 
 Seventh day as the Sabbath. But it pleased God to bless 
 him in the little which he had, so that he became a 
 reputable farmer, as did many of the most worthy 
 ministers of that time. He reared up a large family of 
 children, who 'all walked in his steps.' The princi- 
 pal place of meeting, in the early days of the Church, 
 was at the house of Mr. Purser, in Asston ; but other 
 meetings were held at different places within a range 
 of twenty-five miles, for the accommodation of the 
 widely-scattered members. Mr. Purser was a faithful 
 minister among them until the close of his life, in 1720." 
 
 " About that time there were two young men in the 
 Church who gave promise of considerable usefulness — 
 Mr. Philip Jones and Mr. Thomas Boston. Mr. Jones 
 was chosen pastor of the Church, and discharged the 
 duties of that office until his death, in 1770 — a period 
 nearly fifty years." 
 
 " Mr. Jones was succeeded by his nephew, Mr. Thomas 
 Hiller, who, although a Sabbatarian, became also the 
 pastor of a First-day Baptist Church in Tewkesbury. 
 His ministry is spoken of as having been successful at 
 Natton as well as at Tewkesbury." 
 
 "After the death of Mr. Hiller, the Church was for 
 
312 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 many years destitute of a pastor, but sustained meet- 
 ings on the Sabbath with the aid of a worthy Baptist 
 preacher residing in Tewkesbury. At present, it is 
 presided over by Mr. John Francis, under whose pas- 
 toral care there have been several additions to its mem- 
 bership." 
 
 " In 1718, Mr. Benjamin Purser, a son of the first 
 pastor of the Natton Church, purchased an estate at 
 Natton, on which he fitted up a chapel for worship on 
 the Sabbath. It is a small room^with a board floor, a 
 pulpit, one pew, a row of benches, a communion table, 
 and a gallery. When he died, in 1765, he left the 
 chapel and burying-place to the Church, together with 
 a small annuity from his estate to all succeeding 
 ministers." 
 
 Such was the state of the English Seventh- 
 day Baptist Churches in 1858. Kobert Cox 
 in the second volume of his " Sabbath Litera- 
 ture v published in 1865, in speaking of John 
 Bunyan's little book upon the Sabbath, which 
 was written to confute the arguments of the 
 Seventh -day Baptists, and published in 1685 ; 
 and not republished until 1806 — says : " the 
 reason why it was not republished probably 
 was that the Churches of the Sabbath-keepers 
 soon after died away. At present we only 
 know of three; the chief is at Mill- Yard, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 213 
 
 London, where my talented antiquarian friend 
 W. EL Black preaches to a little family on the 
 Jewish Sabbath."* 
 
 *p. 80. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Phe Sabbath in America. 
 
 HE same divine hand which guarded 
 the Sabbath through the dark cen- 
 turies between the first great apos- 
 tacy and the reformation, transferred 
 it from England to America, the last battle- 
 ground whereon the great reforms of modern 
 times have been and are being carried forward. 
 True Sabbath Reform could not find a place 
 among the masses until that second great 
 error, the " Puritan Sunday " had borne its 
 fruit, decayed in weakness, and crumbled 
 from the hands of the Church. This trial 
 could best be made in America. Hence, gui- 
 ded by that " divinity which shapes our 
 ends." in 166i Stephen Mumford emigrated 
 from England to Newport, Rhode Island. 
 He "brought with him the opinion that the 
 Ten Commandments as they were delivered 
 from Mount Sinai, were moral and immutable. 
 
216 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 and that it was an anti-christian power which 
 changed the Sabbath from the Seventh to the 
 first day of the week." He united with the 
 Baptist Church in Newport, and soon gained 
 several of its members to the observance of 
 the Sabbath. This led to much discussion, 
 and finally an open separation took place, and 
 the first Seventh-day Baptist Church in Amer- 
 ica was organized by these Sabbath -keepers in 
 the month of December 1671. * "William 
 Hiscox was chosen and ordained their pastor 
 which office he filled until his death in 1704, 
 in the 66th year of his age. He was succeeded 
 by William Gibson, a minister from London, 
 who continued to labor among them* until he 
 died, in 1717, at the age of 79 years. Joseph 
 Crandall, who had been his colleague for 
 two years, was selected to succeed him and 
 presided over the Church until he died, in 
 1737. Joseph Maxson and Thomas Hiscox 
 
 * A full and interesting account of the formation of 
 this Church with a complete account of the discussions 
 and final separation, may be found in vol. 1. of the Sev- 
 enth-day Baptist Memorial, pp. 22 to 46. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 217 
 
 were evangelists of the Church about this 
 time, the former haying been chosen in 1732 
 and died in 1748. John Maxson was chosen 
 pastor in 1754, and performed the duties of the 
 office until 1778. He was followed by William 
 Bliss, who served the Church as pastor until 
 his death, in 1808, at the age 81 years. Henry 
 Burdick, succeeded to the pastorate of the 
 Church, and occupied that post until his 
 death. Besides its regular pastors, the New- 
 port Church ordained several ministers, who 
 labored with great usefulness, both at home 
 and abroad. The Church also included among 
 its early members several prominent public 
 men, one 1 of whom, Eichard Ward, Governor 
 of the State of Ehode Island, is well known 
 to history. 
 
 For more than thirty years after its organi- 
 zation, the Newport Church included nearly 
 all persons observing the Seventh day in the 
 States of Ehode Island and Connecticut ; and 
 its pastors were accustomed to hold religious 
 meetings at several places, for the better ac- 
 commodation of the widely-scattered member- 
 
318 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 ship. In 1708, however, the brethren living 
 in what was then called Westerly, R L, com- 
 prehending all the south-western part of the 
 State, thought best to form another society. 
 Accordingly they proceeded to organize a 
 Church, now called the First Hopkinton, 
 which had a succession of worthy pastors, 
 became very numerous, and built three meet- 
 ing-houses for the accommodation of the 
 members in different neighborhoods."'* In 
 this last place Mr. Backus adds the following- 
 notice in connection with his list of the pastors 
 of what he calls the "Third Church in Newport, 
 who keep the Seventh-day. — Mr. Bbenezer 
 David, (who was first converted in Providence 
 College, and took his first degree there in 
 1772) belonged to this church ; and having 
 been a chaplain, much esteemed, in our army, 
 died therein, not far from Philadelphia, a few 
 days after Mr. Maxon. ? ' 
 
 The agitation concerning the Sabbath which 
 
 * See manual of the Seventh-day Baptists, pp. 40 41, 
 also Backus's History of New England, vol. 1, p. 411, 
 and vol. 2, p. 398. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 219 
 
 the early Seventh-day Baptists induced was 
 not confined to Newport Mr. Backus says* 
 that the Baptists in Boston sent a kind letter 
 to these Sabbath-keepers before their separa- 
 tion from Mr. Clarke's Church, urging them 
 not to chide, as " apostates," certain ones who 
 had left the Sabbath, and not to separate them- 
 selves from their Church relations with the 
 First-day Baptists. In another place,f Mr. 
 Backus gives a lon£ letter from Roger Wil- 
 liams, to Mr. Hubbard a member of the 
 Newport Seventh-day Baptist Church, who 
 had called Mr. Williams ' attention to the 
 claims of the Seventh-day as the only Sabbath. 
 Mr. Williams professes to have studied the 
 subject carefully, but to be unable to agree 
 with Mr. Hubbard's views concerning it. The 
 following letter from a prominent Seventh- 
 dav Baptist in London, which was written 
 because of the persecution of Sabbath -keepers 
 in Connecticut is a specimen of the correspon- 
 dence on this question at that time. 
 
 * Hist, of New England, vol. 1. p. 411. 
 f Vol. 1, pp. 510—12. 
 
