SUNDAY LITERATURE

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 27, 1880

SUNDAY LITERATURE.

THE advocates of Sunday as a Sabbath frequently strike the truth in their literary efforts in behalf of their idol, and betray its heathenish origin. A Sunday-school paper, the Morning Light, commences a piece of poetry on the Sunday as follows:—

"Sunday we call the first day of the week; It was named for the golden sun. And a better name we need not seek Than this the heathen put on."

And this name that "the heathen put on" is the only title or name that the first day of the week ever had; and "the heathen" is the origin and on'y source from which the first day ever received a name. God numbered the days of the week, giving a title to only the seventh, which he called the Sabbath—the day of his rest. It was the Sabbath of the Lord, "because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:3. The heathen—"the nations that forget God," Ps. 9:17, who are unmindful of the Creator, and "worship the work of their own hands," Isa. 2:8—have turned away from "the holy of the Lord," Isa. 58:13, and dedicated the first day of the week to the sun; and professed Christians—we write it with astonishment—turn away from the specific commandment of God, and follow the way of the heathen! See Jer. 10:1-12; Lev. 18:3.

In Rev. 14:9-12 we find the most terrible denunciation which the word of God contains against those who worship falsely,—who do not "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." This message of warning, and threatening of wrath, is located at a certain time. It is given in the last days, just before the Son of man comes to reap the harvest of the earth; just before probation closes,—before the Son of man ceases to act as a mediator and comes to take "vengeance on them that know not God." 2 Thess. 1:7-10. "Here," says the message, "are they that keep the commandments of God."

Paul, when speaking of the idolatries of the heathen before his day, said, "The times of this ignorance God overlook[ed]," Liddell and Scott, Diaglott, Anderson, "i. q. to bear with," Robinson, "but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Acts 17:30. In the fulfillment of God's purposes, by the increase of light, or the approaching change of dispensations, our relations may so change that it may be consistent for God to bear with, at one time, what it is not at another time. Let us not presume on the past mercies of God, but be "zealous and repent," and "prepare for those things which are coming on the earth."