The Early Scottish Church and the Sabbath by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 12, 1908

The Early Scottish Church and the Sabbath

By W. A. S.

THE well-known Scottish writer, Mr. Andrew Lang, in the first volume of his “History of Scotland,” has this to say of the early Celtic church up to the time of Queen Margaret:—

They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner.—Page 96.

It was in the middle of the eleventh century that Queen Margaret, an English Catholic princess, came to the Scottish throne by her marriage with Malcolm. The Celtic church was manifestly still following the teaching of Columba and his successors in keeping the Sabbath. Columba came over from Ireland in 563, the first missionary to the pagan Picts and Scots of North Scotland. All the story of his work, as well as of the early Irish church of Patrick, has come to us distorted by Catholic tradition; but there is clear evidence that the Roman apostasy had not drawn the early teachers of Scotland away from the Sabbath of the commandment. Queen Margaret persevered until the Celtic church accepted the papal Sunday. Now, as our work spreads in Scotland, the call is sounding for the Scottish people to take their stand for the Sabbath of the Bible and of the primitive Celtic church.

W. A. S.