p. 7 | MAN-MADE “HOLY” DAYS by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 8, 1902

MAN-MADE “HOLY” DAYS.

By G.

The assumption that grows out of religion based on human sentimentality is sometimes appalling. For instance we find this expression in a religious exchange: “Thanksgiving, of all holy days by man appointed, one of the most sacred.” Where did man get the authority or the power to appoint holy days? How many days has man made more or less sacred?

Protestants always have denied the power of Rome to sanctify feasts, or to impart holiness to anything. But has not the Roman Church as much power in this respect as the President of the United States, or the governor of any State? Or whence did the New England pioneers derive authority to establish a sacred custom? Moreover, where is the proof that they ever made claim that Thanksgiving was a sacred day? A striking peculiarity of the Thanksgiving festival is that its appointment is altogether optional with the President; he, no matter what his character may be, no matter what his religion, or whether he professes any religion, must each year designate this “holy” day; it is his authority alone that makes it a “sacred” day.

But the assumption by Protestants that man may appoint holy days, is a surrender of Protestant principle. If man has that power, then the church has the power; therefore Rome’s assumption of such power is correct, and Protestantism has no standing ground. The doctrine of the infallibility of the pope as head of the church in earth, logically grew out of that very assumption. The adoption of Sunday as a holy day, and the formal rejection of the Sabbath of the Lord, was the work of the Roman Church; therefore the recognition of Sunday as a holy day by Protestants is an acknowledgment of Rome’s authority in such matters. And Rome is right in charging them with inconsistency in not acknowledging her authority in other respects.

But this seed of Romanism, which Protestants have so long nurtured in their creeds, is bearing fruit in the observance of other so-called holy days, and in adherence to unscriptural dogmas. This is notable in the observance of Easter with much pomp and ceremony; also in the many absurd ideas growing out of the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead; and quite conspicuously in the demands for religious legislation—in other words, the principles of Church and State union. Leading professed Protestants are wont to boast of the growing harmony between Catholics and Protestants in methods of work, pertaining to both religious and political objects. At the same time leading Catholics are boasting that “Rome never changes.” We have plenty of evidence, aside from this boast, that Rome does not change, and prophetic assurance that she will not change; but somebody is changing, else there would not be this marked drawing together, with the trend all in the direction of Rome. G.