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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, July 16, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 5

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APPEALS FOR THE SUNDAY SABBATH.

The following are specimens of the efforts that are now being made through the religious papers of the land to arouse the consciences of the people in regard to a more strict observance of the first day of the week, and to induce them to inaugurate some movement by which its desecration on the part of any may be suppressed.
The Christian Press, the organ of the “Western Tract and Book Society” advertises “an admirable tract on the observance of the Sabbath, by Dr. K. Patterson of Chicago, and says that “in these days of Sabbath desecration, it ought to be widely circulated.” The same paper has the following appeal on

“THE SABBATH QUESTION.

“The question of Sabbath observance, is now being agitated in many of our cities. It is so intimately connected with the progress of Christianity, that the Church can not afford to quietly allow this bulwark to be attacked. She well knows that if the Sabbath becomes a day for more physical enjoyment, instead of promoting national prosperity, public virtue and religion, it will become the nursery of vice and infidelity. The old Puritans in England well know this, hence their pertinacious opposition to the Book of Sports, the licensing of Morris-dances, and similar attempts to break down the sacred character of the day.
“‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ is God’s own injunction, and it must be observed if religion and public virtue are promoted. But this can not be done if the Sabbath ceases to be a day of rest from worldly avocations.
“How much recreation is proper on this day, can not be well defined in any proposition; but certainly nothing should be done that would impair the sanctity of the day, as a day of rest, or interfere with the spirituality of mind which is absolutely necessary to obeying the injunction, ‘Keep it holy.’
“We have great regard for the prophet’s teaching regarding this matter: ‘If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.’”
The Northwestern Christian Advocate of Chicago, a few months since, issued a stirring call to the observers of the first-day of the week in the State of Illinois to arouse for the conflict. These were its words:

“CHRISTIAN MEN OF ILLINOIS!”

“It is time to awake. An effort is being made to destroy the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath, to open theaters, rum-shops, beer and wine houses, public gardens, &c., on the holy day. “It is said this is done in the interest of Germans. We respectfully say it is not well that our adopted citizens should levy war upon the cherished institutions of the country. They have the broadest freedom, let them not overturn our privileges, dear as life.
“Senators and Representatives at Springfield, be advised that the granting of the petition will create an excitement of no ordinary character. If the Christian people of the State are to be driven into making this a political issue the blame will be placed where it belongs. At present, the movement only refers to Chicago, but it is meant for the State, and we call for the voices of the State.
“We say distinctly, calmly, but decidedly, the Protestant Christians of this country WILL NOT give up their Sabbath without a contest. If it must come, they will meet it, and meet it like Christian men!
“Men are busy who mean to destroy our Christianity, and begin by a crafty assault upon the Sabbath.”
To the doctrine of no-Sabbath, S. D. Adventists are more opposed than any other class of people. We cannot be justly charged in any degree with encouraging the lawlessness, intemperance, debauchery and riot that naturally follow in its wake. Let those meet the responsibility of these results, who plead for that infidel outrage upon reason and revelation. Yet it is not difficult to see how we are to be involved in this controversy, and made to feel the odium that justly attaches to a disregard of all Sabbaths.
The prominent feature thus far in the agitation, is German no-Sabbatism. The rally cry is sounded for the Christian men of the country to come up and defend the Sunday against this innovation; for this is what is meant by the terms, Sabbath, Christian Sabbath, American Sabbath, &c., as used by them. But the great element of weakness in this first-day Sabbath, is that it is utterly without foundation in the Scriptures of truth. Now, as the writer in the Advocate says, as “the Protestant Christians of this country will not give up their Sabbath without a contest,” so the Germans will not suffer it to be imposed on them, without thoroughly testing its claim to Scripture authority. But the falsity of this claim has already been fully shown by the defenders of the true Sabbath, namely, S. D. Adventists, and S. D. Baptists, whose views are destined to become more widely known, as the agitation increases. Hence those whose bigotry will not brook a question of their cherished institution on any ground, nor suffer them to see the light, however clear, will accuse us of being allies and aiders of the lawless no-Sabbath faction, and the chief objects of their wrath will be those who, by setting forth the true light, have shown the weakness of the claim for Sunday sanctification. But because we contend for the secularization of Sunday, if we may so speak, on the ground that the seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord and should be religiously observed, we are not to be classed with those who would secularize it on the ground that no day is to be devoted to religious rest and worship. This distinction will doubtless be ignored.
A responsibility rests upon us to spread abroad with more earnestness than ever, the true light on this subject. The appalling evils of no-Sabbatism are very apparent to every right-minded person. The utter untenableness of the claims of Sunday to any sanctity whatever, can be made to appear to every candid and unprejudiced mind. Let us hope that in the approaching struggle, many will see where the truth lies, embrace it and be sanctified through it.