supposition that they are engaged in a work which commands the approval
of Heaven, is too absurd to require further discussion. A movement
pushed forward in the face of these facts may succeed, so far as
political success and legal enactment are concerned, but when the logic
for its Scriptural character is scrutinized as closely as it will be
before it shall plant its banners upon the capitol of the nation, all
conscientious convictions in regard to its heavenly birth will give
place to an inspiration, the source of whose strength will be found in
the superiority of party drill, and the overwhelming power of mere
numbers. Who shall say that the God of Heaven has not permitted it to
come to the surface for the very purpose of calling the attention of
honest men and women, as it only could be done by the debate which will
arise in controversy, to the scantiness of that Sunday wardrobe by
which, as with it our friends attempt to clothe a favorite institution,
we are so forcibly reminded of the bed and covering spoken of by the
prophet Isaiah: The first of which was “too short to stretch one’s self
upon,” and the last, “too narrow to wrap one’s self within?” So sure as
investigation is provoked upon this subject, so certain is it that,
sooner or later, thinking men and women will discover—as we have already
done in this article—that there is indeed a crying demand for a Sabbath
reform. Not one, however, which rests merely upon the power of
Congressional enactment, and Presidential sanction, but one which shall
find its authority in the highest of all laws, and which shall have the
approval of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
ARTICLE VII.
The conflict is finally open. The spirit of inquiry has lifted itself in
the nation; and all eyes will be turned toward the Bible, as really the
only source from which can be derived authority for a Sabbath reform
which shall be worthy of the name.
Commencing with its opening pages, they will trace the Sabbatic
narrative until they have been able to verify the following summary of
history and doctrine:—
1. The Sabbath, as the last day of the week, originated in Eden, and was
given to Adam, as the federal head of the race, while he yet retained
his primal innocence. Proof: “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.” Gen. 2:2, 3.
2. That, though the history of the period, stretching from the creation
to the exodus, is extremely brief, it is manifest, even from that
period, that the good of those ages had not lost sight of it; since the
children of Israel were acquainted with its existence thirty days before
reaching Mount Sinai. “And He said unto them, This is that which the
Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord;
bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and
that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.”
Ex. 16:23. “Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which
is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.” Ex. 16:26.
3. That God, unwilling to commit the interest of so important an
institution to the keeping of tradition, framed a command for its
perpetuity, which he spoke with his own voice and wrote with his own
finger, placing it in the bosom of the great moral law of the ten
precepts: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed
it.” Ex. 20:8-11.
That this law has been brought over into our dispensation, and every jot
and tittle of it is binding now, and will continue to be, so long as the
world stands. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
prophets; I am not come to destroy, but 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, till 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; but whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of
Heaven.”—JESUS, Matt. 5:17-19. “Do we then make void the law through
faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.”—PAUL, Romans 3:31.
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good.” Romans 7:12. “If ye fulfill the royal law according to the
scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well; but if
ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law
as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend
in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if
thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”—JAMES, Jas.
2:8-11. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is
the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take
away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth
not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.”—JOHN, 1
John 3:4-6.
5. That, agreeably to this view, Christ—of whom it is said, “Thy law is
within my heart”—was a habitual observer, during his lifetime, of the
Sabbath of the decalogue. “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 stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. “If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s
commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10.
6. That the women, whose religious conceptions had been formed under his
teachings, carefully regarded it. “And they returned, and prepared
spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day, according to the
commandment.” Luke 23:56.
7. The Lord instructed his disciples that it would exist at least forty
years after his death, since he taught them to pray continually that
their flight, at the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred A. D. 70,
might not take place on that day. “But pray ye that your flight be not
in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Matt. 24:20.
8. That the great apostle to the Gentiles was in the habit of making it
a day of public teaching. “And Paul, as his _manner was_, went in unto
them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”
Acts 27:2. “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Acts 18:4.
9. That, in the year of our Lord 95, John still recognized its
existence. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a
great voice, as of a trumpet.” Rev. 1:10.
10. That God has never removed the blessing which he placed upon it in
the beginning, or annulled the sanctification by which it was at that
time set apart to a holy use.
