p. 2 | REMEMBER THE SABBATH by George A. Snyder

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Nov 14, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 46.

"REMEMBER THE SABBATH."

By George A. Snyder

IT is worthy of note that the Sabbath commandment is the only one beginning with the word "remember;" that it is most explicit in giving the manner of and reason for its observance; and that it is located in the heart of the Decalogue. Knowing man's proneness to forget and trample upon the Sabbath, the Lord used such emphatic language as would tend to impress us with the importance of the commandment, and He placed it where man must walk over three moral precepts on one side, and six on the other, before he can trample on the Sabbath.

If men had always remembered the Sabbath to keep it holy, they would have had a continual reminder of God's creative power, which would have been a safeguard against drifting into idolatry. But, instead of remembering the Sabbath, they forgot it, and, having nothing to remind them of the Creator, soon began to worship the creature.

The great center of the intricate system of idolatry has always been the worship of the sun. This was natural, as the sun was the visible center of earthly action, and the visible source of light. It was also natural to name the first day of the week for the chief object of worship, and to make that day the chief day of idolatrous worship. So, just as the Sabbath observance is the great safeguard against idolatry, Sunday observance became the chief rite in idolatrous worship.

When and how this heathen festival superseded the Sabbath in the Christian church, is best told in the words of others. Neander, the father of church history, says:—

The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intention of the apostles, . . . and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.—Rose Ed., p. 186.

Wm. Prynne, in his "Dissertation on the Lord's Day Sabbath," pp. 33, 34, 44, 1633, says:—

It is certain that Christ Himself, His apostles, and the primitive Christians, for some good space of time did constantly observe the seventh-day Sabbath, . . . till the Laodicean council did in a manner quite abolish the observance of it.

Sir Wm. Domville traces this testimony in his "Examination of the Six Texts," p. 291:—

Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed by the Christian church as a sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in A.D. 321.

This first Sunday edict speaks of the day as "the venerable day of the sun," showing that Constantine recognized it as a heathen festival. This law seems to have been a mild compromise with the heathen element which was fast flowing into the church. It was not until A.D. 364, at the council of Laodicea, that the observance of the Sabbath was prohibited under an anathema.

In speaking of this first Sunday law, Neander says, "In this way the church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends." The church was willing to adopt the heathen festival for the sake of being herself adopted by the heathen State. After the State had established a precedent by legalizing Sunday at the request of the church, it was a comparatively easy matter for her to secure other favors, even to the extent of State aid in the apprehension and punishment of those whom she denounced as heretics. Thus we see that in those apparently mild measures for the observance of Sunday lurked the deadly bacilli that soon broke out in the open sore of the Inquisition, which has so long spread its evil contagion among the nations of earth.

The Church of Rome rightly claims the honor (?) of having substituted the observance of Sunday for that of the Sabbath. She also uses this substitution as the proof of her power to change the precepts of Jehovah. The "Doctrinal Catechism" says:—

Had she not such power, . . . she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.

The "Abridgment of Christian Doctrine," another Catholic work, asserts that the power of the church is proved "by the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday," and declares that Protestants are inconsistent, "because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power," and by ignoring other commands of the same church they deny the same power.

One of the titles conferred upon the popes by the Church of Rome is "VICARIUS FILII DEI," vicegerent of the Son of God,—virtually God on earth. And the right to use this august title is upheld "by the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday." The Catholic Church virtually says that Sunday observance is the sign by which we acknowledge the pope as God on earth. Jehovah says, "Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. 20:20.

In view of the above facts, which reveal the almost universal tendency to forget the Sabbath, and to trample upon it, is it any wonder that the Lord prefaced the Sabbath commandment with the word "remember"? Tho to remember the Sabbath may be a cause for scorn and ridicule among those who seek to overwhelm it by the tidal wave of papal error, let us still "remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy;" for it will outride the angry dash of the warring elements.

"It will weather the blast, and land at last Safe on the evergreen shore." GEO. A. SNYDER.