Some Historical Facts Worth Remembering
THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY. NO. 4.
Some Historical Facts Worth Remembering.
IN previous articles we have, by the statements of reliable historians, or references thereto, brought the Sabbath question down to A.D. 364, where resting upon that day was prohibited by anathema by the Council of Laodicea. Previous to this time, and even later, it was generally observed by the Christians of the Eastern churches. The apostasy crept in from the west. We traced Sunday down to A.D. 325, when it was officially given the title of "Lord's day" by Sylvester, bishop of Rome. Just previous to this the first Sunday law on record was promulgated, a heathen law by the heathen emperor Constantine, for a partial and urban observance of the day. In 323 Constantine professed conversion, was hailed as Christian emperor, and his heathen law in behalf of "the venerable day of the sun," which remained unrepealed, was used by the corrupt church to further the claims of Sunday as a Christian institution. During this period both days were observed. The church rules for the Sabbath—making it a fast day—were such as to make the day odious to a backslidden church. The rules for Sunday, which was made a feast day, to a backslidden or half-converted church, made that day popular, and assisted in setting aside the truth for the error of tradition. Following are testimonies concerning the observance of both days in those evil times on which the church had fallen:— 47. Of Constantine's relation to Sunday Dr. Peter Heylyn (Hist. of the Sabbath, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 1) says: "So natural a power was it in a Christian prince to order things about religion, that he not only took upon him to command the day, but also to prescribe the service." This was about A.D. 325 48. Says Eusebius, the friend and flatterer of Constantine (Life of Constantine, 3, 33, quoted in Elliott's Horæ Apocalypticæ, vol. 1, p. 256): "And all things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we [Constantine, Eusebius, and other bishops] have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it." This is a fair example of apostasy's assuming authority to alter what Christ or his apostles did not even presume to change in any way. Eusebius wrote in A.D. 338 49. It was considered by many devoted men who observed the Sunday festival that the Sabbath was still obligatory. Thus says Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, to the Christians of his day: "With what eyes can you behold the Lord's day, when you despise the Sabbath? Do you not perceive that they are sisters, and that in slighting the one you affront the other." (See Hessey's Bampton Lectures, pp. 72, 304, 305.) Gregory flourished about A.D. 372 The above testimony shows the progress of apostasy in the Christian church. That day which had no divine authority, a heathen festival in fact, was now considered a sister to the Sabbath of the Lord. Heylyn quotes Tertullian (A.D. 200), Origen (A.D. 250), Socrates (A.D. 400), as saying that Wednesday and Friday were both observed in about the same way that Sunday was. (See Hist. of the Sabbath, chap. 2, part 2, secs. 8, 9, 10. See also chap. 3, secs. 4, 5.) 50. Says St. Jerome (see Dialogues on the Lord's day, by Morer, p. 234): "Paula, with the women, as soon as they returned home on the Lord's day [Sunday], they sat down severally to their work, and made clothes for themselves and others." This was about A.D. 400 51. Labor, courts, theaters, and games and sports of various kinds were common on Sunday after service down to the fifth century. According to Justin Edward (Sabbath Manual, p. 123), Pope Leo the Great decreed "that on the sacred day wherein our own integrity was restored, all do rest and cease from labor." A.D. 440-461 52. According to Morer (Dialogues on the Lord's day, p. 259, 260), the emperor Leo decreed that "the holy days," "especially the Lord's day, which we decree to be a venerable day, should not be spent in sensual recreations, or otherwise profaned by suits of law." "Let not the circus or theater be opened." "We command all, therefore, as well husbandman as others, to forbear work on this day." A.D. 469 53. A Greek, or Eastern, church historian thus writes: "For altho almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [the Lord's supper, etc.] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition [two centuries before Roman apostasy had made the Sabbath a fast day], refuse to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious meetings on the Sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general; for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening, making also their oblations, they partake of the mysteries."—Socrates, book 5, chap. 22. About A.D. 450 Sozomen, a contemporary of Socrates, speaks to the same effect. Rome and Alexandria were the two chief seats of apostasy. These historians conclusively show that by the greater part of the Christian world the Sabbath was still observed. 54. During these first four centuries existed another people, probably from the time of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), whose religious life was molded by the apostasy which affected the whole church. Sunday eventually crept in as a festival day, a sister day to the Sabbath, but the observance of the Sabbath continued. About the time that the Roman bishop gained the supremacy in the church Abyssinia became lost to the nations of Europe. Says Gibbon: "Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten." During this time they imbibed error and darkness, but not the gross errors of the great apostasy. They observe the Sabbath still, a living testimony of a whole people of the perpetuity of the Sabbath in the Christian church for eighteen centuries. It is said of them: "Transubstantiation, and the adoration of the consecrated bread in the sacrament, were what the Abyssinians abhorred. . . . They deny purgatory, and know nothing of extreme unction; they condemn graven images; they keep both Saturday and Sunday."—Geddes' Church Hist. of Ethiopia, pp. 34, 35; Purchas' Pilgrimage, book 2, chap. 5.