11. That, in perfect keeping with the above propositions, it is, equally
in the New with the Old Testament, scores of times denominated the
Sabbath; and that, while God, and Christ, and prophets, and apostles,
and inspired men, unite in applying to it this sacred title, they never,
in any single instance, allow themselves to speak of any other day in
the week in the use of this peculiar appellation.
12. That it is not only to continue during the present order of things,
but that, in the new earth, clothed in all the freshness and beauty of
its Edenic glory, creation, more than ever before, will be the subject
of devout gratitude, and weekly commemoration on the part of the
immortal and sinless beings who shall worship God therein forever. “For
as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain
before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And
it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23.
Putting all these facts together—connected, consistent, and unanswerable
as they are—men will discover that a great departure has taken place
from the original practice of the church, and against the explicit
command of God. Should they ask, as assuredly they will, when, and by
whom, it was inaugurated, it will not be a fruitless effort on their
part to obtain needed information. God has made ample provision for the
instruction of those who would do his will, and for the condemnation of
those who refuse so to do. Referring to prophecies given centuries ago,
mapping out beforehand the history of the world, they will find the
prophet Daniel—while describing the work of the “little horn,” which
arose among the ten horns of the great and terrible beast, and which
little horn nearly all Protestant commentators agree in applying to the
papal church—stating of it, by way of prediction, that it should “wear
out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws,”
and that they should “be given into his hand until a time and times and
the dividing of time.” (Dan. 7:25.) Consulting history, they will
discover that, so far as the saints are concerned, these terrible words
have been so completely fulfilled that this power has actually put to
death, in one way or other, at least fifty millions of the people of
God.
Again, perceiving, as they will readily, that the “laws,” which this
presumptuous power should blasphemously claim to be able to change, are
the laws of God, what will be their astonishment at learning, from the
representatives of this great oppressive system—which alone has extended
through a period sufficiently long to cover the “time, times and half a
time,” or the 1260 years of Daniel’s prophecy—that it actually boasts
that it has done the very work in question. Nay, more; what limit can be
put to their surprise when they find these men absolutely pointing with
exultation to the practice of the Christian world in the observance of
Sunday, as an evidence of the ability of the Roman Catholic church to
alter and amend the commands of God! That they do this, however, in the
most unequivocal terms, will be abundantly proved by the following
quotations from their own publications:—
“_Question._ Is it then Saturday we should sanctify, in order to obey
the ordinance of God? _Ans._ During the old law, Saturday was the day
sanctified; but _the church_, instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed
by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so we now
sanctify the first, not the seventh, day. Sunday means, and now is, the
day of the Lord. _Ques._ Had the church power to make such a change?
_Ans._ Certainly; since the Spirit of God is her guide, the change is
inspired by the Holy Spirit.”—_Cath. Catechism of Christian Religion._
“_Ques._ How prove you that the church has power to command feasts and
holy days? _Ans._ By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday,
which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict
themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts
commanded by the same church.
“_Ques._ How prove you that? _Ans._ Because, by keeping Sunday, they
acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them
under sin; and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again
deny, in fact, the same power.—_Abridgment of Christian Doctrine._
“It is worth its while to remember that this observance of the
Sabbath—in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists—not
only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction
with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday.
It was the _Catholic church_ which, by the authority of Jesus Christ,
has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the
resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the
Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the
authority of the church.”—_Plain Talk about Protestantism of To-day_, p.
225.
Instinctively anticipating some providential mode of escape from the
terrible consequences of that great apostasy, out of which the religious
world has for centuries been endeavoring to work its way, conscientious
men and women will catch the notes of warning which for twenty-five
years have been sounding through the land, in these words: “Here is the
patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.
Inquiring into the origin of the message which is thus being given to
the world, they will find that, for a quarter of a century, God has been
calling attention to the subject of his law and his Sabbath, and that a
denomination of earnest men and women, but little known as yet among the
learned and mighty of the land, have been devoting themselves with zeal
and a spirit of self-sacrifice to the tremendous task of restoring God’s
downtrodden Sabbath to the hearts and judgments of the people. They will
find, also, that these persons have not entered upon this labor because
they anticipated an easy and speedy victory; nor, indeed, because they
ever believed that the great mass of mankind would so far shake off the
trammels of tradition and the fear of reproach as to be able to venture
an unreserved surrender to the teachings of the Bible; but simply
because they saw in it that which was at once the path of duty, and that
of fulfilling prophecy.
