Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 74

"We are unalterably opposed to any relaxation of the Sunday laws.

Sunday is a day of rest to be devoted to the praise and service of G.o.d. We hold the safest public policy at present is to adhere to the rigid observance of the laws now safeguarding the sanct.i.ty of the Lord's day."-_Boston Pilot, official organ of Cardinal O'Connell, March 16, 1912._

17. What complaint is made against Sunday trains and Sunday newspapers?

"They get a great many pa.s.sengers, and so break up a great many congregations." "The laboring cla.s.ses are apt to rise late on Sunday morning, read the Sunday papers, and _allow the hour of wors.h.i.+p to go by unheeded_."-_Elgin_ (_Ill._) _Sunday-law Convention, November, 1887_.

NOTES.-In the fourth century, Sunday games and Sunday theaters, it was complained, "hindered" the "devotion" of the "faithful,"

because many of the members attended them in preference to the church services. The church, therefore, demanded that the state should interfere, and enforce Sunday observance by law. "In this way," says Neander, "the church received help from the state for the furtherance of her ends." In this way church and state were united, and the Papacy was placed in power. The same course pursued now will produce the same results.

It is proper and right for the church to teach Sabbath observance, and to decry Sabbath desecration; but it should not attempt to secure Sabbath observance through compulsory legislation; nor should it seek to fasten upon the people by any means the observance of a day which G.o.d has never enjoined, and for which, as is admitted on all hands, there is no Scriptural command. See admissions on pages 441, 442, 455, 456, 560.

18. What does the prophet say the two-horned-beast power will attempt to enforce upon all the people?

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive _a mark_ in their right hand, or in their foreheads." Rev.

13:16.

NOTES.-This mark is the mark of the beast, or the false sabbath.

See Rev. 14:9, 10, and reading on page 446. G.o.d's seal, or mark, is set in the forehead (Rev. 7:3; 14:1), the seat of the mind, the Lord accepting only the wors.h.i.+p of conviction and conscience. The mark of the beast, however, is said to be received in the hand or forehead. Some are deceived and give a.s.sent to the false teaching with their minds, receiving the mark in the forehead; others, coerced or indifferent, give formal, outward consent, and so receive the mark in the hand.

Let the reader note this twofold aspect of the Sunday sabbath, as expressed by one of the most ardent and active Sunday-law advocates in the United States: "We, the Sabbath Union, W. C. T.

U., all the churches, and the Y. M. C. A., are laboring with all our might to carry the _religious_ sabbath with our right arm, and the _civil_ sabbath with our left. Hundreds of thousands will receive it as a religious inst.i.tution, and all the rest will receive it as a civil inst.i.tution, and thus we will sweep in the whole nation."-_Rev. W. F. Crafts, in Sunday Union Convention, Wichita, Kans., Sept. 20, 1889._

19. What means will be employed to compel all to receive this mark?

"And _that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark_, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Verse 17.

NOTE.-That is, all who refuse to receive this mark will be boycotted, or denied the rights and privileges of business and trade, or the ordinary means of gaining a livelihood. Already this spirit has begun to manifest itself in the movement to enforce Sunday observance. In a sermon preached in Burlington, Kans., Sunday, Jan. 31, 1904, Rev. Bascom Robins said:-

"In the Christian decalogue the first day was made the Sabbath by divine appointment. But there is a cla.s.s of people who will not keep the Christian sabbath unless they are forced to do so. But that can be easily done. We have twenty million of men, besides women and children, in this country, who want this country to keep the Christian sabbath. If we would say we will not sell anything to them, we will not buy anything from them, we will not work for them, or hire them to work for us, the thing could be wiped out, and all the world would keep the Christian sabbath."

20. By what authority was Sunday sabbath-keeping inst.i.tuted?

By the authority of the Catholic Church. See page 439.

21. Why were the ancient Sunday laws demanded?

"That the day might be devoted with less interruption to the purposes of devotion." "That the devotion of the faithful might be free from all disturbance."-_Neander's __"__Church History,__"__ Vol. II, pages 297, 301._

NOTE.-In short, it was to secure the enforced observance of the day, and through this means church attendance, and control over the people in religious things.

22. Why are they demanded now?

"Give us good Sunday laws, well enforced by men in local authority, and our churches will be full of wors.h.i.+pers, and our young men and women will be attracted to the divine service. A mighty combination of the churches of the United States could win from Congress, the State legislatures, and munic.i.p.al councils, all legislation essential to this splendid consummation."-_Rev. S. V. Leech, D. D., in Homiletic Review, November, 1892._

23. Who is responsible for the present State Sunday laws of the United States?

"During nearly all our American history _the churches_ have influenced the States to make and improve Sabbath laws."-_Rev. W. F. Crafts, in Christian Statesman, July 3, 1890._

NOTES.-"These Sunday laws are a survival of the complete union of church and state which existed at the founding of the colony."-_Boston Post, April 14, 1907._

"Such laws [as the Maryland Sunday law of 1723] were the outgrowth of the system of religious intolerance that prevailed in many of the colonies."-_Decision of Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, Jan. 21, 1908._

The first Sunday law in America, that of Virginia, in 1610, required church attendance, and prescribed the death penalty for the third offense. See "American State Papers," edition 1911, page 33.

24. Why is a national Sunday law demanded?

"The national law is needed to make the State laws complete and effective."-_Christian Statesman, April 11, 1889._

25. Since the Sunday sabbath originated with the Roman power (the beast), to whom will men yield homage when, knowing the facts, they choose to observe Sunday, instead of the Bible Sabbath, in deference to compulsory Sunday laws?

"Know ye not, that _to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey_?" Rom. 6:16.

NOTES.-"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church."-"_Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today_," page 213.

The conscientious observance of Sunday as the Sabbath on the part of those who hitherto have supposed it to be the Sabbath, has, without doubt, been accepted of G.o.d as Sabbath-keeping. It is only when light comes that sin is imputed. John 9:41; 15:22; Acts 17:30. See page 700.

26. What does Christ say about our duty to the state?

"Render therefore unto _Caesar_ the things which are _Caesar's_; and unto _G.o.d_ the things that are _G.o.d's_." Matt. 22:21.

NOTE.-The Sabbath belongs to G.o.d. Its observance, therefore, should be rendered only to Him.

27. What special miracle is finally to be performed to deceive men, and fasten them in deception?

"And he doeth great wonders, so that _he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men_." Rev. 13:13.

NOTE.-In the time of Elijah, in the controversy over Baal-wors.h.i.+p, this was the test as to who was the true G.o.d,-the G.o.d that answered by fire. 1 Kings 18:24. Now, as a counterfeit test, fire will be made to come down from heaven to confirm men in an idolatrous and false wors.h.i.+p.

28. To what length will this effort to enforce the wors.h.i.+p of the image of the beast be carried?

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause [decree] that as many as would not wors.h.i.+p the image of the beast _should be killed_." Verse 15.