PLEA FOR THE SABBATH by A. H. Lewis

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 20, 1869

PLEA FOR THE SABBATH.

By A. H. Lewis

According to the Toledo Blade, Bishop Clark delivered a discourse on the Sabbath, in the National Theater, Cincinnati, on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 27, by invitation of the Young Men’s Christian Association, concluding as follows:

“It is not in God’s behalf only that I plead. It is not only in behalf of the multitude of young men now coming upon the stage, and the larger multitudes that are yet to come upon it, to rise to honor or to sink to infamy, as they shall observe the Sabbath, that I plead; I speak for all generations and all ages. Abolish the Sabbath, and the light of the world goes out—the hope of humanity is perished forever. Not only does religion disappear, but truth, honor, freedom, and virtue, are perished with it. Lawlessness, and violence, and anarchy, and every evil work, will succeed. Better that a land be smitten with pestilence and dearth, till it shall become a perpetual desolation, than to have fall upon it the curses that must fall upon a nation or a people that casts away the Sabbath of the Lord.

“I plead for the Sabbath as a lover of my country, jealous of her fair fame, and anxious for her glorious future. It does not need the spirit of prophecy to foretell what shall be the fate of our land, if, as a people, the law of the Sabbath be abrogated by us. In the light of the history of other nations, and other republics, what shall we become without the Sabbath? A mighty wreck, a stranded leviathan, the magnitude of whose greatness, and the glory of whose opportunity only make the ruin more appalling, and crush still deeper into the heart and hope of humanity.

“Let us then maintain the Sabbaths of the Lord, both in their religious purity and in their civil authority. Then shall our young men rejoice in the strong shield of protection; our old men be made strong; and the church, illuminated with the presence and indwelling of God, shall move forward steadily and surely in our glorious mission, and our country be forever the home of Truth, of Liberty, and of Love.”

The above is full of truth. History, philosophy, and the word of God, combine to prove that the setting aside of the Sabbath necessitates the loss of Christian purity, social virtue, and true National life.

The church has never failed to go downward, away from holiness, into formalism, self-righteousness, and alliance with sin, under the influence of no-Sabbathism. Its first introduction began with the conception of the Papacy, and its first practical development, as incorporated into civil legislation was contemporary with the setting up of the “Man of Sin” as the head of the church. A long, long decline followed, in which this lawlessness bore its most bitter fruits. The “Reformation,” in its first stages, neither apprehended the true ideas of Sabbath Reform, nor changed the practical features of the question. The second, or Puritanic “Reformation,” came much nearer the truth, but nevertheless clung to enough of the former falsehood to prove its ruin, since, while it pretended to obey the law of the fourth commandment, it still trampled upon it by disregarding the Sabbath, and fostering the Sunday into its place, on false promises of “divine authority,” Nevertheless, the rigid observance of the Sunday as a Sabbath for a time brought better outward results than had accompanied the former lawlessness. But the error involved in this modern theory, true to its nature, has wrought a mighty ruin, in the church and out of it, and America, which had everything in its favor, is today floundering in the depths of no-Sabbathism and infidelity. This present reaction is doubly disastrous, since it is carrying the body of the professed church of Christ with it. The bulk of the orthodox teaching is now non-Sabbatic. It is true, that an effort is made to save from this result by fine rhetoric and fervid eloquence, like that quoted above. But such efforts only serve to reveal the falsity and ruin which they seek to cover. Bishop Clark, whoever he may be, pleads for what he calls the Sabbath, which is not the Sabbath, but rather the usurping child of Romish no-Sabbathism, born of heathenism and papacy. Every man who has examined the subject, knows that all pleas like the foregoing are false in essence, since they deal in misnomers, and seek to support a man-made institution by the false application of God’s law. To such a man there is no influence for good in the plea. If, on the other hand, the hearer be ignorant of the truth, the crime is doubly greater on the part of the Bishop, and those like him, who break God’s law, and teach men to do so.

It is time for the friends of God to speak in unmistakable terms on this question. If it be claimed that all who seek “Sabbath Reform” by urging a better observance of the Sunday, are honest, even then our duty to “cry aloud, and spare not,” is equally imperative. A good man cannot reach the right point by going the wrong way, and the longer good men go the wrong way in ignorance, the worse will be the result for the cause of truth. The Sunday platform has some sound planks in it; nevertheless, it has shown so much of error in its fruitage, that even those who occupy it seem to have little real hope of success. In the higher sense of the term, they are making no progress; consequently, they appeal with greater eagerness to the civil arm. They seek a union of Church and State, de facto at least—a thing which has never failed to corrupt both. In such an hour there is no place for unkindness and crimination. Neither is there any place for soft words and equivocal statements. Sin is exceeding sinful. The transgression of God’s law is sin, were it not for the blinding influences of error, one could not cease to wonder that men, good and devoted in other things, should cling with such tenacity to these false theories, even when they know that the whole church is sliding down to death, upon them. We plead with the Young Men’s Christian Association of Cincinnati, to look into God’s word, and learn his will and his law, and not to dishonor him by seeking to uphold the Sunday on the false plea that it is the Sabbath. ‘The seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ —A. H. LEWIS, in Sabbath Recorder.