Having accepted Dan. 7:25, in common with the religious world, as
applying to the papacy, and learning, as the result of investigation,
that the days of the great persecution were to reach from the decree of
Justinian (A. D. 538,) giving authority to the Bishop of Rome to become
the corrector of heretics, to A. D. 1798—when the pope was carried into
captivity, having received a wound with the sword agreeably to Rev.
13:10—these students of God’s word at once perceived that the next thing
in order would be the completion of the restitution, which had begun in
the taking away of his ability to put the saints to death, by a work
equally called for in the inspired prediction; namely, that of rescuing
from his hands the “times and laws” which he thought to change. Or, in
other words, that the effort of the pope to remove the Sabbath of the
Lord from the seventh to the first day of the week should be made to
appear in its true light; namely, as the work of a blasphemous power
which had held the world in its grasp for centuries.
But, while they were clear in those convictions which led them in 1846,
under the title of Seventh-day Adventists, to claim that they were
fulfilling the prophecy of Rev. 14:9-12, they discerned that the same
facts which brought them to this conclusion also compelled the
conviction that theirs was to be the road of persecution: hardship, and
privation. They read in Rev. 12:17, in these words, “The dragon was
wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ,” the history of the last generation of Christians; and saw that,
in God’s inscrutable providence, it was to be their fortune to be the
object of diabolic hate, because of the commandments of God and the
testimony of Jesus Christ, to which they cling with determined
perseverance.
Once more: In studying the 11th to the 18th verses inclusive of the 13th
chapter of the same book, they saw that—if their view of the work which
was assigned them was correct—that portion of the Scriptures was applied
to the United States of America, and indicated that this country was to
be the theater of a mighty contest between those who “keep the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and the government under
which they live, from which they could only be delivered by the coming
of Christ. This view they unhesitatingly proclaimed. For twenty years,
they have announced it as a part of their faith. When they first
declared it to be such, they brought upon themselves ridicule and
contempt, for, humanly speaking, every probability was against them. The
government was ostensibly republican in form, and professedly tolerant
to the very extreme, in all matters of religious opinion. The
Constitution had even provided that “Congress should make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.”
Nevertheless, so firm were they in the conviction that they had the
right application of the prophecy, that they unhesitatingly walked out
upon their faith; and for a fifth of a century they have talked it, and
published it everywhere, notwithstanding the odium it has brought upon
them. Lest we might appear to be drawing upon our own imagination in a
matter of such importance, we append the following extracts from their
works. The words in parentheses are our own, and serve to explain that
which a larger quotation from the context would make clear of itself:
“When the ‘beast’ (the papacy) had the dominion, all in authority must
be Catholics. The popular sentiment then was that none should hold
offices in the government, except they professed the Catholic faith. The
popular religion at that period was Catholicism. They legislated upon
religious subjects, and required all men to conform to the popular
institutions and dogmas of the papacy, or suffer and die. The image must
be made in the United States, where Protestantism is the prevailing
religion. Image signifies _likeness_; therefore Protestantism and
Republicanism will _unite_; or, in other words, the making of laws will
go into the hands of Protestants, when all in authority will profess the
popular sentiments of the day, and make laws binding certain religious
institutions (_i. e._, Sunday observance, &c.), upon all, without
distinction.”—_Advent Review and Sabbath Herald_, Vol. 6, No. 6, 1854.
“It seems to me, even to look at the subject in the light of reason,
that a conflict must in time come between commandment-keepers and the
United States. This, of course, will lead those who find that they
cannot sustain their Sunday institution by argument to resort to some
other means.”—_Advent Review and Herald_, Vol. 10, No. 11, 1857.
“When all concur upon this question (Sunday-keeping), except a few who
conscientiously observe the fourth commandment, how long before their
constancy would be attributed to obstinacy and bigotry? And how long
before the sentence would go forth, as it did in the days of Pliny,
‘that for this, if for nothing else, they deserved to be
punished.’”—_Review and Herald_, Vol. 19, No. 15.[1]
How changed the political sky to-day from what it was when these words
began to be spoken! Now, thoughtful men are pondering whether, after
all, these things may not be so. They see a powerful organization
looming up in the country, which appends to the call for their
conventions the names of some of the most influential men in the land.