220 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 "Peter Chmctberlairi senior Doctor of both Universi- 
 ties, and first and eldest physician in ordinary to his 
 majesty's person, according to the world, bnt according 
 to grace, a servant of the Word of God, to the excellent 
 and noble governor of New England ; grace, mercy, 
 peace and truth, from Grod our Father, and from our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; praying for you that you may 
 abound in heavenly graces and temporal comforts." 
 
 The letter goes on to say that the first 
 design of the men of New England was to 
 establish a system of civil and religious 
 liberty, a system to u suppress sin but not to 
 suppress liberty of conscience." He argues, 
 showing great familiarity with the scriptures, 
 that " whatever is against the ten command- 
 ments in sin," and closes as follows : 
 
 " While Moses and Solomon caution men so much 
 against adding to or taking from — Deut. 4: 2. Prov. 
 30: 5, 6. And so doth the beloved apostle, Rev. 22: 18, 19. 
 What shall we say of those that take away of those ten 
 words, or those that make them void, and teach men 
 so ! Nay, they dare to give the lie to Jehovah, and 
 make Jesus Christ not only the breaker of the law, but 
 the very author of sin in others, also causing them to 
 break them. Hath not the ' Little Horn' played his 
 part lustily in this, and worn out the saints of the mos* 
 High, so that they became ' Little Horn' men also ? If 
 you are pleased to inquire about these things, and to 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 221 
 
 require any instances or informations, be pleased by 
 your letters to command it from your humble servant 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ,'* 
 
 Peter Chamberlin. 
 
 Mr. Backus also notices a similar correspon- 
 dence between Dr. Chamberlain and one Mr. 
 Olnev, about the same time.* 
 
 In Felt's Ecclesiastical History of New 
 England, f is found the following under date 
 of April 3d, 1646. 
 
 "John Cotton writes an argument to Thomas Sheppard 
 to prove that the first day of the Aveek, and not the 
 Seventh, should be observed as the Christian Sabbath. 
 This subject was much discussed by New England 
 ministers against objectors." 
 
 On page 614 of the same volume, is a similar 
 notice of a letter from one Mr. Hooker to 
 Mr. Sheppard on the same theme. Copies of 
 a small book on the Sabbath, written by this 
 same Thomas Sheppard and published at an 
 early day in Connecticut, are still extant, 
 These facts, and the one already referred to, 
 that many prominent and learned men, both 
 
 *Ib. Id. 
 
 (-Vol. 1, p. 596. 
 
222 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 in the colony of Rhode Island and in England 
 were Seventh-day Baptists, show that the 
 agitation concerning the Sabbath was neither 
 feeble in character, or meager in extent. 
 
 Such was the beginning of the Seventh-day 
 Baptists in New England. Detailed accounts 
 of the times and places when and where other 
 Churches were formed, will be given in 
 another place. Those who wish to read more 
 concerning the foregoing points, are referred 
 to the different works quoted, especially the 
 Seventh-day Baptist memorial.* 
 
 The second branch of the Seventh -day 
 Baptist Church in America was also planted 
 by emigration from England. About the 
 year 1684, Abel Noble a Seventh-day Baptist 
 Minister from London settled near Philadel- 
 phia. The following extract from a late work 
 by Rev. James Bailey f gives the following : 
 
 " Able Noble arrived in this country about the year 
 1784, and located near Philadelphia. He was a Seventh- 
 
 *Vol. 1. 
 
 fHistory of the Seventh-day Baptist General Con- 
 ference, pp. 11-15. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 223 
 
 day Baptist Minister when lie came. About this time 
 a difference arose among the Quakers in reference to 
 the sufficiency of what every man has naturally within 
 himself for the purpose of his own salvation. This dif- 
 ference resulted in a separation under the leadership of 
 George Keith. These seceders were soon after known 
 as Keithian Baptists. Through the labors of Able 
 Noble, many of them embraced the Bible Sabbath, and 
 were organized into Churches near the year 1700. These 
 Churches were Newton, Pennepeck, Nottingham and 
 French Creek, and probably, Conogocheage." * * * 
 " The Churches of Pennsylvania fraternized with the 
 Churches in Rhode Island and New Jersey, and coun- 
 selled them in matters of discipline. Some of their 
 members also united with these Churches. Some of 
 them, with some members of the Church of Piscataway , 
 and others of Cohansey, near Princeton, emigrated to 
 the Parish of St. Mark, S. C. and formed a Church on 
 Broad River in 1754. Five years later, in 1759, eight 
 families removed from Broad River and formed a settle- 
 ment and a Church at Tuckaseeking, in Georgia. These 
 Churches have long since become extinct."* 
 
 Speaking again of the Pennsylvania Chur- 
 ches, Mr. Bailey says : 
 
 " Rev. Enoch David was, for several years, connected 
 with these Churches as their preacher." * * * " He 
 was the son of Owen David, who emigrated from Wales. 
 He lived some time in Philadelphia, and labored as a 
 tailor." * * * " The Churches coming out from the 
 
 ^Traces of these Sabbath-keepers are still found in 
 the south. 
 
>24 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Keithian Quakers, and known as the Keithian Baptists 
 and Seventh-day Baptists, retained many of their for- 
 mer habits, and in a few years, by divisions and re- 
 movals, ceased to exist as distinct Churches. They were 
 very numerous in their most prosperous days. There 
 are, however, many of their descendents in connection 
 with our Southern and Western Churches." 
 
 The third branch of the American Seventh- 
 day Baptists originated from causes quite 
 unlike those which gave birth to the two 
 already mentioned. Edmund Dunham was 
 the originator of this movement. He was a 
 member of the First-day Baptist Church in 
 Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey. 
 About the year 1700, he had occasion to 
 rebuke one Mr. Bonham for laboring on Sun- 
 day. Mr. Bonham replied by demanding the 
 divine authority for the observance of Sun- 
 day as the Sabbath. Eager to answer this 
 demand, Dunham began to search Grod's Word 
 for that which he supposed could easily be 
 found. His investigations led him to discard 
 the Sunday and to embrace the Bible Sabbath. 
 Others soon followed his example, and in 1705 
 the Piscataway Seventh-day Baptist Church 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 225 
 
 was organized consisting of seventeen mem- 
 bers. Edmund Dunham was chosen pastor 
 and sent to Ehode Island where he received 
 ordination. At his death, his son Jonathan 
 Dunham succeeded him in the pastorate. 
 This Church still flourishes at New Market, 
 New Jersey, and several other Churches have 
 been formed directly and indirectly from it 
 
 From these three centers, the Seventh -day 
 Baptists have spread westward by emigration 
 and missionary effort as will be seen below. 
 A number of Churches have ceased to exist ; 
 these do not appear in the following list. The 
 figures in the list are compiled from the report 
 of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference 
 for 1869. The present Post-office address of 
 each Church clerk is also given. The old 
 Newport Church has but few living members 
 and does not keep up a formal ecclesiastical 
 organization. 
 
 LIST OF SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCHES 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 Piscatawav Church, 102 members. Organized 170."). 
 Address, New Market, N. J. 
 
226 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 First Hopkinton Church, 357 members. Organized 
 1708. Address, Ashaway, R. I. 
 
 Shiloh Church, 324 members. Organized 1737. Ad- 
 dress, Shiloh, N. J. 
 
 New Salem Church, 166 members. Organized 1745. 
 Address, New Salem, W. Va. 
 
 Lost Creek Church, 115 members. Organized 1805. 
 Address, Lost Creek Church, W. Va. 
 
 Berlin Church, (N. Y.) 142 members. Organized 1780. 
 Address, Berlin, N. Y. 
 
 Waterford Church, 66 members. Organized 1784. 
 Address, Waterford, Conn. 
 
