The Preparation of the Sabbath History.
By John Nevins Andrews
It may be proper that I should make some statement respecting the second edition of the History of the Sabbath. The amount of labor expended upon this work has not been small. It was my original purpose to re-write the Biblical portion of this history. In accordance with this purpose I entered anew into the study of the Sabbath in the sacred record, and made considerable progress in a more thorough investigation of this part of its history. But before I had brought these labors to such a state of completeness as to be available for use in the present edition, I became satisfied that it was more necessary that the second division of the work, the secular part of the history, should have the benefit of all the labor and time that could be allowed me to expend upon it. I therefore laid aside my unfinished labor on the Biblical portion of my work, and with some small additions and a few verbal changes have committed part first again to the reader. I have attempted in part second to thoroughly acquaint myself with the record of the Sabbath since the time of the apostles. It has been my earnest desire, first, to learn the exact truth, and secondly, to state it with such care that the reader shall get a just idea of the facts in the case. The Biblical record of the Sabbath was written by observers of the seventh day. But the history of the Sabbath since the commencement of the great apostasy is written mainly by those strongly opposed to its observance. Even those portions of its history which were written by its friends prior to, or during, the Dark Ages, have all been exposed to the corrupting or destructive hands of Romanist enemies of the Sabbath. It was the settled policy of Rome in the Dark Ages to burn the records of the heretics, and Sabbath-keeping was a heretical observance peculiarly hateful to Rome. Another method of opposition to the truth and cause of God was to make their writings speak what their authors never intended; and still another was to fix upon them crimes which should cause them to be detested of mankind. The Bible record of the Sabbath is sufficient for the instruction of those who govern themselves by the testimony of inspiration. But men in general are so much under the influence of tradition and custom, and the example and teaching of great men, that it is not enough to show them that the seventh day is the Bible Sabbath and that no other day has any claim to that title. They are no sooner convinced out of the Scriptures respecting the Sabbath than they take refuge in the customs and traditions of the past which they have been taught came from the apostles. It is to help such persons that the records which cover the history of the great apostasy have been carefully examined, and the facts set forth in order that they may see the folly of making void the commandments of God to keep the traditions of men. Since men appeal to custom, tradition, and the fathers, to these they must go. I have therefore thought it duty to make a very thorough examination of the fathers, especially of those who lived prior to Constantine. To do this alone involved the careful searching of ten thousand pages. The result does not show a very great amount of matter, but it places the reader in possession of all the facts concerning the Sabbath and first-day in the earliest ages. I have given every expression in every one of the early fathers as to the kind of Sunday observance which then prevailed. The idea of abstinence from labor as a duty on Sunday never occurred to one of those writers, and they furnish decisive evidence that it was a day in which, according to their judgment, ordinary labor was not sinful. They also make it a church festival of the same rank with Easter and Whitsunday. I have also given in their own words every reason offered in every one of the early fathers for the respect which they showed to Sunday. Scarcely one of these is used by modern first-day writers. On the contrary, the reasons offered by the moderns for Sunday-keeping, such as the assertion that Christ changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, had never been heard of by the early fathers, for they would certainly have mentioned such a reason as much as once, had they understood it to be a fact, instead of offering things that were merely trivial in its support; and they would not in such case have placed first-day observance on a level with the festivals of the church. I have given all their reasons, and they are certainly worthy of study by those who think that Christ changed the Sabbath, and that the fathers, living as they did so much nearer apostolic times than ourselves, must have had full knowledge of that fact. I have also given every reason for rejecting the Sabbath offered by that portion of them who rejected it, and have given these reasons in their own words. Those who think the early ages must have had very clear reasons for denying the Sabbath will do well to see what these reasons actually were. I have also given the testimony of such as teach the perpetuity of the decalogue, and of such as place the origin of the Sabbath at the creation, and of those who teach the perpetuity of the Sabbath. With this also are given the several allusions in the early fathers to the observance of the Sabbath. As the fathers are the invariable resort of those who write in behalf of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, I have thought it advisable to fully investigate their teaching, and to show, from a full presentation of their doctrine in their own words, just what they actually teach. I invite the attention of all candid men to this part of the Sabbath History. It is, so far as the Sunday argument is concerned, a portion of vital importance. I have sought to ascertain the exact value of the historical argument in proof that Sunday is the Lord’s day of the Scriptures. Those who think that Sunday can be traced back to the apostles under the name of Lord’s day may see cause to change their minds on looking up the facts. The history of the Sunday festival is marked by extraordinary frauds. This, however, is not strange; for the claim of every usurper is necessarily founded in fraud. Truth will