They hear them declaring in so many words, that what they are determined
to do is to sweep away the constitutional barrier between them and a
coerced observance of Sunday, so that all may be compelled to regard it
as sacred. What we want, say they, and what we are determined to have,
is such an amendment of the Constitution, 1. That it shall recognize God
and Christ; 2. That it shall enable us to secure the reading of the
Bible in the common schools; 3. That we may be enabled to enforce the
better observance of the Christian Sabbath, _i. e._, Sunday.
These declarations, a few years since, would have appalled every lover
of constitutional liberty. Every man and woman imbued with a proper
sense of the genius of our institutions would have been struck with
horror at the very thought of pursuing the course in question. But a
change has come over the spirit of the land. Steadily, the advocates of
a day which has no authority in the word of God are drifting where all
before them have done who have sought to maintain a human institution
upon the claim of divine authority. It is idle for them to say at this
stage of the proceedings that they propose to regard the rights of those
who have conscientious scruples on this subject. God has said that the
matter will culminate in oppression; nay, even though this were not so,
reason itself would prove that this would be the case. Without
questioning the sincerity of the men who at the present make these
statements, we appeal to that very sincerity for the evidence that this
matter will end just where the Seventh-day Adventists have claimed that
it would.
They have convinced themselves that they are called of God to a mighty
work. They believe that they have a noble mission. They are men of mind
and nerve. But, when a few months shall have revealed the insufficiency
of their logic, when Seventh-day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists
shall have confronted them with a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” against
their favorite scheme, they would be more than human if—refusing to
yield to arguments which they cannot answer—they should continue to look
with complacence upon the very men who, after all, will prove to be
their most formidable antagonists in the great conflict. In fact, it
would be a denial of both nature and history to say that they would not
at last come to regard them in the light of enemies of God, really more
worthy of condemnation and coercion than those who were simply
unbelievers in any Sabbath at all, and so incapable of standing before
the systematic effort which they have set in motion.[2]
But, candid reader, the facts are before you, and between us and these
events there will be ample time for calm reflection, and deliberate
decision. Where do you choose to stand in this final conflict between
the venerable Sabbath of the Lord and its modern papistic rival? Will
you keep the commandments of God, as uttered by his voice and written by
his finger? or will you henceforth pay intelligent homage to the man of
sin, by the observance of a day which finds its authority alone in the
mutilated form of the commandments, as they come from his hand? May God
help you to make a wise choice.
Footnote 1:
For further information upon this subject, the reader is referred to
“The Three Angels’ Messages” and the “United States in Prophecy,”
published at the _Review and Herald_ Office, Battle Creek, Mich.
Footnote 2:
Persons desiring to investigate this question still further, by
addressing the author of these articles, will receive by mail, without
charge, a tract in which he has discussed at length a branch of this
subject merely alluded to in this communication.
EXPLANATORY REMARKS.
Immediately on the publication of the foregoing articles in the
_Christian Statesman_, the editor of that paper announced his purpose to
review them in the columns of that periodical. This purpose he
subsequently carried out in the publication of eleven communications, in
which various strictures were offered upon the positions taken by me in
my original contributions. I immediately requested the privilege of
replying to these criticisms in the columns of the _Statesman_, so that
those who had read my argument in the beginning, and the replies of the
editor of the _Statesman_ thereto, might have an opportunity to see the
relative strength of the positions occupied by that gentleman and myself
tested in fair and open debate. My petition, however, was denied, and I
was compelled either to remain silent or seek elsewhere for an
opportunity to make my defense. Fortunately, at this juncture, the
columns of the _Advent Review_, which is the organ of the Seventh-day
Adventists, were freely offered me for the purpose in question, and in
them the Replies of the editor of the _Statesman_, and my Rejoinders
thereto, have since been published. To these Replies and Rejoinders, as
they appeared therein, the remainder of the present volume is devoted.
To them, the reader is earnestly invited to give his most serious
attention, since they present, side by side, the lines of argument
usually employed for and against the Sabbath of the Lord.
W. H. L.
REPLIES AND REJOINDERS.
Reply of the Editor of the Christian Statesman.
ARTICLE ONE.
SEVENTH-DAY SABBATARIANS AND THE CHRISTIAN AMENDMENT.