 Marlborough Church, 95 members. Organized 1811. 
 Address, Shiloh. N. J. 
 
 Second Hopkinton Church, 134 members. Organized 
 1835. Address, Hopkinton, R. I. 
 
 Rockville Church, 193 members. Organized 1835. 
 Address, Rockville, R. I. 
 
 First Westerly Church, 72 members. Organized 1837. 
 Address, Westerly, R. I. 
 
 Plainfield Church, 132 members. Organized 1838. 
 Address, Plainfield, N. J. 
 
 Pawcatuck Church, 305 members. Organized 1840. 
 Address, Westerly, R. I. 
 
 First Church of New York City, 37 members. Or- 
 ganized 1845. Address, 470 Grand St. 
 
 Grreenmanville Church, 47 members. Organized 1850. 
 Address, Mystic Bridge, Conn. 
 
 Woodville Church, 27 members, Organized 1843. 
 Address, Woodville, R. I. 
 
 Second Westerly Church, 26 members. Organized 
 1858. Address, Dorrville, R. I. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 227 
 
 Rosenhayn Church, 10 members. Organized 1869. 
 Address, Rosenhayn, N. J. 
 
 The above Churches are arranged chrono- 
 logically, according to the date of organization. 
 They form the Seventh-day Baptist " Eastern 
 Association." 
 
 The next fifteen Churches are given in 
 nearly chronological order, and taken together 
 form the Seventh-day Baptist " Central Asso- 
 ciation. 1 ' 
 
 First Brookfield Church, 241 members. Organized 
 1797. Address, Leonardsville, N. Y. 
 
 DeRuyter Church, 115 members. Organized 181(>. 
 Address, DeRuyter, N. Y. 
 
 Scott Church, 140 members. Organized 1820. Ad- 
 dress, Scott, N. Y. 
 
 Hounsfield Church, 25 members. Organized 1841. 
 Address, Stowell's Cor. N. Y. 
 
 First Verona Church, 93 members. Organized 1820. 
 Address, New London, Conn. 
 
 Adam's Church, 267 members. Organized 1822. Ad- 
 dress, Adam's Center, N. Y. 
 
 Second Brookfield Church, 187 members. Organized 
 1823. Address, Brookfield, N. Y. 
 
 West Edmeston Church, 117 members. Organized 
 1823. Address, W. Edmeston, N. Y. 
 
 Cuyler Church, 49 members. Organized 1824. Ad- 
 dress, DeRuyter, N. Y. 
 
228 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Watson Church, 106 members. Organized 1841. 
 Address, Wats«";n, Lewis Co. N. Y. 
 
 Lincklaen Church, 108 members. Organized 1831. 
 Address, Lincklaen, N. Y. 
 
 Preston Church, 35 members. Organized 1834. Ad- 
 dress, Oxford, N. Y. 
 
 Ostelic Church, 40 members. Organized 1830. Ad- 
 dress. South Ostelic N. Y. 
 
 Second Verona Church, 23 members. Organized 
 1830. Address, State Bridge, N. Y. 
 
 Clifford Church, 21 members. Organized 1859. Ad- 
 dress, Dundaff, Pa. 
 
 The fourteen Churches named below form 
 the Seventh-day Baptist Western Association. 
 
 First Alfred Church, 445 members. Organized 1816. 
 Address, Alfred Centre, N. Y. 
 
 Second Alfred Church, 208 members. Organized 1831. 
 Address, Alfred, N. Y. 
 
 First 'denesee Church, 155 members. Organized 1827. 
 Address, Little Genesee. X. Y. 
 
 Third Genesee Church, 54 members. Organized 1843. 
 Address, Portville, N. Y. 
 
 Friendship Church, 134 members. Organized 1824. 
 Address, Nile, N. Y. 
 
 Hebron Church, 79 members. Organized 1833. Ad- 
 dress, Hebron, Pa. 
 
 Hartsville Church, 117 members. Organized 1847. 
 Address, Alfred, N. Y. 
 
 Independence Church, 178 members. Organized 1834. 
 Address, Independence, N. Y. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 229 
 
 Cussewago Church, 4? members. Organized 1853. 
 Address, Venango, Pa. 
 
 Richburg Church, 80 members. Organized 1827. 
 Address, Richburg, N. Y. 
 
 Scio Church, 22 members. Organized 1834. Address, 
 Wellsville, N. Y. 
 
 Portville Church, 36 members. Organized 1862. Ad- 
 dress, Portville, N. Y. 
 
 Jackson Church, 79 members. Organized Ad- 
 
 dress, Jackson Centre, Ohio. 
 
 The following named Churches are among 
 the latest ones organized, and form the Sev- 
 enth-day Baptist North-Western Association. 
 
 Milton Church, 294 members. Organized 1840. Ad- 
 dress, Milton, Wis. 
 
 Albion Church, 363 members. Organized 1843. Ad- 
 dress, Albion, Wis. 
 
 Walworth Church, 149 members. Organized 1847. 
 Address, Walworth, Wis. 
 
 Christiana Church, 99 members. Organized 1850. 
 Address, Utiea, Wis*. 
 
 Berlin (Wis.) Church, 39 members. Organized 1850. 
 Address, Berlin, Wis. 
 
 Southampton Church, 111 members. Organized 1850. 
 Address, West Hallock, 111. 
 
 Rock River Church, 125 members. Organized 1856. 
 Address, West Milton, Wis. 
 
 Welton Church, 111 members. Organized 1855. Ad- 
 dress, Welton, Iowa. 
 
 Wasioja and Ashland Church, 101 members. Organ- 
 ized 1860. Address, Dodge Centre, Minn. 
 
280 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Trenton Church, 78 members. Organized 1859. Ad- 
 dress, Trenton, Minn. 
 
 Dakota Church, 13 members. Organized 1860. Ad- 
 dress, Dakota, Wis. 
 
 Carlston Church, 79 members. Organized 1864. Ad- 
 dress, Alden, Minn. 
 
 Carlton Church, 15 members, Organized 1864. Ad- 
 dress, Carlton, Iowa. 
 
 New Auburn Church, 35 members. Organized 1864. 
 Address, New Auburn, Minn. 
 
 Farina Church, 115 members. Organized 1866. Ad- 
 dress, Farina, 111. 
 
 Shanghai Church, 19 members. Organized Ad- 
 
 dress, Shanghai, China. 
 
 Pardee Church, 25 members. Organized 1865. Ad- 
 dress, Pardee, Kansas. 
 
 Long Branch Church, 57 members. Organized 1867. 
 Address, Long Branch, Nebraska. 
 
 Brookfield (Mo.) Church, 14 members. Organized 
 1867. Address, Brookfield, Mo. 
 
 Lima Centre Church, 15 members. Organized 1868. 
 Address, Lima Centre, Wis. 
 
 Church of Union, (Wis.) ' Organized 1868. 
 
 Address, Union, Vernon Co. Wis. 
 
 Villa Ridge Church, 15 members. Organized 1869. 
 Address, Villa Ridge, 111. 
 
 Pleasant Hill Church, 10 members. Organized 1870. 
 Address, South Pass, 111. 
 
 MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 
 
 The Seventh-day Baptists began missionary 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 231 
 
 work at an early day. This was under the 
 direction of the " General Conference" until 
 the year 1828. A separate organization then 
 took place, which was modified in 1852, since 
 which time it has continued under its present 
 form and name, " the Seventh-day Baptist Mis- 
 sionary Society." Foreign missions in Palestine 
 and China were organized about the year 1850, 
 and three native preachers are now laboring 
 under the direction of this society in China. 
 Home Missions are being conducted in the 
 west and northwest 
 
 SABBATH PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Previous to 1843, the publishing of tracts 
 and books upon the Sabbath question on the 
 part of the Seventh-day Baptists was done by 
 private individuals, and by the "New York 
 City Sabbath Trad Society:' In 1843 the 
 u American Sabbath Tract Society," was or- 
 ganized and the publishing interests of the 
 "New York City" society, were transferred 
 to it. The present society has published a 
 series of about twenty-five tracts and books 
 
232 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Varying from four to one hundred or more 
 pages, and treating upon almost every phase bf 
 the Sabbath question. The society is at pres- 
 ent circulating tracts largely, through the mails 
 and otherwise, publishing books, putting 
 lecturers into the field and otherwise aiming 
 to meet the increasing demand for light 
 upon the Sabbath question. 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Seventh-day Baptists have always been 
 largely represented in the cause of popular 
 education. The annual report of the " Sev- 
 enth-day Baptist Education Society," made 
 in September 1869, shows the existence of 
 five Academies, one newly organized College, 
 and a University with academic, collegiate, 
 mechanical, and theological departments in 
 operation. 
 
 The foregoing facts will serve to show 
 something of the location and character of the 
 Seventh-day Baptists, and of their facilities 
 for advancing the cause of Sabbath Reform. 
 The belief that there is no divine authority 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 23& 
 
 for setting aside the Sabbath and accepting 
 the Sunday in its stead, forms the main feature 
 of difference between the Seventh-day Baptists 
 and the " General Baptists." Each Church is 
 independent, and church government and 
 representation are purely " congregational." 
 An extract or two from the pen of history 
 will close this chapter. The following from 
 Arnold's History of Ehode Island, will serve 
 to show the character of the early Seventh-clay 
 Baptists. 
 
 " The Rev. N, Price, missionary at Westerly, express- 
 es his astonishment at the kind treatment he received, 
 so unlike that which everywhere else was accorded to 
 those who differed from the prevailing religious senti- 
 ment, he says : 
 
 "The Sectaries here are chiefly Baptists that keep 
 the Saturday as a Sabbath, and are more numerous than 
 all the other persuasions throughout the town put 
 together, and then proceeds to express his wonder that 
 those Baptists, who I imagine would oppose me, and 
 all of the same interest with me, should be so far from 
 it, that they have expressed a gladness of a ministers 
 coming to those of a different persuasion from them ; 
 that instead of separating and keeping at a distance 
 they should many of them come with my own hearers 
 and be as constant as most of them, and but few that 
 would not occasionally do it and manifest their liking ; 
 
234 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 that when I supposed that if they did come, it would be 
 to pick and carp, and find fault, and then go away to 
 make the worst of it, that they should come after a ser- 
 mon and thank me for it ; that instead of shunning me 
 and keeping off from an acquaintance with me, they 
 should invite me to their houses and be sorry if I would 
 pass by without calling ; that their two ministers in the 
 town, who I expected would be virulent and fierce 
 against me, and stir up their people to stand to their 
 arms, should not only hear me, thank me, visit me, but 
 take my part against some of their own persuasion that 
 showed a narrow spirit towards us, and be the most 
 charitable and catholic whom I thought to have found 
 the most stiff and prejudiced." 
 
 The above was written in 1721-2 and is 
 found in Arnold as above quoted.* 
 
 Robert Baird in his work entitled " Religion 
 in Arnerica/'f speaks of the Seventh-day 
 Baptists as follows : 
 
 " The population under their instruction and influ- 
 ence is reckoned at forty thousand, they are quite evan- 
 gelical in the doctrines that relate to the way of salva- 
 tion, and are in good repute for piety and zeal. They 
 differ from the regular Baptists as to the day to be 
 observed as the " Christian Sabbath," maintaining in 
 opposition to these, that the Seventh-day was not only 
 the Sabbath originally appointed by the Creator, but 
 
 ♦Vol. 2, Chapter 24, pp. 86, 87. N. Y. 1860. 
 ♦Chap. 8, pp. 499, 500. N. Y. 1856. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 235 
 
 that that appointment remains unrepealed. Their Chur- 
 ches are widely scattered throughout the States. * * 
 Altogether they are a very worthy people." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Seventh- Day Adyentists. 
 
 HE following chapter is from the pen 
 of Eld. J. N". Andrews of Rochester. 
 1ST. Y. who is a representative man 
 among the people concerning whom 
 he writes. The chapter was prepared during 
 the winter of 1867-8. The operations of these 
 Adventists in favor of the Sabbath have con- 
 siderably increased since that time. 
 
 This body of Sabbath-keepers has arisen 
 during the past twenty-four years, and is partic- 
 ularly distinguished by the fact that they are be- 
 lievers in the near advent of our Lord. To form 
 a just judgment of this people, who in several 
 respects differ from the Seventh-day Baptists, 
 it is necessary to consider their position from 
 their own stand point. The advent movement 
 of 1843-4, as believed and cherished by them, 
 led directly to the Sabbath of the fourth com- 
 
288 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 mandment. That movement was based upon 
 three leading ideas : 
 
 1. That the great outlines of prophecy in 
 the books of Daniel and Kevelation, as the 
 metallic image, the great beasts, the seals, the 
 trumpets, and other prophetic series indicate 
 the accomplishment of the long period of 
 Gentile rule, and the immediate advent of 
 Christ and the judgment, 
 
 2. That the signs of the times mark these 
 as the days of expectation of that event. 
 
 3. That the prophetic periods which relate 
 to the closing events of our dispensation, and 
 especially the 2300 days of Daniel 8, 14. 
 point to 1843-4, as the year of their termina- 
 tion. 
 
 In studying the subject of prophetic time, 
 the ninth chapter of Daniel was found to be 
 the key to the eighth. The period of 2300 
 days was therefore held to begin with the 
 seven weeks at the going forth of the command- 
 ment to restore and build Jerusalem, B. C. 
 457. Ezra, 7. Taking 457 from 2300 leaves 
 1843 for the year of the cleansing of the sane- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 389 
 
 tuary. So the advent of Christ was expected 
 that year, because the sanctuary was believed 
 to be the earth, and its cleansing to be by fire 
 at the coming of the Lord. 
 
 When the year 1843 had expired it was 
 seen that if the 2300 days began with the first 
 day of 457, B. C. they would then only expire 
 with the last day of 1843. But instead of 
 this, it was seen that they did not begin until 
 the seventh Jewish month 457, B. C. and must 
 therefore extend to the seventh Jewish month, 
 October 1844. At the same time it was seen that 
 the types of the law of Moses set forth the sub- 
 ject of the cleansing of the sanctuary, and mark 
 the time of the year as the tenth day of the 
 seventh month, Lev. 16. The types of the 
 spring, as the passover, the first fruits and the 
 pentecost met a definite fulfillment as to time 
 in the events of the first advent. Ex. 12. 
 1 Cor. 5 : 7, 8 ; John, 19 : 14, 18 ; Lev. 23 ; 
 Acts, 2:1; 1 Cor. 15 : 23. Why should not 
 the type of the cleansing of the sanctuary 
 meet its anti-type at the end of the 2300 days 
 
240 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 in connection with the events of the second 
 advent ? 
 
 The 2300 days which extend to the cleans- 
 ing of the sanctuary, did in the judgment of 
 the advent people plainly point to the seventh 
 month, 1844 ; and the types mark the tenth 
 day of that month as the time in the year for 
 the cleansing of the sanctuary. This caused 
 that point of time to be regarded by them 
 with the most intense interest as the time for 
 the advent of the Savior. It is due to the 
 Seventh -day Adventists that it should be sta- 
 ted that the movement of 1843-4 is the only 
 "time movement" in which they have ever par- 
 ticipated, and that they still regard the dates 
 then assigned the prophetic periods as the true 
 dates. 
 
