FALSE "REFORM" ON THE SABBATH.
By W. N. Glenn
THE Scriptures teach that just before the coming of the Lord will be a time of great deception. His coming is "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. They are to be deceived into acknowledging the "mark of the [Roman] beast," even great miracles being wrought to accomplish this purpose. See Rev. 13:13, 14. There is no means of deception more effective than the cunning imitation of something genuine, especially of something that is good and right. So when Satan would deceive "if it were possible" even "the very elect" (Matt. 24:24), he adroitly turns to counterfeiting the institutions or work of God. He instigated Cain to disobey God and dishonor the prescribed sacrifice by means of a counterfeit offering, and Cain was deceived into believing that one offering is as good as another, so long as it is offered to God. Later, men were led, in imitation of the worship and sacrifice which God had instituted, to worship false gods and make offerings to them. Even those who had not yet come to believe that a common object or creature was really the true God, were deceived into using such objects merely to represent God, deeming it necessary to have something visible before them in order to fasten the attention. Men do not jump into apostasy suddenly; estrangement from God is always the result of a gradual process. But the crowning deception of all the ages is the attempt to destroy the law of God by taking out of it the seal, the Sabbath day, and causing men to honor a rival institution dedicated to the honor of a false deity. And when God would send a last message to the church and to the world, to incite a true Sabbath reform and preparation for the judgment, there is interposed a false Sabbath reform. This false Sabbath being always a state-supported institution, both under heathen auspices and as an alleged Christian memorial, any so-called reform with reference to its observance must needs be through the medium of the state. And this is just what is being attempted all over the professed Christian world at the present time. The National Reform Association has for years been urging the recognition by the United States Constitution of all Christian laws, institutions, and usages. But in their work the enforcement of Sunday observance by law has been the first and foremost effort. At first this movement was sustained by a single denomination, but now the national conventions of the association are composed of representatives of a majority of the alleged Protestant churches, besides those of the popular reform societies. This false Sabbath reform is being tacked onto almost every reform now being agitated, religious, political, and social. Even the laudable temperance reform is made to carry it so conspicuously that temperance laws are allowed to go by default in many places unless they can be made to subserve the interest of the Sunday institution. It is put forward in all manner of seductive guises,—as a sanitary measure, as a commendable industrial measure, as a holiday recreation, as a religious measure first and foremost, when it is thought that plea will win, and as a political measure when its votaries appear sufficiently strong to influence voters and politicians. Congress after Congress is besieged to further the Sunday institution, till at last that body has recognized it as the Sabbath of the Decalogue in lieu of the day especially mentioned. This action being hailed as a great victory for Sabbath reform, national enforcement receives a new impetus. Dormant and well-nigh obsolete state Sunday laws are dragged forth from their slumbering repose and set to work at their historic duty of persecuting dissenters. Everywhere we hear the cry for "better Sabbath observance," and the people are being deceived by the assurance that it means the honor of God and respect for His law. Alliance of reform societies with the original National Reform Association has swelled its influence until to-day it maintains "Christian lobbyists" at Washington, and essays to distribute its literature in the colleges and seminaries of the land. The Sabbath Reform department of the W. C. T. U. is doing likewise, as also the Sabbath Unions, the Sabbath Leagues, and the Christian Alliances. So also the Y. P. S. C. E., and other societies and confederacies by the score, great and small, are set for the exaltation of the false Sabbath. The great "Christian citizenship" movement, having for its purpose the control of the state by the church, puts forth the recognition of Sunday by municipalities and counties as its opening wedge to further the aggression. The public is being roused in every quarter by glowing representations of the great importance of the Sunday in all matters of life. And in it all is made prominent the ostensible duty of the state to sustain this man-made Sabbath by stringent laws. The work of creating sentiment in support of this covert tyranny under the pretext of Sabbath reform is growing apace. In the very near future it will be a leading political issue. For the last decade prominent politicians of the most irreligious character have foreseen the expediency of standing with this Sunday legislation, and it will be but a short time when the national Legislature will be ready to do all that is predicted of it in the prophetic Word. See Rev. 13:11-17. There are many honest-hearted people who are deluded by the siren song of the deceiver, just as our mother Eve was "beguiled" by his wily assurances. There are others who see the iniquitous tendencies of current movements, but are confident that a vigorous showing that the tyrannies of past centuries are concealed beneath the "reform" cloak, will be sufficient to turn the tide. But they, too, are deceived. The testimony of the "more sure Word of prophecy" is against their sanguine expectations. They think it impossible that such things can be done in this "enlightened nineteenth century," but if they would only contemplate current events in the light of the Word of God, they would soon see their mistake. It is not only in the United States that this false Sabbath reform is pressing rapidly to the front in face of the true Sabbath reform, which is supported solely upon the authority of God's Word, and hence is unpopular with the world, but it is also being pushed in other lands. In Great Britain, France, India, Cape Colony, Russia, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland, the government authorities are either becoming more zealous, or are being importuned to become more active in hindering the true Sabbath reform and in encouraging the false reform. May the minds of the people be turned to the Word of God, and thus be saved from the deceptions of the last days, which are now upon us.