not sustain falsehood. Institutions which God never founded can only be made to appear as of divine origin by perverting the facts. Some of the very best testimonials for Sunday have been drawn from epistles falsely ascribed to early eminent ministers of Christ, or have been interpolated into their writings and palmed off as theirs. I have sought to faithfully copy all these, and at the same time have given weighty reasons for rejecting them as spurious or fraudulent. Nevertheless, these writings have a certain historical value; for the times when they were composed can be very nearly ascertained, and the degree of favor with which they were then held can be determined. We are therefore able by means of them to mark with considerable distinctness the progress of apostasy in the advancement of the Sunday festival and in the suppression of the Sabbath. The famous falsehood respecting the question, “Have you kept the Lord’s day?” which it is alleged was put to the martyrs as a test, having been revived by Gillfillan after Danville had thoroughly exposed it, has been shown up still further out of Baronius, Gillfillan’s own chosen authority, and Gillfillan himself convicted of inexcusable fraud. The history of the first five centuries is given, both out of the ancients and the moderns. From the facts presented, it can be seen that the work of suppressing the Sabbath and of elevating Sunday required ages for its accomplishment. The work of Constantine and of Sylvester is also very distinctly noted. The doctrine that Christ changed the Sabbath is shown to have been first asserted by Eusebius, and that he did this with evident intention to flatter Constantine. The numbering of the days of the week suggested by Clement of Alexandria, and seized upon by some first-day writers as a proof that Sunday is the Sabbath, or at least that it was considered such by Clement, is fully explained out of Philo, and shown to have no such bearing. The record of Sunday laws from the edicts of kings and emperors, popes and councils, during197the Dark Ages, is very worthy of attention. The Sunday arguments of the Dark Ages are carefully stated in full. The history of the roll from Heaven, and the miracles which followed, is given out of the contemporary historians, and is in the highest degree worthy of the attention of those who keep Sunday because their ancestors did the same. They may here learn some of the means by which their ancestors became established in the first-day faith and observance. The history of Sabbath-keeping can be traced with difficulty through the Dark Ages, and is found principally in the records of those called heretics by the Romanists. But it can be traced, and there is no reason to doubt that God has always had witnesses to his Sabbath even in the densest darkness of the ages of papal triumph. Some interesting facts are given respecting the Culdees of Great Britain. Columba is shown to have probably been an observer of the seventh day. Interesting statements are given from various authors respecting the Waldenses. They are shown to have been dispersed through a large portion of the Russian Empire, and it is an important fact that one hundred years before the Protestant Reformation, Sabbath-keepers were numerous in Russia. Bohemia was, also, one of the countries of Central Europe in which the Waldenses resided, and at the time of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, Sabbath-keepers were found in Bohemia. The Christians of the East Indies and of Abyssinia are worthy of consideration from their connection with the Sabbath of the Lord. Some interesting facts are given concerning them. The suppression of the Sabbath has been mainly accomplished through papal influence, and where this has been feeble, or has not existed, the Sabbath of the Lord has not been extinguished. The position of the reformers on the subject of first-day and of seventh-day observance is worthy of study. None of them held the now prevalent doctrine of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. The most of them kept Sunday as a festival, with greater or less strictness, and taught that the Sabbath was abolished. The history of Luther and Carlstadt, and of John Calvin, will be found very interesting in its bearing upon the subject of the Sabbath. There are some very important references to Sabbath-keepers in the sixteenth century. The history of English Sabbath-keepers is of very deep interest. The controversy between the Presbyterians and Episcopalians of England in the sixteenth century resulted in the establishment of the doctrine that the fourth commandment does not pertain simply to the seventh day from creation, but may equally well apply to the seventh day from the resurrection of Christ. And so, from that time forward, the fourth commandment has been used to enforce Sunday observance. The manner in which the Sabbath has been wounded in the house of its friends in England is full of solemn admonition. The planting of the Sabbath in America, and the early history of the institution in that country, is very worthy of notice. The Seventh-day Baptists have been highly honored of God as the depositaries of his law and Sabbath. The Seventh-day Adventists have arisen to proclaim the commandments and the Sabbath in connection with the doctrine of the near advent of Christ. The history of the Sabbath covers all these subjects, and it covers others not here enumerated. It has been the earnest endeavor of the writer to ascertain the truth just as it actually exists, and to state it with clearness and accuracy. He has carefully examined each of the historians quoted in this work, and has endeavored to do justice to them in the quotations made. In general, they are hostile to the seventh day as the Sabbath; but, though by no means willing witnesses, they do state the important facts relative to the Sabbath and first-day embodied in this work. I believe no man can justly accuse me of presenting these quotations in a false light. I ask the candid attention of all those who fear God. The Sabbath truth has been crushed to the earth, and trampled in the dust; but even thus it is infinitely preferable to error, even though the latter be exalted to the highest earthly dominion and glory.