 When 1844 had passed without the expect- 
 ted advent of Christ, then the entire subject 
 of the advent faith was carefully re-examined. 
 Is the course of earthly empire as marked by 
 Daniel and John just read}^ to expire? This 
 appeared to the Adventists an undoubted fact. 
 Is the millennium before or after Christ's ad- 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 241 
 
 vent? After that event, and not prior to it. 
 Have the signs of Christ's second coming 
 made their appearance? So the Adventists 
 decided. Have the 2300 days been rightly 
 reckoned ? They could find no just ground 
 to doubt this. Is the earth the sanctuary? 
 Is the sanctuary to be cleansed by fire ? Does 
 the Saviour cleanse the sanctuary when He 
 comes the second time, or does this take place 
 before that event ? 
 
 An examination of the Scriptures on these 
 points soon discovered the real mistake. There 
 is no authority for calling the earth the sanc- 
 tuary. There is no reason to believe that the 
 sanctuary is cleansed by fire. In fact there 
 is clear evidence that the cleansing of the 
 sanctuary constitutes a part of the work of 
 Christ as high priest before his return in the 
 clouds of heaven. 
 
 And on this wise did they reason ; the sanc- 
 tuary of the first covenant was the tabernacle 
 erected by Moses, after the pattern of the true 
 or heavenly tabernacle. The sanctuary of 
 the new covenant is the true tabernacle itself, 
 
242 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 the temple of God in heaven ; Ex. 25. Heb. 
 8 : 9. Rev. 11 : 19. The services in the 
 earthly sanctuary were the example and sha 
 clow of those in the heavenly. The round ot 
 service was concluded each year by the clean- 
 sing of the sanctuary ; Lev. 16. This was the 
 removal of the sins of the people of God 
 from the sanctuary where they had been borne, 
 that atonement might be made for them ; Lev. 
 4. and their being placed upon the scape goat 
 who received them when the high priest closed 
 his work each year. They learned from Paul's 
 commentary upon this very thing that the 
 heavenly sanctuary is to be cleansed for the 
 same reason that the earthly one was. Heb. 
 9 : 23. That is, that there is a space of time 
 in the conclusion of the ministration of Christ 
 in the true tabernacle for the blotting out of 
 the sins of the people of God from the earliest 
 generation to the last; and with the accom- 
 plishment of this work human probation clo- 
 ses forever. Acts, 3 : 19. Luke, 13 : 25. Rev. 
 10 : 7, 22, 11. The conclusion was arrived 
 at from this examination that the 2300 days 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 243 
 
 were ended, and that they bring us not to the 
 close of human probation but to the com- 
 mencement of that great work in the sanctuary 
 which shall bring the work of mercy to a final 
 termination. 
 
 So the advent movement led directly to the 
 heavenly sanctuary ; and with equal directness 
 to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. 
 For it was seen that the heavenly tabernacle 
 with its sacred vessels was the great original 
 after which Moses copied in making the tab- 
 ernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. 
 Ex. 25. Heb. 9. It was further seen that 
 the heavenly sanctuary had the same grand 
 central object as the earthly, viz: the ark of 
 God's testament Eev. 11 : 19. Ex. 40 : 20, 
 21. Deut. 10: 3, 5. The ark containing the ten 
 commandments with the mercy seat for its top, 
 was that over which the typical atonement was 
 made ; and hence the real atonement must re- 
 late to that law concerning which an atonement 
 was shadowed forth. Lev. 16 : 15. And so the 
 heavenly sanctuary contains the ark after 
 which Moses patterned when he obeyed the 
 
244 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 mandate " see that thou make all things ac- 
 cording to the pattern showed to thee in the 
 mount," Heb. 8: 5; 9: 23. And in that 
 ark is the original of that law which the great 
 Law-giver copied with his own finger for the 
 ark of the earthly sanctuary. Ex. 20, 24. 
 Deut. 9 : 10. And this great fact clearly in- 
 dicates that the ten commandments constitute 
 the moral law to which the atonement relates ; 
 that they are distinct from the law of types and 
 shadows ; that they are unchangeable in their 
 character, and of perpetual obligation ; that our 
 Lord as high priest ministers before a real law ; 
 that men in the gospel dispensation must obey 
 the law of ten commandments; and so the 
 Sabbath of the fourth commandment was 
 found among the things which are as immuta- 
 ble as the pillars of heaven. 
 
 Thus the study of the heavenly sanctuary 
 opened to their minds the Sabbath and the 
 law of God. And so the ancient Sabbath of 
 the Bible became with this people a part of 
 the advent faith. The Seventh-day Adven- 
 tists differ from the other Adventists in this, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 245 
 
 that they accept the heavenly sanctuary 
 with the ark and the law of God ; while the 
 first-day Adventists reject the heavenly sanc- 
 tuary, and with it the Sabbath and law of God 
 and still maintain that the earth is the sanc- 
 tuary to be cleansed by fire at the coming of 
 Christ, and so they keep fixing new dates for 
 the 2300 days in order to extend them to that 
 event. 
 
 The Seventh-day Adventists believe that 
 the three great proclamations of Rev. 14. u The 
 hour of his judgment is come ;" "Babylon is 
 fallen, is fallen;" and "the commandments of 
 God and the faith of Jesus," are addressed to 
 the present generation, and that with their 
 warning voice human probation closes up 
 forever. They believe that God has designed 
 one proclamation of prophetic time in fulfill- 
 ment of the first of these three messages ; but 
 that the second and third proclamations do not 
 relate to time at all. They believe that the 
 period of time at the end of the 2300 days 
 occupied by our Lord in his closing work in 
 the heavenly sanctuary is the time denomina- 
 
246 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 ted; "the patience of the saints," in which 
 the third angel utters his solemn warning 
 against the worship of the beast, and proclaims 
 u The commandments of God and the faith 
 of Jesas." The truths of the third angels 7 
 message constitute therefore the final testimony 
 to the world. And thus according to the view 
 of this people the commandments of God are 
 to be vindicated in opposition to the claims of 
 the papal power in the closing period of hu- 
 man probation. 
 
 The Sabbath was introduced to the atten- 
 tion of the advent people first at Washington, 
 N. H. A faithful Seventh-day Baptist sister 
 bj r the name of Preston' 36 ' from the State of 
 
 *A word relative to this sister may be in place. Ra- 
 chel D. Harris was born in Vernon, Vt. At the age of 
 seventeen, she was converted and united with the Meth - 
 odist Church. When she was twenty-eight years of ag*e 
 she became a believer in the Bible Sabbath. The Metho- 
 dist Minister did what he could to turn her from the Sab- 
 bath, but finally told her she might keep it if she would 
 not leave them. But she was faithful to her convictions 
 of duty and united with the Seventh-day Baptist Church 
 of Verona, Oneida Co. N. Y. Her first husband bore 
 the name of Oaks. Her second that of Preston. She 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 247 
 
 and her daughter Delight Oaks, were members of the 
 Seventh -day Baptist Church of Verona, N. Y. at the time 
 of their removal to Washington, N. H. Both these sisters 
 were faithful to the grace bestowed upon thern, and 
 both now sleep in Jesus. The daughter died several 
 years since, the mother Feb. 1, 1868. But their works 
 bear witness to their faithf illness in the service of God. 
 These two humble sisters were instrumental in raising 
 up the first Church of Sabbath-keeping Adventists, and 
 from this Church the first rays of light shone forth 
 upon those who have been instrumental in turning 
 thousands to the Sabbath. These sisters not only bore 
 testimony by word of mouth but by the distribution of 
 tracts containing the reasons for the Sabbath. Will it 
 ikh be said of them in the judgment, they have done 
 what they could ? 
 
