FORGERY by A. W. Sanborn

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

FORGERY.

By A. W. Sanborn

WEBSTER says forgery is the act of falsifying; the crime of counterfeiting; as, the forging of coin, or of bank-notes, or of a bond. Forgery may consist in counterfeiting a writing or in setting a false name to it, to the prejudice of another person. It has always been the desire of Satan to produce a counterfeit of the work of God. He has succeeded in influencing some of the human family to worship idols, to call them gods, and to look upon them with the profoundest reverence. And in so doing they have forged the title that alone belongs to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

And this is not all. God gave to man his law of ten commandments. In the first four he tells plainly the duty of all to himself, and in the last six he tells the duty of man to man. In the fourth commandment is enjoined upon all mankind the duty of keeping holy the Sabbath, and it is plainly stated that the seventh day is the Sabbath; and further, that it is "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And the reason given for keeping it is that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh. But man has set up a rival day (Sunday), and has forged for it the title of Sabbath-day, Sabbath of the Lord, Lord's day, and various other distinctions which alone belong to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

Is not this a bold forgery? Has God anywhere said that Sunday is, or ever should be, called the Sabbath? Has he ever called it the Lord's day?—No. Then why give to the first of the six working-days of the week those titles which alone belong to the seventh day, which the Bible so many times says is the Sabbath. The nations of the earth have laws which very jealously protect the rights of all their subjects against forgeries that may be committed to their detriment, and every violation is punishable according to the extent of the offense. Can anyone think for a moment that the great God will pass over the act of setting up Sunday and calling it the Sabbath, and forging the name of God to it for authority? Was there ever a bolder act of forgery committed? Was there ever one so universally perpetrated? Is it a light thing for a nation to compel its subjects to accept and keep a day as the Sabbath that is a forgery?

A. W. SANBORN.

Douglas, Mich.