HOW I CAME TO KEEP THE SABBATH.
By James Hardy
That the Sabbath, instituted by God at the creation of the world, has been changed in general practice from the seventh to the first day of the week, no person of sense and reading will deny. At this juncture my investigation was extended to ascertain the agent, power, or authority by which this change was made. I had ascertained that paganism had gone down, and papacy had become predominant. I discovered from prophecy that this power was to speak great blasphemous words against the Most High, wear out the saints, and think to change times and laws. This power is symbolized by the little horn, seen by Daniel in his vision, on the head of the fourth beast. Dan. 7. I think that this symbol is believed by all Protestants to apply to the pope and papacy. I will here insert some excellent language of an unknown author. He says: “So far as human laws are concerned, the papacy has been able to do more than merely think to change them. It has been able to change them at pleasure. It has annulled the decrees of kings and emperors, and absolved subjects from allegiance to their rightful sovereigns. It has thrust its long arm into the affairs of the nations, and brought rulers to its feet in the most abject humility.” Paul speaks of this power in 2 Thess. 2, and he describes it, in the person of the pope, as the man of sin, and as sitting as God, in the temple of God, and as exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped. Papacy and Catholicism are one and the same thing. The Catholics do not deny making this change. I read their catechisms by different authors, and in all of them found them very bold in the acknowledgment of their making the change; and more than that, they shame the Protestants for observing the change and denying their right to make it. And verily it brought a blush on my face when I took into consideration that nearly the whole Protestant world were overruled by antichrist. The only reason I could assign for it was that the change was established by papal power, making it a death penalty not to observe it. Then, of course, when one generation had passed away under this rule, the next would submit to it innocently, and most of them ignorantly. I judge this from my own case. The first day of the week has been kept as a Sabbath for more than 1,000 years. The observance has passed from generation to generation, until the unhallowed change is almost entirely lost sight of. I cannot blame others for a breach of God's holy Sabbath all the days of their life, when I have been during a long life in the same way with them. And I know that I was innocent, as respects this thing, both in faith and practice. And when I was first accused of keeping the wrong day, I ridiculed the idea. But, having lived long in the world (being more than threescore and ten), I had learned that people seldom live to be too old to learn; therefore I listened to the voice of reason, and began to investigate for myself. I read many volumes, and am convinced that the seventh day of the week is, really and literally, the Sabbath of God's appointment; or, otherwise he has none. And now, with my heart full of gratitude and good will to the world of mankind, I humbly desire and beg of them that they will, individually and collectively, do as I have done,—take this subject into consideration, do justice to themselves and honor God in this institution of his holy Sabbath day. And now, in view of the obligation which man is placed under to obey the commands of God rather than man, and believing that God will reward all those that keep his commandments with a blissful immortality in the world to come, and with the fear of him before my eyes, and a desire that my name may be found written in the Lamb's book of life when the trumpet of God shall summon the nations of earth to the Judgment seat, to be judged according as their works have been, I have resolved to keep God's holy Sabbath day, let others do as they may. Being satisfied, as I am, that the rest-day, instituted by God at the time he created the world, has been changed by man, I view it to be an indispensable duty of all of like faith to do all in their sphere to disseminate this light to a needy and perishing world. In A. D. 321, as already noticed, Constantine made a law in behalf of the “venerable day of the sun,” which was the first Sunday law. In A. D. 323, this law for Sunday as a heathen festival, being unrepealed, was made use of by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, to enforce Sunday observance as a Christian institution. I always supposed that the evening and the morning spoken of in Gen. 1:5-31, constituted a day, and that it commenced at sunset. This I found to be a correct conclusion, as can be proven from the following quotations: In 2 Chron. 18:34 we read, “And the battle increased that day; howbeit the king of Israel stayed himself in his chariot against the Syrians until the even; and about the time of the sun going down he died.” Again in Mark 1:32, we read, “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.” Other passages could be quoted, but these are sufficient to determine what constitutes a day, and its time of beginning and ending, according to God's constituted order. Thus I perceived that the evening and the morning constitute a day. In other words, we may say that the darkness and the light constitute a day. So we read in Gen. 1:31 that the evening and the morning were the sixth day. The next day was the seventh, or Saturday. This is the Sabbath, the day which God has instituted as a day of rest, to be observed by successive generations, until suns and moons shall wax and wane no more, and days and time shall cease to be. When the matter was first introduced to me, that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, instead of the first day of the week, was the right day to be kept as a rest-day and for religious devotion, I laughed at the idea. “Do you know,” said I, “that Christ made an end to that old, worn out Jewish law, and the apostle Paul tells us he nailed it to his cross?” “But,” says the brother, “what law did he nail to the cross? Was it the moral law, the decalogue, the ten commandments, or was it the ceremonial law, which pointed forward and foreshadowed the coming of Christ?” This opened a field for contemplation and investigation. I examined the ten commandments (Ex. 20), and read these moral precepts: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt make unto thee no graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's. Reader, which one of these moral precepts do you wish was dispensed with? Is it the first? Do you want to bow down to pagan gods, composed of sun, moon, stars, creeping things, fowls of the air, graven images, and domestic animals, etc., to the number of 4,000? Do you want profanity as a ruling principle in common conversation? Do you wish to disregard God's law by not keeping the Sabbath of his institution? Do you wish to dishonor yourself by dishonoring your father and mother? Do you want murder, adultery, stealing, and false swearing to prevail in society? No, dear reader, you do not want any such state of things; neither do I. And thanks be to the great I AM,—creator of the universe, and giver of every great, and good, and perfect thing,—all these moral precepts are retained as a governing principle up to the present time. Abolish one of them, and the moral code is incomplete. Abolish all of them (as I once supposed they were abolished), and you annihilate every principle of morality, and the Christian virtues and graces. Once more I ask the reader, and for the last time, to pause and consider what would be the awful situation of society had these precious commandments, written by the finger of God on tables of stone and carefully preserved in the ark, been abrogated at the cross. The intellect of man cannot comprehend, and language cannot express the dreadful situation the world would be in. And now, in conclusion, as I verily believe in future rewards and punishments, and that it is the keeping of the commands of the Lord which constitutes a person an heir of Heaven by inheritance and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, I submit these lines to the candid consideration of the reader, hoping he may be benefited thereby. JAMES HARDY.