p. 3 | Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 5, 1905

Editorial

By Editor

On the Wane

IN stating the reasons why “the first day of the week has passed from being a holy day, into being a holiday,” the Episcopal Recorder declares that “the average run of people have had their faith in the decalogue shaken,” and further that “faith in the divine law as given by Moses has for some time past been on the wane.” The Recorder suggests that “the rampant criticism of the Old Testament” is to some extent responsible for this attitude of the average people toward the ten commandments, but we are confident that the teaching of the religious leaders of the past generation has had much influence in breaking down the sense of obligation to obey the plain requirements of God’s law. The fourth commandment says that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and declares that it should be kept holy. When attention has been called to these facts, and a message of Sabbath reform has been preached, all kinds of theological jugglery have been indulged in for the purpose of avoiding the duty of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. It has been claimed that the law was for the Jews only, or that it has been abolished, or that it meant simply one day in seven, or that the spirit of the law could be obeyed by keeping Sunday, etc., etc. Such teaching as this could have only one result, and that result is now apparent. If the ministers can deal lightly with God’s requirements, so can the people. Thus instead of standing firmly against the destructive tendency of the “rampant criticism of the Old Testament,” those who have professed to be the defenders of the faith have really aided and abetted the attack upon the Bible. By their campaign against the Sabbath of the Lord they have destroyed the foundation upon which they had formerly based the obligation to keep the Sunday sabbath, and their old-time appeal to the law of God for divine authority for regarding the first day of the week as a holy day does not have the desired effect upon the people. The only way to restore the law of God to its place of authority is to teach it and obey it just as it reads; but this would mean to abandon all efforts to establish Sunday as a holy day, and to observe the only true Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. Such a course as this would increase the faith of many people in the decalogue, and rescue many whose faith in the divine law is now on the wane. This is the very work which we are trying to do. Will the Recorder join us in this good work?