THE POPE'S BELL RINGING IN BASEL.
By Pastor H. P. Holser
Pope Felix V., elected by the Council of Basel in 1440, presented the city with a large bell, which was mounted in the old cathedral where the council was held, and afterwards known as the Pope's Bell. Of late the Protestants have seized the bell rope, and are giving it a vigorous ringing, so that the sound thereof may yet be heard in all Europe. Just how they are ringing the Pope's Bell will be understood by the following facts. The Imprimerie Polyglotte, the Seventh-day Adventist publishing house for Central Europe, is located in this city. As generally known, this people observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, instead of Sunday. The Sabbath command, say they, enjoins labor on six days, as well as rest on the seventh, and, accordingly, their printing office is in operation on Sunday. This brings them in conflict with the Swiss authorities, as there are both local and federal laws requiring the observance of Sunday, and these laws have recently been put in operation. At first they were fined nominal sums for each offense, but as the violations continued, the fines were rapidly increased, the last fine being 150 francs. On refusing to pay the fines, the managing director was cited to appear before the police court, and afterwards before the civil court. He here declared that he worked in obedience to the Sabbath command, which forms a part of the unchangeable law of God, by which he will be judged for eternity. The fact that God requires obedience to this law is proof that he grants the full right to keep it. Hence, in resting on the seventh day and working on the first, he was not only keeping the command of God, but exercising a divinely ordained right. Another reason why he worked on Sunday was that by not doing so he would acknowledge a rival sabbath. God commanded all men to keep the seventh day, and has never changed this command. It is a memorial of the creation, and hence a sign of the true God. Eze. 20:20. God only can create, and he only can save, for salvation is but a new creation. To be saved, a man must be freed from sin, purified, sanctified. And as the Sabbath stands as the memorial of creation, it stands also as a sign of sanctification. "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. 20:12. Christ being the Creator, he alone is the Saviour; hence as the Sabbath stands as a sign of his creative power, it is our assurance of his saving power. But while the Bible truly says of Christ that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," the Church of Rome has arisen and claimed that through it only can men be saved. As God has a sign of his saving power in the Sabbath, so this antichristian power has a sign or mark of its alleged saving power in the Sunday. Protestants stoutly deny that Rome has a monopoly of salvation, but Rome shows their inconsistency by holding up a sign of her assumed authority which Protestants have already acknowledged. That sign is the Sunday. Roman Catholics show that there is no scriptural authority for this day, and that, on the contrary, the command plainly enjoins the observance of the seventh day, and then boldly and proudly claim that they have changed the day; and Protestants acknowledge it by keeping Rome's Sunday instead of God's Sabbath. As a standard Catholic work, "Plain Talks to Protestants," says:— The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church.
By this act Protestants overtly set Rome above God, for another power that can change law is above its maker. Hence, with the Adventists it is not a question of mere days, as many suppose, but it is a question of allegiance to God or allegiance to Rome. Again, the director of the publishing house in question claimed that God foretold this attempted change of his law (Dan. 7:25) and revealed in prophecy that there would be a great conflict over the question in the last days,—God's Sabbath restored to its proper place in the church as the sign of sanctification through the creative power of Christ, and the coming down of Satan with great power to enforce by law upon all his rival sabbath. The preaching of the everlasting gospel just before the coming of the Lord, with the warning against receiving the mark or sign of the antichristian power, develops a people whose characteristic is that they "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Read Rev. 14:6-14. When Satan knows that his time is short, he comes down with great wrath, and that wrath is manifested against those "which keep the commandments of God." Rev. 12:17. So we say that all that there is in the plan of salvation is involved in this question, and that in the final struggle between good and evil, our loyalty to God is tested by our fidelity in keeping the Sabbath and refusing to pay homage to Rome by ceasing to work on Sunday. No one tries to hinder our keeping the Sabbath, but to force us to keep Sunday; and since the only way that we can show, so far as the world is concerned, that we do not keep this day, is by working on it, the whole question resolves itself finally into that of working on Sunday as on any other day. So for the Adventists of Basel this is not an ordinary question of the rights of conscience, but an extraordinary one. If they were asked to fall down and worship a golden image, such as was set up on the plain of Dura, it would mean no more to them than it does for the authorities to ask them to keep this Sunday institution. But the explanations seemed to make little difference with the court. The fines were all confirmed. When the collector called for the fines, the director said that he could not pay them, for by so doing he would acknowledge their justice. The court then ordered that his goods be attached. This was done; and as he refused to redeem them, they were taken to the city and sold at public auction. And thus the Pope's Bell was set ringing by this city, so far famed for its piety. It is considered as the most religious city of Switzerland, but it has first of all begun persecuting its citizens for keeping the commandments of God. Is it possible that a man cannot keep the ten commandments in Switzerland? A strange question to ask of a so-called Christian nation, but the facts warrant the question.