Among the alarming signs of our time there is one which, above all, seems to give concern to friends of public morality and Christianity. It is the growing neglect and desecration of the Sabbath. This indeed is a significant omen, for there is perhaps no religious institution more important, more ancient, and which has left deeper traces upon society.
At the dawn of history, in the very beginning of the world, we see this remarkable institution coming into existence. The Almighty Himself rested upon the seventh day of the first week of time. From henceforth this day became a monument, a memorial of the miraculous origin of man, the guardian of true worship, and the best bulwark against idolatry and atheism.
Alas! man forgot his Creator by forgetting His day of rest. But he could destroy the vestiges of neither. The weekly cycle remained, and the very name of the rest day was preserved in many oriental languages spoken since the days of Abraham and Noah, more than four thousand years ago,—a solemn tho unspoken protest against the neglect of the Creator's rest-day, and a testimony in favor of true worship among the nations of the ancient world.
At the foot of Sinai the people of God received from Jehovah the Ten Commandments of the law, the fourth precept of which says: “Remember the Sabbath [rest] day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath [rest] of the Lord thy God.”
From that time on the Sabbath was nevermore to entirely disappear from the earth. Over and over again Israel defaced the monument of creation; but each time the earnest pleadings of the prophets and chastisements of God brought back its observation; indeed the cause of the Babylonian captivity was neglect of the Sabbath. Jer. 17:19–27. After the return from captivity, the people of God changed their attitude toward the Sabbath; from indifference they went over into superstition, and an elaborate code of childish traditions and observances was drawn up and enforced by the rabbis.
When Jesus came, He maintained the true significance of the Sabbath, healing the sick and otherwise doing good on that day. Condemned by the bigoted Pharisees, He asked them why they lifted their sheep from the pit on the Sabbath day if it was forbidden on that day to do good and to heal the sick.
The apostolic church faithfully observed the day of rest in the way taught by Christ. This is proved beyond any doubt by the fact that neither the Jews nor the Jewish Christians ever found any fault on this subject against the rising church, while the doing away of the ceremonial law aroused such long and heated controversies. See Acts 15; Gal. 2:4.
When we leave the Acts of the Apostles to enter upon the ground of secular history, we are brought face to face with a perplexing problem; we find the rest-day changed from the seventh to the first day of the week—from Saturday to Sunday. In the presence of the complete silence of the New Testament on this subject, theologians have divided themselves into two classes,—some claim to find in the Gospels and in the epistles traces of this transfer; others lay it at the door of the early church, and place it among human traditions.
With the fourth century we enter upon the era of the Sunday laws. The first one was that of Constantine, published A. D. 321. In this law Sunday is called the “venerable day of the sun.” This law was a compromise between the sun-worshipers on the one hand, and Christians on the other; pagans furnished the day, and Christians supplied the idea of rest.
The union of church and state once started, Sunday laws followed each other in quick succession; the middle ages and even modern times are full of them. In Spain, in France, in England, and in the United States, during colonial days, governments and clergy united in framing and enforcing innumerable regulations about Sunday. Many Sabbatarians were sacrificed, in Catholic and Protestant countries as well, for not keeping Sunday. For centuries the right of the state to enforce the religious practices of the national church, and to punish dissenters, remained without appeal.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century the scene changes; a powerful movement against union of church and state takes place. At the head of this movement were the United States. The interference of the civil power in the affairs of conscience was denounced. The union of church and state was, to a great extent, ignored; by the national government it was formally rejected. Civil penalties for Sunday-keeping became, for the most, a dead letter. This movement spread through all Europe. In its constitution of 1831, Belgium declared that the state has no right to say which is the day of rest, or in what manner it is to be observed. The French Government recalled its Sunday law of 1814. In a word the enforcement of Sunday laws came to a standstill, which condition lasted more than half a century.
But a change was soon to take place. In the presence of the great problems which are facing society at the present time, especially the increase of practical infidelity, the ideas of democracy have seemed to lose their hold on many minds. The old theocratic system has regained much of its lost favor, and now leading men are considering the Sunday law as the panacea which alone can bring about the revival of the Christian faith and the salvation of society. Hence the organization in the United States, and in almost all the countries of Europe, of the Sunday crusade, which is, perhaps, the most important of all the great so-called philanthropic movements of the present time. This movement has succeeded in securing new Sunday laws, not only in several states of the Union, but in Switzerland and in Germany. Sunday bills are pending in the Parliaments of France, Belgium, Holland, and the Australian colonies. The movement is also at work in England, Denmark, Norway, Wales, Austria, Bulgaria, Rumania, and even in Japan.