 New York, a member of the Verona Church, 
 having removed to this place, brought with 
 her the Sabbath of the Lord. Here she be- 
 came interested in the doctrine of the glorious 
 advent of the Savior. Being instructed in 
 ^his subject by the advent people, she in turn 
 nstructed them in the commandments of God, 
 and as early as 1844 the whole Church in that 
 place consisting of thirty or fourty persons 
 became observers of the Sabbath of the Lord. 
 The oldest body of Sabbath-keepers among the 
 
248 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 Seventh-day Adventists is therefore at Wash, 
 ington, N. H. Its present number is small, 
 for it has been thinned by death, and much 
 more by emigration ; but there still remains a 
 small company to bear witness to this ancient 
 truth of the Bible. 
 
 From this place several advent ministers 
 received the Sabbath truth during the year 
 1844. One of these was Elder T. M. Preble, 
 who has the honor of first setting the Sabbath 
 before the Adventists through the medium of 
 the press. This was in the spring of 1845. 
 Within a few months time several hundred 
 persons began to observe the Sabbath as tie 
 result of the light thus shed on their pathway. 
 Elder J. B. Cook, a man of decided talent xs 
 a preacher and a writer, was one of these early 
 converts to the Sabbath. Elders Preble anl 
 Cook were at this time in the full vigor of ther 
 mental powers, and were possessed of talent 
 and a reputation for piety which gave then 
 great influence among the Adventists in behali 
 of the Sabbath. These men seem to have 
 been designed in the providence of God to 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 24& 
 
 lead in the Sabbath reform among Adven- 
 tists ; But both of them while preaching and 
 writing in its behalf, committed the fatal error 
 of making it of no practical importance. 
 They had the same fellowship for those who 
 rejected the Sabbath that they had for those 
 who observed it. Such a course of action 
 produced its natural result. After two or 
 three years of this kind of Sabbath observance 
 each of these men apostatized from it, and 
 thenceforward used what influence they pos- 
 sessed in warring against the fourth command- 
 ment The larger part of those who embraced 
 the Sabbath from their labors were not suffi- 
 ciently impressed with its importance to be- 
 come settled and grounded in its weighty evi- 
 dences. Almost all who thus received the 
 Sabbath soon turned back from its observance. 
 But enough had been done to excite very 
 bitter opposition toward the Sabbath on the 
 part of many Adventists, and to bring out the 
 ingenious and plausible arguments by which 
 men attempt to strike out of existence the 
 law of God. Such was the result of their 
 
250 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 course, and 'such the condition of things at 
 the time of their defection. But the result 
 of their plan of action taught the advent Sab- 
 bath-keepers a lesson of value which they 
 have not forgotten. They learned that the 
 fourth commandment must be treated as a 
 part of the moral law, if men are ever to be 
 led to its sacred observance. 
 
 Elder Preble s first article in behalf of the 
 Sabbath, March, 1845, was the means of call- 
 ing the attention of Elder Joseph Bates to 
 this important truth. He soon became con- 
 vinced of its obligation and at once began to 
 observe it. He had acted quite a prominent 
 part in the advent movement of 1848-4, and 
 now with self-sacrificing zeal he took hold of 
 the despised Sabbath truth to set it before his 
 fellow men. He did not do it in the half-way 
 manner of Elders Preble and Cook, but as a 
 man thoroughly in earnest, and fully alive to 
 the importance of his subject. The heavenly 
 sanctuary began about this time to interest 
 many adventists, and especially Elder Bates. 
 He was one of the first to see that the central 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 251 
 
 object of the heavenly sanctuary is the ark 
 with the law of God. He also called atten- 
 tion to the proclamation of the third angel 
 relative to God's commandments. He girded 
 on the armor to lay it down only when his 
 work should be accomplished. He has been 
 instrumental in leading many to the com- 
 mandments of God and to the faith of Jesus, 
 and few who have received the Sabbath from 
 his teaching have apostatized from it. 
 
 It was but a few months after Elder Bates, 
 that Elder James White also embraced the 
 Sabbath. He had been an efficient advent 
 minister, and he now entered heartily into the 
 work of Sabbath reform. Uniting with Elder 
 Bates in the proclamation of the doctrine of the 
 advent and the Sabbath as connected together 
 in the sanctuary and the message of the third 
 angel, he has with the blessing of heaven ac- 
 complished great results in behalf of the Sab- 
 bath. The publishing interests of the Seventh- 
 day Adventists originated through his instru- 
 mentality. He was for years the one responsi- 
 ble for the financial success of this department. 
 
252 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 For several years he acted as editor of the 
 organ of this people, the Advent Review, 
 and for the earlier years of its existence was 
 both editor and publisher. With all these 
 cares and responsibilities he also acted as a 
 minister of the gospel, preaching more or less 
 in nearly all the northern states. The organi- 
 zation of the publishing department enables 
 him to lay off responsibilities pertaining 
 thereto, and he now labors with great success 
 as an evangelist in the wide harvest field. 
 
 In the face of strong opposition, the people 
 known as Seventh-day Adventists have arisen 
 to bear their testimony for the Sabbath. They 
 have had perils from open foes and from false 
 brethren ; but they have thus far surmount- 
 ed the difficulties of the way and gathered 
 strength for the conflict before them. Honor- 
 able mention might be made of many who 
 have labored in the ministry and in the various 
 departments of this work, but space will not 
 admit of this. The time will come when 
 every servant of Christ shall receive the just 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 253 
 
 reward of his labors and then shall every man 
 have praise of God.* 
 
 The financial wants of the cause are sustained by a 
 method of collecting money known as Systematic Be- 
 nevolence. By this system it is designed that each 
 friend of the cause shall pay a certain sum weekly, 
 proportioned to the property which he possesses. In 
 this manner the burden is borne by all, so that it rests 
 heavily upon none ; and the means needed for the work 
 flow with a steady stream into the treasury of the sev- 
 eral churches and finally into that of the State confer- 
 ences. A settlement is instituted each year, in which 
 the labors, receipts and expenditures of each minister 
 are carefully examined into. Thus none are allowed 
 to waste means and none who are recognized as called 
 of God to the ministry are allowed to suffer. 
 
 The Churches sustain their meetings for the most 
 part without the aid of preaching. They raise means 
 to sustain the servants of Christ, but with noble gener- 
 osity bid them mainly devote their time and strength 
 to save those who have not the light of these important 
 truths shining upon their pathway. So they go out 
 everywhere preaching the Word of the Lord as His 
 providence guides their feet. 
 
 *There are about forty ministers who devote their en- 
 tire strength to the w^ork of the Gospel. There is also 
 a considerable number who preach a portion of the time 
 and devote the remainder to secular labor. 
 
254 SABBATH AND SUNDAY- 
 
 The Seventh-day Avdentists have eight state 
 conferences whicli assemble annually in their 
 respective states. These are Maine, Vermont, 
 New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan 
 and Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois, Iowa and 
 Minnesota. These conferences are designed 
 to meet the local wants of the cause. There 
 is also a general conference which asembles 
 annually, composed of delegates from the 
 state conferences. This conference takes the 
 general over-sight of the work in all the state 
 conferences, supplying the more destitute with 
 laborers as far as possible, and uniting the 
 whole strength of the body for the accomplish- 
 ment of the work. It also takes the charge 
 of missionary ]abor in those states which have 
 no organized conferences. 
 
