Will Protestants Indorse It?
By L. A. S.
THE Northwestern Christian Advocate (Methodist) quotes with approval these words from Bishop Ludden (Catholic), of Syracuse, N. Y., on the subject of Sunday observance:— Many who call themselves Christians, and some who call themselves Catholics, start out on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings to spend the Sunday at some pleasure resort, places of very questionable amusement, such as dancing, midway[s], and drinking places. All these forget the observance of the third commandment, “Keep holy the Sabbath day.” While the Sabbath is made for man, man is made for God. Hence the first duty on the Sabbath is to give glory to God according to prescribed forms of divine service, then sanctified rest and innocent recreation. “To the sentiments of Bishop Ludden,” adds the Advocate, “every Protestant Christian should respond ‘Amen.’” Should they? Are American Protestants ready to indorse this position? “The observance of the third commandment, ‘Keep holy the Sabbath day,’”—are Protestants ready to indorse this statement? Are Protestants ready to indorse Rome’s remodeling of the decalogue, which leaves out the second commandment (and divides the tenth), so that the fourth commandment becomes the third in number? Rome claims that she has the right to make this change in the decalogue. Are Protestants ready to indorse this claim? Are Protestants ready to indorse Rome’s wording of the Sabbath commandment,—“Keep holy the Sabbath day”? The Sabbath commandment as given from Sinai tells which day is the Sabbath, and why the Sabbath was instituted. Rome’s sabbath commandment omits this, because Rome specifies a different day to be observed than the one enjoined at Sinai, and puts forward her own authority as the basis of the sabbath institution, in the place of the reason assigned for the sanctification of the seventh day. Are Protestants ready to indorse this position of Rome? There is no reason why, if Protestants are ready to indorse Rome’s position in the matter of Sabbath observance, they should not also indorse it in every other matter, and become identified with Rome5altogether. If Rome’s authority is a good foundation for one part of a system of belief and practise, it is good for all parts. The more Protestants cling to Sunday in the face of the light that is now shining from the Scriptures regarding true Sabbath observance, and the more they turn to the state to supply the power and authority lacking in the Scriptures for the support of Sunday observance, the more will they be led to indorse the sentiments of Rome, and be drawn, in spite of themselves, onto papal ground.