Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 129

NOTE.-Let it be noted that this text does not say that G.o.d _made_ the Sabbath then, but simply that He made it _known_ to Israel then. They had largely forgotten it while in Egypt. See pages 419, 423.

11. How did Christ, while on earth, regard the Sabbath?

"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.

12. By what did Christ recognize the Sabbath law?

"And He said unto them, ... It is _lawful_ to do well on the Sabbath days." Matt. 12:11, 12.

NOTES.-William Prynne says: "It is certain that Christ Himself, His apostles, and the primitive Christians for some good s.p.a.ce of time, did constantly observe the seventh-day Sabbath."-_"__Dissertation on the Lord's Day Sabbath,__"__ page 33._

Morer, a learned clergyman of the Church of England, says: "The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted that they derived this practise from the apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to that purpose."-_Morer's __"__Dialogues on the Lord's Day,__"__ page 189._

The historian Neander says: "Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath.... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect,-far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin."-_Neander's __"__Church History,__"__ Rose's translation, page 186._

Dr. Lyman Abbott says: "The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively subst.i.tuted the first day of the week for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament."-_Christian Union, June 26, 1890._

Archdeacon Farrar says: "The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious transference of the one day to the other."-_"__The Voice From Sinai,__"__ page 167._

13. What was the first effort of the Roman Church in behalf of the recognition of Sunday?

In 196 A.D., Victor, bishop of Rome, attempted to impose on all the churches the Roman custom of having the Pa.s.sover, or Easter, as it is commonly called, celebrated every year on Sunday. See Bower's "History of the Popes," Vol. I, pages 18, 19.

NOTE.-This, Dr. Bower, in his "History of the Popes," Vol. I, page 18, styles "the first essay of papal usurpation."

14. What was one of the princ.i.p.al reasons for convoking the Council of Nice?

"_The question relating to the observance of Easter_, which was agitated in the time of Anicetus and Polycarp, and afterward in that of Victor, was still undecided. It was one of the princ.i.p.al reasons for convoking the Council of Nice, being the most important subject to be considered after the Arian controversy."-_Boyle's __"__Historical View of the Council of Nice,__"__ page 23, edition 1836._

15. How was the matter finally decided?

"Easter day was fixed on the Sunday immediately following the full moon which was nearest after the vernal equinox."-_Id., page 24._

16. In urging the observance of this decree on the churches, what reason did Constantine a.s.sign for it?

"Let us have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews."-_Id., page 52._

17. What had Constantine already done, in 321 A.D., to help forward Sunday to a place of prominence?

He issued an edict requiring "the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades" to rest on "the venerable day of the sun." See Encyclopedia Britannica, article "Sunday;" and this work, page 443.

18. Who did Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and one of Constantine's most ardent supporters, say had transferred the obligations of the Sabbath to Sunday?

"All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, _these __WE__ have transferred to the Lord's day_."-_Eusebius's __"__Commentary on the Psalms,__"__ quoted in c.o.x's __"__Sabbath Literature,__"__ Vol. I, page 361._

19. What did Sylvester, bishop of Rome, 314 A.D. to 337 A.D., do for the Sunday inst.i.tution by his "apostolic authority"?

He officially changed the t.i.tle of the first day, calling it the LORD'S DAY. See "Historia Ecclesiastica," by M. Ludovic.u.m Lucium, cent. 4, cap.

10, pages 739, 740, edition Basilea, 1624.

20. What did the Council of Laodicea decree in 364 A.D.?

Canon 29. "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Sat.u.r.day [Sabbath], but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honor."-_"__A History of the Councils of the Church,__"__ Charles Joseph Hefele, Vol. II, page 316._

21. How late did Christians keep the Sabbath?

"Down even to the fifth century, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church."-_Lyman Coleman's __"__Ancient Christianity Exemplified,__"__ chap. 26, sec. 2._

22. How generally does the historian Socrates, who wrote about the middle of the fifth century, say the Sabbath was observed by the Christian churches of his time?

"Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this."-_Socrates's __"__Ecclesiastical History,__"__ book 5, chap. 22._

23. What day was observed in the dark ages by some of the Waldenses?

"They kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the articles of the Christian faith and the commandments of G.o.d."-_Jones's __"__Church History,__"__ Vol. II, chap. 5, sec. 4._

24. Who among the early Reformers raised this question of Sabbath observance?

"Carlstadt held to the divine authority of the Sabbath from the Old Testament."-_"__Life of Luther,__"__ by Dr. Barnes Sears, page 402._

25. What did Luther say of Carlstadt's Sabbath views?

"Indeed, if Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath-that is to say, Sat.u.r.day-must be kept holy."-_Luther, Against the Celestial Prophets, quoted in __"__Life of Martin Luther in Pictures,__"__ page 147._

26. What claim is now made by the Roman Church concerning the change of the Sabbath to Sunday?

"_Question._-Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to inst.i.tute festivals of precept?

"_Answer._-Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,-she could not have subst.i.tuted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Sat.u.r.day, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."-_"__Doctrinal Catechism,__"__ by Rev. Stephen Keenan, page 174._

NOTE.-Through want of sufficient light and investigation, and because of the efforts of some who opposed the Sabbath during the Reformation, Sunday was brought from Catholicism into the Protestant church, and is now cherished as an inst.i.tution of the Lord. It is clear, however, that it is none of His planting, but rather the work and result of apostasy. But a message is now going forth to revive the truth on this point, and calling for a genuine reformation upon it. See pages 251-263, and next reading.

Sabbath Reform

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

The House Of Prayer. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day." Isa. 58:13.