 "The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association 
 was incorporated in Battle Creek, Mich., May 3, 1861. 
 Its object is to issue " periodicals, books, tracts, docu- 
 ments, and other publications, calculated to impart in- 
 struction on Bible truth, especially the fulfillment of 
 prophecy, the commandments of God, and the teach- 
 ings of Jesus Christ." Its capital stock is raised by 
 shares at $10 each ; and every shareholder is entitled to 
 one vote in all the deliberations of the association, for 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 255 
 
 every share that he or she may hold. The association 
 has now a large and well-furnished office of publication . 
 established in Battle Creek, Mich., and employs two 
 steam power presses in carrying on its business. A 
 meeting of the stockholders is held each year, at which 
 a board of trustees is elected to manage its business, and 
 editors chosen to conduct its periodicals, till the ensuing- 
 meeting. All persons employed in the publishing de- 
 partment, are engaged at stipulated wages, and all 
 profits accruing from the business, are strictly applied 
 by the association to the carrying out of the object of 
 its formation, and to its charitable uses and purposes. 
 All lovers of truth who " keep the commandments of 
 God and the faith of Jesus,"' are still invited to take 
 shares in the association, and have a voice in all its de- 
 liberations." 
 
 THE ADVENT REVIEW AND SABBATH HERALD 
 
 " Is a large sixteen-page religious family paper, issued 
 weekly by the S. D. A. Pub. Association, and devoted to an 
 earnest investigation of all Bible questions. It is designed 
 to be an exponent of momentous and solemn truths per- 
 taining to the present time, some of which are set forth 
 by no other periodical in the land. The fulfillment of 
 prophecy, the second personal advent of the Saviour 
 as an event now near at hand, immortality through 
 Christ alone, a change of heart through the operation 
 of the Holy Spirit, the observance of the Sabbath of 
 the fourth commandment, the divinity and mediatorial 
 work of Christ, and the development of a holy charac- 
 ter by obedience to the perfect and holy law of Uod, as 
 embodied in the decalogue, are among its special themes. 
 
256 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 And while it will endeavor to present impartially both 
 sides of all important questions, it has a definite. theory 
 to teach, and hence will not devote its space to an in- 
 discriminate and aimless mass of conflicting sentiments 
 and views. 
 
 The Review has a circulation of about 4,000 copies." 
 
 The association also publishes a monthly 
 paper called the Youth's Instructor, which has 
 a circulation of about 2,200 copies. It is de- 
 signed to be to youth and children what the 
 Jievieiv is to those that are older. * 
 
 Such is the scattered condition of this peo- 
 ple, (for they are found in all the northern states 
 and in several of the southern,) that less than 
 half their number is embraced in church and 
 conference organizations. They are to be found 
 in single families scattered all the way from 
 Maine to California and Oregon. The Review 
 and Instructor constitue in a great number of 
 cases the only preachers of their faith. The 
 
 *The association has an extensive list of publications, 
 from the penny tract to the bound volume, setting forth 
 the views of the Seventh-day Adventists upon the Sab- 
 bath and the law of God, the advent of Christ and the 
 Judgment. They have circulated not less than 40,000,- 
 000 pages of these works. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 257 
 
 number of Seventh-day Adventists by careful 
 estimation is fixed at not less than 12,000. The 
 doctrines cherished by this people are quite 
 fully indicated in what has been said respect- 
 ing the Review. This people are very strict 
 with regard to the ordinance of baptism, be- 
 lieving not only that it requires men to be 
 buried in the watery grave, but that even this 
 is not valid baptism if administered to those 
 who are breaking one of the ten command- 
 ments. They also believe that our Lord's di- 
 rections in John xiii, should be observed' in 
 connection with the sapper. 
 
 They also believe that gifts of the Spirit set 
 forth in 1 Cor. xii. Eph. iv. were designed to re- 
 main in the Church till the end of time. They 
 believe that these were lost to the Church in 
 consequence of that same apostacy that chang- 
 ed the Sabbath. They also believe that in the 
 final restoration of the commandments by the 
 work of the third angel, the gifts of the Spirit 
 of God are restored with them. So the rem- 
 nant of the Church, or last generation of its 
 members are said to " keep the command- 
 
258 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 ments of Grod and have the testimony of Je- 
 sus Christ." Rev. xii : 17. " The testimony of 
 Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." Rev. xix: 10. 
 The Spirit of prophecy therefore has a distinct 
 place assigned it in the final work of Sabbath 
 reform. Such are their views of this portion 
 of Scripture ; and their history from the be- 
 ginning has been marked by the controlling 
 influence of this gift in their midst 
 
 The above presents a candid statement of 
 the origin history and peculiarities of the peo- 
 ple known as the Seventh-Day Adventists. 
 It cannot be better concluded than with the 
 statement of the great object which they hope 
 to accomplish. It is this : to make ready a 
 people prepared for the advent of the Lord. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JP 
 
 ONCLUSION 
 
 HUS a survey of the whole field re- 
 veals the truth that the first defec- 
 tion from the Sabbath, in the Chris- 
 tian Church, began with that " fall- 
 ing away " which " revealed the man of Sin." 
 Tt shows also that those dissenters who retain- 
 ed the Grospel in purity through the centuries 
 of darkness which succeeded the apostacy, 
 were Sabbath-keepers, and that certain 
 branches of the Church in the East, which 
 have never been subjected to the civil control 
 of the Papacy, have never ceased to observe 
 the Sabbath. It shows that the cause of Sab- 
 bath Reform has gained no permanent success 
 since the reformation, except in connection 
 with the Sabbath day. 
 
 The same survey shows that Sunday is the 
 child of apostacy ; that it came into the Church 
 
260 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 through heathen philosophy, was established 
 by civil law as a heathen festival, and came 
 into prominence only as the Church sunk 
 away from the Sabbath and purity into No- 
 Sabbathism and darkness. It shows that the 
 " Puritan Sunday *' is dying from inherent 
 weakness, as all comp± >mises must die, and is 
 leaving the American Church to sink into No- 
 Sabbathism and infidelity. Thus the two 
 prominent false theories concerning the Sab-' 
 bath have been tried and found wanting ; and 
 we stand at an hour when God is opening the 
 way for the final triumph of the truth. Good 
 men everywhere are asking for light, and the 
 means for spreading this light are rapidly in- 
 creasing. True, the " great ones " in the Church 
 are unwilling to accept the despised u Jewish 
 Sabbath" even though they cannot gainsay its 
 claims. Many of its foes are yet u pr6ud and 
 scornful," determined to hold to the Sunday 
 until God wrenches it from them, or it crum- 
 bles in their hands. But the days of their 
 scorning are numbered. Nevertheless the Sab- 
 bath must meet darkness yet, must struggle 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 261 
 
 in. Grethsemane, and may seem to die upon 
 some coming Calvary. But Grod is with His 
 Day, and its resurrection cannot be far beyond. 
 Let the friends of truth wait in patience, only 
 praying for the privilege of a place among 
 those who bear the burdens, and shall enjoy 
 the triumph of final victory. 
 
 :fb 
 
 There are two phases of the Sabbath ques- 
 tion as shown in the history of Sunday since the 
 Reformation, which teach an important lesson 
 bearing upon the present state of the Sabbath 
 Reform movements in America. 
 
