A Surfeit | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 29.

A Surfeit.

In the “Open Letters” department of the Advance, one contributor expresses a wish that something might be said to “stop the tendency to ritualism and the observance of days.” He particularizes in the following pointed language:—

“We have had in many of our Congregational churches a surfeit of ‘Lent,’ and ‘Good Friday,’ and ‘Holy Week,’ and particularly of ‘Easter.’ This pagan word has a singular charm for many Congregational ears, as well as for those of the far-gone ritualists and others. And so we have ‘Easter hats’ and ‘Easter gloves’ and ‘Easter—grand Easter—balls!’ What is Easter made to commemorate? If anything, in our day, the resurrection of our Lord. Well, then, for the pagan word let us substitute its proper Christian name. Then we may have ‘resurrection hats’ and ‘resurrection gloves’ and ‘grand resurrection balls.’ If this result should follow, the craze of ‘Easter’ would die out, and we should be satisfied with the observance of the weekly good old Lord’s day.”

The writer of the foregoing very pertinent sentiment does not go to the root of the matter. If by the expression “the good old Lord’s day,” he meant the day which the Lord calls his day (Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13), the criticism would have some force. But, as he evidently means the Sunday institution, his position is decidedly inconsistent. Sunday, as a nominal Christian institution, stands upon the same foundation as do Lent, Good Friday, Holy Week, and Easter. They are all founded upon tradition, and bolstered up by the decrees of Rome. They all spring from the same root of apostasy, namely, the assumed authority of the church to establish traditionary festivals and doctrines not sanctioned by the word of God. To attempt to lop off the minor branches of this apostate tree, while fostering and forcing the growth of that which has already extended beyond all others, is the height of inconsistency.