THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY by Geo. E. Price

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1896

THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY.

By Geo. E. Price

BY GEO. E. PRICE.

We wonder at the Israelites of old, That they so oft should disobey their God, Who wrought such wonderful deeds to prove his love; But, O, how soon, when Christ our Lord was gone, His children wandered from their early love! How soon were they with all the heathen mixed, From whom to separate them he had died! The pagan superstitions thick and fast Came crowding in where God was wont to dwell. The holidays that pagans had observed Were sacred made by change of name, or by Ascribing to that day some great event In man's redemption, which to celebrate Was then observed as an high festival, Little distinctive from the heathen mode; Thus came the Christmas and the Easter-tide, And thus too came the Sunday, wearing still Its character and name, as when the priests Of Baal shouted in their sacred groves: Only they said it was to celebrate Our Saviour's resurrection from the dead— That Son of Righteousness, which then arose, And shed o'er all the world his glorious light. And this “wild solar holiday” retained The same pretensions that it had at first, Till, waking from her long night of debauch, Still drunken with the wine her mother made, The church endeavored to maintain the claims Of all the bastard children that she held And wished to father off upon her God. 'Tis true the claims of some were so absurd That forthwith they were cast aside as false, But some, more dearly clasped, she still retained Because of memories clustering round their birth. In spite of all her God and Saviour said, She could not disinherit this pet child, So much admired for his lovely form; And yet, while fondling with maternal care, She still expects the Bridegroom's benison.