 1. The " Continental Reformers " in Europe 
 accepted the No-Sabbath doctrines of the Pa- 
 pal Church, and retained the Sunday only as 
 a religious holiday, a sort of sanitary measure 
 necessary to the well-being of society. The 
 ripened fruit of such teachings is seen in the 
 present Sabbathless and infidelic state of the 
 European Church, especially in France and 
 Germany. That doctrine is now the leading- 
 one in America. It cannot fail to bear the 
 
M2 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 same fruit with which it has cursed Europe ; 
 the same " apples of Sodom/' 
 
 2. The English reformers were driven by the 
 power of the truth as presented by the Sev- 
 enth-day Baptists, to choose between the Sab- 
 bath and the Papistic Sunday. Strangely 
 blinded, they sought a compromise between 
 the two, which, like all compromises, was both 
 weak and wicked. Through this compromise 
 came the ''Puritan Sabbath." It has been 
 tested in America. The devotion which the 
 Puritans brought to its observance left nothing 
 wanting as far as religious support was con- 
 cerned. But it has outrun the u Theology " of 
 which it was a part in its decline, and the 
 " Puritan Sabbath " is numbered with the 
 things that were. It is now proposed by the 
 leaders of the American Church to restore it 
 and compel its observance by civil law. It is 
 therefore befitting to introduce a few facts 
 from history to show that civil law tried in 
 vain to save the Sunday even in the palmy days 
 of Puritanism. The first civil government in 
 New England was an outgrowth of the Church, 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 268 
 
 and performed the will of the Church, wil- 
 lingly and completely. Witness the following 
 facts, from the historj^ of a representative col- 
 ony. In 1650 the General Court of the Ply- 
 mouth Colony enacted as follows : 
 
 " Further be it enacted that whosoever shall profane 
 the Lord's day by doing any servile work, or any such 
 like abuse, shall forfeit for every such default, ten shil- 
 lings, or be whipped."* 
 
 In 1658 another law was enacted as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " Whereas complaint is made of great abuse in sun 
 dry places in this government of profaning the Lord's 
 day by travellers, both horse and foot, by bearing of 
 burdens, carrying of packs, &c, upon the Lord's day, to 
 the great offence of the godly well-affected amongst us. 
 It is therefore enacted by the Court, and the authority 
 thereof, that if any person or persons shall be found 
 transgressing in any of the precincts of any township 
 within this Government, he or they shall be forthwith 
 apprehended by the constable of such a town, and fined 
 twenty shillings to the Colony's use, or else set in the 
 stocks four hours, except they can give a sufficient rea- 
 son for their so doing ; and they that transgress in any 
 of the above said particulars, shall only be apprehended 
 on the Lord's day, and on the Second day following. 
 
 ^Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. XI, p. 57. 
 
2(M SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 shall either pay their fine, or sit in the stocks, as afore- 
 said."* 
 
 In 1670, the line of ten shillings, specified 
 in the law of 1650, was changed to " forty shil- 
 lings '."f After the union of Plymouth with the 
 Massachusetts Bay colony, at the second ses- 
 sion of the General Court, held at Boston in 
 the year 1658, the following action was taken 
 in view of the increasing disregard for Sun- 
 day. 
 
 " Whereas by too sad experience it is observed, the 
 sun being set, both every Saturday and on the Lord's 
 day, young" people and others take liberty to walk, and 
 sport themselves in the streets or fields in the several 
 towns in this jurisdiction, to the dishonor of God and the 
 disturbance of others in their religious exercises, and 
 too frequently repair to public houses of entertainment 
 and there sit drinking, all which tends, not only to the 
 hindering of due preparation for the Sabbath, but as 
 much as in them lies renders the ordinance of God un- 
 profitable, and threatens rooting out the power of god- 
 liness, and procuring the wrath and judgments of God 
 upon us and our posterity ; for the prevention whereof 
 it is ordered by this Court, and the authority thereof, 
 that if any person or persons henceforth, either on the 
 Saturday night or on the Lord's Day night after the sun 
 
 *Plym. Col. Records, vol. XI, p. 100. 
 f See. Records, vol. XI, p. 176. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 265 
 
 is set, shall be found sporting in the streets or fields of 
 any town in this jurisdiction, drinking or being in any 
 houses of entertainment, (unless strangers or sojourners, 
 as in their lodgings), and cannot give a satisfactory rea- 
 son to such magistrate or commissioner in the several 
 towns as shall have cognizance thereof, every such per- 
 sons found, complained of and proved transgressing, shall 
 pay five shillings for every such transgression, or suf- 
 fer corporal punishment, as authority aforesaid shall 
 determine."* 
 
 At a General Court called by order of the 
 Council on the 21st of July, 1665, and held 
 at Boston the first of August, the following 
 was enacted : 
 
 " This Court being sensible that through the wicked 
 practices of many persons who do profane God's holy 
 Sabbaths, and contemn the public worship of his house y 
 the name of God is greatly dishonored, and the profes- 
 sion of his people here greatly scandalized, as tending- 
 to all profaneness and irreligion, as also that by reason 
 of the late order of October 20th, 1063, remitting the 
 fines imposed on such to the use of the several towns, 
 the laws made for reclaiming such enormities are be- 
 come ineffectual, do therefore order and enact, that 
 henceforth all fines imposed according to law for profa- 
 nation of the Sabbath, contempt or neglect of God's 
 public worship, reproaching the laws and authority here 
 established, according to his Majestie's charter, shall be 
 
 *Mass. Colony Records, vol. 4, p. 347. 
 
%W SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 to the use of the several counties as formerly, anything 
 in the above said law to the contrary, notwithstanding ; 
 and in case any person or persons so sentenced do 
 neglect or refuse to pay such fine or mulct as shall be 
 legally imposed on them, or give security in Court, to 
 the Treasurer for payment thereof, every such person 
 or persons, so refusing or neglecting to submit to the 
 Court's sentence, shall for such his contempt be corpo- 
 rally punished according as the Court that hath cogni- 
 zance of the case shall determine, and where any are 
 corporally punished, their fines shall be remitted."* 
 
 These are specimen enactments such as were 
 common in all the New England Colonies and 
 the essence of which was embodied in the 
 statutes of the States when the colonial gov- 
 ernments passed away. These laws were not 
 ■" dead letters," but were rigidly enforced, the 
 offender paying the penalty of disobedience 
 at the office of the collector of fines, at the 
 stocks and the whipping post. But no 
 amount of civil legislation could save the u Pu- 
 ritan Sabbath " from the inwrought weakness 
 of a false theory, which sought to compromise 
 truth with error, and, despite the logic of New 
 England theology, the devotion of New Eng- 
 
 *Mass. Col. Records, vol. 4, Part 2, p. 276. 
 
SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 907 
 
 land religionists, and the strictness of civil law, 
 the Puritan Sunday is dead. The wonder is that 
 men can hope for any future reform through 
 means which have so often and so signally 
 failed. The whole question is above and be- 
 yond the realm of civil law. Sabbath-keep- 
 ing is a religious duty, and no man can truly 
 perform it who acts from any other motive than 
 love to God. By their present position the 
 "" Orthodox v religious leaders are the enemies 
 of true Sabbath Reform. Thev are constantly 
 deceiving the people by false theories con- 
 cerning the Sunday. If the people discover 
 the truth, as many do, these leaders seek to 
 quiet them by stigmatizing the k * Jewish Satur- 
 day," and sanctimoniously appealing to them 
 to support the " Anglo-American Sabbath, our 
 fathers gift, and the palladium of our prosper- 
 ity/ 'Thus the blind lead the blind, rushing 
 on in the way of error. In the name of the 
 Lord of the Sabbath we arraign these men and 
 charge them with great ignorance or great dis- 
 honesty. If ignorant they need only to open 
 their eves to see the light If they see the 
 
268 SABBATH AND SUNDAY. 
 
 truth and turn from it they are sinners, seek- 
 ing their own ends in the name of religion. 
 Brethren, why tight thus against God ? Num- 
 bers, wealth, and high position will not avail 
 you. Justice will not withold her sword, 
 though you may do much good, while you 
 pervert the truth and uphold error. Either ac- 
 cept the Sunday in its true character, as a semi- 
 pagan festival, or else accept (rod's Sabbath, 
 even though men deride. Victory belongeth 
 to God, and hence the truth can afford to 
 wait. But when bleeding Truth lifts her 
 prayer to the Father for deliverance, woe to 
 those who frame iniquity by law, " and teach 
 for doctrines of Grod the commandments of 
 men." The cause of Sabbath Reform is fast 
 ripening, and God will find means to reap the 
 harvest even though he sweep the Church 
 with fierce whirlwinds to purge away its cher- 
 ished errors. May the Lord of the Sabbath 
 lead us all in the way- of truth. — Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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