A Question of Loyalty by Grant Priddy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

A Question of Loyalty

By Grant Priddy

WHEN considering in special committee the Canadian Lord's Day bill which has recently gone into effect, Mr. Macdonald, speaking to the seventh-day people, said: “It would not hurt you to keep two Sabbaths if you were deeply religious.”

Let us briefly point out the real reason why we can not in conscience observe this first-day sabbath. This question is not one of mere days as such, neither should it be considered altogether from the view-point of materialism. It is a question of loyalty to God or of submission to a power that has thought to exalt itself “above all that is called God, or that is worshiped.”

That Being who brought into existence this world has a law by which to govern his creatures, and by which they will be judged at the last day. In the very bosom of this law is the precept which requires the observance of the seventh day. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” By obedience to this law the intelligent Sabbath-keeper shows his loyalty to its Author; he indicates his allegiance to the government of heaven. There has been an attempt to change this law of the Supreme Ruler, which is as sacred as his own throne. That power which styles itself infallible, and which has arrogated the very titles of the Deity, has with impious hand thought to tear from its place in the decalogue God's holy Sabbath, and in its stead exalt another day—a rival sabbath—the day called by Constantine “the venerable day of the sun.” The observance of the first day of the week as a so-called Christian institution had its origin in that apostasy which formed the papal church; and no sooner had that church received sufficient aid from civil rulers, than decree followed decree, either prohibiting the observance of the Sabbath of God's law or commanding the sanctification of the Sunday festival. See the twenty-nine canons of the Council of Laodicea.

It is true and can not be successfully denied that the institution of the Sunday-sabbath is wholly a creation of the papal church. It is a part of the law as set forth by that power, and to which it especially appeals as a mark, or sign, of its authority. So to-day we have two sabbath laws demanding obedience—the law as spoken by the God of heaven, and written with his own finger on tables of stone, requiring the observance of the original Sabbath sanctified at creation; and the law of the Roman Church, commanding us to rest upon the day anciently dedicated to the worship of the sun.

Obedience is the highest form of worship. To obey any law is to recognize the authority of the power that enacts the law. This being true, it must be evident to every one that if we obeyed a law of no higher authority than that of Rome, a law which runs counter to the law of God, we would be acknowledging the supremacy of that church, and be submitting to her authority.

So if we were asked why we can not observe two days, our reply is, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” “No man can serve two masters.”

We believe in civil government, and cheerfully submit to all laws regulating our duty to our fellow men; but when our lawmakers, listening to the voice of ecclesiasticism, enter the domain of theology, and enact laws enforcing a dogma of a church, we are under the necessity of saying, with the prophets and apostles, martyrs and reformers, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” A Christian can not fashion his religion to make it conform to changeable human law. His relation to God is above all human legislation.

GRANT PRIDDY.

Markham, Ontario.