The Sabbath.## The Mark—the Seal.
ONE of the great questions agitating the religious world at the present time is that of the Sabbath. Like Banquo's ghost, it "will not down." It can not be stilled. From the pew comes the question to the pulpit. From everywhere the query finds its way to the religious press. "What day is the Sabbath?" is the frequent question propounded; and it is answered in three different ways: (1) the seventh day is the Sabbath; (2) Sunday is the Sabbath, or takes the place of the Sabbath; (3) there is no Sabbath, except such as the majority of people or the powers that be fix upon. Ultimately the last-named will rally around the banner of the second. The first class have for their evidence of the seventh-day Sabbath day the harmonious testimony of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation that Book knows no weekly Sabbath, save that of the seventh day. Its foundation is laid in the great facts of creation. It is embodied in precept in the great, immutable law of the Ten Words. It is affirmed and honored by the teaching and practise of Christ and His apostles. To its identity and sacredness, history and language alike bear affirmative testimony. For the sacredness of Sunday, the Scriptures are silent. Only far-fetched inference is made to do service for it, testimony which would be utterly worthless to establish the day if so many were not now observing it. History presents to the Christian a very spotted and unsatisfactory record of the day as a sacred institution. Born in the ancient days of sun-worshiping heathenism, nourished and fostered by apostasy, upheld by church decree and episcopal anathema, it comes to us loaded with hoary tradition, and reeking with the odor of persecuting laws. Protestant Christianity has endeavored to invest it with the sanctity of the word, the laws which belong to the holy day of Jehovah, and the example of good men. But, tho well worn the counterfeit, it is counterfeit still, and lacks the inherent holiness either to make new friends or to hold many of its adherents. The Sabbath asks no support of human law, no federation of churches or societies to support it, no interference of political power or influence in its behalf. It is established on the rock of the word, and in its inherent strength and beauty stands forth as the seal of God's law, the sign of creative and redemptive power to a lost world. The Sunday stands ready to collapse in weakness under the burden of its numerous traditions. It can find no support in the Holy Scriptures, and hence in desperation its friends appeal to the civil power to support its unwarranted claims. That very appeal brands it as of human origin. As such it becomes the mark of apostasy, the mark of the beast, the divine term for the union of Church and State. Mark it: The Sabbath is the seal of God's law; but he who merely rests upon that day or nominally observes it has not the seal of God. Many seventh-day keepers may be found wanting, because their Sabbath-keeping is of form only and not of heart, a Pharisaic self-righteousness, not the living out of the righteousness and life of the great Sabbath-Author and Sabbath-Keeper. Mark again: Sunday as a sacred day, a Christian church day, a rival to God's Sabbath, is the mark of the beast—apostasy; but he who keeps Sunday from mere religious custom, he who believes he is obeying the Scriptures of truth has not the mark of the beast. Not till the issue is understood by the soul, not till the two rival institutions present their claims, the one of God, the other confessedly of men, not till the authority of human law born of apostasy and backed by force is accepted instead of the law of God backed by love, does that soul take upon him the mark of the beast. God warns that he may not do this (Rev. 14:9-11), and we plead, dear reader, that you may heed His warning and be found among those who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (verse 12). Under which banner will you be? Whose mark, or seal, will you bear?